Peavey Mark 3 Bass head

[0175westwood29]

so after some amp issues! last night i was always meant to be trying this amp ended up a little sooner than i thought!

 

 

super impressed and thru my peavey 215 sounded huge! i did plug in to the power amp in but with out a master volume safe to say it was loud! seriously am def on the hunt for another! ideally one that will do 2 ohms

 

[casapete]

Great amps, I’ve had a few over the years. My amp tech guy did say that they are happiest running at

4 ohms rather than 2 though, although I’m sure some people do this. 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I believe they were designed for 2 ohm loads. Peavey gained a reputation for being bullet proof. One reason why is that they assumed that they'd be abused, so they were over-spec'd. They were abused for sure, but handled it well. Keep in mind that they were made long before the internet came along, and reading manuals was (and still is) considered an assault on one's manhood, so concepts of acceptable impedance loads were pretty much unknown. I had one just like that in the picture until just a year ago. I'd stopped using it only because it weighed more than I wanted to deal with anymore.  

[casapete]

38 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

I believe they were designed for 2 ohm loads. Peavey gained a reputation for being bullet proof. One reason why is that they assumed that they'd be abused, so they were over-spec'd. They were abused for sure, but handled it well. Keep in mind that they were made long before the internet came along, and reading manuals was (and still is) considered an assault on one's manhood, so concepts of acceptable impedance loads were pretty much unknown. I had one just like that in the picture until just a year ago. I'd stopped using it only because it weighed more than I wanted to deal with anymore.  

I agree Bill. My tech guy said they would handle the 2 ohm load okay, but long term use would shorten it's life,

IIRC as the amp would be running hotter or something? Whatever, a bit of an iconic amp IMHO.

[DGBass]

Most folks of a certain age have probably played through a Peavey at some point in their gigging career. They were prolific from the late seventies, eighties and a part of the nineties and dependable gigging amps imho. My only 2 ohm load version was a MK VIII bass head. I ran that into a 4 ohm 115BW and a 4 ohm TVX 410. 600 watts it said on the rear panel at 2 ohms and it did feel alot when wound up. Never had a single bit of trouble with it. I did own a MK III 150 watt head until recently and that too was completely trouble free ownership although i'm sure that was a minimum 4 ohm load. Mostly the bigger wattage heads from around 250 watts up ( BH400 power module) seem to be labelled as being able to run at 2 ohms. 

[0175westwood29]

30 minutes ago, DGBass said:

Most folks of a certain age have probably played through a Peavey at some point in their gigging career. They were prolific from the late seventies, eighties and a part of the nineties and dependable gigging amps imho. My only 2 ohm load version was a MK VIII bass head. I ran that into a 4 ohm 115BW and a 4 ohm TVX 410. 600 watts it said on the rear panel at 2 ohms and it did feel alot when wound up. Never had a single bit of trouble with it. I did own a MK III 150 watt head until recently and that too was completely trouble free ownership although i'm sure that was a minimum 4 ohm load. Mostly the bigger wattage heads from around 250 watts up ( BH400 power module) seem to be labelled as being able to run at 2 ohms. 

yeh mine says 4 ohms on the back so no 2 ohm load for me hence looking at getting a second

[warwickhunt]

53 minutes ago, DGBass said:

Mostly the bigger wattage heads from around 250 watts up ( BH400 power module) seem to be labelled as being able to run at 2 ohms. 

 

Indeed. 

 

[BassmanPaul]

While I was active on TalkBass I gave a Mark III amp to a young player. I paid the $100 shipping too! LOL.

Edited April 19, 2023 by BassmanPaul

[fleabag]

I had one of the Peavey heads with white face panel and red word printing.  Something 700 model ?  I cant recall exactly.  Oh.. maybe Firebass ??

[3below]

6 minutes ago, fleabag said:

I had one of the Peavey heads with white face panel and red word printing.  Something 700 model ?  I cant recall exactly.  Oh.. maybe Firebass ??

Spot on,  Firebass 700, built like a tank (personal experience) and from memory needed 2 Ohms to deliver the full 700W.   I gave mine away as a bonus gift with the VBA 400 I sold.

[fleabag]

That's the one 3b.  Helluva head 

 

 

[3below]

Another big plus about older Peavey amps is that in the (unlikely in my experience) eventuality of a fault they are repairable on a DIY basis (or good local repairshop). I used a MKiii bass combo from 1980? until about 2010. Replaced with BF Big One and a Peavey Tour 700 (another bargain now when they appear).

Edited April 20, 2023 by 3below

[0175westwood29]

i did a thing!

 

now i can put that amp with the above setup and run all 3 cabs!

[Lozz196]

Wowzers!!

[mybass]

I used Peavey for many years including the MK3 amp and 2x15 Black Widow cab…..loud, ferocious and gutsy but heavy too.

[BassmanPaul]

Very often these amps can benefit from being carefully opened and vacuumed out. The cooling fans suck in a pile of crud that tends to block the cooling path., Folks who try this service should wear a good quality face mask. Luckily (sic) we all should have those handy 'cos of Covid.

Edited April 26, 2023 by BassmanPaul

[Lozz196]

42 minutes ago, mybass said:

I used Peavey for many years including the MK3 amp and 2x15 Black Widow cab…..loud, ferocious and gutsy but heavy too.

I had the 1x15 Black Widow cab and that was heavy enough - especially as I lived in a 2nd floor flat.

[warwickhunt]

19 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

Very often these amps can benefit from being carefully opened and vacuumed out. The cooling fans suck in a pile of crud that tends to block the cooling path., Folks who try this service should wear a good quality face mask. Luckily (sic) we all should have those handy 'cos of Covid.

 

Cooling fans?  

[BassmanPaul]

Mine had fans unless I am misremembering. I can clearly see it in my minds eye! LOL

 

Possibly the North American units were different from the European models.

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by BassmanPaul

[uk_lefty]

Absolutely love an old Peavey. My first gigging amp was a Peavey acquired from the outgoing bassist. It had weirdly named controls on it like "pyramid". Since then I've used a Peavey TKO 150watt combo that was putting out far more ooomph than the 300watt Ashdown Toneman I had at the time. I was looking for a backup head a while ago and the Peavey's were bargains!

[Waddo Soqable]

The first real proper bass amp I actually owned and paid for was a Peavey Century, prob circa 1979. Sounded great, obviously I encountered many Peavey amps and combos in rehearsal rooms and gigs back in the day.

I subsequently got a Mk3 much later in life, which was a brilliant amp. It was acquired for pennies at the time I'm sure. It replaced a Hartke 3500 which was an absolute piece of shlt and I got rid of ASAP , the elderly Peavey was So much better..

if I was looking for an amp nowadays I'd be looking at older Peaveys for sure, tho doubtless they've gone up in price as they'll be punted as "vintage" gear..