Special tricks for getting the country like slide tone..?

[drpfeffer]

Hi i'm recording a song, that has a kind of laid back dirty country style to it, and I was wondering if any of you guys had some special tricks for getting an authentic electric country sound.. both for rhythm guitars and slide..

I'm working with a telecaster, marshall jcm900('cos thats what I have) on the clean channel, a little bit cranked, to get that dirty tone. In the mix phase I have applyed a lot of compression, fast attack, slow release, some short delay and a little bit of room..

I'm still not completely satisfied with the tone, so come on guys.. what's your tricks on recording country guitars..?

 

[Dom Franco]

Buy an inexpensive Lap steel guitar....

Musicians friend has them for under $100.00.

Real steel just sounds better!

Dom

 

[drpfeffer]

Hi Dom..


Yeah, I'd like to just walk into the nearest MF and get a lap steel for 60$, the only problem is that I live in denmark, and we don't have MF here..

Cheapest real lap-steel guitar on my side of the world is 450$, and i'm not prepared to pay that amount for making one tune with a country sound to it..

But anyway, thanks for the reply..

I'm looking for effects on the guitar sound, I have access to both pedals and plugins of almost every type, what should I try..?

 

[Outlaws]

Hi Dom..


Yeah, I'd like to just walk into the nearest MF and get a lap steel for 60$, the only problem is that I live in denmark, and we don't have MF here..

Cheapest real lap-steel guitar on my side of the world is 450$, and i'm not prepared to pay that amount for making one tune with a country sound to it..

But anyway, thanks for the reply..

I'm looking for effects on the guitar sound, I have access to both pedals and plugins of almost every type, what should I try..?

Walk? Don't they deliver? I can't belive there isn't a UK mail order service that delivers to Denmark....but maybe I am wrong....

 

[ggunn]

Hi Dom..


Yeah, I'd like to just walk into the nearest MF and get a lap steel for 60$, the only problem is that I live in denmark, and we don't have MF here..

Cheapest real lap-steel guitar on my side of the world is 450$, and i'm not prepared to pay that amount for making one tune with a country sound to it..

But anyway, thanks for the reply..

I'm looking for effects on the guitar sound, I have access to both pedals and plugins of almost every type, what should I try..?

A lot of that sort of thing is done with pedal steel, which changes the tuning intervals on the fly. If that's the sound you are looking for, then a lap steel won't help you, anyway.

 

[fuzzy math]

short of a pedal/lap steel i dont think you can really capture that authentic country sound any better than you probably already are. i try to get a twangy reverb sound as best i can, but it never sounds like a pedal steel.

as far as electric guitar slide work, check out some king sunny ade. although its not country, you might get some ideas.

 

[grinder]

I used a 6 string with a slide and a digitech RP-20, that had a steel guitar preset. The preset used a gate with extreme setting, to replicate a volume petal and a whammy petal, to raise and lower a second. Used in conjunction with the slide and some delay and verb, it worked quite well.

 

[dwillis45]

If you can't find a lap steel you might try adding an extension nut:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/Resonator_nuts,_saddles/Slide_Guitar_Extension_Nut.html

It's small so I assume shipping would not be a problem. The nut will elevate your strings and allow you to place more downward pressure using a slide.
I would also think about using a volume pedal and reverb.

If you don't like doing things the old fashioned way, you could try the following:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/shopping/item.asp?PID=229&disp=1

 

[Dani Pace]

Set your amp to it's cleanest tone, trim the bass just a little more, crank the reverb about half way. Plug your slide into a volume pedal then to the amp, set the guitar volume a little above half. With a little practice this way you can get a slide guitar to "almost" sound like a pedal steel. Layer a guitar track in with the slide to get the "off set" notes. That's about as cloce as you can get without a real pedal steel. It's the volume pedal and the variable pitch applied to certain individual notes which gives pedal steel it's unique sound. You might try tuning your slide to a standard pedal steel tuning starting with the lowest as follows; C#, F#, B, E, G#, C# (E9 chord I think). I've played with several pedal steel players who use this tuning.