How to Amplify a Pedal Steel Guitar

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Bill Bassett and I am here to tell you about how to play the pedal steel guitar. Now you can basically plug a pedal steel guitar into any guitar amplifier but there are some that are better suited to the tone and characteristics of the pedal steel. I think the philosophy on most steel players is that you want to have a lot of very clean power and if you are going to murk it up with affects and distortion and what not, you want to have control over that. I know there are those who are purist who like to play through amplifiers with tubes. Steel players in fine arts like to play through solid state amplifiers often using high powered power amps and very sophisticated pre-amp systems to get the tone and the sound that they want. PB brand amps have done a great job on the marketing to the pedal steel player. This is the guitar amp that I use because it suits me. I like 12 inch speakers. Often I use 15's in steel guitar amplifiers but it is a very high powered amp, a nice clean power amp section. You can dial in various equalization and even distortion and of course, it's got the ubiquitous reverb without which I don't think a steel guitar would sound like a steel guitar. From there you can add affects. You can plug in accessories and then just disguise the limit as far as that goes. But I think in general I think if you are shopping for a pedal steel amplifier, you might take a close look at the TV line of steel guitar amplifiers and then there are some special boutique types again that use high powered solid state amps and very sophisticated pre-amps too, models, shapes and tones that steel guitar players like to hear. "