A Wacky Idea?

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 1 Apr 2005 6:23 am

I appreciate pushing the envelopes on technique and technology,and it is important for someone to do this, but I don't want to play or sound like a saxophone or wurlitzer or B3 or whatever. I have never understood the " I just wanted to play like a horn" mentality. If you want a sax, play a sax. JP

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 1 Apr 2005 9:17 am

I agree, Jim. My original "wacky idea" was to expand the tonal variety of a pedal steel with Variax technology, not to convert it to MIDI so that we could emulate other instruments. I have very little interest in MIDI steel.

The Variax provides an equalizer for each string and gangs them all together in a preset patch. They call this "emulation", but anyone with experienced ears knows that the Variax doesn't really sound like the guitars it proports to emulate. It's simply an electric guitar with a very rich tonal palette. I'd like to do the same thing with a pedal steel.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Robert Parent · Post by **Robert Parent** » 1 Apr 2005 9:50 am

I think some of the same technology applies if you want to model each string or convert each string to a MIDI signal. I personally believe both have their application in the steel world and neither has been explored in much depth. The basic concept is capturing each string as an individual signal and moving on from there. It is this capturing technology that the PSG is lacking at the moment in my opinion. Optics, hall-effect, or magnetics would work and there are others that may as well. It's the application of these technologies into an end user product that is missing for us to enjoy either approach.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 1 Apr 2005 11:51 am

I guess no one remembers the Condor unit that I referred to in an earlier post. I had one about 30 years ago. They were a pretty strange, and a very advanced,for their time, gadget. They were made for guitars and woodwinds. You could purchase the unit as just the electronics box and pickup, or you could buy the complete set which included a guitar, with the pup mounted, the electronics box and an amplifier. I believe they were designed by the Hammond Organ Co, and I think they were marketed under the Maestro name (Gibson?) I bought mine from CMI (?) when that company owned Gibson and, I believe, Hammond.
The pup was actually a hex style. There were little wound coils with a shield arching over each string. Sorta like a tiny Rick pup. Each coil sent a seperate signal to the electronics box via multi-conductor cord.
The heart of the thing was the electronics unit. The front of the unit had about 20 organ tabs in a line across the front edge. It's been 30 years since I drilled two holes in my 1958 Flying V to mount that pup, but some of the names on the organ tabs were;
Un-amplified guitar
Amplified guitar
Fuzz guitar
Super Fuzz Guitar
Clarinet
Oboe
Bassoon
Trumpet
Piano
Harpsichord
Organ
Octave above
Octave below
Two-string Bass
Four-string Bass
It was pretty wild! You could press all the tabs at once if you felt like it. And I frequently felt like it! The Two-string bass was pretty cool. It would add an octave below on strings 5 and 6, while still leaving in the regular note. This was perfect for Travis picking. Too cool! I believe it worked using Ring Modulation. Very few were sold, and they were quicly discontinued. I always wanted to try a couple of them on a steel, but I doubt that the string-spacing would have been correct. JB

Carson Leighton · Post by **Carson Leighton** » 2 Apr 2005 3:49 pm

Bobby Lee, you have a great idea! I haven't read all the posts on this subject, but I have been thinking of something along this same line for some time now. If someone could build a feature into a steel, or and add on, so the volume of the natural harmonics could be controlled, it would open up a whole new world of sound for the pedal steel......Carson

db · Post by db » 5 Apr 2005 5:06 pm

Hey Carson . . .
Bill Lawrence made an IQ-1200 box a while ago
that did something like what you are taking about.
It's something like the "Vari-Tone" on an ES-345.
I have his description posted on my webspace.
http://www.geocities.com/dbalde.geo/IQ1200.htm
I don't know if he is still making them .. .
But, you might be able to talk him into making one for you.
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Dan Balde
U-12/8&5, S-7/D 3&1, S-6/E,A & G3[This message was edited by db on 05 April 2005 at 06:09 PM.]

Carson Leighton · Post by **Carson Leighton** » 6 Apr 2005 3:10 am

Dan, thanks for the link. That's along the same line to what I what thinking, but what I had in mind was to enhance the natural harmonic series of a string(s) and be able to control it. The sound would be the same as what we already have, only more of it.
On second thought, maybe we don't need it. It would probably spoil us all.....