Pedal steel direct inject?

[saintcarquinez]

Recording a pedal steel tonight. From what I know, pedal steels want big-wattage gutiar amos, and I've only got smaller-wattage amps here. Can I direct inject it like I would a bass into one of my pres' hi-Z inputs? Or will that not work?

[A.David.MacKinnon]

You can DI or you can always ask the player to bring their amp.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

the last pedal steel player i recorded had a TINY little amp. sounded great. i would give your amps a try. a totally dry DI pedal steel isn't gonna be any fun...

[joninc]

you can always take a DI to be safe and re-amp later on a rented/borrowed amp.

i love pedal steel through my super reverb.... smooth!

[ott0bot]

the last pedal steel player i recorded had a TINY little amp. sounded great. i would give your amps a try. a totally dry DI pedal steel isn't gonna be any fun...

yep. I recorded a dobro and pedal steel player for a friends band with my Princeton reverb, sounded fantastic. If you do DI it, a reamp is totally recomended. But I've found the players really change their technique when they can't make the amp feedback a bit and it's hard to know when to dampen the strings without a little amp noise to guide them. Just my experience.

[Front End Audio]

Anytime I have recorded a pedal steel I have always mic'ed up the amp! I have just never felt the need to DI a pedal steel as it seems like it would take away from the organic feel of the instrument! But it seems in this business there is no right or wrong answer so experiment and have fun!

Cheers,
Nicholas

[richierichie]

Recording a pedal steel tonight. From what I know, pedal steels want big-wattage gutiar amos, and I've only got smaller-wattage amps here. Can I direct inject it like I would a bass into one of my pres' hi-Z inputs? Or will that not work?

I play pedal steel and use a 500W Evans amp, the benefit of the high wattage obviously being the enormous clean headroom. Depends if your musician is looking for a classic pure, clean sound or not. I also record with a DI quite often, but it does lose some sustain without the amp feedback. If you can get a hold of a Fender Twin, that'll give you an awesome 60's/70's country sound.

[Danders1]

Do to limitted timing and geography I just did some spot recording of a pedal steel player with PT LE with a 57 on the amp (a Deluxe Reverb) with mixed results. Good sound but pretty one dimensional.

The sound was decent but for the next session I think a second mic to capture the room sound may be more effective.

I do know that pedal steel players also often prefer solid state amps to keep the sound cleaner

[kinger]

I know a local pedal steel player who does a lot of brand-name studio work and does it exclusively using a DI and amp sims. It wouldn't be my choice but he gets a lot of work and nobody's ever complained about his sound.

[slowcentury]

Anytime i ever record my lapsteel I tend to prefer a fender style tube amp, a twin or deluxe reverb. I tend to gravitate towards my Traynor custom reverb for it. I do like a bit of break up though. I find super clean steel sounds a bit sterile, but thats a personal preference.

[roscoenyc]

With all the older Fender amps the bass trick also works well with a pedal steel.

The 2nd input on each channel of the older Fender amps is padded down 10 db.
Gives you more headroom before the amp starts to break up.

A JBL 15" is always good too:).

[drumsound]

Anytime i ever record my lapsteel I tend to prefer a fender style tube amp, a twin or deluxe reverb. I tend to gravitate towards my Traynor custom reverb for it. I do like a bit of break up though. I find super clean steel sounds a bit sterile, but thats a personal preference.

In that respect lap steel and pedal are VERY different instruments.

[slowcentury]

Anytime i ever record my lapsteel I tend to prefer a fender style tube amp, a twin or deluxe reverb. I tend to gravitate towards my Traynor custom reverb for it. I do like a bit of break up though. I find super clean steel sounds a bit sterile, but thats a personal preference.

In that respect lap steel and pedal are VERY different instruments.

This is true my old Supro Lapsteel is a hell of a growly beast. I understand the need for cleans and power with the Pedal steels, I just often find them to be a little on the sterile side at times. When I worked in a music store all the pedal steel players came in looking for super clean high power amps. A good friend of mine runs his pedal steel through a late 60's Ampeg Reverberocket and it sounds divine. Just enough volume to get some nice tube compression and a bit of sparkle in the high end. That said it is pretty easy to push the amp into way too much break up when he uses it live. It all comes down to preference.

[junomat]

Most of the pedal steel players I record have a 15" cab... I've never had much luck using DIs...

The trick is that the dynamic range is so vast... So watch your levels...

Mat

[GussyLoveridge]

Check out Polytone amps for pedal steel, I have recorded with one and it was really great.

+1 on the Evans. I just worked with a jazz trio (drums, bass, guitar) and the guitar player played through one. Would be amazing for pedal. One of the cleanest amps I've ever heard.