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Rediscovering Peavey

During the 60's and 70's I used Traynor bass amps exclusively, then in the 80's I owned a number of Peavey rigs that all served me well. During the 90's it was Acoustic, then back to Peavey in 2000 with the rig below. Of all the rigs I've owned throughout the years this one was the best, a Classic 400 and two 410TX cabs. I'd still own it today if the Classic 400 didn't weigh 93 lbs and each 410TX was 96 lbs.

Peavey_pic2.jpg
Peavey_pic1.jpg


TD
Nice setup I have a mark 6 head I bought in the late 80s with a 115 black widow still have it still going strong Peavey is very under rated
 
Peavey has had the occasional hit (5150, etc...) and a lot of well built but not very good stuff. Their normal tone stack (at least on the older stuff) is the only one worse than Fender's. Like, guys, how about giving me frequency bands that actually IMPROVE the tone when I boost or cut? Their aesthetics also pretty much suck.

I did have a black widow 15 that came in a carvin cab I have which was pretty decent. But I sold that for about 10 bucks shy of what I paid for the cab and put an EV in which is a lot better.
 
Peavey has had the occasional hit (5150, etc...) and a lot of well built but not very good stuff. Their normal tone stack (at least on the older stuff) is the only one worse than Fender's. Like, guys, how about giving me frequency bands that actually IMPROVE the tone when I boost or cut? Their aesthetics also pretty much suck.

I did have a black widow 15 that came in a carvin cab I have which was pretty decent. But I sold that for about 10 bucks shy of what I paid for the cab and put an EV in which is a lot better.
 
Sounds like you have never experienced the complete joy of having to use Peavey .back in the day there were a lot of us that could only afford Peavey, played in a rock band through the 80s onto the90s the whole band used nothing but Peavey,not once did we have a failure at a show,we played 2 -5 nights a week and the offer all sound was very good,rock band,so there ya go,if you ain't Ben there don't bash have a good day
 
When I was learning to play, for budget stuff in my town you could get peavy or crate. In retrospect, I wish I'd bought peavy

Ain't that the truth!
A year or so ago I practically had to give away my brother's Crate GX-212 amp that he had bought back in the 90's. If he'd bought a peavey I know I'd at least have been able to get a few bucks for it.
 
Ain't that the truth!
A year or so ago I practically had to give away my brother's Crate GX-212 amp that he had bought back in the 90's. If he'd bought a peavey I know I'd at least have been able to get a few bucks for it.
Oh man, those were pretty nasty sounding too. My friend had one, and it was loud and kind of boxy. I had a B40 and B80, and besides sounding bad, they weren't very reliable
 
Peavey has had the occasional hit (5150, etc...) and a lot of well built but not very good stuff. Their normal tone stack (at least on the older stuff) is the only one worse than Fender's. Like, guys, how about giving me frequency bands that actually IMPROVE the tone when I boost or cut? Their aesthetics also pretty much suck.

I did have a black widow 15 that came in a carvin cab I have which was pretty decent. But I sold that for about 10 bucks shy of what I paid for the cab and put an EV in which is a lot better.
Ha ha, no.
 
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Oh man, those were pretty nasty sounding too. My friend had one, and it was loud and kind of boxy. I had a B40 and B80, and besides sounding bad, they weren't very reliable

If the choice is between a Crate and plugging your guitar into a cardboard box with a speaker and some knobs drawn on with a black magic marker, it's no contest. The cardboard box will sound like a Dumble in comparison.
 
I would imagine at least 50% of the bassists here who are at 45-55 owned one when then were young.

Guilty as charged. I had a Peavey Foundation bass in the 80s and gigged it for several years. I also had two 115BWs, a Century head, and a Mark III 400 head along the way (the latter spent most of its life sitting on a Bullfrog 18 - remember when?). At one point I even picked up one of their small guitar combos to use as a practice amp in my college apartment. I remember trying a buddy's Cirrus bass when he first got it and it was an amazing instrument. Great feel, great sound, seemingly very solid build quality.

Peavey stuff was indestructible. Whatever may have been lacking in either form or function was more than compensated for in longevity, but to be perfectly honest, I never had any complaints about the Peavey gear I owned. It got me through a lot of gigs in a lot of places. Tough to fault a good track record.

I recently considered a number of Class D heads to upgrade an older head, the MiniMega being on my short list. The only thing that stopped me was the relative freshness of the product - I approach bass amps like cars in that I wait for any given model to ripen a little bit so the bugs can be worked out. I went with a D800, but would not rule out owning one of the Peaveys in the future.
 
I played 6 string guitar through a Classic 30 for years, both with and without the matching blond 112 extension cab. Tasty stuff.

Then I picked up a bass and started the long process of figuring out what i like. Turns out I like lightweight P basses with skinny necks....I now own 3 Fury's. Awesome guitars, amazingly cheap.
 
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Back in the 70s and 80s I had a PV 300 head.
Got pretty loud through a pair of of cabs I built
with Altec 421s.
Had a PV mixer.
Still have a 215 as one of my backups.
Currently enjoying a Cirrus 5.

I can remember 'back in the day' when everybody
thought PVs were too sterile and dead sounding...
all the while it seemed that we were all using them
without even realizing that not all amps were bullitproof.
 
Guilty as charged. I had a Peavey Foundation bass in the 80s and gigged it for several years. I also had two 115BWs, a Century head, and a Mark III 400 head along the way (the latter spent most of its life sitting on a Bullfrog 18 - remember when?). At one point I even picked up one of their small guitar combos to use as a practice amp in my college apartment. I remember trying a buddy's Cirrus bass when he first got it and it was an amazing instrument. Great feel, great sound, seemingly very solid build quality.

Peavey stuff was indestructible. Whatever may have been lacking in either form or function was more than compensated for in longevity, but to be perfectly honest, I never had any complaints about the Peavey gear I owned. It got me through a lot of gigs in a lot of places. Tough to fault a good track record.

I recently considered a number of Class D heads to upgrade an older head, the MiniMega being on my short list. The only thing that stopped me was the relative freshness of the product - I approach bass amps like cars in that I wait for any given model to ripen a little bit so the bugs can be worked out. I went with a D800, but would not rule out owning one of the Peaveys in the future.

Guilty as charged. I had a Peavey Foundation bass in the 80s and gigged it for several years. I also had two 115BWs, a Century head, and a Mark III 400 head along the way (the latter spent most of its life sitting on a Bullfrog 18 - remember when?). At one point I even picked up one of their small guitar combos to use as a practice amp in my college apartment. I remember trying a buddy's Cirrus bass when he first got it and it was an amazing instrument. Great feel, great sound, seemingly very solid build quality.

Peavey stuff was indestructible. Whatever may have been lacking in either form or function was more than compensated for in longevity, but to be perfectly honest, I never had any complaints about the Peavey gear I owned. It got me through a lot of gigs in a lot of places. Tough to fault a good track record.

I recently considered a number of Class D heads to upgrade an older head, the MiniMega being on my short list. The only thing that stopped me was the relative freshness of the product - I approach bass amps like cars in that I wait for any given model to ripen a little bit so the bugs can be worked out. I went with a D800, but would not rule out owning one of the Peaveys in the future.
Indeed the amount of class D's in the repair shop (when I visit for my peavey amps yearly manicure )is still putting me off. Let's face it if they sound how some claim I'll be all for it. But at the moment my amp tech is begging me not too. Has anyone had a run of more than 5 years with a lightweight wonder yet? That would be encouraging may help me to take the plunge.....
 
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Indeed the amount of class D's in the repair shop (when I visit for my peavey amps yearly manicure )is still putting me off. Let's face it if they sound how some claim I'll be all for it. But at the moment my amp tech is begging me not too. Has anyone had a run of more than 5 years with a lightweight wonder yet? That would be encouraging may help me to take the plunge.....
Yes, I've passed the 6-year mark with my GK MBFusion 500. So far, one minor repair, so good!
 
I got this rig. Also got a Peavey Tour 700 head. The Standard got 130w and it's WAY louder through the Ampeg.

View attachment 1078941
That's interesting does the tour 700 deliver max power at 2 ohms like the firebass 700 and the mkviii? May explain it to a certain extent. My mkviii runs allot worse at 4ohms and actually doesn't differ that noticeably from a mk3 uness you really push the lows. Otherwise no idea why that would be. Your standard looks sweet on that 8x10! Lets just conclude older is louder for now :)
 
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