Peavey Special 130 upgrades / modifications

[Thomas Messina]

I need a little Help. Hello my name is Tom. A buddy of mine sold me (Original owner) his mint condition vintage 1983 Peavey special 130 for 125.00 I couldn't resist. I want to do a few mods. The Ken Fox chip upgrade. Ken's web site is down and I have no means to reach out to him. Is he even still in business? I don't know I read he retired. Do you know how I can contact him or can anyone here provide a diagram or schematic for the Ken Fox chip upgrade to the Special 130 amp. My understanding is he uses the Burr brown chips and that four are needed for the Special I have ordered 4 from another source. If anyone here who has done the chip upgrade on a Peavey Special 130 would you post it on this forum” That would be a big help I need to see the placement of those chips. Also I do think the amp is a bit on the heavy side, I have read here on the Steel Guitar Forum, that a speaker swap to eminence 225 watt EPS-12C a NEODYMIUM MAGNET 4 ohm, will not only take a few pounds off of the weight but also ad in the tone department. Are there any other 4ohm 12 inch Neodymium speakers recommended as the EPS 12C is no longer available? Unfortunitly that speaker is hard to find and if you are lucky people are asking a lot of money for it. Aside from these new Neo type speakers what would be a good alternative for a more traditional alnico speaker as long as it's not adding more weight. Thank you very much. Tom

[Bill A. Moore]

Thomas, it's no big deal to swap chips, as they're socketed. Personally I started leaving the 4558 in the reverb circuit, I feel it has more 'verb! Change out the other 3 noting the proper alignment, and you should be golden.
I do like the sound of the OPA2134A chips!
https://www.audioservicemanuals.com/p/p ... -schematic

[Ken Fox]

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... highlight=

[Craig A Davidson]

So tell me when replacing these chips is there a right and wrong on how to install them? I bought some from Ken and they were ruined before I got them installed and ended putting the old ones back in.

[Ken Fox]

Chip must be installed in the correct direction

[Craig A Davidson]

So how do we tell the right direction?

[Bill A. Moore]

There's a notch on the socket, and a dot on the chip locating pin one.

[Ken Fox]

Look closely at the chips on the drawing and read the notes

[Steve Schmidt]

Bill and Ken both nailed your question on chip orientation. The notch on the chip socket indicates where pin 1 would be and the dot or dimple on the OPA2134 chip indicates pin 1. Also, regarding the speaker, I have a Wheelhouse 150 12" speaker and it's a keeper for sure. I really like that little amp and it has plenty of power for most anything.