Pedal Steel with Axe FX 3

G

gregjhonda

Member
Here's some sounds and pics of my initial foray into the Axe FX 3 with my pedal steel (and some old country guitar). I included some of the Eminence PF350 IR sounds as well. After only a few weeks of effort experimenting and reading all the manuals I can see where the Axe is a great studio tool for pedal steel eliminating all real amps, microphones and room characteristics. This is a real time saver and a perfect match for a home studio with limited space.

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/AXE FX 3.html
 
Awesome!! Any chance you could share your presets for pedal steel. I play a Williams and I’m trying to dial in some classic sounds but it always sounds harsh.
 
I'll see if I can post my preset here later. Most of the harshness that I saw was eliminated by setting the "Input Trim" to minimum and the "Level" to maximum on the Amp 1 screen for example on the 59 Bassguy amp. These controls act as a sort of input gain and master volume for many of the amp models and seem to be set for early breakup and distortion on most of the Fender amp models.

See this screen here:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/37.jpg
 
Wow, congrats @gregjhonda, a pedal steel is on my wish list from a long long time but can find anything "affordable" here in Europe... Love the sounds and your layout for that.
 
There are of course lots of things that will affect your sound. My pedal steel is fed into a pot pedal with a 500K pot and I've also added about 10" of George L's cable between the pot pedal and the Axe instrument input. The pot pedal and the capacitance in the 10" of cable rolls the highs off a bit and will have a lower signal level more than an active volume pedal or if you were to plug the steel directly into the Axe input and use another means to control the volume such as a volume block. I'll attach below the 4 preset files that I used on my web site recording. The first one is for standard guitar, the 2nd and 3rd use the Eminence PF350 cabs and the 4th uses a fender amp with a 15" speaker.

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_ALL_BANKS-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_A-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_B-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_C-v16p04.syx
 
gregjhonda said:
I'll see if I can post my preset here later. Most of the harshness that I saw was eliminated by setting the "Input Trim" to minimum and the "Level" to maximum on the Amp 1 screen for example on the 59 Bassguy amp. These controls act as a sort of input gain and master volume for many of the amp models and seem to be set for early breakup and distortion on most of the Fender amp models.

See this screen here:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/37.jpg
Click to expand...
Is the pedal steel output significantly louder than an electric guitar?

You can also use global Input 1 Gain to "scale" the input globally if it is. Then you don't have to touch every preset.

If not, then you might be better served lowering Input Drive as Input Trim is really just a gain (level) control.

The term "master volume" also might get confusing for some. The Level control is really about the volume level. Master volume being an actual thing on some amps and has impact on overall tone, where Level is pure volume.

For harshness you probably want to start with Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence controls and also look at the High Cut in the Cab block. Many cut down to 5-8k range (default is 20k).

How would you dial in a typical tube guitar amp for pedal steel?
 
Wanted to maintain the input settings as they work well for standard guitar. All of the Fender amp models had noticeable distortion with the pedal steel. This slight distortion is fine on guitar but wreak havoc with the multiple strings and harmonics of a pedal steel. EQ for the pedal steel with a tube amp on the Axe required me to boost the mids around 2K. Easier done with the GEQ than the default OEM amp model tone controls. The input trim and level control settings I use clean the amp up totally for pedal steel and they are of course not available on the OEM amp.

A typical tube amp is not really voiced for pedal steel although I've gotten by with them in the past.
 
gregjhonda said:
Wanted to maintain the input settings as they work well for standard guitar. All of the Fender amp models had noticeable distortion with the pedal steel. This slight distortion is fine on guitar but wreak havoc with the multiple strings and harmonics of a pedal steel. EQ for the pedal steel with a tube amp on the Axe required me to boost the mids around 2K. Easier done with the GEQ than the default OEM amp model tone controls. The input trim and level control settings I use clean the amp up totally for pedal steel and they are of course not available on the OEM amp.

A typical tube amp is not really voiced for pedal steel although I've gotten by with them in the past.
Click to expand...
Cool - that makes sense.
 
Hey Greg. Really great sounds you're getting there. I was wondering if you could revisit the patches you uploaded though. Unless I'm missing something, none of those bank files you uploaded actually have the "GregSteel" preset in them. I think that would be in Bank D, which is missing
 
Just stumbled on this thread. I imagine using AFX3 on steel would be mind-blowing. I used to LOVE the sounds Al Perkins got playing with Stephen Stills/Manassas.
 
gregjhonda said:
There are of course lots of things that will affect your sound. My pedal steel is fed into a pot pedal with a 500K pot and I've also added about 10" of George L's cable between the pot pedal and the Axe instrument input. The pot pedal and the capacitance in the 10" of cable rolls the highs off a bit and will have a lower signal level more than an active volume pedal or if you were to plug the steel directly into the Axe input and use another means to control the volume such as a volume block. I'll attach below the 4 preset files that I used on my web site recording. The first one is for standard guitar, the 2nd and 3rd use the Eminence PF350 cabs and the 4th uses a fender amp with a 15" speaker.

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_ALL_BANKS-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_A-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_B-v16p04.syx

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/AXE FX 3/Axe-Fx_III_Bank_C-v16p04.syx
Click to expand...
If you compress the files into .zip archives they’ll compress down to much smaller files. An entire bank file will compress to the size of a single preset.
 
I would try and not do anything globally unless the Fractal unit will only be for the pedal steel. One guitars floor is another guitars ceiling so to speak. I would just copy some presets that might work and revise them for the pedal steel.
 
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