Oldschool Peavey TNT tone out of modern day head and cab?

[Tbirdbassist]

Does it exist? Anything even come close to the Peavey "grunt"?

Anyone who's used these brutal lil (or not so little) combo amps built from the mid 80's to early 90's knows they are sleepers and sound amazing and are LOUD.

I've owned two TNT 160's for about 3 years. One with a 15" Black Widow speaker and the other with a 15" Scorpion (I blew the BW a while ago though...).

I've played through so many amps and nothing comes close. Idunno what Peavey did but I wish they had kept doing it... in lighter, more portable form. I've gigged with this amp so many times in small to medium venues and it shines through like a mofo'. I play a variety of music, but I mainly gigged with them while in a prog/hard rock band with a very hard hitting drummer... no farting out, always cut through, takes a low B like a champ... it doesn't make sense. A 20+ year old 80lb 160 watt (I still don't believe this rating) combo amp you can find for less than $150 at times... doing better than amp and cab setups thousands more.

But I'm in NYC, do not have a running car and quite frankly don't always like paying/finding parking for gigs anyway. So lately I've been keeping the one TNT home and using house rigs/borrowing others... I've thought about building a custom rack housing for them and getting a power amp and doing it that way, still kinda heavy, but portable.

I've always considered Markbass, it's like a NYC bassists dream. But I'm just unsure what would work. Cause a lot of my tone is the Peavey speaker as well as preamp.

MB 2x10+15 + whatever MB head is absolutely KILLER tone, but my tone? Idunno.

I hate having to say weight is an issue, but it is. I'm getting a handcart, but I'd like to keep the carts load around 80lbs. Because I tend to carry two basses and a pedalboard totaling around 80lbs itself on my back/hands (yes, I do this now).

This isn't really a suggestion thread, although they are welcomed. I just felt like sharing since I haven't posted something this extensive on Talkbass in more than a year. I have a lot more demoing to do, damn Markbass for having such a wide range of gear, so little time and not having everything available.