Why are old Peaveys so cheap?

[nirvana1410]

I have an 87 Patriot that I love playing on. I'll never sell it.

 

[dukeorock]

I own an AM STD Pbass...I like it. It's nice. I own a Lakland, I own a T-40, and some other stuff...I like all the basses I keep and play. If they sit unused for too long, they gotta go.

It really is subjective, fellas

 

[No Neck Shrek]

Anyone who thinks that bass is better than a mia Fender P bass is just crazy..

Call me CRAZY !

I've played both and prefer the PEAVEY !

 

[dukeorock]

I have an 87 Patriot that I love playing on. I'll never sell it.

^^^^^THIS^^^^^^

There's just no reasonable argument against that. This persona really, actually LIKES their bass, and paid a fraction of what so many other basses cost that are either equal or possibly not even as good in his (and my) view

 

[coyote1]

I'm sorry, my friend, but you don't know what you're talking about. Peavey had the best engineering staff around the industry 'back then'. If you knew electronics, you could see how well their stuff was engineered and manufactured. My observation is not an opinion. I worked on their stuff in a shop and worked on every other brand as well. There was not an amp ever made that didn't suffer from dirty pots. It's no secret their bass amps were tanks, so I don't get "after the first couple songs, the stuff would fade out". I still own two Peavey amps. A Centurion ('79) and a Mark IV bass ('83). Yeah, like after 30 years I've had two bad pots and one failed jack. Easily repairable.
IMO, Peavey's reputation has suffered because of brand haters like you who don't know squat about electronics.

You don't read too well do you. "brand hater"??? Not at all. I just bought a Peavey Grind bass fer pete's sake!! The gear I'm talking about predates your 1979 Centurion by many years.

 

[maturanesa]

I'm sorry, my friend, but you don't know what you're talking about. Peavey had the best engineering staff around the industry 'back then'. If you knew electronics, you could see how well their stuff was engineered and manufactured. My observation is not an opinion. I worked on their stuff in a shop and worked on every other brand as well. There was not an amp ever made that didn't suffer from dirty pots. It's no secret their bass amps were tanks, so I don't get "after the first couple songs, the stuff would fade out". I still own two Peavey amps. A Centurion ('79) and a Mark IV bass ('83). Yeah, like after 30 years I've had two bad pots and one failed jack. Easily repairable.
IMO, Peavey's reputation has suffered because of brand haters like you who don't know squat about electronics.

The brand reputation suffered because the haters? lol Poor Peavey... I think Mr. Peavey would laught after reading that..

 

[gard0300]

I can't speak about all Peavey products. But Peavey Guitars in the 70s and 80s were light years ahead of Fender and Gibson in design and production. It's took years for Gibson and Fender to implement the changes that Peavey pioneered in the mid 70s. Chip Todd was one of the key individuals who brought these changes in design and production. You can read many articles on the Internet and here on Talkbass about his ideas. The same ideas implemented later by many of Peavey's competitors. Yes Fender and Gibson too. Peavey are great basses (especially US models), and so are Fenders and Gibsons.... Along with countless others.
I personally prefer my Peavey over Fender. But I also prefer my Hamer Cruise over Fender. Not a Fender hater. Just ended up with what I liked.

 

[swamp2]

I am not a Fender hater at all. But... I was in the market recently for a P bass. Went to GC and was thinking the "hand stained" American Special P bass they had for $699 was not a bad deal. But... having a few old US made Peavey's, I recognize the quality and value - and when this one showed up on the local CL - for $175 with a hard case I couldn't pass it up.

It played better than the Fender I was looking at (yes, I know the setups on the instruments on the floor at GC SUCK) and sounded great. With the difference between the $175 I paid and the $740 out the door I would've paid for the Fender (with a gig bag), well... I can buy A LOT of beer. And the instrument I ended up with is every bit as good, if not better...

 

[CBNJ]

Want to trade for a metalic red one ?

Even though I didn't get it yet, that's really tempting! Love metallic red on guitars/basses. Do you have any pictures?

 

[ggvicviper]

Ok so an update:

So I picked up my Dyna Bass 5 today, which appears to be of the 1991-ish era. I played it a bit at Guitar Center and when I got home. I cannot believe I got this thing for so cheap. The pickups are quite hot, active passive works well, 3 band eq + passive tone control, and just a very solid feel with a lot of comfort. I got several compliments on the looks of the bass too.

Only one conclusion could possibly be drawn from this: PEAVEY ISN'T JUST BAD - IT'S EVIL. That's right, Peavey is sacrilicious.

I will happily coordinate a club to rid the earth of these evil bass guitars, along with smcd, mb94952, mark beem, NicJimBass, and several others in this thread. We will um, burn (yeah) your Peavey basses if you send them to us to release the evil spirits within these monstrous, unholy instruments.

Since I own one now, I will burn the Dyna Basses. I'd also be willing to take some of the Patriots. I'm sure others would have their own preferences, er, "expertise" on what they find is most evil.

Remember, we're doing you a favor! We're saving your souls from evil Peavey instruments.

 

[NicJimBass]

Ok so an update:

So I picked up my Dyna Bass 5 today, which appears to be of the 1991-ish era. I played it a bit at Guitar Center and when I got home. I cannot believe I got this thing for so cheap. The pickups are quite hot, active passive works well, 3 band eq + passive tone control, and just a very solid feel with a lot of comfort. I got several compliments on the looks of the bass too.

Only one conclusion could possibly be drawn from this: PEAVEY ISN'T JUST BAD - IT'S EVIL. That's right, Peavey is sacrilicious.

I will happily coordinate a club to rid the earth of these evil bass guitars, along with smcd, mb94952, mark beem, NicJimBass, and several others in this thread. We will um, burn (yeah) your Peavey basses if you send them to us to release the evil spirits within these monstrous, unholy instruments

Since I own one now, I will burn the Dyna Basses. I'd also be willing to taker some of the Patriots. I'm sure others would have their own preferences, er, "expertise" on what they find is most evil.

Remember, we're doing you a favor! We're saving your souls from evil Peavey instruments.

Ha! Since they are considered über-evil (perhaps Anti-Christ level of evil??), I'll burn all the GV's. Send them as soon as you can... mmmkay?

 

[fourstringbliss]

Send me all of your Millennium USA models - especially the ones with birdseye necks. Birdseye is particularly wicked and must be destroyed immediately.

 

[gard0300]

While we are at..... All EVIL US Cirrus's please ship my way for immediate disposal into a fiery grave.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

I'll take any of those 6-string models. I recently remodeled my home to include an full-size ERB-specific crematorium.

You're welcome, Earth.

 

[Basshappi]

I hearby volenteer to dispose of any lefty models as they are both sinister and evil.

 

[Scott in Dallas]

Are you serious? Are you just pointing the two basses are the same level because they look similar? (plus: Peavey took the design from Fender)

Plus: Fender took all their manufacturing processes from Peavey. The quality you see in a current Fender bass is what Peavey was putting out 30 years ago.

 

[nirvana1410]

Plus: Fender took all their manufacturing processes from Peavey. The quality you see in a current Fender bass is what Peavey was putting out 30 years ago.

I think you might have this backwards... haha.

 

[Einherjar]

I think you might have this backwards... haha.

I never looked further into it, but I believe I read somewhere on here that peavey did in fact pioneer the use of fully automated machinery to churn out mass numbers of precision manufactured guitars before fender or most other companies as well.

 

[Scott in Dallas]

I think you might have this backwards... haha.

Nope.

I never looked further into it, but I believe I read somewhere on here that peavey did in fact pioneer the use of fully automated machinery to churn out mass numbers of precision manufactured guitars before fender or most other companies as well.

Yep. Peavey built wooden instruments to the same tolerances as machine shops when nobody else was doing it. They used machines built to mass-produce gun stocks IIRC.

 

[ggvicviper]

Yep. Peavey built wooden instruments to the same tolerances as machine shops when nobody else was doing it. They used machines built to mass-produce gun stocks IIRC.

Yep, you can read all about it in a book entitled "American Basses", which includes a lengthy section on Peavey.

They also discuss the very topic of this thread, which includes how people perceived the brand as cheap crap because of the company's passion for value, despite having very high quality instruments.