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PEAVEY Tour 450/700 Club
- Thread starter Mr_Martin
- Start date
Here's a little bit of Tour 450/700 history for the club...
Lots of people are familiar with the Peavey Firebass and Nitrobass. Those amps were updated slightly in the early 2000's, mostly cosmetically, and were called Max 700 and Max 450, respectively. The Tour 450/700 were the replacements in the bass lineup. Wood sleeve heads had fallen out of favor, and there was a push for lighter weight. We started working on these around 2005, right before Hurricane Katrina. The feature set of the Tour's was defined by Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, who was head of Peavey artist relations at the time. One of the unique features of the Tour was Dave's idea--the failsafe DI, which allowed the DI to work (with phantom power) in case of amp or power failure on stage.
The power amplifier used in these was unique. It was a class AB amplifier with a patented design featuring an efficiency boosting system called "Smart rail". We've never used that system since because we went back to doing class D power amplifiers almost exclusively. The power amp was designed by Lee Santillano, who had his name on many Peavey power amp patents. The Smart rail system allowed the amp to achieve higher power with less heatsinking and power transistors, which served as a weight reduction. The official minimum impedance limit on these heads is 4 ohms, however, these amps will power 2 ohm loads safely (do it at your own risk). Bobby Dall from Poison did a whole tour with a Tour 700 driving two 4 ohm 810 cabs.
I designed the preamp section and was the project lead, so I was responsible for stuff like assembling prototypes, testing, and writing the manual. This was the first bass product I worked on. I had graduated a few months before, and started in engineering as an embedded programmer, but I sucked at that! I noticed there was nobody in engineering handling bass gear exclusively, so I kind of snuck in and it became my job.
The industrial design was done by my good friend Matt Copley. He works for Kustom now. If you look at some of the Kustom amps, you may see some similarities in overall cosmetic design style. Hartley Peavey likes to put in his 2 cents on products from time to time--his contribution was the grey "horizon" background graphic on the faceplate.
The chassis design was done by Ronnie Goss. He designed the packaging for literally hundreds of Peavey products. He even worked on some Peavey basses like the Dynabass and the original Sarzo if I'm not mistaken. He retired around 2007, unfortunately. He is a TBer and hangs out in the bass guitar forum--he is an excellent luthier and a hell of a bass player.
We unveiled these at WNAMM 2006.
There are 4 generations of Tour heads that mark design updates.
Gen 1: 1st 100 each of 450/700 made. These can be identified by looking into the side grills towards the front. There will be mods glued to the rear of the preamp board. These mods were to reduce the noise of the octaver and muting circuits. These were the amps that required the "triac mod". A triac "crowbar" circuit was used as a redundant protection scheme. It caused the amps to go into protect mode. It was removed as a service update, and was immediately eliminated from the design.
Gen 2: I estimate there were a few hundred of these made The preamp mod and triac will not be there. These can be identified by looking at the faceplate. The octaver is called "Octaver".
Gen 3: The octaver is called "Kosmos B". That was a marketing decision that I didn't like. If you want to be sure you've found a Tour without the triac problem, look for this one.
Gen 4: Tour 700 only...450 was discontinued earlier due to release of the Headliner head. You can't tell these without really knowing what to look for. These were the last ones made. The original power transistors were discontinued. The replacement transistors were updated, newer technology parts.
Rare Tour heads: I added a line drive circuit to several artist heads. Some artists used power amplfiers with low input sensitivity, so I had to add a circuit that would drive them to full power. There will be an extra 1/4" jack on the left rear. If you happen to find one of these, it was an artist amp. Because of having to do this, I always make sure my bass amps can drive these types of power amps since then!
Here is a picture of me and the first Tour 700 proto in 2005. The first live test was in front of Peavey for a big after school program fundraiser event. Yes, I am a huge nerd! There were a lot of changes between then and production...notice, no mute button, not octave defeat button, etc...
Lots of people are familiar with the Peavey Firebass and Nitrobass. Those amps were updated slightly in the early 2000's, mostly cosmetically, and were called Max 700 and Max 450, respectively. The Tour 450/700 were the replacements in the bass lineup. Wood sleeve heads had fallen out of favor, and there was a push for lighter weight. We started working on these around 2005, right before Hurricane Katrina. The feature set of the Tour's was defined by Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, who was head of Peavey artist relations at the time. One of the unique features of the Tour was Dave's idea--the failsafe DI, which allowed the DI to work (with phantom power) in case of amp or power failure on stage.
The power amplifier used in these was unique. It was a class AB amplifier with a patented design featuring an efficiency boosting system called "Smart rail". We've never used that system since because we went back to doing class D power amplifiers almost exclusively. The power amp was designed by Lee Santillano, who had his name on many Peavey power amp patents. The Smart rail system allowed the amp to achieve higher power with less heatsinking and power transistors, which served as a weight reduction. The official minimum impedance limit on these heads is 4 ohms, however, these amps will power 2 ohm loads safely (do it at your own risk). Bobby Dall from Poison did a whole tour with a Tour 700 driving two 4 ohm 810 cabs.
I designed the preamp section and was the project lead, so I was responsible for stuff like assembling prototypes, testing, and writing the manual. This was the first bass product I worked on. I had graduated a few months before, and started in engineering as an embedded programmer, but I sucked at that! I noticed there was nobody in engineering handling bass gear exclusively, so I kind of snuck in and it became my job.
The industrial design was done by my good friend Matt Copley. He works for Kustom now. If you look at some of the Kustom amps, you may see some similarities in overall cosmetic design style. Hartley Peavey likes to put in his 2 cents on products from time to time--his contribution was the grey "horizon" background graphic on the faceplate.
The chassis design was done by Ronnie Goss. He designed the packaging for literally hundreds of Peavey products. He even worked on some Peavey basses like the Dynabass and the original Sarzo if I'm not mistaken. He retired around 2007, unfortunately. He is a TBer and hangs out in the bass guitar forum--he is an excellent luthier and a hell of a bass player.
We unveiled these at WNAMM 2006.
There are 4 generations of Tour heads that mark design updates.
Gen 1: 1st 100 each of 450/700 made. These can be identified by looking into the side grills towards the front. There will be mods glued to the rear of the preamp board. These mods were to reduce the noise of the octaver and muting circuits. These were the amps that required the "triac mod". A triac "crowbar" circuit was used as a redundant protection scheme. It caused the amps to go into protect mode. It was removed as a service update, and was immediately eliminated from the design.
Gen 2: I estimate there were a few hundred of these made The preamp mod and triac will not be there. These can be identified by looking at the faceplate. The octaver is called "Octaver".
Gen 3: The octaver is called "Kosmos B". That was a marketing decision that I didn't like. If you want to be sure you've found a Tour without the triac problem, look for this one.
Gen 4: Tour 700 only...450 was discontinued earlier due to release of the Headliner head. You can't tell these without really knowing what to look for. These were the last ones made. The original power transistors were discontinued. The replacement transistors were updated, newer technology parts.
Rare Tour heads: I added a line drive circuit to several artist heads. Some artists used power amplfiers with low input sensitivity, so I had to add a circuit that would drive them to full power. There will be an extra 1/4" jack on the left rear. If you happen to find one of these, it was an artist amp. Because of having to do this, I always make sure my bass amps can drive these types of power amps since then!
Here is a picture of me and the first Tour 700 proto in 2005. The first live test was in front of Peavey for a big after school program fundraiser event. Yes, I am a huge nerd! There were a lot of changes between then and production...notice, no mute button, not octave defeat button, etc...
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So heres my story; had a used 450, had problems,returned to GC b4 i got stuck with it, had to wait to get a brand new one, waiting on my state return( Yeah I know, get a life right?) anyway contacted Peavey, they said its discontinued and there are no more....so.......I have to find a brand new one on EvilBAY while I still can......no other head will do!!!
If you still have the 450, you could probably send it in to Peavey service and get it fixed cheaper than buying a used one. PM me if you need help.
Hi Bbby Bld,
thanks for the great info about the Tour Heads.
Question 1:
I have a "Gen 2 Head" with the Octaver on the Faceplate.
Is this a head with the triac problem or is the triac removed in this series?
Question 2:
Is it ok to drive the amp with the pre gain cranked (for overdrive sound)?
Greets from Germany
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SteveV74, where are you located? There are a couple for sale not too far from me. I am in Edmonton, Alberta. Not sure if this helps. If I remember correctly I did see two 700's and one 450 recently. If you'd like the link to them I can send it to you. Never know it might be worth a shot!
just wait for a while, my tour 700 (used) should arrive today. If the amp is not faulty, if the shipping carton doesn't hide a brick instead of an amp, or anything else, I should be able to bring a detailed review of the amp in rehearsal use and, at the end of this month, on the gig...
