Steel Guitar Amplifier History

[Dave Hopping]

Yet another steel-friendly Fender amp- the '65 Twin Custom 15.Now out of production, but essentially a blackface Twin-Reverb reissue in a slightly taller cab with an Eminence 15, supposed to be a JBL clone.Mine sounds stageworthy-good.

[Wade Black]

Standel ad. Credit to Jim Hilmar for posting this picture on his FB page. He says that he believes the ad is from mid-60s.

[Ron la Villa]

Pictured is the Gretsch Nashville amp I mentioned earlier.

My understanding is that it was also built by Kenneth Cain of Sho-Bud amp fame, but with more finesse and upgraded components.

I believe these were built during the Sho~Bud-Gretsch-Baldwin era.

I've only seen one of these as one of our steel club members played at one of our meetings. I don't recall if it housed a JBL D130 speaker v. the Altec pictured above.

Appeared very well built and sounded great.

Read the story from Bob Guichard's post as linked below.


In case it's of interest, here is the Kenneth Cain amplifier I found out here in the UK. I'm in the process of restoring it, (just got it a working JBL D130F to replace the Eminence I found it with
). It needs a little work but sounds great already. We're stuck trying to find schematics, I'll do that in its' own post

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... sc&start=0

[Wade Black]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Here is a basic timeline of the earliest amps targeted to pedal steel players from the research and posts made thus far:

Tweed Pro - 1947 - 15” Jensen. 18 watts. This amp might be considered the grandfather to future pedal steel targeted amps? As someone else said, “They were just amps and could be used with any instrument.” Louder is better.

Tweed (wide panel) Twin - 1955. 25 watts, 2x12”. But rumored to be built with 15” speakers sometimes. Again, not likely marketed and advertised specifically to pedal steel players….but probably can be considered the father of future pedal steel amps. There are a couple links below that indicate Fender started offering JBL speakers as an option around 1955.

1) The article at the link below indicates Speedy West requested JBL speakers in a Twin in the early to mid 1950s:

http://www.cowboydirectory.com/W/speedy/west_bio2.html

2) The JBL Wiki page says Leo Fender started using the JBL D-130 in 1955: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBL

Standel - 1953. Bob Crook was approached by Paul Bigsby to design/build an amp in 1952. The Standel amp website shows the Date of Manufacture for the original amp to be 10-1-53. Mr. Crook’s first customer was Speedy West. Considering that Bigsby built Speedy West’s pedal steel in 1947, it could certainly be considered the first targeted effort to build a pedal steel amp (model # 25L15) a big clean tone specifically for pedal steel. 25 watts with a 15” speaker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standel

http://standelamps.com/about_us/story/story_p06.html


Fender Vibrasonic - (original) 1959 - 1964, 25 watts with 15” speaker. First production Fender amp to utilize a JBL
Fender Vibrosonic (Silverface) - 1972 - 1979, 100 watts with 15” speaker


Evans - introduced early to mid 1960s. Models: Hybrid One Fifty and Three Hundred. No specific info on dates manufactured or features.

Sho-Bud - introduced mid 1960s. Would like to have specific models/features/dates of the original amps. Originally built by Jim Evans.

Cain - introduced ?

Randall - Don Randall (former Fender sales/marketing pro) established the amp company in 1970. It has an intriguing lineage that includes buying Standel in 1972, hiring Bob Crooks, and having joint ventures with both CMI and SG amplifiers.

Peavey Session 400 and the original Black Widow Speaker - introduced in 1974 - Designed as a collaboration between Hartley Peavey and Julian Tharpe.

Webb - introduced mid 1970s. The website says 1974…the FB page says 1975. Model 614-E. 225 RMS watts, 15” JBL

https://songwriter.com/webb/home3.html

[George Beasley]

Do any of you know of any techs in the Nashville area who are familiar with 25L15s? I've got one that needs maintenance, but don't want to take it to someone unfamiliar with those amps.

thanks,
George

[Nick Fryer]

I did not know you could special order the S15 to have 2x12” at 100 watts!

Anyone remember seeing a 2x12” version?

[Wade Black]

Nick, I’ve done several internet searches and have not found an S15 2x12 version but it made for good late night scavenger hunts.

Interestingly, the S15 with the sliders seems to be a relatively common amp. Have you seen that one?

[David Farrell]

I think I remember someone telling me that the Fender Twin Reverb was originally intended for Pedal Steel Guitar.

Does anyone else know anything abut this?

[Eric Philippsen]

There were also Emmons-branded steel amps which were made by Standel. I worked on one a long time ago and have the schematics for them.

[Wade Black]

There were also Emmons-branded steel amps which were made by Standel. I worked on one a long time ago and have the schematics for them.

I did not know. After your post, I found a thread about it here:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=386641

And here is a picture:




Since Standel produced them, it is worth mentioning that Owen Duffy recently bought Standel.

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[David Farrell]

I think I remember someone telling me that the Fender Twin Reverb was originally intended for Pedal Steel Guitar.

Does anyone else know anything abut this?

[Wade Black]

I think I remember someone telling me that the Fender Twin Reverb was originally intended for Pedal Steel Guitar.

Does anyone else know anything abut this?

Hi David. The Tweed (wide panel) Twin - 1955. 25 watts, 2x12” was rumored to be built with 15” speakers sometimes. I’m not sure whether or how it was marketed and advertised specifically to pedal steel players….but probably can be considered the father of future pedal steel amps. So, there is no doubt in my mind that Fender hoped pedal steel players would take notice of the Blackface Twin Reverb. It would be interesting if someone with a chronological history of correspondence and associated ads/marketing showed up on the scene here to give us an idea what Leo Fender and Don Randall were thinking at the time…specially related to pedal steel players and amplification. I think maybe they were just thinking big, clean, loud amplification has quite a few applications and pedal steel was just one of those applications….

[Dave Hopping]

Some say the first iteration of the Twin was in 1952.Whether it went into production then or 1955 or sometime in between, pedal steel was then in its infancy, and it's unlikely Leo would have designed his flagship amp primarily for our community.

What I do remember from those times was that amplifier distortion was universally regarded with the same degree of horror as not casting a reflection in a mirror and/or being able to change into a bat. Early Fender catalogues describe tweed Twins as having "tremendous distortionless power". Music to the ears of that era's six-stringers as well as ourselves!