What Peavey could this be?

[KrisH]

I was contacted by a guy who has an amp for sale. He claims it is an old tube Peavey (doesn't know the model), 700 watts, and has a 4-feet tall cabinet with a 20" Black Widow speaker. I suspect he's mistaken about some particulars. No pics. Rather than drive a fair distance to check it out without more info, I thought I'd see if anyone here might have any clue as to what he was talking about.

[bassbrad]

I would get more info before driving any distance. The cab could be a 1x18", not a bad cab paired with a 2x10 or 2x12. Peavey did not make tube bass heads until fairly recently mid to late 90's, but i would not venture a guess.

[KrisH]

Yeah, I'm seeing the Black Widow 18" rated at 700 watts program, so maybe that's what he's reading from the back of the cab. The amp though? I dunno . . . . he's not being really helpful.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

If the seller contacted You first, but can't provide anything but vague descriptions, I'd be cautious.

What's the price he's asking?

Regards
Sam

[bobcruz]

Could be a Peavey tube guitar head. Ask him to give you the model name and number; get a pic by e-mail if at all possible too. If you can't get particulars, pass.

[mech]

I bet 10 to 1 the "700 watts" is by the line cord. That's the power pulled from the wall socket with the amp at full power.

mech

[MNAirHead]

My guess is a guitar head with a 15 bw cabinet.

Need a link to the ad to help more.

[KrisH]

This was the ad:
http://southjersey.craigslist.org/msg/1944229808.html

I emailed and asked for make, model, pictures. This was his response:

"no pics brand is peavey not sure of the model the amp is an older peavey tube amp very loud and the speaker is a 20inch black widow
call to come see it"

I was just curious, not hungry. Since he couldn't be bothered to look at the back of the unit to find the model name/number, I decided I couldn't bother to drive 30+ minutes to look for him.

Passed.

[HDW325IS]

The cab could be the 1810 or 1820 which is one 18" black widow and either two 10" scorpions or two 10" sheffields. I had an 1820, the low end is crazy, but overall I found the response quite slow.

[NecroticImbecil]

Originally Posted by KrisH

This was the ad:
http://southjersey.craigslist.org/msg/1944229808.html

I emailed and asked for make, model, pictures. This was his response:

"no pics brand is peavey not sure of the model the amp is an older peavey tube amp very loud and the speaker is a 20inch black widow
call to come see it"

I was just curious, not hungry. Since he couldn't be bothered to look at the back of the unit to find the model name/number, I decided I couldn't bother to drive 30+ minutes to look for him.

Passed.

That's too bad. You may have missed out on a deal like you'll never see again. I'm tempted to drive the 6 hours it would take...

PDF of a Peavey manual:

http://www.peavey.com/assets/literat...vta400_800.pdf

Originally Posted by bassbrad

I would get more info before driving any distance. The cab could be a 1x18", not a bad cab paired with a 2x10 or 2x12. Peavey did not make tube bass heads until fairly recently mid to late 90's, but i would not venture a guess.

The owner of the amp is obviously mistaken, but so are you. See page 174 of "The Peavey Revolution" for a timeline of Peavey amp models.

Now I'm not saying the seller isn't TOTALLY off base, for all I know he has a Firebass that he thinks has tubes in it. If by "older" he means '69 - '72, it could be a VTA400, a 200 watt tube bass amp, or its big brother the VTA800 (book does not list 800 dates, but I'd assume similar) a 400 watt tube bass amp. Like many people who don't have any idea what they're doing, he's reading the watts off the back of the amp or enclosure, and is just guessing at the speaker size.



I'd lean toward 1810 or 1820 for the cab, but those had 10s besides the 18; he may not notice them, or it may be a folded horn, PA cabinet, or something I'm not familiar with. In any case, the cabinet is at best going to be a huge, heavy mud machine. I had w 1820s and while the 10s sounded pretty good, the 18s produced indistinct noises and sounded like they were close to blowing when used with a 5 string bass and 150 watt tube amp.

Of course "older" to this guy could mean a Classic 400, that's one from the 90's I believe. $400 is a good price for one of those. Again, he could be totally wrong about it having tubes at all, but the curiosity would get me out of the house, if I had a car. I don't know if I'd walk that far.

The thing about dealing with clueless, lazy people is that, yes, you do have the difficult communication, but the only way you're going to get a deal in this Internet age is from a bonehead who can't even figure out how to Google his item to see what it's worth. It can be worth dealing with a moron locally. I'll never buy something that needs to be packed and shipped from someone who can't write a coherent Email though. Idiots do not know how to pack... "me put...thing... in ..box.. hurr. hurr..." Crash!