Nashville or Hilton?

Stephen Silver · Post by **Stephen Silver** » 18 Dec 2006 10:32 am

Jerry, my old friend......

I couldn't disagree with you more. After trying the Nashville 112, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Tinny sounding, just can't make it sound like a real amp...maybe it's me. After AB'ing it with a Fender Steel King, I bought the Fender. Weight is not an issue to me (except what I pack on around my gut).

But I do agree with you , Jerry, about the wall wart on the Hilton pedal (though, we don't get much freezing weather here on the left coast....gotta love coastal California). I wish Keith had made that thing detachable, and used a much smaller profile converter....damn it adds a lot of weight to the pedal. And you can't just move your steel rig around with the pedal attached without first detaching the wall wart from the socket and finding a place to hold it.

One other thought....no volume pedal is going to make a poor sounding amp sound any better....so I would always upgrade the amp first, then upgrade the volume pedal. It's kind of like buying $20 stereo speakers and hooking them up to a $5000 Krell surround sound preamp/amp.....the Krell is still going to sound like crap.

YMMV

SS

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Life is mostly attitude and timing[This message was edited by Stephen Silver on 18 December 2006 at 12:18 PM.]

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 18 Dec 2006 1:42 pm

Thanks to everyone using my volume pedal. Don't worry about me Mike, I consider you and the whole Peavey bunch good friends. Besides, I use and "love" Peavey amps, and effects. I have heard that 112 amp at the St. Louis Convention. It was miked and run through the main house speakers. When miked like this you could not tell it from a 15 inch speaker, at least I couldn't. However, at Terry Bethel's house I could tell it was a 12 inch speaker. I suppose the trade off in weight is a personal preference, but I still prefer a 15 inch speaker. It is also personal preference if you like a tube amp or a solid state amp. I am a Peavey solid state fan. I prefer solid state over tubes because of the clean clear sound I hear. For standard guitar--6 string--nothing sounds better to my ears than a old Fender tube amp used with a standard old Fender guitar. I have always wondered how a steel guitar player was able to get his knee under the steel guitar when using a Ernie Ball pedal. My goodness those things are high off the floor. My advise is keep using the Ernie Ball pedal if you like it. I will agree with Mike Brown that the Peavey 3 cord hookup is a good method if you are using a pot pedal. It will make an old pot pedal sound better. I would think that 2 of those 112 amps would make a good sound, if weight is an issue. As for the Hilton pedal, most of Nashville, and all of Branson have converted. Sales continue to be great, and people are not buying them because I am a nice guy. My advise is to try different equipment and see what you like. You won't know if you like some new equipment unless you try it.

Tom Mnich · Post by **Tom Mnich** » 19 Dec 2006 4:45 pm

Thanks to everyone for the replies!
To Jim Sliff: my Super 60 effects loop is post EQ, but I don't recognize anything in the schematic as impedance matching at the pwr amp input. I have not been using it in 3 cord mode up to now.

The RLC comments were welcome - not a strange language. (Hey, I am an engineer, but I don't drive a train.- gotta support my music habit somehow).

Keith: No, I am not particularly happy with my EB pedal. Borrowed a friend's Goodrich and it was better, but not remarkably. Height is an issue, but no biggy. Mostly it seems that there's too big a volume change with too little foot movement at a certain point on the pot pedals. Happens to be right where I want to operate. Does yours have a different sensitivity or "feel"? (Or is it just me that has a twitchy foot?) Or am I perceiving the frequency/impedance change as volume?

Dennis Wallis · Post by **Dennis Wallis** » 19 Dec 2006 6:33 pm

If you don't have a good amp it makes NO DIFFERENCE what kind of pedal you use. HOWEVER the Hilton is tops.I have 2 of them.But if I were running thru a shoddy amp it wouldn't make much difference.

Frank Mrus · Post by **Frank Mrus** » 19 Dec 2006 6:40 pm

Hello, Tom,

That is a tough choice. The "easy" answer is - try to get both. My experience with these two items has been very positive. If I was forced to choose, I guess I'd go for the Hilton pedal and then try to get a 112 as soon as possible. Good luck in your decision making.

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 19 Dec 2006 8:41 pm

Tom, the way potentiometers, or pots, increase volume is called taper. Pots are manufactured with basically 3 different types of tapers: Linear, audio, and logrithmic. Linear taper comes on too quick for most people. Audio taper seems to vary between manufacturer, and so does logrithmic taper. The most common values of ohms for pots in musical volume pedals is 250K ohms and 500K ohms. The 500K ohms prevents high end frequency loss better than the 250K ohm pot. It is anyone's guess what the taper, and ohm value, is in the pot inside your Ernie Ball pedal. It is my opinion that the Ernie Ball pedal is made for standard guitar players, as is most equipment. I doubt if Peavey could manufacture the 112 amp, if it was just sold to steel guitar players. There isn't enough steel players to warranty production of the 112 amp, or any amp, by any manufacturer just for steel guitar. All the stuff in 99.99999% of the music stores is designed for standard guitar players not steel guitar players. The Ernie Ball pedal has a very long movement. Seems to me the last time I measured one, it was over 3 1/2 inches. Traditionally--meaning I have measured the travel of many pedals made for steel guitar since the 1940's, clear up to 2006. Traditonally steel guitar pedals move up and down 1-1/2 inches as an average. So Tom, there may be some twitching going on with your foot. Tom feel blessed if you can hear the tone change as you press down on your pot pedal. Many are not blessed with hearing that good. Peavey makes wonderful equipment, and I take pride in what I make. With that said, I can't suggest which you should buy. If you get the 112 and use the Ernie Ball pedal, by all means use the 3 cord hookup Mike Brown suggested.[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 19 December 2006 at 08:50 PM.]

Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 19 Dec 2006 10:08 pm

Keep saving your money, buy a Goodrich LDR and a Fender Steel King

(JUST KIDDING!) Merry Christmas!