The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey there everyone,
I have a two-part question, but I'd like to establish the context first. I'm a junior in college and have been playing pedal steel since 2017. In my freshman year, I had a GFI student model fresh from the factory and I played it through a headphone amp (because I have roommates) and if I wanted to jam, I had some small fender amp. This year, my setup is more limited and I have very little physical space for steel. Sadly, because of this, I left my setup at home across the country. That being said, I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a specific model of steel guitar that is super light, reliable, and tonally reasonable? I was thinking of a Zum Encore because I've heard they are super reliable, but it may be out of my price range at the moment. Is a Zum Encore relatively light? The second part of my question, is can anyone recommend a small form factor monitoring setup for one person? The USB-charged headphone amp I used didn't sound the best, so there's gotta be a better way to do it while still keeping the volume to a minimum. Pedal steel is really my first instrument and I wanna keep practicing while at school but in order to do that I need the smallest, lightest, and quietest setup I can afford. What do y'all think?

Thank you guys,
Noah Levy

If it was me, I'd ship the guitar to myself (budget 150-200 bucks). If that's not possible, pick up a budget lap steel and practice slants/chords in various tunings -- E, E7, E6, A, A6, C6, etc. -- that occur with various pedal combinations.

And look hard at a Quilter Superblock US. It functions well with headphones, XLR out, or external speaker. Abut 4x6" footprint

https://www.quilterlabs.com/index.php/p ... erblock-us

That seems like a pretty good solution. I may try and sell the GFI to upgrade to something new, but the Quilter Superblock seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for your response.

Noah Levy wrote: ...Is a Zum Encore relatively light?

Just under 50 lbs. in the case.

--Al Evans

That sounds pretty light to me! thank you.

It’s light, and it’s a very nice little guitar. Think you’ll find it a significant upgrade.

Strymon Iridium is the best small headphone monitoring solution hands down. The stereo room reverb makes it feel like youre not wearing headphones and the amp modeling is killer.

The lightest, most compact pedal steel you’ll find is an EXCEL. Amazingly high quality and it doesn’t take a year to get one once you order it.
https://fuzzypsg.com/int/

I'm with K Maul. The Excell surely won't disappoint. Perhaps beyond your budget - something to save up for?

Thanks for your responses, everyone. I'm probably gonna grab one of the headphone monitoring solutions you mentioned, and probably save up for a new guitar in time.


Thanks again for your help guys, means a lot.

-Noah Levy