Love for old Peavey

Make it loud here.
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HNB
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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by HNB » Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:33 am

I am old enough now that I can afford $1000 or more amp heads and expensive cabinets. I never did a decent rig for my bass even though I am better trained as a bass player than a guitar player. I only looked at Peavey heads for my bass because I knew that the older stuff is US made, super strong, and cool.

I ordered a Peavey Mark III bass head for under $200 iirc. Not to be cheap, but because I read good stuff about the Mark III and IV and want to try it out. It has distortion built in and an EQ. Kinda lower watts for a bass head, but should work great for me playing at home with or without friends.

I have a soft spot for Peavey because my first ever electric was a Peavey Patriot. I still have it upstairs. I love how much they put into their designs in the 80's and 90's. Their metal parts with their logo on it. Cool custom bridges and stuff. Their amps are like tanks. People talk about their stuff falling down stairs and not breaking or even if the wood broke, the amp still functioned... LOL
Christopher
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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by øøøøøøø » Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:00 am

One thing you can say about the old solid-state Peaveys (with the pointy logo, dark gray tolex and blue stripe aesthetics):

You absolutely cannot kill that shit.

For better or for worse, it is damn near bulletproof.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by OffYourFace » Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:23 am

mbene085 wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:14 am
I still have nightmares about the number of band situations where I was confronted with a grungy boxy-shaped solid-state Peavey. Those blue-green stripes would instantly make my stomach turn, and still do.

Image
I have two of those. Got them for $50 each. I love the sound of the old Scorpion speakers for clean guitar tones. The main issue with those is the FX loop jacks in the back. The FX input jack gets stuck open so it creates an open ckt, making no sound. People think the amp is blown but it's usually just those jacks.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by HNB » Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:13 pm

All about that bass. (No treble.)

ImageIMG_20200425_140745__01 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by garyfanclub » Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:05 am

crazypaws wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:02 am
Who here appreciates old peavey? I enjoy finding it cheap on craigslist or in pawn shops. Sometimes flea markets will have old peavey for dirt cheap. Vintage peavey has gone up a bit on reverb but that’s to be expected. You gotta look hard for this stuff now but it’s out there. Here’s normal used peavey scenario..

Kid- ‘dad i wanna play guitar’

Dad- ‘great, i have an old amp in the basement for you to learn on. I got this in 78’. I was in a Creedence Clearwater revival at one point in my life son’

Kid- ‘ oh wow, “cool dad”, I’m more nu’ metal and need something w/ more gain and bluetooth capabilities to upgrade different amp models’

Dad lists old peavey on craigslist for $100 but will take $80 because both son and wifey want it out of the house. There was mold on it..

Full sounding, bright, clean and super loud makes vintage peavey a winner for me. Also love musicman too
Oh man, and I see you’re in VA too! I spent a good amount of time down there after college and for some reason or another, you couldn’t throw a rock and not hit an old Peavey combo.

KB100s, Studio Choruses, Mark III bass heads and 2x15 cabs, guys would bring two keyboard amps to shows that they’d use as a PA! I remember friends buying them whenever they saw them because they were indestructible and universally available for $50.

Anyhow, yeah, have a big soft spot for these, but only still own a battered T40. Love that thing, but it’s just too long and awkward for anyone who has other options to want to use. I’d sell it, but it’s now the “backup bass” at the practice space.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by somanytoys » Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:53 am

My first good bass was a T-40, I bought it when I was about 15. It was a really great bass, really good for different sounds with the pickups and controls. I pawned it at a bad time in my life, and have always regretted it. Even thought about buying another one.

Heavy as shit, kind of a large fretboard (for younger hands, but good exercise), but it was built like all of their other stuff - tough as nails. If it fell off its strap, I worried more about what it did to the floor than if it was okay.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by crazypaws » Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:39 pm

Filipe wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:55 am
What are the models to look out for?
Any! Haha. Mainly anything that doesn’t have built in fuzz because those can be more difficult to fix w/ out schematics thou i did get a Peavey Century head w/ a built in distortion for $10. Needs a new transformer and a couple new capacitors

Lately I’ve been on a Peavey cab kick.. got a Peavey SX 2x12 all original for $100 at a music go around. Sounds furious w/ my musicman hd130

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by crazypaws » Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:45 pm

Drill wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:41 pm
Looking for a tech opinion. Heard old peavey amps are a pain to fix. Do you confirm?
(Known tech from a major amps brand said that).

Yes and no. A lot of times you just gotta find the right amp tech to do the job. A tech that enjoys a good challenge and loves their job. Lazy techs (not sayin your people are) often pass up stuff they dem a waste of time. Even worse is if they’re attached to a retail music shop.. they will just try and persuade to buy a new ‘better’ amp with a ‘warranty’.

Old Peavey’s for the most part are easy to modify and are pretty forgiving. The ones i come across usually need to new caps, new power cable and a good cleaning

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:54 pm

Pretty sure Lynyrd Skynyrd used Peavey Maces a lot on their hay day. They were pretty renowned for their tone.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by Lame Pseudonym » Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:43 pm

I had a small Peavey combo bass amp, probably the next one smaller than the Basic 50/60. The last owner broke the pots so I had to go inside and fix it.

The construction was amazing. The output transistors were big discrete TO-3 parts, there was a limiter in the circuit that I don't think Peavey ever mentioned was there, and the power amp was the mind-blowingly clever inside-out circuit that prevented the speakers from getting directly connected to the power supply if you did blow up the amp, like normal power amplifiers do.

I'm not a fan of how Peavey bass amps sound but that little sucker was an engineering masterpiece.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by Wil_66 » Tue May 19, 2020 12:38 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:14 am

However, I have learned over time about just how many incredible amps and guitars they produced. Someday I dream of finding an unusually light T-60, and a bunch of their tube amps are truly excellent-sounding. But for sure, they put a large amount of rather crap-sounding stuff out there into the world for a while...
Did they make light T-60s? I had an early one, in natural finish... it had a great feeling neck and lots of tonal options, but it must have weighed 15 pounds. Standing up it hurt my shoulder and sitting down it would put my leg to sleep.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by Embenny » Tue May 19, 2020 12:42 pm

Wil_66 wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 12:38 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:14 am

However, I have learned over time about just how many incredible amps and guitars they produced. Someday I dream of finding an unusually light T-60, and a bunch of their tube amps are truly excellent-sounding. But for sure, they put a large amount of rather crap-sounding stuff out there into the world for a while...
Did they make light T-60s? I had an early one, in natural finish... it had a great feeling neck and lots of tonal options, but it must have weighed 15 pounds. Standing up it hurt my shoulder and sitting down it would put my leg to sleep.
Apparently the later-produced models had more weight relief. There was one on Reverb that the seller list as being 7.5lbs! That's the lightest I've ever seen. I was mighty tempted, but the timing wasn't right for me to jump on it.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by Wil_66 » Tue May 19, 2020 12:54 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 12:42 pm
Wil_66 wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 12:38 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:14 am

However, I have learned over time about just how many incredible amps and guitars they produced. Someday I dream of finding an unusually light T-60, and a bunch of their tube amps are truly excellent-sounding. But for sure, they put a large amount of rather crap-sounding stuff out there into the world for a while...
Did they make light T-60s? I had an early one, in natural finish... it had a great feeling neck and lots of tonal options, but it must have weighed 15 pounds. Standing up it hurt my shoulder and sitting down it would put my leg to sleep.
Apparently the later-produced models had more weight relief. There was one on Reverb that the seller list as being 7.5lbs! That's the lightest I've ever seen. I was mighty tempted, but the timing wasn't right for me to jump on it.
That's interesting, I never really researched the T-60, I found it in a pawn shop cheap, and sold it cheap to... I really liked the guitar and kinda miss it, aside from the ridiculous weight. I might have to keep my eye out for a lighter one. :ph34r:

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by somanytoys » Tue May 19, 2020 7:58 pm

The old ones from the ‘80s (T-40, at least) could double as an Acme anvil. I would love run across a good condition old T-40 or T-60 for a good price, I loved the sound and feel of the T-40.

They put a ton of absolute crap out there for cheap, but also some good stuff that isn’t that expensive anymore.

But they’re about the only reason that some of us had equipment back then.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Love for old Peavey

Post by OffsetUsername » Wed May 20, 2020 7:36 am

They always come up in my local CL but I can't justify it atm. Though it gets more tempting each time I hear about others' experience with them. Would be nice to have a tube next to my JC.

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