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King Loudness « Cool jamming amp. »
Published on 12/29/11 at 13:22The Peavey Transtube Studio Pro amplifier is a great 40 watt 1x12 combo that has evolved over the years from being one of the older Peavey offerings in the seventies, to one of the more renowned solid state combos made. This particular model was built in the mid to late nineties. It has two channels for clean and drive. There is separate EQs for each channel, as well as voicing switches available to change up the tonal character. The clean channel has a bright switch, and the drive channel has a gain boost as well as a "thrash" switch, which scoops out the mids and adds more gain for metal type tones. The amp also has reverb and an effects loop as well. Definitely an amp that has everything you need and nothing that you don't!
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is quite simple. Though it might appear to have lots of controls at first glance, it's actually quite easily accessed. Peavey labels their gain controls "pre" and their volume controls "post" which basically mean before the power amp and after the power amp as far as what volume is being controlled. The EQ controls are easily learned as well. It's meant to be a pretty standard amp to learn for players who just need something simple that eschews tweaking in favour of plug-n'-play flexibility.
SOUNDS
The tones out of this amp are pretty great considering that it's a solid state combo with just a single 12" speaker. I particularly like how it is versatile enough to go from some great pure clean tones all the way to some great gritty dirt sounds without a ton of processing or effects. A lot of the reason that I like this amp so much is the transtube design. I'm not exactly sure what Peavey did to get the amps to sound like this, but it's actually quite shocking. It isn't just the tone, but also how the amp FEELS when I play it. It has that responsiveness that just allows you to dig and get all those great overtones and harmonics that make the guitar come alive. The clean tones are very Fenderish -- pristine and bright. You can turn up the gain for a bit of grit, but it's not really optimized for that. The drive tones are nice and crunchy, perfect for seventies classic rock or eighties hard rock. Engaging the gain boost gives some nice chunk for grungy tones as well. The thrash switch is cool, but I find it scoops out the mids too much and causes the sound to get lost in the mix.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Peavey Studio Pro Transtube is a killer solidstate jamming amp for someone who needs something rockin' to serve as a grab and go tool for jams or the stage. It has the flexibility to cover many styles, the tones are honest and genuine, and the power amp section really allows the tones to FEEL right, which is a rarity in SS amps like this. They haven't made this particular revision of the amp for about 15 years, so you'd have to hunt out a used one, but they're not difficult to find. Certainly worth a look to me.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is quite simple. Though it might appear to have lots of controls at first glance, it's actually quite easily accessed. Peavey labels their gain controls "pre" and their volume controls "post" which basically mean before the power amp and after the power amp as far as what volume is being controlled. The EQ controls are easily learned as well. It's meant to be a pretty standard amp to learn for players who just need something simple that eschews tweaking in favour of plug-n'-play flexibility.
SOUNDS
The tones out of this amp are pretty great considering that it's a solid state combo with just a single 12" speaker. I particularly like how it is versatile enough to go from some great pure clean tones all the way to some great gritty dirt sounds without a ton of processing or effects. A lot of the reason that I like this amp so much is the transtube design. I'm not exactly sure what Peavey did to get the amps to sound like this, but it's actually quite shocking. It isn't just the tone, but also how the amp FEELS when I play it. It has that responsiveness that just allows you to dig and get all those great overtones and harmonics that make the guitar come alive. The clean tones are very Fenderish -- pristine and bright. You can turn up the gain for a bit of grit, but it's not really optimized for that. The drive tones are nice and crunchy, perfect for seventies classic rock or eighties hard rock. Engaging the gain boost gives some nice chunk for grungy tones as well. The thrash switch is cool, but I find it scoops out the mids too much and causes the sound to get lost in the mix.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Peavey Studio Pro Transtube is a killer solidstate jamming amp for someone who needs something rockin' to serve as a grab and go tool for jams or the stage. It has the flexibility to cover many styles, the tones are honest and genuine, and the power amp section really allows the tones to FEEL right, which is a rarity in SS amps like this. They haven't made this particular revision of the amp for about 15 years, so you'd have to hunt out a used one, but they're not difficult to find. Certainly worth a look to me.