Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
A lot of good replies and information here along with stories and back aches. I get this stuff is heavy but outside of Neo offerings I feel like a majority of cabs are heavy, maybe just not all 100+ lbs heavy of course. Seemed to be some love for the Scorpion speakers but a lot more love for the Black Widows. The BW cab is only $20 more than the Scorpion cab and like I mentioned even though it does not have casters they can be bought at local hardware stores. Of course they may not "sound the best" but for the money I think they're a good pickup usually.
I played through one of those just briefly back in the late 80s. I can still remember the sound of a low B through it. Smoothest I’ve ever heard. Always kicking around the idea of getting an 18” cab to pair with a 210 to replicate that sound.
Peavey cabs are like the ak47/sks. Sure, you can get better, but there are so many out there, they last so long, they're so cheap, and fixing them is so easy that they basically refuse to go away.
From having played both speakers in Peavey combo amps and speaker cabinets - get the BW speaker. Much better and punchier speaker than the scorpion ones. If you do not mind the weight, these are great cabs for cheap. Also, the BW speakers are extremely efficient and produce a lot of volume per watt. My Combo 300 was the loudest 210 watt combo amp I have ever played through. The pull punch and pull bright controls are your friend (especially pull punch).
Peavey equipment owned in the past:
TKO 65 with BW - mainly played high school with this
TNT 130 with scorpion - friend’s amp I played a lot in high school for louder gigs, great eq but the BW was better in the TKO
Mark IV head - played undergrad jazz band with this and a no name 15
Combo 300 (BW was only option) - my favorite Peavey and what I played all my rock gigs with in college, I still occasionally miss this amp
Peavey equipment owned in the past:
TKO 65 with BW - mainly played high school with this
TNT 130 with scorpion - friend’s amp I played a lot in high school for louder gigs, great eq but the BW was better in the TKO
Mark IV head - played undergrad jazz band with this and a no name 15
Combo 300 (BW was only option) - my favorite Peavey and what I played all my rock gigs with in college, I still occasionally miss this amp
Those 18" BW drivers used to have field replacement baskets as well, where a tech could change a blown speaker on the job after cleaning out the cone gap first with gaffa tape or similar. I know Peavey used to sell them in cartons with instructions for fitment to the cast iron speaker frame. I assume Peavey still sell the replacements? Anyone know?
EDIT. Just checked and Yes Peavey still supply the replacement baskets.
Invalid Link Removed
EDIT. Just checked and Yes Peavey still supply the replacement baskets.
Invalid Link Removed
Last edited:
- Someone was saying reason called it 1820,was with the 2 10" speakers, called it the 1820? Had some different Peavey's down through years,mainly in the mid 80's. Much too heavy for me anymore. Even though
ended up with TKO115 now I leave at home. Nostalgia gets me sometimes,and I ended up trading some amps,for this 1981 Bassman 135,and it stays at the Church!
I forgot to mention.... Fast forward 20+ years, and what kind of rig and I playing?
Really nice head and two really nice 1x15 cabs, stacked for 3 Saturday nights per month. You cannot go wrong with two 15's.
Really nice head and two really nice 1x15 cabs, stacked for 3 Saturday nights per month. You cannot go wrong with two 15's.
I think I may be leaning towards Black Widows. Just seems between the offerings they are more regarded and perhaps I say versatile. Other than opening the cab of course, but was there different BW's offered depending on the time era of the cabs? I mean was the silver dust cover BW's earlier than the black (non-silver) BW equipped cabs? I have seen Peavey 2x15's with the "BW Equipped" tag featuring both kinds, but the port holes are triangular on some and square on others.
I loved Peavey bass amps back in the 1980's, had a TNT 160 Combo it was a great amp. The guitar shop where I lived was a Peavey dealer & had this poster on the wall, I hounded them for this when they took it down wish I still had it 
Peavey stuff from the 1990s or earlier is relatively heavy, less efficient, and has less power handling than stuff you can get now. Sure, you'd pay more now for that, but you can also buy new stuff that's heavy for relatively little. The Peavey stuff was pretty hard to kill, though, apart from the speakers, which I did see get blown a few times. I've never owned any Peavey amps, although I do technically own a Peavey guitar, except I've replaced the body and neck and a significant portion of the hardware...
@Shawn Luckman That poster is classic!
Again I am aware of the weight to these older Peavey cabs however as research and many of you have mentioned they seem to be able to take a beating and keep on going. I understand there have been advancements since the 70's/80's/90's but for what they are and worth I don't think there is much risk unless it's obviously got a lot wrong with it. Below is the the cabs I was looking at. Any other information someone may be able to provide or insight to what the best option is welcome as well.
BW Cab:
Scorpion Cab:
Again I am aware of the weight to these older Peavey cabs however as research and many of you have mentioned they seem to be able to take a beating and keep on going. I understand there have been advancements since the 70's/80's/90's but for what they are and worth I don't think there is much risk unless it's obviously got a lot wrong with it. Below is the the cabs I was looking at. Any other information someone may be able to provide or insight to what the best option is welcome as well.
BW Cab:
Scorpion Cab:
Last edited:
From what I've seen on talkbass. There has been peavey 215 cabinets with triangle ports that were not Theile Small design. Or likely designed for Guitar/Lap steel 15" drivers. Calculated tuning ends up being very gross high 80hz.
Later Peavey claims all 15" were placed in 3.5 cubic feet per driver and all tuned too pretty basic 15" standard 40hz
Some have filled the triangle then added round ports to get a 40hz tune.
Otherwise the rectangular port 215D seems to show up often as well.
215D can be loaded with scorpion or black widow. And usually yes the scorpion basket is very obvious from the front. Or there usually is a BW badge for the Widows.
They all work rather well. Very good tone.
Good fun fix is to check the foam they install on the magnet vents.
It's well known the magnet foam degrades and gunks up the voicecoil
Many think driver is blown or damaged but it's absolutely fine. Need to remove magnet and clean black goop out of the voicecoil winding and magnet gap.
Easily done with the removable basket.
And speakers come back to life.
Probably the best 150 to 200 bucks you ever spent.
I was buying these things brand new in the 90s and it was a very indestructible good sounding and expensive driver at the time.
Working in a PA rental shop. Couldn't count how many drunk uncle's at weddings probably blew up countless high priced JBLs or EV pa speakers. Getting carried away with cranking the volumes at wedding partys.
But the cheaper peaveys survived Everytime. With only a occasionally blown tweeter protection bulb. 5 mins later and a tail light bulb. All fixed
Later Peavey claims all 15" were placed in 3.5 cubic feet per driver and all tuned too pretty basic 15" standard 40hz
Some have filled the triangle then added round ports to get a 40hz tune.
Otherwise the rectangular port 215D seems to show up often as well.
215D can be loaded with scorpion or black widow. And usually yes the scorpion basket is very obvious from the front. Or there usually is a BW badge for the Widows.
They all work rather well. Very good tone.
Good fun fix is to check the foam they install on the magnet vents.
It's well known the magnet foam degrades and gunks up the voicecoil
Many think driver is blown or damaged but it's absolutely fine. Need to remove magnet and clean black goop out of the voicecoil winding and magnet gap.
Easily done with the removable basket.
And speakers come back to life.
Probably the best 150 to 200 bucks you ever spent.
I was buying these things brand new in the 90s and it was a very indestructible good sounding and expensive driver at the time.
Working in a PA rental shop. Couldn't count how many drunk uncle's at weddings probably blew up countless high priced JBLs or EV pa speakers. Getting carried away with cranking the volumes at wedding partys.
But the cheaper peaveys survived Everytime. With only a occasionally blown tweeter protection bulb. 5 mins later and a tail light bulb. All fixed
That BW cab looks like 2 18" (possibly 15's) Black Widows to me with the silver dust caps. Anybody in the know correct me if im wrong, but those silver capped drivers are identical to my 18 BW in my 1820 cab pictured earlier on in this thread.
I drove my 400watt 1820 cab (1x18" BW and 2x10" Scorpions) for 28 years at loud volume using a Peavey 5 string Dyna Bass and the low B sounded magnificent. The cab still works well and the above instructions by member BogeyBass are correct as far as deterioration sometimes of the magnet vent foam that Peavey installed. It was often mistaken for a blown driver on sighted inspection and the fix mentioned was quite easy, especially as I mentioned earlier that Peavey supply replacement baskets to fit to the magnet if the cone is ripped etc.
If looking for deep thunderous bass as I would be I would go for the BW bin but thats my preference.
Last edited:
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
Thinking about finally buying a Ric...not a bad price at Walmart.- Latest: birminghambass
-
