Steel Guitar Amp or Keyboard Amp? / Mike Brown, you want to

jeff reynolds · Post by **jeff reynolds** » 27 Oct 2000 9:26 pm

Im New at this steel thang but have been a guitar picker for 20+ years so right now I'm Playing my steel thru one of My Fendr Twin Rev. amps
Seems logical to me that a keyboard amp would do good as a Steel Guitar Amp. I'd like to read what some of you think about this ,,, maybe some of you have tried a keyboard rig for steel????

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 28 Oct 2000 6:04 am

Reasons???

The keyboard amps that I have seen are big, bulky things, without a lot of controls and effects. (Unlike steels, most keyboards have their own effects and controls built-in) I also find the selection of keyboard amps very limited.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 28 Oct 2000 7:38 am

Any amp can be used for any purpose. How well it will work for a given application can be good or bad. I would rather have an amp that is designed primarily for a particular purpose. Same with the speakers in the amps - e.g. the Peavey amps use speakers that are "voiced" for steel guitar applications and are different than the speakers that are used in their (lead) guitar amplifiers and "voiced" for lead guitar applications.

I have a Peavey Nashville 400 and it's great for steel, but I'm not thrilled with it's sound when I play my Telecaster through it.
Conversely I've played through some great sounding lead guitar amps that were $hitty for steel.

Dean Brown · Post by **Dean Brown** » 28 Oct 2000 8:46 am

Hi Jeff,
I played steel through a keyboard amp for several months. I used a Peavey KBA300 with 1 15" scorpion plus a horn. FANTASTIC keyboard amp, but not so good for steel. Keyboard amps are designed for a different level of input than a guitar or steel amp. I switched to a Nashville 1000 and that made a world of difference. My advice.... stick with an amp built for the instrument you're playing. By the way, the Fender Twin reverb makes a great steel amp.

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 28 Oct 2000 11:32 am

The problem (IMHO) with keyboard amps is that they typically use a horn, going for more of a hi fi type of sound. I personally like the sound of a twin a lot better.

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www.tyacktunes.com

Ingo Mamczak · Post by **Ingo Mamczak** » 28 Oct 2000 7:09 pm

Hi Jeff ,
My steel amp is a Carlsbro " sherwood " keyboard amp . There is a huge range of sound from lows to highs , but it does lack a little bit of warmth which I like from a tube amp .
Ingo .

Cliff Swanson · Post by **Cliff Swanson** » 29 Oct 2000 6:08 am

Jeff,

Do you not like your steel thru the Twin? One possibility that could be an interesting opportunity for you would be to put a 15" speaker in the Twin...

Cat

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 29 Oct 2000 1:42 pm

I agree with Cliff, you should jerk those standard 12" speakers out & make a board for a 15", a JBL 130 would be nice, if they still make those, or a Black Widow Peavey would probably work good in that twin reverb. I had an old Pro Reverb amp that I did that too back when I first started playing steel, it worked real nice for me, kind of wish I had it back!! I also want to mention that I have a Fender Keyboard 60 amp that I use to play my rhythm tracks (Mini-disc) through, I use one channel for a mike, and bleed a little of the steel guitar into one of the other channels, I also use an Evans SE 150 (High Voltage)it seems to work real nice together like that, at least for my purposes. I have tried the Keyboard amp by itself, not quite so good standing alone. I sometimes slave a Session 400 onto that Keyboard amp also. I must be nuts huh?

http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75

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Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 31 Oct 2000 8:58 am

Hello Jeff,
Sometimes our customers can give you a better response than I from their experiences with using the various amps. I receive questions daily about using various Peavey products for steel guitar. Although I do play a lot of live gigs using amps that are not designed for steel(just to get an idea of the pros and cons), I do take a Nashville 400 or 1000 with me just in case. However, I have never tried a keyboard amp as my guess is that the tweeter will break up.

Apparently, Dan Tyack has tried this before and might be able to provide more info than I.