The Steel Guitar Forum

I've always loved my Nashville 400 but at my age I hurt myself just putting it in the car. I have no idea what's out there in a light weight amp. I don't need that much power any more. Every thing I do goes through the sound board.
I need help

Love my Roland 80XL @ +/- 35#. Plenty of oomph, great tone for a variety of pedal & lap steels.

Quilter MicroPro head into a lightweight speaker cab with neo 15".
A huge sonic improvement over the Nash400, and about 1/3 the weight.

I recently picked up a Roland Cube 40 GX and it has a very sweet sound. Great little amp for small room playing.

I use a Nashville 400 with a lightweight speaker, and a Nashville 112 with a lightweight speaker for smaller jobs.

I use 2 Cube 80XL's I keep one in cowboy church with a SD10 BMI with a PF1 pup. The other is my home and gig steel a SD10 BMI with a 705. I also have an ext. 12" speaker with a Telonics made by Eminence. Love both. Wes

I have a Cube 80X, N-112, and 2 Walker S/S. I only used the Cube 80X once.
I use the N-112 once in a while but, I can't get away from the Walker S/S's.
They're heavier but the sound is always what I love to hear from my Mullen's.

I've used the GK MB200, it's very light and powerful, choose whatever light speaker cab you prefer. I'm now using the Carvin BX500, great amp, light and powerful. Both are class D bass amp heads. They both sound very good. Carvin also makes a smaller, class D head, and has a couple of small bass combos that look like they would be very good. All the Carvin stuff is quite reasonable in price. I think if you want a very light amp, the small class D bass heads are the way to go.

I was using a GK MB200 amp but have moved on to the Carving BX500 amp. The BX500 has a 12AX7 tube in a real preamp mode not just a starved plate voltage buffer like many have. Everyone that has heard my BX500 says the sound is much better than the fully solid state MB200.

A amp head and a separate neodymium speaker, such as the Eminence EPS-15C or the Telonics version of the EPS-15C speaker makes a great light weight combo.

Not all bass heads make good steel amps. Before I got the Carvin, I tried the Markbass Little Mark (all solid state) and it was terrible. Very sterile amp that would probably make a good linear amp but not an "instrument" amp.

Quilter Steelaire.

If price is not a consideration, my choice is the Milkman 'Mini'. Weight is around 35 pounds for the 112 unit, slightly more for the 15" model. Incredible sound from such a lightweight, compact unit. The tone improvement that you will experience over your Peavey will astound you.

If every thing is going through the soundboard, you may be able to go preamp-only.

I ran a Behringer Vamp for a couple of gigs. Didn't sound like an amp, but it worked. Sounded good in the mains. There is a "Tube Preamp" model on there that's full range. There's also a "Black Twin" model but it's a bit less present than the Tube Preamp model.

I used earbuds. That was kinda nice but I was a bit isolated ( did not have a full band mix to the buds and had to pull one out a bit to hear).

The problem was that the Tele player complained he couldn't hear me. It was also more work for the sound man.

I ended up buying a Quilter Steelaire.

1972 fender silverface Deluxe Reverb.

Fender Mustang III. Sometimes I am tempted to take my Twin Reverb or Dual Showman to the gig. Then I look at my lightweight, compact Mustang with dozens of built in effects and patches perfectly dialed in for steel, guitar and mandolin. I invariably pick up the Mustang.

I have been pleased with my Cube 80XL..... and my back has been also. Mine comes in at 33 lbs. steve t

everybody has their favorites...but they might not be yours'

The big question is, how much do you care about tone, and how much can you afford?

GK MB-200, Roland Cube if money is more important than absolute tone, Milkman if you've got the cash...

I use a Milkman Half and Half...it is worth selling some other gear to get the best...and it plays just fine at low volume or high.

I have a formula now - which amp should you buy? Well, Step 1 is to qualify them all by computing the answer to:
(100-your age)=maximum amp weight you should get
...at age 30 I had a Twin Reverb, now at 67 a 30 lb. Milkman...

Thanks for the input. It really does help.

The GKMB200 and the Carvin bass amps also have a direct line out, if you want to use that to connect to the PA. The 1500 to 2000 dollar amps are nice, I guess, but the MB200 is less than 300, the Carvin BX500 is less than 400. The small Carvin combo amps are less than 400. You need to add some kind of effects, but the bass amps are clearly, to me anyway, the best value. Check them out:

http://www.carvinamplifiers.com/collections/bass-heads

http://www.carvinamplifiers.com/collect ... ass-combos

I found the MB200 to sound somewhat sterile - even with a Sarno Black Box in use. It would sound fine, I really wanted to like it, and then I'd just get tired of the tone - seemed (to me) to have no "personality" - but that is the tone that many steel players like, so, once again, it is up to you...

I've used many, many amps over the years and my current favorite is the Evans RE500. http://www.evansamps.com/Products/29/57/Evans-RE300

At a mere 31lbs. and 14X16X9.5", it's a tone machine. It sounds great by itself, but if more substantial sound reinforcement is needed, it can cover any size room by merely by miking it or running its line out into the board.

I tried the Roland Cube 80XL and really wanted to like it because of its size and price. But I found that while it is a very respectable little amp for the money, the Evans has a much fuller, richer, sweeter tone. Of course the Evans should sound better at 3-4 times the cost.

I haven't tried the small Quilter or Milkman amps, but would like to. The Quilter Steelaire is comparably priced with the Evans, but quite a bit larger at 21X23X9" and 35lbs. The Milkman is roughly $1000 more than either. But from all accounts I've seen they are excellent amps.

If you really don't need a lot of volume, then I'd get a smaller 70s silverface Fender amp like a Deluxe Reverb or Vibrolux Reverb. Or even a Princeton Reverb if you really don't need a lot of volume. To my tastes, from a tonal perspective, these flat-out blow away any modern compact amp I've heard, and I've tried most of them. But the headroom will be limited for pedal steel - louder gigs will definitely require good PA support, including good monitoring. So I'd check one out first to see if it has enough clean volume for your application.

If you have a good budget, you might check out some of the handbuilt amps made for steel. Some have already been mentioned. I have a Little Walter 50-watt head which weighs 22 pounds. I run it into a single-12" cab with a 50-watt Weber speaker which weighs 27 pounds total. The Little Walter has no reverb, but I carry a small laptop case with a Wampler reverb and Mad Professor delay and Simble pedals. Easy to carry and sounds great. I find it cuts through a "reasonable" rhythm section and a "reasonable" small-club stage volume level without PA support. For guitar, it will cut through a pretty loud mix with ease. But for steel, it needs decent PA support for a really loud stage volume or large room. I guess if I really needed more clean juice, I could run it through my 15" Black Widow cab, but haven't needed to so far.

Dave Mudgett wrote: "If you really don't need a lot of volume, then I'd get a smaller 70s silverface Fender amp like a Deluxe Reverb or Vibrolux Reverb. Or even a Princeton Reverb if you really don't need a lot of volume."

My question would be, when DO you need a lot of volume? If I'm playing in a small environment with acoustic instruments, the challenge is always to play QUIET enough. Any other time, I use PA reinforcement for whatever horsepower I need.

Caveat: I understand that when relying on PA reinforcement we are at the mercy of sound systems and the people who run them. J.D. Crowe once told me "You can work on your banjo to where you think it sounds just right, but a knob jockey can take it all away." So there is that.

The only times you need a lot of volume are:
Jam sessions. Those generally don't mic anything but bass and drums. It's up to yer amp to fill the room.
Smaller gigs with bands that point the amps to the crowd.

I generally don't NEED the power of the Twin and Session, but I don't like being caught without it.
If I wanted a light amp, it'd be the Half and Half.

Even with reinforcement from monitors, I like to hear the majority of the sound from my amp, usually up on a chair. There are exceptions though, like when using Meyers wedges or others of similar quality. In those cases I'd be fine playing through a Princeton. Lucky for me though, my best sounding amp isn't very heavy at all; an all transistor Standel.

Lane Gray wrote:The only times you need a lot of volume are:
Jam sessions. Those generally don't mic anything but bass and drums. It's up to yer amp to fill the room.
Smaller gigs with bands that point the amps to the crowd.

I generally don't NEED the power of the Twin and Session, but I don't like being caught without it.
If I wanted a light amp, it'd be the Half and Half.

Good point about jam sessions, Lane. There are those.