Lap Steel Tips for Recording Please.

rayc

rayc

retroreprobate
Hello people of the post Xmas universe.
My wife, in her usual generous xmas spirit, bought me a lap steel guitar as a gift.
She's bought me a yamaha 4 track, Roland Drum Machine, Fender 12 string, Roland Disklab, an R16, a banjo, mandolin, 5 string bass and so forth before now so I guess it's another step along that path.
It came with steel, picks and case.
It looks cool as it has a fender bass style cover over the bridge.
It's mot a brand jobbie but it owrks. I've plugged in and fooled/tooled about & added some lines to an old track just to a) demo it for the missus and b) to suss it out.
Any particular tips for recording the thing?
I did a quick test DI'ing the thing - took a fair bit of preamp crank to get a strong signal.
What sort of reverb works for gentle slide?
What sort of treatment, filters, mic'ing?
Thanks in anticipation.
 
I have a pedal steel that I've maybe recorded a couple of times for some song parts, so I'm not a real player....but I did mine DI through a nice tube preamp, and think I added some compression after the pre....but I would have to check my notes on that.
 
DI, then reverb - and if you want to be clever like pedal steel players, a volume pedal. A compressor can also work nicely for some uses. Clean and noise free are the usual number 1 requests.
 
I recorded my 14-year-old son playing lap steel on my old Squier Telecaster recently. I simply miked up the amp - a no-name 30-watt solid-state 1x10 combo, using a unidirectional dynamic mic on a boom stand, pointing near the edge of the speaker cone. I think it sounds pretty good.

 
I run my lap steel though a foot pedal for volume sweels, and through a multi effect for some "slap" delay, a little reverb an a touch of compression.

I normally run it through a tube mic pre (vs. mic'ing an amp) - When I do use an amp it is a tube combo with a 10" speaker, using either an SM57 or sometimes an MLX ribbon mic.

If you have not already done so, try some alternate tunings (open G, etc.) which provides more pickin' and chording options.
 
A good compressor and a Boss Slow Gear pedal. With SG you can imitate volume pedal easily. Those are nowadays hard to find, but I think there are build instructions at the General Guitar Gadget's website.
 
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