Best Amps For Steel and Telecaster?

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 5 Jul 2009 11:49 am

Hi Guys, Just wondering what I should consider for steel as well as electric guitar? Will one amp do it all or do I resign myself to carrying two amps? I must say I do not like the Nashville 400 for non steel guitar.

Thanks

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 5 Jul 2009 1:47 pm

The Session 400 takes a Tele almost as well as a steel. Check out Jerry Reed in the '70s!

My amp tech just fixed up my Session 400 (cap job, etc.), and had a Strat running through it when I showed up today to pick it up. Sounded great! He's a tube guy, and was totally impressed by the Session 400.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 5 Jul 2009 2:32 pm

Fender Twin Reverb. Either a black face or silver face version. I think Fender even made one with a single 15" speaker.

Bob Cox · Post by **Bob Cox** » 5 Jul 2009 2:34 pm

Chris is right on this one for sure.I use a 76 session 400for the steel and the tele and that amp brings the best out of both like you won,t beleive.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 5 Jul 2009 3:40 pm

Well, my amp of choice for double duty is definitely my Twin, although I will say that it does not have the clean headroom of the Session. I just like the dual channels on my Twin, and the warm sound of the tubes.

Just last weekend, I played a rather large venue with my Twin, and it was lacking in the clean headroom department. So I have my Session tweaked and back in service for some of the larger venues on the roster this summer. Even when you are mic'ing an amp through the P.A., on a big stage it's nice to have that headroom clearance. That way you can put your amp towards the back - where it blends in with the stage sound - and have just a bit coming back in the monitor. I do not like a lot of monitor feed, because it usually does not give you the true amp sound. Therefore, I'd rather have more headroom on the amp and less signal in the monitor. In this type of scenario, the Session beats the Twin for clear, clean steel tone. Sorry for the slight digression!

The Session 400 is, for me, the only transistor steel amp that comes close to the warm sound of tubes. My amp tech said it was by far the warmest solid state amp he'd ever heard.

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 5 Jul 2009 5:18 pm

I used to run em both through the nashville 400, but i ran an EQ for the guitar, killer tone!
Your tastes may require 2 amps.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 5 Jul 2009 8:51 pm

Will one amp do it all or do I resign myself to carrying two amps?

It depends a lot on what kind of music you play, and how you play it.

If you play steel with a crystal-clear clean tone and Tele with any kind of edge to it - two amps is a must. If you don't like the sound of the Peavey for Tele I have to think you're not going to be happy with any other SS amp for Tele, nor an overkill tube amp like a Twin ( a great amp when you can turn it up, but cold and sterile at low volume...unless you bias it really hot, which loses you headroom for steel). I sold my Twin several years ago - even on outdoors gigs a 40-50 watt amp (Pro Reverb, Vibroverb, a couple of boutique things) have plenty of volume and more headroom than I'll ever need. Granted, I don't play hospital-clean steel, but I DO play clean on a lot of things....and one of those amps will work fine if it's set up right. Unfortunately, if it's set up for lots of headroom for steel it sounds like crap with a Tele.

There must be 50 threads on this in the last 6 months. IF you do a search you'll find tons of info - and absolutely no consensus!

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 5 Jul 2009 9:04 pm

Jim's right - there have been tons of threads on this and there's absolutely no consensus. It completely depends on how you want each of your instruments - guitar and pedal steel - to sound.

I get reasonable results with my pedal steel into a Tubefex into the Hi input of my pedal steel amp du jour, and then my guitar into a Pod 2 (Deluxe Reverb emulation) and then into the low-input or pre-EQ input of the same pedal steel amp. Sometimes I use a Duncan Twin Tube Classic for more distorted tones if the gig calls for that. I grew up playing guitar on old Fender amps, so this works for me, but YMMV. I tweaked out that Pod alongside my real blackface Deluxe Reverb a long time ago.

But I know a lot of people don't like modelers. In that case, my approach sho 'nuff won't work. But carrying around something like an old BF or SF Deluxe Reverb isn't all that tough.

One more thing - I just went over my late 70s Peavey LTD 400 yesterday, cleaning it up, straightening out the reverb, and putting what I believe was originally a Fender Steel King speaker in it. This is a Session 400 in a smaller box. Man, it sounded great even with a Strat plugged straight in, I was floored. But that thing is loud. It sounds so good cranked up - very clean but warm - that I'd be overly tempted to crank it up to the point where it would get either me or the band fired. Not going there.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 5 Jul 2009 10:33 pm

Do you need 200 Solid-State watts? Is your amp miked through the PA? I play steel and guitar in a show in a medium-sized theater with my amp miked. Like Chris, I don't like a lot of monitor feed--I want to hear the amp itself. I use a Mesa LoneStar Special 1 X 12 combo: all-tube, ~30 watts, 4 EL84s, "Class A" (don't ask me if it's true Class A; Mesa says so (including in a long, detailed essay on their website by Randall Smith, but that's one of the biggest cans of worms in guitar amp land). I get a great (IMO, of course) clean sound with a lot of control ( Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, Volume, Master Volume ) for steel with the "Clean" channel, and a nice medium-gain sound for Tele with Channel 2. (A/B switch between instruments in front of the amp.) The sound person is always hassling me to turn it down!

NOTE: The Lonestar Special is also set up so each channel can select between 3 different power amp configurations: 4 X EL84 ("30 watts"), 2 X EL84 ("15 watts"), or 1 X EL84 ("5 watts").
Mesa also makes a LoneStar with EL34s that switches between 4 EL34s ("100 watts") and 2 EL34s ("50 watts").

If you're not miked, of course, it changes things!

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 6 Jul 2009 3:20 am

" cold and sterile at low volume...unless you bias it really hot, which loses you headroom for steel"

Hmmmm,,,, Could one have a "switchable" bias? Cold for steel, and real hot for guitar? A floor pedal,,,,,,,,, like the reverb and trem pedals on Fenders?

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 6 Jul 2009 4:32 am

When I do a gig doubling on Tele and steel where there's not much bandstand room, I use an old MusicMan HD-212 One Fifty which is a hybrid tube & SS combo with two twelve inch speakers. It's pretty much a "Twin on Steroids". It has two channels just like a twin so I usually put my Tele into the regular lead channel as it has a built in phase shifter.

The 1st channel is just like the Twin's that no one ever uses but I plug my steel rig into it with an a DOD analog delay and sometimes a chorus pedal. I'm very happy with the sound of both instruments with this rig.

If there's enough room on the bandstand where I can use two amps I use an old Randall Steelman 500 and a Peavey Classic 30 for guitar. Here's a shot of the MusicMan..........JH in Va.

Jack Ritter · Post by **Jack Ritter** » 6 Jul 2009 5:53 am

Our lead guitar has played his vintage tele thru my n-112 and it sounds great to him and also me.---jack

Nathan Golub · Post by **Nathan Golub** » 6 Jul 2009 7:51 am

When I saw Carco Clave a few months back he was playing steel, guitar and baritone guitar through a dual channel amp head in a rack case (turned on its side, which he used as his seat too) to a 115 cabinet. I didn't see the brand he was using, but there are probably a few out there that would work.

Seems like a good option would be a NV112 for steel and a Princeton or Deluxe reverb for guitar. Even though it's two amps, it'd still be light & pretty affordable.

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 6 Jul 2009 8:24 am

This is my amp of choice. Great for Tele and Steel.

Clete Ritta · Post by **Clete Ritta** » 6 Jul 2009 12:44 pm

Ive got a bunch of guitar amps at home, but for the sake of minimizing my load on live gigs Ive been playing tele, strat, steel and mandolin thru my Peavey NV 1000. My floor pedals include a Boss EQ and an MXR Distortion+ so I set the amp on loud and clean with a very slight cut on mids at 800. I use the EQ pedal to scoop more mid for steel and occasionally on guitar for effect. I use a liberal amount of reverb from the amp on steel and back it off for guitar and mandolin. Ive a Twin 65 Reissue which I think would work well as an alternate. Hope this helps!

Larry Lorows · Post by **Larry Lorows** » 6 Jul 2009 12:54 pm

I have always liked my Vegas 400 amps, which are two channel. I go straight into the amp with the steel and use a Pod XT effects unit in the tele channel. Larry

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 6 Jul 2009 1:24 pm

The problem with this entire premise is personal taste and personal tones. I have a much easier time finding a Steel sound that I like than I do with the Telecaster. I am very anal when it comes to the telecaster.

my take ,N400 is do-able but my last choice. Certainly this is the hi output amp.

Hot Rod Deville 2x12 for double duty , moderate levels

Classic 30 for Tele only

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 6 Jul 2009 1:40 pm

"I am very anal when it comes to the telecaster. "

I totally agree! I've got a couple Dr. Z amps, and they've ruined me for those digital boxes. I can't stand them. If I have to use a "double-duty" amp, it's my Twin with a 15" JBL. I have Verb on both channels, and I use the Normal channel for steel, and the Trem channel for my Tele and Baritone Strat. Gotta have trem for those!!

John Gould · Post by **John Gould** » 6 Jul 2009 7:36 pm

The Vegas 400 is a good choice and also the
Music Man if you want to go hybrid.
I've had both and still own a music man and I play it for big outdoor gigs. It actually seems to have much more headroom than my Nashville 1000. I use a single 15 and 4X10 cab with it.
I have a Kustom coupe 36 and if you don't need loud it sounds great to. I've used it on private party gigs that didn't require much volume.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 6 Jul 2009 8:50 pm

I use an old Session 400 for both Tele and steel guitar. It's worked fine for a number of years, too. I got my first Session 400 in 1977.

(The only time I have been without one was when I traded everything in for a Vegas 400 and a Nashville 400. I used them about two years and went to a Session 400 Limited. I found an old LTD 400 and since then two old Session 400's.)

Great for both electric guitar and steel!

Per Berner · Post by **Per Berner** » 6 Jul 2009 10:18 pm

With a Black Box and some EQ, my Nashville 1000 works fine for clean Telecaster tone. It's a bit too clean and sterile without the Black Box, though.

My Roland JC-120 also did double duty quite well. If you need bluesy break-up, look elsewhere, but for regular twang it works fine. Wish I hadn't sold it.

Alan Rudd · Post by **Alan Rudd** » 7 Jul 2009 3:04 am

I have a Lab Series L9 which is a great amp for either or both.

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 7 Jul 2009 12:17 pm

Okay, before I say this, let me first state that before i tried this I was very skeptical ...extremely skeptical...but this has worked for me so while i dont expect my post to convince anyone, i just offer it as a solution that has worked very well for me, much to my great surprise.

I got an Evans SS head which sounds great for steel, is 200 watts and only wieghs 23 lbs, but sounded like pure ass on a guitar with any grit to it (Im told they make good jazz guitar amps, I wouldnt know).
Then , on the recommnedation of several other forumites, I got a seymour duncan twin tube and bam....guitar sounds great thru it now too.

so with one 23 lb amp , I can play ANY sized gig and have a great tone on steel and guitar.

I know, I know..."BS!" or "your idea of a good guitar sound aint mine!"...sure okay. thats what i thought too til i tried it.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 7 Jul 2009 1:39 pm

Alan R
Was the L 9 the one with a 15" speaker? If so, that's what I had. I really regretted getting rid of it to buy a Vegas! The Lab sounded way better for both steel and guitar. The only SS amp I've ever liked.

Alan Rudd · Post by **Alan Rudd** » 7 Jul 2009 3:18 pm

Yes, John. That's the one. I loved the sound of Ray Flacke's tele and I remembered a guy back home, Smiley Weaver, who played the steel through the L9.