I could have turned up the treble and the bass but I would miss the mids. I like a more even sound.

Having said all of that, a Tele sounds great through the amp, lots of highs and big lows, just like you like a Tele to sound. This is a statement from someone at Fender who attended the NAMM show.

However if you read my earlier post the answer to playing it loud all the time is to get another K 8ohm ext cab, that will bring it to a 4ohm load and will not stress any speaker out
since a K will take 130 watts all day long so 2 K's will cover you until the end of the world.
Now you have a 200 watt amp and over 250 watts of vintage JBL K sweetness.

I will say that it also took a black box, and of course a great pedal, but the real trick was my custom Lee Jackson pre-amp the sold for around 1k 15 years ago to tottaly stop the amp search I have been on ever since I started playing.

My tube pre is hard to find but it makes it sound like a clear loud quiet tube amp.

********************************************
OK guys if you really want your FSK to be the end of the line im sure the tube pre-amp that Randy Beavers uses will do the same trick as my all tube pre.
********************************************
Not just any old tube pre. mine has 4 tubes just like a fender.

but this combo has stopped the world in amp search for me, and as a lead player in the studio everybody always wanted to use my rig because i live for tone and this is it in the steel world for me.

like larry said its so clean to start with, so when you add a couple of tube items in the chain its still clear as a bell, but its so sweeeeeeet im starting to get chill bumps.

but you have to spend the bucks on a good pre, not some 200 dollar job.

but we pay 4k for our steels the amp is merely an extension of the instrument.

when Johnny Carson ask Itzal Pearlman how many violins he had, he said just one,

I'm not sure about even but would think about it
Randy
randycarson@onebox.com 512 350 4057
331 9255

[This message was edited by Randy Carson on 21 March 2005 at 07:14 PM.]

quote:

---

I have been thinking about getting another Steelking myself! Please let us know how you like using two of them.

---

But I sure have plugged my Remington Steelmaster T8 into them both, using a Boss RV5 (the most pristine stomp box on the planet) to get stereo verb. It sounds magnificent - clean as a whistle, but nice and toneful. And I'm basically a tube amp guy.

When I play my GCG T8 I use 2 Music Man HD 130 212s, when I play my Stringmaster T8 I use 1 Music Man and 1 FSK (or Peavey Session 500) - but the Steelmaster has too much whallop for a tube amp. I was using 2 Session 500s with it, and that sounds great. But FSKs are cleaner and more high-endy, and they cut through the mix like a knife, even at low levels. My last show I used an FSK and a Session 500.

The next one (this Sunday evening) I'll use the 2 FSKs.

More pics here

Fender should send b0b a donation every time they sell one of these!

[This message was edited by Rick Alexander on 09 April 2005 at 08:21 AM.]

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Mullen D10-8/5
Sho-Bud S10-3/4
Evans Amps
"Making The Stars Shine"

Just kidding - your steel sounded great, but your singing knocked me out! Mick the soundman said you were playing extra good stuff once you knew another steeler was in the room.

You are fortunate, Larry, in that Mick not only gets your excellent steel sound out into the house with tone and balance, but he also does a lot to make those other goofballs in your band sound a lot better than they really are. At least I can sit through a whole night of them without having to get really close to your amp to cope.

[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 20 April 2005 at 09:34 AM.]

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Sho-Bud ProII, Pro III custom,
Fender Steelking,Hilton pedal,Tut Taylor "Virginian"

Could some of you guys please share your fave, dialed-in settings?-- including any other in line stuff (e.g. Match Bros or other effects before the volume pedal or stuff thru the effects send/return)? And what settings do you use for the gain and master, too?

I have a Carter with a TrueTone pickup and a passive Goodrich pedal and even with the preamp limiter on and everything set flat at 12 o clock (verb at 9) I can get a overdriven, distorted sound on closely voiced notes, e.g. if I pick strings 3&4 hard on the C neck I can get a nasty, overdriven sound. (I know--it's like the old joke: Doctor, it hurts when I do this. Doctor: Don't do that!).

------------------
Dave Wren
'95Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Session500; Hilton Pedal
www.ameechapman.com

I got to play the FSK out on a gig this last weekend--worked really great! Fabulous tone, terrific headroom, very smooth, lots of string definition, and plenty of punch without having to resort to extra treble to cut thru at louder stage volumes. No "ice pick' syndrone or Weber beam blockers needed!

I also got to play my electric mandolin and Fishman pick-up banjo (or shoud I say b@anjo, b0b?) thru the FSK as well. Worked really great!! Another difficult test-- getting a good ampified banjo sound-- needs really fast tracking/transients for no "sag" *and* real hi-fi sound so that it sounds like a banjo and not a guitar. This amp is a keeper!

For players that double (or triple) on other instruments, the single channel/single input will require some kind of extra input patching. Lehle makes a pricey 3-to-1 footswitch, but I wired up a fully grounded 3-to1 switcher box with a rotary switch. Worked fine so far. There's a few clubs and practice halls around town with horrible buzzy AC and bad RF interference I've yet to try it in...

[This message was edited by Bob Knetzger on 27 April 2005 at 10:42 AM.]

I am very impressed with the sound of the speaker, as well as with the cabinet. No rattles, no extraneous noises when playing loud.

The only issue I have is with the overdriven sound. I figured out by the third song that I need to have the Master volume at "10" and the Gain as low as possible. My brief testing at home last night indicated that having the gain over 3.5 will induce some distortion when picking hard (as Bob and Larry noted above). However, playing an unmiked gig might bring me to needing the gain higher than "3.5".

Plus, having the Master at "10" invokes some amp hiss (though certainly not noticeable on stage). If the Gain is at "5" or higher, the hiss is noticeably louder.

I use a Hilton pedal and run it straight into the amp input.

I did try using the 10dB pad, but it does not seem to do anything other than lower the volume, which in turn necessitates increasing the Gain, which then increases the amp "hiss" and doesn't appear to eliminate any of the distortion at loud volumes.

Lest I mislead anyone, the distortion isn't really as bad as it might sound. I liken it to the steel sound on the opening lick of Dwight Yoakum's "I Want You To Want Me"...maybe a tad dirtier.

Overall, I will take a GREAT sounding amp with slight distortion at arena volumes over a so-so sounding amp with no distortion ANY day.

BTW...if Sam Marshall is reading this and can offer me any insight (either here or via e-mail) I would greatly appreciate it!

You should be hearing from Sam soon.