Amp Questions from New Guy

Joe Eisenhart · From: Pennsylvania, USA

Greetings Folks, just climbed aboard and looking for amplifier advise. Have a vintage Sho Bud 6139 steel w/ the vol. & tone controls bypassed, rewire these active or control through the amp and pedal? The advise from local music shop is to run a bass amp w/ 15" speakers, yes or no good? Thoughts on tube or solid state, I'm looking for a mellow sound here. I've looked at the Fender Blues amp but want to take the guitar in and try several. Appreciate any advise from the forum and glad to be here among you..........Joe http://www.myspace.com/quest4stringtheory

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Welcome Joe from Oklahoma!! Yes, you are better to bypass the tone sucking circuit. I'm refurbishing that very guitar right now. They are a very cool Shobud. I love the original Shobud pickups, or Jerry Wallace True Tones for replacements.

I love the shobuds through a Fender Twin Reverb. Jbl's are great, like the D 130's or K 130's or my favorites are Altec 418B's--all great 15" speakers. I put my '71 nonmaster volume twin in a head cabinet and run a pair of Altec 418B.s in extension cabinets made by forumite Rick Johnson. I use an old Shobud pot pedal with a 500K pot in it. The amp reverb is enough, or maybe a little delay with a Boss DD6 stomp box. That's about as classic shobud tone as you will get. This rig works for me! Wink

Bill Moore · From: Manchester, Michigan

A peavey Session 400 would be my choice. Great Amp.

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

edited for family fun..
Hi Joe..

This is a Guitar, not a Bass..the range is extended..but it is a Guitar.

You will find after a bit that amps vary greatly, the Fender Twins offer a great alternative to Steel Guitar amps as they are very versatile in the PRE AMP sections and can offer the Headroom and volume to go with a big room.

Steel amps have preamps voiced for Steel Guitars and that is probably where you will end up at some point, with a Steel guitar amp, regardless of brand.

Just because an amp has a 15" speaker does not make it a good amp for Steel, although there are always exceptions. A hi quality Guitar amp such as a Fender Twin or a Music Man with 12's or 15 is a good bet.

most Music stores, if they are NOT familiar with Steel Guitars basically have NO knowledge and there advice should be taken very lightly. Also many NON Steel Guitar Music stores may tell you that Peavey amps are not good..don't believe them.

Peavey has been making STEEL guitar amps for 40 years or so now and for the most part a majority of us bandstand warriors use one of them. ( or two)

Keep an open mind, but a Bass amp typically is not good choice in my view, the preamps are voiced for Bass.

A Guitar amp with good headroom and a bunch of power is the best bet. 12's are ok, 15's are most popular, but not a 15" Bass Speaker, a 15" Guitar Speaker.

A 40 watt Fender Blues or Peavey Tube amp may sound great at moderate levels but it will not offer the headroom that a 60 Watt amp will. A 40 watt tube amp for Guitar is great, for Steel it may not be clean enough. My opinion for tube amps is that you really need to be at 60 watts and above, this is why the 85 watt and 100 watt Twins are so popular.

Tubes vs Solid state= personal choice.

there are a ton of good hi quality used Peavey Steel Solid State amps out there which will get the job done for you...
Session 400
Session 500
Nashville 400
Vegas 400
Nashville 1000
Nashville 112
etc...
as well as other brands
Fender Steel King
Webb
Evans
Walker Stereo
etc....

good luck and welcome aboard..

and of course your intended use will be the determining factor.

A home player can pretty much play thru any amp and be satisifed, but if you are going out into the cruel harsh world, an amp to match your needs, as you already know, is the best choice.

t

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

It depends on what you need the amp for. If you just need something to practice through while you get it together any amp will be fine. I practice through a little roland keyboard amp with an 8 inch speaker and no reverb. I think it cost me about $40 15 years ago and it still works.

For live and recording I use standard guitar amps. I don't like 15 inch speakers.

Bass amps can work fine for steel. One guy that comes to mind is BJ Cole. When he is doing a fly date to NYC he uses bass amps pretty often. Plenty of highs in his tone.

I'm not sure about how things are in the rest of the country but in NYC the last 2 amp repair shops I have worked with have been telling me that Peaveys are the way to go for quality these days and that Crate amps are a good bang for your buck.

Have fun and however much you practice, practice more !
_________________
Bob

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Joe,

I use a '77 Peavy Session 400 (JBL) with my '76 Pro 1 (somewhat similar to your 6139) and it's pretty much the best sound I've had. The Session 400 can be had for under $400, and is very reliable. Just roll off the mids, turn up the shift, and presto! Great tone. You have to be nice to it if there's a JBL in it, though. They're more prone to blowing than the later Black Widows.

James' rig rocks as well........it's the ultimate rig because you get the vintage Fender tube tone without a hernia. I had '71 SF Twin and loved the sound with my Sho~Bud, but almost broke my back. This amp weighed 85 pounds on my scales. The Session @ about 65 pounds is a solid tone machine that will give you about as good as tone as transisitors can....in my humble opinion, of course. Brad Sarno mentioned something here a few times about the Session 400 having discreet transisitors which put out a superior tone to later configurations. I can certainly attest to that. I use the Session on 6-string gigs now as well. It's my only amp these days.
_________________
Jackson Steel Guitars
Web: www.chrisledrew.com

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Just plugging straight into most bass amps doesn't sound great to me. But I can and do sometimes use a bass amp if I use something like a Pod as a preamp/modeler. But straight in, it just sounds too flat, to my tastes. In fact, Pod into Ampeg bass amp is my practice setup - if I turn the amp off and put headphones into the Pod, I can practice anytime I want without bugging anybody. I agree that practice time is the most important thing.

I've been playing guitar a lot longer than steel, have always used tube amps, and a high-power blackface or silverface Fender like a Twin Reverb or Dual Showman Reverb work fine for steel, to me. But my main steel amp these days is a Peavey Nashville 112. I also have a Peavey LTD 400 and Session 500 - you're close enough to check them out if you like. I've actually never seen a steel amp in a music store around here.

On bypassing of the vol/tone control on the 6139 - I don't think it makes that much difference. Mine aren't bypassed, and it sounds fine, but I never use them. Most pedal steel players control volume with a volume pedal.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Modern bass rigs actually make good steel amps in many cases. 15 years ago the preamps were voiced for bass and they had limited frequency response, but literally al the newer SWR, Hartke, Eden, Aguilar etc. bass stuff has an extended frequency range to handle the modern high-fret and string poppoing, which require strong treble response.

I've run Shobuds, Fenders and a GFI through several SWR rigs and Alembic/Crest (or QSC) rack systems, and not only do they have the frequency response, they have tremendous headroom. A pair of Acme 10" bass drivers with a 1200 watt QSC power amp and Alembic preamp makes a great sounding, fairly lightweight steel rig.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

ok I'll rephrase, Bass amps MAY fit your needs . They just didn't fit mine and if you view what the majority of Steel players are using, Bass rigs are NOT common.

I too played Bass thru a Hartke 350 watt amp / 4 x10 cab and I clearly didn't like it all compared to any of my other Guitar amps for Steel. But with my Fender J Bass this was an ideal set-up for me. For me, this rig was not especially good for the single coil Guitars either, it was ok for the Les Paul, but not great.

Unless you are a giging Bass player I would still recommend staying out of the Bass amp camp, theres no reason to go there with all of the Steel Guitar amp options available at much less cost.

good luck

t

Joe Eisenhart · From: Pennsylvania, USA

Guys, thanks so much for the warm welcomes and thoughtful opinions / suggestions. This gives me alot to chew over in the shopping phase. Although I've never handled an electric instrument, I have seen our 70's band go full circle in amplifiers during 10 years of touring. Beginning w/ Fenders (all of which I wish I had now), to 100W stacks of Marshall, Ampeg, Acoustic, and ending up w/ Mesa Boogies, mixed and run through a high end PA system. I've always loved the Fender personality but not sure I can lay out for a classic, and not certain the contemporary models offer that magic. I will be trying my Sho Bud through a variety before leaping. If I can get it set up at all, her 1st voice will be a 15W Fender Frontman yard Sale find. Thanks again for all your input and hopefully I'll be blessing you w/ some more specific issues very soon.........Joe

Don Discher · From: Sault Ste Marie,Ontario,Canada

Save your back and your money and go with the Nash 112, you can't go wrong and even if you find it's not for you , these amps sell like hot cakes.

Jim Eaton · From: Santa Susana, Ca

Nashville 112...with a Knob Guard of course!
www.jimeatonmusic.com
JE:-)>
_________________
Emmons D10PP 8/4 -75'
Emmons S-10PP 3/4 - 79'
Emmons S-12PP 3/4 -78'
MSA Legend SD12 5/5 -06'
Mullen S-12 4/5 - 1986
Nashville 112 x2 W/Knob Guards - Don't leave home with out one!
Walker SS rack system - 12"BW's
Quilter Steelaire Combo

Don Discher · From: Sault Ste Marie,Ontario,Canada

Jim might even throw in a knob guard ! he,he.

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