A question for steel players...

[stratovani]

I don't want to interrupt the steel thread that's going down right about now but, after reading the posts, it got me to wondering. When you steel players play, what kind of effects do you use, if any? Do you play through little 15w tube amps, or can you play through a huge Marshall stack? Sometimes when I hear steel I wonder, what would it sound like distorted, with chorus or phaser or with a wah or a delay going through a huge stack with a ton of feedback? Would it sound anything like Hendrix?

[DHM]

There are amps made especially for pedal steel...fairly high output, 15" speakers, lots of clean headroom,etc...having said that, when Ive played steel I used my regular guitar amp...sometimes a littlle reverb or delay to add some shimmer...I was playing old country-swing style stuff..and a volume pedal...too...steel needs a volume pedal...I suppose you could use almost anything...altho some of the clarity might be lost....some steel pickups are pretty high output and can overdrive a small amp pretty quick...

Steelers regularly use overdrive or distortion...I think Sneaky Pete with the Flying Burrito Bros wasamong the first to do that....they didnt have a lead player until Bernie Leadon, so Sneaky did all the leads on steel...and it was the late 60s...hadda use some fuzz..some tremelo too...almost a leslie kind of sound...Rusty Young with Poco did some overdriven steel too...and the David Lindley-Ry Cooder style of singing lapsteel has got some distortion on it...when used for blues or rock its necessary to keep the sustain...

The Sacred steel guys are doing all sorts of stuff...check out Robert Randolph