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Topic: Killer New Setup: Mullen G2, Little Walter '89, etc... |
Chris Grigsby
From:
Boulder, CO
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Posted 21 Jul 2016 9:11 pm |
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Somewhat unintentionally, I completely changed my setup over the past few months and couldn't be happier.
I sold my Milkman 40W Mini thinking I could find something a little cheaper that would suffice, but this turned out to be a fool's errand. I tried a Fender Blue Deluxe and couldn't stand the brutally harsh high-end. Ordered a Quilter Steelaire but it was dead on arrival and had to be returned. Tried a Peavey Nashville 112 and couldn't get a good tone out of it to save my life. So, I started searching for my next amp and ended up torn between a Telonics and a Little Walter. Thankfully I got a chance to hear both amps on stage at a local pedal steel show in Denver and knew as soon as I heard the LW that it was the amp for me. As luck would have it, Phil Bradbury had one of his new 100w '89 heads with a matching 1x15 cab loaded with a Telonics speaker built for his annual endorsee jam in Nashville that I was able to snag with no wait. I've owned a lot of nice amps in my 25+ years of playing guitars, but this amp is truly special. It is dead quiet, sounds amazing at any volume, and has headroom for days. It has an incredible tonal range given the expanded tone stack and it takes pedals better than any amp I've heard. Speaking of which, my biggest hesitation with the Little Walter was that it didn't have onboard tube driven reverb. I was extremely dubious that a pedal could provide a good reverb sound, but after demoing the Strymon Blue Sky and the Neunaber WET reverb pedals, I'm a believer. I ended up keeping the latter and am just blown away at the sounds coming out of this pedal. I haven't touched my 6-string since I started playing PSG 18 mos. ago, but this amp sounds so good that I put together a really cool mini-pedal board with a Wampler Tumnus Klon-style overdrive, and a Walrus Audio Bellwether Analog Delay. Haven't had this much fun playing my guitars in a long time.
As for the steel, I was perfectly happy with my Show Pro, but I got an insane deal on a like-new Mullen G2 SD10 from 2014 and decided to give it a try. This guitar plays like a dream and the sound from the stock Mullen single coil is perfectly suited to my ear. Being in Denver, I had the luxury of driving two hours to the Mullen factory where the guys got it dialed in and set up to factory specs. Pretty cool to have your guitar set up by Del Mullen himself as the machines are whirring away building more guitars.
If you've made it this far, you deserve a few pics.
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Mullen Discovery S10, Hilton VP, Kemper Profiler Head and Kabinet.
Last edited by Chris Grigsby on 22 Jul 2016 6:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lane Gray
From:
Topeka, KS
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Posted 22 Jul 2016 4:22 am
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Pretty cool!
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects |
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Dick Wood
From:
Springtown Texas, USA
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Posted 22 Jul 2016 5:52 am
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Looks good but a sound clip would be even better.
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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night. |
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Dale Rottacker
From:
Walla Walla Washington, USA
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 22 Jul 2016 9:21 am
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Chris ,
You have a great setup !!.....Top Shelf everything !!...I'll bet it sounds as good as it looks ....Good Luck with it ....Jim |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 22 Jul 2016 12:08 pm
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| Nice😎. Thanks for posting! |
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Todd Goad
From:
Gray, Georgia, USA
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Posted 22 Jul 2016 8:03 pm
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Very Nice Chris!!! Let's hear a tune man. Congratulations!!
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Todd
Mullen G2 "THE SAVIOR" BJS Bars Peterson Stroboflip Tuner NV400 GoodrichL20 |
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Chris Grigsby
From:
Boulder, CO
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Posted 30 Jul 2016 7:46 pm
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Thanks guys, I'll try and get some sound clips together when I get my studio back up and running.
I absolutely loved my Milkman 40w, but it had a pretty narrow sweet spot before it would start breaking up too much for PSG. With the '89 head and the 100 watts of crystal clear clean tone, I've been having some fun running the Wampler Tumnus (Klon) as a low gain clean boost to dial in just the right amount of hair on the tone.
I've never been much of a pedal guy, but I'm starting to see how fun they can be, especially with a canvas such as this.
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Mullen Discovery S10, Hilton VP, Kemper Profiler Head and Kabinet. |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 31 Jul 2016 5:55 am
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Chris ,
You stumbled on an important part of tone that a lot of folks overlook ....You mention that pedal ....So many steel players look for as clean a tone as they can get ...With a good preamp section on an amp , and judicial use of a good pedal , pedal steel tones can bloom into some GREAT sounding tones ...The mild distortion becomes pleasing to the ears ...When you find the right combination , you will end up with a smile on your face that will not easily be wiped off !!.....Good for you !!..... .......Jim |
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