The Steel Guitar Forum

Bill Ferguson

As some of you may know, I have been working with Peavey Electronics Corp. (engineer John Fields, customer service rep Mike Brown AND Hartley Peavey), off and on, all this year, helping to pin down the right sound for the EQ and Internal Reverb for the new Peavey Session 115 amplifier.
It has been quite painstaking and required several trips to Meridian, MS, with steel guitar in hand, to finalize what, in my opinion, will prove to be one of the best Peavey steel guitar amps ever.

I was not involved in the original design of the onboard effects (which are great) nor the clip on hand controller, which I think needs a modification and have already discussed this with the Peavey Engineers and Mike Brown in customer service.

On my last trip over to Meridian on October 12, while testing out the first production amps, Hartey Peavey presented me with Peavey Session 115 #1.
Wow, I am ever so humbled. That is all I know to say.

So for those of you that have been asking, the new Session 115 was worth the wait. First production run was sold out in pre-orders from dealers. Don’t have a date for the next production run yet. If you have any inclination of purchasing one, you should contact your local Peavey dealer.

Those that know me, know that I support any company or organization that supports the steel guitar and have long supported (and played their products) companies such as Peavey Electronics, George L’s Cables, Goodrich Sound, BJS Bars, Sho Bud, Emmons Guitar Company and Carter Steel Guitars, just to name a few. And recently I began supporting the new kid on the block, the Telonics Company, which also produces a fine line of steel guitar amps.

The bottom line is, support the people that support us with all the great new products that are available to the crazy ones of us that even own a “pedal steel guitar”. Yep, and we are all crazy. Hehe!

I will have the newest Peavey Session 115 and the Telonics “Combo 112” at the DSSG show in Gulfport, MS, the GaSGA show in Conyers, GA and the Southern Steel show in Belvedere, SC during the month of November. So come on out and take a test drive of both.

Per last photo:

"Mug Shots' of three gentlemen at MugShots.

Congrats Bill, Mike, and Hartley

As opposed to the looks of the 112, it appears Peavey has reverted to the old style logo and aluminum strips for the 115. Wonder what influenced this?

They have been back with the "lightning" logo for some time.
This logo is White.

Popular demand about the aluminum strips and "brand recognition"

Makes sense to me, Bill.

#1 WOW!!! How Nice.

Will Peavey have a booth at the Phoenix or Dallas shows?

Mike Brown is planning a booth in Dallas

guys at Peavey, as busy as they are with the huge market they cover out there, they were always close in touch with small steel guitar community , and thru the years they provided steel players with some amazing products, my thank you goes to all of the hard working people at Peavey...

I will have a room in Phoenix. Hope to have one of the new Peavey 115's there to play. Should havw a new Mullen steel or two there also and I will have my booth at the Dallas show with new equipment steels and amps there also.

Gary Sill
Sill Music Supply
217-433-7455

I'm a little miffed that Peavey has been regularly promoting this amp for at least six months and now starts delivering them one at a time to a select few. I mean, who does that?!
I need a new amp and decided to purchase this one but guess what? My order has not been filled and I still need a new amp!
Don't promote something just to get cheap thrills from a curious audience unless you can deliver the goods!!

Tony Palmer wrote:I'm a little miffed that Peavey has been regularly promoting this amp for at least six months and now starts delivering them one at a time to a select few. I mean, who does that?!
I need a new amp and decided to purchase this one but guess what? My order has not been filled and I still need a new amp!
Don't promote something just to get cheap thrills from a curious audience unless you can deliver the goods!!

Maybe the Peavey 115 is a "boutique" amp.

Tony Palmer wrote:I'm a little miffed that Peavey has been regularly promoting this amp for at least six months and now starts delivering them one at a time to a select few. I mean, who does that?!
I need a new amp and decided to purchase this one but guess what? My order has not been filled and I still need a new amp!
Don't promote something just to get cheap thrills from a curious audience unless you can deliver the goods!!

I was waiting for reviews from actual players, but have not seen any....and I need an amp

Lee Baucum wrote:

Tony Palmer wrote:I'm a little miffed that Peavey has been regularly promoting this amp for at least six months and now starts delivering them one at a time to a select few. I mean, who does that?!
I need a new amp and decided to purchase this one but guess what? My order has not been filled and I still need a new amp!
Don't promote something just to get cheap thrills from a curious audience unless you can deliver the goods!!

Maybe the Peavey 115 is a "boutique" amp.

Tim Marcus delivers a Milkman in just a few weeks.

I am also a little surprised that Peavey hasn't been a little more proactive getting a sample out in front of people. A perfect example is Buck Reid, certainly one of the highest profile players around these days was up ydoing the PSGA show and seminar last month. It was perfect opportunity to get that amp seen by 100 steel players. Why not I give him, or at the very least lend him one? Why no sound clips on the website? Why no YouTube videos of a proper demo by a top player through all the features and sounds? I did see the demos Gary Sill did and some sounded pretty good to me and some not so much, but they were just of one player with one sound riffing for a couple minutes.
I remember when the Nashville 400 came out they actually sent them out to select Peavey dealers. John Swain and I took a 70 mile road trip to check one out in Paramus New Jersey, but I bought it on the spot.
In all fairness I did buy a Quilter without trying it, but there were several YouTube demos and several reviews of the amp by people on the forum that used them in live gigging situations. For now, I'm going to wait it out

Thx

No offense to Quilter, as they also build a fine amplifier.
However, this thread is about the Peavey Session 115.

I humbly request that if you post on this thread, please keep it "on topic".

Bill

Jack Stanton, we ran a first run of 10 Sessions and 5 RR models and even though you don't "see" them, they are out there. The promotion of a product has taken a different direction since 1997 when the Session 1000 and Nashville 1000 amps were introduced.

It used to be that we would introduce new steel products at Scotty's and the Texas Steel Jamboree. However, we have new AR guys who will handle that. Keep your eyes open.