The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello! I am currently playing my PSG through a Behringer x16. Due to the venues I play an amp is not practical unfortunately… I am just wondering if having something like the Roland GP-100 Guitar Preamp / Processor Multi Effector would be a good addition to my PSG? I can’t really afford Paul Franklins pedal even though that would be my first choice. Any other ideas or suggestions are definitely welcome! I’ve been playing steel for about 15 years mostly in churches but I’m starting to branch out finally and need a little better gear setup.

The Roland GP-100 is a very good unit. When I was using a rack setup I used the GP-100 with the preamp shut off and it has some wonderful reverbs, delays & chorus. If you are going into an input of a guitar amp I suggest the same thing turning the preamp off. If you are going into a separate power amp and speakers, turn the preamp on.

The Blackface patch is a good preamp setting and the plate reverb is a nice effect. You can also add delays to the reverb, etc.

Hope this helps

Thanks for that! Just out of curious, what are you using now?

I used my GP100 at the jams today. I have several programs set up for steel and guitar. I use the Blackface preamp for steel stuff. I run it through a big MosValve power amp in a stereo configuration. I use the seat mounted SE70 for my rotary and synth horns etc.

I used it today with satellite cabs loaded with the Weber Neomag 15s that came to me from Lenny.

It sounded just great.

This one was previously owned by Wayne Dahl and had some presets already set up. I modded and tweaked them for my use.

The GP100 is a very versatile unit with a lot of features and with the manual handy, pretty straightforward to build programs.

Another option would be one of the Peavey "fex" units that have the Nashville steel presets loaded.

To solve a similar dilemma I picked up a couple of Roland Street Cube units. There are two instrument- or mic-capable inputs with discrete effects on each. the steel sounds fabulous through the clean mic input, but a number of modeled amps are also available. It can run outdoors on AA batteries, has superb reverb and delay, a 1/8" stereo input for practicing with tracks, and an excellent headphone output that doubles as a stereo line out that mutes the speakers.

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Currently I am using a Quilter Mach 3 head with a single JBL-K130 (4 ohm) speaker in a Stereo Steel cab. However, I would never give up my Roland GP-100. I alway find a use for it with some setup I am experimenting with.

Without an amp, you'll probably want something with some amp/speaker simulation. The line6 HX stomp will have everything you need for that including any effects you want to dial in. It's just a little thing too, and not super expensive.

Thanks for all the ideas and info! I’m definitely gonna have to do some checking and see which way I wanna go!