Why don't I like 'That' tone?

[Zebedee]

There must be something wrong with my hearing, as I don't like the tone of Buddy's steel in his early recordings (A trip In The Country, The Black Album etc), which most people reference as the holy grail of pedal steel tone.
His playing is, of course, excellent, but I much prefer his later, less harsh, fuller tone.

Listen to his tone on Gene Watson's 'From The heart' album, or his outro on Curtis Potter's 'It Should Be Easier Now' (off the 'Six Hours At Pedernales' album) to hear this (to me) more pleasing tone.

[Basil Henriques]

He didn't like it either..
The Jazz Album was a Sho-bud and a 'borrowed" amp..

[Ken Byng]

Zebedee - the recordings that you don't like were performed through a Fender Twin. You have to be very careful with them or else the tone comes out too bright. A push pull has a brighter tone anyway, and the combination could have a lot of top end. When I used to record through Fender Twins in the 70's it was always bright switch off and treble set to 3 or 4. I too prefer the tone a bit warmer.

This is an interesting subject. If you listen to early recordings of Tom Brumley and Lloyd Green, both were very 'toppy' compared to their latter tone. We all mellow with age, and so does our tone.

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

i bought a 65' twin reverb re-issue combo in the mid nineties, was using a sho bud ldg in one channel, and a fender strat in the other channel, our lead singer complained [rightly] my tone, particulary on the steel, was very bright and harsh, and i couldnt seem to dial out the harshness, and the almost mettalic type of tone, without it becoming wooly, i also owned a red knob fender super 60 all valve combo, what a lovely rich warm clean tone that amp had for both lead and steel guitars, unfortunately it lacked headroom on the clean channel, whereas on the overdrive channel, a little harsh for steel, it was mega loud