When I started playing steel in the ‘70s, Sho-Bud sold me a used Fender black-face Super Reverb with a 15” JBL speaker. I now know this was a complete mismatch. The amp was meant to have a 2 ohm load (four 8 ohm 10s in parallel), and was straining to push that 8 ohm single speaker. Although it had a beautiful warm tone at low volume, it was big and heavy and distorted badly at moderate or higher volume (actually, there wasn’t anything much higher). My teacher (Charley Gore) had a new NV 400 that I longed for but couldn’t afford. In comparison to the Fender, it had powerful clean tone. But I never heard him play it at high volume.
When I started playing steel again a couple of years ago, I lucked onto a NV 400 (with low end mod) for $200 and snapped it up. I was happy with it until I started playing with a loud rockabilly and alt-country group in rock clubs. When I took that solid state amp up to top volume to keep up, it sounded like crap. I then started on a quest for a tube amp for pedal steel. I have tried everything that comes through the huge local Guitar Center and bought a bunch of amps on the Forum and Ebay. My observations mirror much of the above comments.
• With pedal steel you need about four times more usable (clean) volume than a regular guitar (because we attack notes with the volume pedal more than half off, reserving the rest for sustain; and we play with finger picks instead of a flat pick; and we fret with a bar held in our hands, instead of holding the string against a solid fret board; and because we sustain and swell chords that are prone to harmonic distortion). Guitar players don’t understand that. For regular guitar, a 25 to 50 watt amp at top volume is plenty loud for rock clubs and dance halls, and they only need 100 watts for a concert hall (and these days you can usually mike a smaller amp through the PA). A steeler needs 200 to 400 watts just to keep up with the stage volume these days. Peavey and Stereo Steel are the only amp makers who understand that.
• Since 100 watts is the top volume for most guitar amp lines (tube or ss), the huge selection of modern amps out there (mass produced or boutique) is mostly useless to steelers due to inadequate volume alone, not to mention the shrill mid-rangey EQ that is unsuitable for steel.
• For a ss amp, the top third or even top half of the volume range is useless (sounds like crap). So you need a 300 or 400 watt amp to use the 100 watt range you need to keep up with guitar players using 25 watt amps. If you don’t need that top volume range, the several makes of ss steel amps will give you a decent, clean, but sterile tone. Many older traditional country players use only moderate volume and are happy with these. You can also mike these for loud venues and get by okay. I was not happy with these at rock club volume levels, and miking the amp is not always a viable option in these places. The sterility at high volume is not pleasant, and any clipping at high volume sounds horrible, especially when trying to mix with the creamy, rich-textured tube sound of guitar players. Elephant f**t is the descriptive term that comes to mind. I was not alone in these thoughts – the other members of the group also hated my ss tone.
• Most tube guitar amps are made for “crunch” (break up that softens the pick attack), “touch sensitive early breakup” (distortion when cranked past mid-volume), and compression-sustain (sustained overdrive that replaces what steelers do with the volume pedal). Fender silver-face amps (not black-faces) were built to avoid all these problems. They play clean to the top. This was a marketing disaster that doomed these amps among rock and blues players, who to this day disdain these “master volume” amps. But these are the best amps ever made for steel. Unlike ss amps, their warmth and sizzle are best at top volume. A 100-135 watt SF Twin or Vibrosonic (with an “o”) will blow away a 200 watt NV 400. A 180 watt Super Twin will blow away any solid state steel amp made.
• A black-face Twin like Lloyd uses will sound warmer at moderate studio volume, but will not have the clean head room of a silver-face for live use. And a lighter 60 watt SF Pro Reverb will probably have as much clean volume as a BF Twin.
• SF Twins and Super Twins are way too heavy as combos (75 to 100 lbs). My Super Twin Reverb in a Dual cabinet weighs a manageable 50 lbs., and regular Twin heads range down to 40 lbs., depending on the model. This also gives the flexibility to set the amp next to the steel for easy tweaking, while placing the speaker(s) wherever they are needed. I find it easier to match my volume to the stage volume with my speaker(s) at the back of the stage. The head cabinet also gives one the flexibility to use 15s or 12s, whatever ones preference.
• The Vibrasonic (with an “a”) is a pc-board reissue (I’ve had two) that does not sound as good as the old hand-wired silver-face Twins, Duals and Vibrosonics. I don’t know if it is the absence of hand wiring, but something about the newer circuits causes worse tone. These reissues sound better than ss amps, but not as good as the silver-face amps. I have not tried an “Evil Twin.” I also haven’t tried the reissue Twin custom 15, but I suspect it has compromised tone like a Vibrasonic. The new hand-wired reissue Tweed Twin sounds very good, but only has about 60 watts. Also, for steel I prefer the richer tone of 6L6s to the more chimey tone of EL 34s. My SF Pro Reverb with a 15 has about the same power, sounds better to me, and cost about a quarter as much. But if the volume is adequate for you, and you like a thinner sound, the new Tweed Twin might be good for you. Also, the Peavey Delta Blues and Classic 50 are low volume (30 watts and 50 watts), low cost option with the chimey sound of a Fender Tweed.
• Many modern tube amps have “clean” channels that theoretically might sound as good as the old SF Fenders. I have not made a systematic study of these, but have not found one that sounds like a SF Fender. They are either too clean and sterile, or not clean enough. Most of them are too low powered, even the top of the line 100 watt heads. The best SF Fenders for steel were the last of the line 135 watt models with the ultra-linear transformer, or the Super Twins (180 watts). I have also not made a systematic study of component (rack-mount) tube pre and power amps. They are out of my price range. You can get a SF Twin or Super Twin in the $500 to $700 price range. I got a Super Twin chassis (which is all I wanted for a head conversion) for $350.
• It would be nice if a boutique maker would make a 200 watt tube head for steel, but I’m sure the cost would be outrageous. It would have to be modeled after the SF Fender tone. I tried a new 300 watt all tube Bassman head. It was plenty loud, but too clean. It didn’t have the tone. As far as whether the pre or power amp is tube or solid state, the sound I love seems to be specific to 6L6 power tubes (don't care for EL 34s), so I am skeptical about a tube preamp with a ss power amp. Also, I have a Music Man with a ss pre and 6L6 tube power amp. It sounds better than any all ss amp, but not as good as an all tube amp. It is incredibly small and light and will probably blow away a NV112. I can hear those rich 6L6 power tubes, but I miss the creaminess contributed by the tube pre amp. So I'm thinking all-tube is the only way to go.
• Now about the live versus studio thing. I think I feel opposite to some of the opinions above. A tube amp certainly sounds better in the studio. But with the way steel is mixed down today, and played back through the average car radio or home stereo, I don’t think much of the tube tone comes through. You might as well use a ss amp and tube modeling (which sounds good at low to moderate volume). I don’t think anyone would notice the difference (this applies more to background steel recording, and not necessarily to a solo steel album). But live, at rock club volume levels, that’s where you need real tube tone. My POD XT Twin model at top volume came out sounding like the NV 400 I played it through. Maybe a more powerful hi-fi ss amp could have reproduced the model adequately. Line 6 makes the Vetta 300 watt head as their top of the line. So they seem to be aware that you need lots of ss power to reproduce the tube models at high volume. But Dave Graffe recently informed us that the Vetta uses the old POD 2.0 models rather than the good XT models. Maybe you can program in the newer models, I don’t know. But why bother, when for half the price I can have a real Super Twin that sounds gorgeous at top volume.
• So we don’t currently seem to have affordable high volume tube amps being made for steel. The good news is that today you can learn about all this on the internet through things like the Forum, the Fender Amp Field guide, and Ebay.
• My current goal is to have a complete line of SF Fenders, so I never have to carry more weight than I need (I’m 58 with an artificial hip). I have a Super Twin in a head cabinet (180 watts, 50 lbs.), a Dual head (100 watts, 46 lbs.), a Pro Reverb combo with a 15” Blue Marvel speaker (60 watts, 60 lbs.). My next project is to put a Vibrolux chassis (40 watts) in a custom cabinet with a 15” speaker, for playing with quiet acoustic groups.
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David Doggett on 06 April 2005 at 11:14 AM.]</p></FONT>
Most all of the gigs I do, to this day, provide no auxillary amplification.
