PEAVEY 80'S AND 90'S AMPLIFICATION

[mb94952]

Damn you...you're making me wanna go back to that brick n' mortar and try that thing out...

You WON'T be disappointed, especially if it's not a far drive.

I played a show with a well known band and they all said my tone was KILLER. I was playing a Cirrus through the Firebass 700.

Honestly, I don't understand why most or all amps don't have all the plug ins up front.

 

[winston]

I've heard some good Peaveys from that era, but my first amp ever ('85 TKO 65 with the non-BW speaker) was literally the worst sounding bass amp I've ever heard. Muddy, slow, honky, and heavy, with the DDT sucking all the life out of whatever tone and transients there might have been. Improved a bit when I sent a line out to my Panasonic boom box for better high end.

Not a Peavey hater (I had 3 Cirri and a Patriot).

 

[ryco]

Used a Peavey Mark III through a Plush 215 w/Altec 411s 80-90s.
Really liked it had a "normal" channel and an active channel - and that one could blend both. Plus having a rotary EQ and a graphic EQ. Just a lot to goof with.
Damn near paid for my house and a couple of small Chevy trucks.

Seem to recall late '70s guys using Peavey Musician Bass 400 Series that had ALL the bells and whistles. A bunch of effects built in; chorus, reverb, fuzz. The funk slap players really liked these.

My Mark III died around 2000. It was left for about 10 years in a damp garage (my bad) and rusted a little inside; no shops wanted to fix it because of all the gadgetry in those heads.
By then I was using GK and back to using my old Sunn stuff; as it is today.

 

[HubbardsFate]

You WON'T be disappointed, especially if it's not a far drive.

I played a show with a well known band and they all said my tone was KILLER. I was playing a Cirrus through the Firebass 700.

Honestly, I don't understand why most or all amps don't have all the plug ins up front.

I can drive there in two minutes from work...

Thing is though, I'm the last guy who needs a big amp...or really, an amp period...I'm a bedroom player. Yeah, I've had lots of PLANS over the years to get back out there playing...but if I had a dollar for every plan in my life that ended up falling through/not being followed through on...

 

[mb94952]

I can drive there in two minutes from work...

Thing is though, I'm the last guy who needs a big amp...or really, an amp period...I'm a bedroom player. Yeah, I've had lots of PLANS over the years to get back out there playing...but if I had a dollar for every plan in my life that ended up falling through/not being followed through on...

You're the one who brought it up ! DO IT.

 

[HubbardsFate]

You're the one who brought it up ! DO IT.

 

[HubbardsFate]

I swung by that shop yesterday after work and, as it turned out, I'd misrembered the head. It wasn't the Firebass 700, it was the Max 450, which I suspect is a decent head in its own right, cause we're still talking USA Peavey here!

(I do know that there was, once upon a time, a Firebass 700 head for sale in this town, but the more I think about it, the more certain I am that it was a posting on Kijiji several years ago...)

The head is actually part of a stack that is there on consignment. The two cabs are also Peavey, with the smaller one being a 2 x 10...I forgot to look real close at the bigger cab, but I suspect a 1 x 15 or 1 x 18...then again, it could be a 4 x 12.

This gear is MINT. It apparently had been used only in church. Anyways, they are asking $995 CAD ($775 USD) for the whole kit n' kaboodle. I STRONGLY suspect they are flexible (perhaps significantly so) on that price given that (A) the stack has been taking up space in their store for four years and (B) the guy who brought it there on consignment moved halfway across the country (to Winnipeg) - as the store found out when they eventually contacted him to come back for it, cause nobody's been interested in taking it off their hands.

I'm the last guy who needs a bass stack - hell, I can barely justify owning the one combo amp I currently own - but it can be fun to look sometimes!

 

[rutrho]

I’m still using this beast at home for a practice amp, it’s a ‘92 vintage. Got it for 40$ with blown power transistors, popped in some higher power replacements and beefed up the heat sinks, then otherwise went through the whole thing and it sounds killer.

 

[mb94952]

The California Poppies are a nice touch. What does the patch cable do ?

 

[Snert]

Fun read.
I still have an old Mark VI head that I gigged for many years. I'd like to restore it aesthetically and electronically once I retire. Still works fine and I'd happily gig with it but a modeller and a Yamaha DHR12 is a better combo for me these days. I doubt I'll ever sell it, and living in a rural area, I doubt there are many buyers anyway so it will stay a practice amp.

 

[Obese Chess]

Figured I'd ask here, too. I'm a HUGE Faith No More fan, and as reliable as my GK MB500 has been, I've never been able to get "my" sound out of it.

I stumbled onto a very good condition Centurion MkIII at a local shop for a hundred bucks - I played through it and it sounded great, as expected, so I'm planning on picking it up.

My question for those of you who have these amps - how loud can these get, comparatively speaking? Am I going to regret bringing it to practice and plugging it into my GK Neo 410 hoping to compete with my two guitarists and a drummer, will I be completely overwhelmed by two 6505+ heads through Mesa 412s? Just not sure how "loud" 130W in 1978 was, if you feel me. Great tone is nothing if nobody can hear you!

Thank you!

 

[mb94952]

Figured I'd ask here, too. I'm a HUGE Faith No More fan, and as reliable as my GK MB500 has been, I've never been able to get "my" sound out of it.

I stumbled onto a very good condition Centurion MkIII at a local shop for a hundred bucks - I played through it and it sounded great, as expected, so I'm planning on picking it up.

My question for those of you who have these amps - how loud can these get, comparatively speaking? Am I going to regret bringing it to practice and plugging it into my GK Neo 410 hoping to compete with my two guitarists and a drummer, will I be completely overwhelmed by two 6505+ heads through Mesa 412s? Just not sure how "loud" 130W in 1978 was, if you feel me. Great tone is nothing if nobody can hear you!

Thank you!

You will like it. It's LOUD. I had my MKVI through an AMpeg 810 and it was tone heaven. The only difference between the two is the chorus, I believe.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I've always read here that watts are watts. But running a Mk III into an ancient Ampeg cab is the LOUDEST 150 watts I've ever heard. Same with the old red or silver-striped TNT and TKL combos that are, depending on the year, 80 to 150 watts. Seen, heard, and played them with a full band and never felt volume was lacking. So it's kind of odd that today many 250 watt heads and combos are reviewed by users as rather anemic.

Maybe it's cuz we're old and our hearing is shot from years of loud PV combos.

My experience is that with all the PMPO nonsense that Peavey seemed to underdeliver in terms of dB/Watt. The speakers often seemed to have relatively low sensitivity of circa 94dB for a 1x15 with other brands nearer 97. Maybe I listened to specs, though.

 

[Obese Chess]

Figured I'd ask here, too. I'm a HUGE Faith No More fan, and as reliable as my GK MB500 has been, I've never been able to get "my" sound out of it.

I stumbled onto a very good condition Centurion MkIII at a local shop for a hundred bucks - I played through it and it sounded great, as expected, so I'm planning on picking it up.

My question for those of you who have these amps - how loud can these get, comparatively speaking? Am I going to regret bringing it to practice and plugging it into my GK Neo 410 hoping to compete with my two guitarists and a drummer, will I be completely overwhelmed by two 6505+ heads through Mesa 412s? Just not sure how "loud" 130W in 1978 was, if you feel me. Great tone is nothing if nobody can hear you!

Thank you!

About a year later and this thing has been great. A little bit of cutting in and out on Channel "A" so I am weighing either getting it repaired or buying a louder MkIII or MkIV "Bass" as these come up for sale for cheap regularly, assuming blasting the hell out of it with DeOxIt doesn't work. But yeah, it was and is plenty loud for this purpose.

 

[AudioTaper]

About a year later and this thing has been great. A little bit of cutting in and out on Channel "A" so I am weighing either getting it repaired or buying a louder MkIII or MkIV "Bass" as these come up for sale for cheap regularly, assuming blasting the hell out of it with DeOxIt doesn't work. But yeah, it was and is plenty loud for this purpose.

DeOxit should be used sparingly. You can cause more harm than good by blasting the hell out of it, and you don't want it sitting on the circuit board.

 

[Obese Chess]

Fair enough! I was just being dramatic, I am aware that a little goes a long way. I'm hoping that loosening up some corrosion will fix the issue. Conversely, it is a 45 year old head so it's probably due for some sort of servicing anyway.

I do really wish Peavey would re-issue this preamp circuit with a lighter, louder Class D power amp.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

A lovely stroll down Peavey Gear memory lane . My first decent bass amp was a Peavey TNT 160 affectionally named The Washing Machine, due to it being the same dimensions and weight of one. I gigged with it for 10 years and it never let me down once, I still love the '80's Peavey basses & amps so much so I bought myself, a '86 Foundation bass as I still think they look amazing.

 

[5StringBlues]

The 410TX may be the sleeper cab of the 90's.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

This Peavey amp poster used to be in the local guitar shop were I grew up, and the owner was a huge Peavey dealer and he had this poster hanging up for years. I was always captivated by that backline and the beat up Precision bass, so many happy memories of going into that shop almost everything from picks to PA's was made by Peavey .

 

[Obese Chess]

Saw a band on Monday night where the bassist was playing an SVT-4 through one of the Black Widow 2x15 cabinets. The band wasn't very good but the bass sounded thunderous.