Roland cube settings

[Ollie]

Have just got myself a Roland Cube 80x. Have just started to learn PSG. Have been reading quite a lot of opinions on settings and am starting to get confused(slightly)

Would appreciate advice from other cube users as to what settings they use. I realise settings are a personal choice but a little guidance to a novice would get me started

[slimbo]

Like you say, settings are a personal pref, I use, Vol-5. Treb-4. Mid-5. Bass-9. I use a pedal delay with 4 quick beats, and Reverb to suit, very little to start with but as the venue fills and the band gets louder you may need to up a little, thou the amp has a delay but not to my liking, and use the straight channel, not the right one, that's ok for lead guitar if you also play guitar, give it a go and trim as you go along as it also depends on what pickup you have on the steel.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Hi Ollie, welcome to the forum, as Slim says it depends to a certain extent on your guitar and pick up, my Emmons with an E66 sounds right to me when I set my cube to Bass 3pm, middle 3pm, treble 11-30 to 12 but these settings are approximate and a very slight deviation makes a lot of difference to my one remaining good ear .... I have the presence control mostley off.as they say "beauty is in the ear of the beholder"

[Ollie]

Thank you for the replies. Much appreciated.Will keep trying. Love this Forum , lots of help and knowledge available for folk like me.
,

[Ollie]

Re the delay, having problems understanding. Do I set it at warm or clear and at what level. When I adjust the level the green light flashes.

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

Hi Ollie,
I usually set the delay knob to about 9 o'clock,turning further clockwise will give greater intensity and will not sound good. the green light will flash at the default setting.Tap the small button which says "tap" If you hit this button four times,fast 1234 the light will flash faster and give You a "fast " delay time If You hit the button slower 1-2-3-4 You will alter the speed of the repeats to a slower time.You have to reset this "time setting" every time You power up since the Cube returns to the default setting.
I would guess that most players would set the delay time by tapping 1234 (taking about 2 seconds to do it) Experiment it is fun.
Billy

I have mine at
Bass, about 3 o'clock
Mid about 11 o'clock
treble about 12 o'clock
presence somewhere between 1 and 11 o'clock, depending on your steel
Reverb at 3 o'clock,
and give two quick taps to the delay.

[Will C]

I got fed up having to re-set the delay every time, so I don't use it now, and instead use an outboard effects unit by Digitech. My settings are otherwise very much like Jason's.

[New2E9]

Ollie, having just joined the forum, I resemble your first remarks. Since Dec of 2014, what have you now found to be the best settings? I just bought a 80GX about 3 weeks ago, and am having trouble "earballing" what I need.
I don't even know what pedal steel I have. It was advertised as Emmons-like in the ad, it has 10 strings and 3 pedals, 3 levers. I have about got down a few of the grips and changes and inversions, but still now getting that huge steel sound.
I played lead for many years, mostly clean, I do have a small knowledge of effects, but just am not getting that beautiful full sound. I hope it is just me.
As you were, I just need a jump start to get past too much experimenting and into playing. At 62, I'm thinking I only have so many hundreds of years to catch up on!
Thanks, Erney

[Jif]

Hi Erney,

As far as effects go, less is more. I've found that a touch of reverb and a touch of delay works well, too much muddies the sound. I also use a very small amount of stereo chorus, I have a stereo set up and this modulates the sound between the 2 channels, gives a subtle Leslie type of effect. (I'll probably get a telling off for this from the purists )

As others have pointed out, amp settings will vary with make of guitar, pickup type, bar type, etc. I found it took some time to get a good sound over all of the neck, there are so many variations in string gauges and different combinations of grips, that you can get a tone that sounds good on one part of neck but dies at another.

But a lot of the tone you get is down to your playing technique, and that takes time and a lot of practice to get the muscle memory working. I find that working on a song from tab is good for learning how to put things together on the pedal steel, definitely speeds up the learning process to an extent.

It's a hard instrument to learn, I've played guitar for about 50 years and I struggled for the first couple of years on pedal steel. There's no real short cuts, just a lot of practice/learning the theory. However, it does all start to make sense eventually and then it pays back all the hard work you've put in.

BTW It's totally addictive once you get into it, my wife has now started a women's group to console other pedal steel widows