The Steel Guitar Forum

Had a chance to see and hear Ted Russell in action with his Little Walter 50 yesterday, pushing two 12"
Furlong cabinets.Sounded great!

Jack: I am a bit confused? I thought the Furlong cabs were powered so how could a
Little Walter 50 power amp be used the Furlong powered cabs. BTW, I have a Little Walter on order.

Lenny

That rectifier tube is enormous! What is it?

What do you guys do for reverb?

I have reverbs up the wazoo including a Fox Fender style tube reverb.

Len,
According To Ted, one Furlong was being powered by the Walter, loaded with a 12" Eminence Neo, and other Furlong had it's own power

Len Amaral wrote:I have reverbs up the wazoo including a Fox Fender style tube reverb.

ok, as long as they are not digital

that would be like towing your Ferrari with a Datsun

Nothing wrong with digital reverbs and I have a few reverb pedals and processors that sound better, imo, than some amps with reverb.

Brett Lanier wrote:That rectifier tube is enormous! What is it?

My guess is it's a 5U4 (as I now see was referenced above--bottom of page 5). I've had 5U4's that looked like that.

It was great to see you Jack, and glad to have a good set of ears out there!  You are correct regarding the hookup. I go from the speaker out of the Little Walter to an unpowered T.C. Furlong speaker cabinet, as the head requires a speaker load, and from the Little Walter line out to a powered Furlong Cabinet.  This was only the second gig I’ve used this combination on so far, but it seems to work really well.  I went this way after discussions with both Phil Bradbury and T.C. Furlong.  I set the volume of the powered cabinet just slightly higher than the unpowered cabinet, and it seems to give me all the clean headroom I’ve needed so far, and still maintain the LW sound from the head.  I haven’t yet used this setup with the John Eddie Band, which can get pretty loud on stage, but I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t give me what I need there as well.

I saw Paul F at the Station Inn one year and sat right in front of him and his amp (Peavey 112). His tone was heavy on bottom end and sounded very muddy. The playing was pretty well stupendous, but tone-wise very disappointing. The following year I sat in the same seat right in front of Paul again, and this time his tone was just to die for. Balance right across the tonal spectrum, and incredible string separation. Pure high fidelity tone.

The difference was that Paul had acquired his Little Walter rig, and I can honestly say that there was absolutely no comparison between what I heard on the two occasions. The Little Walter was light years better than the Peavey, and certainly the end result does justify the higher price tag.

Paul was understandably ecstatic with his new rig, which was the dual 50 head and 2 x 12" cabs.

Listen to Pauls tone here, aint heard anyone tone come close to what he gets !

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/vince ... ork/127489

Jamie,
I like the video you uploaded of Paul playing the solo to sweet memories with the lil'Walter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eGSe4fySt8
I would have to say that is in my top five favourite Paul steel breaks of all time. Took me a while but I think I got solo figured out. Paul, you had me puzzled there trying to figure this one out, whew

When you're as good as Paul, you're equipment become an extension of you're body! If I am as happy as I am with my two meager Nashville 112's I couldn't image what it would be like to plug in to Lil'Walt.
Q

I think Paul and Vince had great tone before little walter so I have to say meaning no disrespect, for that kind of money, I'm not sold on it. I'm glad Paul and Vince like it but their pocket books are alot larger than mine too. I feel there are alot of products on the market that can produce the same results for half the cost. Sorry, that's just my opinion. With that being said, I'm not saying that little walter is not a great product. If you have the dough and feel like little walter is what you have to have to have a better sound and be a better player, I will be the first to encourage all to get little walter.

Dean Holman wrote:I think Paul and Vince had great tone before little walter so I have to say meaning no disrespect, for that kind of money, I'm not sold on it. I'm glad Paul and Vince like it but their pocket books are alot larger than mine too. I feel there are alot of products on the market that can produce the same results for half the cost. Sorry, that's just my opinion. With that being said, I'm not saying that little walter is not a great product. If you have the dough and feel like little walter is what you have to have to have a better sound and be a better player, I will be the first to encourage all to get little walter.

I don't think its so much about being a better player, I think its more about a certain tone that people are in search of. Some people take tone very seriously, me included. Its a personal thing. I know it wouldn't matter how many thousands of dollars I would be willing to spend in the end its how many hours a day you are willing to sacrifice to be a better player. I do see youre point about the cost though Dean, they arent by no means cheap.
Q

It's really more than tone. Feel is in the equation as well. The Little Walter brings a connection with your fingers that you just don't get with other amps.

I already had 4 steel friendly amps when I bought my Little Walter so I didn't really need another. In fact I have a twin I am particularly fond of that I took with me to A/B with the LW the day I went to check it out. It didn't take long at all to know I wanted the Little Walter.

I will state though, I was not convinced listening to someone else play through one. I had even previously heard one live. To be convinced I had to plug into one and see what it did for me. Only when you play it yourself can you realize how responsive it is.

I still don't sound like Paul Franklin. Paul playing through a Pignose would still beat me playing through my Little Walter. The point is, it brought something additional to my playing.

I'm just going to take for granted that this amp's tone is the best ever created.
What I'm wondering is, if you're on a gig where you don't have the option of going thru the PA
(& monitors)....will the 50 watts really cut it with a fairly loud band?

Jay Ganz wrote:I'm just going to take for granted that this amp's tone is the best ever created.
What I'm wondering is, if you're on a gig where you don't have the option of going thru the PA
(& monitors)....will the 50 watts really cut it with a fairly loud band?

Jay, it's pretty easy. You bring along a TC Furlong SPLIT powered cab and go from the line out of the Little Walter to the Furlong. It sounds just like a Little Walter, except louder.

If that setup isn't loud enough, then I really worry for your ears.

Jamie Lennon wrote:Listen to Pauls tone here, aint heard anyone tone come close to what he gets !

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/vince ... ork/127489

You've got that right, Jamie. I love the glances between Sting and Vince when Paul starts playing.

Dan Tyack wrote:Jay, it's pretty easy. You bring along a TC Furlong SPLIT powered cab and go from the line out of the Little Walter to the Furlong.
It sounds just like a Little Walter, except louder.

I've already got a powered cab (see pic below my name). An old '54 Bassman cab with a 2 lb.
800 watt amp module I mounted inside. So I guess what I'd really need is just a LW preamp....if there were such a thing.

Hi Jay,

It's more than the preamp. The line out from Little Walter comes after the power amp section. That supplies a lot of the sound. You would need to power an additional speaker with the LW, or have something like a THD Hot plate to handle the speaker load from the LW.

I have a LW50 running into a LW 2x12 cab with a 12inch Black Widow and a 12 Eminence Eric Johnson speaker. I also have a 15 Jenson Neo cab that I use sometimes with it also.

What makes this amp so great, is how simple it is. It is almost impossible to make the amp sound bad. The only setting i wouldn't use is when the tone knob is turned all the way down, but as soon as you slightly turn it up the sound immediately cleans up. You can turn the tone knob all the way to 10 and you are not killed by piercing highs. How many amps can you say sound good, no matter how the knobs are set? On all the Peavey amps I owned, Nashville 400, Nashville 112, Session 400...I was constantly fighting to get a sound that was pleasing to my ears.

you can hear me playing steel using my LW50 through the 15 Jenson on this track. i was also using a wet reverb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRgYHKW9eeU

Nice, Gordon.

Only one tone control knob?

My Bassman 70 has bass, treble, and bright switch, and that's not enough. I have to use an EQ pedal and cut the 800 band to get good tone.

How does the LW do it?