Hi. I have been watching a lot of recording video's on youtube here recently and everyone is talking about how great the Peavey T-40 bass is to record with. I have been out the game for quite awhile and was just wondering everyone elses thoughts on this matter. Oh...and I'm a pick player btw
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Peavey T-40 Bass?
- Thread starter cdseverance47
- Start date
Good basses, nice range of tones, generally pretty heavy. Your mileage may vary.
One of the best bass guitars ever built by anybody.
Probably the heaviest, too.
Both literally and figuratively.
Probably the heaviest, too.
Both literally and figuratively.
There is literally an infinitude of info and user experience in the T40 Club thread.
I have 2 but I seldom play 4s any more. There's a T40 'tone chart' that gives approx settings on the T40 to give a reasonable approximation of several other classic bass tones.
Agreed, but I have 2 basses in my collection that are heavier than the T40s...
Owned one since they first came out, love 'em. I have one that's only 10.4 lbs.! 
My actual weights are:
Original T40 - 10.4 lbs
2nd T40 - 11.1 lbs.
T45 - 10.2 lbs.
ehhh...you probably were using a heavy set of strings.
I never weighed mine, but it HAD to be over 12 lbs. But I sold it after a year or two.
Check out the T-40 club for answers. Link supplied. Welcome.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/peavey-t-40-club-part-2.657422/page-90
I never weighed mine, but it HAD to be over 12 lbs. But I sold it after a year or two.
It permanently deformed your neck and shoulder! Look at that lean!
I sold mine after a year or two as well - not because of the weight, even playing 6 nights/wk, but because this new company G&L was calling me. Couldn’t afford more than one bass back then. Gas is eternal!It permanently deformed your neck and shoulder! Look at that lean!
IME, the T-40 really shines in the studio where you can sit down and play. The tonal range is vast, and the electrics are dead quiet in all circumstances, which engineers love. Never a hint of hum or buzz.
On live gigs, I found its ergonomics a little awkward. The weight may get to you after a while, especially if you have lighter alternatives. To be sure, the later ones with poplar bodies are reportedly less hefty than the ash ones.
I bought two right after they came out, $349.50, case included, and mine were early enough they still had the brown fur Tolex/G+G-style case, not the later plastic ones.
HP spec'd them with serious hardware (WTH, the bridge probably weighed a pound or two alone), and they were ash bodied, I mean they were built to LAST. Interesting tone circuit, but I always ran mine wide open for a single coil tone, fairly hot pickups. In their day, they were tremendous value-for-money.
Ultimately, they felt sort of strange to me, this massive body with a very thin neck. They touted them as a 'bi-flex' neck or some other ad slogan I may not be remembering properly: Both of mine, the necks were flexible enough (repeated on my later Dyna Bass), it was too easy to hit an open note or harmonic, reach up and grab the headstock, and you had a whammy bar just that fast.
And ultimately, in a bilateral Fender/Gibson world, they just never quite panned out to find their place as replacements for the usual suspects, and joined a long line of 'other' basses in that attempt. That they bring the money they do today just slays me, but they are very solid instruments, no argument there.
I bought mine to find a 'lighter bass' to replace the Gibson RD I'd bought previously (almost 13 pounds), and the T's ran just over 10 !
HP spec'd them with serious hardware (WTH, the bridge probably weighed a pound or two alone), and they were ash bodied, I mean they were built to LAST. Interesting tone circuit, but I always ran mine wide open for a single coil tone, fairly hot pickups. In their day, they were tremendous value-for-money.
Ultimately, they felt sort of strange to me, this massive body with a very thin neck. They touted them as a 'bi-flex' neck or some other ad slogan I may not be remembering properly: Both of mine, the necks were flexible enough (repeated on my later Dyna Bass), it was too easy to hit an open note or harmonic, reach up and grab the headstock, and you had a whammy bar just that fast.
And ultimately, in a bilateral Fender/Gibson world, they just never quite panned out to find their place as replacements for the usual suspects, and joined a long line of 'other' basses in that attempt. That they bring the money they do today just slays me, but they are very solid instruments, no argument there.
I bought mine to find a 'lighter bass' to replace the Gibson RD I'd bought previously (almost 13 pounds), and the T's ran just over 10 !
I hate that I missed the boat on these things when they could be had for ~$500 or so in the past 10 years.
I was just about to say that buying a T-40 is like buying a house in Florida - you should have done it 4 years ago if you wanted to do it at all.
What the world really needs is somebody to make a bass with modern body style and T-40 pickups and electronics. A 5-string option would be even more awesome.
The T-40 and T-45 are pretty great instruments, but it's not because of the body or the weight.
The T-40 and T-45 are pretty great instruments, but it's not because of the body or the weight.
I remember when $500 was rediculous, as you could get them at pawnshops for just over $100 5 to 10 years before that!
