November 22, 2008

Peavey Amps

Peavey amplifiers have been been making guitar amps for a long time. Since 1957, to be exact.

Peavey is known for making amps that are reliable workhorses. One of my first guitar amps ever was a Peavey Special. It was a very good sounding combo amp for its time and price point (yes I am old!).

I eventually ended up with a Peavey Deuce for a while too, and 2x12 combo, but this one had some issues and blew fuses all the time.

With the birth of the Classic series amps, I think the sound quality of the Peavey amps went up a bit. I got a 20 watt Peavey Classic which sounded really good. I had to sell it when I moved to Canada, otherwise I would still have it today.

I have played the Peavey Classic 30 and 50 several times at gigs, and I am always impressed by how great these amps sound. In fact, I often recommend the Classic 30 to people who ask about a versatile combo that doesn't cost a fortune. This amp continues to be one of the best deals you can make, if you need a tube combo for playing blues, country or jazz.

More recently, Peavey have put out several interesting and good sounding amps. We have the Windsor, ValveKing, Vypyr, 6505, JSX, Bandit, Delta Blues, Classic, Rage, Envoy, Audition, Valve King Royal, Triple XXX, Transtube, Penta, Jack Daniels 30. Phew! I probably missed some too, but that's quite a few models of guitar amps! Anything from practice amps to screaming half-stacks, Peavey makes them all.

I haven't personally tried all of the different models, but I have tried quite a few, and not surprising, the more expensive the amp, the more impressive it is. For metal heads, the Vypyr is an incredible deal, since it costs so little but have such great metal sounds.

Perhaps Peavey used to be known as the budget line of amps, a few steps below Fender and Marshall in tone and quality, but I don't think is true anymore. Peavey has improved and matured, and their best amps can hang with any of the major amp manufacturers out there. If you see a Peavey in a store, try it out. The are usually cheaper than Marshalls and/or Fenders, and you might be surprised at the quality of tones you can conjure out of Peavey amps.

Peavey amps summary

Here are some of the amps in the Peavey line. I'm not saying this is a complete list either; it's just a few of the amps I've heard of, and several of them I have enjoyed playing.

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

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Posted by Robert Renman on November 22, 2008