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Peavey Headliner

L

lahmikaze

Aug 5, 2011
11
0
#1
Hey , I was hoping to get some advice from you before I make my next purchase. I currently have an Ibanez SDB1 bass guitar, plugged into an Ibanez Soudwave SWX65 Bass Amp Combo. They are both great for what I'm doing, which is just practicing at home and with the garage band. We have already played a show and it just wasn't enough to go over the guitar amps that our guitar players use.

I'm looking to upgrade and I've been doing some shopping around now. If 65 watts is plenty just for playing in the garage and just under enough for shows, shouldn't 400 watts be enough? Well I've come to find that the amp that I keep going back to is the Peavey Headliner 210 2x10 Bass Speaker Cabinet with the Peavey Headliner 600W Bass Amp Head. The prices seem very reasonable but that's one of my concerns; is the price too good to be true? Are Peavey amps any good? Please get back to me.

**My band does covers and makes our own stuff. We've covered bands like RHCP, Metallica, Offspring, Stone Sour, Green Day and many more. Hope that helps with the decision making. Thanks =D
 
#5
nashvillebill said:
They hold up well, usually last forever, don't cost a fortune (especially if buying one used), and their customer service is good. And usually they sound decent too, especially for live work.

Of course, there are plenty of gear snobs who look down on anybody that isn't playing their particular brand of choice.
Click to expand...

+1 on that entire post! I used a 700 watt Peavey Firebass into 2 Peavey 810 TVX cabs for years. The only trouble I had with the gear was the handle coming out of the head after a few years. And that was done by my idiot guitar player during a load out. I also scraped the hell out of the tolex on the cabs. Totally my fault though. Peavey has a pretty generic sound, but I always used a multifx pedal to enhance that. And that is my personal experience with Peavey.

Bottom line, don't let anyone else's preferences dictate what gear you choose to use. You have your own reasons and opinions on what you like, what sounds good to you and what fits in well with your wallet!
 
#10
Not necessarily. All they are saying is this:

Save money and buy a head with less watts. 300 to 400w is plenty. Then buy a cabinet with more speakers. 2x10 is generally not enough speakers for medium bar-sized gigs. You would be best off with a 4x10.

And to answer your original question, the Peavey Headliner gear is very new, it just came out, but from what I have read, it is the poorest quality most "budget" sounding gear Peavey has ever made. Therefore, this is what you need to do:

Go to Guitar Center's website and search the used gear. You can find a great head and cabinet that's more reliable, louder, and has better tone than brand new "budget" gear. You can get a quality used rig for less than $500.

Good luck
 
#11
lahmikaze said:
So it's better to get a 600 watt speaker and use 400 of them, than get a 400 watt speaker and use all 400?
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400 of what? Speakers don't produce power (watts) they produce movement and heat when you apply power to them.
As far as the rated input power the 600 watt capable speaker, it may only accept 200 before reaching its mechanical limits. The 400 watt capable speaker may accept 300. It all depends on how realistic the specs are and how well the box it is in matches to the speakers needs. What duty the speaker is designed for and used for also matters. A 600 watt guitar duty speaker may fall apart at 60 watts of bass guitar use.
 
#12
Ahhhhh, okay. Sorry, I'm new with the equipment aspect of music, lol. Sorry if this is another stupid question but, does it really matter if I get two different brands? Like if I were to get an Ibanez head and a Peavey speaker, would that make a difference, or is it better just to get the same brand?
 
#13
It does matter. Mixing heads and cabs will create a unique tone. So if you have an Ampeg head with a Fender cab, it's going to sound like Fenpeg. A Peavey head and an Ibanez cab will sound like Peavanez. You're going to be mixing tones. This may or may not sound good, it's a gamble, and the only way to know if the two brands together will have a decent tone is to ask someone who has used that specific combination.

Of course, there are people that love to do this. A friend of mine uses a Gallien Krueger 800rb head into an Ampeg 8x10, and that sounds fantastic. Personally, I use a Hartke 5500c head into two Acoustic 4x10 cabs and I love my tone. Mixing brands is something best suited for after you've played many types of rigs and have a distinct idea of what you like. If I were you, I would stick with same head and same cab brand for now.

One thing that is IMPERATIVE that you must know is impedance. This is expressed in ohms, and if you do not consider impedance, you risk severely damaging your equipment.

The following is a good example:

1. A head that runs at 380 watts @ 8 ohms and 500 watts @ 4 ohms.

You can connect this head to either A) one 4 ohm cabinet that can handle at least 500 watts B) one 8 ohm cabinet that can handle 380 watts or C) two 8 ohm cabinets that can handle at least 250 watts. When a head is hooked to two cabinets, it will send half of its power to each cab. Therefore, the 500 watt head will send 250 watts to each 8 ohm cabinet in example C.

You risk severely damaging your equipment if you hook this type of head up to two 4 ohm cabinets or one 2 ohm cabinet, etc.

The smartest and easiest thing you could do at this point is to find one 8 ohm cabinet and a head that supports an 8 ohm load.

Virtually every head nowadays will support an 8 or 4 ohm load, so this will leave you with the option to further expand your rig in the future.
 
#15
lahmikaze said:
Ahhhhh, okay. Sorry, I'm new with the equipment aspect of music, lol. Sorry if this is another stupid question but, does it really matter if I get two different brands? Like if I were to get an Ibanez head and a Peavey speaker, would that make a difference, or is it better just to get the same brand?
Click to expand...

Everyone starts somewhere ;) Some makers make great amp heads and not so good cabs, some make only cabs, some make so so heads and speakers and so on.......
You have to play through the different combinations to find the sound you like (its not the same for each person). Experiment and have fun in the search! :bassist: :D
 
#17
I have been searching non-stop ever since I started this thread to find my dream Amp (Thanks to you guys). I think I may have found something. Please correct if I'm making a bad decision. I came across the 450 watt Behringer BX4500H Amp Head for about $250 on musiciansfriend.com. And to go with it, a Behringer Ultrabass BB410 1200W 4x10 Bass Cabinet for about $360 from the same site. The price is more than well in my range (I didn't want to spend much more than $750 for the pair) and from what I read, both of them seem to be great as a pair and individually. Any suggestions?
 
#19
I used that exact Behringer rig (well, the combo version, which is no longer made) as my main gig rig for years when I joined my first real band.

Despite Behringer's awful reputation, this is a good rig for the musician who is just getting into gigging.

Pros: It's loud and can handle a lot of bass without farting out, it has a direct out for PA, and a decent enough EQ to dial in the sound you want. The shape function is a plus too.

Cons: It is ridiculously heavy. The cab only has wheels on one side, and weighs about 110 pounds. It's kind of a pain to get into a vehicle on your own. Overall, the tone isn't that great. It sounds like it's price range.

I believe this rig may have caught your eye because of the high watt numbers. As other posters have already told you, don't buy a rig just because it's rated in high wattage. There are 300w rigs out there that are way louder than the Behringer. As we have said, you would be better off getting something used that has a quality tone (Peavey, GK, Hartke, Ampeg) instead of trying to get the most watts vs. $$$.

But it's your decision in the end, you may try the Behringer and absolutely love it. Good luck.
 
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#20
nashvillebill said:
They hold up well, usually last forever, don't cost a fortune (especially if buying one used), and their customer service is good.
Click to expand...

While their legacy equipment was built tour-tough and earned a reputation for holding up well and lasting forever, this Headliner series is off-shored and outsourced and built to a price-point. Maybe Peavey will build a reputation for sourcing the best made-in-wherever equipment on the block, but that remains to be seen.
 

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