The British Steelies Society

Hi guys,

Right, no matter WHAT I do, my Steel has this really muddy/distorted sound. Honestly, it's appalling.

100% not the amp and the distortion gets worse with increased volume and picking harder (expected I know, but thought I'd just confirm).

The guitar itself is also very loud. I could gig to 200 people with my amp volume on 2...

Please help!

You could try lowering the pickup a couple of millimetres.

You could also try putting a cable from the steel to a graphic EQ pedal, then to the volume pedal, then to the amp.

The EQ pedal would be set to reduce the signal, as well as shaping it (cut the middle frequencies)

Make sure the master gain on the amp is set considerably higher than the input gain, to eliminate amp distortion.

Thanks guys. The pickup is very high. I've managed to lower it very slightly and I don't notice any real difference. It still looks high. The brand of pickup, I do not know! It's only a carter starter so I'm not expecting great tone but this is just RANK. Puts my teeth on edge. I'm confident it's not the cables either. Not only are they new, but I out a guitar through it and it was fine. Is there anyway it could be the instrument itself? It's not something that has just occurred, it's a persistent bloody problem!


Thanks again.

Brad.

Brad, have you tried guitar through another amp, and is problem still there? Also I would try another set of leads, just because they are new don't assume them to have no fault on them.Have heard a few Carter Starters and tone from them is normally good.If fault continues you could arrange to take it Ronnie Bennett in Bebington, or if you have any steel players near you who have spare pick up you could try swapping it.

check underneath and make sure the cable from the P/up to the jack is sound, and that the soldered connections aren't foulding anywhere and shorting out. Is everything earthed ok? Try loosening the jack from the body and see if the problem is still there.

Brad, is it possible that you may be getting "tone suck"? Is there any high frequency content in your sound? If it's just woolly and "muddy" as you put it, this might be the problem. Just saying "the cable must be ok because a 6-string guitar is fine through it" is possibly faulty logic.

Steel guitar pickups tend to have higher impedance (10 pole pieces to span instead of 6, therefore almost twice as much wire) and are much more vulnerable to this effect.

What happens if you bypass your volume pedal completely? Go direct to the amp via the best cable you can find. Any improvement? If so, your culprit is the volume pedal. This can be cheaply helped by fitting one small capacitor to the VP, if you are handy with a soldering iron.

Will

Brad, what volume pedal are you using, if not the standard Goodrich,Hilton etc does it have 500 pot in it?Some of the cheaper ones only have 250 pots and that gives a loss of top response.

C'mon, Brad, don't leave us in suspense: did you get any joy?