Peavey Combo 300 What is it?

[DoctorZeus]

Is this a guitar or bass amp? I was doing some online research and it mentions both. Two different versions?

Invalid Link Removed
Invalid Link Removed

Invalid Link Removed

 

[1n3]

Bass amp, IMO. The active crossover was intended for a subwoofer. I had one for a while, didn't love. Could get fairly loud, but didn't have a lot of low-end.

 

[johnnynitro]

I have been using one of these my friend has at his studio. It's a Bass Amp. The one I use has a Black Widow 18in. speaker. Dependable, Been using it for 35 years. Sounds Bad. Would never want to gig with it. But for jams it works. It can get loud !!

 

[bottomzone]

Yeah, that's a Peavey Combo 300 bass amp. The models with Black Widow speakers usually have a BW badge on the grill like the one in this photo.

 

[gwangi]

I had one of these in the early 80s and the one thing I remember was the weight of this combo amp was like a boat anchor!!!!

 

[ajkula66]

Bass amp.

Some people swear by it, others swear at it...

Definitely loud, and if one likes the essential Peavey sound probably as good as it gets when it comes to their combo offerings.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

It's the only amp designed to survive total thermonuclear destruction.

 

[bubba-b]

yup, bass amp. this was the amp of choice in most practice/rehearsal rooms at M.I./Bass Institute of Technology in Hollyweird back in the 80's.

 

[subtlestew]

I had one for years. I can confirm that it was ridiculously heavy, but also as loud as I ever needed to be.

 

[Aussie Player]

Had one in the late 80's, even did some touring with it, trucks, planes, cars, traveled wide and played rooms measured in acres.
It worked, was reliable and paired well with the Alembic I used back then.

There are better and lighter options these days, but a powerful combo fits in well with a bass players arsenal.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

In my experience, Peavey is a little bit like Toyota.
Not a Ferrari, but loud, reliable and affordable.
Ive never owned a Peavey bass amp, but I have a 40 year old Backstage as my guitar amp..still going strong. And it WAS my at home practice bass amp for 30 years until I got my little Ampeg.
And lots of times Peaveys were provided backline. They did fine.

 

[Michael Vee]

I, too, had one in the late 80's/early 90's. The cabinet was shallow, and as a result, was prone to tipping over. Mine had casters, but I don't remember if it came with them or if that was a dealer add-on. The casters would get stuck in pavement holes and cracks and the amp would tip over immediately. I ended up using a hand truck, as it was almost impossible to carry one-handed with the top strap handle- way too heavy for that.

Also, as others noted already, it was lean on the lows. Really sounded pretty good in a live band stage mix, though. It would get far louder than I needed at the time, and I remember it being very clean at volume. I also used it at times with a subwoofer, and that was when it sounded best to me.

 

[J Wilson]

I played a lot of Peaveys back in the day, but this was my favorite. Paired on top of a matching Peavey 115BW cabinet, it made a potent 300w stack, with lots, as you can see, of EQ. In it's day in the early 80's, this was a rig to have.

Like all of the Peaveys, these basically had the tone of a box of cornflakes, but short of leaving them at a nuclear test, they were indestructible. All these years later, don't know the shape this one's in, good luck.

In a lot of cases, a dead giveaway that it's a guitar amp is reverb, and usually an open back on combos. This has neither. Peavey 'Combo' amps were always bass rigs.

 

[AcadianBassman]

My first bigger amp was a Combo 300. Now, thirty years later, I'd love to find one locally for a good price. Search around online and you can find the users manual, had some examples of settings in it.

 

[Agent0]

Played in a wedding/party band in the late 80s/early 90s. Our guitar player had one of these in his basement where we practiced that used to belong to a sibling who dabbled with bass. But I liked its sound better than my Randall so I brought it to gigs too, as we would meet there to load up the PA anyway. I can’t believe I carried that up and down those stairs so many times. Just realized …maybe that’s part of my back problems now.

 

[Stewie]

Peavey combos lack the big bottom end we like when we are alone, but just add mush to the bands sound. Those sound good from out front. Don't forget to buy a two wheeled hand truck

 

[Number179]

I had one in the mid 90s as volume was all I was looking for. Paired with my Rick 4003, there was a really nice shimmer on the bass when I listened back to recordings. I don’t know what I did with the amp but found myself chasing one again 20 years later. Found one 5 minutes from where my uncle lives in PA (I’m in FL) and asked the seller how we could make a deal, my uncle would pick it up and hold it for me til I could get it down to FL. I asked the seller what he wanted out the door for it, he said “which one? I have two.” I took both, for I think $450 or something really insignificant. I have a lot of fun with them playing in stereo, one clean, one dirty, shake the neighbor’s walls, trip my own 15A circuits. They sound ok enough. Refinished one that looks great. For the price, why not keep them around!

 

[MegaSwing]

They are perfectly unspectacular-but-serviceable bass amps. If you really want to cut through in a mix, it will not do that, but it IS plainly audible. It is also heavy as a boulder.

 

[sylvanbass]

First bass amp I ever had. It was what I consider a desert island rig. It would withstand a hurricane, out live me by a generation, and still work. The Nokia phone of amps IMO. It wasn't the best, but I thought it sounded pretty darn good for the $50 I paid for it and did it's job reliably!

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I had one with a Black Widow speaker and it was a great amp, with the exception of the size, weight and single top handle.