SeriesPeavey ValveKing

In today's world where space is considered a luxury, small guitar amplifiers are a godsend. It's not really surprising then that low-wattage tube amplifiers have become the trendy item for people who have crafted home studios for personal and professional use. One of these small, budget-friendly tube amps is the Peavey Valve King Royal 8. As the name suggests, the Peavey Valve King Royal 8 is a 5-watt all-tube (or all-valve) amp with a single 8-inch speaker. It is a class-A amp with a very straightforward design, having a single 12AX7 tube for the preamp section and one EL84 tube for the power section. Looking at the front panel demonstrates its simplicity with its two inputs, an on/off toggle switch, a headphone jack, and three chicken-head knobs for control over gain, tone, and master volume. It's pretty obvious that this amp doesn't have all sorts of "bells" and "whistles" like a three-band EQ and effects that you would find in other amps of the same size. UTILIZATION The Peavey Valve King Royal 8's sound is simply that what you would expect from a tube amp: a nice, warm tone every electric guitar player would appreciate. With the right settings on one's own guitar plus the tone knob at 12 o'clock, the gain somewhere at around level 3 or 4 (this is not exact as there are no numbers around the periphery of the knobs), and the volume around 12 o'clock, we can get a pretty decent clean tone for a tube amp. Cranking up the gain to full provides a nice crunchy preamp distortion. Given the size of the amp, tone shaping possibilities, and a limited volume output, the Peavey Valve King Royal 8 is very useful in recording. For recording, one is required to use at least a single microphone because of the lack of a direct output jack, encouraging users to treat the amp more like an acoustic instrument during recording rather than just simple sound reinforcement. The manual include is rather simple and easy to read. The matter of fact is that the Peavey Valve King Royal 8 could be used straight out of the box without the need to go through the manual. You can just plug it in to a power source, plug your guitar into one of its inputs, turn it on, fiddle with the knobs a little bit, and just start playing. A user can easily get a good sound from it on its own. For an amp its size, it is surprisingly loud and could even hold up on its own against a drummer without mic'ing it up. However, the amp cannot be overdriven to extreme levels (i.e. distorted sounds for metal) with its set of controls, and so getting it to sound really heavy for hard rock or metal requires the use of pedals. SOUNDS I use most of my electric guitars on the Peavey Valve King Royal 8. Since I usually play jazz with it, I like tweaking it to get a clean yet warm sound. Occasionally, I would just set the gain knob to full for preamp distortion and control the amount of distortion by just lowering or cranking up the volume knob on my guitar. It is surprisingly responsive to volume control found on most guitars, and so it is relatively easy to get some classic sounding tones. In my experience, I get great sounding tones out of it with passive humbuckers like a Gibson PAF. To get heavier distorted sounds, I would use effects pedals with it. OVERALL OPINION The greatest thing about the Peavey Valve King Royal 8 is its simplicity. It's the kind of guitar amp that you just hook up and play right away. It's very easy to get great tones out of it because there's not a lot of things to adjust other than master volume, gain, and a single EQ knob. For a tube amp of its quality, I can say that it's money well spent. It's an all-tube amp you can get at a budget price. Compared to other amps of similar design, it has more control options than the Laney Cub 8 and the Epiphone Valve Jr. (three knobs for the Valve King Royal 8 against two for the Laney Cub 8 and one for the Epiphone Valve Jr.). I do think, however, that it would have been better if it was a two-channel amp (clean and overdrive) like a Blackstar HT-1. Had Peavey decided that it should have separate clean and overdrive channels plus footswitch control, it would have been the perfect studio and practice amp. Overall, I do think that the Peavey Valve King Royal 8 is an excellent all-tube amp that would meet the needs of most guitar players for studio and practice applications. PROS: - All-tube amp at a budget price point - Simple controls - Great volume output considering its size. - Versatile sound CONS: - Single channel only (no separate clean and overdrive channels)

This is the same amp as the 1x12 valvking but just added one extra 1x12 speaker and doubling the wattage up to 100 watts. This is one extremely versatile combo amp. It has two channel one for clean and then one for a dirty tone. Both channels are very usable and voiced for a great rock n roll sound. The amp has a ton of features like reverb and a bright switch as well as a boost switch for the lead lines. The amp is voiced more in the British flavor of things. Even though it has 6L6 power tubes which is more used in American metal tones, the amps overall is more toward the British voicings. The tone is remarkable for being at the price point that it is in. The only thin I don't like about this amp is the effects loop in on the front of the amp. this means if you use the effects loop you will have 3 cables running in the front of this beats and couple that wit a mic then you are getting crowded. Peavey ValveKing 212 Combo Features: 100 watts (rms) into 16, 8, or 4 ohms (switchable) Four 6L6GC and three 12AX7 tubes Two independent footswitchable channels Separate EQ for each channel Footswitchable gain/volume boost on lead channel Dual paralleled speaker jacks Two 12-inch ValveKing speakers Reverb with level control Buffered effects liip Resonance and presence controls New TEXTURE™ variable Class A simulation control (patent pending) UTILIZATION Details Type Tube Number of Channels 2 Power 100W Speakers 2 x 12" ValveKing No Effects Reverb EQ Bass, Middle, Treble No Amp Modeling Preamp Tubes 3 x 12 AX7 Power Tubes 4 x 6L6GC Inputs 2 x Instrument Outputs 2 x Speaker Footswitch I/O Effects Loop Height 20.6" Width 26.4" Depth 11.6" Weight 64.5 lbs. SOUNDS If you keep the amp in the clean channel and click the bright switch in the off position then you get a solid jazz tone that is rich and full bodied. It is a very warm tone great for jazz riffs and runs. If you click the bright switch on then you get a great spanky country clean tone. All you need then is to add a little reverb and you are golden. When you go over to the dirty channel this is where things heat up. The tone is very thick and chunky. I like this tone with a medium to low body tone such as an ash or alder bodied guitar. This get your tone to cut ore when you have such a beefy distortion tone. OVERALL OPINION For the money it doesn't really get any better than this amp. At new these amps come in at around $650, which in my opinion is a steal for a solid two channel amplifier. The ability to switch from class A to AB is another remarkable feature this amp has. I would recommend this amp to anyone who is on the lookout for a great sounding combo amp that won't break the bank and that has real tubes in it. There is no modeling or solid state design in this amp...just real tube distortion and thick colorful clean tones.

I used the Peavey ValveKing 112 about 8 months ago. Was not real sure if this was the amp for me, but I read the other reviews both here and on other sites. Tone is a very personal thing as we all know. I tried it in the store, but in my setting and my ax it is always going to different. Got to say right out of the box with all the presets the ValveKing 112 will ROCK your socks off. Now down load the Peavey Edit program and your off. Anything you can think or feel is at your finger tips. UTILIZATION It does take a bit of learning to use the program to set your tone, but in the end it so worth it however the dials are easy to use and can do the same thing. All this is great till you get the chance. Get the break and take it on stage. Will it keep up with the tube amps? YES. I made it out of the garage and joined a classic rock cover band around Atlanta.."It's all Relative"..and let me tell everyone first hand this amp will easly keep up with a full band. VOX AC30 with a 4 x 10 cab, double bass stack and drums now throw in the keyboard. SOUNDS The Valve King 112 can lead it all and blast out there or mellow out and have a good time in the background. Your Choise all with a clean clear tone or as much grundge as you like. Got to have at least the MK II foot board even if you can only use 4 presets. I even use the ValveKing with my Acoustic/electric, just have to set one preset with a lower gain and your off. Sound is great once you get it dialed in. So here you have an amp that can hang with the big boys on the stage or at home. OVERALL OPINION Overall, very happy with the sound, i recommend this to anyone!