Non-steel amps that work well with PSG

[Johnie Helms]

The old Gibson Lab Series L-5 & L-9 are excellent for Pedal Steel and a great choice for two seperate instruments, when needing two discreet channels.. Plenty of clean power. And reasonably priced too..!

[Matthew Walton]

Others please correct me if anything I say is wrong, but my understanding is that the possibly most important thing for a "normal" steel amp is headroom. As such, I'd recommend any amp made for acoustic instruments. The other nice thing about acoustic amps is that if they have any effect, it will be reverb.

AER makes fantastic amps, but you certainly pay for that quality. I play with a classical guitarist, and we usually use a mixer into a couple of Roland acoustic amps as our sound system. We filled the atrium at a museum for a large party just fine. Without looking at the amp, I'd guess it's the 90-watt version judging by how loud we can get.

Don't know if you can get any of those where you are, but acoustic amps are what I'd recommend you look into.

[Les Cargill]

Yes. Headroom is critical for steel.

"Acoustic amps" frequently have a tweeter, so if you use one, defeat the tweet as best you can. Steel amp speakers will have a precipitous drop in frequency response above 2000 cycles.

[David Cubbedge]

I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but my tube amp guru tells me the Fender Twin was designed not for guitar players, but steel players looking for lots of clean power. Mid 70s or older. Avoid the red knob Twins like the plague.

[Johnie Helms]

No can of worms, that I can see... Fender Twins work well for pedal steel..

I do wonder if there is some truth to the statement.. "Fender Twins were designed for all us Steel picker's"..

Does Anyone know the story..?

JH

[Carl Mesrobian]

I use a Fender Vibrosonic , which is basically a Twin with a single 15" JBL. Squeaky clean sound and three tone controls. As others have mentioned, go to a store and try out amps Also keep in mind that no matter what tone or headroom an amp has is only as good as what the speaker can reproduce.