The Steel Guitar Forum

In early 1980 I bought for my electric guitar, a brand new Mesa Mk11C tube amp with everything you could get on it. SimulClass, Reverb, Graphics,EV 15L Padauk wood cabinet in a road case. To this day it is by far the warmest and overall best sounding amp I have ever played my steel through. I have since bought a second one to use in stereo. These amp are of the rarest Mesa models...very hard to find....I have ordered a custom forklift to carry them to the gig...they weigh in at 112 lbs each in the case...so they stay home!

I like my small stack, but I gotta add reverb from the POD up front.
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Mickey Adams wrote:In early 1980 I bought for my electric guitar, a brand new Mesa Mk11C tube amp with everything you could get on it. SimulClass, Reverb, Graphics,EV 15L Padauk wood cabinet in a road case. To this day it is by far the warmest and overall best sounding amp I have ever played my steel through. I have since bought a second one to use in stereo. These amp are of the rarest Mesa models...very hard to find....I have ordered a custom forklift to carry them to the gig...they weigh in at 112 lbs each in the case...so they stay home!

I built that amp!

I've got a bunch of amps, but I think the best steel sound I ever got was with my old white '75 Emmons P/P (that I let Bob Bartoli talk me out of), through my (slightly modified)'68 Fender Twin Reverb with a JBL D130 speaker. I also used a Boss DD5 for a little delay, but used the reverb in the amp.

But, the Twin is very heavy, so it stays in the studio. When I play out now, I either use a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight, a Peavey N112, or an Acoustic Image head with an Eminence 15" neo speaker. All of these amps are lightweight and easy to transport, which is really important to us old Grandpa's.

On stage, guitar, it's the 64 BFDR - IMHO Pound for Pound the perfect solution

At home/studio, guitar - the 65 BFPR, man what a great little amp, just not enuff cojones for stage.

I like my Matchless Lightning too, but it's a little more limited with those EL84's. There's just too many killer amps, you just have to pick one and go with it.

I'm rookie steel so I use a NV112 for now

I found a nice ratio of weight to power to be a SF '72 Vibrolux Reverb. I used one as my primary combo amp for 25 years-of course many nights I was outgunned, but if so then we were playing just too dang loud.

My standard bearer for Gigging currently is '68 SF Twin Reverb with Weber California 15" (sort of a JBL D130 clone) (or as Bill Kirchen called it 'half a set of Texas Headphones') and I rely on a hand cart and ancient Oriental principals of leverage to allow me to continue moving it around ( as the old saying goes: you only have to lift it twice but you get to listen to it all night)

I am also fond of cranking up 2 '66 bassman amps with with 2x12" cabs if I want to destroy property and alienate neighbors. Too much to move with any regularity, but if I'm feelin' frisky no telling what combination of amps + cabinets I'll end up with at a gig...

I also have a SuperTwin but it has not been commissioned yet as I need a speaker compliment capable of handling the output....

and my little LP Jr. amp with the ovoid 8" speaker sounds just awesome with the Fender T-8 @ conversational levels

And the VibroChamp mics extremely well in the studio-- big sound at low levels

Tube Works ProValve 60 Tube amp head with 2 6L6's to an Eminence Delta LF 15 in a Rick Johnson tweed cab sounds really good on my Fender 53 Dual Professional Steel.
A TubeWorks IVAC 65 driving a black Rick Johnson cabinet with an Eminence Delta LF 12 also sounds good to me

Here is one of them Bob...we talked about this one on the phone a couple of years ago......She sounds incredible......Better with age....Mickey

The best amp I have found has been the Peavey Session 500 (500) which it seems to weigh LOL. Add a little delay and WOW.

John Cox I agree with Micky D on the Deluxe 112. I also have a Studio Pro 112 that I picked up at a low price and it makes a great light weight amp also. Not voiced for the steel but I like to sound I can get out of it. Hope you can make the May Jam in Katy.

This is one of my favorites