The Steel Guitar Forum

Just thought I would like to hesr comments about
the best amp you have owned and the worst you have owned,tone reliablity,user friendly,etc.

Best - My Nashville 400 with Ken Fox Mod.
Worst - Session 400

Others - Twin Reverb w/JBL's, Webb head with custom JBL cabinet, Webb (Bradshaw) combo amp, Furman PQ3 with Furman spring reverb and Peavey power amp into JBL cabinet, Evans preamp Digitech S200 effects into QSC power amp into the speaker in my NV400 (BW 1502) and the speaker in the Session 400 (Peavey JBL), Session 500

Richard Iam with you,my best nashville 400 with mod
and eminance eps 15 neo.
my worst ever evans se 200,however my webb and steel king were good amps,those two to heavy.

Worst: My first Session 500. Had an intermittent fault that would send a sound of around 2KhZ to the speaker at full power after being driven hard. Spent around $600 in amp repair bills trying to find a fault that never reproduced.

Best: So far my Evans FET500. Session 500 has great tone and the phase shifter is awesome, it's weight is a big minus.

@Sinkler: Huh? a Session 400 at the bottom?

BEST - PEAVEY LTD
WORST - CRATE POWER BLOCK - TRIED IT FOR ABOUT 3 MONTHS

Best: 1957 2-input tweed Fender Bassman (dual rectifier, 4x10" speakers - these speakers are some type of reissue alnico 10" speakers). Yes, for both guitar and steel (non-pedal or pedal). For steel, I run a Peavey TubeFex in front. The overall sound is breathtaking - I've never heard anything like it - clean, sweet, but never sterile. The potential downsides are: 1) Finding and paying for one; and 2) Taking it out to a dumpy club where jerky people spill a lot of beer, get in fights, and so on. I tend to reserve it for cool places and bring something, shall say, a bit less sensitive, to basement dives. Some may argue that the power (nominally 45 watts) is too low, but the people I play with don't think so - that sucker is loud - I think the speakers are very efficient, and 4-10's move a lot of air.

But most any of the usual suspects work fine - Session/LTD 400, NV 112/400/1000, Evans FET-500, Twin/Dual-Showman Reverb, Pro/Vibrolux/Deluxe/Princeton Reverb, depending on the power needed.

Worst: I dunno - I try very hard not to buy bad-sounding amps. Something that's designed for harsh bipolar distortion isn't gonna cut it for me, but I avoid that kind of stuff. I guess of the usual Peavey steel amps, I liked the Session 500 the least. Way too heavy, I found it a bit midrangey, and I don't really get the "String" and "Phaser" effects. Some people swear by them, but I tried every permutation of controls and just didn't care for it.

Even the worst, by far, a '70s era Haynes SS 2x12 that I picked up off the street curb was pretty good, as well my MicroCube RX5. The best..., the list is long, always been lucky with vintage amps. But a real surprise was my late '90s CRATE - Vintage Club 30 2x12, courtesy of Don Ho. Does everything exceedingly well. And now I'm awaiting the arrival of this awesome newie http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-THR10-DE ... 35bb5b23fa

best amp: '64 Deluxe Reverb or Ken Fox Vintage Steel Amp
worst amp: Roland JC60

Best: Roland JC-120. Great sound, totally reliable.

Worst: FBT 100. Italian and huge, but 10 W and a 6" speaker, sounded like a broken radio...

Best steel amp - Peavey Session 500

Worst steel amp - Evans SE-200 (I hated it and sold it after less than 6 months).

My best- Stereo steel

My worst- maybe a Nashville 1000 I didn't keep that one very long.

Best - Carvin XV-115 w/ K130 (very heavy)
Second Best - Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight (very light)
Worst - Silverface Fender Pro Reverb w/ 15" Altec (terrible for steel)

worst amp..Kustom 100 in the padded blue stuff along with a Standel Artist 15..


best amps

Fender Twin Reverb
Nashville 400
Fender Hot Rod Deville
PV Classic 30
Fender BF Showman

Best: (for lap steel) Fender Blues Jr (Red October).
Simple, small, plenty loud enough for the kind of places I play.

Worst: Peavey Classic 30. I really wanted to like this amp. Made in the USA, cool look, great clean sound. ( The overdrive wasn't that great). But in less than a month of buying it new, the cabinet started buzzing and rattling really bad. ( at coffee shop gig volumes) and the tubes made a buzzing sitar like sound. (even my wife noticed it), A new set did not help.
Took it back to the store a month later and they gave me store credit for something else.

My Besy Amps And I Have Them Now Webb 6-14E- Peavey Nashville 112- & Session 400. Sonny.

My favorite amp was my Peaveay Session 500 when I could lift it.
My worst was the Peavey 1000.
Now I like my Peavey NV112.

BEST:

Revelation/Stewart
Walker SS
Webb
N-400 w/ mod

WORST:

Sessin 400
Session 500
Evsns FET

Best = Standel S80

Worst = I've had a few dogs, but I had another Standel with 2-12s from the 70s, which was a beautiful amp, but had the harshest tone I've ever heard in an amp.

Best Steel Amp:Session 500.
Second Best Steel Amp(a real close second):Fox-mod Nashville 112.

Best Guitar Amp: Music Man 210-65.
Worst in all categories: Line 6 AX2/212.

Best- Cain built Sho~Bud Christmas tree, single channel, or Session 400.

My new Lemay/Telonics amp has just about won though. I can dial up my tone pretty easy. I also like the extra features and portability.

Worst- By far Session 400 limited and close behind was a Nashville 1000. Could not find a useable tone on ether of them.

old LTD 400

keeps a'tickin', takes a lickin' , i'm a'pickin'

well over 30 yrs of steady use

Best : Walker Stereo Steel

Worst : I'd rather not say . What didn't work for me may sound great to someone else .

Best amp----TC Furlong 12" Split

Worst-------Dont want to say here

Lane said:

@Sinkler: Huh? a Session 400 at the bottom?

That's a big YUP. Biggest piece of crap I ever owned. output transistors kept blowing out. Had really crappy tone. I wouldn't give 2 cents for a Session 400.

I did love the Session 500, but it crapped out too many times (under warranty) and the music store that did Peavey repairs, worked with Peavey to take back the 500 and give me the NV400 for just sales tax. Never looked back.

Best (in regards to sonics): Revelation w/SPLIT

Best (for my needs): GK MB200/Sica x2

Worst (for gigs) Fender Twin w/15”JBL