The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm getting a new stage one steel guitar and I am having a hard time finding what amp. to use. The Nashville 112 and the fender steel Kind are out of production. any ideas. I am a beginner.

If you are just starting out then I wouldn't spend a lot until you feel you are making headway and need something better.

A used decent Nashville 400 can be had for around $300-450 and will serve you well. I used those amps for 20 years and still have one for practice.

The important thing is an input stage with plenty of headroom for a clean attack so you can hear what your right hand is doing.

Michael,

Steel Guitars of Nashville has a couple of Nashville 400's in the price range that Dick has mentioned. Sometimes you see these come up in the Amp For Sell section as well.

Good Luck.
Jeff T

For just getting started, basically any decent guitar amp you can get your hands on will work. Hit the pawn shops, but make sure they power up and don't have blown speakers, scratchy pots, bad inputs or anything like that. Older Peavy amps of just about any model will easily power your living room and let you hear what you are doing on the guitar. Newer combo amps like the Roland Cube are also perfectly serviceable and have the advantage of onboard effects, like delay. But don't get too hung up on the gizmos just now. (There's plenty of time for that later.) Just get an amp with reverb in it and play, play, play.

A Peavey Studio Pro or Bandit from the 1980's will be fine for most practice playing, and even acoustic based gigs. I bought a Studio Pro 50 for $55 and use it for lots of things, including steel. Also, a Fender Deluxe 112 solid state amp is GREAT for steel, do a forum search.

Thanks for all your advice,keep the posts coming. I do have an old Roland chorus 77 with 2 10s.

I have a couple of Nash 112s available.

I'd like to mention the Fender Princeton 65, a small solid-state amp with a Fender blue label 12" speaker. Excellent for home use, and they can be found for $150 or less... I got mine at a Goodwill auction for $45.

Michael Febbie wrote:Thanks for all your advice,keep the posts coming. I do have an old Roland chorus 77 with 2 10s.

That amp should work fine for now.