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Author
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Topic: Steel King
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Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 17 November 2005 03:48 PM
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Yeah. Another thread. I had my first chance to hear steel played thru one a couple of weeks ago. I instantly knew there was a voice there that interested me. Just got mine today. Nothing particularly new to say about it. Like people say, turn everything to 12 o'clock and play. A lot of tweaking yields a lot of different good sounds. I'm working right now with a sizeable roll-off of the mids, straight-up at 500Hz.
One notable plus--and this is a big one for me because it has plagued me with many amps---I have been fighting a low-mid muddy spot in my sound. I have been using a Boss parametric unit to try to dial it out. The Tone King is real clean right in that spot. I like!
One negative: the highs sound thin to me. I am spoiled by tubes. This might be a job for a black box.
I have only spent a couple of hours with this so far so this is very preliminary review. |
Rick Alexander
Member From: Florida, USA
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posted 17 November 2005 04:19 PM
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Jon, Steel Kings seem to mellow with usage and the highs become smoother. I guess the speaker has to break in. And of course as you become more accustomed to the amp you'll find the exact settings that suit you. For SS, it's a great sounding amp imo.
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George Macdonald
Member From: Lantzville, BC, Canada
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posted 17 November 2005 05:25 PM
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I just brought a Steel King home about an hour ago. What a sweet sounding amp. No need for my RV-3 with this amp. The onboard reverb is about as good as it gets too. George |
Larry Behm
Member From: Oregon City, Oregon
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posted 17 November 2005 05:43 PM
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I have had mine for about 10 months, needs to break in. Take it to a few "big" gigs and turn it up, work it.I too felt that the on board reverb was the best amp reverb I have heard. I still use my digital reverb, but could live with the FSK on a small job when setup was easy. I turn my mid and the knob to the right upt to 2:00 as well as the tilt. I run the high's at about 11:00, I like it hard. Larry Behm |
Jeremy Moyers
Member From: Atlanta GA/ Nashville TN
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posted 17 November 2005 06:26 PM
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I never could get the high end the way that I liked it so I replaced the speaker with a Black Widow and WALA it was great. All the characteristics that you talk about I also liked, and kept with the BW, but the high end really smoothed out nicely. I was told that it may take a while for the Fender speaker to "Break In" and smooth out, but with our Front of House guy complaining nightly about it I could not wait for the speaker to start sounding good. I know several guys who have done this with great results.Jeremy |
Gaylon Mathews
Member From: Jasper, Georgia
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posted 17 November 2005 06:57 PM
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Jeremy,What the hell does your front of house guy know about it? You ain't even in the mix anyway. HA! I too put a BW in one of my steel kings and it didn't make a bit of difference. But, I've been playing one on the road for over a year now and the speaker is broken in real good. I've changed it back so I can break in the fender speaker. I suppose that if I hadn't broken in the fender speaker on my main amp it might have been noticable. So, for those of you that don't have an extra BW speaker laying around, just keep playing it with the original speaker. It'll get right pretty quick. ------------------
Gaylon's Homepage
www.gaylonmathews.com Gretchen Wilson
www.gretchenwilson.com GFI Ultra D-10, Fender Steel King, GHS Strings, SteelSeat.com
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Larry Robbins
Member From: Fort Edward, New York, USA
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posted 17 November 2005 07:19 PM
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Yup, got to go along with everyone else here.Play it a while and it will sound even better!!....sounds great right out of the box but, whenyou get er broke in,YEEEEHAAAAA! so sweet!!....just like Gaylon said: Just PLAY IT! youll like it ! |
Lee Baucum
Member From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) - The Final Frontier
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posted 17 November 2005 07:48 PM
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Jon - I know just what you mean by the low-mid mud. Until I got my Fender Steel King, the only two amps that I had that didn't have the low-mid mud were my old Fender Vibrosonic and my old Evans FET-500. Alas, I sold the Fender many years ago.  With the new Fender Steel King I can dial in a sound almost identical to what I get with my old Evans. I usually set the MID FREQ just a hair to the right of 500. I set the MID LEVEL to about 9 o'clock. Great amps! ------------------
Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande Mullen U-12, Evans FET-500, Fender Steel King |
Jeremy Moyers
Member From: Atlanta GA/ Nashville TN
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posted 17 November 2005 08:38 PM
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Gaylon,Yeah Yeah, not all of us can have gigs where we get to PLAY! You know, that one lick, the one at the beginning of Amazed, is always good and loud. Wish the front of house mix sounded like my ears, Steel loud and up front and the vocals back just filler between my licks.  Back to this topic, I did put the Fender speaker in a Nashville that I have and I like it there. I have played it a quite a bit and it may be broken in now. May try it back in the SK sometime. Jeremy |
Michael Johnstone
Member From: Sylmar,Ca. USA
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posted 18 November 2005 03:16 AM
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I've been playing a Steel King for a couple years now and I dig it very much. The only two complaints I have are that the compressor doesn't kick in before the speaker craps out when you really punch a low end C6 chord - but I put in a BW and the problem ALMOST went away. The other thing is the reverb. While it is the most lush spring reverb I've ever heard,you can't control the length of the decay which is too long most of the time. More control of the compressor and reverb are in order on future versions of this fine amp. -MJ- |
Steve Stallings
Member From: Bremond, Tx, pop 876, Home of the fighting Bremond Tigers
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posted 18 November 2005 07:23 AM
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I played into one of these at the TSGA last year. I was pretty underwhelmed and I'm a huge Fender fan. Maybe I just had a bad one?
I don't know. It just sounded really muddy no matter what I did to it. I think I might just be addicted to my evans pre into my VHT 2/90/2 sound.------------------
God Bless,
Steve Stallings
D10 9x7 Rains (On order)
D10 8x10 Emmons (Black Beauty)
[This message was edited by Steve Stallings on 18 November 2005 at 07:25 AM.]
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John Macy
Member From: Denver, CO USA
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posted 18 November 2005 09:11 AM
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Jon,Living in the city you might not be able to do this, but you can plug a cd player into the amp, loop a bottom heavy cd, and crank it though the amp for a day--it'll break that speaker right in. Put it in a closet or something... I have run new studio monitor for a couple of days like that before I start using them... |
Howard Tate
Member From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA
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posted 18 November 2005 11:08 AM
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I've had mine a couple of months now and Sunday at the Medicare Jam I played my Carter thru it, and got many compliments on the sound. I set the mid level and mid freq on about three o'clock and every thing else about nine o'clock. I did turn the reverb off and used a minimum amout of delay with a DD-3. I think it's a very good amp. Now if I could only carry it.------------------
Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum SD12U, Carter D10 8/8, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3, DD-3, Fender Steel King, Understanding wife. http://www.Charmedmusic.com
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Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 18 November 2005 11:44 AM
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I did some forum searching & reading while I was waiting for the amp to come so I am pretty up on most of your (plural) posted experiences with the FSK. John--you are right about the CD speaker break in technique----right that it works and right that my coop would just love me, here in the big city. I'll just have to let time do its thing. And Michael J---I absolutely agree with you. My first reaction was wow, that reverb is lush. My second reaction was wow, it's one of those long dwell reverbs that lasts and lasts. I've got it dialed in just barely audible--more than that just muddies the water too much for me. |
Earnest Bovine
Member From: Los Angeles CA USA
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posted 18 November 2005 11:50 AM
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Mike Johnstone wrote: {quote]More control of the compressor and reverb are in order on future versions of this fine amp[/quote]Sounds a a job for a separate box. |
Lee Baucum
Member From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) - The Final Frontier
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posted 18 November 2005 11:56 AM
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Jon - You're right. You don't need to crank up the reverb much. I use one of those itty bitty Guyatone Micro Delay units with my Fender Steel King. I like to dial in one, very subtle repeat right at the end of the reverb decay. It produces a nice fat sound, without the muddiness of a long-tailed reverb.Lee |
James Quackenbush
Member From: Pomona, New York, USA
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posted 18 November 2005 12:30 PM
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I agree with the compressor ....From what I can tell , it's like an idiot light on a car...By the time it comes on , you already blew your motor !!...
Maybe the long tail reverb could be tamed with a different tank ???..... For $35 it's worth a try ....
Jon,
Pick up a couple of RAP CD's .....That'll break in the speaker quick !!.....You'll also get to know your neighbor's too !!...Some will love you, and some will love to hate you !!.... It's not a perfect world out there !
One of the best features of the SK is the EQ .....I have been able to dial in so many different tones that I got from other amps, that it just flat out replaces them ...Jim |
James Quackenbush
Member From: Pomona, New York, USA
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posted 18 November 2005 12:37 PM
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Steve,
Come on !!!......YES !!....You are spoiled by your VHT 2:90:2 .....Put your SK pre thru the 2:90:2 and take a listen ....You have so much headroom running KT88's in the VHT that it's not funny !!.... You would have to turn the bass knob WAY UP on just about any preamp to get mud from a 2:90:2 ...Try turning your SK bass down when you are turning up the volume....You don't need much bass when playing loud ...I wouldn't trade in my VHT for ANYTHING ....I think it's one of the best amps for pedal steel PERIOD !!....Jim |
Larry Behm
Member From: Oregon City, Oregon
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posted 18 November 2005 03:07 PM
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Steve, James is right, turn the bass down or off, the cabinet has a ton of bass response, crank the mids and tilt.Larry Behm[This message was edited by Larry Behm on 18 November 2005 at 10:09 PM.] |
David Nugent
Member From: Gum Spring, Va.
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posted 19 November 2005 03:40 AM
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I am in total agreement with James and Steve concerning the "VHT 2/90/2" being one of the best for pedal steel. What I found amusing was, mine has a sticker on the rear that states, "Built by rockers for rockers!" |
Doug Beaumier
Member From: Northampton, MA
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posted 19 November 2005 08:23 PM
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I've had my Steel King for a couple of weeks and I've used in on 4 gigs so far, and I love it! Last night I played through it with No effects, just the reverb in the amp and I was blown away by the great tone. '76 Emmons p/p into a Goodrich volume pedal into the amp. The guys in the band said the amp sounded very "warm". Warm is Good!Jon, try cutting way back on the Treble... I set the treble at about 9:00 o'clock, and it really helps. If you're used to Peavey amps, you'll discover that the settings for the Steel King will be much different than the Peavey settings. Here's what works for me: The GAIN set no less than "10:00 to 12noon" The TREBLE cut way back, more so than on a Peavey IMHO. The LIMITER button pushed IN The Steel King has a tone unlike any solid state amp I've ever played through. It's very close to a tube sound.
------------------
My Site - Instruction | My SteelTab
[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 19 November 2005 at 08:37 PM.] |
Billy Carr
Member From: Seminary, Mississippi USA
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posted 20 November 2005 04:40 PM
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I use a black box with my FSK. Great sound out my S-12U Carter on the low and high ends. XR-16 p/u also. |
Larry Behm
Member From: Oregon City, Oregon
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posted 25 November 2005 07:52 AM
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Since I get the FSK I sold my Black Box, I loved that thing but was able to live without it with the FSK.Larry Behm |
George Macdonald
Member From: Lantzville, BC, Canada
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posted 25 November 2005 11:55 AM
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I've had my Steel King for just over a week now, and I'm finding that I don't really need the Black Box with it either. I felt I had to have it with my other amps. |
Larry Robbins
Member From: Fort Edward, New York, USA
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posted 25 November 2005 12:20 PM
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Very interesting you guys....I really like my Steelking as well...maybe Fender has reinvented the "Magic circut" like they did on the ol' Twin.....I guess I'd better duck!!  |
T. C. Furlong
Member From: Vernon Hills, Illinois, USA
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posted 26 November 2005 10:11 AM
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I had a Steel King. I liked it OK but it was WAY TOO HEAVY for me. If Fender could make a great sounding steel amp that weighs 30 lbs, they would really have a winner.
TC |
Herb Steiner
Member From: Cedar Valley, Travis County TX
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posted 26 November 2005 01:21 PM
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I have a Steel King, I've used it on 5 gigs so far and really like the way it makes my guitar sound. I have two issues with it, however: it weighs too much, and its shape is very unweildy.------------------
Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association
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George Redmon
Member From:
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posted 26 November 2005 10:33 PM
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i am glad you guys keep posting about the FSK. I am thinking of retiring my Webb, can't get another new one. Man i hate to keep hauling it around to gigs. It gets banged, bumped. And folks always want to carry it for me...carry it right in between half closed doors, walls, heavy steel club doors. But i am so undecided between, the FSK, and peavey Nashville 1000. Can anyone give me an honest comparison? i have played through both..although not side by side. |
Chris Schlotzhauer
Member From: Colleyville, Tx. USA
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posted 27 November 2005 11:30 AM
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Herb, I can vouch for your amp from an out front prespective. When I heard you the other night at Gruene Hall it sounded great. The highs were sweet and a good round tone on the bottom. Clear as a bell. It also could be that '64 Emmons or your technique could have something to do with it.
But we can agree to give the amp a thumbs up.
quote:
it weighs too much, and its shape is very unweildy
You guys are a perfect match! haha |
Lee Baucum
Member From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) - The Final Frontier
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posted 27 November 2005 11:57 AM
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Good one, Chris! ------------------
Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande Mullen U-12, Evans FET-500, Fender Steel King |
Nigel Mullen
Member From: Cassilis, New Brunswick, Canada
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posted 27 November 2005 02:43 PM
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I've had my FSK for a while now. All I use with it is a little delay unit. Awesome amplifier. Sweet, loud, and heavy. |
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