Tube amps?

Richard Shelley · Post by **Richard Shelley** » 14 Mar 2006 10:55 am

Hi! Anyone here ever play pedal steel through a tube amp? If so, which one & what were your impressions?
Thanks!!!

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 14 Mar 2006 11:41 am

Do a search on tube amps--there's years of information. Seems most folks who love the tube sound are into Fender Twin Reverbs, Vibrosonics and such. They have a certain warmth to them that appeals to some of us. I play old shobuds through my twin, and love it.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 14 Mar 2006 12:00 pm

My favorites are the Fender silver-face Twin family: Twin Reverb, Vibrosonic, Super Twin Reverb.

For current amps, some people like THD.

Search on any of those - you'll find tons.

------------------
Student of the Steel: Zum uni, Fender tube amps, squareneck and roundneck resos, tenor sax, keyboards

Grant Johnson · Post by **Grant Johnson** » 14 Mar 2006 12:06 pm

I play a Sho Bud Pro II through a tube 1974 Fender Vibrosonic Reverb and love the tone.
Heavy and hard to transport, but worth it.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 14 Mar 2006 12:40 pm

Around the house I play through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. The tone is awesome for practice (only 22 watts). Sinced it's really voiced for guitar I run the presence all the way off and the treble about 10 o'clock. The reverb is not the greatest so I use my RV-3 for that. Equal to the best tube sound I ever heard for both E9th and C6th at practice volumes. The warmth this amp produces without cutting the midrange is amazing. I have gotten similar sounds out of the Fender Deluxe reverb but never had any luck with any of the Twin Reverbs I owned although I often ran one Twin and one Nashville 400 together for the best of both worlds.

Greg

Jerry Miller · Post by **Jerry Miller** » 14 Mar 2006 2:30 pm

Peavey Delta Blues 115 very nice amp works well w/tubefex soon to be Carvin V3 combo I like these amps dur to the fact I play PSG and guitar.

Randy Reeves · Post by **Randy Reeves** » 14 Mar 2006 2:42 pm

I play all my steels through my Fender Vibrolux Custom. it has two great sounding 10 inch Alnicos that emulate vintage Jensens.

I play a 74 ShoBud Pro1 and vintage lap steels .

I cut back on the treble and turn the reverb up.

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 14 Mar 2006 5:07 pm

I used to sit on an old tweed bassman pushing the sound out between my legs - then again twenty years ago a fellow didn't need 200 watts to keep up with the bass player.

Many respectable players have long favored the Twin Reverb with 2 15" JBL speakers in separate cabinets.

Like the man said, do a search, it'll keep you busy for days.

Stephen Dorocke · Post by **Stephen Dorocke** » 14 Mar 2006 6:15 pm

I've been playing through Victoria amps for about 8 years. They're basically new copies of old Fender Tweed amps. I either play through a 35210, an update of a Fender Super, or a 50212, an update of a low power twin amp, both mid 50's designs. Lots and lots of gigs, around town and on the road, only one time did a tube fail, the driver tube, in the preamp section. My amp searching/swapping stopped the day I brought the first one home. Great, dynamic tone that responds to your touch. And the Vics are QUIET> Obviously, tube amps aren't for everybody. But for me it's always been from the guitar, to the volume pedal, to the amp. No reverb on these babys. I know Tom Brumley used to play through tweed bassmens, and I believe LLoyd G and Ricky D use Fender Twin Reverbs with extension cabs. In the 50's and 60's I believe most musical instrument amps were tube..........Non master volume Plexi Marshalls sound great as well, but their sweeet spot is rather loud.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 15 Mar 2006 4:45 am

Yes Richard, more than a few of us started playing when tube amps was all there were. At one time, an amp that had both a volume and a tone control was considered "the cat's pajamas"!

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 15 Mar 2006 10:01 am

1971 Silverface Twin, non-master. Sounds great.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 15 Mar 2006 11:24 am

My first tube amp was a homemade version of a Gibson 20 watter. Had 2 6L6's in push pull, two 12AX7's in the input stages, phase inverter escapes me at the moment, and a 12 inch dynamic speaker (the voice coil magnet was the power supply filter choke). My dad & I built it.
Learned how artificial tremolo works by varying the grid bias to the 6L6's. I was about 10. I think the darned thing used a UJT for the tremolo oscillator, circa 1964.

Later we found an old reverb tank and rigged it into the mess. The ARRL handbook and Fender schematics I "borrowed" from Studley's music were the source of much entertainment.[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 15 March 2006 at 11:28 AM.]

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 15 Mar 2006 5:26 pm

I almost always use a tube amp. Now and then I use a Webb, but mostly I use a Mesa/Boogie or an old Fender Princeton.