Pedal Steely Dan

[Jif]

This is a bit different, worth a watch.

[hickenjr]

Eddy is class

[Danny Mitchell]

At first listen I thought, 'why do this?', and then I realised, 'because you can'.
That's a beast of a guitar, and he's got to be good, it's got his name on it.

That's a great 6 string electric solo from Larry Carlton. At one point I wanted to be him, but sadly wasn't willing to put in the hours. On that same album, The Royal Scam, there's another cracker of a solo from him, Don't Take Me Alive.
Nice find Geoff.

[Jif]

Yes, The Royal Scam is my favourite Steely Dan album and Larry Carlton has a lot to do with that. I think Skunk Baxter does a pedal steel solo on one of the tracks from memory but I could be wrong.

Nice steel the guy uses, a Studio Pro. Wonder if he had it custom built like that

An interesting fact, a steely dan was a US slang word for a dildo at a time when they looked pretty much like a Pedal Steel bar

[Ken Byng]

Yes, The Royal Scam is my favourite Steely Dan album and Larry Carlton has a lot to do with that. I think Skunk Baxter does a pedal steel solo on one of the tracks from memory but I could be wrong.

Nice steel the guy uses, a Studio Pro. Wonder if he had it custom built like that

An interesting fact, a steely dan was a US slang word for a dildo at a time when they looked pretty much like a Pedal Steel bar

Actually Eddy's guitar is a Show Pro Geoff. (Just for clarification, the Studio Pro is one of MSA's range). He had it specially built by Jeff Surratt. Young Eddy is going to be a real monster player. The most polite young man you could ever meet. He's been well raised by his mum for sure. Hope you are both well.

[Jif]

Yes, The Royal Scam is my favourite Steely Dan album and Larry Carlton has a lot to do with that. I think Skunk Baxter does a pedal steel solo on one of the tracks from memory but I could be wrong.

Nice steel the guy uses, a Studio Pro. Wonder if he had it custom built like that

An interesting fact, a steely dan was a US slang word for a dildo at a time when they looked pretty much like a Pedal Steel bar

Actually Eddy's guitar is a Show Pro Geoff. (Just for clarification, the Studio Pro is one of MSA's range). He had it specially built by Jeff Surratt. Young Eddy is going to be a real monster player. The most polite young man you could ever meet. He's been well raised by his mum for sure. Hope you are both well.

Thanks for the clarification Ken, I did actually mean a Show Pro but my heat addled brain misfired, (again!).

He can certainly play, will need to check out more of his work. His steel looks like a cracker, built in effects by the looks of it, 3 pickups and a beautiful finish. Am I right in thinking that Sneaky Pete pioneered that style of steel with the built in effects etc?

We're fine Ken, enjoying the sun and sitting out in the garden mainly. How's yersel, hope you have recovered from your injuries OK, hope your putting that Emmons to good use

[Ken Byng]

We're both fine too Geoff thanks. It's 31.7 degrees in my studio and I've got my mole grips on the air condition control to try to get it on number 11.

Re Eddy's guitar, yes Pete Kleinow was the first well known player to have a device loaded deck on it, but there have been a number since him. I am fairly sure that the first player that Jeff Surratt built a loaded controller-deck steel for is the great and creative steeler Russ Pahl. Russ has some great delays going on in the 2nd clip. I have something similar where I can control my TCE G-Force digital effects unit that is mounted in my Telonics amp. I can have up to 8 effects happening at one time, and I can pull up any presets remotely via midi on a controller which I mount to the leg of my steel.

Here's a couple of clips of Russ and his guitar, and he has some really cool effects going.

[andrew marson]

Ah Jif, heaven-my favourite instrument and band in one post, fantastic. That solo is a killer on 6 string let alone psg, so fair play to that man Eddy. Skunk Baxter did the steel playing on Brroklyn Owes That Charmer from the Can't By A Thrill album, and another corker of a solo. Thanks for the link to Russ Pahl, some really nice ideas there. Cheers, Andy.

[Jif]

Ah Jif, heaven-my favourite instrument and band in one post, fantastic. That solo is a killer on 6 string let alone psg, so fair play to that man Eddy. Skunk Baxter did the steel playing on Brroklyn Owes That Charmer from the Can't By A Thrill album, and another corker of a solo. Thanks for the link to Russ Pahl, some really nice ideas there. Cheers, Andy.

Yeah, thanks Andrew I keep meaning to check out more of his steel playing. After a bit of googling I remembered it was East St Louis Toodle-oo from Pretzel Logic I was thinking about. As well as pedal steel Skunk also does a great piece of 6 string using a voice box like a trumpet mute.

Just listened to the clips Ken, really floated my boat, great stuff going on there and someone else to check out in more depth methinks, great player, lots of feel. Looks like it's just the effects controls he has onboard with the actual effects units housed elsewhere. Might have a think about how that could done on the MSA, probably a separate unit fixed onto the back, don't think there would be enough width for it to sit on the far side of the neck.

Calum has an interesting effects setup with his effects housed on a music stand to the right of his steel and has wired some of the controls to a joystick and a couple of other hand switches mounted on his steel just to the right of his right hand. He can do some pretty neat stuff using loopers and delays, though he is still currently working on the nose lever

Here's the Pretzel Logic track I mentioned.

[Ken Byng]

I've always liked Steely Dan's Toodle-oo Geoff. I think I first copped it when the track was played on the Old Grey Whistle Test years ago.

Re the use of controllers for effects units, I used to have a 4 unit rack box by my right side on the floor for many years, and I would make changes to the effects unit manually as I played. Not a very efficient way to control it for sure. I've always felt that the best way to control a reasonably modern effects unit is via midi. Control boxes can be mounted on the leg of the steel. I know that our own Mark Dunn has devised a remote clip-on box for the Telonics TCA500 amp, which like the one I use (Basilisk) changes the patches and banks on an effects rack via midi.

The TCA500 has a really useful 'Dry/Wet Fader' knob on the front. Telonics' web site describes this knob's function thus.

Flexible effects loop
The Dry/Wet Fader is a powerful control that allows the Post EQ effects loop to be configured to integrate either Parallel or Series Effects Processor chains.
Series Effects Mode - With the Dry/Wet Fader in the fully Wet position, the Effects Processor is patched so it carries all the signal and no dry or thru is passed internally to the return section. This mode is useful where analog compression or modulation effects need to be added.

Parallel Effects Mode - With the the Dry/Wet Fader set to a mid way point, a proportion of the dry or thru signal is passed directly to the return section. Parallel mode avoids latency issues and the Effects Processor is typically set to generate effect only. This mode should be used to add reverb and delay effects. The Dry/Wet Fader controls the amount of effected added in this mode.

Having thought about things this morning, it is obvious that Russ Pahl on the clips above is using some kind of blend control for the delays. That is, the ability to control the mix of the delays from the guitar all the way from completely dry to full on delay via a remote rotary knob. He was also controlling the repeats from the guitar, on the fly. So, I would say that there must be a special send and return system on the bank in front of the neck of his steel. I am not completely aux fais with electronics, but I am going to do so research on how to remotely control both analog and digital effects units.

Watching Eddy and Russ using the controls on their guitars for not only delays, reverb and modulation plus distortion makes it clear why they would want that facility built into their guitars. I would imagine that Jeff Surratt has an electronics guy wire in the appropriate circuits into the rare custom builds that he has carried out for people like Eddy and Russ. Indeed it was Russ who designed his pink guitar's circuit and Eddy soon wanted one of his own. MSA too have started to go down the route of modern electronic circuit installation, so I reckon there will be some interesting times ahead. Here is a shot of Pete Kleinow's Fender 400 and some of his memorabilia, and it just shows how innovative that he was way back in the 70's.