peavy mark VI xp series

[Archie L]

Is it any good, as I'm about to pick one up 2nd hand, just wondered if anyone has any thought/experience with it?

 

its a head and cab setup

 

(not very experienced with buying gear)

 

Cheers

[Dan Dare]

It's quite an old model. Traditionally, Peaveys were always regarded as being tough and reliable, but heavy (they're very much old school amps). If it isn't making any nasty noises, it should serve. 

 

If you are inexperienced, take someone with some knowledge with you when you go to look at/try it. Don't buy online, untried or unseen. And don't over-pay. I've just done a quick Google and they were selling used in around 2012 for $150 or so. Ignore talk of "vintage", "rare", etc. They're just old.

 

You may want to move your post to amps and cabs. It's in PA set up and use at the moment.

[Archie L]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

It's quite an old model. Traditionally, Peaveys were always regarded as being tough and reliable, but heavy (they're very much old school amps). If it isn't making any nasty noises, it should serve. 

 

If you are inexperienced, take someone with some knowledge with you when you go to look at/try it. Don't buy online, untried or unseen. And don't over-pay. I've just done a quick Google and they were selling used in around 2012 for $150 or so. Ignore talk of "vintage", "rare", etc. They're just old.

 

You may want to move your post to amps and cabs. It's in PA set up and use at the moment.

Thanks, I've just picked it up in person for £80, tried it and it worked fine. I've heard good things about peavy, including them being huge.

 

overall very happy though, cheers

 

Edited Saturday at 16:43 by Archie L

[Dan Dare]

Sounds as if you did well. You can't lose with an amp and cab for £80. If the cab has a Black Widow speaker in it, that's even better. Schlepping that lot to gigs will save you spending money on going to the gym too.

[Phil Starr]

My First Bass Amp

 

These sound excellent and with one proviso they are bombproof. The problem with any amp this age are the electrolytic capacitors particularly the big ones in the power supply. Over time they start to break down and can leak a goo-ey mess onto the circuit boards. The good news is that replacing them is fairly simple and cheap, but not a DIY job as they handle dangerous voltages. If you like the amp then it's worth doing

[Chienmortbb]

On 11/11/2024 at 07:46, Phil Starr said:

The problem with any amp this age are the electrolytic capacitors particularly the big ones in the power supply. Over time they start to break down and can leak a goo-ey mess onto the circuit boards.

I am not sure of the age of these but Electrolytics, from the major brands, have improved over the years. As with all things amps, @agedhorse will be able to comment with more experience but I suspect those used by Peavey would have used a better make. That being said, it is certainly worth getting someone to look at the condition of the capacitors as they generally show some mechanical distress before letting go altogether.

 

I did replace the Mullard decoupling/smoothing caps on my HH VS Bassamp with Panasonic ones of the same value (4700uF 50V). The Panasonic ones were half the size, presumably due to the improvements in electrolytes.

[Phil Starr]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

 

I did replace the Mullard decoupling/smoothing caps on my HH VS Bassamp with Panasonic ones of the same value (4700uF 50V). The Panasonic ones were half the size, presumably due to the improvements in electrolytes.

There's certainly no lack of space to fit the replacements in. If memory serves the replacements were at least 30% smaller in each dimension and had to be packed out to fit in the clamps. Once again though unless you know what you are oing this is not a diy repair. Big electrolytics can store a lot of charge for several hours after the amp has been unplugged and a DC shock is considerably more unpleasant then a mains shock and potentially lethal.

Edited 18 hours ago by Phil Starr