The Steel Guitar Forum

Anyone found a distortion free headset amplifier suitable for use with the steel guitar? I would like to use one to plug directly into different steel guitar brands and check the difference in the sound above the 15th frets.

There are several headphone amps out there that work well for steel but they are not specific for guitar.
I've used the 4 channel behringer, the Rolls,and one that I built and they all where clean and clear for the full range of the steel if I used good headphones.
None of them would blow you ears off with volume.

I have the Rolls and it does not have enough volume. Does the Behringer have the same output volume level as the Rolls?

The Behringer is louder if you use the input on the front of the unit on the individual channel.
That's on the rack mount unit.

I am really looking for a little amp like the size of the Rolls.
Has anyone tried the Dean "Stack in a box"? or the Vox amplug?

musicians friends has a little vox very small.It might be what you are looking for.I have been useing a hot wave.It has distortion or plain with delay.The distortion makes it easy to tune the beats out at a noisey live show set.

I use my Tascam GT-1 Guitar Trainer. It has onboard effects and you can play along with CD's. I can also play through my Profex into the GT-1.

The POD XT has a headphone jack. The neat thing about it is you can use an amp model (I use the Double Verb, a Twin model) and speaker model (I use a 15" model) so that it sounds more like the real thing than the typical headphone unit. I run it into a little Behringer mixer so I can mix it with my home stereo and play along with CDs or the radio.

I've found the Roland Guitar RX battery amp to be much less distortion free for steel when using headphones, while using sufficient volume w/out causing instant ear damage, but those higher frets are bound to cause distortion easier with whatever is used unless a light touch is employed.

A plus with the RX is that along with varied amp models supplied, and internal rhythm beat box, you get the great stereo reverb effect. I love it.

Bob: I can't find anything on your hotwave on the net. Also, which Vox are you referring to?

I guess I should elaborate more on the kind of amp I'm looking for. What I want to do is be able to go to a steel guitar convention and go from room to room with a very small battery powered amp that is distortion free and compare guitar tones especially at the high end of the fret board. I did this with a Rolls amp on 4 different brands a couple of yeas ago and I did find a significant difference between those brands. I was not totally satisfied with the rolls as it did not have enough volume for use with a volume pedal.

The rolls has 2 inputs, one for a mike which distorts when driven by a pickup and the other input does not amplify enough. I could put an attenuator on the mike input but it would probably affect the frequency response too much.Actually the Rolls is quite good because it has two headset outputs.
Don

I have had the hot wave for a while,so they may be out of business ,but the vox is a new product in this months musician friend magazine. looks to be something you may be interested in.
Amplug AC30 headphone amp.cat no.is 481676

Looks like there ther is the old AC30 and the new Voxamp lead model. I don't know if these amps have a clean sound. I emailed VOX an asked them. Anybody reading this post have one?

The Vox DA5 is an amazing battery powered small amp. It's phone circuit is better than most, but it distorts if you get down on the volume pedal, even on the clean channels. The POD XT phone circuit is much better. I couldn't get mine to distort. Also, the Vox phone jack is like a line out, and sounds pretty tinny and harsh. The POD with the Twin and 15" speaker models sounds very realistic.

I would try one of these.....with onboard effects, headphone out & runs on batteries. Great for easily packing in a suitcase. Scroll to the bottom of page.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... arentId=57

Just got an answer back from Rolls. They said to use an audio attenuator pad like their db25 betwen the guitar and the mike input of the rolls PM50s. I'll try that or similar variable pad.

Sorry fellas. None of those big amps will do. I am looking for a battery powered headphone amp the size of the Rolls PM50s so I can easily carry it from place from room to room.

I have an amp that i have sold to steel players and they love it It is about 6 * 6 square

Dennis: Does it have a headphone jack and is it battery powered? The ideal headphone amplifier would have the amp built right in to the headset itself. There are some for sale but the ones that I have tried have distorted output.

Sorry for the delayed answer ,but the answer is yes to both. 9volt battery or 110 power adaptor

I just found this one, which seems like it might fit the bill for you (and for me). I'm always looking for something I can use on stage to warm up before a performance. I tried the Pocket Rocket V2 which has delay and reverb. At $80 it promised to be a good alternative. It turned out to be junk. It stopped working after after about five uses.

The thing I'm going to try now is Waves iGTR Modeling Guitar Headphone Amp @ $48 from Musicians friend. It has reverb and delay function and seems to be quite small. Here's a link: http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=482265

The Vox series headphone amps do not have reverb or delay functions, but are otherwise dependable as an alternative. The AC30 is also available now on Musicians Friend.

NOTE: You can buy most things they sell at Musician's Friend also on Sweetwater.com. The difference is Sweetwater always ships free of charge while Musician's Friend charges for shipping of items under $100. And Sweetwaters prices are always the same or slightly lower. The savings of shipping charges can be 7 or 8 dollars.

A unit intended for use with a bass rather than a six string guitar may be a better alternative. They tend to have more headroom (but cannot be certain if there are any available that have onboard effects.)

Joel: Please let me know how you make out with it.

I tried all the teeny little Vox headphone amps. By far the best was the one made for bass players, had a cleaner sound with more volume. But still wasn't the perfectly clean sound I'm looking for, and build quality is pretty cheap, I don't think they'll hold up for long.

Anyone have personal experience with the newer Tascam units, either CD or MP3? Does it output loud, clean sound from your steel? Combined with looping and slowing down songs, this looks to be a great headphone amp/practice tool.

When I attended the steel show at Mt. Vernon, Illinois there was a steel player there who had a small unit mounted inside his pack-a-seat.
Real neat!
He could plug his steel into it and monitor it via one or two headphones (in case someone else wanted to listen).