Like many steelers, I've gone through a lot of gear looking for the ultimate stage and recording sound. For me the main requirements are quality and purity of tone, and consistency of sound from venue to venue.
Currently I'm playing a '71 Emmons Push-Pull or Williams 600 series S-10 Pedal Steel Guitar through a VHT V-Drive Overdrive, then a Telonics FP-100 Volume Pedal, into a custom "Blackface" Walker Stereo Steel Amplifier with a TC Electronics M-One in the effects loop. For tuning onstage and in the studio I use the Peterson Strobo-Flip virtual strobe tuner. The rack has a filtered power strip for the gear, which also holds the power transformers for the Telonics pedal and overdrive. Just open it up, plug in a couple of things and I'm good to go. (I also use a Heet Sound E-bow, which is a hand-held electromagnetic string driver).
The Telonics pedals are an enormous improvement over the older potentiometer style- no tone loss or change throughout the full range of the pedal. When I want to play lap steel, I just plug my GeorgeBoards P90-6 into the volume pedal and use the VHT for overdrive or distortion. Although it sounds complicated, it takes me about 10 minutes to set up and be ready to play.
In the studio I sometimes use parts of this setup, but most frequently I use the VHT Overdrive and Telonics Volume Pedal into a modified Peavey Trans-TubeFex preamp either directly into the board, or through various studio preamps or compressors, depending on the sound the particular track requires or the producer prefers. The photo shows my rig setup for recent sessions at OmniSound recording in Nashville.
