| Author |
Topic: lap steel amp mismatch |
Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
|
Posted 11 Oct 2003 6:11 pm |
|
I bought a used Morrell 8 string lap steel to learn on and sold it because of tight string spacing. I am now using the Gold Tone lap steel six string which is a lot more comfortable to play and made better w/ better components. When I plugged both instruments into my Ampeg tube amp for bass or powered solid state mixer they both sounded very thin and .... well , crappy. Plugging them into various tube compressors or active eq direct boxes first didn't help much either. The second I plugged the Gold Tone into the Fender Pro Sonic amp our bands' guitarist left overnight in the rehearsal room, it immediately sounded great as should. although I had to change his settings for his guitar sounds. I've got to find a small tube Fender combo amp with reverb to play the Gold tone through, but I'm wondering why it just didn't work/sound at all through the other amps I first used. Input impedance mismatch ? not sure . Anyone want to speculate on this ? |
|
|
|
Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
|
Posted 11 Oct 2003 7:42 pm
|
|
The bass amp just doesn't have the right frequency response. It was actually designed to suppress the midrange frequencies that we find desirable.
Powered PA speakers typically have a "flat" frequency response, especially when compared to guitar amps.
There is quite an art to designing a guitar amp that brings out the fundamentals and overtones correctly. It's not a simple problem that can be solved with an equalizer.
Also, reverb is one effect that we almost always expect to hear with steel. The combination of guitar tone circuits, good reverb, an open-back speaker box and soft clipping power tubes will bring out the best tone of almost any steel.
------------------
 Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 11 October 2003 at 08:42 PM.] |
|
|
|
Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
|
Posted 11 Oct 2003 8:30 pm
|
|
Bobby , thanks for signing in on this post regarding steel guitar amplification. I was guessing that the midrange factor was very important for steel as opposed to bass guitar where it usually needs to be suppressed.
I have an acoustic bass guitar , the Epiphone El Kapitan , a wonderful instrument that sounds great through a preamp voiced for acoustic piezo pickup equipped ( the tech 21 acoustic di ) instruments ; but terrible through the Olds LeSabre of tube bass amps , the Ampeg SVT. As soon as I plugged in the Fender tube guitar amp it was very apparent the matchup with my lap steel was right , just not sure why !
thanks |
|
|
|
Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
|
Posted 12 Oct 2003 5:53 am
|
|
So, you tried a PA set, and an "off the wall" Ampeg amp (ALL Ampegs are off the wall for anything but a bass), and you didn't get a good sound?
Small wonder.
To get a decent steel sound, you have to be able to cut the mids. The bass amp can't do that, and it has no high end, so it sounds soggy and dead. (Especially an Ampeg!) The PA amp is designed for vocals, so it's highly mid-oriented, with little at the low and even less on the high end (causes feedback, 'ya know).
The moral of the story is that if you don't want to tinker and experiment a lot, use a guitar amp for a guitar! The other amps could be made to work, but in order to do so, you have to know exactly what you have too much of, or what is lacking. This is the key to getting a good sound. Some steelers have a problem in this area, and this is why they're never happy with their sound, and why they ask..."How does so-and-so set his amp?" |
|
|
|
