advice on how to even out a strange sounding amp?

[Lana Carroll]

Hi forum folks, maybe you have advice on an issue I am having with my amplifier.

My main amp for performances right now is a Peavey Classic 100 - its a strange amp from the 70's with a distinctive, weird sound to it. From what I understand this is because it has a solid state pre-amp run through tubes for power (?), which is atypical. I have had this amp for about 12 years, and I love the way my telecaster sounds through it. It really works magic. But the steel sounds very strange through it.

I have a hard time putting a finger on what exactly I dont like about it. The tone is always EXTREMELY bright - even with the treble rolled off and the using the "normal" rather than the "bright" input - so that might be part of the problem. Its also kind of uneven - the attack is biting and it almost sounds like every string is coming out a different amp with different tone settings, if that makes sense. When I was listening to a recording from a show I played recently, I think i put a finger on it - through this amp, my steel sounds VERY much like a telecaster, and not so much like a pedal steel.

I am sure an experienced player would be able to make this amp sound fantastic (its really good for picking up subtelty), or use its strange sound to their advantage, but I'm not there yet. Also I'd really like to find a way to make this amp work. At this point I dont think I can spend a lot of money on a new Steel King or Nashville amp...but at the same time, my own sound is driving me bananas!

So...my question...Do you all have advice for how to improve the sound of the Peavey Classic? [other than practicing more!] Would a compressor help? Or should I just give up and save my pennies for a solid state amp? All thoughts welcome...

Thank you!

Lana

[Gary Cosden]

The only suggestion I have is to cut your mids - perhaps even all the way- and boost your bass quite a bit. With a tele you can have quite a bit of midrange and it sounds good but not (IMHO) with pedal steel. You may well still have a strange tone because with this amp you wont be able to adjust the the frequency of the midrange you are cutting - something you CAN do on all the Peavey steel amps. I really doubt you would get anywhere with a compressor. Maybe a graphic EQ pedal?

[Del Rangel]

I use a Peavey Classic 100 head through a Weber California speaker (15"-80 watt ceramic magnet) and retubed the amp for ultra clean, low gain type of sound. I got the retube set through Eurotubes. You could start by trying only a preamp retube--lower gain. Also try an attenuator so you can crank the volume up on the amp and then dial it down with the attenuator. Bob Pletka at Eurotubes seems to know a ton about these Peavy Classic amps. If your model doesnt have pre-amp tubes,(mine is from 1991--I dont know about the 1970s models) then try swapping the main tubes and look for a cleaner sounding speaker.

[Bobby Snell]

Try one of these:

http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page ... ts/p_and_e




Since it has a stomp switch, it can be set for one instrument and bypassed for another. Can be run in front of the amp, or in an effects loop. Gain or boost all 10 bands, and in/out as well.

Cheaper than another amp

[Matthew Carlin]

Here's My 2cents,

I fought with a Peavey for a bit before I got it dialed in. So Bring the amp up to stage volume, with your volume pedal wide open. back of all of the Eq controls to 0.

Play the bass strings at the 3rd fret G position and bring up the bass until it sounds good to you, then play the Middle strings say at the 8th fret C position, bring it the mids again to your liking, then play in the higher register 15th fret G and bring in the trebles. really play thru some tunes and tweek it to taste. Chances are you will have to go back to the mid and bass controls, I think of it as cyclical ....
Don't be surprised if what you dial up looks "funny" on the ampface, as a guitar player I was so used to a Fender at 6 6 7 I forgot to trust my ears.

Give it a shot it should help Isolate some issues, I run a freeloader by Sarno, you might want to check one out they are pretty inexpensive, Its like a super tone knob

Good Luck,

[John Groover McDuffie]

It would be helpful to know what kind of pickup you are using in your pedal steel, and whether you are using any kind of Matchbox or similar buffer/preamp (the Sarno Freeloader counts as one). My old MSA has a fairly low-impedance pickup and sounds very nice with only a passive volume pedal between it and the amp, and is pretty compatible with amp settings that work for Tele also. However, most modern PSG pickups have very high impedance, and can sound very harsh and sometimes uneven when plugged into a normal guitar amp input.

Also, are you using any effects pedal in the chain between the PSG and amp? When I used a BOSS pedal with my steel without a buffer preamp the steel sounded REALLY horrible (UGLY upper midrange peak) because of impedance mismatch.

[Lana Carroll]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this.

I have a lot of great ideas to try out. Hopefully one of the tone-knob suggestions will help - somehow it never occurred to me to dial down the mid-range. I have spent hours with the bass, treble, reverb and balancing volume knobs (there is a channel volume and a master volume)

I'm also curious about the gadget ideas that were mentioned - the graphic equalizer and the freeloader. I may give one of those a shot while I work on getting a more dedicated steel amp. If other folks want to share their experiences with either of those two gadgets I'd love to hear more.

Or if you have ever played through one of these amps.

If its helpful: I play a new-ish BMI to a DeArmond volume pedal (usually a Goodrich L 120 but it has a scratchy pot right now) and then into the Classic.

[John Groover McDuffie]

Do you have access to a voltmeter to measure the DC resistance of your pickup? The higher it is the more beneficial a buffer/pre-amp can be. (be sure to bypass any onboard tone or volume controls when taking this measurement)

[Clete Ritta]

From another thread on amp and tone:

I usually turn the bass knob all the way up, then add mids and treble until it sounds good. That's how I get "my" tone. It doesn't matter what brand of steel I'm playing.

This works for me too.
Guitar amps often make steels sound like umm,...guitar.

You can also try an eq pedal as mentioned previously.
I sometimes use a Boss GE-7, though mostly to make my Tele with a brass slide sound like a Dobro. Thats a comb filter setting, but here is a decent setting for steel thru an amp like a Twin, or other guitar voiced amp with tubes.



I've been using a Peavey NV1000 lately again, which has a great steel sound all by itself.


Clete

[Charlie Shifflett]

Lana I think Hi? take a shot at what Matthew said in his post I have one just like yours A 71 modal thats
how I tune mine. have a great picken Day Charlie

[Andrew Waegel]

Hi Lana,

Andrew Waegel here, I used to play with Julian.

I don't have experience with this amp but used to use small tube amps on my steel and found they always just sound different than an amp made for steel, which can be great if that's what you going for and if you like the sound.

But if it doesn't sound good to you, I think it's going to be challenging to get a good sound out of the amp. The Peavey Nashville 112 is pretty affordable and sounds great (I use one) but is much more conventional sounding.

Cheers,
- Andrew