Wow, memory lane for sure! I used a Mark IV head through a 215 for several years before I went to a combo. I thought the Mark IV was a darned good head.
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PEAVEY 80'S AND 90'S AMPLIFICATION
- Thread starter Giffro
- Start date
There, I fixed it for you.
Lol I’m pleased to say I don’t own a “guitar” scale. Practically spit out my coffee.
Cool stuff. I still have my Peavey Megabass amp sitting in the garage. I tried to give it away a few years ago and no one wanted it lol...
You know what though, a lot of amps were heavy back then. My amp after the Mark IV was the Fender BXR300 and that thing was like a cube of lead. It was never a thing, though. Dragging your gear around from gig to gig was just what you did. Nobody I knew ever bitched about anything being heavy.
I used to have a Peavey 3/4" thick road rack (that weighed probably 50lbs empty) with an ADA, Quadraverb, 215eq, and 2 CS-1200 power amps in it with no wheels. It weighed about 250lbs. I ran the rack through two 412 cabs that had 4 Black Widows in each cabinet again with no wheels (I didn't like the way casters looked).
I gigged this setup for years in the early 90s with different bands and friends working as roadies.
Even though my setup weighed about as much as a Volkswagen, NO ONE ever complained about the weight.
No one.
I gigged this setup for years in the early 90s with different bands and friends working as roadies.
Even though my setup weighed about as much as a Volkswagen, NO ONE ever complained about the weight.
No one.
Right??? It was part of it. And to be honest, those were good times. There always seemed to stories that came from it. Like me in Ann Arbor MI dragging that 215 cabinet up the stairs to the second floor to play the Heidelberg club. I didn't even care.
It was so heavy that we installed casters on it, but still affectionately called it “ The Peavey Pig”
Duke
amen. schlepping around a 75 pound tmax115 combo was not a big deal ... when i was young
inept! no way man! i'm more ept than i've ever been!
moaning weakling, okay yeah, sure ...
I feel like I've owned a significant percentage of all the Peavey bass amps ever made.
Here is a (more or less) chronological list:
The gear I use now is all lighter, but I still have a great affection for the bulletproof US-built Peavey gear of yesterday.
Here is a (more or less) chronological list:
- Basic 50
- MicroBass
- Mark III head
- 1820 cab
- 210TX
- Multiple 410TX
- Multiple 215 cabs
- MAX Preamp
- MINX
- Bassist Preamp
- AlphaBass head
- TNT 150
- TKO 80
- T-Max combo
- Multiple Classic 400 head
- 810TX cab
- VB2 head
- 400-series "BASS"
- 412TX cab
- 260-Series Standard
- Centurion head
- Multiple Century heads
- MiniMega head
The gear I use now is all lighter, but I still have a great affection for the bulletproof US-built Peavey gear of yesterday.
A Mark IV was one of my first bass amps. Couldn't wait to dump it...Peavey was considered "amateur" stuff around here. Looking back, that was one of the best pieces of gear I ever had. I hear guys play through them today and they always sound fantastic. Wish I had held on to mine!
My first bass amp was a Basic 40 in 1985 and I'm sure I played through two or three dozen different TNT amps in clubs and band halls across Central Texas in the years that followed. They all sounded like crap and weighed a ton, if I'm being honest.
I'm into how much interest the vintage Peavey basses are getting right now, but I personally think the amps from that period are best forgotten.
I'm into how much interest the vintage Peavey basses are getting right now, but I personally think the amps from that period are best forgotten.
I had a MkIV with a Peavey 2x15 Cab in the 80’s. I loved it!! I never understood all of the knobs and inputs, but it always sounded great. I was a teenager and it really was all I could afford at the time. I think I spent around $350 for the entire setup.
OP is in Australia. I assume that's the imported price in Aussie dollars.
Thanks OP for this thread. Last year I refurbed and donated a Combo 300 to my local blues jam club. It'll last another 30 years and I don't have to schlep an amp to the jam.
If I could find a clean MkIV head and a 215 cabinet for reasonable money, I’d rock it again for sure. My back would hate me, but my brain would be grinning 
. To me, that is “the look” , and sound of a bass amp from my formative years
. To me, that is “the look” , and sound of a bass amp from my formative years
