The Steel Guitar Forum

With no clear favourite and no clear worst amp, who would be a steel amp manufacturer in this market place?

So many differences in preference.

Best: May just be my new Milkman steel amp. Its eating up my old Fenders.

Worst amp I have ever owned was a solid state Fender bassman


Total piece of crap. I worked as a dishwasher all summer to buy it when I was 13.

My least favorite steel amps I have owned are the reissue Fender twins and the Steel king.

Earnest Bovine wrote:

Brett Lanier wrote:
Worst was a vht 2:90:2. It sounded awesome but kept blowing up. Filter caps leaking... What a mess!

Wouldn't that be an easy fix? (new caps)

Yes, but then a month later it was the bias control giving out (and consequently burning out several components), then later something else. I don't mean to say it was a bad amp... With a revelation preamp it sounded incredible. I just had a bad experience while owning it.

p.s. Played through the McIntosh again tonight. I think it sounds like a steel guitar ought to. Very clean but with just enough character. Nothing like any other solid state amp I've played.

Favorite- Session 500, yeah it's heavy, get your kid to carry it ... actually I grab it at chest level and put it on a stand which eliminates the need to bend over, though stairs are still a bit of an issue...

The first 500 I had I didn't know any better and sold it to a really good steel picker who did, because I wanted a Session 400, the one everyone was raving about, so I ordered one brand new and got a Session 400 Limited, not nice, and I really tried to like it, but could never quite get it dialed in...my son uses it with a Jazz Bass in the apartment, not too bad for that, but not a great steel amp, though some of the threads I've found on here about it has helped it a lot, but still no 500, which by the way I have again and love...

first amp was a Fender Twin, like I think Lloyd Green might have been playing at the time...I was playing a Pro lll through it, but could never get what I wanted out of it, it seemed a little harsh to me...

So until I hear something better, it's a Session 500 for me and my PR Mullen, wish I had two of them in fact!!!

BTW, I'm only using the 500 reverb so I'm guessing if I started to hook stuff up to it, it might sound even better

Best sounding to me is good right hand technique

Worst is bad right hand technique..

Best: Probably the old brown Fender Pro 1x15 I picked up when I was in high school. At that time it was just old and not yet considered "vintage". Nobody wanted them, including me, so I ended up trading it. Heck it didn't even have reverb! My opinion has changed over the years.

Worst: The $25 Teisco I bought at Woolco, to go with my Teisco guitar. Fried the transformer after about an hour.

Best for guitar: Koch 50 watt Twin tone.
For a guitar player this amp is in a different zip code.

Worst amp for steel: Koch Twin tone.

No mention of Walter Woods heads?

my walter woods sounds best with the clinesmith
considering this is the same amp tom morrell used with his setup makes sense
best amp for the ontrak is a brownie princeton which jim sliff sold me
worst for me was also an evans se

Years ago, before I started on the steel journey, I had a '73 Fender Twin, one of those Silverfaces. The highs were really nice there, very nice amp after it was recapped and gone over and all around much warmer than blackface Twins. I bet that would have been a great steel amp.

I notice a lot of people get really close to idealized sounds, but do not use eq pedals to tweak for those little adjustments, like taming the highs, getting more robust lows, leveling honk, or getting better note separation. Any reason for people shying away from additional EQ?
Thanks,
Dan

As of today I would have to go with N-400 as my fave (I own 5 of them). My favorite one at the moment is one with a LeMay mod.
For 20 years or so I used a mid 70's Twin with JBL's and loved it, but got tired of constant low back pain and cost of tube maintainence.
I haven't tried very many amps, but one that didn't work for me was a N-112.

Best?

Evans FET-500LV that Derrell Stephens built for me back in 1985.

It's still going strong and sounds as wonderful as ever.

Lee, from South Texas

Best - Fender Duall Showman with two 15 inch JBLs. Great sound but you needed a pick up to move it. When I had a "permanent" gig and didn't have to move it It was great. Runner up -still heavy but not so huge - Peavey Session 500. Worst (by far) Standell with 2 12s in the 70s. Was all treble and harsh. Got rid of it before the new wore off.

Daniel Policarpo wrote: I notice a lot of people get really close to idealized sounds, but do not use eq pedals to tweak for those little adjustments, like taming the highs, getting more robust lows, leveling honk, or getting better note separation. Any reason for people shying away from additional EQ?
Thanks,
Dan

My reason for not using additional EQ is that in my experience it takes more than it gives. There is a subtle phase cancellation that muffles the overtones making the sound lose its focus when other sounds are present. Think of it like a color spectrum. My color in the ensemble might be blue. If I mush that color up with other hues to make it brighter or darker I am getting into the other guys colors and together we make grey.
Then if I want to remain distinct I need to be louder than the other instruments. That is not the way to make a band sound good or get paid to record.

In studios EQ is helpful in dialing out unnecessary frequencies (usually in the lows) or pulling down something in the mids that is causing clutter. This is done by the engineer with very good gear and ears.

Some guys like EQ pedals. And some guys like how modeling amps sound so to each his own.

The best amp so far:




I don`t think I`ve had a bad one...
SF Twin, early Music Man with a 15" Altec, Vibrosonic, Princeton, Deluxe Reverb, BF Vibrolux, Brown Vibrolux, Boogie rack, Evans amps....

Best amp I once owned was a '60 Italian Farfisa organ combo, all tubes with 2 12"Jensen speakers in it. It was only 40 watts, but that sound!~!!
I brought it for 30 years to a musicstore because the powersupply hummed. The shop went broke, never got it back.... When I once find one........

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Best: Ampeg B-12XT from about 1966. Purchased in about ‘67 from an insurance company with the cabinet all busted up because it had been in a fatal car wreck. Glued it back together and have used it ever since. Beautiful warm tone, great reverb, with plenty of headroom. Has a strange warbley vibrato, not tremolo. Built like a tank, so it’s not a lot of fun to haul around. Some of the tubes are fairly rare now and have become quite pricy.

Honorable mention: Mid ‘60’s Fender Bassman head. The one with the white knobs, Presence control, and no bright switches.

Worst: Peavey LTD 400. Bought it new when they first came out, ‘77 or ‘78? It’s the one with the JBL that most people seem to like, but I have never been able to get a sound out of it that was not sterile and harsh. Doubled as an effective doorstop. Tried to auction it off a few years ago, but ended up buying it back because the high bid was only sixty-some bucks. Figured the speaker was probably worth at least that much. Lent it to a friend who played his Yamaha electric piano though it and blew out the speaker. Now it only pulls single duty as a doorstop. Would make a halfway-decent anchor, but I sold my boat.

Dishonorable mention: Roland Bolt 60. One of the first ones from the late ‘70’s. They hadn’t quite figured out how to build amps yet.

Best: 1969 Fender Dual Showman Reverb into a cab with Eminence EPS15C

Next Best: Music Man 1-15-65/ D130F or 1965 Twin with the same JBL...

Don't have a worst...

Hey Jack... I have a '68 Ampeg B12XT and use it for guitars/baritone... need to try it for steel... never have!!

Best=Furlong Cab amp with Sarno preamp. Worst 65 Reissue Twin Distortion City for Steel!

Best Tube amp for steel I've found: Dan Lurie's FYD Town and Country.
Boutique Blackface and Tweed circuits, KT88 power.
Sweet!