The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm interested in learning about what would be the "ideal" characteristics of a dedicated pedal steel guitar cab.

For instance, in prerusing the archives, I see that some people prefer closed-back and some prefer open-back. Might an "ideal" cab combine the rich timbre and warmth of an open-back with the better-defined low end of a closed-back? Is there a benefit to your or the rest of the band from being able to hear the cab pretty well from behind it?

Also, some people prefer 15's and some prefer 12's. Would it be useful to combine the low end of a 15 with the wider dispersion and more extended top end of a 12?

Some people seem to like an inherent scoop in the midrange region (ballpark 400-800 Hz or so), while some do not, or prefer to dial in the scoop with tone controls.

I've come across a few posts about using bass guitar cabs for PSG, and would be interested in any comments about what does, and what does not, work about a bass cab.

What are you comfortable with as far as size and weight?

Please feel free to go off in whatever direction you want to, I'm just tossing out some things that came to mind after rummaging through the archives a bit.

Thanks!

They are all good. Some are "better" than others.
It's up to you to draw the sound out that you like to hear.
You will probably have to just try different things out to see how it effects your playing & what you like.

Bud Angelotti wrote:They are all good. Some are "better" than others.
It's up to you to draw the sound out that you like to hear.
You will probably have to just try different things out to see how it effects your playing & what you like.

Thanks for replying!

Suppose one cab sounded the way you like where you sit to play, but noticeably different elsewhere in the room, and another cab sounded pretty much the same throughout the room. Do you think there would be an advantage to the second type of cab? And in practice is this actually an issue?

I must confess that I'm not actually a pedal steel guitar player. My curiosity comes from another direction; I build bass cabs, and recently a PSG player contacted me so now I'm trying to learn more about cabs for PSG.

You've come to the right place!

Bud Angelotti wrote:You've come to the right place!

Thank you, Bud! After browsing a few threads here and seeing the quality of dialogue, I was sure this is the right place.

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Someone posted a reply here with a couple of pictures of a (DIY?) tilt-back-able cab with an adjustable ports (if I recall correctly), and now it's gone. Whoever that was, very creative configuration, and I just wanted to tip my virtual hat to you. I use adjustable ports on many of my builds as well.