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Old Peaveys?


ChunkyMunky
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As I was entering this dinky, little second hand shop in Worthing, I noticed a small Peavey Backstage (Made in USA) combo going for £50. Albeit, it was intended to be a guitar combo, it prompted me to think what other hiddens gems that may lay dormant in shops such as the one I entered. Does anyone own any of the old US Peavey stuff? If so, what do you make of it? I get the impression that they're built to last.

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There's an old '80s TNT 130 (US built with a parametric not graphic EQ) at our rehearsal place. It's not the best amp in the world but it's built well, is tough and has been supremely reliable. I think they paid £80 or thereabouts for it.

Bargain!

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Before I recently bought a Rumble combo, I used my Peavey Databass combo for about 15 years. Fantastic amount of welly for its size. I had to re-cone it a couple of times - mainly through wear and tear as I gigged it a lot. It's still sitting there as a spare. It's not worth selling as there is so much quality second hand gear at very reasonable prices out there. However in it's day it was very hard to beat for power/size. I know of at least two people who have sought them out on ebay after hearing it.

Unfortunately these days, modern combos beat it hands down - especially on the weight and also the clarity. As for reliability, that remains to be seen. The Rumble has already been back once. I'm not expecting it to be as bomb proof as the Peavey, but then a new one would pay for itself within a couple of months they are so affordable.

It's just a shame that you don't get the build quality that Peavey have, and that the company now seems in such decline. I'm fond of mine but just can't bear the back strain any more. I wish there was a modern (light/powerful/clear) Peavey to replace it with.

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[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1437690830' post='2828356']
It's not the best amp in the world but it's built well, is tough and has been supremely reliable.
[/quote]

YUP! - An old peavey TNT ain't gonna win any awards for tone, but it'll get you heard and certainly last til the end of the gig!

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Old Peavey gear is amazingly reliable. All the US built stuff is generally pretty well put together, whether you like the sound of it is personal opinion. It often was a bit middle honk sounding to me but can working in some situations.

They started building the cheaper end of the range late 90s onwards, and most of that is way less reliable.

Edited by chevy-stu
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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1437742853' post='2828719']
The older stuff is heavy, but it sounds perfectly fine and is extremely reliable, real workhorse gear. A surprising amount of pros (who have gone beyond GAS and are constantly gigging) use Peavey precisely for these reasons.
[/quote]

Yep, a good few bands I`ve played with recently, the bassist has been using older Peavey gear. These are bands that travel/tour a lot so probably the choice is made for it`s reliability. Have to say though, it`s sounded good too. I`ve not heard any compromise on sound from them using it.

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I have an old 115BXBW in the rehearsal room. Sounds as good as anything really. I just woulnt want to carry it up a flight of stairs and I'd have to leave the PA behind to fit it in the car. Look out for the BW Black Widow speakers, good quality drive units.

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I had a Peavey MkIV 400BH bass head for years, never missed a beat and sounded great.
Two channels,graphic eq,compressor etc, very well specced in its day and sounded better than
Trace stuff to these ears. I eventually part exed it to a local PA hire company, where it is still
going strong to this day. Wonder how many of today's amps will be doing that in nearly 40 years time?
Also had a Sessionbass head, and briefly a 2x10 combo which was just stupidly heavy. Both sounded
well though, and were built to last a nuclear attack.

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I remember the Bass 300 combo very well. The tone wasn´t the best but at that time it was the loudest amp around for affordable money. The barking tone helped to cut through and frighten the guitarplayer and my mom. Not the worst feature. It could not be called lightweight, though. Unfortunately it has been stolen...
After that I played an Alphabass Preamp + CS800 poweramp. Again this rig had a barking, midrangey tone which cut through and could be unbearingly load. At that time I´ve been gigging huge open air stages and I never had any problems with volume. But the very best was that it never let me down. Not one single gig with problems. The only reason to sell it was to finance my SVT rig. Better tone but less reliable.

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Not that old but one of the last line of Peavey bass amp heads to be made in the US is the Delta, Nitro & Fire-Bass series. These became the Max 160, 450 & 700.

I gigged through a Max 160 into an Ampeg B115E for several years & still have them. I sold on a Max 450 as I didn't need the extra volume. I took it out the cabinet for inspection & the build quality was excellent. Fibre glass pcb, discrete components, accessable layout.

Having worked on military & civvy equipment since the 60's I can tell you that if this is typical of the equipment built at Meridian MS then it's no wonder old Peaveys have a reputation for longevity.

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Older Peavey gear is utterly rock solid. Used a Mk III head for many years, and it survived being thrown around and accidentally dropped down several flights of stairs. When my Ampeg SVT CL blew up, I used a Mk IV as a temporary replacement and wish I'd kept hold of it.

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I got given a 1983 Combo 300 when I was working in Nashville. It travelled many thousands of miles with me and the ONLY time it ever needed work was in the first few weeks when the dust cap came off the BW speaker - Carlo Cases ut a replacement from a JBL in to keep the dust out!
One other time, I replaced the USA mains transformer with a European one when I moved back to europe in 1991/2.
I eventually sold it on to a pupil of mine who is still using it to gig with.
They don't LOOK that tough, but my experience is they just seem to go on forever.
My only criticism would be that mine was slightly lacking in the extreme low end department. Which made it very popular with mixing engineers live.

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I have a TNT150 with the bi-amp outputs. I run the high output to a peavey classic 50 guitar amp. I often say "with my pedalboard, I can gig any amp, I don't care", and that's true, but if I lost my pedalboard for some reason, this would be the rig for me

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