by Ken Byng » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:17 pm
Just love Weldon's break and his tone. The Opry sound engineers don't always get it right. I saw and heard Tommy White this year on the Opry stage with his Mullen, and he had the thinnest tone I have heard him have through the front of house PA. I know that his on-stage tone through his multi switchable Webb pre-amps and power amp / speaker cabinet is warm and rich. It just goes to show that even the experienced Opry guys get it wrong sometimes. Tommy said it was the case that the sound guys get very little time to get the mixes right on live Opry shows.
I have lost count of the times that what I have heard through the monitors when I have played through a PA has been so thin it has nearly made my teeth bleed. I normally set up a very warm tone, heavy on the bass on my amp. This leads me to believe that many sound crews on country festivals in the UK think that pedal steel is an instrument that needs a lot of top end and no bottom end. WRONG!!!
Mike Johnson's tone when playing steel festivals is usually incredible. Mike will occasionally speak the PA sound crew in advance, and also swap the mike that they put in front of his amp for his set. Inevitably, it is normally a condenser mike, and Mike prefers a warmer (and cheaper) dynamic mike - the Shure SM57. As too does Tommy White. I now keep one in my steel seat along with a mike cradle for that purpose.
Show Pro D10 (amber) 8 + 6, MSA Signature XL D10 (redburst) 9 + 6, Sho~Bud D10 (sunburst) Pro 111 8 + 6, Emmons D10 Push Pull - (black) 8+5, Zumsteel D10 (blue) 8 + 8, Hudson pedal resonator, 10 string lap steel. Telonics, Peavey & Webb amps,