Peavey Supreme XL Head

I bought this from Musician's Friend in September, 2003. The total was about $1800 for both units. I bought two exact units on the same day, upon the recommendation of my guitar tech. One for practice and one for stage use, occasionally I run them stereo through my POD XL.

The tone, bass, and punch of these cab/ head half-stacks cannot be beat! I've played Marshalls, which are great but VERY expensive, and I've blown out Randall heads. But these are just SOLID! The Ultra setting on the Lead channel is full on nasty, and the Vintage Clean screams Ramones. These are bulletproof and carry amazing tones equal to, if not better than, heads and cabs costing twice as much! Turn 'em up and stand back-these will blow you away at ANY volume!!!!

The footswitch is a little small and it doesn't allow for switching within the same channel (i.e. from ultra to modern on the lead channel, etc.). But hey, it's not fancy but it works and is VERY inexpensive to replace. Unlike replacing a Marshall or Mesa which is another investment all together. The only other thing I don't like is the carry handles on the cabs. They have no bar to hold onto, just a deep pocket.

These are bulletproof and look awesome. The faceplates look so kewl with the tribal motif that I'm having one of my cab's tolex face painted the same as the head's faceplate. The heads are light and all the knobs are extremely sturdy and smoothe. Neat chrome finish! The lights are way bright and everything on the back of the head is easy to read. There is even a place to wrap up your head's chord-helps to store it there without accidentlly "not" packing it from the last gig.

Ayone wishing to get out of the tube world would NEVER miss it with these half-stack babies. Re-bias what? Break these if you can. Cranked or at apartment volume, these will sound and perform like no other. I liked them so much, I bought 2!

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

Transistor
100w
Full many possible sounds (requires Transtube ...)
3 clean sounds, three distos

UTILIZATION

Config very simple, many possible sounds
clear sound, crunch, big sound jcm, big sound .. mtal, anything is possible

SOUNDS

Excellent overall sound ...
high quality clear sound I have tried many amps transistor is absolutely the best, especially high volume ... a Valvestate example does not hold water in the clear, the suprme ensures m me back (yes I tried which is rare, the light remains clear without reaching the crunch ... very useful if you have a good rack.
parenthse a little: it's not ok .. but just light, the sound is easily manageable, low and high volume ... within the lamps potato but compensates with its head rgularit in the sound.
level distortion to say anything, good and big sound .. Only criticism: the lack of magnitude of distortion, lack of hitting compared to the clair.Cela said the sound of distortion and are trs INTERESTED typs, they amnent even more if you possdez a rack effect.

OVERALL OPINION

I have this amp recently, but it ensures dja. It encourages sound research, with its versatility and its clean sounds classy. I have long jou a classic head and frankly (some will scream), if you do not play jazz, it's almost better! Unless you want a singer sounds dja known (or mesa other ..) this amp can be a personal one, by providing, among other pedals ... For me it's the amp big sound for post rock and prog rock par excellence ...

Transistor amp head, blah, 100W, blablabla ...
a clear channel, a saturated and of course the knobs for each low, medium and high ... one mic, one for passive and active microwave, a (beautiful) reverb boards.
Bonus (Wow!) Into a front for an effects loop ... In short, nothing complicated at first! Or later also ...

UTILIZATION

Question (s) configuration, easy to get good sound and good look on the clarity of the manual will tutti bene!
It's simple, does not need an engineering school ...

SOUNDS

I use it for metal, punk HxC forward to and it well enough ... I'm over successively with a Fender Stratocaster, a Les Paul, an acoustic electric Lag, a Charvel and Ibanez 7-string and nothing to to repeat any of them ...
A little more light on the sounds that work with pleasure for a given "smooth" side saturation and sober ... that fish a little when trying to have a sound not quite enormous and there's basically nothing wrong but is not Desousa tip top ... I suits me perfectly but it's true that you can feel a little frustrated ...

OVERALL OPINION

It's been years qques I have (I have also the old Peavey logo on the front!), She always enough ... at least until recently!
From the point of view quality / price is a good choice when you have no deep pockets and you do not yet have enough bottle to get around in the jungle of amplification! So a safe bet ...
Now it is the transistor which means:
1/qu it must forget the "grain" bluesy "and other subtleties ... in fact it is not the top for anything other than rock (in the broad sense, pop-metal ...) and nothing in any case that can not be exceeded with a good multi effects pedal or simply qques well chosen!
2/que it is less than that of potato lamp ... the coup in a group with two scratch, it is more than enough but a trio and as long as the drummer bangs ... it's light

120 watt transistor amp
very complete connectivity (with adjustable effects loop, preamp in and out ...) footswitch
3 adjustable in 3 adjustable clear, with distortion, noted the equa very active on the saturated efficiency
power setting is possible (25,50 or 100) to push very effectively clean up the slight crunch

UTILIZATION

Very simlple used his ring immediately

SOUNDS

Then is the best!

I try a lot of amp and preamp (ada mp1, RockMaster peavey, mesa boogie caliber ...)
the clean sound is beautiful and its really a great dynamic (like a lamp high-end), the clear sound vintage fender sound, it can be done cruncher of a beautiful way.
the modern sounds like the peavey classic lamp, the crunch of a marshall jcm!

the saturated sound, the ultra-ideal for solo, the British: it is a jcm 2000 and the modern: the one I use the most modern force-fed his bass and lower midrange, the palm mutes are GIANTS it sounds bold but its not drool, it looks like a short mesa.

noted that it is super powerful

OVERALL OPINION

Its going to be 1 year that I use, I try a lot of other configuration, but I'm tjr income that the

unbeatable value for money, noted that the cabinet that goes with it in jensen, shows all the low of the head.