And, I believe this post will probably be moved to the Electronics section of the Forum. It has nothing to do with Steel Players.

Bob

[This message was edited by Bob Wood on 02 August 2004 at 08:13 PM.]

Bob

[This message was edited by Bob Wood on 02 August 2004 at 08:10 PM.]

Go to Events and Announcements and look for JCH and Steel King maiden voyage and you will get some feedback you are looking for.

Jim

[This message was edited by Jay Ganz on 18 September 2004 at 08:02 AM.]

Let me state this though, I do own a Vibrolux that I use occassionally for six string electric guitar. But, Fender is not the same company that it used to be when Leo owned the company and there are books written by ex-employees of Fender that pretty much state this in so many words. Most companies have their "bread and butter" products(including Peavey)and it seems that the Fender company can't get past those products to offer any new innovative ideas.

Just my .02 worth

If you are serious about the Steel market, which I suspect you are based on the Big E's involvement, then I also believe you are reading these posts.

I'd like to welcome you to join our Forum. Prove that there's real people at Fender, not just a marketing division making your ad copy.

You'll be treated with respect, and you can provide us with straight info, rather than our speculation.

This type of interaction results in better products and a knowledgeable customer base.

Sincerely,
Joey

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-j0ey-
www.JoeyAce.com

The best service after the sale, hands down IMHO, is Peavey and Evans. Call Peavey and you can talk to Mike Brown, and he'll remember you from the last steel show you attended. Likewise Ed Buffington from Evans, whose always been super-helpful and effective over the phone for me. Ed even suggested a Peavey Black Widow speaker for my Evans when I blew out the Eminence.

Sadly, I didn't get the same response from
Webb, although I must acknowledge that since Jimmie Webb's health had been fragile for years, I can understand his... ummm... lack of enthusiasm for dealing with an individual amp's problems. Fortunately, he made a great product (I still use one, also Evans), but when I had to have it serviced, he told me the amp repair guy was on vacation and wouldn't be back for "a couple of months." This is a problem when dealing with a smaller operation; the occasional lack of back-up personnel to handle problems in a timely manner.

(Jimmie, towards the later years, seemed to occasionally be a really reluctant merchant. I called and asked about buying a new amp from him about 5 years ago, and he gave me every reason why I wouldn't want to get one... "we're out of stock, don't know when we'll make any more, the guy is sick, and there's gonna be a big price increase. Call back in a couple of months." )

Fender, OTOH, has a huge dealer network of authorized repair people in music stores throughout our great land . But good luck in finding the personalized service I mentioned above. The guy fixing your Steel King will probably be the same guy working on a Crate amp, or a Traynor, or a Marshall, or any other amp some rockandroller might bring into the store.

The best bet is to find and shop at the local Fender dealer with it's own repair staff that you like, if it's convenient for you, and develop a relationship with the repair guys there. That way, you're a real person who they know to be a repeat customer they will be answerable to.

If you live out in the boonies, finding a store like that with the necessary staff will be tough, granted.

Just my dos centavos. Herb out.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 06 August 2004 at 06:36 AM.]

I know, what is a guy named Marshall doing working for Fender?? I only once owned a Marshall, and that was for 6 months. My style has rarely been such that I needed a Marshall stack again.

I really want you to know that the development of the Steel-King is the closest thing to a labor of love that I have experienced in my professional career as an engineer of 20 years. By the time I was given the green light for this project, I had developed much of the design on my own in my music room. Of course, the highlight of it all was hearing Buddy play through the Steel-King at Nashville NAMM.

FYI - Around 5 or 6 years ago, Fender was considering a steel amp and we had discussions with Buddy regarding this. During that time, I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with him for several hours in Vegas when he was playing with the Everly Bros.

Now, I would like to share some background information on myself. I am a hobbyist steel player at best. I have been playing steel for nearly 20 years, while I have been playing guitar for over 40 years. I used to play steel on a semi-professional basis in the Phoenix area, but gave that up due to hip problems.

I occasionally still take gigs on guitar (jazz/blues/country/pop/rock/soul) and at one time (the late 1970's) I toured as a guitar player with the Air Force field bands in Texas and Europe for 4 years. I am one of those rare guitarists that can read music, but I also play by ear and can improvise over almost any changes that come my way. So, as you see my musical interests are pretty broad.

Still, I love Johnny Bush, Johnny Paycheck, Ray Price, and George Jones, as that was the music I grew up around in Texas. Like many of you, I attended several Jeff Newman seminars and once had the pleasure of an intense day long lesson with Maurice Anderson.

I have been on & off this forum since its inception. I also participated in the steel forum that used to be active on AOL that predated this one, I believe. I have attended the St. Louis convention 3 times, the Dallas convention once, and I a member of the Southwest Steel Guitar Association and the Pedal Steel Guitar Association. Also, I once contributed an article and tab to Scotty's old newsletter.

I have seen numerous questions and comments in the threads concerning the Steel-King. I would like to make a few comments in response now with more to follow later. I look forward to continuing these discussions.

One question that has been raised is the retail price. It is $999.99. You, obviously, will pay less if your dealer will discount. The first production run is complete, so if we are not shipping amps at this very moment, we will very soon. I have personally inspected and tested samples of the Steel-King from the first production run to ensure that they are built the way I want them to be built. I know that steel players are a hard crowd to please!

Another area I have noted Forumite concern is with reliablilty and service. This amplifier comes with a 5 year warranty. If you need help, please get the amp into a service center ASAP so we can help you. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation sincerely wants you to be happy with the Steel-King or any other Fender product you purchase.

I've had to take my Peavey equipment (including a NV400) into a service center that also works on Fenders, Crates, Kurzwiels, and Korgs. The use of service centers for repair is the nature of our business. Fender prides itself on the fact that many service centers have responded that we are the easiest and most helpful company to work with in the musical instrument industry. We also pride ourselves on an extremely low failure rate. Of course there are isolated cases of problems, but these are not the norm for Fender products. We enjoy lots of repeat business and our company's sales continue to grow thanks to a diverse product line with a good reputation for tone, value, reliability, and quality.

I have seen that our European forumites have noticed that we are selling export models. It is standard Fender policy that we sell our products throughout the world. Our export products are tested and approved to IEC standards for safety and reliability by NEMKO (for US products, they are tested by CSA).

Our products must pass rigourous electromagnetic compatability testing as required for FCC and European (CE) compliance. This is something older technologies pass far more easily than so-called "digital" power amps (I prefer to think of them as switch mode or class-D power amps) and switching power supplies. Also, the classic Class AB power amp and linear power supply, which are used on the Steel-King are much easier to understand, troubleshoot, and service should a problem arise.

I look forward to continuing this dialog in hopes that it will help Fender better understand the steel guitar customer.

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Steelin' Greetings
Marco Schouten
Sho-Bud LLG; Guyatone 6 string lap steel; John Pearse bar; Emmons bar; Evans SE200 amp

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to post here on the Forum. It's always nice to hear from individuals that are involved in the manufacturing process of the gear we use, including pedals (Hilton), Steels (Carter, Mullen) and amps (Peavey). Hopefully we will see you around these parts often, being able to provide info, advice and service regarding the new Fender amps!

I was extremely....and I mean EXTREMELY...excited when the Fender Custom Twin 15" was announced back at the beginning of the year, and ordered one immediately. My experience was so sour with TWO of these amps (see here) that I have a very skeptical eye pointed at the Steel King.

I did contact someone at Fender before regarding my problems with the Custom Twin, and had a question of whether any pedal steels were even used during its testing....and the answer I received spoke of various testing "equipment" that was used that reproduced many sounds....that kind of summed it up for me.

My guess is that the Custom Twin 15" is really just a modded '65 Twin, accomodating a 15" speaker, with no real change to the pre-amp, power amp, cabinet design, etc???

As to the particulars of the King, what design mods does it have versus your regular electric guitar SS amps? Better cabinet materials/design? Has the amp been tested with BOTH E9 AND C6 tunings, at LOUD stage volumes? The reason this is important is not just whether the speaker can handle it....but can the baffle board and cabinet handle it without so much as making a peep? I've owned every Peavey steel amp (save for the S500) and the constuction of each of them was impeccable....never a squeak or rattle when a booming low note was played.

I am a Fender user and have been for many years. My 6-string axe of choice is a Strat, and for tone and reverb, Fender is IT. But I need an amp that can handle the demanding situations I face every time I play live....I need an amp that will be QUIET.

Any information you can provide on this amp's testing, materials, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks again for your input!

I'm going to be of no help with the type of materials used (Sam Marshall is the man for that), but I can tell you a little about at least part of the testing process. Besides field testing this amp personally (live, in the studio and at Fender), I also created Fender a CD with about a dozen styles, E9th and C6th, high, middle and low range on both tunings. They have a room in the Scottsdale facility they call the bunker and that CD was routed through these amps at high volumes for weeks and weeks non-stop.

Mike www.mikeandt.com

[This message was edited by Miguel e Smith on 06 August 2004 at 01:55 PM.]

Why not wait for a few comments from Jody who
has been there since the beginning and add his comments pro or con to this discussion.

To date Fender in my opinion has ignored the steel guitar world and I have to see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears to give my own opinions.

According to Jody,Peavey has been by far and large steel guitar conscience and its hard according to Jody to find another Mike Brown
of Peavey who walks in the same footprints of
Don Randall who was the marketing machine behind Mr.Fender.

Jody is seeing his wife battle for her life as I write this. He has not been on the computer for a few days,why not wait until Jody can put his opinions in to play.

Or has Fender of today not heard of Jody? or do they not value his opinion? In my opinion
Jody has more savvy than those in Fender marketing and prodcuct knowledge that most of the present day Fender company.

They (Fender) own the name but thats about it
Let them prove to the steel guitar community
that actions speak louder than words.

Jody is a dedicated Fender man but he will not bring any company down regardless. He thinks highly of Peavey and wondered why Fender took this long hiatus from the steel guitar world.

Sorry for the speech, but I learned from the master. Does Fender recognize Jody as being a pioneer? Someone from Fender speak up. How about those greats who made history with making Fender the leaders in the amplifier business back then and what happened since?

Look at your 54 catalogue those of you at Fender and see those who pioneered your now Fender.

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Doug Earnest
The only Zum Keyless U12, Fender Cyber Twin

welcome, as a steel player and a former music store owner and manager and tele player I love fender amps and never had a problem getting one worked on because I never have had to have one worked on and Ive used them for guitar for 30 years but never for steel. I have leaned toward the old evans hybrid 300 fet 500 not the lv and some of the old sho bud amps by Evans and Cain as the best steel amps Ive played, however if you ever had a problem you were stuck so Ive alway used peavey not saying they were a comprimise, Ive had some that sound great like the vegas but I just hear a little something on those amps I metioned. I just wonder if when you designed the amp did you try to copy anything like a old sho bud evans or standel or come up with something totaly new. Also bring back the princeton reverb best amp fender ever made. again thanks for making yourself available

Jeff

[This message was edited by Jeff Hogsten on 07 August 2004 at 03:58 AM.]

Greg,
Jody left Fender 30 years ago. Your comments are disrespectful to Sam who is obviously a supporter of Steel Guitar, and helping Fender to produce products with us in mind.

Leo Fender left in 65 does that make Leo Fender obsolete?. I will no longer cross your
path. The word dis-respect is not appropriate
here,many things I have read on this steel forum have been disrespectful. You have your opinions and I have mine.

I wish Fender the best of luck with their new project and praise those people who are striving to make the products for steel guitarists. I am not running Fender down. Calm down.I own a vintage Tweed Twin and a Dual neck Fender so you see,I am a Fender fan as well and more than many others.

I am suprised that if you had an issue with me regarding my opinions that you could have e mailed me off this Forum.

Greg Sullivan.

I was out of order with my comments and I want to publicly apologize if I caused you any discomfort.

It takes an above ordinary guy to represent and stand behind a product here.

For my part, this is the crash dummie garage. I've tried my best to drive every piece of equipment I've owned into the ground. Only my Pro III and peavey amps have survived. Two Capacitors and one black widder speaker in 24 years owning two and now three Peavey amps.

If like Mr Mike Brown, you can endure the "disrespect" of us opinionated, habit steeped, and perhaps idiosyncratic pedal steel players, and you will be known far and wide as Mr Brown.

Kind of problematic those new Fenders being made where they are, but I've been in Portland long before they were building them in the old Sunn factory here.

Welcome.

Any disrespect is purely part of my nature.

I play music out of sheer spite to begin with.

Eric West