Why the love ?

[Bill Moran]

Bill Moran.... what speaker in your MM?... My MM 65 sounds horrible with Steel.

K130 for a long time. I have a EVM15L in it now. It has a new re-cone and not broken in yet. It is coming around though. Back your MM away from you about 6 or 8 feet. Mine sounds better to me at a distance than up close.
Ken Fox went through mine. Don't know what he might of done to it but it sounds great just to heavy to move around, for me anyway.

[b0b]

I went to a Line 6 seminar at a music store when the Pod was the hot new gadget. The factory rep was showing off all of the amp model simulations. I asked "Can it simulate a Peavey Session 400?". He replied: "No, we only modeled amps that people actually like."

It got a laugh from the crowd, but I thought he was a real asshole for saying that.

[Mike Bowles]

one day I might be a peavey guy next day or week might be a twin sometimes a cube 80xl with black box.there is times my hearing changes. I guess a lot depends on my mood. I don't get that loud when I play I get accused a lot for not being loud enough but its not my amps.

[Rich Upright]

You can play through a PV, OR you can play through a Telonics,Milkman,Little Walter, Evans,whatever amp which cost about 5X what the PV costs, but, they will NOT sound 5X better. Might not even sound better, period. Except for guitar. PV solid state amps SUCK for guitar. Too constipated & tight.

And...I have owned over 20 PVs...Vegas,Session 400 & 500,Nashville,and my current Renown 400 with 1-15" BW (rare), and I have never EVER had one fail on me. EVER!!

Currently, I play through a PV Blues Classic (tube) it is a Classic 50 w/1-15" BW instead of 2-12s. Doesn't have the headroom I like, so it's only good for smaller clubs, but I defy any boutique steel amp to get a better tone for steel OR guitar. My Ultralinear Twin w/JBLs sounds great, but lacks the bottom of a 15" for steel in large halls. I am playing 2 large halls this weekend so I will use my Renown & sacrifice some guitar sound for a great steel sound. But since I run a stereo delay & "ping-pong" the sound between 2 amps, the tone is just incredible & very "big", like a "wall of sound" without being loud or too "Delay-y".

[Cartwright Thompson]

The thing is, you guys are saying that tube amps can't cut it when the volume level gets way up there. I don't think anything can at that point. When you play with a stupid loud drummer etc., everything goes right out the window anyway. I becomes a matter of just being able to hear yourself and worrying about tone is just a joke. I've used Session 400's, Twin Reverbs, Nash 400's, Tweed twins...all with JBL's, for years. Peaveys work just fine, and sound pretty good, especially when it's so loud that it doesn't matter...peace through superior firepower if you will. But when you can hear them , tube amps always sound better than solid state. If you can't hear the difference, and you probably can, save your money and stick with a Peavey!

[Joseph Napolitano]

I like my N112 , a lot. I love my silverfaces. I've never heard a tube amp company say " buy our amp and you'll get that vintage solid state sound!"

[Josh Yenne]

people can play whatever they like.. I am personally an all Tube guy.. wish I wasn't as they are fussy, heavier, etc.

But I just don't like the sound and especially FEEL of a solid state. and I really don't prefer crystal clear tone.. i like a little growl and hair on my sound.

2 things I would say though:

I find it constantly amusing in this argument when people say their favorite tone is something like Lloyd Green on the Panther Hall or Byrds recordings and they somehow can't find it with their Peavey.. well duh...

My favorite tones are the older guys (and newer guys) with the amp turned up and the power tubes crunching a bit etc... but thats just my flavor.. no offense to others.

Secondly... my goodness if a TWIN is not loud enough for you you might want to find a new drummer.... wow.

[Pete Burak]

Sneaky Pete!
Two Session 400's!
fwiw, two of my fave Steel players are tube amp guys...
Jerry Garcia and Toy Caldwell.
All three were very unique players, but Sneaky's discography is really incredible.

[Ken Metcalf]

Guys in the band bitch when I bring the 67 blackface Twin.
They claim they can't hear it.
Crazy

It's the ugly logo Steve...

I use a Twin on a lot of gigs, but if I need to be really loud, I think a Session 400 (or an LTD if you can find one) is about as good as it gets, especially when folks are giving 'em away for 300.00 to 350.00. It's got mojo.. LOL.

[David Peirce]

I, personally, would give my eye teeth to have the Princeton Reverb I lucked into in the early 70's back - stock everything and the best sound I think I ever got in the studio. Closest I came to it was a silver face Vibrosonic with an orange frame JBL 15 that I played out with for at least 15 years, until I started trading harmonics and weight for the extra hundred watts or so that let me hear my left hand while saddled with an 'enthusiastic" drummer set up 12" from my right ear and monitor systems whose pressure could hold a drunken lead singer upright for a whole set. The sort of setup where one tries to 'befriend' the stranger running the forward system board, hoping that he'll handle the tone while you try to handle the stage volume situation. Tone was, mostly, a luxury reserved for years later, off the road in small clubs with everyone miked or going direct - wish I had that Princeton now!! Now I just thank my stars for Class D amplification and increasingly sophisticated effects designers emulating the old stuff. Heck, I probably couldn't even get that old Vibrosonic back up over the tailgate any more.

[Paul Arntson]

My Peavey Nashville 1000 has the bass response that I loved in my Super Reverb, the power that I loved in my Twin Reverb, and (with a couple of pedals) the nasty quality I loved in my Fender Deluxe Reverb. It's the high power amp I decided to keep when I had to cut down to only two amps. I've used it in a rock context with a DS1 pedal and in a country context with my pedal steel. Greatest amp value as far as I am concerned.

[Pete Burak]

David, I have one of those 70's Vibrosonics with the orange JBL. Very nice tone, great for Steel or Guitar! I let guitar players use it when I host rehearsals at my house, and they consistantly remark on the killer tone.
Paul, fyi, There is a Nashville 1000 at Olde Town Music for $350. I have also played though one of those and they are a great stage amp for sure.

[DG Whitley]

I do not hate Peavey, I just do not buy their products anymore, especially after the Undercover Boss episode. But that is me, and in all fairness a number of companies have shifted production overseas, but that discussion borders on the political and I will not cause b0b a problem with that.

If they ever start making everything again in the USA then maybe. I am sure they are not missing my business. My 2 cents, not that anybody cares.

[Pete Burak]

I love when I come across one of Peavey's City Series or Solo Series amps from the 80's!
They are almost always under a hundred bucks and sound great for bar band gigs.
I buy'em just to give to local newbee's sometimes.

[Steve Hinson]

I love when I come across one of Peavey's City Series or Solo Series amps from the 80's!
They are almost always under a hundred bucks and sound great for bar band gigs.
I buy'em just to give to local newbee's sometimes.

Brent Mason got famous playing through 2"Special 130s"...

I remember when he called me looking for his first two Deluxe Reverbs...

[John Billings]

I'm a tube guy. Never really liked SS amps,,,, except for the Lab with a 15" Electrovoice I used in the early 80s. But it didn't sound like a SS amp! It sounded like tubes. Of course, different transistors, different circuit than Peavey's. My best friend worked at TNN since before they went on the air. Peavey was supplying all the backlines, and any TNN employee could get in on the deal. JL called, "You wanna amp designed for steel?" So I got a Vegas, and for a song! But I could never get my sound on it! It just sounded to "sterile" to my ears, which were used to hearing tube interaction and harmonics. I think it's wonderful what Hartley has done, but they're just not for me. Went back to a split Twin with Johnson cabs and a JBL. I was pretty happy!
But,,,, I've just gotten a new Dr. Z Surgical Steel amp, and it blows everything else that I've had outa the water! The EF86 preamp handles the big output of a steel pickup better than a 12AX7. It feeds two KT88s for 94 watts of tube power. Ultra-linear power and output transformers. Very powerful, clean, and wonderfully articulate! Twin is for sale! I'm a very happy camper!

[Mike Brown]

I will borrow Chris Ivey's quote,


"i love peavey. the way i reference it is that if buddy emmons can sound that good through a peavey, then you don't need anything different until you play better than
he does. if you are so incredible that a peavey doesn't cut it, then i'd love for you to demonstrate the difference".

Thank you Chris.

[Mike Brown]

The new Session 115 is to be manufactured(along with the 1501-4ohm SB Black Widow speaker) right here in Meridian, Mississippi, USA.

[Allan Jirik]

My Nashville 112 with a Black Box is the best I've ever had. So many choices and opinions, that's great. I choose to support the home team.

[Lee Dassow]

Peavey has the best amp repair dept. in Meridian miss. the old session 400's and 500's that are still around will give you many years of service. They are excellent choices for a steel player working moderately sized venues. Grab one when you get a chance. You wont be sorry. Tenn.Lee

[b0b]

My personal taste in electronics for stage use changes from year to year. While I've never used a Peavey on stage, I have a Peavey 112 in my teaching studio and it sounds fine to me. I've seen other players use them on stage and they sound quite good.

In these days of heavily mic'd stages with big sound systems, you don't have to carry a pair of Webbs or Session 400s to project your sound. Most modern amps have a good line out jack on the back, or if you're especially picky you can carry a good mic in your pack-a-seat. I'm glad that we don't have to haul all of that heavy equipment anymore, just to get the bottom 2 strings of the C6th to sound right.

[Jim Sliff]

People been hatin'on Peaveys for years...I just don't get that...

I won't say "hate" in my case. And Sneaky got great sounds out of his Session 500's - but he was using a heavily modded Fender 400 with tons of effects, plus the amps had been tweaked by Red Rhodes.

IMO the solid-state amps just don't have the warm tone I prefer, which generally requires a good tube amp.

From a teach standpoint, I have worked on both solid-state and tube Peaveys. And while I will give them credit for supporting the step community and selling amps that are relatively inexpensive, the build quality is, IMO, weak. Tube socket mounting on circuit boards, solid-state boards that are lightweight and connected by ribbon cables and snap connectors (rather than eyelet or tagboard wiring are simply not as robust as, for example, Fender's blackface & silverface tube amps (the reissues I dislike for the same reasons I gave for Peaveys).

First I want to hear good tone that's capable of easily being voiced to a player's liking - with Peaveys that's a difficult thing to do.

Second I look for build quality - solid wood cabinets, hand-soldered wiring, no surface-mount components and ease of service. That description does not fit any Peavey amp I have ever seen or worked on.

But used ones are so inexpensive I petty much consider them disposable amps. If something major is wrong it may be more cost effective to replace one than fix it.

But to return to my first point - for the majority of uses, the range of tones available from any Peavey amp does not suit my purposes. Too much headroom, too little warmth and overly stopped mids.

One caveat - it seems like many of those who dislike Peavey amplifiers come, like me, from the 6-string world, and cut our teeth on Fender, Vox and Marshall tube amps. And Peaveys just don't seem to hold up tone wise to any of those examples. Again - MY opinion. I'm not saying they are bad amps - I DO feel there are many that are better built.

[Ken Pippus]

I'm no electronic tech, and it's been a long time since I was a road musician. All I can tell you is that in spite of anyone's opinion about the quality of Peavey's builds, my experience was that I could play a very large number of consecutive gigs on a Peavey bass amp without ever doing anything but plugging it in and playing. That was not my experience with silver face Fenders and I can't imagine the new ones are that good.

In terms of dollars per gig played, Hartley et al have led the pack for long time.