Is there an all around psg amp and electric amp?

Alex Piazza · From: Arkansas, USA

I play about half of my sets with pedal steel and the other with electric guitar. I have a maz jr 18 watt amp that sounds amazing w/ my guitar but lousy with the pedal steel. a little to much grit. when I played steel with a nashville 112 it sounds great but a little to thin with the tele and strat. anyone have this problem. better yet, a solution. i was thinking of a fender blues deluxe maybee?

Marlin Smoot · From: Kansas

This is all subjective but if you want a great guitar sound and a great steel sound, I would suggest carry the 2 amps of which you get a great sound with.

Some steel amps sound great with steel and guitar with the bigger cabinet and 15 inch speaker...but usually (for me) I've found taking my Session 400 serves me well for both types of guitars...if I know I am only going to use one amp...like at a practice or at a jam...where I know space will be limited, I've always trusted my Session 400 to give me a great sound for both.

However, I also do double duty, so I take a Fender Twin for my Tele and my Session 400 for steel. Switching back and forth between both amps/guitars saves time with tweaking the eq's and each guitar is going to sound good with no worry or trying to fight the lack of tone for one guitar or the other.

Some 12 inch speaker amps sound great at low volumes with steel, and your Dr. Z is one of the great amps for 6 string. But to ask one amp to handle the Swiss Army Knife of all amps is hard for a lot of amps.

It may be a hassel to take both amps, but I care about the sound to do so. It's really only one extra amp, some cords and mic to haul, a small price to pay for the sound I want to have.

I guess the bottom line is; if you want only one amp to drive the guitar and steel, start with a steel amp. As I mentioned, its all subjective and I'm sure many on the Forum have excellent advice with what works for them too.

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

The best all-around amp for both, would HAVE to be a Twin, especially the ultralinear 135 watt jobs. Heavy, but they'll do the job!

Michael Holland · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Thought about a Boogie? They've got tons of headroom for steel with the master volume up. EQ switches in or out. You might even be lucky enough to find one of these.

[This message was edited by Michael Holland on 09 April 2006 at 05:10 PM.]

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Of course, it's subjective and depends on what kind of music you play, what kind of guitar/steel tones you like, and how loud you play. If you like a lot of grit on the guitar and like your steel real clean, that's a tough combination with a conventional amp. But if you like your guitar pretty clean and just a little hair on your steel sound, a blackface or early silverface Twin Reverb is hard to beat, to me. I love the ultralinears for steel, but unless I'm playing a jazz archtop and want the fat, clean classic jazz sound, I much prefer the earlier, lower-power Twin/Dual-Showman Reverbs - the ones made before 1972 with no Master Volume - for guitar. If these are too loud, you might consider a Pro Reverb of the same vintage. Amazing what a pair of JBL or EV speakers can do for a Pro.

With all that said, for a small club gig that's not real loud, I use a Pod into a 50-watt Ampeg BA-12 solid-state bass amp. I know not everyone likes the Pod, but it is incredibly versatile, and produces a good facsimile of a lot of useful guitar and steel tones - that is, if you're OK with a Twin Reverb type sound for steel. This will get you a decent clean sound for steel and if you want grit on your guitar - well, no problem there. I also have a Digitech Genesis 3 that is pretty nice also. It may actually have a slightly better clean sound for steel, to my ears anyway - but I prefer the Pod for guitar. Just my opinion, YMMV.

Yeah - one of those Boogies with the EVM15L speakers would be cool. Good luck, they're pretty rare. I wish they would reissue that. I should talk with my buddy who is a Boogie dealer, maybe they would make one custom.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

I agree it's very subjective, and extremely dependent on your style. If you play country a Twin might be OK, but even for country they sound pretty weak at low volume for guitar.

You mention the Dr. Z and then a Blues Junior, so I'm guessing you're playing small venues. The Blues Junior is likely to be about as gritty for steel as the Maz.

I'm thinking more along the line of a deluxe Reverb, which can be biased to play pretty clean for steel and still sound good with guitar. Whatever you use, if it's a tube amp it has to be driving pretty hard to sound decent, so 20-40 watts would be the general vicinity for small club use. It's going to be a bit of a compromise either way - I'd err slightly on the side of headroom for the steel and use a good OD pedal for guitar to warm it up a bit. Something like a '64 Vibroverb Custom, a Pro Reverb, Super Reverb, etc - with the right speakers - could fit the bill if a deluxe is too dirty sounding.

I use a Vibroverb, and if I need more power just chain a 30W Holland 2x10 or Pro Reverb with it.

David Doggett · Posted 9 Apr 2006 8:32 pm

Here is what the ideal amp would have for playing both guitar and pedal steel. First, you need an amp with two completely independent channels, with separate volume, EQ and reverb for each channel (okay, you could use a master reverb, and just readjust that one knob when switching axes). The steel channel needs to have lots of clean headroom - for most players 100 clean tube watts is a minimum (unless you play small quiet venues, or can always mic the amp). For the guitar channel, you need to be able to cut the output, so you can play in the top 3rd of the volume range where the good tube tone is for guitar. Some modern amps can switch to half power or less. You could also get separate output attenuator that does the same thing (it goes between the amp and the speaker), and just switch it on when you switch to guitar. Of course, if the top 3rd of the volume range is getting dirty, it is probably unusable for steel; so that means 2/3 volume has to give you enough volume for steel. There are lots of guitar amps out there that do the guitar channel well. Finding one with enough clean headroom for steel narrows the field down a lot, but there are some out there. If you don't need a lot of volume for steel, or always mic the amp, there are more choices. Most steelers prefer a 15" speaker, but many use one or two 12s. Most guitar players prefer 12s or 10s, but some like a 15 (Stevie Ray Vaughn did) - so you have to make a choice.

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