Question For/About Lloyd Green's effects setup

[Dustin Rigsby]

Watching Lloyd in youtube vids,I am captivated by not only his clean technique,but also his superbly not over-effected sound. What I mean is that he don't seem to have an over-abundance of delay and reverb but rather just the right amount of "mojo". These vids range from the 80's to the early to mid 90's. In the ones that Bill Ferguson has posted is seems that Lloyd is flanked by a small rack on his right side. My question to/about Lloyd is A) what's in the rack and B) is it running pre or post volume pedal and C) is it running in the effects loop or in front of the pre-amp ? Also I would like to know how this setup has changed over the years ? I know it's a lot to ask...but as a student of sounds it interests me. I can't duplicate anyone's technique...it's just not in my nature,but that sound is SOOOO CLEAN AND BEAUTIFUL !

[Larry Bressington]

I think Lloyd kept it pretty simple back then, maybe a bit o verb and delay if any delay, seems like the peavey pro fex was the rack of that time that the big names were pushing, they are still very good.
I think most rackmount type players use the digital reverb vs the amp spring especially on live stages.

I cant really answer your question truthfully because i dont know Lloyd, but all i can say is that, not too much effects!
At the end of the day, the Loyd green sound is in Lloyd, i saw him play another steel on u-tube, and he sounds the same as with his sho-bud.

As far as effect loop, i think most run, pick-up-volume pedal- input to processor- out to amp!
The effects loop is a bit goofy on volume pedals and seems to strangle the signal eats 'pots' for a living!

Set-up i beleive is very similar from what i have read, Lloyd dont like it complicated because he uses his fingers behind the bar for half bends i beleive.
If you listen to some of the ricky skaggs stuff, you hear the 3rd string and 1st string unison, but Lloyd dont pull his 1st string a whole tone, i saw 'Randle currie' do this in action and was a master of pulling with fingers behind the bar, It allows you to keep a solid copedant but yet gain the new 'Franklin' sounds!
Some guys follow and some guys dont, kinda like groupie girls!

[John Bechtel]

In recent years, all I've seen Lloyd Green use, in the way of External~Effects; has been a BOSS RV–3 between volume-pedal and Amp.

[Doug Earnest]

Lloyd don' need no stinking effects.

He has ten of them on the ends of his hands, and a dandy master controller between his ears.

Llong Llive Lloyd! (I just made that up...)

[Bent Romnes]

Lloyd don' need no stinking effects.

He has ten of them on the ends of his hands, and a dandy master controller between his ears.

Llong Llive Lloyd! (I just made that up...)

Doug Right on!

[Erv Niehaus]

I have watched several videos of Lloyd playing and it seems that quite often he reaches over and fine tunes some unit on, it must be, a rack setup.

[John Billings]

He's obviously using a rack in the "An Evening Of E9th" video.

As an aside, about Lloyd's "clean" sound. I was called to do some tracking with melodic metal guitarist Neil Zaza. Figuring the engineer probably knew nothing about recording steel, I took along the cd of Lloyd's Little Darlin' stuff. I played some of it for Neil and Alan, the engineer, and proclaimed, "See, real clean!" They both looked at me incredulously! "JB, that's not clean!" And they were right. There's a very nice tubey warmth to those recordings. We settled on using my way-modified Delta Blues for Neil's cd. Not the Vegas.

[Dustin Rigsby]

John,
Last time I heard, Lloyd still uses his Fender Twin. Alot of his mojo is that he is Lloyd Green. Now Neil ZaZa....that's a guy that I haven't seen or talked to since about 1991 ! He's a great technician..or at least he was back then. He understood the importance of putting on a show. Sorry about drifting off of the Topic. I imagine it's some sort of Profex unit ? I have thought about using the Digitech GSP 1101 and going completely to a rack unit....that's an aweful exspensive experiment if I don't like the sound though .

[John Billings]

Dustin, Neil is playing and writing better than ever! He's rehearsing now for his annual show of Christmas music performed at Playhouse Square. I've played on a couple of his cds. He's my neighbor, and close friend. It was a blast to record with him!
http://www.neilzaza.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Zaza

[Ricky Davis]

To Clear the air of what Lloyd has used and what he uses; this is in from the man himself:

The “effects” you allude to in those occasional utubes are this. I was playing through a Lexicon PCM 41 digital delay.

It was rather bulky (and expensive) and fit in the rack you see in the videos. I only used the Lexicon for live events and would never dream of playing thru such a device for recording sessions. Then, as now, I use my steel and my Fender Twin with a 15” JBL speaker and for a period of time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a Peavey Session 400. Nothing else for sessions.

I now use a small RV3 reverb/digital delay for the rare live gigs I play. Again, the singular reason I would play with one is the desire to get a little broader spectrum (i.e. studio) sound. However, I think I probably sounded better live before the advent of those additions when it was just a steel and amp, when it was just me and the music. And they don’t nearly approximate the studio sound. Frankly, I was never very comfortable with the “additions” as you can see from the constant manipulations of the unit. Plus, they did alter my sound in a negative way, subtracting from the natural sound to a more artificial one. Of course……they do that in the studio, don’t they! But it sounds better .

While the Peavey Profex contained my “sound” I never used one in a professional situation.

Thanks for the question and curiosity. I hope this clarifies the what and why of those units in my case.

Lloyd Green

[Dustin Rigsby]

Thank You Lloyd,I could pick you brain for hours if you would let me ! Thank you Ricky for conveying the message. I can see what you're saying about "trying" to approximate studio sound for live applications...it never seems to work out that way.

[Ken Byng]

As is always the case with Lloyd - less is more!!