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 November 9 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 November 12 by Phil Starr

[agedhorse]

I very rarely find defective electrolytic caps, my experience is that caps made in the last 40 years are likely to last 50 years or more provided the designer respected the design requirements of the part. In amps that I designed on the past, going back over 30 years, I have yet to see a bad electrolytic cap (other than one that was damaged by a repair attempt). When sample caps are tested, they are fully within acceptable spec. 

 

I have seen plenty of PCB’s damaged by techs or adventurous users doing cap jobs (without the proper knowledge, skills, experience and tools) and creating expensive paperweights out of their formerly perfectly fine amps. 
 

I generally recommend leaving well enough alone, it it isn’t broken, don’t break it!

[Phil Starr]

On 14/11/2024 at 17:58, agedhorse said:

I very rarely find defective electrolytic caps, my experience is that caps made in the last 40 years are likely to last 50 years or more provided the designer respected the design requirements of the part. In amps that I designed on the past, going back over 30 years, I have yet to see a bad electrolytic cap (other than one that was damaged by a repair attempt). When sample caps are tested, they are fully within acceptable spec. 

 

I have seen plenty of PCB’s damaged by techs or adventurous users doing cap jobs (without the proper knowledge, skills, experience and tools) and creating expensive paperweights out of their formerly perfectly fine amps. 
 

I generally recommend leaving well enough alone, it it isn’t broken, don’t break it!

I'm really responding with my own experience with the Peavey mk111 and mkIV amps which to be fair are pretty old kit.  In each case it was an amp that had been in storage for a long while.

[agedhorse]

I see old amps all the time, in very old amps around 50 years I do sometimes see the beginnings of electrolytic cap deterioration, but then again I see plenty that old with no issues whatsoever too. Since this amp came out in the early to mid 90's, and used the newer style caps, I would leave them alone unless there is an actual issue.

[Stub Mandrel]

44 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

I see old amps all the time, in very old amps around 50 years I do sometimes see the beginnings of electrolytic cap deterioration, but then again I see plenty that old with no issues whatsoever too. Since this amp came out in the early to mid 90's, and used the newer style caps, I would leave them alone unless there is an actual issue.

 

BBC computers are notorious for the caps failing in the psu. They date from early 80s.

 

The main issue is that electrolytic capacitors 'reform' the insulating layer when used, it is years (or decades) without a chance to reform that causes failure. More likely with a home computer that gets left in the loft than an amp  which gets an outing every year or two.

 

I have a three-phase motor variable frequency drive. The instructions say to make sure it is switched on for at least half an hour once a year to reform the capacitors. The status of the big capacitors is monitored and it is expected that they should be changed after a certain amount of use.

 

So... USE YOUR AMP!

Edited November 16 by Stub Mandrel

[Chienmortbb]

l

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

BBC computers are notorious for the caps failing in the psu. They date from early 80s.

More likely due to poor component selection or poor quality components. Capacitors in power amps may het hot and if you look at the de-rating curves with increasing heat, you will see that many will only be rated for 1000 hours a elevated temperatures. Most caps are either 85C or 105C rated but of course running them cooler will extend the life considerably. Established brands like Panasonic, Nichicon, Vishay, Rubycon et al will work well within the spec as @agedhorse suggests above. However buy for reputable distributors.

[agedhorse]

In most older (solid state in particular) power amps, the placement of the caps is such that they don’t get very hot. 
 

For example, a cap that’s rated for 1000 hours at 85C might be good for ~30k hours at 35C. This depends somewhat on the construction of the cap and the electrolyte used. 
 

Think about this for a moment, there are caps used in equipment that runs 24/7 for decades without issues. That’s 175k hours in 20 years, so clearly there’s a disconnect between needing a cap job on an amp used intermittently over 10 years and the above example.

 

I have a test amp (Genz Benz ML-200 that I designed ~20 years ago) that’s been running continuously in my shop for 14 years, that’s 123k hours without any issues. By urban folklore, it should have needed multiple cap jobs. In fact, there are thousands of these amps out there and none have needed a cap job (that I am aware of, but since I handle the factory service for the brand, I would expect to hear about the need for parts.

 

IME, the promotion of cap jobs is way overdone, but they are a highly profitable way to extract money from a gullible customer if that’s the business model you are ok with. 

 

 

Edited November 16 by agedhorse

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

l

More likely due to poor component selection or poor quality components. Capacitors in power amps may het hot and if you look at the de-rating curves with increasing heat, you will see that many will only be rated for 1000 hours a elevated temperatures. Most caps are either 85C or 105C rated but of course running them cooler will extend the life considerably. Established brands like Panasonic, Nichicon, Vishay, Rubycon et al will work well within the spec as @agedhorse suggests above. However buy for reputable distributors.

 

The classic fail is foil Rifa capacitors that crack and degrade. The BBC computers were made to very high standards, but many 'barn finds' haven't been plugged in for over thirty years and these often have electrolytic failures.

Edited November 16 by Stub Mandrel