Amp's for Hawaiian Steel?

[Chase Swan]

I'd say Class A is way to go for the Hawaiian sound. I have a '62 Gibson GA-5 and it's perfect for anything oldschool. I also have a Epiphone Valve Jr that I love to goof around on.

I find that the higher powered amps just sound a little too clean for Hawaiian.

[seldomfed]

elsewhere on the forum (can't recall) there is a tread about the Sansamp DI's called 'Character Series'. I just purchased one, and used it this weekend for an outdoor gig and it's great!

I purch. the 'Blond' model, which is a tube amp emulation (ala 'blackface' 'silverface' 'bassman') - and it does a great job. I just plugged my Stringmaster into the PA.

If you do gigs where you know there is a PA, with monitors - this is a cool tool. No amp to haul, no sound hippy to wait on to mic the amp, just jack in. Stick a reverb or delay pedal after if you don't want the sound guy to do reverb for you.

Dead simple to use, the amp models are continually variable from clean to dirt. Tone controls are very sensitive! but work great. I even like the response characteristics - almost feels like playing thru an amp.

I've also used it as a stomp box to get better tone out of my AER Compact 60. That amp is squeeky clean - this DI makes it sound way better for steel.

The only thing that would make it perfect would be a reverb knob - just a simple spring tank emmulation and this little box would just be killer.

If you have to know there are tubes at the end of your guitar cord - I understand - but if you want predictable, good tone that you can stick in a gig bag - check them out!

Chris

[Steve Ahola]

The only thing that would make it perfect would be a reverb knob - just a simple spring tank emulation and this little box would just be killer.

Have you heard about the Belton DigiLog "brick" module. It is a cheap and dirty way to add a decent reverb to your amp:

http://www.neunabertechnology.com/BTDR1

The modules sell for about $20 at Small Bear Electronics, or you can buy stompbox kits from GGG ($65) or BYOC($89). Or just buy one of the boutique pedals that use them (I got the Malleko Spring Chicken for $140 right before it was discontinued last summer). The company that designed the DigiLog module for Belton has come out with their own WET Reverb pedal based on a completely different circuit for $200 (above link will take you to their site). If you are looking for lush, studio quality reverb effects the WET pedal is for you (check out the sound samples on their website!) I like the plain ole Spring Chicken because it sounds like a BF Combo amp- more so than some modern amps with tube driven reverb springs.

I've been using my Lunchbox 2 amp a lot and it doesn't have reverb. Well, it does now- I secured the Spring Chicken to the right side of the amp with heavy duty velcro... What the heck- it works.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I'm waiting for someone to make a kit to install the module inside your tube amp, right before the phase inverter. At that point in an amp circuit I personally don't think that a solid state device would detract that much from the sound. But that is just my own opinion.

P.P.S. I was just looking at the current crop of boutique reverb pedals and the EarthQuaker Ghost Echo($165) gets some really great vintage reverb sounds from the 60's:

http://www.earthquakerdevices.com/devices/ghostecho.htm