pedal steel suggestions

[corinpills]

I'm getting ready to do some pedal steel overdubs on some acoustic pop (it sounds like Neil Finn covering Harvest by Neil Young). The guy I'm using is a great player, but he's coming from a country angle where the sound is very clean. I've already weeded any Flying Burrito Bros licks out of the arrangements, but I'd like the tone to be more reminiscent of George Harrison's slide parts ("All Things Must Pass" era). It's gonna be over really organic sounding, but minimalist, acoustic guitar, 3 mic'd drums in mono and Hofner bass with flatwounds. Any mic, amp suggestions?

[schnozzle]

Not that I'm an expert, but from what I've found the tones on a pedal steel, lap steel, and slide guitar are totally totally different. It's not just a matter of picking what notes to play, but that reedy 2-note harmony thing George does on "My Sweet Lord" will sound way more chimey on a pedal steel. It's a combination of the tunings involved and the physical construction of the instruments.

You could try distorting the tone a bit but it still won't sound the same (I believe the Misunderstood used a disorted pedal steel, for example, and it doesn't sound like a slide guitar).

Maybe someone has a different experience than me, but if you really want that particular sound you'd need a stratocaster with raised action, methinks.

[Coco]

We did some lap steel on a few tracks. Ran it through a really nice Fender Quad Reverb tube amp, miced it through a Universal Audio 2108. Shit did that sound awesome. Nice with a bit of grit from the amp and some transformer saturation from the mic pre amp. We ended up running a duplicate track through amp farm and put a touch of vibrato on the doubled track. It sounded really nice.

[wing]

PM RedRocketsGlare (if he doesn't see this thread)... he knows a lot on this!

[corinpills]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm not totally trying to emulate that sound, just the general vibe and I'm trying to steer clear of Sneaky Pete territory. I think a little distortion , maybe a small amp, get it to whine a little more.

[Red Rockets Glare]

Awww, thanks wing.
If you want a more Harrison sound, you really should start with a lap steel as they usually have single coil pickups and pedal steel guitars usually have humbuckers.
You're essentially asking how we can help you make a les paul sound like a tele.
You could ask the pedal steel player if he has any lap steel guitars or a Sho-Bud, (they usually have single coil pickups). Barring that, just ask him to keep the bends to a minimum to make it sound more like lap steel.
OR, you could just bite the bullet, and embrace the beautiful instrument that pedal steel is. Why is everyone so afraid to sound a little country?
Take a listen to my band and you'll get an idea of how a pedal steel can really class up any old indie song.
theidahofalls.com
As far as microphones I would try a ribbon mic, they really tame the high squeal of a steel.
Cheers,
Raymond

[llmonty]

+1 on the small amp idea. Good amount of grit, smaller eq footprint with a small speaker, maybe some additional narrowing with a bit of eq. Should help it sit with all the other instruments you mentioned.

When I needed to cop a lap steel sound I used a slide, a shortscale silvertone guitar with lipstick pu's and the 2 watt 6" speaker amp in case that went with it. Was completely surprised how wonderful it ended up sounding and naturally sitting in the mix.

[justinf]

Just had a sessions where we did pedal steel with a Royer 121 about a foot off of a baby portaflex (12"). It RULED. I think the rest of the chain was bb sytek into distressor.

[0xeneye]

I would use single coil pickups through a WAH pedal to a small no reverb tube amp, like an Oahu or a Champ, or o Pro Junior or something. I would mic it with whatever works.

[drumsound]

I think Rockets Red Glare hit the nail on the head. The steel guitar should be pure and beautiful. The tone and the style go hand in hand. You can put a touch of hair on it and be find. If you want a George Harrison or a blues type tone, use a lap steel or a good bottle neck player. Often times pedal players have a lap that they can do great things with too. Ask you player to bring his along if he's got one.

I just did three songs with pedal steel. We used a Mesa SC1 on the clean channel. I think I used an M88 and a Great River MP2H.

It's a lovely sound, let it be.

[Wild Bill]

I've always been the kind of guy who tries to get the dumbest things to work, just for the heck of it. In the course of last year I recorded a "Harrison Tribute" song from the "All Things Must Pass" era in mind, but performed it on my 1972 Shobud Professional (D-10). Likewise I recorded a Jerry Garcia steel type "Stella Blue" Bakersville style, but did it on my 1954 Fender Champion Lap steel.

All instrumentals. They were recorded during a very difficult time that I struggled to use a Presonus Firestation and Daw with nTrack and struggled endlessly with clock synching problems and latency while overdubbing. The whole thing drove me so nuts I gave up and now track on a TASCAM MX2424, but that's another whole story...

http://www.tardis.20m.com/tracks/

Track 2 is Stella Blue
Track 5 is the Harrsion Tribute song

If you like what you hear I'll be glad to enumerate the setup...

[Catoogie]

All I know is that I really wanna hear this? Your description sounds like everything I'm into.

[Catoogie]

That was directed to corinpills and the project he's getting started on

[corinpills]

These are all very helpful, keep 'em coming. I'll definitely keep you all appraised of this project. I recorded the basics with Roger from this board last weekend and it was some of the most fun I've ever had recording.- just live to my Otari 8 track. Sounds killer. Now all I have to do is...not fuck it up!

And Wild Bill, I think track 2 came out great. Remind me of the High Llamas.

[JASIII]

Might i suggest you track down a peavey nashville series amp, preferably one with a single 15" speaker. they are the shit on pedal steel. i think it's the nashville 1000.