Fender amp suggetions

jsaine · From: Charlottesville, VA

I'm interested in which Fender amps folks are using with their steels. I'm looking to trade or sell an old Mesa Boogie for an old Fender. Recently I played a 68' super reverb and like it a lot, but I was curious what other non-pedal players prefer. Any suggestions?

Gerald Ross · From: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

I have a seven year old '65 Twin Reverb reissue. I love the sound and it's got the classic Fender look. I just wish it was lighter. It weighs in at around 72 pounds.

I set the tone pretty close to Jerry Byrd's recommendations... Reverb at 4, Treble at 3, Mid Range at 4 and Bass at 10.

Chris Bauer · From: Nashville, TN USA

For non-pedal, I usually use my black face Deluxe Reverb reissue. Can't beat the sound with either my Console Grande or my Fender steels. It's plenty loud for even medium sized venues and, as an added bonus, it won't break your back to carry...

Marc Weller · From: Upland, Ca. 91784

Group,

I had a Twin with Electrovoice speakers that weighed 125 lbs !! Great sound but you better have a good chiropractor. My '68 Super weighs alot less and sounds just fine.

MW

mikey · From: New Jersey

matters how much power you need..if you liked the super, get it!...I like a Deluxe Reverb or a Bassman, or if I need more power a twin reverb,(with a stringmaster)
Mike

Andy Alford · Posted 22 Jan 2001 5:46 am

Fender Bullet Reverb

This is a good amp for the house.I run 2 B.W.s with it and get a great sound.This is a neat non gig amp. You can get some great high end sounds for the steel.

Mikel Nelson · From: San Diego, CA

I usually use a ~98 Fender Deluxe 112. Sounds great!...a very suprising little amp.
I'll also sometimes use an original Fender Blues Deville 4x10...but the weight is a little annoying.

mikey · From: New Jersey

Aloha,
Another thing most people forget about is changing Pre-amp tubes, a Boogie can be a wonderful amp for just about any instrument with minor,non-invasive tweaking, the biggest, most tone improving thing you can do for an amp used for Steel is change the pre amp tubes to lower the gain for more clean headroom and changing all the 12AX7's to either 12AY7's or 12AT7's will reduce the preamp gain structure by about 1/2 to 3/4 respectively and give you a much more Fendery clean sound,(no rebiasing required, it's a straight swap), changing the speaker helps a lot as well, I'm sure for about @$100 you can get your boogie to do what you want without any permanent modifications to the amp.....(I'm talking about a MK 1 Boogie, BTW, but it's true for any tube amp using 12AX7's in the Pre-Amp) Modern amps are designed w/ Guitars in mind and they WANT easier distortion, overdrive characteristics...thats why (for the most part)High gain 12AX7's (or even worse are the 7025 tubes or the Sovtek 12AX7WX) are used in the preamp. Boogie uses a wonderful power amp section(If you have Sylvania 6L6's DON'T sell the amp cheaply, finest Power tube out there and IMPOSSIBLE to find) and are very well made amps,(probably better quality control than Fender) I personally don't like 'em,(12AX7's in the preamp,I think Mesa Boogies are very good amplifiers) there's just too much gain...Also, use NOS American Pre amp tubes, and The 12AT7's and AY's are very cheap and easy to find,(I like RCA's)because most people don't use 'em. I get mine from Antique Electronic Supply,but they are readily availible through lots of good tube dealers...you should give it a try...
Good luck,
Mike

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

I'm a big fan of the Fender Deluxe Reverb as well, but when I'm practicing, I use a Fender Pro Junior. 15 watts through a ten inch speaker - more than enough power for even small gigs, and a great sound.

I guess it depends on the sound you're trying to achieve, but for my lap steel playing the Fender Pro Junior is great.

------------------
Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Bill Leff · From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Mikey:

As I think you know, I have a Boogie Mark 1
reissue. I've got the preamp tubed with Ruby STR7025s (supposedly great stuff). My amp has a 12" EV speaker.

My question, at low volumes, do you think my amp would sound different with 12AT7's in the preamp section? The amp is very loud. However, the channel I play through (low gain) is less powerful. However, even in this so-called "Fender"-sounding channel the tone doesn't compare to a good quality clean Fender sound for Hawaiian steel guitar, even at lower volumes (not bad though).

Aloha

-Bill

Sage · From: Boulder, Colorado

My amp is a silverface Vibrosonic (which I love) but I played my '49 National thru my friend's Fender Super Champ- and it had fantastic tone from a tiny little amp. Anyone out there use one regularly for steel?

[This message was edited by Sage on 22 January 2001 at 06:02 PM.]

jsaine · From: Charlottesville, VA

Thanks for all the responses, especially Mikey's tube information which I will explore. The amp in question is a 79' Mark 2. When I was playing more guitar than steel I really liked this amp, though I don't think my style of playing ever really took the amp to it's true plateau. When I started playing more steel than guitar I swithed to a Nashville 400 with the tone mod., mainly because I liked the fullness of the 15" speaker. The super reverb also had a great fullness and balance with those 4x10's especially with the 2 26" scale stringmasters I have. I could never get that balance from the Mesa even though the tone is great. I believe the mesa is equipped with sovtek tubes however. Do I drop the money and refit the Mesa with new tubes or jump ship. Hmmm. Anyway, there's something about multiple speakers - am I right?

mikey · From: New Jersey

Borrow a 2x12 or a 4x10 cabinet and hook it up to your boogie and see if it's the speaker, they do make the tone...you could even use the Super as a cabinet for the boogie to check...and preamp tubes are only like 10 bucks a pop....change them one at a time, and don't worry about the power amp tubes, it's worth a try...Carvin sells 2x12's pretty cheap, and just load the cab w/speakers of your choice...Oh, and Sage, my main amp for recording is a tweed Champ....
Aloha,
Mike

Peter Jacobs · From: Northern Virginia

I use a 70's Music Man RD-65 -- it's a single 12 combo with a solid-state pre-amp, EL34 power amp stage, a 30/60 watt switch and low and high level effects routing. Music Man was a Leo Fender follow-up company and these amps are well-designed, incredibly reliable, and louder than you'd expect. I can get that Fender clean tone (I put a Morley JD-10 in front of it for overdrive). Most importantly, they don't cost an arm and a leg on the used market. They're pretty abundant in the D.C. area. Might be worth checking out.

Good luck in your Tone-Quest,
Peter

Billy Jones · From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

I have two Fender amps. A Bassman and a Twin. They are both 58's and I separated the heads fron the speakers. I personally don't care about looking original although they look like they just came off the line. Neither amp has reverb etc. but you probably already know that. Separating them like this sure cuts the weight down and the sound is perfect for me. I've tried just about everything on one job or another but I have to say that these two are my pets for warmth and clean level. My neighbour has 13 amps and 11 of them are old Fenders and one Messa Boogie that look and sound like they just come from the manufacturer.
Sure is a nice collection.
.. Billy

Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

Blues Jr.

Small, lightweight, tones from sweet to fairly nasty, good bang for the buck (under $350, usually). Gets plenty loud, but you don't have to assault your ears to get a decent tone.

Setting the drive at about 6 gives a nice tone that sings sweetly but overdrives nicely when picking aggressively.

Tom Quinn · Posted 30 Jan 2001 5:52 pm

If you want the real-deal straight steel tone, then I recommend an old Fender Pro Amp. The narrow panels (55-59) are pretty expensive, but the (53-early 55) wide panels are fairly reasonable and sound terrific. The TV fronts (49-52) are great too, but the octal base tubes are hard to keep running.

If you need some reverb, get a Nanoverb.

In my amp collection, I have a '54 wide-panel Pro and wouldn't trade it for the world...

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