SeriesPeavey Classic

I have been using a nice Digitech G300 poweramp for 20yrs. I used the power stage of a B52 AT100 for a bit and realized the great tone of tubes at low volume too. Been changing my rig and wanted the tube dynamics back at practice levels although the Digitech G300 is great loud. I seen one of these 50/50's at a store and went back the next day w/ my preamps to try it out and was blown away at the straight forward tone and brute power! It has been around for 24yrs so I had to get 4 EL 84's (of 8) and a new fan but it's fully restored. Front panel Pres/Resonance are great! I play Metal and classical w/ Distortion and going for an ENGL tone. This has been great for that b/c you can customize it somewhat with the (soft to hard) rating of EL 84 tubes. The B52's 6l6's were too glassy and the sound got lost but the EL 84's (GT's rated at 7) are perfect for what I need. Preserves the tone of preamps very well too! People cut down EL 84's for Metal but the two amps I have had w/ these were very heavy! A/B'ed it w/ some high end amps in the store and it held it's own= (Diamond @ $1700 -EVH III 50w). Pricy to retube though! If in need don't hesitate to grab one of these.

First, the review posted by iamqman here is dead on, this amp has a beautiful warm clean with a mild EL84 overdrive on Channel 2. Very much targeted at country and mild rock applications (great tones for jazz too). I have the 4x10, and depending on the speakers it ships with (Peavey uses 3 different speakers at times), the amp can sound pretty thin. Now, nobody buys an EL84 amp hoping its big and bold like a 6L6 amp (Bassman), EL84 tubes are a different thing, very rich complex overdrive, but not particularly fat. The 4x10 version is going to be more mid-high voiced with less bottom end than the 2x12 version. If people are expecting this 4x10 tweed amp to sound like a Bassman, it certainly does not. The Bassman is a 6L6 amp, big and bold tones but much less features and much less range of tones to this Peavey. This Classic 50 probably sounds more Marshall-ish than Fender-ish. It is not a Bassman clone, much as it looks like it visually. For $800, this 4x10 Classic 50 is a ridiculuously good deal. Its a beautiful amp, has a lot of features, sounds very, very nice (if a bit thin on overdrive channel), and is so darn cool. You may chose to run an eq pedal in the loop to boost the bottom end a touch, no big deal. Overall, a beautiful amp and a great value.

The Delta Blues 115, tweed cover: For the last 10 I've used it for EVERYTHING. Gigs, recording, just playing around, rock, jazz, blues, it's dang near perfect. The guitars I use primarily are an Epiphone Sheridan and Peavey Wolfgang. The guy at my local music store in MN (I think his name was Pat) suggested it to me. I played it, loved it and bought it for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400. Since then it's gone with me all across the country, south to Missouri and up and down both coasts, I now play it in a rock band in Philly. Great tone. This seems to be what everyone says, but really that's it's greatest asset. Huge lows, pure highs, and the mid don't get muddy. The clean channel sounds great all the way through, and it has great gain in channel two. Tremolo and reverb both sound good, and if you need to give it more for some reason, it sounds great with a pedal in front. Oh yeah, and the dials don't go to 11, they go to 12! My only issues are 1) it doesn't come with a footswitch, but almost no amps do, and that's a cheap purchase, and 2) the tubes are kind of fragile, though with all the traveling it's done I've only had to replace tubes a couple times, and you can by a tube guard. Like a rock. My buddy was helping load me into a gig and dropped it 5 feet out of his van. I wouldn't recommend this as part of it's usual maintenance, but it suffered only a couple scratches to the tweed, and played as good as new that night. Buy it, use it, love it. It'll be with you forever. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this amp for $470.00 at my local Sam Ash. I had been using solid state amps for a few years, and I decided it was time to step up to a tube amp. I got the extended warranty too(you need it) so it all came out to $550.00. Best little amp I've ever owned. Well, comparing it to solid state amps, which I had been using for a while, there is no comparrison. The tone on this is to die for. Very warm, not like a Fender at all. The fenders just seem to be too airy for my taste. It can get fairly loud, enough to shake the house. But for club gigs, you'll need to mic it. This amp is PERFECT for blues. The OD/Distortion on it is really smooth with a nice breakup. All in all, a great little amp. Well I have no complaints soundwise, but theres some things that I definitely would have liked. First of all, two equalizers would be nice. One for each channel. An included footswitch would be great...I mostly use pedals for my distortion though, so this doesn't pose too much of a problem. The tubes get really hot, more so than other tube amps. Well it is very sturdy. But the tweed covering peels and cracks if you don't take care of it. Also, this is a tube amp, so you can't afford to drop it...it is much more fragile than solid states. But for just putting it in the back of your car, it'll work fine. There's four words that accuratly describe this amp...Great First Tube Amp. It has a good enough tone where you will easily be able to tell the difference from solid state, but crazy tone fanatics might come up unsatisfied. So if you're new to the tube amp world, this is the amp for you. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought at Daddy's Junky Music in Nashua, NH. Got it because it sounds great for blues and classic rock. $450.00 new at the Customer Appreciation Sale. The reverb is good which you wont find in the comparable Fender Hot Rod Deluxe I was going to buy. The overdrive is smooth and warm. You can get a very SRV sound with Texas Specials and this amp. Clean Channel sounds great too. Has built in tremolo. The tubes are unprotected so you have to be carefull with them. Footswitch wasn't included. Footswitch you can buy is only good for channel switching not for tremolo and boost. Built like a tank. I've owned a lot of Peaveys with no issues. If your looking for an all tube amp with great tone clean and overdrive for blues or classic rock look no further. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

30 watts (RMS) into 16 or 8 ohms Four EL84s and three 12AX7s 12" Blue Marvel speaker 2-channel preamp Pre- and post-gain controls on lead channel Normal volume control on clean channel 3-band passive EQ (bass, middle, treble) Boost switch Reverb level control Effects loop Footswitch selectable channel switching and reverb External speaker capability Chrome-plated chassis Made in the USA UTILIZATION I think the first thing that needs to be noted about the build of this amp is the fact that it's made in the USA. The fact that you can pick this up for around $450 if you look around is a real testament to how great a deal it is. That said, there is a bit of learning curve to this amp. While the controls are fairly simple, you kind of have to learn what it likes and doesn't like. SOUNDS I'll start with the clean channel. It's probably the best channel on the amp. The Classic 30 is good to think of as a Vox AC30 with a little bit of plexi mixed in. It's not as vibrant and harmonic as the AC30, but is has the mids of a marshall. It's not quite as angry as either of those amps...it's more versatile than that. It has a pretty neutral voice. The clean channel is very balanced and has that EL84 vibe going on pretty heavy. It takes pedals extremely well. You can get this amp to sound about like anything with the right pedals. I think the neutrality of the clean channel is what makes it so useful for pedals. It basically becomes what ever you feed it. It's very warm. The lead channel is something I don't too often use. It's not high gain. More like plexi to jcm800ish levels of gain. It's not as aggressive as an EL34 amp. It's just sort of flatly voiced. If you want high gain, you should probably just use a distortion pedal on the clean channel rather than use an overdrive for this channel. I use the lead channel for my mid gain sounds usually. The clean channel + pedals can do everything else. OVERALL OPINION The speaker is about the only thing about the Classic 30 I don't like. But that's no problem. A lot of people like to put a Vintage 30 in these but in my opinion there's a bit of a mid spike. I have tried a number of speakers in mine and I'm pretty impressed with Greenbacks for the most part. They seem to warm up the amp. Other than that there's really no gripes about this amp at all. It has some of the best all around tone I've ever heard. Extremely versatile amp...and probably would be part of my desert island rig.

The Peavey Classic 30 head is a two channel, small footprint amp. It puts out 30 watts of tube power out to whatever 16 ohm cab you desire. The cab only has one 16 ohm output with no other ohm settings available. It has a drive channel and a clean channel, along with a boost switch and built in reverb. The head has a three band passive EQ section (bass, mid, treb) and pre and post gain controls on the lead channel allow the user to hone in the distorted tones. Four EL84s and three 12AX7 tubes are used in the tube section. The two channels are footswitchable and there is an effects loop included. UTILIZATION This amp is robustly built. The material used to cover the head is not prone to ripping and after a few years of gigging still looks new. I’ve used it time after time for shows with no issues at all. This amp is fixed bias, so no adjustments are needed when swapping tubes. The footswitch will let you seamlessly change between clean and dirty sounds and the added effects loop lets you put your time based effects after the preamp. The head chassis is built strong and the knobs, jacks, and controls all seem very sturdy. The Boost feature is a waste of space really, it is not footswitchable and the boost in the mid frequency is just unbearable. Instead of just a regular volume boost, Peavey tried to make this so the lead tones would cut through the mix. A basic volume boost that was accessed through the footswitch would be more useful. SOUNDS It’s hard to find an amp that has a good clean sound and dirty sound, but this amp does. While a Marshall does a great dirty sound it lacks in the clean channel. Fenders are the other way around. I wouldn’t say this amp does either channel exceptionally well, but it manages to do a good job at both sounds in one amp. The clean sounds are a little fatter with less sparkle and clarity than a Fender clean, but it’s a good clean tone. The clean channel is very accepting of pedals both in the loop and up front. The dirty channel is more British voiced than American. It doesn’t nail the tones from my Marshall JCM but it comes fairly close. This is your middle of the road amp, country through rock tones. Metal and hard rock can be had by using a boost up front. Pair this head up with a 212 with Greenback and you have a pretty versatile rig. OVERALL OPINION This is your basic Peavey Classic 30 inside of a headshell instead of a combo amp. It’s a widely used budget amp that sounds great at a decent price. If you can pick one up used they are an extreme bargain and are real workhorses. The features are enough to get you by without needing outboard gear, though pedals work great with this amp out in front or through the loop. I would and have gigged it for several years and haven’t had any problems with the head. Load the tube section up with JJ’s or Ruby’s, put a TungSol 12AX7 in V1 of the preamp section and pair it up with a cab with Greenback style speakers and you have a great sounding two channel rig with reverb that will cop a lot of classic rock style tones at any volume (just remember to leave that boost switch off).