A question asked and answered from Hartley Peavey

Gary Watkins · From: Bristol, VA

B0b,if this needs to be moved, please do so. I sent this to the Peavey page and here is the results.

Gary Watkins Asked:
"Is Peavey planning on manufacturing a pedal steel guitar in the future, and why only one (Nashville 112) steel guitar amp at this time?"

Hey Gary,
People have been asking me to manufacture steel guitars for several decades now. There are several reasons that we haven't done it and I'll try to explain why below.

Steel guitars have been around for quite awhile. Frankly, I never knew that much about steel guitars until I got involved with a guy named Julian Tharpe. Julian was a steel player for Ray Price (who was based in Texas). Julian was from Alabama and when Ray came off tour, Julian drove through Meridian to his home in Alabama and then back to Texas to begin Ray's next tour. One Saturday afternoon I was hard at work in my first little factory on 10th Avenue, when Julian came through the door wanting to know what amps I had that might be suitable for steel guitar. Frankly, I knew virtually nothing about steel guitar so I rolled my (then) biggest and best guitar amp out for Julian to try. I was amazed to see that Julian's MSA steel has two necks each having 10 strings and that with the pedals he could drop the bass strings down to the point that they were like a "limp noodle!" Julian quickly demonstrated to me that my "best amp" wasn't so good for steel. Julian was never one to "mince words," and he basically told me that my amp wasn't good enough for him to play! I kinda took this as a challenge and I started to try to learn as much as I could about steel guitar, and specifically about steel guitar amplification. This project brought me in contact with a number of steel guitar players, as well as a guy named Jim Evans who was designing tube type steel guitar amps. Our R&D program for our Session amplifier included a number of well respected steel players (in addition to Julian Tharpe). Through Maurice Anderson (MSA steel guitars) we met Curly Chalker, who was very active in this amp program along with Scotty DeWitt of Scotty's Music in St Louis. The final product that came from this very interesting program was our Session LTD and Nashville amplifiers.

We've been building steel guitars amplifiers since the early 70's, and Peavey has been the only major amp company to continuously build steel guitar amplifiers. A lot of steel players have asked me why my competitors don't do this, and the answer is pretty simple: no volume (numbers). The steel guitar market is relatively small, and as a result, the relatively small numbers sold is generally considered to be too few amplifiers for my competitors to get involved with. Over the decades there have been a few "boutique" steel amp companies that have come and gone, and ditto for steel guitar companies. Peavey has continued to make steel amplifiers just because other companies don't/won't. We even developed special Black Widow speakers for our larger steel amps because the available speakers from so-called "premium" speaker companies were totally inadequate to cover the extremely wide frequency range of a 10 string pedal steel guitar, especially when the low strings were as limp as a noodle. I'm not at all sure that making steel guitar amplifiers is worthwhile from a financial standpoint, but I still remember the huge amount of knowledge we got in dealing with trying to properly amplify steel guitar.

Currently we offer our Nashville 112, which essentially is an 80 watt amplifier with the Session preamp and a specially voiced 12" speaker. We will be introducing some new products for steel guitar in the near future. Stay tuned for some interesting developments in steel amplification, combining the very latest technology we have acquired (especially over the last 5 or 6 years).

Gary, a steel guitar is actually more of a "machine" than it is a musical instrument. Most music dealers do not understand steel guitar, and as a result won't stock them ... ditto, the strings and accessories for steel guitar. As far as I can tell, there are only a few very specialized steel guitar dealers in North America who actually know enough to set up and display steel guitars (and what specialized accessories are needed) because of the very specialized nature of the steel guitar. A pedal steel guitar is simply not something that is sold in quantity. This is probably one of the major reasons that most steel guitar companies have failed in the marketplace. Simply put, this is the reason "WHY" we have not gone into that end of the business. The small market for steel guitars and amplifiers is (unfortunately) a limiting factor, and Peavey probably wouldn't be involved in it at all if we were in business just for financial reasons. Peavey has been dedicated to the steel market for many years, just because we enjoy the challenge (not because we're making money at it). This is also the reason that most of the major amp companies don't make steel guitar amplifiers, and why many have ended up dropping their steel guitar amps after a few years of extremely low sales volume.

Peavey is the only company having the complete technology set to accomplish this, and we are confident that the results will be nothing short of phenomenal in a lightweight, easily portable package. Any previous steel amp will be a "toy" compared to this ... So keep the faith and stay tuned for more on this.

HP
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If you succeed in cheating someone, don't think that the person is a fool. It's just that the person trusted you far more than you deserved.

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Very tantalizing!
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Chris Johnson · From: USA

Interesting Mr. Green

Maybe a Nashville 2000 in the works Whoa!

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

They already had a "Session 2000" so I doubt they will use the "2000" designation.

But, if you read between the lines the steel guitar amplifier demand is very small and no major incentive to build one, although it does seem that one is in the works. They probably sell more "guitar" amps in one day than than steel amps in a year.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Don't forget that Peavey sells a steel guitar already - the Power Slide.
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Brad’s Page of Steel
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John Palumbo · From: Lansdale, PA.

Nice Post

Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

Straight from the Hoss' mouth

Mickey Adams · From: Bandera Texas

After all that I can't believe his last "big Idea" was what I consider...a practice amp...the 112..???
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Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

At the time the 112 was released, the 1000 was still in production if I remember correctly. I recall being in Peavey's room in St. Lou when the 1000 and 2000 were being introduced. There was also talk of a neodymium speaker mag which created quite a stir.

There was a lot of noise made about amp weight from several people at that time.

I think the NV112 was designed as a convenience item for rehearsals etc. so that a player wouldn't have to tote their larger, more powerful unit, but they did the job so well, that lots of players felt the 112 was all that was necessary. Myself, not included, I might add.

Many steel players are in their later years and looking to reduce their gear burden and it seemed to meet their needs.

Could it be that with the release of the NV112, sales of the NV1000 suffered? Even to the point of being discontinued?

Peavey has always responded to steel players needs way more so than any other electronics co. I suspect they were listening when they designed the 112.

I probably know less about Peavey's motives and actions than anyone here, but these are some thoughts I have. As all-wet as they may be.

Ray Riley · From: Des Moines, Iowa, USA

THANK YOU! Ray

Joe Alterio · From: Irvington, Indiana

What's interesting is that Fender actually WAS considering getting into the sale of pedal steel guitars right after they introduced the Custom Twin 15" and Steel King amps. John Fabian told me at the Indy Summer Namm in '05 or '06 that Fender was in talks with Carter to have Carter manufacture a pedal steel for them (likely something akin to the Carter Starter) under the Fender name.

John felt it was a pretty good shot that it would happen...but then never heard any more about it. Obviously, John passed since then and Fender has discontinued the Steel King. Would have been interesting to see what a company the likes of Fender could have done....

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Well, from the standpoint of someone who has been reading at least one guitar magazine steadily since the 1970's (sometimes three), I have to say that in the past two years I have been seeing many, many more individuals and bands who use either pedal steel or at least console/lap steels. But one trend I also see is that the magazine's reviewers know bug-all about pedal steel - they never even ask the player what brand he's playing, what tuning, what his background influences were - you know, the exact kinds of questions that they ask every other member of the band. I've let my subscriptions to both Guitar Player and Vintage Guitar lapse, only sticking with Premier Guitar.

But even they are woefully "steel-ignorant." Fairly recently they had a cover story about Daniel Lanois and while they raved and drooled over his beat-to-death old Les Paul, he expressed a clear preference for playing steel, and mentioned that he used his own tuning. But what that is, what brand, how did he find steel parts that contribute to the music - forget about it.

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