The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello to all,
My name is Harley, and I'm a newbie to the PSG-world.
I'm hoping some of you experienced die-hard PSG world insiders might share your opinion on AMPS with me.

But, first before you start, I'd like to say:

I know that Peaveys, Reno 400, Session 400, and the Nashville 112's are high-quality 'performance-grade' AMP's and are being used by performer's.

I'm -- NOT -- asking about them.



I'm asking what other; -- one room -- HOME USE -- (for PSG) --- LESS expensive AMPS are available?

Or to put it another way:
What AMPS might be considered a home-use 'student grade' AMP?

Thank-you to all that care to voice their opinion, it appreciated!!

I really like my Roland Micro Cube for personal practice. Sounds great, just not very loud. If you want to play along with other people, you will need more juice...Jerry

Peavey Bandit 65 (several versions available). Approx $100 used.
I've had 3 in the past and wish I would've kept one. I paid $60 for one of them, and used it in small rooms also.

Roland Cube 60, very good with steel and lightweight..

Here's one that you might consider. A Gallien-Krueger ML250 (get the Series II). This thing is about the size of a lunch box, has 100 watts, stereo, 2 built in speakers, and external speaker outlets (16 & 8 ohm). Sounds great with steel. They're often on e-bay for about $250 - $300.

Here's a Roland Micro-cube in Little Rock $99

http://littlerock.craigslist.org/msg/558556640.html

you can tell I'm hard at work today

The old Peavey Pacer amp sounds really good with a steel guitar. I've bought them for $50 - $75 in Pawn shops and on Ebay. They had the same basic preamp circuit as the Session and LTD amps. The cabinet is the same size as the LTD cabinet, large enough to hold a 15" speaker if you want to modify the baffle.

Peavey Bandits have been mentioned, I've also used them with good results. Another alternative is a small bass amp, such as a Peavey Basic 60. These produce plenty of low end for C6th, and still do a decent job on the higher stuff. Find you a cheap digital reverb or multi-effects unit for reverb and delay, and you're in business.

Personally, I couldn't get a good sound with the Roland Micro Cube, but, everyone has a different opinion on sound, your mileage may vary.

I've got three amps set up now so I just have to plug the guitar in and turn the amp on. A Fender Pro Jr. tube amp, a Peavey Envoy 110 solid state and a Crate MX15. By tweaking the tone I can get all of them sounding very good at room volume. You can get the little 15w Peavey for around $50 used and if I were you that's where I would start. The other two amps I mentioned sound a little better but they cost quite a bit more. I never play out so I could live with just have the little Crate.

Jude

get the cheapest used bandit you can find. great amps!
hey harley...what's it like with your name riding a wing??
i've got an old goldwing and love it!

I 2nd the choice of the Peavey Envoy 110. I use one for coffee house gigs, and other acoustic type settings and I think I paid about $200.00 for it brand new, so a used one should cost less.
JE:-)>

I really like the Roland Cube 60.
It has some very good built in effects.

For home use, almost any decent guitar amp will work fine for pedal steel. Once you learn how to use the volume pedal for sustain, you will want more clean headroom than you need for regular guitar. But any guitar amp except the really small dirty ones should have enough clean headroom for home use. Most guitar amps are more trebley than is wanted for steel, so you will probably want to crank up the bass and roll off the highs. And you will probably find that bigger speakers (12s or bigger) will sound better than smaller ones. For the really small amps, maybe even battery powered, the Vox DA5 and the small Valvetronix amps blow away the Roland Microcubes. Their small speakers sound much bigger, because of the long-throw acoustic suspension designs. If your amp doesn't have a headphone jack and/or home stereo input, you may want to get a small mixer (Behringers are good) to play along with CDs, radio, and instructional material through headphones.

I've had good results from a Fender Champion 30 which is a 30 watt solid state amp with 1-10" speaker.It looks and sounds pretty much like a blackface Fender Princeton Reverb tube amp.I got it new about 5 years ago at Sam Ash for $199 and have even used it for low volume jazz guitar and lap steel gigs. Another good one is an old circa 1980 Yamaha G-100-112 which is a good home practice and band rehearsal amp which I've used on E9 and lap steel in small clubs and coffee house gigs. I got one of those in great shape for $125 a year ago and it's one of my favorite amps.It has great clarity and tone for steel.I would describe it as a low cost somewhat more powerful alternative to a Nashville 112 with about the same feature set - parametric EQ,roughly the same size and equally reliable.

Ditto that Michael. I have a Yamaha G100 III and it is PLENTY loud and clear enough. Sometimes you can find them on eBay, although they are becoming more and more sought after. If you find one get it!

Sorry, but I have to laugh just a little bit.

Dig into the 6-string world and the amps listed are priced about the same as low-to-mid-line student-level guitar amps.

Man, there is a wide disparity in the pricing...and perception of what amps really provide in the way of tone...between two parts of the guitar world. A steel player will spend $2500 on a guitar yet think $400-600 is a fortune to spend on the typical SS amp that doesn't (IMO) seem to sound all that great (well, maybe it does for one-dimensional clean tones, but there's not much else in there); yet an average weekend guitar player won't blink at a $1500 (discounted) price tag on a boutique amp (or even a higher-grade STOCK tube amp) to use with his $300 MIM Strat.

I just find it sort of funny that someone wants to *downgrade* from stuff I see as pretty far down the amplifier "food chain"...but then I play different styles than most, and even when playing country-ish stuff am looking for a more round, less sterile tone.

Probably few others see the humor in it, but it cracks me up.

That's two very different histories, Jim. Up through the '60s, in order to get the clean headroom they needed to sustain clean chords with their volume pedals, steelers had to buy the most expensive and powerful amps made. They would have to buy a Twin to keep up with guitar players with a Deluxe. In the '70s Peavey recognized what steelers needed, and gave it to them - clean power with versatile EQ. They also realized the vast majority of steelers are not high school and college kids with daddy's bucks or super-star rockers with coliseum budgets, but working stiffs playing small honky-tonks for peanuts. So they priced their amps accordingly. That set the pattern for steel amps.

Jim Sliff
Sir, your post was 192 words long.
And, other than please you -- I can find no helpful purpose in the entire 192 words of it what-so-ever.

All you said, - that I could understand - was to berate others for their opinions, (which I asked for and appreciated.)

You made no suggestions, you concurred with no one, you disagreed directly with no one, and you added nothing to any on-going thought.

Your post is the second post that I've read today that said nothing, helped no-one, and seemed to me, that the only intent of the entire post - was to, as I have already said, belittle or berate others.

You and he should be happy together why not go there, here is that thread - just for you. Enjoy!!!

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=127186

That way, (I hope) this thread will continue to be what it was before you stopped by, and further what I thought this forum was all about when I registered.

Which is/was to have a place where people of a common interest could enjoy written conversation with each other and HELP each other, if I'm wrong - then perhaps it's I that should simply -- go somewhere else.

Thank-you,
Harley Munroe

Harley,
Just for getting going on the steel for home practice most any little cheap amp will work fine. You may want one with reverb though. Some of the small Peavey amps have some useful features like a headphone jack and rca inputs so you can play along with CDs or an Ipod without bothering anybody else.

For learning to play and get a good sound its best to concentrate on your playing and not waste time and money trying to fix your tone with amps. You should be able to find something that will work great for under $100. Used even cheaper.

Harley...Someone mentioned a small bass amp rather than a guitar amp and I tend to agree. Behringer makes a model with a 10" speaker for around $100.00 that I used to use at home and at rehearsal with a drummer and the volume and tone were very satisfactory. You will need an outboard reverb unit however, but one of the inexpensive Behringer or Danelectro pedals will work fine.

Good Morning to all,
I have carefully read each and every post and wish to thank everyone who took the time to post a thoughtful reply to my original question.

After much thought, I would now like to ask:

Why ** NOT ** a Peavey EFX 258 ?

It's a 25w - with built-in - about everything ever thought of, and appears like you can buy them for around a 100.00 if you're careful.
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Taken from add:

Effects include: flanger, delay, octaver, touch wha, reverb, rotating speaker, chorus, phaser and tremolo.
Players can program three presets consisting of a clean or dirty channel with simultaneous modulation effect, reverb and delay
The foot-switch is a four-button foot-switch - three for the pre-set channels and a fourth that allows you to switch individual effects.

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Now, I really don't understand most of that, but it sounds pretty complete to me, so...

If anyone has time and cares to, before I jump out there, and become the proud owner of one...

Please post why this is a really **DUMB** idea, and why it won't work for Pedal Steel.

No, don't worry about my feelings, I'm trying to learn, I don't care one-iota about being right or wrong.

Remember, all I'm trying to find is a practice AMP capable of a ONE ROOM quality sound, to use for learning PSG.

Thanks again,
Harley

Harley,

For the most part, steelers can do without the huge pile of EFX (add-ons; those flanger, octaver, touch wha, rotating speaker, chorus, phaser, tremolo, distortion, crunch, overdrive and other "enhancements") that most all lead players find absolutely essential.

Steelers crave reverb...and sometimes delay. All those other effects are "trash" in the minds of most pedal steel players. Steelers (for the most part) want the pure tone of the instrument, and lead players (for the most part) seem to want everything but.

As I've said many times before, lead guitar and pedal steel are different instruments, different animals altogether...and so are those who play them. A few steelers (like myself) do use a variety of effects and play different styles, including rock. But we're the exception - not the rule.

So if you're "rock oriented", go for the Peavey EFX you mentioned. If you're into the Nashville stuff, though, stick with something simple like the Roland Cube.

Another possible route, luck willing, would be to find a solid used guitar preamp and then practice with phones until you can buy an inexpensive used power amp/speaker cabinet combination. There are some pretty cool older preamps out there (the Yamaha's especially come to mind) that have great tonal control, lots of flexibility, and it seems like they're bottom dollar when you can find them.

Yet another option along those lines would be to pick up a used Johnson J-Station, DOD(?) Genesis, or other 'pseudo-pod' and that would give you the same flexibility - maybe even more -at a pretty reasonable price. Earlier model Korg Pandoras would also give you a number of the same features and sometimes at an even lower price.

Another inexpensive alternative for home use is a mid size solid state Fender. The 65 or 90 watt Princeton or Deluxe type amps of any type can often be found for around one or two hundred. They have lots of headroom. The 90 watt ones are almost loud enough to keep up with a soft drummer if you need to. And they almost always have reverb. I use a Deluxe 90 about 10 or 15 years old and it is plenty loud and clean. The only thing they don't have is a lot of bass response. So it might not be good for you if you like the deep C6 sounds.

The Fender G-Dec 30, while not dirt cheap, is a great practice amp. There is enough tone shaping to get a good steel sound, plus a whole array oF effects. It also lets you plug in an outboard audio player to practice with. It has built in rhythm tracks....most of the stock ones are not that useful.... It has a built in GM Midi synth.... so it can play tracks from Band in a Box, and you can download BIAB MIDI songs directly to the amp for playback without a computer. Headphones for silent practice.....
All in all a great practice tool.... I use mine all the time for shedding new material.... and plenty loud for drumless rehearsal.

I have 2 of the older Peavey Envoy 110s. They are some neat little amps. One has the original speaked & the other has a Blue Marvel in it.

I'm curious as to how old Jim & Jude's Envoys are.

I also have a Princeton 65 that works alright.

As you can see, there are alot of reasonably priced practice amps available. Some can be scored fairly cheaply.

That Peavey 258 sounds kind of cool. I know lots of players who use reverb & delay. If you have a way to test one out, I would do that. Test the headroom, the ease of operation & the flexibility of the effects. If you have good control over the effects, I'm sure it would be a useable amp.

Casey