Peavey = garbage?

[petrus61]

Speaking of Peavy, I went to see Dumpstaphunk last night. Mr. Hall was visibly upset with his amp throughout the first set. He kept walking over to it and fiddling. I noticed it kept clipping into red an his tech had to keep coming out to mess with it. I think it was one of the two Tour series heads he was using. I'd be pissed also, but it happens.

By contrast, Nick Daniels Mesa and MTD and seemed to serve him well, which seemed to also please Mike Tobias, who was in attendance.

 

[MarkMgibson]

For the last decade or so, Peavey has produced some pretty good stuff. No question. During the 70s-80s however (in my experience) was not very good.

I had a late 70's Peavey bass rig and it was a hot mess. The sound was loud but like an am radio, pots were noisy, it blew fuses like crazy. . .

The same was true for guitars: the 70's - 80's stuff was mostly crap, and hurt their reputation badly (probably still does), even though they made some good gear later (and today). They've always made first class speaker cabs though. They sound great, they're practically bomb proof, and you can pick them up at bargain prices.

 

[lewink]

In the 80's, my teenage garage band all had Peavey amps. They were always cutting out and we'd have to bang on them to get them to come back to life. How much of this was abuse by previous owners, how much of it was misuse caused by our own youthful ignorance, and how much of it was poor quality from Peavey, I can't say at this point. Their amps may be great, but due to my experiences, I would never buy one. Their basses, OTOH, I have no bias against and would certainly consider.

My tko65 never quit. Just saying...

 

[redstrand]

Gee I guess my T-40 isn't worth a darn. What Peavey made was good stuff, the low cost gave them an air of cheapness which wasn't true. The fender and gibson stuff from this period was far worse guitar, bass and amps....yeeeeeeuck. Like anything else you have to sift through to find a jewel like some of us did, but to overly generalize is a mistake and would prevent those from finding great stuff.

 

[vmabus]

After the apocalypse, it's all Peaveys and cockroaches!

 

[ImNotJoel]

I agree peavey isn't as high quality and tonally versatile like ampeg or Gallien Kruger. But they are a great price and reliable and you can get a good sound I find they are top quality amps in being an affordable work horse but not a top shelf premium. I have owned a few peavey amps and have peavy cabs with an ed5 Nemisis head and I love it.

As far as basses their cirrus is rated higher and I think they would get more love but peavey has such a reputation for being an entry level to mid range company that makes functional well priced work horse products. You never hear many people list a peavy as their dream bass, guitar, or amp. They don't have many endorsers for guitars and basses theirs EVH and his wolf gangs and Devin Towsend endorsed. But I know their older products were more iconic.

 

[redstrand]

Ill pit my Peavey Bandit against any other amp The cleans are incredible and it takes pedals so very well. The reverb is lush. Cost me a whopping $100. Built in the USA.

 

[Johnny Crab]

The following Peavey's here disagree with the OP's title:

2 Foundations
1 Dyna bass
1 T-40
2 TKO 65's
and our guitarist's 2 Peavey EVH guitars.

Some of their stuff is not great, some is good, some is amazing for the current pricing.