pedal steel and tube amps

[joninc]

ok - i know many pedalsteel players love the peavey solid state amps and that ss amps tend to have more headroom/power to suit the large dynamic range of the ps.

but - i am trying out a carter starter (wanting to learn after playing lap for the past 10 years) and i only have tube amps. i can't afford to buy another amp right now.

i am after the buttery, rubber, warm, sweet clean tones - not going to be shredding blues licks on this thing anytime soon.

so - the question is - which of these amps would be most suited:

70's silverface super reverb
70's silverface vibro champ
newer blues jr re-issue
ampeg v4
blackface deluxe
vox ac30 cc

??

i tried the ampeg and super out last night (they have the sweetest reverb) but both crapped out pretty easily.

any tricks to keep the tone from breaking up?

[lyman]

if you really want to stay clean, look at higher wattage amps. a lot of people think of wattage as a rating of volume (which isn't totally wrong), but more accurately it's a rating of at what point the power section of the amp is going to distort. it's a rating of clean power i guess you could say.

you could use lower gain preamp tubes (12ay7, 5751, etc.) but if you've got a master volume amp it's easy enough to keep the preamp clean. and then you'll just have to drive the power section harder.

so if you want to play really loud and really clean, get a fender twin!

[joninc]

i am not looking (or able) to buy another amp right now.

are none of my amps workable? the only one with master vol is the blues jr.

[darjama]

A great player I know used a gibson goldtone with his that sounded pretty stellar, don't see any reason why another tube amp wouldn't be good. But since I don't play a pedal steel, that's the full extent of what I can say.

[chovie d]

ok - i know many pedalsteel players love the peavey solid state amps and that ss amps tend to have more headroom/power to suit the large dynamic range of the ps.

but - i am trying out a carter starter (wanting to learn after playing lap for the past 10 years) and i only have tube amps. i can't afford to buy another amp right now.

i am after the buttery, rubber, warm, sweet clean tones - not going to be shredding blues licks on this thing anytime soon.

so - the question is - which of these amps would be most suited:

70's silverface super reverb
70's silverface vibro champ
newer blues jr re-issue
ampeg v4
blackface deluxe
vox ac30 cc

??

i tried the ampeg and super out last night (they have the sweetest reverb) but both crapped out pretty easily.

any tricks to keep the tone from breaking up?

The silverface super reverb will work well if its in good shape. The blackface deluxe (you lucky dog!) will do also at non gig levels. My buddy gigs a super reverb and sounds fantastic (tho a little gritty at times).

Pedal Steel players love fender amps. Some of us appreciate tube tone like on our favorite recordings from the 60's and dont care for the Peavey tones of the 80's. Our favorite fenders are the silverface twin and showman and vibrolux. High powered clean amps.

basically what you need for pedal steel is LOTS of clean headroom, because of the way the volume pedal is used. So the ultralinear fenders are good too, the 135 watt ones.

anyway, yeah...the super reverb is a good one for pedal steel, plus it has reverb whic alot of steelers like to have.
how to tame the breakup? well the pedal steel has a hotter pickup than your guitars. i usually turn off the bright switch and lower the treble a bit and
dont floor your volume pedal either. I was taught to use the last portion of the throw for sustain only (do as I say not as I do tho...)

lemme know how it goes happy to help if i can.

[joninc]

i tried the super last night and it was really crapping out/crackling/fizz distortion at about 4 on the volume. major bummer cause the reverb is so sweet on that amp.

i have recorded a pro ps session dude through it a few times and it sounded fine - makes me wonder if the pickup in the carter is super hot or something. the amp normally rules for all things clean and is working great.

right now the blues jr seems like it will work with the gain at 1 and the master wide open - but the amp verb sucks so it will have to be added later.

i'll try the deluxe too (it's not a deluxe reverb - so again no reverb love there) but it has no master vol so i think it might be prone to breaking up quick like the super.

[chovie d]

oh. Id have that super looked at. it shouldnt be doing that.

I had a carter starter for a week(returned it) and the pickup wasnt blowing out my amps so I dont think thats your problem.

[joninc]

the super is working great. i just don't think it has the headroom that this instrument needs

[svbsound]

+1 on silverface super reverb- this thing sounds great on lots of slide instruments, lap steel and dobro too.

[chovie d]

the super is working great. i just don't think it has the headroom that this instrument needs

Not true, as i said, my friend gigs one. Its a bit gritty at the top but he does just fine with it. he plays classic country so its the smooth butttery tones you described in your first post. if your super is breakig up at 4 on the volume dial something is wrong with it if its crackling at all something is definetly wrong. it could just need some new preamp tubes or could be something else but it should have at least SOME headroom.

[jgimbel]

Yeah when I saw your first post, I thought "clearly the Super Reverb". It definitely sounds to me like you should have it looked at, especially if it's crackling. Definitely shouldn't be doing that 4. I've got a 72 Bassman 50 (50W), which obviously isn't the same circuit but it's not worlds away from the sound, and I have to crank it to get it to overdrive (which is why I got it). If I don't have it cranked it doesn't even overdrive that much with humbuckers. The super isn't all that much lower powered, you should definitely be able to get great pedal steel sounds with it if it's working properly.

[joninc]

the weird thing is that the amp is not doing this crackling/breakup with other guitars - i was thinking the pickup on the steel must be pretty hot and is overloading the input somehow.

no?

[chovie d]

Pedal steel pickups are wound hotter, but not THAT much hotter, than a guitar pickup. As I said I at one time owned a Carter Starter and played it thru several tube amps with no problems.

Carter Starters are notorious for being broken (most often the knee levers) but Ive never heard of anyone encountering a bad pickup on one. The broken ones are often returned to musicians friend and re-sold. It can take some new players a month to figure out the guitar is broken since you arent using your knee levers right away as a beginner. I cannot explain why your pickup seems to be overloading your amp, it shouldnt be that way. as I said they are hotter, but not THAT much hotter. maybe somethings wrong with the pickup afterall.


If you plug a regular guitar into your super and it sounds good, the psg should have roughly the same response but just a tad brighter. You get roughly the same response from both instruments. One reason we favor twins and other fender tube amps is so we can switch from guitar to pedal steel and back. You cannot do that with an SS peavey and get decent guitar tone.

[Snarl 12/8]

Can you pad the output of the ps? It really seems like a an output or impedence issue to me. Surely, one of those amps, fed the right input, should be able to deliver a clean tone.

[chovie d]

no effects in this chain right? if so take em out and see if the problem persists, remove volume pedal too.