Well I'll be spending again + what I bought mine for, so I'm well-committed to it at this point. Still, I won't say it's a very poor deal if it works when it gets back from Peavey. But, nice deal you got!! Yes indeed.
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Peavey MegaBass Club
- Thread starter Stev187
- Start date
Well I'll be spending again + what I bought mine for, so I'm well-committed to it at this point. Still, I won't say it's a very poor deal if it works when it gets back from Peavey. But, nice deal you got!! Yes indeed.
So yeah, my MB still contains two PC boards that came to me totally unscrewed in the chassis...
...and as of right now, they're "half-screwed." After a few mysteriously failed trips to the hardware store, I confirmed with Peavey that the unscrewed-down boards in my MB are supposed to be held down by 1/4" 4-40 screws. Whoever worked (horribly) on this thing apparently either stripped out or replaced the standoffs under the boards, so that the proper / normal screws don't thread in all the way. They may have even glued the boards in as I cannot get the unscrewed boards to budge enough to remove them and see what's going on under there. Sure, they move just enough to cause possible problems like the blown fuse I had, but not enough so I can do anything about it.
The "correct" 1/4" 4-40 screws will go in about halfway and then will no longer thread in to whatever standoff has been shoved under the boards. I can't find any 4-40 screws that are short enough. I guess I'm on the hunt for some kind of makeshift nylon spacers that I can insert between the screw heads and the board surface to make sure they're held down.
The worst part is that I think this disaster was all the work of a local paid / pro tech whose name appears prominently on a dated decal on the bottom. (See also: Dead Kennedys, "Trust Your Mechanic.") Thankfully, said local pro tech is no longer in business... although we certainly have plenty of godawful local pro techs around to take his place in jerry-rigged "repairs."
I think it's a testament to Peavey's engineering that the thing still works so well despite all this, although I'm not ready to take it out gigging until I know those two boards are totally locked down no matter what orientation the head takes in transit.
Yesterday I tried running the MB as the top of a stack for the first time - I just got a used Avatar 2x12 and I was curious what the MB would sound like pushing it along with my 115BX BW using both output sections.
"Utterly glorious" is the answer, although it definitely still sounds even better (and significantly louder) when I bypass the MB's preamp in favor of the clean side of my Rusty Box. I'm finding the MB's preamp is simply more neutral / uncolored / hi-fi than I personally like, but that output section is definitely 30 pounds of raw meat. Not hard to see how many of y'all come to the conclusion that the rated 200w x2 is a vast understatement.
The biamping isn't as useful as I'd expected, though, at least not through these two particular cabs-- this particular combination definitely sounds a lot better running full range, the 200hz bottom-end crossover cutoff is simply too high to make the best use of these cabs' respective personalities. I'm going to try biamping with the Rusty using my Weber-loaded guitar cab on top one of these days... I think that might be much more promising for a super-gritty rock tone.
...and as of right now, they're "half-screwed." After a few mysteriously failed trips to the hardware store, I confirmed with Peavey that the unscrewed-down boards in my MB are supposed to be held down by 1/4" 4-40 screws. Whoever worked (horribly) on this thing apparently either stripped out or replaced the standoffs under the boards, so that the proper / normal screws don't thread in all the way. They may have even glued the boards in as I cannot get the unscrewed boards to budge enough to remove them and see what's going on under there. Sure, they move just enough to cause possible problems like the blown fuse I had, but not enough so I can do anything about it.
The "correct" 1/4" 4-40 screws will go in about halfway and then will no longer thread in to whatever standoff has been shoved under the boards. I can't find any 4-40 screws that are short enough. I guess I'm on the hunt for some kind of makeshift nylon spacers that I can insert between the screw heads and the board surface to make sure they're held down.
The worst part is that I think this disaster was all the work of a local paid / pro tech whose name appears prominently on a dated decal on the bottom. (See also: Dead Kennedys, "Trust Your Mechanic.") Thankfully, said local pro tech is no longer in business... although we certainly have plenty of godawful local pro techs around to take his place in jerry-rigged "repairs."
I think it's a testament to Peavey's engineering that the thing still works so well despite all this, although I'm not ready to take it out gigging until I know those two boards are totally locked down no matter what orientation the head takes in transit.
Yesterday I tried running the MB as the top of a stack for the first time - I just got a used Avatar 2x12 and I was curious what the MB would sound like pushing it along with my 115BX BW using both output sections.
"Utterly glorious" is the answer, although it definitely still sounds even better (and significantly louder) when I bypass the MB's preamp in favor of the clean side of my Rusty Box. I'm finding the MB's preamp is simply more neutral / uncolored / hi-fi than I personally like, but that output section is definitely 30 pounds of raw meat. Not hard to see how many of y'all come to the conclusion that the rated 200w x2 is a vast understatement.
The biamping isn't as useful as I'd expected, though, at least not through these two particular cabs-- this particular combination definitely sounds a lot better running full range, the 200hz bottom-end crossover cutoff is simply too high to make the best use of these cabs' respective personalities. I'm going to try biamping with the Rusty using my Weber-loaded guitar cab on top one of these days... I think that might be much more promising for a super-gritty rock tone.
I used mine with a 1516 cab. I ran bi-amped with the low end running the 15" BW, and the high end pushing the twin 8's.
In some venues, I had to run full range, but I preferred the bi-amp sound.
In some venues, I had to run full range, but I preferred the bi-amp sound.
Yeah, I can see this working better with two 8s or maybe a different box (or Widow - my 1502-DT isn't what I'd personally call a deep-bass driver, the Avatar actually bests it in that regard). What crossover freq did you find to work the best?
Good lord, it's been so long, I can't even remember the values, let alone what I had it set at.
I think it was a little right of straight up, or it may have been a little left. It's just one of those things you'll have to tinker with until it sounds good to you. 
Hmm. This presents potential for positive progress concerning possible permutations of system parameters.
I've spoken with the peeps at Peavey, and they're commencing repairs any minute now... this is encouraging news, even if you don't love the preamp section. We might have a winner...
Hmm. This presents potential for positive progress concerning possible permutations of system parameters.
Why, you alliterative sonofagun.
The preamp is very workable / doable, don't get me wrong. I would be very OK gigging with the head as is. I think you'll dig it when it comes back from Meridian.
I just hit my writer's block. That's probably ok...
Cool, I'm thinking I probably will, in fact! all indications-even from my brief use of it- are encouraging.
Hope you get yours all squared away.
My Megabass is all done and has been shipped as of today. It took an hour of work plus a part or so, and for a total of $61.50 she's back to factory spec. Shipping is about $21, and I'll see 'er in a couple days I guess. I'll post after I plug in and give it a whirl. 
People I spoke to there were forward and helpful. I'll give a "+1" for their utterly reasonable customer service.
When it gets back I can send the SWR head off to my local guru to get that "Aural Enhancectomy" mod...
People I spoke to there were forward and helpful. I'll give a "+1" for their utterly reasonable customer service.
When it gets back I can send the SWR head off to my local guru to get that "Aural Enhancectomy" mod...
$61.50 sounds VERY reasonable for parts & an hour of labor from The Creators Themselves! Maybe I should send mine back for a full screw transplant...
My Megabass is all done and has been shipped as of today. It took an hour of work plus a part or so, and for a total of $61.50 she's back to factory spec. Shipping is about $21, and I'll see 'er in a couple days I guess. I'll post after I plug in and give it a whirl.
People I spoke to there were forward and helpful. I'll give a "+1" for their utterly reasonable customer service.
When it gets back I can send the SWR head off to my local guru to get that "Aural Enhancectomy" mod...
$82.50 out of pocket with shipping is more than reasonable IMO. Far, far less than replacement cost.
There's no wasted time- they know the machine and go right to it, apparently. You will get what you paid for methinks.
In all digressive seriousness, I recently picked up a '78 Artist VT tube combo for $40 in a pawn shop. It was dead silent, with no signs of trafo-death, but the 15" Black Widow alone was worth $40. I'm totally thinking I should send them the chassis now, that's a heck of a service-bargain you got on an amp that has to be comparatively difficult to service.
Well in fairness, it turned out there was nothing seriously wrong with it... there were some broken solder joints that got redressed, and they cleaned up pots and sliders. I think they maybe replaced a couple components when they re-soldered what was compromised; so it's not as if there was a bad board, or a section that had been cooked or very damaged. It was mostly maintenance.
It could have been an expensive part I guess- but I still would think that time and labor shouldn't be that much, since it's their own backyard, so to speak...for me, whatever they did, it was certainly worth it.
I picked mine up last saturday. I have been meaning to go pick it up for a while but was not able to until then. My mega is all fixed up with a new graphic eq and it sounds great. I did not realize how heavy it was but compared to my gk goldline it is heavy. The thing sounds great though and i used it tonight at a short gig. Very different sound from my gk. Very clean with no color to the sound. I would really like to find an old 1516 to go with it. Right now im using it with a fender 410 and can only make use of one side of the amp. It does seem very powerful. No issue at all keeping up with 2 guitars, acoustic and vox in the pa, and drum set. Im so glad to have it back.
The Mega arrives back from the bench at Meridian MS tomorrow, according to the UPS tracking thingy. Maybe I'll run the SWR SM-400s as a front end for it's crazy power section?... It'll be heavy-ish, but that's ok as long as it's not a big ungainly cab. I remember when all bass amps were heavy-ish... I kinda like that idea, getting back to where I started.
The Mega is heavy, and I don't take it to every gig. I strongly recommend a rack case or bag with this head--easy to lose knobs or sliders when moving it around.
Many of us have sung the Mega's praises in this thread, but I think it makes a PERFECT backup head. I usually have it in the car even if I'm not using it on a gig.
--Steve
