Emily’s back on Reverb.com, this time with an article about the modern pedal steel players who are taking the instrument to new heights with new effects! Read an excerpt below, or click here to read the full article: The Effects Rigs of 6 Modern Pedal Steel Guitar Players.
You can’t talk about modern pedal steel players without starting with Robert Randolph. Credited as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone, the four-time Grammy nominee’s love of pedals is no secret. In fact, you might have already seen our 2017 video with him running through some of his favorite effects.
We interviewed him again to get his latest lineup. When asked if using effects influences his playing style at all, Randolph says, “It has a lot to do with it! I don’t know how or why, but it just does. The creativity and moods it helps create and helps you get into different sounds. I don’t think any guitar player really expects how it’ll hit you when you sit down and trigger an effect, it triggers a different emotion.”
Three brands in particular speak to Randoph: Source Audio, JHS, and Vertex. “Those three companies make far superior pedals to other companies,” he says, both in terms of durability or sturdiness and tone. He also speaks highly of the Telonics FP-100 Multi-Taper volume pedal. “It’s the best volume pedal ever made… it gives you more sustain at the top of ten.”
Randolph, however, acknowledges that not every pedal works for him—or the pedal steel in general. “Pedal steel guitar pickups are so much hotter than normal guitar pickups,” he says. “A lot of the effects that are made, they’ve been tried and tested on standard guitars. Then, the pedal steel pickups, they’re three times as hot, so you never really get the natural sound.”