Fender Steel King Highs

Leo Grassl · Post by **Leo Grassl** » 9 Jun 2017 2:07 pm

I have a borrowed Fender Steel King for a tour at the moment. To say the least it is not my favorite amp. I am having a terrible time trying to tame the highs. I have plenty of low and midriange options but the one thing I CANNOT get rid of are the brash sounding highs. A lot of the shows I am playing are outdoor concerts and that is where it is the most difficult to EQ this amp. It's a totally different animal than a peavey which is what I am used to. I never have trouble EQing a Peavey anywhere. I don't understand why I can't adjust the highs on the Steel King. If anyone has any insight I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks a lot,

Leo

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 9 Jun 2017 2:18 pm

I had the same issue with my FSK... shrill highs, especially with a push/pull. I was never able to dial out the shrillness with the tone controls. Then I put in an Eminence neo speaker and most of the shrillness was gone. It made a big difference, and it cut 15 pounds off the amp!
My other issue with that amp was the reverb. It has a very long tail and there's no way to shorten the reverb decay other than turning down the reverb, but then the sound is to dry. The amp does have lot of Lows and it really growls. I miss that part. I got a Quilter a couple of years ago and sold the Steel King.

Dale McPherson · Post by **Dale McPherson** » 9 Jun 2017 2:41 pm

Leo, try this. It is the settings that I used with my Show Pro with a 710.
Gain. 9 o'clock
E Q tilt. 10 o'clock
Treble 10 o'clock
Mid level. 3 o'clock
Mid freq. 9 o'clock
Bass. 3 o'clock

Try these and let me know if it works. Dale

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 9 Jun 2017 6:54 pm

The Steel King is TOTALLY different than a Peavey. You can't set it like a Peavey. The mids are much friendlier. Try starting with everything tonewise straight up and then adjust each one until that frequency sounds good. Buddy once said the amp sounded good right out of the box.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 9 Jun 2017 8:20 pm

I've played a Mullen pre-RP, a Williams, and a BMI (with different types of pickups) through my Steel King and get a great sound with all the knobs straight up. Sometimes I will add just a touch of bass and maybe cut a little bit of mids, but not much. More often than not I just use the EQ Tilt control to fine tune the sound to the room.

Terry Barnett · Post by **Terry Barnett** » 10 Jun 2017 3:36 am

Starting with the tone controls flat or "straight up" will allow you to add or roll off the frequencies you want or don't want. You're getting some pretty good advice...a Fender Steel King will never be a Peavey.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 10 Jun 2017 7:13 am

I put a Peavey Black Widow speaker in my Steel King and the amp sounded identical to a Nashville 400. The speaker is the key to the unique sound of the amp. It does have a lot of highs but the amp's EQ is usually able to tame them.

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Black%20Wido ... Widow.html

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 10 Jun 2017 7:43 am

Playing outdoors can be troublesome with any amp, especially an open back Fender. The sound tends to be more directional and thin because there are no walls or ceilings to bounce the tone off. You might only be suffering from the "ice pick in the ear" effect, where you are only perceiving the high end frequencies.

I don't have a Steel King, but I have dealt with this problem with just about every amp I have played through. So, after taking the sage advice from everyone else here, you might also try aiming the speaker slightly away from your ears and see if you can hear a more full range sound.

If you have the option of running your amp's signal into a floor monitor, you might try that too. That way you could just turn the master down on the amp and let the full range speaker in the monitor be your tone guide.

Sometimes when players have their Peaveys aimed right at their heads, they might sound glorious to them, but they sound like a mudslide to everyone else on stage.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 10 Jun 2017 9:07 am

In my experience trying to fix a basic sound that I don't like is a waste of time. Dump the amp.

Lots of guys love there steel kings and I also know plenty of players (myself included) that found the sound intolerable.

Robert Rhea · Post by **Robert Rhea** » 10 Jun 2017 1:11 pm

I seem to have just the opposite problem. I can't seem to get enough highs out of my FSK without gaining an intolerable amount of hiss. I think it has to do with which pickups are in your guitar. I have a Carter with BL XLR-16's? I'm not positive. Maybe someone can tell by looking at them.

Leo Grassl · Post by **Leo Grassl** » 10 Jun 2017 1:15 pm

Lots of good advice! I agree that the speaker is probably a big part of the problem. I've played a steel King with an eminence speaker in it that sounded quite different than the stock speaker.

I was able to get the amp to be slightly more pleasing and closer to a Peavey. I was able to get rid of most of the highs that were bothering me. My settings are:

EQ Tilt: 11 O'clock
Treble: 10 O'clock
Mid Level: 3 O'clock
Mid frequency: 11 o'clock
Bass: straight up
Reverb: 0 (I have my own verb unit. I do not like the steel King verb.)

I tend to agree with Bob Hoffnar. The steel King offers good tone to those that it suits.
I have managed to make it work and I can tell that the amp would lend itself well to other players who have a different style. For me personally this amp is not my cup of tea.
It's all I've got for this tour so I am working with it!

Thanks everyone who responded to this post.

Leo

Robert Rhea · Post by **Robert Rhea** » 10 Jun 2017 1:30 pm

Oh and I forgot to mention that my Steel King has a Black Widow speaker in it. Another reason my highs aren't shrill.

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 10 Jun 2017 4:03 pm

Leo Grassl wrote:Lots of good advice! I agree that the speaker is probably a big part of the problem. I've played a steel King with an eminence speaker in it that sounded quite different than the stock speaker. Leo

The stock speaker is an Eminence designed by Fender to emulate the old JBL 15's.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 11 Jun 2017 8:31 am

We played at a private event last night. It was held in a large venue that could probably accommodate 400 people. It is a very "bright" sounding room with a concrete floor and block walls. Great natural reverb, by the way.

I played my BMI S-10 (705 pickup) through my Fender Steel King and was very pleased with the sound. Here are the settings I used:

Treble 12 o'clock
Mid Level 11 o'clock
Mid Frequency 1 o'clock
Bass 1 o'clock

Because the room was pretty bright sounding I dialed the EQ Tilt back to 10 o'clock.

I had my guitar running through a Sarno FreeLoader and a Goodrich pot pedal. I had the FreeLoader dialed back to 6. Usually I run it at 8.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 12 Jun 2017 10:13 am

The "start with everything at noon and adjust to the room" method is almost always the best. Speaker aiming is just as important for me.

Kevin Mincke · Post by **Kevin Mincke** » 13 Jun 2017 9:30 pm

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... steel+king

Jonathan Shacklock · Post by **Jonathan Shacklock** » 17 Jun 2017 7:31 am

Leo, try a quick experiment: swap one of the George L's cables in your chain for a standard but good quality guitar cable. I tried this in the last few weeks and was really surprised that it noticeably tamed some unpleasant shrill highs that I could not dial out of my Peavey. I don't think the standard cable sucks my tone at all, if anything the overall sound is a little richer. For now I still have one short George L in the chain (so you might be able to keep using that lucky Big E cable

). If your sound turns to mud, nothing lost - but it's worth a try.

Good luck with the tour my friend!

Leo Grassl · Post by **Leo Grassl** » 22 Jun 2017 4:29 pm

Jonathan,

Low and behold you were absolutely right about the cable. I got home from my tour and
was having the same problem on my session 400 and my Nashville 112. I switched out
one George L at a time until I found the culprit. It was indeed a bad cable. It's so funny
how I managed to overlook that being a possibility. It did cross my mind but I was convinced all my cables were ok. They were not! Now I'm not convinced that the steel King was not only the problem. The tone of the amp was not to my liking but now with this new variable I wouldn't know from first hand experience until I try one again. However I love my Peaveys and don't plan on playing through a steel King again any time soon : )

Leo

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 22 Jun 2017 9:45 pm

Have any of you guy tried inserting a little 6 or 7 band graphic EQ unit into the chain and using it to fine-tune your tone?

Do you think this could this solve the problem?

Jonathan Shacklock · Post by **Jonathan Shacklock** » 23 Jun 2017 6:06 am

Glad to help out Leo! Wasn't Buddy's cable was it?

I'm not sure yet if I have bad cable(s), need to shorten and reattach the plugs or if I just prefer the tone of short George L's and a long standard instrument cable (18' Fender cloth cable in this case). I just tried the swap recently and suddenly my nasty highs were significantly reduced and a little more depth and richness came out overall. Need to do some more experiments.

I've had the George L's for over 10 years. I'm used to intermittent faults but this is the first time I've noticed a GL's cable that 'worked' fine but the tone sucked. Harsh, nasty highs, but quite subtle so you don't immediately notice, and yes I always put it down to the amp or the pickup or anything but the cables. I have a feeling the harshness is there in the signal but a pristine cable would normally low pass that out - if that makes sense. Anyone else experience a cable that degrades in this way? You may not notice until you check with a new one. A capacitance thing? I always check the plugs and wrap them properly.

Mike, I've used a modded Boss EQ from time to time - good in a pinch, I'm not sure it would turn an amp you don't like into an amp you do like. Might get you through a few gigs though.

Keith Poteat · Post by **Keith Poteat** » 23 Jun 2017 8:13 am

This is what changed my mind on the worst amp ever to the best one ever. This took care of the sound, weight and looks, with the help of Rick Johnson Cabinets.

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