Peavey Classic 100 Head

I just picked up an old Classic 100 head with some kind of custom made boutique speaker cab for $350 U.S. on Ebay. The era of anti-Peavey snobbery is over for me. I had it inspected, cleaned and "tuned-up" for $100. Wow. This is an amazing and versatile amp! I've paid triple the price for much less amp. Beautiful clean tones and great overdrive. The nice thing with this overdrive is, you can keep the level low, and it retains the great, glassy clean tone, but adds only slight gain. Those 8 El84 tubes do serve a purpose. Full, rich tone!

I have played and owned all kinds of amps, from Mesa Boogies, to Fenders, to Marshalls. This is now the amp for me. Rock, Blues, Country, Surf, Jazz. Probably not for the hardest Metal, but with the right pedals, you could pull that off, too.

UTILIZATION

Easy to get good sounds. Manual is acceptable.

SOUNDS

70s era Les Paul. Various MIM and American Strats. This thing brings out the classic Strat and Les Paul tones out of the guitar. Also seem to help with playing dynamics.

OVERALL OPINION

I've been playing for over 40 years. Tried and owned all kinds of amps. I'm now selling several of my others. This one is a keeper.

I purchased this Peavey Classic 100 watt head from a local music shop. I play mostly Lynyrd Skynyrd material, and wanted that sound from the 1970's and 1980's era. I paid about $650.00 (new) about January 2000.

I like everything about the Classic 100. The head is all tube driven. Peavey has added a cooling fan to the unit, which I feel extends the life of the tubes. The "clean" channel is prestinely clean, even when using a guitar with hot humbuckers! The "lead" channel gives everything from a lite "crunch" to heavy "growl", but does not go overboard.

Nothing!!! The unit has great sound, especially when played through my Peavey 4x12 cabinet. The only guitarists that may not like this amp/head, are those into heavy metal. The distortion in this model is specifically designed for the 1970's and 1980's "southern" rock type music-and it puts it out very well!!

The amp head appears to be made with about 3/4" tp 1" thick plywood (Birch?), but is covered in the calssic yellow tweed. The amp has chrome metal corners, and heavy duty rubber feet. Power cord is heavy duty, and the amp has a built-in bracket to neatly keep the cord out of the way when traveling.

This is my first Peavey, and I bought it so that I could get closer to that Lynyrd Skynyrd sound. I would not hesitate to buy another Peavey product. The amp head is well built, has a great sound both on the clean and lead channels, has low and high gain inputs, and a built-in effects loop. Peavey spared nothing building this amp!

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

This amp is the classic rock tone from Peavey. This isn't going to be over the top highly saturated like 6505 or 5150 or anything, but it will do a lot of the classic rock n roll hits and tones.

This amp is basically the same as the the combo version but just in a head form. You get a cool looking vintage tweed tolex covering and reflective mirror face plate. The same great tone and features are all there waiting to be explored.

You can get a decent crunch tone ala AC/DC or Led Zeppelin pretty easily with this amp. The amp has a great classic rock voicing for those interested in that style of guitar playing. The clean is ok, but not a Fender clean as you might think since this is a more subtle Peavey rock amp and most of them come in a tweed package

UTILIZATION

The manual is pretty helpful like most Peavey manuals. They give you complete diagrams of settings to get you started on the amp tone. They have rock, metal and country settings so that you can get started quickly and easily. Then you have a good frame of reference to start your own tone with your guitars and rig setup.

SOUNDS

The clean tone is a pretty decent clean tone. You can crank the volume up more and it will get a mild overdrive tone. When you engage channel two there you will get some good distortion much like a tubescreamer would get in front of an already overdriven Fender classic amp. However, if you need that versatility and the price is an issue then this would be a good amp.

The tone from this amp is not really my cup of tea. This is geared toward the classic rock player who needs a good Fender tweed style amp, but wants more versatility. The amp is versatile for that kid of player. Having the boost switch is stretching in terms of classic Fender style EQing. Also having another channel is going to be a bit much for some old guys who this amp is marketed towards.


OVERALL OPINION

I have seen them in the classifieds and on evilbay for around $300+ or so. Not a bad price for two channel tweed Bassman style amp with a lot more than a bassman could do. You will get a very usable clean tone and a solid distortion tone fit for classic rock, country, and pop music.

I would recommend this amp to anyone who needs a good two channel tweed amp and doesn't want to spend too much to get it. This is a good amp that will give you solid creamy rich classic rock tones all day long. For me this isn't my favorite amp from Peavey, but it is a decent amp. Peavey has since stopped making these amp heads and so the used market is the only way to go at this point.

Then, good morning. I found the BEAST .. yet I have tried many! the 8 lamps and large power supply have a consistency not possible, moreover, it is simple, low heat, not blowing, and a Once, I went 10 days on vacation, I left it on standby (serious blunder!) .. he could burn out and the house .. well in return, he was hot, yes, but no problem. I left to cool in the morning and STILL ITS MEGA ... Briefly, I LIKE IT. The settings are very well prvus, like the old marshall jmp, jtm and other rivera.ou RANDALL some of the best period ..

UTILIZATION

Manuel, do not know (Sf for a lamp that Clak at the beginning) but nothing grave.la reverb is pretty cool too.

SOUNDS

All styles. he knows everything. and then I think now, each brand offers excellent products .. The choice is yours .. we get a surplus of stuff, all as good as each autres.mais it becomes hard to find I think .. more, you save a reverb, because it is very good .. 3 to 10, it's almost a chamber DKO sometimes ..

OVERALL OPINION

Beautiful, powerful, reliable, THE MEGA CLASS peavey United States .. One of the best in my opinion. (Except the 5150 series or EVH SATRIANESQUE .. see rcnts walking mall jcm vintage-modern, beautiful, but surbousts 200w, and quite expensive to settle knobs + 25 ... this is the vintage? ? with this one, you can play a small volume without breaking the walls (and our eardrums) above, any speaker of any brand with PRO sound .. I like his early 70's tweed LOKK!