Old Peavey TKO 115 75 watt combos. Decent?

[synterx]

I just picked it up, or should I say, slid it in to the truck. Uh, heavy doesn't begin to describe this thing. OMG! I might have to go with the MB on this one. $300 be darned. I can't imagine carrying this around or up and down stairs very often. It's more of a sit it down and leave it kind of deal. It literally looks brand new. Guy said he bought it our local GC last year as a trade in. Didn't say what he paid, but it had to be more than $99 I bet. Nice guy, guitar player who thought he'd do bass too...that didn't last he said! Ha Ha.

If the MB115 does make it to my door and is not intercepted and returned, I might have to consider keeping it and re-selling the TKO to someone who needs a plant-it and go type of combo.

 

[aborgman]

I had a TNT 150 years ago. It was a tank- plenty of volume, decent tone, and got the job done every time. It fell out of the back of our van more than once, had beer spilled all over it, etc and never had a problem with it. For $100, I'd say jump on it.

I had a TNT150.

Didn't sound great, but wasn't bad... and it was literally indestructible.

It got knocked over forward once with a bass plugged in. Hit right on the cable and bent the entire faceplate so bad that the jack was at a 45 degree angle.

It never even skipped a beat... kept playing the whole time and never had it repaired at all.

 

[danomite64]

I had a TNT 150 years ago.

Damn, that's a long time ago.

 

[synterx]

Well, MB150 showed up anyway. Glad it did. It's no contest, I can lift the MB, I can't lift the TKO. Same basic size. Tone on MB is good. Tone on TKO is kind of flat. Pretty close, certainly close enough in a band setting I'm guessing.

But seriously, since I have to carry my combo around, I have to keep the MB. Not sure what I'll do with the TKO. I do have 4 small casters for it, I'll throw them on just for my own convenience until I sell it.

For leaving in a practice space though, the TKO's would be perfect. Especially at what I paid for it.

Thanks to all for the advice.

 

[wkbryan]

Get it quick!!!

 

[thedevilisbad]

I recently bought a TNT 115 for $100, and well, for 100 bones it's a deal! It's not an ampeg, but it has some nice tone options.

before that I was borrowing a TKO 115. Tone wasn't great, but not horrible either. Depends on the bass a bit too. As for volume, it's the loudest 75W for bass that you'll hear. Great for jams!

 

[steelhead2]

in front of that Peavey and she'll really come alive,i've had 3 various combos,,the one was like from `74,had a bitchin overdriven tone(pre-amp knob),,people call it a phartbox BUT,,new rock type stuff?,man!,i'd love to mic what that old `turd' could do dimed out,,and only 45 watts at full song and people were complaining

thing lived in an autobody shop for a year,was ran into,nocked down,used for a prep table,cat slept on it,i sold it for 50% more than i bought it for(witch was 100 bucks) ran a keyboard thru it,guit.and a bass,two basses,harp/bullet mic. and a bass,sheeeman!!!!,,i'd keep the one you have for a backup,i have a combo 300 and a head/cab,hundred bucks will buy you what?,nice guitar strap and a set of strings?,,,

if you will take 100 shipped to my door i'll buy it i'm not scared,i mean it's just a dumb ol Peavey

peace man have fun

 

[cavedweller]

They suck to move, handle is not placed well for its weight. i would'nt have one again if it were given to me.

 

[MNAirHead]

Your TKO comments are why I always suggest the Basic 50 OR 112mb w/sessionbass

My personal prefernce is the session bass as it's easier to carry a kickback cabinet up stairs.

 

[BillyIVbass]

in front of that Peavey and she'll really come alive,i've had 3 various combos,,the one was like from `74,had a bitchin overdriven tone(pre-amp knob),,people call it a phartbox BUT,,new rock type stuff?,man!,i'd love to mic what that old `turd' could do dimed out,,and only 45 watts at full song and people were complaining

thing lived in an autobody shop for a year,was ran into,nocked down,used for a prep table,cat slept on it,i sold it for 50% more than i bought it for(witch was 100 bucks) ran a keyboard thru it,guit.and a bass,two basses,harp/bullet mic. and a bass,sheeeman!!!!,,i'd keep the one you have for a backup,i have a combo 300 and a head/cab,hundred bucks will buy you what?,nice guitar strap and a set of strings?,,,

if you will take 100 shipped to my door i'll buy it i'm not scared,i mean it's just a dumb ol Peavey

peace man have fun

Your story reminded me of how beastly these amps are.

Want to hear some sass? High School Jazz Band for whatever reason the guitar amp was MIA, so my instructor told me to borrow the choir teacher's TKO (he used it for keys) I played guitar through it with my jazz band.

The next day the guy chews me out and says, "You're lucky you didn't blow the %!#%&% thing!" all snotty after I was told to use it! I said, "Your nuts if you think you can kill a Peavey!"

 

[synterx]

Why on earth is it so heavy? One speaker? Plywood? The numbers don't quite add up to 75 pounds for that thing. 75 watt amp? No doubt it is built to last. However, when I physically can't carry it more than a few feet with the thin rubber handle, that's when the red flag flys. It should have two spring loaded pop out handles on the sides, and casters standard.

I'll find a nice home for it. Hopefully locally, shipping that thing wouldn't be fun.

Just played through the MB115. Sounds good for sure. Maybe I'm biased because I dug the MB2-500 for so long.

 

[MNAirHead]

Cases are commonly VERY thick OSB.. not plywood... Many times they'd use very heavy magnets.. big transformers... steel for the amp... usually very big heat sinks.

The stoutness you're describing is why they have a long lifecycle.

Your amp is a feather compared to a CS800

 

[Red Four]

Old thread, but I'll chime in for those who may find this through a search. These old Peavey amps are just bulletproof. I've had a 15" TKO 75-watt combo (with Scorpion speaker) since 1988 and it's been ultra-reliable. Still works like new. The tone isn't the most subtle, but it can get such a great gritty bark when pushed, and it can get quite loud. I've been surprised how many compliments I've gotten on tone over the years with it, and it's handled small clubs just fine. A bit heavy, but strong and solid. At a price like what the OP found, it's a steal.

 

[hdbassman2000]

Need a cheap combo for quick basement jams. Got a local guy selling a MINT one for $100 cash. 75 watts isn't huge, but 15" and peavey 75 watts might be okay? Or, is this just a toy?

I need a combo for this Thursday, and he didn't reply back yesterday to my email, so I went ahead and ordered a new GK MB115 from Sweetwater. $400, about $300 more than I wanted.

Now I feel stuck. I had to return the last 2 things from Sweetwater, and feel back for my sales guy about doing it again. But, if this old combo is decent, I could save some bucks...add about 40 pounds, but...

Do you think it's worth more than $100? Of course with the weight, I can't really ship it for less than $50, so there goes any selling ideas I had.

Sorry for rambling.

everyone would thumb thier nose at peavey just cuz it was peavey...but when we were kids, that's what was available to us and our "paper route money"...i 've personally had several peavey rigs ranging from racks to mark series heads and any combo of cabs and one thing always remained consistant. realiability! and i NEVER had bad tone. now that peavey is being produced over seas, i say grab what ever old combos or mark series heads you can find. they are becoming a most wanted item...i believed it then, and i believe it now. anything that Hartley made i'll take...and i'll take 75 watts of u.s. peavey power over 200watts of the other guys new crap...incidentily, i just bought a tko 75...for $50 w/ scorpion...

 

[Irish Luck]

I' picking one up tomorrow morning for $30!
I admit, I already have one. Wasn't looking for another amp. But $30??? The only issue is the tip of pot broke off so there is nothing to attach a knob to. Big deal....will take no time to fix that.
Just saw on tonight on Craigslist. Even has a 15" Scorpion woofer. Those are $$$$
I'm stoked!!!!!

 

[Bey Mario Chang]

I believe the Peavey KB-100 keyboard combo amp uses the same power section as the TKO-100. A friend ask me to fix it, since after awhile it shut off. It was, is the thermistor; but Peavey never answered with a part #. So I moved it from the heat sink to another part made out of metal & near the heat sink. Fixed, but when I told my friend, he told me to keep it. He got a much better sounding Roland. For 2 years was the keyboard amp for a large cafe venue I do sound for, used 3 or more times a week. Then the original 15" spkr started to rattle in the voice coil. Replaced it with a '95 Eminence/MCM 55-675 that was in another mod, a '59 Ampeg convertible that the original front baffle vent I eliminated (w/out the tube amp, amps's board & used upside down, the vent is done at the bottom with the floor surface). Having no x-over & directly parallel to a Motorola Piezo tweeter, the TK-100 just had too much mids & highs; barely controlled by the amp's EQ. With the Covid apocalypse, I took the amp back home & decided to mod it. Got a pair same spec better quality TO-20 case transistors ($6.00). An ACEIRMC 400 w. 2 way x-over (peak, x-over point. 6, 8, 12 db slope ?. $11.00). A PRV 3MR50 3" 8 ohm spkr (50w. RMS, 200>19kHz & replacement for those Fishman column spkrs. $22.00 & both from Amazon). But the Eminence is a 30 to 5kHz & the mod still had a ton of mid range, not sounding that great for bass use. So the I got an MCM 55-2953 15" spkr (200 w. 8 ohm, 32>2kHz. $45.00). Well, it doesn't sound like a Peavey any more. Take note of how it got mod, so can do the same (the transistor change, mostly overkill). Pretty good sound actually, so I got me another KB-100 I found in a pawn shop ($70.00). It's little more beat up but it works fine & it's waiting to be mod like the one I got for free. The reason I got a 2nd KB-100 is that all my basses & guitars have been mod to stereo, dual or 2 channel operation. For now, the KB-100 has 3 input channels & it's OK for mono use, like rehearsals at my home studio. And yeah, this is a heavy beast & doubt I'll be taking them out. As for the basses in the picture

& why I go stereo... please read next.

 

[Bey Mario Chang]

Stereo ?. Double the trouble, right?. Well, you & most animals have 2 ears & locate the sound source doing a triangulation between that source & the time/distance between your ears. Using 2 amps, you have complete aural deep & definition. Most guitars have at least 2 p/u's. If not, I'll add a 2nd p/u input; like what I did with the '80's Giannini nylon at the right & back of the picture (passive condenser mike). Or the black De Rosa cheapo on the right (sound hole magnetic p/u & original piezo). The one on the right is a unique 90's Gibson Les Paul 5 string (even more so, it's a prototype). Took the Bartollini pre-amp out. The "Barto" p/u's are 4 wire & each coil go to an off/volume pot. The off position is wired as a bypass, so the p/u's can be used as single; making them sound similar to a Fender bass. No tone control, not needed & not want any (with the 4 coil combination plus the off/on set up, lots of tone variations). An Ibanez Tallman TM-71 semi-hollow got the stereo mod too. The original mag p/u circuit went to the left. A pair of piezo traducers got placed under the bridge. Piezos need a bit of pre-amplification, so I'm using a Boss EQ as such. Yeah, you have to use 2 identical amps for a true balanced stereo sound. Guitar, bass, keys, e-drum... monitoring, can't praise enough the pairs of Roland Bass Cube 40 & 60 I use. They have a direct power amp in, so I can use it to input the piezo channel of the De Rosa... or the Giannini or the Tallman. The normal channel for the magnetic p/u if used in single amp or mono (small gigs or jams. "Y" mono the L & R, like what I do when I use the Les Paul). So versatile those Bass Cubes !!!. Also versatile are the pair of Behringer KXD12 & the combination of a digital amp (Class D), & those Turbo Sound bad boys spkrs, fantastic combo rig too. About 6 years ago, I got a Soundcraft Gigrac 1000 & 2 years ago, another used one from Guitar Center. Hard to find them these days but if you do & is in good shape... get it !!!. Much better sound than the big GK I have & at 500 w/ch 4 ohms, tons of power... but heavy as hell for being just a powered mixer. One output channel goes to a 4 ohm 18" Rockville sub (actually Eminence spkrs). The other channel goes to a Bag End 2 x 10" 4 ohm cab, Eminence spkrs too. That Bag end is mod too. Drilled another hole in the front. Put a Motorola piezo with a... 27 uF (?) cap across it & in parallel to the Fostex tweet. As you can see, I mod most of my stuff & some other day I'll tell you why I hate Class A-B tube amps, except true Class A amps like McIntosh, Dynachord or "old school" Marantz. Soundcraft GigRac 1000st .

 

[J-Mags]

It's good to have an old Peavey combo around for when you need a bass amp for sketchy situations, a makeshift PA, monitor, keyboard amp, guitar amp (with pedal preamp), end table, heavy thing to keep the kick drum from moving around, etc., etc., etc. It will never sound that great, but it will do anything.

 

[Bey Mario Chang]

Ha ha, "...end table, heavy thing to keep the kick drum from moving around...". Hear you J-Mags, durable, yes. But if Peavey had quality sound like what it has in weight... . If the design called for sturdiness, might as well have used cast iron enclosures. That's how the old ones were & fortunately, the newer models are much lighter... better sounding & that include their cabs, amps & mixers. But the reputation in this case is both good & bad. The KB-100 mentioned above, was a successful modification & with that experience; same replacement components will be used on the 2nd KB-100. The 3rd Peavey... I proudly own ?, is a Mark IV bass head I had to buy overpriced in a Kansas city pawn shop. It was in a hurry because a brand new SWR amp kept blowing fuses during a tour. For bass, I hate the sound of it; no mater if a Boss EQ pedal is hook in front or thru the FX loop of the amp. In a hurry too, I had to hooked it to three 8 ohm monitor speakers parallel to it, when a friends Yamaha powered mixer's amp section crapped on him. It worked just OK even at 3 ohms of the maximum 2 ohm load that is rated. Maybe I'll replace the transistors with better ones. Or perhaps mod the EQ section... something to see if I can get a more clean low end response, and/or tame the excessive mid lows that makes this amp sound like a... well, an old Peavey. In the meantime, it works fine & dandy stashed away as a reliable emergency amp of last resort. And that is all of what you can expect from old Peavey gear. They last forever. The so-so sound, it does so too.

 

[Port Moody Bass]

I love my TKO for practice and small gigs, but if yours is equipped with a BW speaker, you'll need to remove the magnet from the basket assy. and check for that well known melting foam filter. It'll gum up the voicecoil. If it has gummed up, alcohol will clean the crud(one for the coil, one for the bassist, one for the coil, two for the bassist) Be sure to clean the voicecoil gap on the magnet. Cheers...

Dead on! This happened to my beloved TNT 130 so I just cleaned everything out.