A question or two about practise.

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

When practising do YOU use Your amp ?
One very accomplished steel playing friend of mine says He had been told many years ago by a "big timer" that practising without the amp will help to acheive a better tone from Your playing ?
I also read some time ago on the U.S.Forum. Ricky Davis saying that He never uses reverb at home.
Finally.. Perhaps You play along with a recording of some of the famous players trying to catch their licks and phrasing,when doing this do You change Your amp settings in order to try to replicate the tone of the recorded player?

I practise about 50/50 With and without amp and I use delay and reverb at home.I have found that if I play too many practise sessions without the amp my blocking suffers.I never was great at blocking but it definately gets better when I use the amp.
What do Y'All say?
Best regards
Billy

[Paul Brennan]

I mostly practise without the amp. I can't say if this is best strategy. It's been brought about by a combination of laziness and not wanting to disturb the rest of the household. However, I have found that I do need to occasionally use the amp at home in order to figure out eq settings, delay, reverb, etc. You can get overwhelmed at a gig by a lot of volume and a tone you're just not used to. I am inclined to think that you should always use the an amp while practising but a small one with no reverb. As you said Billy, your blocking will suffer if you don't practise with the amp. This is because faults with your blocking will get amplified along with everything else.

As for copying the eq settings of favourite players. Some of the greats from the sixties have a very trebly, tinny tone when we hear them today on our modern hi-fi systems. I think this is due to the recording limitations of the day. I don't think this is how those great players actually sounded if you were lucky enough to have heard them live. Yet still I hear steel players trying to emulate that sound by winding up the treble on their amps and picking close to the changer! As for copying their licks and phrasing - absolutely! I have no hesitation in wholesale theft in this department.

I shall be very interested to hear what other people have to say on this topic.

[Donny Johnston]

I always practice with a Fender Champion with the reverb on. If it's late at night or before I go to work I use headphones. I remember in the 80s I had practice headphones with a PP3 battery in them, they plugged directly into the guitar. Lost them during a move.

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

Just to pick up on a point raised by Paul re trebly, tinny tones from the sixties, could it possibly be that in them days, before dedicated steel guitar amps such as the peavey session came along in the mid 70's, that those steelies, as heard on buck owens recordings etc were limited to using dedicated 6 string guitar voiced amps, such as a fender twin reverb? obviously recording equipment is also much better now, and i know a lot of old timers would swear by the twin reverb, but theres no doubt the emphasis moved away from these amps many years ago, to the deeper voiced amps with the 15" speaker, and nowadays a lot of steelies are actually now looking at bass guitar amps, ie Gallien Krueger bass amps, sorry Billy, gone off original topic, but its kinda relevant re tone

[bob adams]

Billy re. acoustic or amp’d I play them unplugged a lot as I am working on them, it isn’t practical to plug ‘em in all the time and I get used to the control of the natural string tone. I did a major refurb for a friend a time back and after having his D10 back for a weekend I called him for his reaction, he said! It’s superb, I’ve played it all weekend and never plugged it in! I was gob smacked! But he knew what he was doing! As for me and practice (what’s that?) it is headphones at 2.00am! ..... As for sound.. That is in the ear of the beholder and will be argued here till the cows come home!! But I am with Paul (I too have a thing for Black Widows! (no further comments please!) I like a ‘full’ sound, whether or not I get it is another story but I try! As for bass amps forget them unless you have a U12 or 14 If the strings ain’t fat they have nothing to respond too! Trust me on this and don’t spend money on a bass amp they will only mess with your high end and do little for your low end! On E9th they are a complete waste of space!

[James Crowbear]

"I never practice guitar...
from time to time, I just open my guitar case and throw in a piece of raw meat."
Wes Montgomery

practicing with & without an amp is fine by me
both have their advantanges & disadvantages
kickin' out the watts in the neighborhood for a Sunday morning gospel
pickin' to cover up the folks upstairs who are either lovin' or hollerin' again
pickin' unplugged, runnin' scales & chord runs - aside from the mechanical noise, one manages to hear his steel "better"
pickin' dry - no effects which obliges you to squeeze the sound out even more
pickin' the right paths will get you to steel guitar heaven
(i prefer pickin' w: an amp )

" if I play too many practise sessions without the amp my blocking suffers "
good point Zumbuster !
if you properly want to learn how to pick block, run scales
you'd be surprised how well they work

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

Mr Adams,
i so agree with you re bass amps, the frequencies required for bass guitar and pedal steel guitar, or at least E9th, [which is all i can speak for] are quite different, i found that out myself, as i owned two MXR grapic eq pedals, one a six band eq, highly effective on all frequencies, the other a ten band eq pedal, effective on only six bands to my ears, your so right Bob, a 'thin' string is so lost in a low eq setting, the very reason why you can have a lead guitar playing through a 30w valve amp, loud and proud, and a bass guitar amp needing to be 200w plus,
I think a lot of the time, particulary on the U.S. site, people will come on claiming that they have discovered the perfect steel amp, that no one else knows about, maybe thats why so many are talking about bass amps, or some loud solid state guitar voiced amp, saying its perfect for steel, it aint, the only amp readily available to steel players in this country, an amp that is made for steel, voiced for steel, is the peavey nashville 112, fender pulled production on the steel king, webb and other boutique stuff is not readily available to europe, cant comment on the roland 80w [guitar amp] but i am a little scepticle until i try one,

[bob adams]

It’s the midnight caller! …. And I thought I was getting an early night when my broadband went down! A well... it's back and I had to see that everybody was ok!

Back to the job in hand! Eddie my fine friend!.. btw (oops! off topic again, only 1sec! sorry! ) How is Joe? Has he taken up PSG yet? It could be the talk of Ecclefechan!!! Give him my regards when you next talk (or get a tad reckless!Whichever comes first)

On Topic now ! (Never to digress again!PROMISE! )

Yip! I do talk from experience (or expense) when it comes to bass amps I have a 300w combo sitting here that hasn’t done 15mins work! And a 70s Ampeg up the loft that if you put a P bass through it you would be fired right out the back door of Wembley.. But does it work for steel ‘NFC!!’ (translated) no! The 112 undoubtedly packs a punch though I have to say the Web has something of a warmer, big old valve sound IMHO! Tommy White certainly got a great sound out it! I am sure Ken will jump in on this! As for me with a little stable of Fender, Evans, Ampeg, Peavey even Behringer (whose product quality btw is not short of outstanding) My midwife is still the Session 500!!! A back breaker but it delivers every time! Digressing but only slightly I have been sorting out a couple of D10s one of which is Peter Nylunds Carter, it is a 10x8 and he has some ambitious changes on it, making its knicker elastic is a tad tight here and there as a result. That problem is now addressed but tonight I stuck on a couple of Alumitones! I had never seen them in the flesh and was bemused to see they were hollow! Jings!.... No big copper wind!...What will they think of next!?... But my goodness what a sound out that instrument now (I had to alter the amp settings to come closer to the Carter sound but when I did I could probably have been heard down the village!) My old man is ninety and when he drops in on me while working on a steel and raises his eyebrows I know something has gone right! He is not a steel fan but he has an ‘Outstanding’ detector and can instantly tell me when something is crisp, fresh or different! Peter is about to get A killer D10 back!

Billy I think I am still relevant to this post ! Hope so ! !!

[Malcolm]

I totally disagree with Bob and Eddie, my GK MB 200 is totally suited to Steel.It more than compares to my Nashville 112.I suggest you actually try these units before you say they are unsuited.There are numerous members of the American forum who are using these units (MB2000) and more than pleased with them.I certainly am.As for the lighter weight speakers like Sica Emminence etc, with all due respect to Bob, if people like Ken Fox, Kevin Hatton , Jack Stoner are using and recommending them with the MB200 (and other amps) perhaps you might like to inform them they are talking rubbish, I know what side I come down on. PS if you want high end , ask Willie Gamble what happened when he flicked up one of the switches on my amp, Fender eat your heart out.

[bob adams]

Malcolm, pull the chord on your parachute before an F111 mistakes you for something sinister ! At no time on my post, just then or anywhere else on this entire site did I criticize the GK MB 200 nor state, it or the lightweight speakers unsuited to steel! ...... Neither yours nor anybody else’s!! Nor for one second do I doubt the knowledge and professionalism of the afore mentioned names! Looking back over this thread I see 'no' reference to your gear being ridiculed by 'anyone'! Contrary to that thought I would really have liked to have heard it by now but haven’t had a chance, hopefully in the not too distant future! As for Willie, give me his ward number and I’ll send him a card! And tell him to stay away from your switches!