Steel Guitar Amps

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 9 Sep 2010 6:24 pm

Hey, as long as you don't mind picking up a Travis Bean guitar and various bits of memorabilia with it you can have one of Jerry's Sho-Bud amps for 300k and change!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1976-Travis-Bean-Gu ... 162wt_1202

Bruce Hamilton · Post by **Bruce Hamilton** » 9 Sep 2010 6:57 pm

To comment on Jim's question about amp voicing I have always thought that the increase in mid range honk was to compensate for the lack of mids on the all pull guitars that started coming out in the late seventies. If there is one thing missing in all pull guitars compared to push pulls it is midrange. But I could be wrong.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 10 Sep 2010 12:15 pm

Bob Hoffnar wrote: Mostly I'm talking to Bill in the shop about putting it together.

Yeah buddy! I'd like to know how that works out for you, keep us posted. Bill is the cat huh? I try not to pester him too much, but he's such a nice guy...

Joe Alterio · Post by **Joe Alterio** » 10 Sep 2010 2:50 pm

I was sad to hear that Fender stopped making the Steel King. I love mine...it has TONE!!! It's not a tube amp, but that doesn't matter....I can nail the Bakersfield tone (Brumley/Red Rhodes) that I love perfectly with it.

Joe Alterio · Post by **Joe Alterio** » 10 Sep 2010 2:55 pm

Jim Cohen wrote:But Curt, my point is: why should an amp that's supposed to be 'voiced for steel guitar' have a 'honk' in it in the first place that everyone needs to try to get rid of? That's what doesn't make sense to me.

You hit the nail on the head Jim.

I will say this...the Steel King does not have the dreaded "honk" when all controls are dialed straight-up 12:00. They really did a fantastic job in designing an amp that sounds great right out of the box. I could never get a good sound out of ANY of the Peaveys I have owned (N400, N1000, S400).

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 11 Sep 2010 2:49 pm

I heard Danny Sneed playing through a DD3 Delay pedal and into a Crate Power Block (150W) and into a 1-12" speaker cab...he sounded AWESOME!!!

I know another GREAT steel player that uses a 500W G/K Bass amp head...about 5 lbs...with a Digital/Delay and sounds GREAT!!

I'm gonna go that route with the 200W version into an old Peavey NV cab w/o the chassis and will be using the BW-15" speaker.

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 11 Sep 2010 7:19 pm

David Ball wrote:I picked up one of the Frenzel 5e3 based amps used off of Ebay some time back mainly out of curiosity, and it's really a nice amp. Very quiet for a tube amp, and has both a Fender and Marshall style preamp built in. Pretty nice, plus it will handle 6V6, 6L6 and EL-34 output tubes. I run mine through a JBL D130F with EL-34s right now and it sounds great. 6L6s sounded great too.

Only down side is the lightweight aluminum chassis. I don't know that I'd use mine for a carry on the road amp because it's pretty easy to dent, but especially for what they cost (even new), they're awfully nice amps.

Dave

Dave, a killer combination for this would be using the Frenzel as a preamp (using something like the THD Hotplate to bring the output stage to line level) into a Furlong powered cab. I used this in St. Louis with a THD UniValve, and it was killer. Whatever tone/drive you want at any volume level.