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Topic: Pedal harp with effects |
b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 13 Sep 2018 9:11 am |
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Here' a video of a young woman who uses a lot of effects on her pedal harp. Some of her effects could be applied to steel for ambient music.
https://youtu.be/GHDAQFbj81o
I've been getting into effects a lot lately. I often find myself just jamming a simple, loopable 2-chord progression while pushing buttons to get a variety of tones. A lot of young musicians are going down this path. Technology has made new forms of musical expression possible.
(I'm not using a looper, but I see the possibilities.)
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 13 Sep 2018 8:25 pm
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Oh, are you *cooked* now! 
I've normally had around 8 9 micro pedals mounted upside-down on the back apron of my Fenders so I can engage them with a knee. Sneaky Pete had a similar array mounted inside his guitar, but I find this easier from a playing standpoint. I always have a subtle delay on, but my favorite "effects" for steel are a subtle envelope filter and/or octave divider, a slow phase shifter and smooth distortion..
I've used a looper [but a few years ago switched to a Digitech Trio+. Rather than just create loops it builds bass/drum backups to whatever rhythm patterns you play; those can be shifted into a number of different variations, different styles, and the temp changed. The "+" allows you to build verse/chorus/bridge and so on several times and change the sequence on the fly.
I use 6-string to quickly create the progressions, then play steel over them. One of the features I really like is that it does not use "canned" electronic faux-insruments but real samples - and varies the parts and fills. Feels much more like playing with "humans".
Once you get rolling it's easy to spend WAY too much time playing with different effect variations over the backup parts.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Bob Watson
From:
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
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Posted 14 Sep 2018 1:00 am
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| Bob, I like the way you and the guitar player are using the looper pedal, it sounds more natural than the way a lot of people use them. I love pedal harp! This is the first time I've heard someone use effects with one. Dave Easley has been using a looper for quite sometime now, he will play bass lines and then start comping over the bass loop and go from there. He uses a delay quite often and also a Morley Wah/Volume pedal. I have a guitar playing friend who has been playing the Allman Brothers tune "Jessica" on acoustic guitar using a looper. He keeps stacking various parts and eventually plays it with the twin harmony guitar parts. I've been using some OD pedals and an RV3 for delay, but I mostly play without anything but amp reverb for traditional C&W tunes. I would like to try an envelope filter. Jim, I tried a few OD pedals that you suggested and I really like both of them, especially the Bad Horse, is there an envelope filter that would suggest? |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Brett Lanier
From:
Madison, TN
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Posted 14 Sep 2018 2:45 pm
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I play in a band with a concert (pedal) harpist. Taming that thing on a big stage is not easy! The original harpist in the band left the group a while back, but she went to great measures to get that thing to behave for live shows... Included several piezo pickups in the soundboard split two ways (d.i. & amp with 31 band eq). She also had 4 humbuckers running in parallel that were fixed to a box along the soundboard for the metal wound bass strings. Enormous bass tones! She was constantly trying different effects units searching for new sounds. She did some really cool things with a Behringer Harmonizer, EHX super ego, Montreal count to 5, Randy's Revenge, etc...
The harp Lara plays in that video is a newer style that has a piezo for each string! They cost about 60 thousand dollars... Which is about double the cost of a normal Lyon & Healey concert harp. Even with that harp I bet she struggles with feedback in a loud setting. The soundboard of a harp is enormous, and extremely lively. So any loud frequencies coming off subs or monitors just make the thing go crazy.
Sarah (the original harpist in the group) liked Magnatone amps and then later played through a Musicman w/ a single 15. Last fall we did a bus & trailer tour where we had the luxury of bringing as much stuff as we wanted. It being a long one and all, I brought along my three favorite Standel amps. She ended up using my '65 Super Custom XV, and said it was the best amp she ever used. She even ditched the eq. |
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Bob Watson
From:
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
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Posted 15 Sep 2018 12:03 am
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Thanks for the heads up about the Earthquaker Spatial Delivery Bob. It looks like a very cool pedal. Brett, that's really cool that you are working with a pedal harpist. If you have any recordings or video of the band, I'd love to check it out!  |
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