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Peavey Mini Max Head Thread

#1,163
So I went ahead and bought an ex-demo minimax V2, and here are my initial thoughts:-
  • The sounds are very useable for my style (punky/vintage), with the boost providing some optional extra grit which I'd normally get from a pre-amp pedal, and punchy and clear all round.
  • Having a built in tuner is really handy, and seems to work well.
  • It fits in the pocket of my Thomann gig-bag.
  • The above three points mean that I can turn up for practice and shared-equipment gigs with the minimum of faff, if I can get away with no pedals at all, that's one less thing to worry about.
  • It's loud. I'm not sure how loud as it was loud enough at practice with the master volume barely past position 1, and there's too much power there for the cab I was using.
  • The Kosmos button certainly seemed to do something, adding a kind of thickness to the otherwise quite trebly and not particularly good at low-lows Ashdown Toneman 2 x 10 I use in the practice room. I actually had the bass cut slightly on the EQ, which is rare.
  • The DI has been quiet for me apart from some interference when I plugged it into a recording interface while my laptop was hooked up to a display which also provides power via usb-c. Ground lift didn't help much. That worried me initially until I worked out what was causing it.
  • The fan is exactly as loud as people have claimed. At practice while we weren't playing, it blended in with the hiss coming from our guitarists amp/pedalboard, and the fans on the PA poweramp. No-one else noticed it.
In summary, very pleased with it so far and does everything I was hoping - I'll report back when I've gigged it and tried it through some other cabs.
 
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#1,165
Hello everyone! I currently have a Peavey MAX 110 1x10" combo that I use to practice in the living room. I was looking at picking up a chicken head Mini Max but I'm still on the fence with it. The psychoacoustic feature in my MAX 110 is what brings the combo to life. When I turn this feature off, the amp is pretty lifeless. With the psychoacoustic feature turned off, there is pretty much no low end whatsoever and no matter how I try to EQ it on the amp and on my Peavey Cirrus, the tone is absolutely blah. With the psychoacoustic, it has a great, full sound that I just can't get without it being activated. My question is, are all the Mini Max heads just like this? Are they completely lifeless without the psychoacoustic on?
 
#1,166
VS said:
Hello everyone! I currently have a Peavey MAX 110 1x10" combo that I use to practice in the living room. I was looking at picking up a chicken head Mini Max but I'm still on the fence with it. The psychoacoustic feature in my MAX 110 is what brings the combo to life. When I turn this feature off, the amp is pretty lifeless. With the psychoacoustic feature turned off, there is pretty much no low end whatsoever and no matter how I try to EQ it on the amp and on my Peavey Cirrus, the tone is absolutely blah. With the psychoacoustic, it has a great, full sound that I just can't get without it being activated. My question is, are all the Mini Max heads just like this? Are they completely lifeless without the psychoacoustic on?
Click to expand...
No. I never even use that effect on the big rig. I think it has more application in lower volume situations.
 
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#1,167
VS said:
Hello everyone! I currently have a Peavey MAX 110 1x10" combo that I use to practice in the living room. I was looking at picking up a chicken head Mini Max but I'm still on the fence with it. The psychoacoustic feature in my MAX 110 is what brings the combo to life. When I turn this feature off, the amp is pretty lifeless. With the psychoacoustic feature turned off, there is pretty much no low end whatsoever and no matter how I try to EQ it on the amp and on my Peavey Cirrus, the tone is absolutely blah. With the psychoacoustic, it has a great, full sound that I just can't get without it being activated. My question is, are all the Mini Max heads just like this? Are they completely lifeless without the psychoacoustic on?
Click to expand...
You have a single 10" speaker, which is an awesome woofer in a car but not so much for a bass amp with a small enclosure. Inexpensive and easy to carry around? Yes. Deep bass capable? Not really.
The psychoacoustic function is a bit of a miracle cheat that fakes deep bass very well, but if you compared your amp's sound without it engaged to any other bass combo amp with a 10" spkr from the past 50+ years I think you would find that it holds up just fine.

It's one of those things that once you try it you don't want to live without it, unless you have big speaker cabs that handle lots of power.
My Chickenhead through an old Peavey 410TX 8 ohm cabinet has no shortage of low frequencies or volume even outdoors. Similar to any other amp in every situation.
The psychoacoustic feature is an added bonus for small cabs and/or low volume situations.
And recording.
Hope this helps.
 
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#1,168
Sorry to bump the thread, but, well, I just got the version 2 of this amp as a back up while my 1001RB-II is in the shop. Quick question; I eventually would like to rack mount this amp; what are some good rack ears for this thing since Peavey does not sell a mounting kit for this amp?
 
#1,171
I'll probably get a rack tray and zip tie it or screw it on there. In the meantime, the knock-off Pelican case I got at Harbor Freight will protect it nicely. It's certainly way better than the carrying bag that the amp came with.

IMG_3281.jpeg
 
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#1,174
My Minimax v.1 has been intermittently distorting and losing volume for just a second or 2, here and there over the last 3 gigs with it. Sounds almost like a blown speaker, but my speakers work flawlessly with any of my other amps, and like I said, the problem is intermittent (unlike a blown speaker). I switched to my backup amp during soundcheck at my last gig because it was doing it pretty bad as soon as I turned it on. I've gotten about 6 years of pretty heavy gigging out of it, but I'm hoping it's not "curtains" for it just yet. I opened it up yesterday and checked all the connections and blew out the dust inside with compressed air (which there was a little bit in there). Since then, I have not been able to re-create the issue at home even after an hour playing on it at various settings and volumes. I'm hoping it's ok now, but I'm not too confident that it won't happen again on stage since the issue started out very sparse and got more frequent over the course of 2 weeks.

I'm thinking maybe it was just dust in the pots? It wasn't crazy dusty in there or anything though. Any thoughts or similar experiences? I'm hoping this isn't the first sign of it dying. Not that it's too expensive to replace, but still, $400 bucks is $400 bucks.
 
#1,175
The Bass Clef said:
My Minimax v.1 has been intermittently distorting and losing volume for just a second or 2, here and there over the last 3 gigs with it. Sounds almost like a blown speaker, but my speakers work flawlessly with any of my other amps, and like I said, the problem is intermittent (unlike a blown speaker). I switched to my backup amp during soundcheck at my last gig because it was doing it pretty bad as soon as I turned it on. I've gotten about 6 years of pretty heavy gigging out of it, but I'm hoping it's not "curtains" for it just yet. I opened it up yesterday and checked all the connections and blew out the dust inside with compressed air (which there was a little bit in there). Since then, I have not been able to re-create the issue at home even after an hour playing on it at various settings and volumes. I'm hoping it's ok now, but I'm not too confident that it won't happen again on stage since the issue started out very sparse and got more frequent over the course of 2 weeks.

I'm thinking maybe it was just dust in the pots? It wasn't crazy dusty in there or anything though. Any thoughts or similar experiences? I'm hoping this isn't the first sign of it dying. Not that it's too expensive to replace, but still, $400 bucks is $400 bucks.
Click to expand...
I would think dust in the pots would be more continuous, not intermittent. My first thought was heat buildup due to dust blocking air flow, but that also doesn't make sense if it happens at start when the amp is presumably still cold. Could be some failing component, but I'm thinking might be broken solder connection of some sort as well. Can you get it to happen by bumping the amp case or playing some loud notes? (Cab shaking the amp maybe)
 
#1,176
SharpCat said:
I would think dust in the pots would be more continuous, not intermittent. My first thought was heat buildup due to dust blocking air flow, but that also doesn't make sense if it happens at start when the amp is presumably still cold. Could be some failing component, but I'm thinking might be broken solder connection of some sort as well. Can you get it to happen by bumping the amp case or playing some loud notes? (Cab shaking the amp maybe)
Click to expand...
I tried banging on it with the palm of my hand, and shaking it while playing notes, turning it up even louder than gig volume, but I couldn't re-create the issue after I opened it up and cleaned the dust out. I even went as far as unscrewing the 3 circuit boards, flipping them over and looking over all the solder joints, but didn't see anything that looked out of place. The only reason I thought it may be dust in a pot is because I've had dirty pots go in and out like that on other amps in the past. Intermittent issues like this are the worst because you just never know if or when it'll happen again. Maybe just taking it apart and putting it back together tightened up a loose connection or something, but I think I'll have my backup head sitting right there and ready for the next gig or 2 just in case. Either way, if I have to buy a new one, I will because I love the sound of this amp!
 
#1,178
Dumb question but, if you connect headphones do the amp disconnect the speaker output? I am trying to find an amp that does that so I can switch between silent and not silent practice without disconnecting the speaker cable. PJB amps do that but they are too expensive for what I want. TC electronics' BAM 200 also does that but it is out of stock now
 
#1,179
I don't have the MiniMax anymore, but I don't think it disconnects. IIRC, Fender Rumbles do disconnect.

Before I started using my V803 (and disconnecting the speaker) I was using an Ampeg SCR-DI for headphones. You might be able to find one cheap now.
 

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