Peavey Reverb cable(s) question

Chas Holman · From: 10 miles outa Lone Star, TX - USA

Anyone with some insight here, I would really appreciate the help (er...Mike Brown?) I've been retired from the music business for over ten years and on trying to resurrect my career, I have found some "problems" with my old Peavey LTD. Most notably, the reverb was totally dead so being the troubleshooting 'geek' that I am, I decided to throw the reverb pan from my old Fender (sorry, Mike) Princeton practice amp in the LTD and see if it was the pan that was the 'problem'.

Well, I got "some" reverb, and then I tried using the old Fender reverb cables along with the pan. BOOM..! REVERB...!! As I worked my way back now, I used the Fender cables and put the LTD's original pan back in line and had even better reverb..!!

So, the answer first: obviously there is a problem with the old LTD's reverb In-Out cables (though no visible signs of damage are apparent - not even under a magnifying glass). Now the question(s): the Fender cables seem to be an exposed braid thin coax whereas the Peavey's are more like an analog audio cable you'd use on your stereo. Is there a 'spec' for this cabling scenario..? In my (other 'real' job) world which entails everything from telco to RF engineering, we stay completely away from exposed braid on ANY cable to avoid ingress from outside "noise" getting into your 'whatever'.

Would a pair of "high dollar" gold tipped audio cables do the trick..? Or do I have to call Peavey and order these things..?

BTW - I would have done this in all caps, but I didn't want anyone to think THAT I WAS YELLING AT THEM..!!!!

-Chas

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

You obviously have one or both cables bad. But it's not a "common" problem. I suspect the biggest problem was oxidation and the usually reliable RCA phono jacks weren't making good contact. If a cable is bad, you don't need the gold contact cables. Just good grade cables. Although gold plated contacts are good, it's really a marketing ploy to sell higher priced connectors.

BTW reverb pans (reverb spring units) are not interchangeable. There are several different impedence models and some are so different that it may have not worked period trying to use a reverb from a different amp to troubleshoot.

Chas Holman · From: 10 miles outa Lone Star, TX - USA

Thanks for the response, Jack. I had assumed the "difference" in pans due to the way the Fender's unit operated at a bit less 'presence' than the original Peavey pan.

After all this, turns out I may have more trouble than just the cables. Turning the amp off and (a few hours later) back on, I've found the reverb to be 'unreliable' at best. Guess I'll try to find a repair facility somewhere here in East Texas and have 'em go through the thing and get it back to a "gig worthy" status.

Luckily, I was able to find a good deal on a Nashville 400 so at least I won't be totally ampless. And thanks for the advice on the gold tipped audio cables . . . I won't fall for their marketing ploy anymore..!

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

If there is a weak spot to Peavey amps, it has to be the whole "reverb" scenario. Very, few complaints ever except with those dang connectors and/or cables.

Both my Peavey amps experienced this brand new. Many of my steel guitar player friends have experienced it also.

I do wish Peavey would take a close look at this one flaw in design IMHO.

Everything else is the best. Just that one area really needs to be looked at and redesigned. No reason why a better connector could not be used with very little cost change up or down I believe.

carl

[This message was edited by C Dixon on 26 July 2000 at 10:46 AM.]

Chas Holman · From: 10 miles outa Lone Star, TX - USA

I absolutely agree, Carl, and appreciate your response. I'm just glad I have a "new" amp on the way......

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Carl, the older Peavey 400's used RCA phono connectors, instead of the molex connector used on later units. The lowly RCA phono connector has been fairly reliable and much less prone to electrical problems than the molex connectors. Fender, and a lot of other guitar amp companies, have used the RCA phono plugs for years.

The Molex line of connectors are used extensively in the electronic world and for many applications they do well for an inexpensive connector. But for the particular application of the reverb connector on a "mobile" piece of equipment it has shown to be a trouble spot.

The sad part is that Peavey seems to be responsive to the musical community and the steelers, but in my dealings with them they seem to go the opposite way and more or less if we designed it that way it is good and we're not going to rethink a design. I've talked to them about the molex connector and about other areas and it was basically the same response.

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Chris, it was great speaking with you yesterday about your LTD amplifier. As I stated yesterday, the problem seems to lie in the reverb cabling harness. Make sure that when your chassis is sent to our service center here in Meridian, that you send it to my attention.

Jack, as far as submitting ideas and suggestions for our products, we get numerous calls, dealer suggestions, consumer letters and e-mail messages on a daily basis. We encourage this type of interaction with our customers. We "do" use many of the ideas and incorporate them into our products quite often. I personally do not know what idea that you submitted to us but there was apparently a reason that it was not used...........either because of the cost factors involved to changeover or maybe our engineers have an alternate plan. However, our engineers and product developement managers consult with our vendors on the reseach of many methods of accomplishing a good connection. We buy thousands and thousands of resistors, capacitors, IC's and other electronic components, so that we can pass along these savings to the consumer. Any we do use the top vendors. Our purchasing power also applies to connectors.

I personally worked in Quality Control for 10 years here at Peavey and the molex connectors were not a major problem. I have worked in Customer Service/Service Department now for almost 12 years and yes, we do repair molex connections on gear that we repair here, but most of the gear is very dated and very used.

If a molex connector is removed after its first initial connection at the factory, I could see where the female pins could open up when the molex is wiggled. This should be corrected at the technician level when a product is repaired for some reason or another. The fallout percentage rate for the molex type of connector is well below 1%. Again, I am not saying that we "don't" see amps in our service department with molex connection problems, but it is not major.

I checked with our Service Department group leader in our technician area and the molex problems that we see are where the molex connector has been removed and the tech did not close the female pins when the unit was reassembled.

We have always listened to our customers, but not all ideas that are received can be used. As a technician, when you answer questions on this forum about our gear, you generally "hit the nail on the head" with your answers, and it is appreciated. We appreciate your support and use of Peavey products and will continue to support you and everyone with their input. Please keep it coming.

As always, I can be reached here at Peavey on our U.S. toll free phone line by dialing 1-877-732-8391.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

To answer the "cable question", the old exposed-shield coax was used by Fender for two reasons. One, it was cheaper! Two, it is not as "rigid" or springy as insulated coax. This means that it could be bent to a shape, and then retain that shape.

The shielding properties of this wire are similar to the plastic covered types. And no, it is in no way "hazardous".

Chas Holman · From: 10 miles outa Lone Star, TX - USA

Thanks again, Don.
Appreciate the input...!

Think I'm gonna send the thing back to Peavey and let the bench techs do their
miracles on getting it back to the status
of "gigable". The cables turned out to
be just 'part' of the story....

-Chas

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