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U.S. Peavey Club

#28,521
kodiakblair said:
My suspicion is they used whatever pots the stores dept dished out :laugh:

I found this among my files, it gives 0.02 as the cap value. I'm also a bit confused by this sentence in the manual

"The volume control is tone compensated to minimize high frequency loss at low volumes"

That's a longwinded way of saying there's a treble bleed cap but there's no cap on my Vol pot or this wonderful example of factory soldering nor a mention in the wiring diagram .

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That wiring and soldering doesn’t look any better than on mine, to be honest - I particularly like (or actually, I don’t) the staples holding the ground wire in place. Mine is just the same....
Your Palaedium is a red one then?
 
#28,522
progress being made on my US Milly 5 parts bass from Amber Harbor! After a lot of sanding to remove the old stain and sealer from body, I stained with a General Finishes waterbased wood stain. Body and neck are now both receiving a tru-oil finish. First time doing this kind of stuff - so I'm figuring it out. The neck is gorgeous and so far the tru-oil finish is incredible - it's going to play really well. Still have to spring for electronics - debating, but leaning towards Nordstrands and an Audere pre....

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#28,523
Andy R said:
Your Palaedium is a red one then?
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That's no mine Andy, belongs to some poor sod here on TB; turned up in a Google search for Palaedium wiring.

Mine is Amber, solder work is no as bad as that photo but still no pretty :laugh: Oh, I've got the staple too.

Common thing with Peavey is staples, be it emery paper to the back of the heel or the pie tin 'shielding' in T-40s.
 
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#28,524
Yesterday a good friend of mine came to do some work on one of my basses. And he brought round his 1978 Fender Jazz for me to have a go on so I brought out my, '86 Foundation so he could have a go on that & I could hear how it sounded with someone else playing it.
Both of us were surprised (me more though) at how good and close the Foundation,sounded on the, bridge pickup using fingers it wasn't that far from the sound he was getting out of his Jazz on the same pickup. The amp settings were the same for both basses and considering his bass was "heavy Ash", & mine Maple I was really happy with the side by side testing.
The best thing for me though was I could have bought 4 Foundation basses and had a little change, for what he paid for the '78 Jazz well done my humble Peavey Foundation.
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#28,526
kodiakblair said:
That's not mine Andy, belongs to some poor sod here on TB; turned up in a Google search for Palaedium wiring.

Mine is Amber, solder work is not as bad as that photo but still no pretty :laugh: Oh, I've got the staple too.

Common thing with Peavey is staples, be it emery paper to the back of the heel or the pie tin 'shielding' in T-40s.
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It is kinda funny how Peavey did a few things so well and did some other things so janky... love the necks and original pickups and most of the hardware but some other things were pretty hit or miss.
Wiring was really clean and done well on my "mahogany" Patriot, but so sloppy on a bunch of other Peavey basses I've had/have.
Shielding has been bad foil and staples or non existent.
Matching the grain on the pieces of some "ash" bodies is occasionally good (my Gen 1 Fury) and sometimes three/four random pieces glued together that aren't similar at all.
Matching the pieces on my hog Patriot was very good, but everything on that bass was done really cleanly.
I don't own one, but it seems that the sunburst Furys/Foundations typically got good grain matched bodies.
I think a lot of their necks are good and solid and work well for a lot of years and sometimes the two pieces are grain matched well and sometimes not at all.
It seems they really upped their quality control and precision game when they decided to make neck through basses and then the Cirrus and Millenniums.
The first basses I bought were old Peaveys (maybe ten of them) and they got compared to how I remember 70's Fenders, so they seemed pretty comparable.
Then I bought a USA MusicMan and a Chinese Warwick and a Czech made Dean, an Indo made G&L and two Taiwan made Yamahas and they all made my old Furys/Foundations look pretty sloppy.
Of course, I paid less for six old Peaveys combined than I did for one used MusicMan SUB bass. :woot:
It's pretty hard to complain about good Peavey basses for $40, $65, $75, $100, $125, $150.
 
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#28,527
Shawn Luckman said:
The best thing for me though was I could have bought 4 Foundation basses and had a little change, for what he paid for the '78 Jazz well done my humble Peavey Foundation.
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Few year back I was setting up a friend's fretless jazz bass.

My fretless Foundation was near to hand so perfect time to compare the two. His, like your friend's, was heavy ash; T-40 heavy. Finish on his was gorgeous, much more vibrant than on mine but I always feel ash grain looks better under a burst than maple. Preferred the neck on his too, satin finish/flatter radius/smoother fingerboard. Comparing tone was difficult, brand new GHS flats paired with ALNIO-5 pickups on his vs the ancient flats/SFs on the Foundation, it's a sweet sounding JB.

Boy had himself a nice fretless :)

Saving grace for me was his new MIC bass cost £140 and I'd paid £150 for a Foundation 5 and the fretless inc hard case :roflmao:
 
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#28,528
58kites said:
The first basses I bought were old Peaveys (maybe ten of them) and they got compared to how I remember 70's Fenders, so they seemed pretty comparable.
Then I bought a USA MusicMan and a Chinese Warwick and a Czech made Dean, an Indo made G&L and two Taiwan made Yamahas and they all made my old Furys/Foundations look pretty sloppy.
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I'm with you there Good Brother :thumbsup:
 
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#28,529
ctmullins said:
Plus the Foundation looks so much better.
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Very true indeed even now the styling of the early Foundation's still make it a good looking bass. I always remember the Peavey ad's showing some bassist with either, a Foundation or Dyna Bass & looking cool doing it,:D
Considering the Foundation was a more affordable Jazz style instrument, I was really pleased how well it sounded against my friends vintage Fender Jazz with him playing it,:thumbsup:.
 
#28,530
58kites said:
It is kinda funny how Peavey did a few things so well and did some other things so janky...


It seems they really upped their quality control and precision game when they decided to make neck through basses and then the Cirrus and Millenniums.
Click to expand...

This is not a fair set of statements.

During the T era, they focused on making bomb proof gig gear... they promoted to students and giggers

Around the end of the late Foundation era, they unfortunately had to compete with themselves (teaching the world to CNC exact duplicates)...

They realized that the heavy as a car days were done when the hair metal era began... enter impacts, vandenbergs, etc.

they proved they could make a viable premium instrument.

this raised a problem... big box and expectations changed

the blunder was not spinning off a premium brand (think lexus)... this happens all of the time in marketing... think VW Phaeton... VW couldn't allow themselves to market under a different branding.

I'd say the cirrus was the misfire and not apex....

the market changed and they could not reposition ...

then enter the late 90s when kids no longer dreamed of being guitar slingers...
 
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#28,531
kodiakblair said:
Few year back I was setting up a friend's fretless jazz bass.

My fretless Foundation was near to hand so perfect time to compare the two. His, like your friend's, was heavy ash; T-40 heavy. Finish on his was gorgeous, much more vibrant than on mine but I always feel ash grain looks better under a burst than maple. Preferred the neck on his too, satin finish/flatter radius/smoother fingerboard. Comparing tone was difficult, brand new GHS flats paired with ALNIO-5 pickups on his vs the ancient flats/SFs on the Foundation, it's a sweet sounding JB.

Boy had himself a nice fretless :)

Saving grace for me was his new MIC bass cost £140 and I'd paid £150 for a Foundation 5 and the fretless inc hard case :roflmao:
Click to expand...
Yes I was shocked when I picked up his very heavy ash bodied bass, I played it sitting down I did not fancy triyng it on his strap even with straplocks no thank you :laugh:.
 
#28,534
MNAirHead said:
This is not a fair set of statements.

During the T era, they focused on making bomb proof gig gear... they promoted to students and giggers

Around the end of the late Foundation era, they unfortunately had to compete with themselves (teaching the world to CNC exact duplicates)...

They realized that the heavy as a car days were done when the hair metal era began... enter impacts, vandenbergs, etc.

they proved they could make a viable premium instrument.

this raised a problem... big box and expectations changed

the blunder was not spinning off a premium brand (think lexus)... this happens all of the time in marketing... think VW Phaeton... VW couldn't allow themselves to market under a different branding.

I'd say the cirrus was the misfire and not apex....

the market changed and they could not reposition ...

then enter the late 90s when kids no longer dreamed of being guitar slingers...
Click to expand...
I agree with what you said.
I'm just saying it couldn't have been that hard to shield a bass better than the solution Peavey chose when they started making basses and guitars.
And it couldn't have been that hard for a few people there to learn how to solder better.
And tried a bit harder to grain match a little bit.
 
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