? about Standel's new Preamp

[Jerry Overstreet]

Been reading Owen's introduction of the new Standel Germanium box and just wondering about the tone and characteristics of the Standel amps since I've never heard one that I know of.

How would you guys familiar with Standel compare the tone/sound to any other amplifiers such as Twin, Session, Evans, Webb or any other steel amp.

Curious as to what differences there are from these amps. How are they special?

[Tim Whitlock]

Following. I have owned two of the later model, solid state Standels - a '69 Artist and a '70 Custom. I was honestly not impressed with the tone. They sounded muddy in the lows and mids and spikey in the highs. I understand the new pedal is modeled after a '65 circuit, which might be a different voicing. I also had the opportunity to play through one of the 25L15 reissues and liked it better, but wasn't blown away. In short, I do not understand the Standel mystique and would like to hear from players who revere them. For reference, I play a '58 Fender 1000. I'd be interested in hearing steel guitar recordings of these amps on some vintage tracks. I thought Speedy West was a Standel guy but then I seem to remember reading he recorded using a Magnatone.

[Bob Hoffnar]

Listen to about anything Buddy Charleton played. He was a Standel guy. Had a custom SS.
I have one of Owen's new hybrid Standels and it is a fantastic amp. Joe Rogers made a model of it along with Charleton's old amp (in the deserving and more than capable hands of Tommy Detamore now). I highly recommend Owen's work on the new Standels. He is keeping that absolutely iconic sound alive.

[David Wren]

I had a 1970 Standel "Twin" (all SS) ... in 1974 I replaced the stock 2 - 12s with Electro Voice "SROs"... holy molly, what a great sounding amp then!

Played this amp until it was stolen in 1980, then bought a PV Session 500.

I've also been wondering about this pedal, but I expect I'll wait for my new Milkman "Half and Half (neo 15).

[Nathan Pocock]

I had a 1970 Standel "Twin" (all SS) ... in 1974 I replaced the stock 2 - 12s with Electro Voice "SROs"... holy molly, what a great sounding amp then!

Played this amp until it was stolen in 1980, then bought a PV Session 500.

I've also been wondering about this pedal, but I expect I'll wait for my new Milkman "Half and Half (neo 15).

David I just picked up a Milkman Half and Half and I love it. It does the fender thing for me. I also have a Telonics and that amp is cleaner but I really prefer the Milkman voicing.

[David Wren]

Good to hear Nathan!

About the Standel pre-amp pedal.... kind of hard to know what it will sound like, until a few users try them out... but I have real fond memories of my old Standel... so I'll be watching this post

[Jerry Overstreet]

I probably should have re-phrased my question. I'm really more interested in the base Standel tone and sound characteristics than the preamp/pedal itself which I'm assuming models the amp.

Is there one and how would you compare the Standel amps in general to other steel amplifiers?

[Brett Lanier]

I've had a bunch of Standels and it's pretty much all I've used for over a decade. Currently have three '65 Custom XV's and a mid/late 50's 50L15. Others I've sold were an early 60's Imperial head (transistor front end), a '65 Studio 12, and a later faux wood panel Artist 2x12. I like the all solid state '65 Custom XV's the best, but the 50L15 is really good too, and whenever I use it for a while I tend to favor that. The tubes just need to be monitored... and if one starts to go it can start sounding a little ratty. The three I sold were pretty far off the mark compared to the four I kept. I still have the giant 1x15 Imperial cabinet that lives in my home studio in a smaller room as an iso cab. That cab always sounded a little too hifi to me but I've been really happy with the sound ever since I removed the back panel. I should also mention that I borrowed George Seymour's new Standel Custom hybrid a few months ago and it sounded really good. Very similar to the solid state custom XV's, although I was playing his push pull too so it's hard to tell how close they were. And if I'm being nitpicky... the cabinet is a little narrower than the originals, which kinda bugs me.

The way I'd characterize the Standel sound is very clear, but with the right amount of high and low pass. I like a good twin reverb, but it always gets a bit messy when you crank it up. Really spikey high end especially moving way up the neck, and bass frequencies that get out of control and eat up the rest of your sound... A good sounding Standel has a deep bottom end but not too much. It's also very clear but remains smooth when you play way up high. You could say the same thing about a good sounding Peavey, like an LTD for example - but the midrange is way sweeter on a Standel.

I hear a lot of people say that these amps don't have enough power for them, but I haven't had that problem. If you cut out the unnecessary frequencies from a steel or guitar tone, you may find you're already loud enough... and you'll be heard just fine through even a busy mix. There have been situations in bands with really loud stage volumes, SVT stack, wedges everywhere... where one doesn't cut it and the singer wants to hear more stage volume from me. In those instances I just bring two. And at that point, how much volume are you really looking to get out of one speaker anyway?

The new preamp looks really cool, but to get that sound it's going to matter what you plug it into. The sound of these amps has to do with the entire package; preamp, power amp, speaker, and cabinet. And Jerry, just to touch on what you said... no, this new pedal doesn't model the amp. It's just the preamp section. One of my custom XV's has a preamp tap, and to me that's nothing special on it's own. I've recorded it before. You could probably get a really similar tone with a Quilter 202. The new pedal could be awesome though, if you plug it into something like a split cab or maybe even a ToneX with a cab sim.

I've been using a Custom XV for my main road gig where we don't use mics... I tried it into an OX box to get a line out but in the end decided that the best line out sound was using a passive Palmer "The Junction" box between the amp's output and speaker. I still have the speaker going (even though I don't hear it) and FOH gets that line out from the Palmer. I'm pretty happy with the Quilter in that environment too, but the Standel does sound better. More going on especially in the mids.

Last thing I'll mention is that I recently got a Kemper and plan on profiling all of these amps, with the internal speaker and that big Imperial cab with a D130. I'll do my best to get it to sound as close to the real thing as possible. We'll see how it goes!