All user reviews for the 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

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!

Head 100-watt lamps: the 12AX7 pre-amp and EL-84 power. The head is powerful which is an advantage when playing on stage: no need to add in the back ... There is a clear channel and a channel saturated + a footswitch to provide switching between the two ... The settings are very simple: three knobs for EQ (bass), (middle), (trebble) + 1 for the presence knob + 1 knob to adjust the intensity of the reverb. Parenthetically, this is a high quality reverb, nothing to do with "the trick spring" to marshall that makes noise in the trunk of the car when going on a donkey not worth a nail! There is a button to adjust the saturation (gain) and master volume (post). It also has the option to choose between an input (bright) or a crunch sound (normal). It can also connect its effects through the effects loop on the back of the head, it reduces the loss. Note also the impedance selector (3 choices).

UTILIZATION

This head is really simple to use. However, it is not light when the door, the weight does not seem well distributed. The manual is fairly brief but there are some in French.

SOUNDS

For my part, I do rock - Metal and plays on the clean channel with a gibson junior and a distortion pedal BOSS Hyper Metal 1, and frankly I SOUND OF DEATH ... But some friends have already used a Start for blues and it has done well. As for the clean sound is splendid.

OVERALL OPINION

J'utise this head since 1998 and it suits me perfectly. Yet I have a JCM 800 but it is not as versatile and clear sound is not up to par. In short, this head is a little treasure and what's cool is that nobody knows ... Many believe that behind the head and those little yellow tweed knobs look at the sixties hides a small amp retired bluesman ... if you have a chance to cross, so take time to see what it was in the belly, you may be surprised!

Hello,
It is now more than 10 years that I use the Peavey Classic 100 head. It's always a rgal plug my guitars on it (each turn!).
This head lamp works with Fully notament 8 power tubes which is plutt rare in this area.
It has two channels, one clean and one lead. Personally I use only the leader who excels in all areas. The clean is always better than a marshall but never n'galera a Fender Twin Reverb.

UTILIZATION

The head is very simple to use, which suits me because I love the buttons too!
The sound is really saturated trs good, for my part I use it in a register from Lynyrd Skynyrd AC / DC through ZZ Top and it makes me never default.

SOUNDS

I use three guitars diffrent, in a P90, a classic in 57 and the other strat configuration. It sounds as always.
The distortion is well balance and it's easy to have a crunch by lowering the knob of the guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it on scne for over 10 years and always bluffing a lot of people, but officionados Marshall!
I have had many amps before, lots of combo with a Marshall anniversary, a Carvin 100 watt head and other brands .....
The classic 100 is better on all points.

Weaknesses?
Weight (20kgs)
the clean channel which has not its own qualisation (fawn all I do not use!)
Its scarcity on the market.

The highlights?
A PRS is all the same price!

Simple and already described

UTILIZATION

The setup is traditional and instinctive, not need the manual to play ...
The knobs are effective, apart from the Mid control that is not clear enough for my taste, but it also comes from the amp rather typed vintage.

SOUNDS

One can discover this amp in two phases:

-Simple version: it connects and it will then joue.Les sounds of crystal clear sound that is comparable to a fender (I think even hotter) at a saturation already angry that will address a Register wide, from blues to hard rock. Crunches are fabulous, and are certainly the main strength of this gear.

Doped-version: paste him a multi / preamp and you will be amazed he can do most! The whole lamp helps tremendously to the return of crisp, clean and high quality, even with the most aggressive of the saturation moment (neo-metal, if so!)
Plugged into the peavey 4x10 cabinet, it sends a serious and many people were listening to the taped demos done on this amp, the announcement of the equipment used.
But simply put it a Tubescreamer or other overdrive, with no artifice, just for exit saturation: back on stage people will believe the wall of marshall!

A big plus as often peavey heads, these are settings for separate volumes for each channel, plus a master.On can heat the animal while using a very resonant volume, and the result is felt.

Its only weak point (which does in fact not really one, since it is the type of sound desired category with this amp), already described above, is the Mid control very present, and therefore its difficult to dig, even with a graphic equalizer.

OVERALL OPINION

I have this amp since 1996, with a period where I wanted to part with it. He did not leave and that's good, it would have been a big mistake. The key word is versatility of this material, followed by very ready sound quality. Again the sounds are all very very clean. Associated with its retro look (in contrast to the tones that can be drawn) size reduced to a two body (mini-stack) is an absolute weapon if we take the time to discover the intricacies of which he is capable of. 100W head is rare, even in time, but its price remains low. For the all-tube (11 behind that heat, no less!) Is a first choice, often used by sizes in the studio.

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.