A bit of a review of the Peavey MAX 150 1x12 that will probably be seen only by those of you that responded to my original post.
First of all, I attempted to send the amp back, but it was going to cost me $80 shipping & then I would be back on the hunt for another. It also had all the features I wanted, so I kept it. If I can’t live with it, I’ll give it to my son and spend again later.
Since it’s 120 watts and NOT 150 watts, it’s only about 60 watts alone and not 75 watts as the GK MB150 was (when functioning…). That being said, the MAX 150 definitely sounds bigger and louder alone than the GK did alone. Probably due to the larger, ported, cab.
The MAX 150 has a unique tone to me, very “modern” sounding, but not so much to my liking. Low mids are way to hot / thick and there is no low-mid tone control on the amp. The mid control doesn’t cut low mids enough even at full cut (-15 db). The low tone control does cut it and not at the expense of the low end as would be expected. It’s strange for me to adjust the low tone control to “cut” on an amp, but that’s where it has to be for me, especially with my P-bass. This is with the contour button engaged. I can also get a reasonably good tone with the contour button disengaged and the low tone knob near flat, but I don’t like the mids like that as well because I can’t cut them enough.
The gain section has an overdrive button that’s somewhat useable. It adds some common sounding grit, but still useable.
The contour button next to the low tone knob I’ve covered. It’s useable.
The low control is +or- 15db at 50Hz and is useable, even necessary…
The mid control has a mid-shift button that seems to boost the already-too-hot low mids. It changes the mid-control center frequency from 600Hz to 250Hz, but it sounds more like a boost of low-mids somewhere around 250Hz.
The treble control is +or- 15 db at 6KHz and has a bright button below it that boosts everything above 1KHz by 10db and is also very useable. With no tweeter in the cab, this adds smooth highs in the 12” and there’s no beehive-sounding tweeter if distortion is used.
There is also a Kosmos-C button by the master volume that is somewhat strange. It supposedly generates harmonics of the lowest notes to make the illusion of more low end. I haven’t figured out a way to use it to my liking, but I might.
If I use the external speaker into a 115 cab I have, the amp sounds huge and doesn’t have the ridiculous low-mid thing going on, so I’m guessing the low-mid excess with the amp when used alone is due to the internal 12” speaker. Me figuring out the tone settings has taken care of most of the excessive low-mid problem.
I’m not thrilled with the amp overall, but I like it a lot better once I figured out the tone settings to my liking. I like the weight (29.2 lbs). The physical size is a little larger than I wanted, but not to the extreme.
I wouldn’t enthusiastically recommend the amp, but it’s useable in mid-volume situations. If it holds up, I think I will learn to like it. I’ve only used it for 1 gig, & 1 rehearsal, so there’s more learning required.
