Amps for Pedal Steel guitars

[Rhodesplyr]

A recent client of mine needed repairs on the Fender Deluxe '65 Reissue he uses for his pedal steel (bad solder joints), but last night, after a show they played, he was asking me for advice on getting a fuller sound; his complaint is that he feels his amp gets too harsh and edgy when driven hard. As a keyboard player, I don't know that much about pedal steels or what amps are best for them, so I looked around.

What I see is that most combo amps geared towards the pedal steel market use a single 15" speaker and have higher power output than what he's using.

I also noticed that the Fender Deluxe circuit has a fair amount of high-pass filtering going on in the choices of coupling capacitor values--not bad choices for regular electric guitar, a single 12", and an open-backed cabinet, but perhaps not the best for pedal steel.

Would I be steering him in the right direction by advising him that he might be happier with a more full-range speaker and amplifier combination--and probably more power/greater headroom for use onstage in a six-member rock band?

[Tom Phillips]

...Would I be steering him in the right direction by advising him that he might be happier with a more full-range speaker and amplifier combination--and probably more power/greater headroom for use onstage in a six-member rock band?

That's pretty much what pedal steel player's want. The one's I know favor Twin Reverb amps and often like to have the power supply beefed up with higher capacitance first stage filters. They want the amp set up for maximum clean power. One customer plays through a Fender Pro Reverb with beefed up PS for small gigs. It's unusual to hear of a Pedal Steel player using a Deluxe Reverb.

[Enzo]

And 8,000,000 Nashville players running big old Peavey amps can;t be wrong. SOlid state with a 15". Not sure what they are making today, but in the past, amps like the Nashville 400 or Renown 400 were killer. I think there is a Nashville 1000.

[teemuk]

Speaking of Fender amps, Fender made at least the "Steel King" amp for the purpose. Peavey introduced a whole series of amps for it in the early 1980's and shortly thereafter bunch of reissues (LTD, Nasville, Vegas, Session, Reno, etc.). Then there are the legendary and sought after vintage brands like Sho-Bud, Standel, Nashville, Woodson, ZB Guitars, Evans, Baldwin, Webb... though, honestly, I think sometimes their main attraction is pretty much just having a very clean and sterile sound and the use of those magnificient JBL speakers that fitted lap steel guitar applications like a glove.

I don't really know what they make for these things today but probably many of the modern jazz/acoustic amps would work well.

[Ronsonic]

Would I be steering him in the right direction by advising him that he might be happier with a more full-range speaker and amplifier combination--and probably more power/greater headroom for use onstage in a six-member rock band?

That's pretty much the formula. A DR is pretty small and a bit dirty for the complex signal coming off a pedal steel. They play goofy intervals on those things and the intermodulation can get ugly. The big Peaveys mentioned are classic. The Fender Twin is also good, especially the 135 watt model that most guitar players don't like. Big clean power is the main thing and then a speaker that can handle it.

[Rhodesplyr]

A DR is pretty small and a bit dirty for the complex signal coming off a pedal steel. They play goofy intervals on those things and the intermodulation can get ugly.

Ah, that may explain this guy's complaint that he felt like he got a "weird" sound from the Deluxe Reverb when he tried to play it at high volumes. I haven't had the chance to listen first-hand to what he's talking about.

He's a younger player, just out of college, so I really don't know how he arrived at his current setup. What's interesting to me is that the Deluxe Reverb is fairly new, and he could probably have bought a nice, used amp more appropriate to his needs for less money.

But with good advice from all of you on here, I'm in a better position to help him get the sound he wants. It's much appreciated.

[loudthud]

I've played with a couple of Steel players and the tone they like is a little strange. Strong low treble but no presence. A Vox like Cut control with a smallish cap might be to their liking. Clear Bass that extends a little below normal guitar range is nice too.