# peavey - where are they?



## sidvicious

to preface. i know peavey and the line very well, from its inception. i lost track through the years. the owner of a store i worked in was very tight with harley peavey. in fact, harley was the actual rep that hit the store.

i recall peavey saying on numerous occasions that his goal was to be the yamaha of the industry - makers of all things musical. this was mid to late 80's and yamaha made everything.

so, peavey was loading the stores with all sorts of stuff and much of it was high quality gear. they practically owned the PA world at one point. their guitars were good and the amps were clicking along, having entered the tube market.

now, when i walk in the store, including independents, there is little or no peavey gear in sight.

anyone know what gives?


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## hellbilly

They're in Meridian,MS. Drove by HQ about a month ago....


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## SwampThing

Ive played a 5150, 5150 II and the 6505..Not impressed. 

However comma-

The Peavey Classic 50 commands a certain amount of respect.


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## Marshall Gibson

Peavey are still going strong, Sam Ash and GC carry their lines.


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## sidvicious

Marshall Gibson said:


> Peavey are still going strong, Sam Ash and GC carry their lines.



the lack of in-store gear prompted my post. i've seen no peavey guitars, VERY few amps and no PA gear, on the ground and in the stores.

they were taking over the world 20 years ago. at gigs, i see very little peavey PA gear. at one time, it was damn near ALL peavey.

harley said he had nailed the tube production whereas to make some money as well as move some gear along. but not only have the amps dried up, but the rest of it as well, at least to my eyes.


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## Marshall Gibson

I don't know what else to tell you dude.. btw it's Hartley


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## sidvicious

Marshall Gibson said:


> I don't know what else to tell you dude.. btw it's Hartley



shit. yep, you're right. so goes peavey, so goes my memory.....


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## hellbilly

I had a Backstage + when I was a lad, then a Renown.....thought it was so badass because it had two 12" speakers. Then I stepped up to a Bandit. Haha


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## MartyStrat54

Two words...Foreign competition.

As far as I'm concerned, Peavey peaked in the early to mid 80's. I used Peavey exclusively for quite some time. I bought a MACE 212BW combo in 1974. This was my first high quality amp. Then about 15 months later, I bought a Renown, one of Peavey's most popular SS amps. It was during this time that Peavey was the PA king and was making their guitars. I bought a T-40 bass that I used for years.

Peavey's mantra was the highest quality at the lowest cost. Well eventually the South Korean and Chinese manufacturers started flooding the market with gear priced lower than Peavey. This in turn made Peavey change their mantra. They started making cheaper stuff that wasn't that good and it turned loyal Peavey customers away.

Take a look at all the competition Peavey has and you can see why they have declined.

They couldn't even keep EVH.


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## MartyStrat54

Marshall Gibson said:


> I don't know what else to tell you dude.. btw it's Hartley



I was going to mention this, but hey he was just missing the "t."


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## Amp360

When I was younger there were quite a few stores that carried Peavey. 

Like you said, the PA gear was pretty much the only game in town when I was growing up and a ton of people I knew had their amps - especially bass players. The Bandit, TKO, etc...

For a while they tried to get into the synth market (DPM-3 IIRC) and they even put out a magazine every month called Monitor that had a lot of pages. I used to like the letters in there, as they were always about someone who had a house burn down or a van blow up and all the Peavey gear inside still worked - some of them were pretty comical.

In the mid 1990s (about 93) they really started trying to get their foot into everything. They were making signal processors and even these really goofy looking drums. This is when the Peavey Classic tweed amps started. I remember thinking they were neat, but they looked just like the amps Fender was making at that time and were about the same money. A little later they tried to get into the DAW business and made a system that was called 'Studio Mix' (IIRC) with Cakewalk.

What really hurt them (IMHO) was the popularity of the home studio around that time. When Mackie put out the 1604 and 8 buss series they must have really cut into Peavey's market share for lower end mixers. Plus, Alesis had the ADAT and Tascam had the DA series and these companies also made mixers and signal processors that were designed to interface with the newer technologies of these companies.

Now, couple this with the fact that at this time Guitar Center, MARS, Sam Ash and the internet came into play. At this time digital tape machines were the big thing and those places sold Alesis, Tascam, Mackie, etc... but they didn't sell Peavey, which at that time still were mostly sold in smaller stores.

I think ultimately that's what hurt them.

As for guitars, they did make some neat stuff. Their American guitars were always well made but they never got any huge player using them. Steve Cropper, Fred Newall (who was on Nashville Now) and Adrian Vandenberg were the only people of note I remember and I'm willing to bet most Cropper/Newall fans bought Teles.

Before there were tons of imported makes of decent quality they had a lot of affordable instruments that were American made.

They did make some really cool stuff that I would like to buy. The Valverb was super cool, they made a really great series of pedals and they made a super bad ass pedal board that was all programable for stomp boxes - I forget what it was called.

Now that they're sold at GC/MF my guess is they probably have less small dealers.


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## paul-e-mann

Peavey was it when I was a kid. Looking at my Back Stage right now  and this amp still sounds good for a small combo thats why I still have it. I always thought it would be fun to add an extension cab jack to it so I could use it like a head for fun.


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## MartyStrat54

Good insight from you guys.

I remember getting that Monitor magazine and you are right. There were some really hysterical letters from customers proclaiming the toughness of Peavey gear.

Some of the stuff Amp360 mentioned I had forgot about, because as I got older I moved further away from Peavey.


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## Bigmuff

That's too bad... It would be nice to have an all American company be more successful. I have both a Classic 30 and a Classic 50. I prefer them over the equivalent Fender amps. Both have held up fine with lots of gigging and abuse.


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## Dogs of Doom

Amp360 said:


> What really hurt them (IMHO) was the popularity of the home studio around that time. When Mackie put out the 1604 and 8 buss series they must have really cut into Peavey's market share for lower end mixers. Plus, Alesis had the ADAT and Tascam had the DA series and these companies also made mixers and signal processors that were designed to interface with the newer technologies of these companies.
> 
> Now, couple this with the fact that at this time Guitar Center, MARS, Sam Ash and the internet came into play. At this time digital tape machines were the big thing and those places sold Alesis, Tascam, Mackie, etc... but they didn't sell Peavey, which at that time still were mostly sold in smaller stores.
> 
> I think ultimately that's what hurt them.


Sounds about right.

Guitar Center & Sam Ash caused the closing of many mom/pop shops. Back then, Peavey was easily obtainable as a product line & to get stuff like Marshall & Ampeg in your store, they wanted you to plop down $1 million for starters, to buy into the brand & they had rules that you had to carry 1 product minimum from every line.

The problem there was, the high dollar amps don't sell well enough for the average mom/pop store to invest in (of course this in '80/90s dollars).

Peavey was the go to amp/system for the mom/pop store. Randall had a bad rep for sound & modifying Marshalls, was not wide-spread yet & only a few select tech's were doing it.

A lot has changed since then.


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## SonVolt

Peavey would be the most popular amp maker in the world if the company had named itself "Hartley" instead of Peavey. It's like dating a Buffy... doesn't matter how smoking she is, it's still hard to introduce her to your friends and hope for respect.


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## SwampThing

SonVolt said:


> Peavey would be the most popular amp maker in the world if the company had named itself "Hartley" instead of Peavey. It's like dating a Buffy... doesn't matter how smoking she is, it's still hard to introduce her to your friends and hope for respect.



This! Also I'm not a fan whatsoever of his logo. It still screams 80's mullets, trans am's and 38 special.


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## sidvicious

they guy i worked for had several of peavey's very first amps. all were tube. they were badass to say the least. the cost was too high to compete with fender so they went ss.

at the time it was a strange experience to fire up a peavey TUBE amp. ss is so ingrained in their brand. in fact, i didn't trust it to be a tube amp. i always suspected evil ss sounds lurking.


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## guitargoalie

pedecamp said:


> Peavey was it when I was a kid. Looking at my Back Stage right now  and this amp still sounds good for a small combo thats why I still have it. I always thought it would be fun to add an extension cab jack to it so I could use it like a head for fun.



Dude I was just gonna say, my backstage sounds amazing for a small amp. The OD is killer.

When I bought my first guitar in 2004 it was a PV strat copy (called the raptor plus), I still use it all the time as a D standard axe. Over the next few years they started carrying less of them and before they closed I don't think they had any of their guitars.


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## blues_n_cues

they sure as hell ain't on the MARSHALL forum.

all the Peavey you want in store locally including a Peavey tech(whatever the hell that is)lol -
http://kymusiconline.com/retailer/s....asp?storeID=C44C5CBD078740F1A300A40F32D75FAD


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## Mosher Zone

I see Peavey stuff all the time, I've never for one minute thought they had dropped off the face of the earth or anything. Don't see the point of this post. Sorry.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Given how popular the 5150/6505 amp still is, I think it's safe to say they're still alive.


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## Mosher Zone

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Given how popular the 5150/6505 amp still is, I think it's safe to say they're still alive.



And the Triple X


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

That, too. 
The 3120 (basically the XXX) and JSX also has a smaller, but still pretty decent, following, as well as the Classic series.


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## blues_n_cues

3.6 million country players over age 50 just woke up out of a dead sleep..


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## paul-e-mann

guitargoalie said:


> Dude I was just gonna say, my backstage sounds amazing for a small amp. The OD is killer.
> 
> When I bought my first guitar in 2004 it was a PV strat copy (called the raptor plus), I still use it all the time as a D standard axe. Over the next few years they started carrying less of them and before they closed I don't think they had any of their guitars.



Yeah its a 20 watt amp that can get plenty loud, although its an open back combo with a speaker with a tiny magnet. Thought it would be fun to pipe it through something big to hear its potential. Not bad as is, I bought mine new in 1980 as a first amp, everybody had them it was the defacto standard.


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## BobPeabody67

SwampThing said:


> This! Also I'm not a fan whatsoever of his logo. It still screams 80's mullets, trans am's and 38 special.



I like the logo. But also I didn't live through the 80's to learn to hate it.

I've got a '89 Vandenberg and two '91 Vandenbergs, and they're pretty wicked guitars. The neck is a little too thin for my liking, but otherwise they are incredible. 

Never tried Peavey tube amps, but I have a mid 90's 15W solid state combo that sucks. 

Peavey PA gear is what I try to go for honestly. Always been very good to me in the past.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Speaking of logos...






Kinda wish they stuck with this for their amplifiers and such.


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## MartyStrat54

sidvicious said:


> they guy i worked for had several of peavey's very first amps. all were tube. they were badass to say the least. the cost was too high to compete with fender so they went ss.
> 
> at the time it was a strange experience to fire up a peavey TUBE amp. ss is so ingrained in their brand. in fact, i didn't trust it to be a tube amp. i always suspected evil ss sounds lurking.



Peavey was heavily ingrained into hybrid amps, most notable the MACE and DEUCE. Both of these amps were very popular, especially when southern rock was booming.

Peavey took the DEUCE and added a tube preamp and this was the ROCK MASTER. These amps sounded really good, but were not as popular as the MACE and DEUCE. 






Maybe someone recalls when this amp was released. I'm thinking 1979.

Peavey also offered an all tube Rock Master rack mount preamp.






My point is that Peavey did offer all tube amps back in the late 70's. They just didn't sell that well due to the fact that most of the popular southern rock bands were using the MACE and DEUCE.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

MartyStrat54 said:


> Peavey took the DEUCE



Why am I laughing so hard at this.


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## SonVolt

Which logo says I have a sock in my pants or I spend way too much time perusing Pawn Shops ? All perfect examples of how not to build a brand logo. One screams Whitetrash, the other Eurotrash.


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## SwampThing

blues_n_cues said:


> 3.6 million country players over age 50 just woke up out of a dead sleep..





YES!!! you beat me to it LMAO!!


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

SonVolt said:


> Which logo says I have a sock in my pants and are most likely wearing leather and eye-liner?



This one.






But yeah, I hate overly-pointy logos. It's not a dealbreaker, but if I can find the late '80s/early '90s logo faceplate, I'd gladly swap them out.


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## SwampThing

I'm a huge Gary Holt fan so I would not mind getting a hold of a Triple X. Aside from that, a Classic 50 and maybe a Peavey MACE..because Gary Rossington plays em. That's about all the time I have for PEAVEY.

I agree 110% with SonVolt. He should have named the product HARTLEY and had someone without a mullet design his logo. I will put money down that his products would be untouchable at least stateside.


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## MartyStrat54

> Originally Posted by MartyStrat54 View Post
> Peavey took the DEUCE





HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Why am I laughing so hard at this.



Because like Son Volt you have an infatuation with poop?


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Swampthing, try to find a 3120. They're pretty much XXXs with EL34s (can be swapped for 6L6s) and are sometimes cheaper than XXXs, since they seem to be slightly going up in price.


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## mott555

I still see a fair amount of Peavey stuff, just not guitar amps. Speakers/monitors, mixers, power amps, etc. They've got a hand in almost every corner of the music electronics industry.


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## paul-e-mann

MartyStrat54 said:


> Peavey was heavily ingrained into hybrid amps, most notable the MACE and DEUCE. Both of these amps were very popular, especially when southern rock was booming.
> 
> Peavey took the DEUCE and added a tube preamp and this was the ROCK MASTER. These amps sounded really good, but were not as popular as the MACE and DEUCE.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe someone recalls when this amp was released. I'm thinking 1979.
> 
> Peavey also offered an all tube Rock Master rack mount preamp.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My point is that Peavey did offer all tube amps back in the late 70's. They just didn't sell that well due to the fact that most of the popular southern rock bands were using the MACE and DEUCE.



These must be rare, nothing on ebay.


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## SwampThing

pedecamp said:


> These must be rare, nothing on ebay.



Peavey MACE's are EXTREMELY rare. I keep my eyes open for them. I'm kinda hoping to find one gathering dust in a Pawn shop somewhere.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

pedecamp said:


> These must be rare, nothing on ebay.



The Rockmaster amp seems pretty rare, but I've seen Rockmaster pres pretty often.

If what Marty said about the RM amp is true, then I don't think the Rockmaster amp and pre will sound the same. The RM pre is pretty damn high gain and is in the same vein of the Triple X, Ultra Plus, and 5150/6505.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWmzEIS_vQ[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqs9MYRFtcI[/ame]

There's also some re-branded Maces and Deuces, but I can't remember the names.


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## Jethro Rocker

My old Valve King (now there's a name we can laugh at!) sounded quite good for a cheaper tube amp, the new series seems to have multiple outputs, compact heads and combos, gain and vol boost on lead channels. Seem to be well made, I used to dig their PA gear, now we use mostly Yorkville as it is easy to get here in Canada and very good quality, decent price. There's still a 50's +, country rock stigma as pointed out above I think. I like the Marshall logo behind me when I gig, my tone will have my back 100%!!


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## MartyStrat54

Jazz-Yes I am in error. The Rock Master preamp was not the same preamp in the Rock Master head. I should have realized that. The RM preamp has a lot more features.

The RM preamps go for $250 to $325 on EBAY when available.

The RM heads are rare due to limited production.


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## NewReligion

I have an old Peavey PA, XR1600D. It is a powered 16 channel board with built-in stereo reverbs, delays and chorus etc... if chosen. Of course there is a loop and plenty of power for small gigs. It also can slave out to any poweramps one would like.

I sometimes enjoy runing one of my Marshalls through it while playing alone at home. Talk about killer tone...freaking wow.

I gave my classics to my sons. Great for cleans but I am no fan of Peavey over driven amps. IMO they all have a Honkish mid range.

Peavey is still the baseline staple of the American working musician when working with clean signals. But honestly (not cork sniffing) my taste evolved beyond Peavey Tech at an early age. Good stuff but if affordable it does not stack up to Marshall, Mesa, JBL, EV, Fender, Gibson etc... It damn well will get you the Sweet Home Alabama tone though, yehawwww!

Damn, I praised and ripped them all in one post. Well that pretty much sums up their line of gear to me. 

I should mention that I do find the 412 XXX Sheffield cabs to be an improvement over many celestion offerings. These are not the same Sheffields used in the 5150 or 6505 cabs. In fact I used XXX cabs on all of my first CD. Alas, the Marshall proprietary Vintage 30 loaded 1960BV is king. 

Thank you Peavey for all of the solid gear over the years.

Long winded opinionated rant over and out. David ♫


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

MartyStrat54 said:


> Jazz-Yes I am in error. The Rock Master preamp was not the same preamp in the Rock Master head. I should have realized that. The RM preamp has a lot more features.
> 
> The RM preamps go for $250 to $325 on EBAY when available.
> 
> The RM heads are rare due to limited production.



When you can find it, the RM is a really damn good preamp for a beginner's rack. Pretty versatile from what I've heard. 

Just in case anyone is interested. 

EDIT: Another reason I like the Rockmaster; SO MUCH VERSATILITY WITH THE FX LOOP!
I'm not joking, there's like 5 FX loops; 1 for all channels, 1 for the clean, 1 for the crunch, 1 for the ultra, and 1 for both the crunch and ultra channel.


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## Marshall Gibson

I frikkin love my JSX head ... loves it I tells ya!


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## MartyStrat54

Here's a mint RM head for $399.99

Peavey Rock Master Rockmaster 120 Watt Tube Head Rare | Peavey Guitar

Here's a beater on EBAY. (Note the wires sticking out of the face plate.)

Peavey Rockmaster 120 Watt Tube Guitar Amplifier Head Vintage Tube Series Amp | eBay


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## MartyStrat54

Oh and I want to add that the original MACE and DEUCE had four horizontal inputs. These were the best amps. In later production, Peavey revised the preamp board and they used a combination of horizontal and vertical inputs. I did not like the sound of these later versions and I have owned both.

Right now I still have a Classic VTX 60 watt amp. Hybrid. This was the final reincarnation of their old hybrid models.


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## SonVolt

I used to think the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 was the shit when I was kid! My friend's dad had one and I could get crazy Metallica sounds out of it. (at least I thought I could)


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

I actually wouldn't mind one of those for the cleans and chorus. Poor Man's JC-120. 

I also think it's supposed to be twice as loud as a JC-120.


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## SonVolt

From what I remember, it sounded better than a JC-120. It had a big loud clean sound, like a twin.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

That's actually really encouraging. I also had a friend, who's into old Peavey stuff, who wanted one. He's also into Fender stuff, so sweet.


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## AlvisX

I hated the hybrids ,played a Deuce in High School ...the pain is now forgotten 

Played this rig on my New Years Eve bass gig . I love Peavey SS gear for bass ,particularly that late 70s Meridian sh*t .Indestructible





This was my 1st bass amp,Xmas 1978 . We used it about 2 months ago for bass on a live radio broadcast 





Get your hands off my Peavis !!! LOGOS INTACT B*TCHES

I like the Classic 30 / Delta Blues sh*t well enough


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## Dogs of Doom

A buddy of mine defected to Peavey via the Rockmaster. He has the pre-amp & 3- ½ stacks. When I visited him in Vegas last year, he gave me the impression that the pre-amp was identical to the head circuit/topology. The pre-amp (nor the heads) have a simulated out. He uses the H&K Redbox II for recording, etc.

Back in the '80/90s he had one of the sweetest modded Marshall JCM 800 heads. He also had a JCM 900 that he had modified to take out the solid state stage & installed another ECC83 in it's place. He thought that was the best Marshall he ever had. I never really heard that one though.


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## MartyStrat54

AlvisX said:


> I hated the hybrids ,played a Deuce in High School ...the pain is now forgotten



HATER in the house.


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## MartyStrat54

I've wheeled and dealed a bunch of MACE and DEUCE's. May 2012 was the last time I had any. Not much good used gear where I live. Tulsa is not bad for finding old Peavey stuff.


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## blues_n_cues

I'm sorry but there is just no excuse or redemption..


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## Marshall Gibson

blues_n_cues said:


> I'm sorry but there is just no excuse or redemption..




 That Dweezil ... oh he a cwazy bastich


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Man, that thing sucked so hard.


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## SonVolt

blues_n_cues said:


> I'm sorry but there is just no excuse or redemption..




It's the Peavey Fridge.


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## blues_n_cues

SonVolt said:


> It's the Peavey Fridge.




now THAT'S funny right there,I don't care who ya are..


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## MartyStrat54

blues_n_cues said:


> I'm sorry but there is just no excuse or redemption..



I'm glad this thread is in the Cellar, cuz that's where that POS belongs.


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## Amp360

To MartyStrat54's point, Peavey did make some really nice tube amps in the mid 70s. The Mace which has been mentioned was the amp that Dave Davies went to after Hiwatt, he told me they sounded great but were unreliable. 

They also made an amp called the Classic which was a pretty great amp. IIRC this was a hybrid amp as well, but these sounded really nice.

The problem with their logo isn't just that it was ugly and people spelled it wrong, it's that they would update it now and again and years later a lot of their stuff looks really dated.

I remember the classic look - black amps with the silver sides (like the Classic NOT MINE pictured below), then I remember when they updated to the late 80s/early 90s teal color. At the time I thought this looked bad ass - my band had SP-3 speakers with this - today it looks ugly as anything. Then they did the gold logo as well.

Another great product that they made were the AMR recorders. Much more robust then a Portastudio, these were mixers with a full size tape deck on a weird rack that sat over the mixer. First time I saw one I was blown away!

Some Peavey stuff I remember fondly:











Note the stupid teal stripe. We had the SP-3 which were big enough to move and were kick ass at the time. The SP-4s were unobtanium!






These actually sounded decent (IIRC) despite the stupid look. I bet the same guy who bought Fibes and North bought these:






Much cooler then a Portastudio!






I STILL want this:


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## BobPeabody67

Not bad looking if I do say so myself.


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## MartyStrat54

Amp360-You may have read in my prior comment about the Classic VTX I have. This was the updated version of the Classic. It's actually a pretty decent amp and has the Scorpion speakers. 

My first big PA was all Peavey. I had four SP-1's, two CS800 power amps and two CS400 power amps. I had these cabs bi-ampped. Remember the crossover modules that you plugged in the back of those old power amps to split the signal?

Peavey finally got smart and came out with a version of the SP-1 that basically was a sub cab and a horn cab that stacked together. I don't remember the model number.

I used to do big outdoor parties with that PA and I had the reputation for having the best party system in my neck of the woods.


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## Dogs of Doom

My 1st PA was a Peavey 16 channel w/ Peavey amps. I had Altec 15" speakers w/ horns & 18" Cerwin Vega folded horns. The ones that matched Ampeg SVT 8x10 cab's. Also had a dozen SM 57's & a few SM58's...

The Altec cab's we made to be like the Altec cab's of the day. We dumped them & upgraded to a pair of these:






on top of the 18" CV's.....


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## Amp360

Bob - cool Vandenberg guitars! The coolest (gheyest) one was the puzzle piece finish.

Marty - I think the cab you're talking about is the SP-3, that's what we had.

Here is Monitor - I actually remember this issue! Makes me want to buy a bunch of them on ebay. I used to read them cover to cover!






This is the Valverb, which came out in the 1990s. It's a really kick ass unit and still pretty valuable - it's a great tube reverb with tube vibrato. Much more practical then the Fender tank, plus you get vibrato. 






This thing is still useful. It could be used like a GCX system to control your pedals.






I would have killed for one of these:






NOT Mine but sooooo early 90s:


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## Ghostman

I used to own:
Rage 158 (shitty but great beginner amp)
Bandit 112 ( shitty but cool second amp)
Supreme 100 Head (shitty but cool first head)
Sheffeild equipped 412 cab. (Cool as shit metal grate front)

*Edit* I forgot I also owned a Rock Master Pre that I ran through a Mosvalve 250 power amp.

and last but not least:
Tube Fex preamp and matching PFC10 controller. I will gladly give one of my kids to get these two back.


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## Dogs of Doom

Amp360 said:


> I would have killed for one of these:


Similar to the one I had. Mine had the EQ in the right corner & the main part (where the EQ is here) was just blank...


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## Amp360

The more I read this thread the more I remember how in the old days there were less choices but at least stuff was American made. 

Even though my local stores were 1/20th the size of GC they were much better. We had one GIANT store (that sold Peavey IIRC) and someone reopened it. It's not as grand but all the fixtures, etc... are the same. Was amazing to walk in there after all these years.


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## MartyStrat54

My mixer was even older. A 1200S.






Here's an XR-1200 PA system for sale for $1250.

PA System Powered Peavey SP2 Black Widow Pair of 300 Watt Speakers XR 1200 Mixer | eBay

Remember these? The original PV mics. I had four of each style. (Copies of a 57 and a 58.)


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## Amp360

Cool man. $1000 was a LOT of money back then.


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## ibmorjamn

Mosher Zone said:


> And the Triple X



I was hoping someone would mention the xxx. I read a little about them .
Some said the Jsx was better for the money and then some liked the 80's Butcher. I know the xxx is a high gain high power monster. I have played the 6505 + briefly and it can not match the triple rec or the Jvm 410
I found xxx head with a matching 4 x 12 cab (no logo) in nnice shape real cheap. It seems you couldn't wrong for the price. I'm not in need of a 400w 1/2 stack but he must need cash.


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## whatsacleantone

I like the old silver stripe 2x15s with black widows in them. a buddy of mine has at least two of 'em.


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## Dogs of Doom

That XR-1200 for sale looks just like the one that Amp360 posted above, just a better angle/perspective...

That one that I had was a workhorse. I did many live shows & demos for others w/ it. When the band I was in split, we wheeled & dealed & someone else got everything. I gave away the folded horn 18's (man do I regret that), but the guy that got them did so much for me. He was a mechanic & did all my troubleshooting & work for free, so whatever I could do for him was well deserved...


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## BobPeabody67

Ghostman said:


> Sheffeild equipped 412 cab. (Cool as shit metal grate front)



What'd that look like? Sounds cool as fxck.


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## MartyStrat54

Dogs of Doom said:


>



We used to call those PV Ballbusters. Heavy SOB's.


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## MartyStrat54

Amp360 said:


> Cool man. $1000 was a LOT of money back then.



It was 1974 and I just got a job with Santa Fe RR. I was a 19 year old kid making good money. I bought all of my Peavey equipment at Driver's Music store in OKC. (It has since burned to the ground and hundred's of vintage guitars were destroyed.)

I spent thousands there. I was a dedicated PV customer.


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## sidvicious

i had a lot of the PA gear mentioned in various threads. one really cool item i had that hasn't been mentioned, i don't think, was a peavey rack eq that had customizable stored settings for different venues, monitors & mains, etc. remember those? the unit would shoot the room and automatically dial in the eq.

it was damn handy. really a neat little item and saved tons of time. it was the first of its kind for the regular man. 

when we used house pa's or gear of others we always threw that eq in the signal.

it was really nice for floor monitors and side fill cabs. something most sound men can never get right.


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## MartyStrat54

I don't recall that, but it sounds like a cool EQ.

I had two of the 31 band PV EQ's.


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## JAC

The Classic 30 is a bitchen combo. I have a pretty nice JF-1. Really nice knock off of an ES-335. Great neck and warm tone. I had to adjust it just right . It took me a few hours but, I cherryed it! It comes with gold hardware which I'm not a fan of. It was a present from over a year ago. By the way, to this day, Peavey makes great mixers as well.


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## Ghostman

BobPeabody67 said:


> What'd that look like? Sounds cool as fxck.



It was a straight face, covered with Rhino lining type stuff with a metal grate front. I have no idea the model but I'll see if I can wrangle up some pics.

Found one:


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

It's a Peavey 412M. 

I have one. The speakers are absolute ass.


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## sinner 13

I played on Peavey gear up until probably 1995 or so...

I was playing bass in the band at the time...

I was running into my Basic 115 combo.
Then... pre out to a MarkV series bass head into a 2x15 that was an old Joe Perry Project Rig

it would loosen yer bowels..


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## Bflat5

My first amp was a Peavey Decade. Tiny little thing. My first real guitar was Peavey T-60. One hell of a good playing guitar, but looked country as hell for a metal band though. 

Actually, I think Peavey makes great guitars.

The 2 best amps that come to mind are the Renown and Classic combos. As I recall they were badass.


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## MartyStrat54

Ghostman said:


> It was a straight face, covered with Rhino lining type stuff with a metal grate front. I have no idea the model but I'll see if I can wrangle up some pics.
> 
> Found one:



Ha-ha. I had one of those up until June 2012. I dumped the stock speakers and put in some Heppner vintage alnico speakers. I eventually sold it to an old black blues guitarist in KC.

Here it is buried in the background with a TSL 100 sitting on top of it.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

With some good speakers, those 412M(S) speakers can kick ass. Really solid build quality. It does have an MDF back, but they're usually sealed and front-loaded.

Or you can find a Peavey 412M(S) from the early-mid '80s. They come stock with Celestion G12K-85s.


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## MartyStrat54

That cab was of excellent build for a mass produced item.


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## Karloff

my favorite music store in my area is a peavey dealership. they also carry fender and marshall. i had a ultra tube 1x12 combo for 14 yrs. liked it but never loved it. their classic series are great amps. im not a fan of the sheffield speakers. their pa systems i feel are good, reliable and affordable.


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## BobPeabody67

That cab looks good other than that red logo thing at the bottom.


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## MartyStrat54

Yeah that was goofy. Don't know what the hell it was supposed to represent.


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## Dogs of Doom

these have it too:

PEAVEY TLS 5 SPEAKERS


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## Micky

I have 4 of these in the gymnasium up over the baskets:






Seems like they are indestructable.

Have 6 of the white ones over at the hockey rink...


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## Ghostman

I loved the construction of this cab. I priced out a custom built just like it from Avatar. Hopefully this summer I'll be ordering up one.


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## MartyStrat54

From a Talk Bass forum member:



> The old block logo was known as the "delta squiggle" because of the triangle with the squiggle graphic that accompanies the word Peavey. That logo was originally created for Eddie Van Halen in the early 90's because he didn't want the lightning bolt on his 5150 stacks. That logo was also said to be the preference of Melia Peavey (former company president and Hartley's former wife who passed away), so it became THE Peavey logo for a while. There is still a large delta squiggle logo on the front of the corporate office building.



The "lightning bolt" refers to the original silver Peavey logo.


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## alan jcm800

hi , gotta love the old mace , deuce and classic models , i have the vt versions of the mace and deuce , the deuce is loaned out to my 16 year old nephew (his parents love me for it  ) the bass player uses a PV data bass amp , i used to also have a t 60 guitar 
a wee pic of my mace in 6x12 mode


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## Dogs of Doom

My 1st amp was a Fender Champ 10 watt, but when I upgraded on my own, my 1st amp was:






Then I traded my guitar gear for bass & ended up w/:






& a 2-15 cab:






After about a year, I upgraded to:






before switching to Ampeg SVT LTD Skunkworks systems...


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## AlvisX

Rockin the Made in MS Peavis New Years Eve w/ Jimbo Mathus ...in MS ...





Brian Henneman of The Bottle Rockets once said "Ya start with Peavey & Peavey is where ya end up..."


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## Georgiatec

Amp360 said:


> They also made an amp called the Classic which was a pretty great amp. IIRC this was a hybrid amp as well, but these sounded really nice.



Here's mine from 1978. Great amp for cleans....just ask Nile Rodgers.


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## AlvisX

Georgiatec said:


> Here's mine from 1978. Great amp for cleans....just ask Nile Rodgers.



So, were the Peavi popular and easy to get in the UK back in those days ?


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## Cold Warrior

SonVolt said:


> I used to think the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 was the shit when I was kid! My friend's dad had one and I could get crazy Metallica sounds out of it. (at least I thought I could)



I'll say this, those sound damned good at bedroom volumes for practice, as long as you don't have a tube amp in the room to A/B. I had one for a while when I had a brief moment of insanity and stepped away from tube amps for all the convenience of the Stereo Chorus 212. It had a nice selection of good to great reverbs, chorus and 3 channels in a loud, high gain 212 combo when having all of these together in one package was rare. I'd say solid state amps can be fun for high gain leads and cleans, but tend to fall short on crunch tones when played at high (band) volume. When I finally came to my senses and bought my Mesa MkIII half stack, all of those gimmicks were obliterated by pure tube tone!  And I was reminded that tube watts are MUCH bigger than SS watts! 

EVH brought a lot of true cred when he endorsed Peavey heavily for a time and helped design two of their best products, the 5150s and Wolfgang guitars. Before that, they didn't to have a small time suburban image rather than a world renowned image you'd expect for a major brand. Before his endorsement, they were mostly seen as a bargain brand, not something you'd buy if you had little or no budget restraints.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

MartyStrat54 said:


> From a Talk Bass forum member:
> 
> 
> 
> The "lightning bolt" refers to the original silver Peavey logo.



Is this refering to the Delta logo on some amps or the non-pointy Peavey logo like on the metal-grilled 412M(S)?


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## MartyStrat54

The lightning bolt was slang for the original silver Peavey logo. The red delta logo came later and Peavey used it for quite some time.

Did that answer your question?


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## MartyStrat54

Georgiatec said:


> Here's mine from 1978. Great amp for cleans....just ask Nile Rodgers.



While I wouldn't throw a VT series amp away, by far my favorites were the original hybrid amps with the four horizontal inputs, silver knobs and Eminence speakers.


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## Georgiatec

AlvisX said:


> So, were the Peavi popular and easy to get in the UK back in those days ?



I don't think they were widely available Alvin, but they were over here. The one I had back in the '80's was the later version of this amp with the phaser instead of tremolo. I gigged it for 5 years solid, 3-4 times a week and it never let me down. I only changed the tubes once, when I had one fail at rehearsal.
Picked the 1978 model up last year to remind me of the old days.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Yeah I know the pointy one was the lightning bolt logo, but I was wondering if they were referring to this logo






For the "Delta" logo.


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## MartyStrat54

No it isn't. They were referring to this logo.


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## AlvisX

Hey , do you guys think the built in phaser was a result of "the endorsement" and Rossington's need to play the intro on "Breeze" like the record?
Who TF would put in a built in phaser (which I thought was super cool at age 16)

I had a 4 input ,4 power tube hybrid head w/ trem. It wasn't called the Deuce at that time ,cant remember what it was .Had the silver knobs like Georgia's


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## SwampThing

AlvisX said:


> Hey , do you guys think the built in phaser was a result of "the endorsement" and Rossington's need to play the intro on "Breeze" like the record?
> Who TF would put in a built in phaser (which I thought was super cool at age 16)
> 
> I had a 4 input ,4 power tube hybrid head w/ trem. It wasn't called the Deuce at that time ,cant remember what it was .Had the silver knobs like Georgia's



I don't know the reason but I would take one today in a heartbeat.


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## SwampThing

Georgiatec said:


> Here's mine from 1978. Great amp for cleans....just ask Nile Rodgers.



Great amp PERIOD. Ask Billy gibbons.


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## MartyStrat54

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Yeah I know the pointy one was the lightning bolt logo, but I was wondering if they were referring to this logo
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For the "Delta" logo.



Jazz-My post might be misleading. The logo I was referring to is the white triangle and the red squiggles at the bottom of the PA speakers.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Oooh, I see. I was curious because I thought EVH designed that logo, which I think Peavey should have stuck with.


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## MartyStrat54

Well I posted ^^^ a few comments back that Eddie didn't want the old lightning bolt logo on his amps, so PV designed a new one.

Now I will say that the white block logo you posted that has a triangle for the "A" was used in conjunction with the white and red logo that most refer to as the "squiggle."


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

That's why I thought he designed it. Guess I misread.


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## Marshall Gibson

Yep I think it's high time PV updated their logo, that "lightning" one is hideous, take the Marshall logo for instance, it's classic and will never age as it's just cursif writing, but it's still instantly reconizable.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Peavey can design some awesome-sounding stuff, but when it comes to looks...



Okay, those '90s Classic series amps looked awesome, so that's an exception.


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## SwampThing

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Peavey can design some awesome-sounding stuff, but when it comes to looks...
> 
> 
> 
> Okay, those '90s Classic series amps looked awesome, so that's an exception.



See? that's not too shabby- it's that FOKKING logo man- Kills it.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Have this horrible photoshop.


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