Tele through a Peavey 400

Brandon Roper · Post by **Brandon Roper** » 16 Feb 2003 11:57 am

Hello gentlemen,
I am contemplating buying a nashville 400 from fellow forum member Richard McKinney. I really shouldn't spend the $ but it seems like a great deal.My question is can i play my Fender Tele through the 400 w/ a distortion stomp box or orher effects box and get a good sound or is this Peavey designed to be a "clean" sounding, steel guitar amp only.
Thanks, Brandon

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 16 Feb 2003 12:02 pm

I haven't played Peavey amps is years, but yes the Nashville 400 is designed to be clean. Any dirt will have to come from an effects box. I'm sure others on here play guitar through one and can give you their opinions.

Eddie Malray · Post by **Eddie Malray** » 16 Feb 2003 12:20 pm

Brandon: The Session 400 is a very clean amp. I had one for 17 years. I now have a Nashville 1000. I will tell you this. Through either one---A tele will suck!

Wayne Brown · Post by **Wayne Brown** » 16 Feb 2003 12:55 pm

eddie i disagree i've played my tele, tackimine,and my steel through a nashville 400 for years.... and now a nashville 1000 and i end up with alot of compliments...i always found the bandits to tinney so i went to the nashville . yes it's clean ...but i've always gone on the theory that if i wanted distortion , chorus or any other effect, i want to add it... not be stuck with it because of amp design

IMHO of coarse

wayne

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Wayne Brown on 16 February 2003 at 05:04 PM.]</p></FONT>

Post by **Joey Ace** » 16 Feb 2003 1:05 pm

I use a Nash 400 for Tele and Steel.

The Tele first goes thru a POD to get the warm-tube sound. Presets on the POD select the amount of distortion (and other effects), if any, it gets.

I use a Boss LS-2 as a A-B Swith to select between Steel or Tele.

This is for club gigs. If I had someone else lugging my gear I'd use two seperate amps.

Eddie Malray · Post by **Eddie Malray** » 16 Feb 2003 5:42 pm

Wayne and Joey: Heres my openion. If you are going to play steel and nothing else, use the Peaveys. If you are called on to play both on the same gig, use a Fender Twin. Nothing sounds better than a Tele in a Twin. (my openion). As far as distortion goes,or any other effects, I never use them. I like the sound of a clean steel and guitar. But to each his own. I've always thought---Let the "Rockers" play with the funky sounding effects because I'm not going to listen to them anyway. This reply is just my openion --- not an auguement. EDDIE

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 16 Feb 2003 6:37 pm

I got lazy once and left my tube amp home thinking that I would be fine with my NV400
for both my steel and my Tele.
I HATED IT!!!!
Tele's love tubes.IMHO

Dyke Corson · Post by **Dyke Corson** » 16 Feb 2003 8:38 pm

Whenever Redd Volkaert comes to visit and spends a week doing gigs & a clinic, he always plays through an old Session 400 that belongs to my wife, he loves it. He uses a Boss CS-2 compressor with a Boss Blues driver for overdrive tones. He has also gigged through one of my Vegas 400s. He spent about 30sec. with the tone controls and said "That's got it!" His tele tone through these amps was killer!

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 17 Feb 2003 5:58 am

Teles sound great thru an old Session 400 or LTD 400. The transistor front end actually had a pretty warm sound in these amps. I just put together an LTD 400 in a Pacer cabinet with a 12" Black Widow. Turned out I liked it even better than a 15" for guitar!
I used an LTD400 s lot of years and ran a compressor for a little added warmth. I never cared for the Nashville for guitar without a compressor, it would work but hard to find a good tone, at least that was my experience. After I modded my Nashville it was a lot better, still not an amp I would take out as first choice for guitar.
I am always experimenting with amps, as I restore them. Lately I got a 212 Mace with BW speakers. Works very nice for guitar and steel. It has a solid state front-end and six each 6L6GC tubes (160 watts RMS), It seems to get a great tone for both both steel and guitar. Another amp that did that well was the Peavey Duece (4 each 6L6GC, same format as a Mace).
Again it is a matter of personal taste. With a little bit of signal conditioning, the Nashville can do OK for a Tele. We tied a Nashville 400 recently with an old Alembic tube preamp (basically it is a Dual Showman preamp) and it just make the Tele sound great thru a Nashville 400. There are a lot of tube preamps on the market now at a fair price. If I had to use only the Nashville, I would use a tube preamp for the Tele as well as a bit of compressor.

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 17 Feb 2003 7:31 am

I play guitar through mine at times and the only thing I don't like about it is the 15" speaker. I prefer a 12" for guitar. I get a little more high response that way. But it does work for me.

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1985 Emmons push-pull, Session 500, Nashville400, 65 re-issue Fender Twin, Fender Tele

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 17 Feb 2003 8:13 am

I guess it's back to;
If you find your Tele' tone with the 400 then it's a fit. If you don't, it's not a fit.

For me, I will use the 400 or the 1000 for the Tele' but prefer not to.
It's the 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for me, and maybe the 60 watt Fender 4X10 Deville sometime down the road.

I have played thru a Twin for 25 years , with the Tele and the Steel, I am a big fan of the Twins, but I also am a huge fan of the Hot Rod Series, 40 watt Deluxe and the 60 watt Devilles. These are excellent and very versatile amps. Killer tone at low volumes. Classic Fender tube tone in the clean side...

How could they not be good ? 12AX7's front end with Sovtek 6L6's back side.

get em' all..
tp

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 17 Feb 2003 10:44 am

It depends on how you play.I played in Nevada a few years ago with a Canadian guy named Paul Chapman who can really give Albert Lee a run for his money. He said he preferred solid state amps because tube amps were mushy and weren't "fast" enough for him when he played all the super-fast,super-accurate hotshot pick and fingers stuff.

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 17 Feb 2003 12:11 pm

Get a decent compressor pedal and a POD to go in the front end of the Nashville. I've played my Tele through my N/Ville 400 for years as I can't go with carrying 2 amps around. I don't think you can beat the combination of Fender into Fender, but the POD does a pretty mean job.

Richard Bass · Post by **Richard Bass** » 18 Feb 2003 2:51 pm

I played a Tele thru two Peavey Specials with the old Ibanez 405 effects rack. It was a great sounding setup. But the setup I liked best was Tele, Echoplex, Fender Twin with Lansings. I guess I'm showing my age!
Richard

Brian Davis · Post by **Brian Davis** » 18 Feb 2003 2:59 pm

Hey, Richard, I'd take that second setup anyday...and I'm just a whipper-snapper.

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