Peavey Envoy 110 II (Discontinued)

35 year muxician. At 58 years old I'm still gigging. Played pro for a few years back in the day. I prefer Les Pauls but I also own a Strat and a Tele.
This Envoy is the newest model-sporting the aluminum vertical strips, black face and chrome knobs. Mine was made in 2008.

Bought it second hand from a friend, for 100 dollars.

It's loud enough for small to medium venues. Six voicings-3 clean and 3 dirty. I like the boost feature a lot. The reverb is fine at 9 o'clock. Reverb sounds real even though it's digital.
This amp sounds very good through the 10' blue marvel speaker. I installed an external jack for a 2 X 12 Avatar cab I have and the little Envoy III pushed the pair of Eminence speakers (Wizard and Swamp Thing) pretty well. The internal speaker is disconnected when the external cab is connected. With the 2 X 12 it sounds like it's almost powerful enough to use at a medium to large venue.
I like the clean channel a lot and the dirty channel is good as well. This has a serious tubelike presence. It's just about the best sounding non-tube amp I have heard so far, pushing a 10 inch speaker.
Very good low-end for a small sized amp.

1. It doesn't come with a foot switch. Luckily I had one already so it was no problem for me.
2. Weird, 6 ohm output impedance. The speaker is a 6 ohm job. Not really a problem...just weird. Must admit, the Blue Marvel sounds pretty good.
3. Hard to see the black indicators on the chrome knobs.
4. No channel indicator lamps.

Chinese made. MDF with nice folded metal chassis. Glass PC board. Standard off the shelf components-caps, electrolytics, resistors transistors, voltage regulator, rectifier and ICs are all vanilla. Three prong, disconnect Ac cord.

Buy one if you're looking for a nice, inexpensive amp for rehearsal and or smaller venues. Lots of features. Buy the foot switch.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is an update to a review that I did earlier. I thought that my situation was interesting and might help others.

A little while after I wrote my original review, the amp developed a really wicked low-end buzz/vibration. It didn't really sound like a speaker thing, more like a loose hardware/loose joint kind of deal. I spent about 2 hours looking for the problem while my wife plunked the low strings. Couldn't get it. Since my hearing and nerves were about done(my wife doesn't play), I gave up and took it to the shop where I bought it. He's an authorized Peavey dealer.

I figured that if he hadn't heard about this problem through customer feedback/service bulletins, etc., I was pretty well screwed and it would have to go back to the factory. My previous experience with everything from lawn mowers to cars prepared me for the worst. I was doomed to wait endlessly while some techno-turd figured this out, then found an excuse why the problem(probably a loose screw) wasn't covered under warranty and charged me $1,462.00 for the repair. Even worse, I would lose the ability to inflict my style of loud, obnoxious bombastic rock and roll filth on the neighbors. Bummer.

Well...it didn't happen that way. My guy spends about one minute trying to figure out the buzz and then says, "Fuck it. I'll get you another one." He retreats to the storeroom and comes back with a BRAND NEW OUT OF THE BOX amp. He plugs it up and pulls a Peavey Raptor like mine off the wall and says, "Here. Try it out and make sure everything's okay." I decend into Black Sabbath hell trying to make it buzz. It don't buzz. My guy pokes his head around the corner and says, "You've got an RP 200, too, right?" I says, "Yeah." He says, "Well, you know...those things definitely change the shape of the sound...especially the cabinet models." He goes over to the case and pulls a BRAND NEW RP out of the box, grabs a cable, and hooks it up. "Try now." I shuffled through the patches and everything was good to go. "That should do it", he says. "Thanks VERY much", I says. I ask about the old one since I've had it awhile. "No problem. The amp has a 5-year warranty. I'll have them credit me.", he said. I depart with a brand new amp.
The point to this story is this...Peavey's warranty is pretty good. They take care of their dealers. Last but not least, there's nothing like having a Mom and Pop music shop that cares in your town. We have an American Music Super-store in town and I swear, I'll drive 100 miles for a set of strings before I'll go in there. I despise those Ultra-Mega-Piss on the customer, I already got his money-bent on world domination Sons of Bitches. Most of the "Sales Staff" can't even tune a guitar, much less talk intellegently to a prospective buyer. Hint to all you newbie musicians...don't be fooled! Get to know your local small independent. They don't have the money to have the local radio station come in and give away T-shirts. They depend on repeat business and most times, are musicians themselves. They can't afford to B.S. you. When my guy saw that I was serious, but needed to get my thing together. He steered me to a rig that is perfect for my level. No MESA...no PRS. He sells that stuff, too, but he knew that those weren't what I NEEDED. When I get my mojo working and I'm ready to upgrade, guess where I'll be going. End of rant.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Gettin' back in the saddle after a long dry spell. Needed a small practice amp that I could use alone for practice or with a group. Needed something that would cut through drums and bass. Tried smaller Peaveys, Marshalls, Fenders. Price was a factor, so I opted for the Envoy II at $156.00 new. That price is why I only deal with my local Mom and Pop music store and not the greedy bastard superstore here in town. You can't build a relationship with a cash register.

Well...I'm not Steve Vai, but I know what I like and I like this. It has a VERY clean channel and a lead channel for the distortion stuff. Switches control Vintage/Modern modes on the clean side and Hi-Gain/Modern/Vintage on the lead side. Pretty versatile. Headphone jack keeps the wife happy and it has a pre-amp out. Also, it's footswitchable between channels. Amp has only reverb for effects. Three band EQ on both channels. LOUD!! Sounds like more than 40 watts. Nice styling. My strat-alike sounds very nice on the clean side. This amp seems to like single coils. My Hummer sounds a little flat by comparison. The TransTube technology won't replace true tube sound, but it does warm up the amp compared to straight solid state amps.

They don't give you the footswitch with the amp. That pisses me off, but most manufacturers do that nowadays. Lead channel is a little muddy for anything other than punk/grunge. If you need the real smooth overdrive/distortion sound, get a pedal. Use the clean channel. Reverb sounds OK. Not great, but OK. Noisy. An effects loop would be nice. Styling is square and the overhang on the top kinda makes the controls hard to see and tweak when the amp's on the floor. I put mine up on an old shelf unit and tipped it back with a 1x2 block of wood. Works! Speaker will rattle if you put a lot of lows through it at volume(e.g. octave/harmonizer effects). It sounds like a lot of negatives, but I'm being nit-picky. Overall, a pretty good amp.

Pretty much your typical Peavey tank. Although it's covered MDF, it's solid. No loose hardware. The open back cuts down on weight. Electronics are well laid out and properly bonded.

This is a good amp if you use it for what it was designed for...a practice and small venue amp. If you go live, you'll need to mike it or just get a stage amp. Peavey makes plenty of those, too. All quality products. My sound really opened up when I ran through a Digitech RP 200 into the Peavey. Stay on the clean channel and flatten the EQ if you go this route. This gives you a more faithful cab sim, etc. Since the RP has a noise gate and several good distortions, it takes up the slack where the Peavey falls a little short. The combination makes for a pretty impressive sound from a small package. This setup is perfect for where I'm at now. If I end up playing live again one day...that'll give me the excuse I need to get that 5150. I do love the Peaveys.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This would be the second edition to this now famous amplifier series. I want to say that Peavey is up to version lll now but I am not quite sure on that. This is in my opinion equally as good as the new one as far as tone and responsiveness. I am not sure if these amp had the Blue Marvel speaker yet or if they were using the Sheffield speakers on these. Peavey isn't known for their speaker quality. I would prefer the Blue Marvel over some of the other that have graced their amps.

For a decent practice amp this one isn't that bad for the money. It has two channels with independent EQing controls and different boosts and voicing switches. This sin not a stage amp nor an amp that you would record with. However, this is a nice little amp for those needing to practice and don't want to bust out a huge stack at home.
Peavey Envoy 110 Features:

40 watts (rms)
Two footswitchable channels clean and lead
3-band EQ per channel
Headphone jack
Modern/vintage voicing switch on clean channel
Footswitchable reverb with level control
High gain/modern/vintage voicing switch on lead channel

UTILIZATION

Details
Type Solid State
Number of Channels 2
Power 40W
No Effects
Reverb
EQ Low, Mid, High
No Amp Modeling
Preamp Tubes No Tubes
Power Tubes No Tubes
Inputs 2 x Instrument
Outputs 1 x Headphone (1/4"), 1 x Speaker Simulated Direct Output (1/4")
Footswitch I/O
No Effects Loop
Height 17"
Width 19.375"
Depth 9.25"
Weight 24.5 lbs.

SOUNDS

The sound is solid state so it will sound nasally and sterile but not that you are necessarily looking for world class tone in this amp. I like all Peavey's with a humbucker style pickup in the guitar of choice. The clean channel isn't to bad and sounds pretty decent. I actually like solid state clean tones sometimes better than tube cleans.

The distortion channel have a nice grind for high gain purposes and a fatter sound then you would come to expect from a solid state amplifier. The distortion is very reminiscent of a 5150 and pretty much falls in line with the overall sound of the Peavey distortion amps.

OVERALL OPINION

For the money this is a nice amp for those needing to get started playing the electric guitar or those needing a sweet practice amp and don't want to break the bank. This amp has been revised and the newer model is out with some added features like more inputs and better speaker in the cabinet. So the used market is the only way to go with this amp nowadays.

I have seen these on the classifieds recently for around or just under $200. Not a bad price for a nice practice amp on the used market. They sound fantastic for the money and even though they are solid state they have a better tone with the transtube tech that another simple solid state amp.

I would recommend playing this first to see if Peavey solid state voicing is up your alley. These are different then say a Fender, Marshall, or Mesa Boogie.