They's a nice 450 watt with a 410 for $250 saw last night on CL. The head model escapes me, not a old Centry, say 15 years old or so.Regardless of price... there's testament to longevity and dependability!
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That's ironic to my experience. I loved the tone from the minute I heard it. When I was using the 'classic' brands in the late 70's and first part of 80's I always did a lot of tweaking to try and get that presence and mid growl my ears were looking for. Then I discovered Peavey. Put my new Ibanez Roadstar bass right up front in the mix and cut through the rest of the stage instruments making a niche for itself. I still have a few old timers with silver fins in the shed. They don't get much airplay anymore but I don't have the heart to sell them, although a youngster might put them to good use.
Recently I bought a Peavey MiniMax head and was so excited to get it. Sadly, the tone was flat to my ears. Being a 20+ year Peavey guy I wanted to love it, but the tone wasn't there. Later Bbbybld told me that after some research Peavey decided to abandon that tone stack and seek a more modern tone. That's when they lost me to Gallien Krueger. GK has a very similar tone to my 80's Peavey's that I loved. If I lived in a larger city and did more gigs in bigger places I would probably pick up another silver fin Peavey 115, 1810, or 410 cab and a Mark series head. But, I've gone lightweight living in a smaller place with challenges moving larger equipment. Still love play Ibanez though!
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Ha ha of course they still fetch good money here in Holland I am from the UK and couldn't believe how much attention the old thing got ; )
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I also had trouble with the minimax at first played side by side it sounded Rougher than the old girls from the 90's but dropped into the mix it cuts wonderfully has bags of power and the tone it lacks I just didn't miss with the genre we play CRUNCH is usable and tuner although it looks like a gimic it's bloody handy. Avoided a beer soaked pedal board a few timesThat's ironic to my experience. I loved the tone from the minute I heard it. When I was using the 'classic' brands in the late 70's and first part of 80's I always did a lot of tweaking to try and get that presence and mid growl my ears were looking for. Then I discovered Peavey. Put my new Ibanez Roadstar bass right up front in the mix and cut through the rest of the stage instruments making a niche for itself. I still have a few old timers with silver fins in the shed. They don't get much airplay anymore but I don't have the heart to sell them, although a youngster might put them to good use.
Recently I bought a Peavey MiniMax head and was so excited to get it. Sadly, the tone was flat to my ears. Being a 20+ year Peavey guy I wanted to love it, but the tone wasn't there. Later Bbbybld told me that after some research Peavey decided to abandon that tone stack and seek a more modern tone. That's when they lost me to Gallien Krueger. GK has a very similar tone to my 80's Peavey's that I loved. If I lived in a larger city and did more gigs in bigger places I would probably pick up another silver fin Peavey 115, 1810, or 410 cab and a Mark series head. But, I've gone lightweight living in a smaller place with challenges moving larger equipment. Still love play Ibanez though!
. So with me it found it's place for those convienience gigs when a cab and kit is available in the back line. We can all fit in one car!! so for such convienience I will give up a bit of tone
but breaking out the big guns still makes me smile the most.....Attachments
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Are you listening Peavey? Please bring back your classic American Series! I wonder how many would pay a bit more for an American made Peavey with modern updates....................?????
EDIT: As proclaimed by many a pro bass player in this thread, classic Made in USA Peaveys were built to be indestructible. Ever seen the TV series, "Life After People?" If a major catastrophe were to return rule of the Earth back to animals, everything would crumble and eventually fall into the ground. Except Peavey equipment. Cockroaches would grow to tremendous monster size and eventually master the art of bass and guitar playing. And they only thing left to play would be Peaveys!
EDIT: As proclaimed by many a pro bass player in this thread, classic Made in USA Peaveys were built to be indestructible. Ever seen the TV series, "Life After People?" If a major catastrophe were to return rule of the Earth back to animals, everything would crumble and eventually fall into the ground. Except Peavey equipment. Cockroaches would grow to tremendous monster size and eventually master the art of bass and guitar playing. And they only thing left to play would be Peaveys!
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Hey alaska..we can both plug in to my MKIV through the 1820 and have a bash..just make sure you stand on my right or we'd be cracking heads with me being a righty..loll
My TKO stack (80+75)...
... and my TNT150 stack (#1 live rig these days)...
... and my TNT150 stack (#1 live rig these days)...
I think the vb3 met some of those expectations light weight for a tube amp and return of the graphic for us old guys. .. must keep a sneeky eye out for one. I envisage a total bass system some day where you can slot in a minimax class d type amp into a vb3 like power stage......one would never need anything else lol......Are you listening Peavey? Please bring back your classic American Series! I wonder how many would pay a bit more for an American made Peavey with modern updates....................?????
EDIT: As proclaimed by many a pro bass player in this thread, classic Made in USA Peaveys were built to be indestructible. Ever seen the TV series, "Life After People?" If a major catastrophe were to return rule of the Earth back to animals, everything would crumble and eventually fall into the ground. Except Peavey equipment. Cockroaches would grow to tremendous monster size and eventually master the art of bass and guitar playing. And they only thing left to play would be Peaveys!
Hey Andruca, I like the cosmetics on your Peavey combos. Those metal grilles look pretty cool, and the camo is a fun touch. Is that paint, or some kind of camo-patterned tolex replacement? If paint, did you strip the tolex and paint the wood, or paint the tolex itself?
The paired combo idea occurred to me when I realized that my TKO115S (same amp as the two in the top pic, but a different name, probably just due to year of production) was just barely able to get loud enough when playing with drums and guitar. I had plans to add a second TKO and slave it off the first one, so I'd only have to adjust one set of tone controls. I was pretty close to pursuing a second used TKO when I acquired a bass cab I liked a lot and just began using that with an old Peavey M-3000 power amp instead (with a Zoom B2 as the preamp).
I'd still like to see how two TKOs would work in my situation though...having one 15" Scorpion up closer to my head would probably reduce the need to be relatively on-axis with the speaker to hear the upper mids and highs.
I used to play in a band--as the guitarist--with a guy who used a TNT like yours, and I remember what it was like carrying it up the basement stairs. Lifting a TKO by the single top handle is pretty heavy, but I remember the TNT as being significantly heavier.
Questions...how are you using that Zoom MS60B? FX only, or are you running an amp model too and further modifying it with the Peavey controls? Do you like the MS60B? Since the B2 I have is a discontinued model, I've toyed with the idea of getting an MS60B someday as a backup, or a replacement.
Well the camo thing in the TKOs is just fabric, glued in some places only, has been tough enough for a solid 10 years. Underneath, the original tolex is still there, in great condition BTW.
I've played bar gigs with both the TKO-75 and 80 (both 75W RMS -head section is identical in fact-, the 80 is just made of thicker board, heavier) without a problem neither in volume nor low end authority. I did get a second combo (the 75) at a time when I needed a second loud rig for a side gig (had my head+cabs rig comissioned to my -then- main gig). Years later I got a cheap TNT150, then another. Both (and for the case also both my TKOs) received the metal grille and a piezo tweeter with an on/off switch, really adds posibilities. Some of these combos had to be serviced due to old caps introducing hum. Cheap anyway and probably good for some 20 more years. Only kind of usual failure you can find on these (and then again, after decades of use), they're solid, loud and reliable. All 4 mine are Scorpion equipped.
I've tested the TNT150s extensively against MANY modern combos and only one of them was loud and low enough, the (discontinued) EBS Gorm 350 4x10" (possibly the best combo amp I've ever played thru'). Other than that modern combos are pure disapointment to me. Most blatant being the (Eminence equipped) BG250 115 by TC Electronics I've tried (in 2 different occasions) against one TNT. MAN! A TNT150 blows it out of the water, not only in sheer volume but even more so in low end authority and tone shaping ease. Some people say those are rated "sounds like X watts" (no RMS, "creative" stuff -I prefer saying "not remotely serious"-) and according to some testings some people made they're roughly half of what they advertise them to be. Now the BG250 115 isn't even half, it's probably 1/5th, it's simply not comparable to a TNT150, but I suspect it'd also have a hard time keeping up with my 75W TKOs. Modern amp rating sucks (TC Electronics' ratings are plain fraud, it happens when you put the people who add value -engineers- aside and let the marketing people take control instead). I've yet to find a "can't pass on this" deal for either an old Peavey Combo 300 or Databass to augment my "collection" on the (usually) cheap, absolutely killer combos.
You can enslave one to another (going preamp out -> pwr amp in) BUT it works way better if you can split the signal and enter both amps separately. I do that in fact with the MS60B (which has a stereo output), even when not using stereo effects (my output is 100% mono).
Now, my "big" rig is a SansAmp RBI + Hartke 3500 head thru' Peavey cabs (410TVX + 115BXBW) and use a pretty crunchy and thick rock sound. But this rig hardly ever leaves the rehearsal space now, I do the same tone with the MS60B and the Peavey combos. Haven't even worried A/Bing the MS60B SansAmp emulation with the real SansAmp, it just works OK and serves the same purpose, that's what counts. I tend to dial my sound in the SansAmp or MS60B, then use the amp's EQ to adapt to the room I'm playing in. In the MS60B I use the SansAmp emulation + the 166 compressor. Here are some samples (MS60B direct into Audacity)...
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Been a longtime Peavey user for PA systems just cause, that’s what my dad bought. Still have them today. Overloaded the crap out of everything ALL the time and never failed! Bass not so much for similar “cheap stigma” reasons only to discover just the opposite about the last decade. BW speakers were always well respected as I recall. Not sure if anyone has brought up the tolex they use. Talk about bulletproof! I’ve got 40 year old cabs that are still completely intact and ready for another 40! Almost pulled the trigger on a new Mini Mega but have not yet...
I think that old Peavey tolex is so gnarly-textured so that it can build up so much hard-to-remove grime over the years that it actually increases in thickness and hardness. Visually, it's an acquired taste, but unless you poke it hard with something sharp-edged, it's just about indestructible.
Years ago I bought an old Peavey 2 x 10 PA cabinet, intending to repurpose it as a guitar cabinet. It had a big splat of white house paint down one long side of the tolex. I stripped the tolex and had a buddy that worked at SLM recover it in Ampeg diamond blue tolex. Looked pretty cool, but I've got jankier tastes nowadays and if I had to do it all over again I'd have added more splats of paint, in interesting color combinations, to make it more of an "art cabinet." Art + indestructible synthetic rhino hide sounds like a winner to me now.
Bought my MkIV new back in 1983 and it's still going strong! Heck, I think it still has its original fuse.
Same here!
Heck, I'm 62 and had a Peavey (can't remember the model) head with a 2x15" BW cab. It was a bargain for its capabilities. Never ever failed me. Then, one early morning after a gig, I was tired and left the rig in my Chevy Citation hatchback. At appx 4:00am a cop knocked at my door and told me someone smashed my car windows. I said, "what about my music equipment?" He said, "what music equipment?" I lost the Peavey rig, My 1979 Musicman Stingray and all my wires etc.,
Bad day it was..
How many times loading in or after a gig my 1820 Peavey cab skinned my knuckles and sometimes even knees on that Tolex covering. Boy is that stuff tuff..lol
I feel for you SJan3...thieves have their own special reserved place in Hell.
First pub gig in a while and the organizers instructed us to use the available back line due to the small stage.... I found room for mini ontop of a mixed bag of cabinets and an Ampeg head
This helped the soundman to discover that the di on these things is actually really good and apparently a pleasure to mix with! No disrespect intended for Ampeg fans.
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I just bought one of these two days ago. I started with Peavey gear (although as a guitarist) in the late 80's/early 90's. I do recall Peavey being knocked as a brand, but I always found them indestructible and reliable. Which is why I gave the Mini Mega a shot. I needed a practice amp for upstairs because my main rig is part of the downstairs studio. Gimmicky lights aside, I found this thing is becoming a contender as main rig versus backup...it was literally moving more air than my LH1000, which I love. The Kosmos (cant remember if its "a" or "c") feature that simulates deeper bass response through psychoacoustics works very, very well, and allows you to save headroom via not having to boost your lows. The Crunch option gives a nice tubey grind, not quite as good as my sansamp VT Bass, but gets the job done. Low and high mid semi parametric eq is nice for accentuating or dialing out frequencies, and overall, this thing just KICKS. I hope that given some of the failures I've read about, mine being a newer purchase, any bugs will have been worked out. Really pumped about gigging this thing. It sounds amazing with my Jazz V Elite!
I'd forgotten about this thread until today when someone liked a post of mine from last Jan. So, in full disclosure, my MM1000 died last summer but was handled professionally and promptly by warrantee service with about a turnaround of less than 2 weeks. I've probably put a little less than 50 gigs on it since then and it's been fine.
