The Steel Guitar Forum

We are looking for a New pedal steel amplifier. Any Recommendation for brand and model?. Thanks in Advance

Sharon,
What kind of gigs will it be used for, and how much do you want to spend?
There are lots that will do the job, priced from $700 up.

Bob

Bob Knight wrote:Sharon,
What kind of gigs will it be used for, and how much do you want to spend?
There are lots that will do the job, priced from $700 up.

Bob

Open on price, doing some recording. We want to replace the amp that my daughter is using right now. Thanks, Grace

Check out the Quilter Steelaire. I'm very happy with mine.

Mike Perlowin wrote:Check out the Quilter Steelaire. I'm very happy with mine.

Thank you

1) what's she currently using?
2) when you say 'new', do you mean brand new, or just new to you?
3) what's your budget?
4) do you prefer tubes or solid state?

I've got a Milkman Half and Half that I love (but I wish I'd ordered it with a line out, and tremolo).
But it, and the Little Walter, are over two grand, as is the Dr. Z steel amp (all of these are tube.
The Telonics amp is in about the same range but is solid state and has a multieffects unit built in.

Many people like the Roland Cube 80 which is much cheaper, but will need to go through the pa on bigger stages.

I don't know if she already uses a "normal" steel amp.
If not, any Peavey with Session or Nashville in the name would probably make her happy, and those can often be found used for around three hundred.

I have and use the Quilter Steelaire I highly recommend it. I have used all the Peaveys vegas, session 500, nashville 400 nashville 112, and a fender steel king. I think it is miles ahead of them all.

Check out the Telonics range too - 15" and 12" combos are available with or without an efx unit !

Telonics!

I have a new Peavey Nashville 112 amp and it's wonderful.

+1 for Telonics.

Sharon, kinda hard to answer, if not impossible.

What are you using now ? What is the criteria for the need or change ? Without knowing some basic information you may get a recommendation to buy what you already have .

The forum has several thousand members, it's possible ( not likely) that you can get several thousand replies and recommendations. Including from me.

Never lose sight that just because player A loves his amp and recommends it, that you will as well. You may not.

Are you wanting a combo, which is the amp and contained speaker, or a HEAD where you use your own selected separate speaker cabinet ? two different worlds.

For years, the go to combo amps have been, and still are:

PV Nashville 400 , heavy lots of power
PV Nashville 112 , not so heavy less power


These two amp models are in use on stages all over the world. Very popular , very reliable, very consistent.

good luck
t

You'll definitely get a lot of different recommendations. I personally prefer a 1960s or early 70s Twin Reverb or 70s Session 400 or LTD 400. But an older amp may or may not suit what you have in mind.

To help zero in on what might be useful for you, it would be useful to know:

1. What are you using now?
2. What are you looking for that you don't get from what you have now?
3. Do you have an upper limit on what you want to spend. Most people do.

For example, you said you want to do some recording. Is one of the things you'd like is a mechanism to take a direct out from the amp into a recorder instead of using a microphone on the amp? If so, that would probably exclude most older amps and probably lean to something like a Quilter or Telonics.

The other thing is that there are good pedal steel amps anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, depending on what you want.

I see you're not far from Nashville. A trip to Steel Guitars of Nashville (in Hendersonville, TN), or even Sam Ash (Madison) or Guitar Center (in Nashville) might not be unreasonable, simply to check out some different amps. They all list Quilter amps, and you can certainly check out something like a new Fender Twin Reverb at Sam Ash or Guitar Center. I'd call ahead and see what they have in stock to try out, if you do that.

Grab that Katana 100. that David Higginbotham has listed. Simple bass, mid, and treble controls. Excellent reverb. Set bass on 3 o'clock, mid on 11 o'clock, and treble on 1 o'clock. Try acoustic (my preference) and clean settings and enjoy great sound in a lightweight amp. Volume is more than you will ever need.

Lane Gray wrote:1) what's she currently using?
2) when you say 'new', do you mean brand new, or just new to you?
3) what's your budget?
4) do you prefer tubes or solid state?

I've got a Milkman Half and Half that I love (but I wish I'd ordered it with a line out, and tremolo).
But it, and the Little Walter, are over two grand, as is the Dr. Z steel amp (all of these are tube.
The Telonics amp is in about the same range but is solid state and has a multieffects unit built in.

Many people like the Roland Cube 80 which is much cheaper, but will need to go through the pa on bigger stages.

I don't know if she already uses a "normal" steel amp.
If not, any Peavey with Session or Nashville in the name would probably make her happy, and those can often be found used for around three hundred.

My husband wants brand new, My daughter have 4 old amps. My husband replace the fuse of one of the amp (Fender Twin Reverb), which is what she's using right now. She also have Peavy 400, Peavy Session 500 and Peavy Backstage plus. But they're all pretty old now (25 years or more). We are looking for light weight amp so we can easily transport it too.

Base on all the recommendation. Looks like we're leaning on Katana 100. Thank you so much for all the recommendation. Big help

The Katana will do just fine, although it looks like she's used to steel amps, and some people have found getting a steel tone out of it can be fiddly.
My Half and Half is a 300W combo amp that weighs 28 pounds with a 12. It's available with a 15, but the larger cab adds a bit more weight.
Yeah, it's costlier, but it's mostly hand-made in the USA (the power amp is an outsourced module).

Lane Gray wrote:The Katana will do just fine, although it looks like she's used to steel amps, and some people have found getting a steel tone out of it can be fiddly.
My Half and Half is a 300W combo amp that weighs 28 pounds with a 12. It's available with a 15, but the larger cab adds a bit more weight.
Yeah, it's costlier, but it's mostly hand-made in the USA (the power amp is an outsourced module).

Thank you for the suggestion. We just ordered the Katana 100, will try it. If it don't work for her. Will get some other brand. Thanks again

Lane Gray wrote:1) what's she currently using?
2) when you say 'new', do you mean brand new, or just new to you?
3) what's your budget?
4) do you prefer tubes or solid state?

I've got a Milkman Half and Half that I love (but I wish I'd ordered it with a line out, and tremolo).
But it, and the Little Walter, are over two grand, as is the Dr. Z steel amp (all of these are tube.
The Telonics amp is in about the same range but is solid state and has a multieffects unit built in.

Many people like the Roland Cube 80 which is much cheaper, but will need to go through the pa on bigger stages.

I don't know if she already uses a "normal" steel amp.
If not, any Peavey with Session or Nashville in the name would probably make her happy, and those can often be found used for around three hundred.

Thank you for your suggestion. We just ordered katana 100, will give it a try. She currently have some old peavey that not working anymore. If this katana don't do the job perhaps will try another peavey again ^_^

Replacing the speaker(s) in your amps with Neo ones will lighten the load measurably. The amps you already have are fine for pedal steel. Finding something better may cost a couple of thousand, but gain you very little as far as sound goes.

(All IMHO.)

Sharon Frances wrote: Thank you for your suggestion. We just ordered katana 100, will give it a try. She currently have some old peavey that not working anymore. If this katana don't do the job perhaps will try another peavey again ^_^

Good luck ! The Katana , although lite-weight and used by a few as an alternative , is not considered a Steel Guitar amplifier while the PV's are indeed designed and made for Steel Guitars.

You own several nice amps mentioned above, of course they are bigger and heavier, no doubt. Each of those are used often by Steel players for the amount of clean headroom that they offer, be it for recording or on stage performance.

If the Katana doesn't do what you need my take would be to bring one of the amps you already own to a quality tech , have them bring to it's full potential and then replace the speaker with a lighter quality speaker as mentioned above.

best to you

t

Sharon,
Get a Nashville 112, and forget it.

Regards,
Bob

Sharon, Here are several samples of two amp. Under the price of $799.00.

Nashville 112 and a Boss Katana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa62OuJ_WMk

Regards,
Ron Hogan

I would say get the Katana if you are an utility player. I ordered a Katana 100 because I spend a good chunk of the night on banjo and 6 strings. I've been hauling 3 amps for bar and club gigs and its just not worth it. The banjo and acoustic guitar through my Fishman preamp into a Katana sounds nice. The Katana is really light compared to my Nashville 400.

If I was a dedicate pedal steel guy only I would expect better bottom end from a true steel amp especially if I played a lot of C6. But I might be overthinking things.

Ed Boyd wrote:I would say get the Katana if you are an utility player. I ordered a Katana 100 because I spend a good chunk of the night on banjo and 6 strings. I've been hauling 3 amps for bar and club gigs and its just not worth it. The banjo and acoustic guitar through my Fishman preamp into a Katana sounds nice. The Katana is really light compared to my Nashville 400.

If I was a dedicate pedal steel guy only I would expect better bottom end a true steel amp especially if I played a lot of C6. But I might be overthinking things.

This 100%

I play mandolin as well as dojo, lap and pedal steel.

But I bought a Katana head and play through these two options:
12" Tweaker cab or a 15" Big Ben Emmeince speaker / open cab.