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Peavey Tube Head CHEAP in La Mesa
- Thread starter Dan Knowlton
- Start date
Failure. Got mine this morning, NIB. Had it on standby for nearly 10 minutes and then fired it up. Minimal tweaking and I was getting good tone. Brought the clean gain up a little and then nothing. Figures. Registered the warranty online & then called Peavey to get the repair ball rolling. 50 minutes in queue and I had to hang up. Sent an email. No response. Attempted to call again and this time was told that the repair line is busy. Probably alot of VB-2 owners clogging up the line. Not a good start.
XtraLongScale...sorry to hear about your VB-2 and the problems grabbing a hold of Peavey.
My second VB-2 has been ordered as of today from the GC in Miami. My buddy at the GC here in Bham confirmed with the sales guy in Miami that the amp worked at that moment (had Jorge in Miami put him on hold and go play the amp at that very moment). Hopefully when it arrives to me it will still be working properly. Now, I'm a touch scared about the reliability issue. I play out quite a bit and I am planning on doing some touring coming up if the gig looks good enough so I want a head that isn't going to all the sudden go kaputz. We'll see...
My second VB-2 has been ordered as of today from the GC in Miami. My buddy at the GC here in Bham confirmed with the sales guy in Miami that the amp worked at that moment (had Jorge in Miami put him on hold and go play the amp at that very moment). Hopefully when it arrives to me it will still be working properly. Now, I'm a touch scared about the reliability issue. I play out quite a bit and I am planning on doing some touring coming up if the gig looks good enough so I want a head that isn't going to all the sudden go kaputz. We'll see...
Both of the ones I tried worked when I got them then died. I'd really like to know if these problems are still related to the component problems previously discribed.
Pedro...I bet they are. I'd love to hear more from Peavey about why there seems to be these issues popping up in NIB VB-2s at GC. Are us TB'ers just getting the bad ones or the bad pick of the litter?
No issues with my VB2. Was on a local retailer's sales floor for an unknown period of time, so who knows what abuse it could have received.
Just seems to me weird that there are these are on going problems when presumably the cause was discovered some time ago. Again I'm no statistician but as a CPA for the past 30 years I do work with numbers and it seems like a high incidence of problems cropping up.
Hmm, perhaps a "seasoned" floor model would have been preferable, lol. Well, I was successful in reaching the repair dept which was staffed by one guy (hope he's paid well). He whipped out the schematic and had me take the chassis out for troubleshooting but nothing was immediately apparent - not that I'm well versed in these matters anyway. The fuse looked intact and no output tube problems as well. It's getting picked up by FedEx tomorrow and it's off to Meridian. I've waited this long to get the head. What's another couple weeks? Good thing I've got the one constant in my rig life, a GK 800RB to keep me alive in the meantime.
I picked up mine at the burbank (chicago southwest side) GC. There only one was a floor model. It sounded great at the GC. I took it home and gave it the head to head with my YBA 200 with Eurotubes Low Gain Retube kit. The Traynor sounded a bit harmonicaly richer but the Peavey was louder and punchier.
I can only keep one, and I think I'm going to go with the Peavey. I'll probably play with some tube swaps, and I may even try a set of JJ E34L's. I was pleased to see that the stock tubes were JJ EL34's.
I'll be taking the Peavey out on a gig or two this weekend, so I'll keep you all updated. If all goes well, I'll sign the warranty card on monday.
I can only keep one, and I think I'm going to go with the Peavey. I'll probably play with some tube swaps, and I may even try a set of JJ E34L's. I was pleased to see that the stock tubes were JJ EL34's.
I'll be taking the Peavey out on a gig or two this weekend, so I'll keep you all updated. If all goes well, I'll sign the warranty card on monday.
Figured I chime in about mine...been playing mine since I picked it up in Manhattan around Christmas with no issues. I've played soft, ran it full throttle, left it on for a few hours by accident...no problems so far. I'm taking it to rehearsal tomorrow and plan on gigging it Friday. I'll let you know if anything crops up.
John
John
Are you sure you know what Vishay components look like?Also, there is a difference in quality components and re-labeled s***, mojo components sold to audiophiles, but I'll probably never convince you of that, so believe what you want and continue to be ripped off.
If you need a new fuse, drop me a line and I'll help you out.
Sorry, didn't mean to offend you, bud.
Yes, I know really Dale/Vishay. I worked for a compontent distributer for a long while. 10,000 ERAI reports ago I may have been fooled.
Just because I say Audiophile doesn't mean I'll spend money like one. 90% of it I'll receive in sample form. Why would I order some bs brand, vs factory direct from an ISO facility. Sorry I don't deal with middle men, I am one.
Your little flame doesn't take away from the fact thats it's full of industrial components. Which I feel is to be expected for its costs? I would have "liked" (as in I would be shocked) to see some Nichicon or Panasonic caps for the audio circuit.
Dollar for dollar this has to be the best tube amp on the market. What else is out there? Ampeg doesn't make competetion for this. Traynor does but everything I have read say it has completely useless tone control. And not for a second would I think they're using any better components.
my VB-2 performed perfectly though back to back to back practice-gig-practice and the trips in between. Sounds really nice with my new "powerpop" band, as well as in my metal band. I really like it and i CANT wait to fire up my cabs(berg nv610 and ampeg 810) with it!
Just got back from practice with a blues rock band I'm subbing with. Played the VB2 through an ampeg fridge, and it sounded great. The band liked it also. Though they've never heard my Traynor, they liked it better than the studio's GK 400RB that I played through last week.
At 400 bucks it's definitely the best deal going. At 900, it may still be the best, but it's a close race...
As for controls, I've found my Traynor tone controls to be just about as usefull as the Peavey's. The hi/mid/low ranges of the peavey knobs may be a bit greater than the Traynor, but the Traynor mid countour seems much more effective than the Peavey's mid level knob and mid frequency selector switch. Of course I'm playing passive basses with nice dead strings, so my range of tonality may be a bit limited compared to some folks with brighter instruments/strings. Still, IMHO, neither amp seems to have controls with quite the range of your average solid state head, but that's to be expected with tubes.
I'm surprised at just how different in character the two amps are. I still think the Traynor has a sweetness that is really nice, but the punch and sheer volume of the Peavey has made it my keeper of the two.
One last thing, coming from a Portabass 250, the Traynor seemed pretty heavy. The Peavey, with it's massive transformers makes the Traynor seem light! There's something nice about looking through the grate and seeing those HUGE chunks of iron in there.
At 400 bucks it's definitely the best deal going. At 900, it may still be the best, but it's a close race...
As for controls, I've found my Traynor tone controls to be just about as usefull as the Peavey's. The hi/mid/low ranges of the peavey knobs may be a bit greater than the Traynor, but the Traynor mid countour seems much more effective than the Peavey's mid level knob and mid frequency selector switch. Of course I'm playing passive basses with nice dead strings, so my range of tonality may be a bit limited compared to some folks with brighter instruments/strings. Still, IMHO, neither amp seems to have controls with quite the range of your average solid state head, but that's to be expected with tubes.
I'm surprised at just how different in character the two amps are. I still think the Traynor has a sweetness that is really nice, but the punch and sheer volume of the Peavey has made it my keeper of the two.
One last thing, coming from a Portabass 250, the Traynor seemed pretty heavy. The Peavey, with it's massive transformers makes the Traynor seem light! There's something nice about looking through the grate and seeing those HUGE chunks of iron in there.
Hi Pedro,
Just to balance the experience equation a little, I've had two VB-2's. The first one was a loaner that GC personnel had dropped on the floor while unpacking. The case was badly damaged, but the amp sounded great. I used it for about a month, then last September, my replacement came in. This one's also worked just fine since day one.
To be fair, none of my amps sees a lot of action. But I've moved and played the VB-2 quite a bit with no issues.
Obviously, your mileage has varied!
Best wishes,
Greg
Hi Pedro,
Just to balance the experience equation a little, I've had two VB-2's. The first one was a loaner that GC personnel had dropped on the floor while unpacking. The case was badly damaged, but the amp sounded great. I used it for about a month, then last September, my replacement came in. This one's also worked just fine since day one.
To be fair, none of my amps sees a lot of action. But I've moved and played the VB-2 quite a bit with no issues.
Obviously, your mileage has varied!
Best wishes,
Greg
Thats great Greg. I'm very happy that its worked out for you. I really enjoy the amp(s) while they were working and really looked forward to gigging with them but never got a chance. As I said, I just feel that there seems to be an awful lot of failure with these amps.
Reporting in -
I picked up my $399, new-in-the-box Peavey VB-2 yesterday from the Guitar Center in Cerritos, CA. They had it sent over from the Hollywood store, which reported having two in stock at the time, which was 12/31/08. I also picked up a Tour 115 with casters while I was there for $200. It was on sale for $199, and I used a 10% off mailer to kill the tax.
I picked up a Tour 410 at the Lomita store sometime last week for $299.
I set the rig up and played for about four hours yesterday at an apartment dweller, don't-want-to-piss-off-the-neighbors-too-much level with no issues.
Just got home from work and fired it up again and she's still working. I'll probably do another four hours tonight.
I'll get to crank it up this weekend over at the drummer's house.
I wanna thank the OP, Dan Knowlton, for starting the thread letting us know about the deal. I really needed a new rig, and I'm happy to get a chance to finally check out some tubes.
I picked up my $399, new-in-the-box Peavey VB-2 yesterday from the Guitar Center in Cerritos, CA. They had it sent over from the Hollywood store, which reported having two in stock at the time, which was 12/31/08. I also picked up a Tour 115 with casters while I was there for $200. It was on sale for $199, and I used a 10% off mailer to kill the tax.
I picked up a Tour 410 at the Lomita store sometime last week for $299.
I set the rig up and played for about four hours yesterday at an apartment dweller, don't-want-to-piss-off-the-neighbors-too-much level with no issues.
Just got home from work and fired it up again and she's still working. I'll probably do another four hours tonight.
I'll get to crank it up this weekend over at the drummer's house.
I wanna thank the OP, Dan Knowlton, for starting the thread letting us know about the deal. I really needed a new rig, and I'm happy to get a chance to finally check out some tubes.
Awesome news Arizona! I can't wait to hear how it does at better volume with those cabinets...please let us know after you've given them a go! I'm seriously in the market for a Tour 115 or Tour 215 cab to go with the VB-2 as an alternative to my Ampeg 810e.
Just got mine from Edina on Wednesday. I haven't had the chance to really crank it with my band, or A/B it with my SVT-3, but so far I'm loving the tubey warmth!
