Fiddle sound on steel.....not with Bosstone

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 9 Jun 2004 12:48 pm

The standard formula for imitating a fiddle sound has been to use a Bosstone distortion device with unison notes, slightly out of tune, correct?
Using this approach, I've been experimenting with my Tubefex using the pitch changer patch to add a second note about 10-12 cents out of tune, while cutting back the bass boost.
It seems to work OK.
Has anyone else tried this with Tubefex or similar patches?

Jerry Roller · Post by **Jerry Roller** » 9 Jun 2004 1:32 pm

Tony, try lowering 2nd string and raising 5th string to unison notes with some sort of distortion. When noted true there are no beats and little effect. As you slightly slant the bar the beats appear, the more the slant the more the beats. You can control the effect with the slant. Give it a try.
Jerry

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 10 Jun 2004 6:14 am

Jerry, the unison string/distortion thing only gives one note.
What I was trying to do is play 2 notes together to give more of a string "section", so I was looking for an electronic patch that would come close.
I was thinking a delay patch could give the unison/doubling sound and the pitch change could give the slightly out of tune effect.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 10 Jun 2004 6:30 am

The Peavey Session 500 had a "strings" effect built in. Has anybody ever used that?
It could even be activated by a remote control switch clamped onto your leg. The guitar's leg, that is.

Erv

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 10 Jun 2004 8:39 am

The string effect on a 500 will work with a little tweaking. I can also get a pretty good sound with my rat pedal, though the sound is a bit thin.

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1985 Emmons push-pull,S-10 Marlin,Evans SE200,Hilton pedal

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 10 Jun 2004 9:20 am

If you are using two (2) amps and a Boss-Tone or some other device for the string-effect, you need to find a way to have the distortion in only one (1) amp. Then you can play harmony with one amp distorted and one amp. clean. This is how it was done with the original Franklin ‘stereo’ guitars. The guitar had two (2) out-put jacks, with the Boss-Tone plugged into one of them. And then one cord from the Boss-Tone to one input of the stereo vol-pedal and the other jack to the 2nd. pedal input. Then one pedal out to Amp. #1 and one cord out to amp. #2. The ‘Dry’ amp. will overide and allow listenable harmony. “The voice of experience”, in this case.
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“Big John” Bechtel
Franklin PSG D–10 (9 &

Fender ’49–’50 T–8 Custom
Fender ’65 Reissue Twin-Reverb Custom™ 15”
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[This message was edited by John Bechtel on 10 June 2004 at 10:22 AM.]

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 10 Jun 2004 10:01 am

Didn't Emmons market a string machine for Steel guitar several years ago? If I remember right, Buddy used one on the "Rainbow" album. I think it had three separate, single string pickups that clamped to the end of the guitar, then could be positioned over the strings you wanted to play. The outputs then went into a three channel processer that combined the output. Jimmy Crawford may have used this or something like it on his "Ton of Steel" album. He had a two part string sound that was really good. He could have double tracked it though for the album.

Maybe Buddy or Jimmy can shed some light on this.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

[This message was edited by Darvin Willhoite on 10 June 2004 at 11:04 AM.]

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 10 Jun 2004 11:05 pm

WhenI played on the Billy Walker Presents “The Tennessee Walkers” Band Album in ’72, I did an instrumental version of Maiden's Prayer, on which I played the steel identically on (2) tracks, which gave it a Chorus-Effect and then modulated keys and did the Violins/Strings on (3) seperate tracks creating (3)-part harmony. Grant Turner used that instrumental for some time as background for his Opry Promo-Spots. The String-Quality was not all that great, because; we cut the session only one day after I had purchased the BOSS-TONE device, and I really didn'tknow much about it's use! But, it was a start and something different, for me. This was also done with a Sho-Bud ‘The Professional’, (in ’72) That was also the first time that I had heard a Chorus-Effect, thanks to the Studio-Owner and Engineer, Jack Lennoman, at Hill Top Studios here in Nashville, Tn. I still own the BOSS-TONE! The Sho-Bud however, is long-gone! But, I think it was the one pictured on this Website: click here “Big John” Bechtel

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 11 Jun 2004 4:05 am

Use an Ebow and a Boss VF-1 set to the key of the song.

Larry Behm

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 11 Jun 2004 5:17 am

Larry, do you use a harmonizer patch on the VF-1?

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 11 Jun 2004 6:12 am

Larry, I haven't used an ebow before, but doesn't that only vibrate one string?
I'm looking to do 2 strings at once....something basically unobtainable with typical distortion based patches, no?

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 11 Jun 2004 10:51 am

Darvin, Tony the Ebow gives me a sustained note, the VF-1 gives me the original note and a harmonized note so I get a smooth transition sliding up and down say the B string and it is all in harmony.

This requires a unit with intelligent pitch shifting, the VF-1 has it.

The thing I like about it is that you can vary the amount of delay between the two notes when playing single notes.

Larry Behm
503-722-7562

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 11 Jun 2004 11:39 am

Larry, that seems to be the answer I was looking for, thanks!
(p.s. Do you use the ebow with or without distortion?)

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 12 Jun 2004 7:45 am

Tony you can do either. I am glad you mentioned this because I am going to try the distortion tonight.

Larry