Peavey basses

[SteveXFR]

My first bass was a Peavey International 4. My daughter has it now and it's still great, it sounds and plays really nice. We recently bought her an International 5 in perfect condition and it cost £150. 

Why are these basses so cheap? Are they seen as bottom spec budget or is there some reason no one wants them? 

[3below]

Highly under rated bargains in many cases, no idea why this is.  The neck and fretwork on the two I have are excellent.  Milestone III, £80, which also included a Hiscox case.

[MichaelDean]

I've always heard that they're generally good players, but I've never quite liked the look of the more modern ones. I've not been a fan of the quilt finishes on some, the horns on a lot of them seem too thin to me as well.

 

I don't understand why they haven't done a (maybe slightly lighter) reissue of the T-40. Surely that has enough of a cult following to shift a fair a few of them. 

[3below]

27 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

........ the horns on a lot of them seem too thin to me as well.

Thin they are but the ergonomics are pretty good.  No neck dive even with regular non-lightweight machines.  As a vertically challenged bass player the long horn puts the lower frets easily in reach.  Two big bonuses are really lightweight and cheap.  If it gets stolen at a gig, no great loss.

[SteveXFR]

L

34 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

 

I don't understand why they haven't done a (maybe slightly lighter) reissue of the T-40. Surely that has enough of a cult following to shift a fair a few of them. 

 

Great bass but I think it needs to be considerably lighter rather than slightly 

[kodiakblair]

41 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

I don't understand why they haven't done a (maybe slightly lighter) reissue of the T-40.

Mainly because internet hype doesn't transfer to real life, it's a hugely over-rated bass 😲  

 

My thoughts after owing 5 of them.  The tone circuit is poorly implemented, you give up the humbucker tonal range for the single coil 'tap', phase switch is pretty much pointless.  Dan Armstrong briefly used the same spin-a-split idea but soon ditched it for 2 pots.  The 'Secrets Sounds' video and settings only work for those with eyes for ears 😆 Just because there's a humbucker at the neck, it's sure as hell not a mudbucker.  It also looks very dated.

 

The weight is strange. Hartley later said they were only pandering to the then perceived wisdom that heavy = good tone 😁 Course, like most things Hartley says it's not strictly true 😄 The bare bones of ash body T-40s aren't that heavy, just over 5lbs.

 

 

Nope, the T-40 weight comes from all the daft die cast hardware bolted to it. 

[Jackroadkill]

2 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

 

I don't understand why they haven't done a (maybe slightly lighter) reissue of the T-40. Surely that has enough of a cult following to shift a fair a few of them. 

 

I'd have one of those, that's for sure.

[tauzero]

17 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

My thoughts after owing 5 of them.

 

Just curious - are you a slow learner or did you get them in a job lot, or are you like I once was with Trace Elliotts, buy one, think it's rubbish and sell it, then some time later decide to buy another one because you'd forgotten they're rubbish?

[SteveXFR]

We put a fresh set of DR Neon strings on the 4 string earlier and it's really annoying, it sounds better than my Ibanez that cost 10 times as much. It plays really nicely as well 

 

 

 

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

Just curious

Happy to enlighten you.

 

I own/owned a lot of Peavey basses, for a time there was 68 of them. With that many it's hard to maintain any aura of mystique for a particular model; it either works for you, can be made to work or left ignored as you move on the next one.

 

First T-40 came mostly due to 'internet hype', that doesn't last long.  It was through the T-60 Mafia that I discovered the designer of the T-Series, Chip Todd, held similar views as myself regards the tone circuit. Chip would snip the red wire and leave his pickups in humbucker mode, that worked for me 🙂 Another one turned up local for £300, it went humbuckers/tapes; one after that got active EQ 🙂 

 

Forth got a semi permanent mod, I blame my pal Ronnie 😁 He had a varied collection of Peavey basses, due to his position as chief mech engineer for Peavey's US factories. Ronnie had a 5 string T-40 so when a beat to hell T-40, going for peanuts, went up for sale in Glenrothes; I had the makings for mine.

 

Only T-40 I left intact was the one Dave Swift sold through The Gallery. My T-40 interest had waned by then but I got it for a song so why not 👍

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

and it's really annoying,

Sure is.

 

That looks a damn sight better than my flame top.

 

p.s.

 

While commonly known as Peavey International, it's Sunday title is Peavey Dynabass International Series.

[SteveXFR]

19 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Sure is.

 

That looks a damn sight better than my flame top.

 

p.s.

 

While commonly known as Peavey International, it's Sunday title is Peavey Dynabass International Series.

 

I bought it from Breadbin of this forum and it had a disgusting paint splatter pain job. I stripped it back to bare wood and resprayed it sea foam green and gave it to my daughter who is now far better than me.

Next week she'll be playing it in the finals of a battle of the bands competition. 

[velvetkevorkian]

1 hour ago, kodiakblair said:

Sure is.

 

That looks a damn sight better than my flame top.

 

p.s.

 

While commonly known as Peavey International, it's Sunday title is Peavey Dynabass International Series.

I had a fretted and fretless set of the 5 string versions which were nice, but I was always baffled by the fact they didn't have the actual model name/number on them anywhere.

 

Still have my Milestone which was my first bass, and saw me through a lot of practice and many gigs, not too mention learning how to do my own setups.

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, velvetkevorkian said:

but I was always baffled by the fact they didn't have the actual model name/number on them anywhere.

Same story for the C-Series/Zephyr.

 

At least the International can be called that, C-Series mostly get wrongly listed as 'Grinds' 🙂

 

Ken likely didn't think a peghead name was necessary given the limited European market and the short space of time they were available.

[SteveXFR]

3 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Same story for the C-Series/Zephyr.

 

At least the International can be called that, C-Series mostly get wrongly listed as 'Grinds' 🙂

 

Ken likely didn't think a peghead name was necessary given the limited European market and the short space of time they were available.

 

I had a Zephyr. It was a genuinely really nice bass. At least as nice as MIM Fenders that I've owned. Neck through and through body stringing and really decent hardware and really nicely put together and I picked it up for £180. Someone at a jam session offered me £400 so I let him take it but regret letting it go now.

[kodiakblair]

@SteveXFR

 

Zephyr 5 and the Patriot were my favourite Peaveys 🙂

 

Pity I sold both but they went to good homes so no regrets. 

[tauzero]

7 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Happy to enlighten you.

 

I own/owned a lot of Peavey basses, for a time there was 68 of them. With that many it's hard to maintain any aura of mystique for a particular model; it either works for you, can be made to work or left ignored as you move on the next one.

 

First T-40 came mostly due to 'internet hype', that doesn't last long.  It was through the T-60 Mafia that I discovered the designer of the T-Series, Chip Todd, held similar views as myself regards the tone circuit. Chip would snip the red wire and leave his pickups in humbucker mode, that worked for me 🙂 Another one turned up local for £300, it went humbuckers/tapes; one after that got active EQ 🙂 

 

Forth got a semi permanent mod, I blame my pal Ronnie 😁 He had a varied collection of Peavey basses, due to his position as chief mech engineer for Peavey's US factories. Ronnie had a 5 string T-40 so when a beat to hell T-40, going for peanuts, went up for sale in Glenrothes; I had the makings for mine.

 

Only T-40 I left intact was the one Dave Swift sold through The Gallery. My T-40 interest had waned by then but I got it for a song so why not 👍

 

Right, so not an irredeemable bass, just one with certain congenital but operable defects.

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

@SteveXFR

 

Zephyr 5 and the Patriot were my favourite Peaveys 🙂

 

Pity I sold both but they went to good homes so no regrets. 

 

I'm not entirely sure whether what I had was a Zephyr 5 or a C5, or whether they're one and the same. A lovely bass, good looking and excellent build quality, got used on one recording session because the active bass I wanted to use was picking up a fair amount of interference (I was in the control room with an awful lot of electronic equipment around me) whereas this was interference-free. However, the neck was just a bit chunkier than I like so I eventually sold it.

 

[kodiakblair]

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

m not entirely sure whether what I had was a Zephyr 5 or a C5, or whether they're one and the same.

One and the same 🙂.

[SteveXFR]

I regularly look for another Zephyr but they rarely come up for sale 

[Paul S]

I've had a selection of Peaveys - started off with a Milestone (the J-type), had Foundation, Foundation 5er, a Fury or three and a Fury IV.  My favourite was the Fury - I've seen it described as the best Precision bass Fender didn't make.  Usually lightweight, uber-slim neck, aggressive pickup.  Lovely things. 

 

I sometimes wondered about the early Milestone with the single split humbucker but that ship has sailed now I have moved to short scales. 

[woolf]

I picked up this 1990 TL5 very recently. Really a top notch instrument… solid maple wings, lovely jet-black ebony board. Can’t fault the build quality on it. The neck is very comfortable with a very flat D profile. Sound-wise, it’s in beefy jazz bass territory. I’m suitably impressed.

 

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I regularly look for another Zephyr but they rarely come up for sale 

 

There's a 5 on Ebay at the moment in need of a bit of repair work: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326058163819 and another in That London for a bit more but in good nick https://reverb.com/item/80819258-peavey-c-5-zephyr-5-string-bass-guitar

[kodiakblair]

Sold my 5 string Zephyr end of August for £150, now I know why it went so fast 🤣

[Nigel Sleaford]

And a respectful question for the experts…..opinions on the P bass variants which came before T40? There was one with a funny staggered pickup, and one with three knobs. I’m happy to agree with the negative comments re aT40….gigged one in bars and hotels around Inverness about 25 years ago, through a Peavey combo. Could never get a decent tone from it. Now we need a whole bunch of negatives about Aria SB1000 (no decent tones) and YamahaBB 1200 (neck diver).