Rediscovering Peavey

[TinIndian]

My first bass amp was a TNT100. Bought it new in 79. That was my only amp for about 5 years except when I was playing with my high schools Jazz band and used the schools rig. That was a Peavey Mark IV on a Peavey 215. About 84 I bought a Centurion head and ordered a 215 loaded with Black Widows and that was my rig until I quit playing in 1990. Along the way I bought a little Microbass combo that I still have and use on occasion and an 86 Foundation S. When I quit back then I sold everything but the Microbass and the Foundation. The Foundation still makes an occasional gig appearance.

Back in those days the most readily available and affordable gear around my area was Peavey. Always reliable, workable tone and enough power to do the job. The stuff just works and the only real drawback to that stuff was the weight but then most gear then was heavy as heck.

I remember being totally wowed by the Megabass head when it came out but couldn't afford it or justify it. A good friend bought one though and still has it today.

Good reliable gear that sounds good. That is what Peavey is to me. In all the years I owned and played Peavey gear I think the only thing that ever went bad in any of it was a diode in the TNT100 and that was easily repaired by a friend's father who was an engineer.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

Loved owning Peavey basses (3) & amps (2), & still have a soft spot for them in my heart. My first "Pro" bass was the mighty T-40, & TNT 160 combo with the Sheffield speaker but both said Made In U.S.A. . The bass was stolen in the early '90s but had the amp till 2000. The only drawback was that the TNT was the same weight & size of a washing machine .
Would defiantly like to own another Peavey bass probably the Foundation .

 

[Garret Wheeler]

Just seen this 1810 for sale, that would shift some air!
View attachment 1043324

Used one of these with a blown "18 for a video shoot a couple months ago. I was told the "18 speaker wouldn't work but we were going for big stacks of speakers in the video so it didn't matter. Didn't get a chance to hear it since it was broken, but moving it was a pain. It weighed about 9,343,121 pounds, but it looked cool. Actually, it's still sitting in my parents' garage because I didn't want to take it back to the owner (who was in no hurry to get it back).

 

[DrumsAndBass]

I've got a surplus Peavey MAX bass preamp that needs a new home.
pm me

 

[Mark Andrew]

The Classic 400 is no joke. Wish I had one now. (just to sit in my house,not move it anyway) and 52 played Peavey 2x15BW, probass 1000 preamp/CS800. That was a heavy rig. Then a 1516 & finally a 15 & 2X10 TVX? Never let me down once.......

Had mine for about 6 months and still thoroughly enjoying it. Had it running next to an admittedly poorly set up svt last weekend and the old Ampeg didn't stand a chance

 

[BasturdBlaster]

Had mine for about 6 months and still thoroughly enjoying it. Had it running next to an admittedly poorly set up svt last weekend and the old Ampeg didn't stand a chance

Your rig is so sweet!

 

[DigitalMan]

I have owned Peavy amps in the past, but I am not really interested in rediscovering them. I viewed them as very utilitarian, but they didn't inspire me at all when it comes to tone.

 

[buldog5151bass]

And they are STILL heavy as @#@#$~$~.

 

[Mark Andrew]

Your rig is so sweet!

After running peavey transistor amps for 25 years I just had to delve back and rediscover some valve tone! Physically it reminds me of my old marshall 2001 series and it's totally impractical but when the stage is big enough nothing is better. It was a bit of a restoration project internally but damn it was worth it!!!

 

[LiquidMidnight]

One of my guitarists gave me a Peavey Classic 50 a few weeks ago - the one that's a 4x10 combo. It's currently getting some TLC at the tech's shop, but even when not in total working order, it sounded great, even with my bush league guitar playing. I can't wait to get it back from the shop!

 

[Mark Andrew]

One of my guitarists gave me a Peavey Classic 50 a few weeks ago - the one that's a 4x10 combo. It's currently getting some TLC at the tech's shop, but even when not in total working order, it sounded great, even with my bush league guitar playing. I can't wait to get it back from the shop!

You will be pleased these are highly underrated amps! That combo is a bit of a brute and allot of them are tending to get ditched for something smaller! Which is a shame as they sound fab!!

 

[cronker]

I had the Combo 300 w/ black widow 15"
Heavy as f***
Louder than that too. But I found it really struggled to deliver anything more than a rock/metal sound. Very tough to get a clear, true sound.
But completely reliable. Got me through a great many gigs.

 

[mexicanyella]

My first amp was the Audition 20 practice amp back in the mid 80s. After upgrading and using bigger guitar amps for a few years I ended up using the Audition as the practice-space amp, set as loud and clean as it would go...and I ran a RAT 2 through it. Never an issue aside from one pot that needed replacement. The bass player in that band used a TNT 115. I still have the
Audition and use it once in awhile when I want its unique slicing, gritty clean tone.

After taking up bass 8-10 years ago I eventually picked up a teal-stripe TKO 115 combo. It's loud enough for practice in the guitar/bass/drums original rock band I play bass in now, and while I expect to need a wattage increase if we ever start gigging, it seems utterly serviceable and it must have a hell of a power supply in it because it seems really punchy for 80 watts. I like that I can crank it enough to get a slighty dirty rock P-bass tone with no pedals...I like how the Scorpion 15 behaves and sounds when you push it. The TKO actually sounds pretty good for guitar too, if you crank it and use the bright switch. The 15" Scorpion will give it up in a pleasing way when you really slam a cleanish guitar tone through it...ported cab and all.

More recently I traded a guitar pedal I never bonded with for a Special 150 guitar amp with baffle board damage around the 12" Scorpion's mounting holes. It's like a Bandit 75 with twice the watts. After epoxying and redrilling the repaired areas, I found that It has a weird distortion channel with preset EQ that gives a midrangey high-gain sound that is pretty late 80s sounding, but its clean channel sounds great and it's LOUD. It doesn't flap your pants so much as blow your pants to the other side of the room. It'll do scooped, reverby Fender cleans or more midrange-forward, slightly breaking up edgy rhythm tones and do them at any useful volume. My ony gripe is that the dirty channel can't go low-gain enough for me to use it for anything but over-the-top leads, but since I use pretty clean tones these days I don't consider this much of a gripe.

 

[kcolyar]

I had the Combo 300 with the powered 210 ext cab in the 80's and played the 18 with 2 10 cab a couple of times on loud outdoor gigs. Loved them, but the tone was very one dimensional. Always wished I had something different, but they never failed me and the band never seemed to hear the missing tone that I did. The guy I sold the COmbo 300 to, still plays it and said it works fine!

 

[skinnypete]

Around 1990 I had a GK 800RB. It was the top of the line at the time but I got so tired of it breaking down that I swapped it out for a new Peavey MegaBass Digital Bass System. I used that for 10 years with no issues before I gave it a friend's kid who was starting out.

 

[Robert B]

I used a Peavey amp with a 1x18 black widow for years. The only bad thing I can so about Peavey is that it was heavier than hell. I don't know if that's still true or not.

 

[jdthebassman]

I had a 2 18 2 10 cab run with a sunn coliseum 880 head monster tone

 

[Eilif]

My VB-2 just had a minor meltdown but I found that it, like other peavey gear I'd played had a great tone and was reliable and affordable. It's also tended to be just a bit different and somewhat innovative in subltle ways.

I've been a long-time fan of the T-40 bass to the point where when I put together a custom bass I used a T-40 neck, so old Peavey gear never had a bad name in my eyes.

As regards current gear though I have to say that with everything moved offshore and Peavey designs being less and less unique/innovative/cool, I feel very little impetus to look at new Peavey gear.

 

[Eilif]

Had a Gorilla amp while I was in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club. And I have some sweet Powell Peralta decks too

Funny to hear about Gorilla Amps. A GB-30 was my first amp 20 years ago. I had it as my backup/practice/etc amp until 2 weeks ago when my brother gave me his Rocket Bass B-100R and I gave the Gorilla to an older fellow in the neightborhood who was wanting to pickup guitar again.

I still have a Gorilla Amplification T-shirt though. Get's alot of chuckles from musicians.

 

[MobileHolmes]

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