The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a Peavey Transtube 212 EFX that I have been using for lead guitar. I can't seem to find suitable settings for pedal steel. Can someone please enlighten me on settings I might use? OR....am I simply using the WRONG amp.

What settings are you using?

I just looked at the user's manual.
You didn't mention what guitar or pickup.
1) You ARE using the clean channel and not the lead, right?
2) I'd use the low gain input perhaps.
3) EQ knobs: I'd recommend Low:9, Mid 4, High 6
Effects: nothing but a bit of reverb.

I have a Peavey Transtube single 12 (late model Bandit), tried everything and cannot use it for pedal steel...marginal for lap steel. The speaker is not ideal for steel guitar nor are the transtube electronics. Don't waste your time.

In general, lead guitar amps tend not to sound all that great. If you don't have a "steel amp," I'd recommend either a bass or keyboard amp and an outboard reverb.

I got a Transtube Bandit in an "take everything" steel purchase, and it hasn't been bad as a grab and go amp for jams...my home rig is much heavier and expensive being a tube amp rig.

I do have an 2005 version of the Peavey Nashville 112 speaker that I am going to throw into it just to see how it sounds. I've always liked the original N112 speaker, used it in a guitar amp for a few years...had great blues and rock tones for regular electric guitar....maybe that's an option here too. A speaker is the "final filter" and its gotta suit what you're doing.

Peavey's scorpion 12" rock amp speakers never did it for me for either regular guitar, and definately not for steel...very spikey and cold tone with a deep mid scoop...just the opposite of what I like...which is warm, smooth and mid-rich.

It doesn't have Scorpions, it has Blue Marvels. I don't know if that's the same Blue Marvel as the Nashville 112, though. I'd just suspect it wasn't voiced to be steel-friendly

Lane Gray wrote:I just looked at the user's manual.
You didn't mention what guitar or pickup.
1) You ARE using the clean channel and not the lead, right?
2) I'd use the low gain input perhaps.
3) EQ knobs: I'd recommend Low:9, Mid 4, High 6
Effects: nothing but a bit of reverb.

Thanks, Lane...I tried the settings you suggested and it will work for now. It's far better than what I was doing. May change amps one of these days, but for now I'm happy! Thanks again to you and all who replied...I appreciate it!!!

First -

What's a "lead guitar amp"? Never seen one advertised anywhere, now would I generally characterize 6-string guitar playing as "lead guitar".

There's no fundamental difference between a guitar amp for 6-strings and one for pedal steel *other* than some players prefer very high headroom when playing pedal steel. Many, many "normal" guitar amps will work fine for steel with the right speaker, bias settings/tube selections (in tube amps). There are some cases - primarily with vintage tube amps - where the frequency response is not wide enough for steel, which covers a more keyboard-like range. If you do nothing but play absolutely clean pedal steel many keyboard and modern bass rigs make great steel amps (power ratings are almost meaningless, BTW - speaker efficiency and tendency to stay "clean" is far more important that wattage, especially when it comes to volume.

As far as settings go, it's great that someone's suggestions worked- because amp settings are dependent on so many variables that most suggestions are specific to one venue with one instrument played by one player (with his/her personal right-hand touch) with one specific mix of instruments/voices on stage at one volume level.

"Guide settings" that work well in a well-populated venue with good acoustics, carpets, soft wall surfaces, few parallel surfaces and with mic's amps can have enough treble to rip your scalp off and cause your ears to bleed in a hard-wall, hard-floor room with a flat ceiling, not too many people and high stage volume.

As I said - great the suggestion works. But in many cases specific guitar/amp/player combinations just don't work well for both 6-string and steel without either some adjustment to the amp's internal settings or some major adjustment in playing technique.

Jim, most amps aimed at rock (or modern country pickers: what a shame Brad Paisley and Brent Mason can't afford amps that will stay clean) are designed to break up:while keyboard, bass and steel amps (along with jazz guitar and fiddle) prefer amps that keep it clean. And the lead guitar amps will also tend to have a tonal response shaped to keep overdrive sounds from getting harsh.
That's why, even though SICAs or D130s, it'll be challenging to make a Marshall sound good behind a steel.

And the lead guitar amps will also tend to have a tonal response shaped to keep overdrive sounds from getting harsh.

Again (respectfully) I have to ask - what is a "lead guitar amp"? Even in this context the term seems self-defeating.

what a shame Brad Paisley and Brent Mason can't afford amps that will stay clean

Was that an attempt at sarcasm, a negative comment as to their tone...or what? Silly, honstly - and if you have heard either players' solo work you would have heard cuts with crystal-clear clean tones where the song called for it. They and their techs know how to get the sound they need - and surprisingly, while in some cases a particular amp may provide a certain tonal color desired, switching amps simply for headroom is rarely necessary for those who understand amp operation, tube specifics, transformers, bias, speakers and cabinet types - and room environments.

While I understand headroom perfectly well and most steel players preference for it, it does not take cookie-cutter "steel amps" to get it - and I can tell you as an amp tech that a "Marshall" (which is a company, not a model, that makes dozens of types of amplifiers including solid-state combos, rack mount heads and others) of almost any type can be diald in for all the clean you want - it simply take sknowing how to work with the equipment.

While many tube amps have a topography that is intended to provide some level of distortion, very few cannot be turned into clean-machines with some fairly easy "tweaking" that is bread-and-butter to any amp tech who knows his/her stuff.

Yes, Jim, that had been an attempt at humor. I haven't thought chicken pickin' sounds worth a damn with hair on it since Gatton did it, and it hasn't improved in the last 35 years.
And Messrs Paisley and Mason spend most of their time putting out sound with a bit of hair on them, and (IMO, of course) they'd sound better if they came out Albert Lee clean. To my personal taste, the song rarely "calls for" crunchy chicken. BUT I love Brent's "Blowin' Smoke," and have carved it up a few different ways as ringtones.

As to the other point: as you know, there's really no such thing as a "lead guitar amp," but the vast majority of amps sold seem aimed at players who WANT a good bit of grit (anything from Paisley/Mason to SRV to Frehley to Rhoads to Hendrix and on and on), and trend to get "voiced" to sound good that way. But one doesn't HAVE to buy an amp aimed at us steelies to have clean headroom: like I said (and others have joined me), amps aimed at jazz guitar or keys or bass will also have similar headroom characteristics.

Cliff's notes version? A "lead guitar amp" is a lazy way of saying "instrument amplifier mainly aimed to satisfy rock, pop and blues guitar players, and designed to give a pleasing sound thereto." And, since MOST of us know what people MEAN when the term LGA gets thrown around, the imprecise and lazy term has its usefulness¹.

You and I BOTH know that you CAN get clean headroom from a Marshall or Boogie. BUT, because the engineers designed them to have pleasing tonality at high distortion, the tone stacks and the rest of the circuit will prove challenging to get pleasing tones out of an uber-hot modern pedal steel. I'd rather carry a Twin than a MarshallBoogie AND an EQ (but I'll stand by my opinion that an unmodified Boogie/HiWatt/Marshall of nearly any model will put up a great deal of fight before yielding a tone that'd please most steelies).

¹see also "centrifugal force." Sure, even a high school physics student knows it doesn't exist, but it's still a handy term.

EDIT: I don't mind getting called for imprecise speech: I enjoy writing about these things and the using them to make music almost as much as working on them and playing them.

There are some folks who just want to pick and not repurpose. They want to buy an amp aimed at what they want right out of the box.

Sure you could get new tubes, transistors, capacitors, resisters, transformers and reset the bias and on and on. I'm certain most any amplifier with enough time from a competent amplifier tinkering person, and parts and money could become a "steel" amp, or any other type of amp you could desire.

Some folks just want a steel amp right out of the box. Or at least what they hear, perceive, and decide is a steel amp.

Peavey is a great example of a company targeting amplifiers at a particular instrument and sound segment. Also, many or most of their amplifiers are aimed at folks who do not want or need a lot of very clean head room. Persons that want distortion of varying degrees, or what could be called and understood by most folks today as a "lead guitar amp".[/i]

Bill, with more players using outboard reverb, steel amps aren't as essential as ten years ago.
Bass amps have long sounded good, but lacked reverb.
A TNT or Bassman with an RV-3 will, in my opinion, be tonally equal to or superior to a Nashville 112.

Lane, you are right! There are several amplifiers to be had, especially like the Stewart, and others that have a very good sound with the pedal steel. I am using one of those to play in church and the sound is acceptable, even good. I use a little mixer for eq and a RV3 for reverb/delay. All of this is mounted in or on my seat as well. No amp to carry in and out!

It doesn't sound as good to me as my tube amps, but I am probably the only one who notices.

I think the biggest asset of many "steel amps" is the mid-shift control. It's the most effective way (other than a graphic EQ) to easily change the voicing of an amp. I respect that some steelers can get along with just bass-treble, or bass-treble-mid designs, but being able to actually shape the response curve opens up a whole new world of sounds, to me...anyway.

Also, I think many lead players do select an amp for how it sounds when it breaks up; whereas most pedal steelers could care less about breakup characteristics, since they don't like that sound in the first place.