The Steel Guitar Forum

A friend of mine wants to sell me his Peavey Reno 400 for $150.00,I don't know anything about that amp? could someone tell me about it.I have to LTD 400 and like them would this be close?
Thanks,Stu

I think the Reno was their attempt at an "acoustic" amp. The one I saw had a weird speaker array, maybe two tens and a horn. Not a steel amp.

KP

http://www.bazaar-world.com/guitar-amp- ... -keyboards

I have one of these amps and it is great for acoustic guitar and fiddle, but not so good for steel....Mine has a 15" and two tweeters.....sounds real nice with acoustic instruments.

I have one of these amps and it is great for acoustic guitar and fiddle, but not so good for steel....Mine has a 15" and two tweeters.....sounds real nice with acoustic instruments. Also heavey, between 50-60 lbs.

fwiw I bought a cosmetically challenged one for $25 on Craigslist last summer.
Cleaned up the scratchy pots and gave it a bath and it works fine and looks good enough.
I like it for steel just fine, but I disconnect the horn.
It has a 15" speaker but it is not a Scorpian or a BW.
The pre-amp/power-amp setup are pretty much the same as a Nashville 400.

A long time guitarist/singer mate of mine has had one of these amps for 20+ years and it sounds fantastic for acoustic guitar -- his has a 15" BW and horn... I have never tried it for steel though... the horn may cause some issues for steel.

Thanks guys,I play with a fiddle player who has been going thru a crappy P.A. and is looking for an amp,this might be great for him.

I use one for steel, have the horns disconected, have had complements one the sound I get. Mel Tillis fiddle players use them. And I had a guy on guitar that used one.

This model was never intended to be used as a steel amp, but for acoustic electric guitars. The Austin 400 was designed for an electric guitar in one channel and an electric acoustic guitar in the second channel.

I have an Austin 400 too.
I also have the Renown 400 (and an older Session 400).
I think they were either in City series or the Solo series, but all pretty much had the same preamp/power amp sections, some with saturation, channel switching, some with horns, some with 2x12 or 1x15, some with high gain inputs.
I think they are all good Steel amps, although I also use them for electric and electric/acoustic guitar, and electric/acoustic banjo, also.

I think the Reno and the Nashville are the same except for the horns. Just disconect the horns for steel. Sound good.

What Paul said but you could add a toggle switch and use it for acoustic or steel. I had this amp and sorry I sold it. For $150.00 it will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Lenny

My friend brought the amp to my sound check and I was surprised how good it sounded,The fiddle player never got to try it out because he's got some adapter issues with his pickup.I have a friend who has been playing steel for a short while who will buy it.Thanks for the responses.Hi Lenny.

Peavey made a few flops in the 80's Reno 400 was one of them,I got one for 50.00 a few yrs ago took the speaker and knobs and junked it, It sounds really bad with a steel ,,, really bad they made another flop in 400 series...I think it was renown 400....?

I most humbly disagree, Per a tech at Peavey back when I bought the Reno, said it was the same electronics as the Nashville only it was packing a 15" and 2 piezos which was for the acoustic. I have been playing one for about 20 years, still sounds great. I do have the horns disconnected. The amp will go from the Living Room to a gig in a heartbeat. Lots of power and great headroom. I have thought of trying it with a cabinet with 2 12" but I never have gotten around to it. Anyway 75 more cents and you can get a cup of coffee too

Keeping in mind that the Reno was not designed as a stel amp, and that you can snag one at a fraction of the cost of a NV400 etc., I think it's a great amp. I picked one up for around $100. I ended up selling it to a steel buddy who badly needed an amp. Sounds much closer to a Peavey steel amp (Nashville, Session, etc.) than to a guitar amp. Somewhat underpowered for the big gigs, but plenty enough to do moderate volume gigs.

Yeah my Reno sounds great for Steel.
All those amps sound fine for Steel actually.
The Renown is nice because it has two separate channels (I have the foot pedal)... easy for Guitar and Steel thru one amp.

Nothing wrong with any of the 400 series amps IMO. Duke Robilard, a great blues & jazz guitarist played through a Peavey 400 PA head and a single speaker.

Duke was doing a recording session and the engineer said what are you doing playing through that thing? Use the fender Twin we have. After they did an A/B test the engineer said, "use the Peavey" For Dukes style of playing it did him very well. Go figure

emmons has been seen with a renown. must not be too bad.

The Renown 15" (forget the name) was a steel amp, and highly praised by Lloyd Green. I think it is a quite different animal from the standard model with 2 12" Scorpion speakers. Is that what Emmons was playing?

I passed up multiple chances to pick one up here in NH; just couldn't justify yet another large, heavy amp: but I sure was tempted to check it out.

don't know any details, but on the cover of buddy's 'one for the road' album, the renown (15 inch 'at least') is waiting for peggy to load it into the car.

i support pv...i have an ltd400, a nash400, a vegas400 that was given to me cause it needs some fixin and a first model bandit112 80w with a bw 12 in it now.

I think of myself as a Twin guy, but I've been liking my NV 400 more and more. I've even been liking its reverb.