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Any more 1980s Peavey USA basses?

powellmacaque

powellmacaque

Aug 16, 2006
925
17
36
Clearwater, FL
#1
I've owned a T-40 for a little over four years now, and I've owned a T-20FL for just under a year and I absolutely love these basses. There are tons of threads floating around that talk about various classic USA-made Peaveys (preferably from the 1970s-early 1990s), but I was thinking about starting this thread as a place for people to discuss these basses in one place.

I know a little bit about basses from this era (Fury, T-45, Patriot, Foundation,etc), but I'm wondering if people could share their experiences with these basses, maybe give a timeline for model updates (like the change from toaster to blade pickups in the T-40), model variations (color options, did they make a fretless or five string model?), what to look for when looking for "stock" instruments, and of course post plenty of pictures of their Peavey basses.
 
#3
Check the link in my sig for everything you ever wanted to know about the T-40. The exact dates for transitions of features are not all laid down, but there are some good approximations in there. Read the whole thread if you can because the first post is locked for edits, so I and others have been adding info to the other pages.

As for my experience. I've been playing a '79 T-40 for over a decade now and it's one of my favorite basses. I recently added a T-45 to the stable and am very happy with it as well. The middle knob is a strange beast as well as sweeping the humbucker to Single, it also affects the mids and lows. Still, it nails the P on steroids thing and I no longer desire an L1000 (though it would be nice...) or a Cabronita.

I owned a Ferrite equipped Fury for a while. It was nice enough, but it didn't sound notably better than my MIM P with Quarter pounder. Also the Neck dive was really annoying. I played a P-style fury (not sure if it was late 80's or 90's) in church from time to time as well. Nice basic P-clone with a solid neck (though it's thin J shape was not my preference) and good tone.

Peavey's are pretty solid instruments the only things to look out for are the usual foibles of older instruments. Ski-Jump and warped necks (though bi-lam necks do seem less prone to these), trashed fretwork, etc. By and large, Peavey basses are solid instruments and there aren't any models that are considered stinkers to avoid.
 
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#4
Eilif said:
Check the link in my sig for everything you ever wanted to know about the T-40. The exact dates for transitions of features are not all laid down, but there are some good approximations in there.

As for my experience. I've been playing a '79 T-40 for over a decade now and it's one of my favorite basses. I recently added a T-45 to the stable and am very happy with it as well. The middle knob is a strange beast as well as sweeping the humbucker to Single, it also affects the mids and lows. Still, it nails the P on steroids thing.

I owned a Ferrite equipped Fury for a while. It was nice enough, but it didn't sound notably better than my MIM P with Quarter pounder. Also the Neck dive was really annoying. I played a P-style fury (not sure if it was late 80's or 90's) in church from time to time as well. Nice basic P-clone with a solid neck (though it's thin J shape was not my preference) and good tone.

Peavey's are pretty solid instruments the only things to look out for are the usual foibles of older instruments. Ski-Jump and warped necks (though bi-lam necks do seem less prone to these), trashed fretwork, etc. By and large, Peavey basses are solid instruments and there aren't any models that are considered stinkers to avoid.
Click to expand...

I will add that because Peaveys were inexpensive, many were bought by beginners who did not know how to maintain them. If a Peavey only needs minor work it is still a great deal though.
 
#8
I had a late eighties Fury and loved it. It hooked me on P-type basses, I gave it to my great nephew a couple of years ago for Christmas, he is still rocking it.

A beautiful Dyna was my first "good" bass. It was very well made, but just wasn't my thing. I finally ended up getting a burst Foundation with a maple board, I liked it a lot, I only got rid of it because I just had too many basses. If I would have bought the Foundation early on, I might not have bought all of the other basses.

The only Peavey still on my personal wish list is a USA Cirrus with a maple board. If I some day get ahold of one of those I suspect that it would be a keeper. (They are sort of rare.)
 
#9
drummer5359 said:
I had a late eighties Fury and loved it. It hooked me on P-type basses, I gave it to my great nephew a couple of years ago for Christmas, he is still rocking it.

A beautiful Dyna was my first "good" bass. It was very well made, but just wasn't my thing. I finally ended up getting a burst Foundation with a maple board, I liked it a lot, I only got rid of it because I just had too many basses. If I would have bought the Foundation early on, I might not have bought all of the other basses.

The only Peavey still on my personal wish list is a USA Cirrus with a maple board. If I some day get ahold of one of those I suspect that it would be a keeper. (They are sort of rare.)
Click to expand...

In a weird coincidence, the Foundation that I used to own popped up on my local CL. It had a weird knot in the grain by the controls, so I'm sure that it is my old one. He is asking a hundred more than I sold it for, but throwing in a Danelectro harp amp. Odd that I spotted it today.
 
#10
powellmacaque said:
Eilief, does the T-45 sound exactly like a p-bass or is it different enough for somebody to check out, even if they already have a precision?
Click to expand...

It's definitely worth checking out. I don't think it replaces the P sound for those that like a "real" P. I still have my modded MIM P and a fretless P since nothing else sounds quite like a P pickup. What it does is a thicker P-ish sound as well as quite alot of other tones. I think the single coil sound is pretty good as well, though I like the thick humbucker tone enough that it's where I always seem to land when playing that bass.
 
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#11
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Since I started this thread (a few weeks ago, sorry work's been keeping me busy) I thought I'd play by my own rules and post this guy.

I think my next Peavey is gonna be a Foundation. Anybody have experience with those? How are the five strings?
 

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#12
What is the difference between the Patriot and the Fury bass? Is the Patriot the ancestor of the Fury? (I know the USA Fury went through two kinds of pickups, first super ferrite then P-style.)
 
#13
@powellmacaque

That's a very clean looking T-20 FL,so clean it's like it's lay under a bed,all snug in it's case.

@reddesert
The 1st gen Furys followed on from the T-20. Same wide neck and slanted pickup but with a body re-shape and a different bridge.Patriots have the pickup
at right angle to the strings and have the wide P neck. The later Furys got split-P pickups and a thinner jazz neck. Later still Furys were built in Korea and
sported single and double VFL style pickup configurations and are Furys only in name.

I love my Peaveys,there's currently 24 of them in the room with me now,but as Doc C and Eilif have said due to the pricing some of them missed out on
the TLC.My Patriot came to me in an awful state,serious use of clamps/blocks and time put that right:) My current favourite is a bitsa SC 50s P bass copy
with a Super Ferrite in place of the single coil,it might get a T-40 neck at some point:thumbsup: Decent Peaveys aren't limited to the 80s though.
 
#14
This is a Forum P-J. It's one of the rarer USA Peaveys and I guess what you would a transition model. Basically a 90's Fury with a J pickup, And then they were dropped and the name given to a totally new active 35" scale 4 and 5, as endorsed by Dr. Cheese.
Anyway, I have had a number of really nice Peaveys pass through, and this and my 90's Foundation 5 with VFL soapbars have stuck.

I spied this in a casual cruise through a pawn shop and decided it was worth the what's this on the credit card bill interrogation and lecture. A steal at $135 and some tuner spray in the pots to bring it back to life.

Picture 60.jpg
 
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#15
RED J said:
This is a Forum P-J. It's one of the rarer USA Peaveys and I guess what you would a transition model. Basically a 90's Fury with a J pickup, And then they were dropped and the name given to a totally new active 35" scale 4 and 5, as endorsed by Dr. Cheese.
Anyway, I have had a number of really nice Peaveys pass through, and this and my 90's Foundation 5 with VFL soapbars have stuck.

I spied this in a casual cruise through a pawn shop and decided it was worth the what's this on the credit card bill interrogation and lecture. A steal at $135 and some tuner spray in the pots to bring it back to life.

View attachment 736154
Click to expand...
Wow!
There's a Peavey I've never seen before. Does it have a P or J neck?
 
#20
Eilif said:
Does it have a P or J neck?
Click to expand...

J width though it a little beefier in the belly than the pencil necked 90's Furys.
It is also quite unique electronically, in that the J, while anemic soloed, acts more like a tone or timbre control with the P pick up. Sort of like the G&L JB-2 ?/ am I correct on the model ? Though the Peavey has a dedicated tone control as well.
I was a little disappointed at first, but when I caught on to how it worked, it's really very useable to get a pretty close to two pickup J like sound to boot.
 
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