Peavy Vs. Carvin. need help.

[jbjordan07]

my options are:

Peavy Tour 450
or the
Carvin BX500

anyone out there know any pros or cons? Which do you guys think would hold out better? I play in a band and we gig atleast once a month right.

Any help or comments, intuition, or foresight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[srxplayer]

You can find a lot of info on both of these heads by using the search function.

The Carvin puts out 50 watts more and is much lighter than the Peavey with it's class-d power supply. It also has a tube in the preamp where the Peavey is all solid sate. That being said I really like the Tour Series heads. They sound great and are solidly built. I have always liked the peavey graphic EQ with hi/lo shelving. The Peavey is less money too. It was also designed by a fellow TBer who is a Peavey engineer.

[Rick Robins]

Not the exact items you ask about but over the past 24 years now I have owned PV & Carvin gear-bass amps, basses, cabs, Pa gear & power amps.

My experince has been PV failed me all the time (other than one old CS 400) I loved that amp.

On the other hand Carvin has been good to me.
My main bass head, a Carvin PB500 is 22 years old & I never had a problem. From that good experience I now have all Carvin PA gear, power amps, rack gear & bass cabs. Not a problem in better than a 100 gigs a year.

I myself am looking to add the Carvin BX500 to my fold.

[RNV]

The Carvin BX500 is a tried and true warrior, although Peavey is no slouch either. There are more than enough reviews in the "review" section here on TB. I happen to adore both brands in the fact that they are very reliable, inexpensive, and American made. To be fair to both amps, they are apple and oranges. They both can do very different things, so it depends on what tastes better to you. Either way, you got yourself a nice amp.

[bassplayer8953]

FWIW, I switched from Peavey to Carvin amps because I preferred the tone Carvin provided. After playing Peavey bass amps for about a decade I had occasion to try Carvin. Returning to playing the Peavey it sounded dead. I made the switch to Carvin & never looked back.

Of course, tone is (very) subjective. Try to play both; let your ears be your guide. They are both very reliable, well made amps.

[RedLeg]

have had good results with both companies. to me it seems like tube/class d vs price.