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Peavey Amps Club

#642
That's really interesting. I remember when the CS-800s were first around and everyone I knew was amazed at how powerful and reliable they seemed to be. They were a real bargain for the grunt they provided. Makes a lot more sense in light of this.

mech said:
The preamp is really clean. The small transformer is a Hi Z to Low Z balanced and feeds the XLR connector. No current so it can be small.

It's amazing how much dust can collect in these beasts and they still operate.

The main cap brand was Capacitor Technology (I knew it would come to me). The size of the cap for it's value (10,000uF?) is one of the reasons it sounded more powerful than it was for the available technology. The engineer's name was Jack Sondermeyer. He was basically responsible for the Peavey gear of that time and through the early 2000s having such a reputation for reliability. Before Peavey, Jack had worked at Bell Labs and then with RCA on the team that developed the first rugged output transistor. A refined version of those were used in the CS-800s and many other Peavey amps. Jack's relationship with RCA and later Motorola was what let him get exactly what he wanted in an output device since he knew the inner workings. Earlier output transistors were delicate things, as anyone who bought the first Fender solid state, snake bit, PA heads learned. I tried to fix several of them as a store tech back in the day and it seemed to smoke always came out again. Fender couldn't do any better. One of the truly poor designs.

mech
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#643
Here's the rig now that I've replaced the grill cloth on the Sunn and added the logo badge on the Peavey. It sounds even better than it looks, but I can't help enjoying the way it looks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_jackson/7902349622

7902349622_66283daeb4_b.jpg
 
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#645
LowEZ said:
Haha, wow. I just noticed the crossover goes down to 50Hz. Yikes!
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Yeah, that Gauss is pretty formidable, but there's still not a lot going on that low.

I loved these Gauss Karlson coupler cabs. I wish Gauss was still making them. Gauss had a lot of great products, but JBL decided to crush them and started taking a loss to undercut their prices until they imploded. Sad (but all too typical) story from the music manufacturing biz.

Here's the specs on the Gauss:

Cetec / Gauss 5181 Bass Guitar Bottom
1 - 4882SX driver
Slot-Loaded
400 Watts RMS
102 db
8 ohms
40-4000 Hz
37 1/4" H x 24" W x 20" D
100 lbs.

Cetec / Gauss 18" Bass Speakers / Woofers / Sub-Woofers / Sound Reinforcement Drivers.
Model #4882SX
8 ohm.
Patent no. 225,069.
Doped suspension surround.
Field-serviceable voice coils.
Develeoped by Bart Bingham and Ed May
Vas [Liters]; Equivalent volume = 430 liters
Qts; Total Q-factor = .2416
Qes; Electrical Q-factor = .27
Qms; Mechanical Q-factor = 2.3
Fs [Hz]; Resonance Frequency = 33 Hz
Approximate minumum power for nominal EQ accuracy = 20 watts rms.
Max Power [W]; Maximum input power = 400 watts rms, 800 watts program, 1600 watts peak.
xmax [mm]; Max excursion from center = 1mm
Moving mass [g]; Weight of moving parts = 107.24 grams
Disp area [m2]; SD, Effective piston area of cone = .119 m^2
Re [ohm]; DC resistance = 6.7 ohms nominal.
Z; Impedence of coil = 8 ohms dynamic, nominal.
L [mH]; Inductance of coil = 1 mH
Bl [Tm]; Magnetic strenth = 23.49 Tm
Weight = 25lbs each.
 
#647
Yow! There's another excellent example! Thanks!

I shot an interview with SRV when he was on tour with Jeff Beck in '89. Before the interview I wanted to ask Tommy Shannon about his time with Johnny Winter, but he didn't really have much to say. SRV was amazingly nice. It was the only time I got to meet him, but he was a great guy. While I was setting up I complained to an intern that I hadn't been able to find a soft drink machine and by the time I finished the setup SRV showed up with soft drinks for everyone. When he shook my hand it was like shaking hands with a brick-layer. He had huge, rough hands like someone who worked hard at a trade. I've never met a guitar player with hands like that. Usually guitar players have dainty little soft hands. I'm sorry...I digress too easily as I close in on being an old man. :hmm:

Thanks, though! I don't know if I ever noticed that Tommy Shannon played these. Cool!

DogBone said:
Here's Tommy Shannon in the mid 80's rocking a pair of Peavey Max 800's over a pair of 3620's. :bassist:

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#649
One of these popped up on my local CL. 4x10 (possibly Sheffields), tweeter, no attenuator, small rear port, tolex, classic styling. I have never seen one. Thinking it might be something cobbled together, I searched online and did find one more. It's not a 410S, B, TX, TXF or TVX, I doubt it's newer than that. Anyone know what the heck it is?

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#651
Sublab said:
What about the Peavy Pro 810 cab? Played through it a while ago and it sounded GREAT!!! I want one now but can't locate one. Want to sell off two Ampeg SVT410he's for the PRO810!!

Any of you guys have one??
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There were two different Pro 810's. I've played and loved the gray-grille sealed version from the 90's but it weighed more than me and wouldn't fit in my car. I've never tried the black-grille ported version from the 2000's.
 
#655
here's the basic plan of the Gauss 5181 (I hear there was an earlier version with a different aperture)

if you don't already have it, nab it as Imageshack is losing a lot of my images and Gregg Baker who was the administrator of the Karlson speaker forum passed away last August 7th so the forum may disappear around this coming December.

smaller K18 could be made and the original Karlson15 has run 18's.

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#657
LowEZ said:
One of these popped up on my local CL. 4x10 (possibly Sheffields), tweeter, no attenuator, small rear port, tolex, classic styling. I have never seen one. Thinking it might be something cobbled together, I searched online and did find one more. It's not a 410S, B, TX, TXF or TVX, I doubt it's newer than that. Anyone know what the heck it is?

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

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Hi.. see the aluminium strip at the sides of your cab with the V shape in it..some time in the mid 90s in a pawn shop here in Oz i came across a sort of compact BW 15 cab which had the same type of strip..like yrself ive no idea or can find any info on it eitehr..maybe they were a limited bass cab made sometiime in the late 80s early 90s??..i should have bought looking back..it was pretty cheap

Leslie
 
#658
Well I brought the T-Max head to a tech! I prepared myself for the worst cost wise and it ended up costing only $75! That included replacing the plug which was missing the ground.

Turned out the problem was a bad chip - the tech just started pulling chips one by one until the it stopped making the noise. he said the whole thing took him about 15 minutes.

I had previously posted that the bottom 4X10 seemed to have a reduced output, but now that the chip has been replaced it sounds great.

Can't wait for band rehearsal this Thursday now :)

Thanks for all the responses folks!



Xandros said:
I tried the SS Channel, same thing... was thinking about that at work and realized that it's likely more than just the tube :) Like I mentioned, I had planned on picking up a new tube anyway (which I did - got a Tung-Sol) but as Ayce suggested, it looks like I'll be off to see a repair tech :(

Thanks for all the responses!
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