This is a tube amp with a solid state rectifier. The amp uses 3 12AX7s and 4 EL84 tubes and delivers 30 watts of power through a Blue Marvel 12 inch speaker. The 16 ohm speaker is connected internally and there is an option for another 16 ohm external speaker to be connected that together tap the transformer at 8 ohms. There are series effects loop jacks and a jack for an external foot switch that switches channels and turns the reverb off and on. The amp has two channels, clean and dirty (with master volume on the dirty) that share E.Q. and reverb. The tone controls are treble,middle,and bass. There is also a boost button which oddly enough cannot be controlled via footswitch. This amp has a lot of features but I actually prefer a very simple amp so I will rate it lower for features even though it has em.

UTILIZATION

The controls sit on top of the amp vintage style which I don't like because I think they are harder to get to then when the controls are on the front. The speaker box is somewhat boxy and makes the amp smaller but also boxes in the sound compared to say the cabinet on a Fender Deluxe Reverb. The tube sockets are cheap and the tubes rattle audibly through the speaker. Many people go to Ebay and buy tube retainers to prevent the rattling which is sad. As I said before the boost function is not accessible via footswitch where you want it. And the Blue Marvel speaker is OK but ugly, depressing, and spiky sounding compared to a good Celestion. Better tubes then the ones it comes with will yield better sound.

SOUNDS

This amp is most suitable for old time rock and roll, blues, funk and grunge with any guitar. With the tubes replaced and a better speaker this amp improves. When you first play this amp (even in stock form) you instantly like it because it sustains and compresses well clean and is also really fun to play blues in the dirty channel because the preamp gain sounds really good. If you play it side by side with a blackface Fender Reissue you realize though that the overall quality of the sound just isn't nearly as solid, clear, beautiful, strong and professional. The amp is much harder to E.Q right and sounds dark and muddled in comparison. However it is still really fun to play and the quality of the distortion is musical and smooth and can be gotten at low volumes which can't be done on the Fenders.

OVERALL OPINION

I've had my Peavey Classic 30 for quite a while. What I like most about it is that I can play Hank Marvin Shadow's lead/melody style guitar well through it set on the clean channel (with added delay) since the EL84 tubes compress nicely. I dislike the cheapness of the amp and the obvious compromises that went into its design. I paid $300 for mine used and would not pay more for one. But I feel that the amp is decent for this amount of money as long as you upgrade the speaker. For any more money I would buy a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue even though it is an entirely different sounding amp without master volume because it does sound like a professional amp and the Peavey Classic 30 doesn't.