The Steel Guitar Forum

28.January.2003

I see all the time that the big amplifier companies F.... from USA, and M...... from England do reissues of popular vintage amplifiiers.

Here is my idea for a Peavey REISSUE for stage use:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Reissue Peavey Session 400 LTD, the model, that until 5 years ago was sold through any musical instruments shop in Europe with full Peavey warranty/guarantee . ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I understand that it would be too expensive for Peavey to have the Nashville 1000 CE altered and certified for the European market because of the parts and research and development for the change to 220 Volts. And because of the relatively low sales which would be expected for such a special steel guitar amp.

Then just please continue with the "Session 400 Limited" with 15” Black Widow speaker which was sold here for 8 years and was already certified and approved for CE (Europe). Just continue with this amp for Europe, with no extra expenses for certifying. It was already here. It can have a tapped transformer that has windings for both 110 and 220 volts, so you do not have to count how many amps sold in USA versus how many sold in Europe, just
be happy over the total sale. Customers are standing with money in hand here in Europe just to get hands on a Peavey steel guitar amp, new or used.

Also to help sales don´t advertise it specific as a steel guitar amp, but and "all-round" amp or "multi-purpose" amp for electric gutar, keyboard, steel guitar etc. I have seen people over here using it professionally for bass guitar, and I have myself besides pedal steel guitar used it for keyboard and even P.A. system.

So there is no particular need to develop a new model, if this is too expensive. Do the trendy thing: just REISSUE Peavey Session 400 LTD., or maybe the Nashville 400.

Kind regards,

Henning Kock
(pedal steel guitar, piano, keyboards, vibraphone)
Henning K. Music
111 Aarhusvej
DK-8300 Odder
Denmark,
Europe
phone +45 8654 2959
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e-mail address: henningkmusic@hotmail.com
.........
webpages:
pedal steel guitar: www.geocities.com/Nashville/1520 www.steelguitardanmark.subnet.dk (information)
.........
piano & keyboard: www.sitecenter.dk/henning-kock www.danskmusik.com/dmfbook/selskab/html/henning_kock.html
.........
and for musical instrument products wholesale (to dealers): www.henningkmusic.subnet.dk


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you got a good idea there Henning.
Planned Obsolescence is the way most big companies operate (Ford,PV,BMW...)
i doubt PV will reissue this amp but do keep your fingers crossed Henning ya'never know !
Peavey is proposing a new Steel amp and it seems likely to be Xported http://www.steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/003276.html
Steel L@@kin' for a good amp ?<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 29 January 2003 at 07:01 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 29 January 2003 at 07:02 AM.]</p></FONT>

Not living in Europe, the voltage issue is not important to me. I do sympathize with those fighting this battle. There's strength in numbers and the steel playing population is small enough, but the European/220V portion is even smaller yet. It is indeed difficult to convince a large company to do ANYTHING.

MY PERSONAL OPINION:
If you're gonna reissue something, I would prefer the ORIGINAL SESSION 400 from the 70s. I don't notice enough difference between the Nashville 400/1000 and the Session 400LTD. The original Session400 or the smaller LTD400 was an amp I could ALWAYS get a good sound out of. I still use mine from time to time, even though I have two Standels. I borrowed a Session4LTD for a couple of weeks and could not get the same sound out of it -- particularly the midrange which tended to be harsh to my ears.

The trend you quote is to reissue the vintage (usually interpreted as OLD) equipment -- not one that was available 5 years ago. The mid 70s Session 4 is among my favorite solid state steel amps and, I believe, deserves to be reissued. Also, to recoup manufacturing costs, the amp company would need some assurance that sales would justify the up-front expense. I just don't think that would happen.

JUST MY LI'L OLE OPINION. Sorry to be negative.

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 29 January 2003 at 08:52 AM.]</p></FONT>

30.january.2003,
Hi Larry,
I mentioned the Session400LTD, because it was already here certified and for sale in Europe 6 years ago. Then I thought it would be more economical for PV to just do another production run of this one.
Of course the older Session 400 would also be fine (I own one), or my favorite the Nashville 400 (I own two of them).
Kind regards,
Henning



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