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U.S. Peavey Club

#28,821
kodiakblair said:
The Fury was a bulky kid but slimmed down for a time, 92 bad living had caught up and the Fury now sported a serious beer gut :laugh:
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I am blown away by how much a headstock effects some people in their choice to own a bass or not.
Anything other than a Fender 51P or the Fender headstock shape that has been the subject of all the lawsuits.
The haters of G&L, Peavey, MusicMan, Yamaha BB, Sire, Lakland, Lakin, Reverend, Sadowsky, Sandberg and who knows who else's headstock seem kinda silly when I think about how little that matters.
I can understand people being very particular about pickup types/brands/placement, neck sizes/shapes/finishes, body shapes/sizes/weights/finishes, scale length, string preference, active or passive controls, how many strings, hardware preferences....but the shape of a headstock, I can get used to pretty easily.
 
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#28,823
58kites said:
I am blown away by how much a headstock effects some people in their choice to own a bass or not.
Anything other than a Fender 51P or the Fender headstock shape that has been the subject of all the lawsuits.
The haters of G&L, Peavey, MusicMan, Yamaha BB, Sire, Lakland, Lakin, Reverend, Sadowsky, Sandberg and who knows who else's headstock seem kinda silly when I think about how little that matters.
I can understand people being very particular about pickup types/brands/placement, neck sizes/shapes/finishes, body shapes/sizes/weights/finishes, scale length, string preference, active or passive controls, how many strings, hardware preferences....but the shape of a headstock, I can get used to pretty easily.
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I'm with you on how it doesn't matter at all, but I won't buy a Peavey with the klunky round headstock with the tiny script lettering...or the block lettering for that matter. That headstock is Plain old ugly, how did anyone think that was an aesthetic improvement!?! The last iteration is a little better.
 
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#28,824
Bleecker said:
I'm with you on how it doesn't matter at all, but I won't buy a Peavey with the klunky round headstock with the tiny script lettering...or the block lettering for that matter. That headstock is Plain old ugly, how did anyone think that was an aesthetic improvement!?! The last iteration is a little better.
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It depends on what the cost is...for what I've paid for more than a handful of Peavey basses, I never thought twice about whether I could live with the headstock shapes.
I have that '92 Fury that I put the Thunderbird pickup in and I don't love the headstock but it's a good neck and the bass cost me $40 so I had no hesitation about taking it home.
My 1992 Foundation cost me $75 so the headstock shape just didn't matter.
I wouldn't pay $ 800-1000 for a 12 or 13 pound T40 no matter what the headstock or the rest of it looked like.
My two Yamaha Attitude basses have fantastic necks so I don't care that their headstocks are too big, ...it certainly helps that I paid Squier money for each of them.
If the T40 had come out in 1950, that headstock shape would be the one that all others are judged against.
The first time I saw a Fender 51 Precision I thought the headstock was weird, now I like it a lot.
My first guitar was a cheap Univox and that headstock was definitely strange.
My first Fender guitar was a used 1967 Mustang ($65 then, now about $3500) ...that headstock probably set the mental standard for me.

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#28,825
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#28,827
58kites said:
Anything other than a Fender 51P or the Fender headstock shape that has been the subject of all the lawsuits.
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There's never been a Fender peghead lawsuit.

They borrowed their peghead style from Paul Bigsby though St Leo claimed the style came from old Croatian guitars. Likely the fact Paul was building solid body electrics before Fender had some bearing there; when you're haled as the inventor of the electric guitar it's good policy to keep quiet about the guy who beat you to it :D

There was a couple of attempts by Fender

One was Tokai using a very Fender-ish font, no court case or writ served. Tokai Gakki were in the running to build Fender Japan so it simply "no chance you'll get the contract if you keep using that font", Tokai changed the font :)

Another was their play to retro file a trademark for 2 horn solid body guitars with contours, judge laughed them out of court :laugh:

The big 'lawsuit' was when Gibson filed a case against Ibanez over the 'open book' shape. Total waste of time, by the time it was due to be heard Ibanez had moved to another shape :laugh:
 
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#28,828
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#28,831
kodiakblair said:
I don't get it, those have arch tops; that encourages floating thumb technique :thumbsup:
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I could never get floating thumb to work for me, nor using the thumb (top) tugbar. If I was plucking with my thumb, I was perfectly at home with the finger tugbar. Usually I rest my thumb on the E-string unless I need to pluck the string. Then and only then does the thumb float.
 
#28,832
kodiakblair said:
There's never been a Fender peghead lawsuit.

They borrowed their peghead style from Paul Bigsby though St Leo claimed the style came from old Croatian guitars. Likely the fact Paul was building solid body electrics before Fender had some bearing there; when you're haled as the inventor of the electric guitar it's good policy to keep quiet about the guy who beat you to it :D

There was a couple of attempts by Fender

One was Tokai using a very Fender-ish font, no court case or writ served. Tokai Gakki were in the running to build Fender Japan so it simply "no chance you'll get the contract if you keep using that font", Tokai changed the font :)

Another was their play to retro file a trademark for 2 horn solid body guitars with contours, judge laughed them out of court :laugh:

The big 'lawsuit' was when Gibson filed a case against Ibanez over the 'open book' shape. Total waste of time, by the time it was due to be heard Ibanez had moved to another shape :laugh:
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As usual, always a good source of interesting information about basses, guitars and related.
I've been hearing about lawsuit instruments since I worked in a music store in 1975/76.
Ibanez and Hondo were sending us copycat instruments left and right, they were still not great at that point.
Then we heard that Gibson wanted us to not sell these instruments.
The House of Guitars was a huge seller of instruments of all kinds so I guess the owners ignored Gibson's complaints.
Later, I heard stories about the lawsuit era Fender copies, I don't remember seeing good Fender copies in 1975/76.
Didn't know that the Fender lawsuit thing never really happened.

XsoGol said:
If someone has a T20/1st Gen Fury p'up to send to @Matt Kustom to take a look at...I have no doubt he can.
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I had a spare T20 loaded body that I sold to somebody here, I don't remember who though.
 
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#28,833
58kites said:
As usual, always a good source of interesting information about basses, guitars and related.
I've been hearing about lawsuit instruments since I worked in a music store in 1975/76.
Ibanez and Hondo were sending us copycat instruments left and right, they were still not great at that point.
Then we heard that Gibson wanted us to not sell these instruments.
The House of Guitars was a huge seller of instruments of all kinds so I guess the owners ignored Gibson's complaints.
Later, I heard stories about the lawsuit era Fender copies, I don't remember seeing good Fender copies in 1975/76.
Didn't know that the Fender lawsuit thing never really happened.
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Kodiakblair does always come through with the knowledge!

Yeah, I agree. Don't think the copy stuff was consistently good until way late into the 70s and early 80s. By then, Gibson and Fender were really protecting their wares and companies like Ibanez decided to make their original spins on the classics vs outright copying. Seems whenever I check out MIJ copies from 1974-1978 or so, they have about a 30-40% hit rate of being OK. Same with MIK in the mid to late 80s--about 30-40% OK.
 
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#28,834
bigtone23 said:
Seems whenever I check out MIJ copies from 1974-1978 or so, they have about a 30-40% hit rate of being OK. Same with MIK in the mid to late 80s--about 30-40% OK.
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You have to look at the market position for context.

Most of the Japanese and Korean instruments brought to the West by importers were lower tier items. Those importers weren't looking to knock Gibson or Fender from the top spots, they just wanted maximum profit.

Say it was $600 for a new Fender, Fujigen or Dyna could make the same or better for $400. Trouble was importers knew nobody would pay $400 for a Japanese instrument so they ordered $250 gear.

When Korean factories entered the fray, they faced the same problem; stuck at the bottom. Song remains the same for modern day Chinese and Indonesian instruments, they have the machines and competent workers but are saddled with the bargain basement trade.
 
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#28,835
XsoGol said:
If someone has a T20/1st Gen Fury p'up to send to @Matt Kustom to take a look at...I have no doubt he can.
Click to expand...
Is this the pickup that's basically a SF with super big magnets? I'm guessing the only reason for the huge magnets is that Peavey had a bunch left over from the huge Humbucker pickups.

Has anyone compared a standard SF to one of these SF pickups with the surplus large magnets? I'm wondering if the extra gauss from larger mags makes any audible difference?

A standard SF should do the job.
 
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#28,836
Matt Kustom said:
Is this the pickup that's basically a SF with super big magnets? I'm guessing the only reason for the huge magnets is that Peavey had a bunch left over from the huge Humbucker pickups.

Has anyone compared a standard SF to one of these SF pickups with the surplus large magnets? I'm wondering if the extra gauss from larger mags makes any audible difference?

A standard SF should do the job.
Click to expand...
It does not sound like the Foundation and the Patriot.
If it was the same sound, the front Foundation pickup should sound the same and it doesn't.
That pickup in that location sounds like a good sounding P bass but not exactly like the 51P pickup or the split P pickup. Kind of like a smooth 51P.
It will serve all the same purpose but it sounds richer or smoother than many split P's.
 
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#28,837
Matt Kustom said:
Is this the pickup that's basically a SF with super big magnets? I'm guessing the only reason for the huge magnets is that Peavey had a bunch left over from the huge Humbucker pickups.

Has anyone compared a standard SF to one of these SF pickups with the surplus large magnets? I'm wondering if the extra gauss from larger mags makes any audible difference?

A standard SF should do the job.
Click to expand...
It's definitely its own animal tone-wise. I agree with @58kites, it's a warmer, fatter pickup than the Foundation/Patriot SFs.
 
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