Peavey Classic 30

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goddardo

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Hi.

Just wondering what you guys think of this amp. Is it reliable ???
I borrowed one for a gig off our vocalist when my own amp went down & I thought it sounded great, but possibly lacked the ruggedness of a regular gigging amp. I've read mixed reveiws & those exposed valves. What were they thinking of ??

Toot toot S :p
 
Goddardo,

I have its big brother the C50. I hadn't had mine very long before the output transformer blew and had to be replaced. Since then, it's been a workhorse. No further complaints here, great sound, love it.
 
:eek: I bought one of the first generation Peavy Classic 50 4x10 when they hit the streets after reading a review in the British magazine Guitar. Of the seven amps I have it has been maintinance free. A great amp with fantastic tone and durability. I played a friends Classic 30 and loved it! The Peavy was my gigging amp until my love affair with a Line6 Duotone started!! Two things I never thought an amp snob like myself would ever do...Love a Peavy and then be seduced by anything without tubes! Another really great amp is the Crate V50, I heard Billy Gibbons in a club earlier this year play thru one, he now tours with a wall of them! :wink: TG
 
I respectfully disagree with virtually everything on this thread! :eek:

I have no use for the peaveys. I had a buddy that used one (despite its inferior tone IMO) and it let him down BIG TIME on a two separate occasions. I have a '68 Twin Reverb and a '65 Deluxe (no verb) and both have served me well and never gone down. We are both full-time pro players with similar workloads. Granted the vintage Fenders are more expensive than the Peavey but worth their weight in gold and they won't go down on ya. If they do, you can open 'em up and fix 'em yourself... 60s Fender amps are like 60s chevys. Pop the hood and the problem is usually obvious. The money you'll save on repairs would probably buy you 10 peaveys by the end of your (or the amps) career.

Also, Line 6.... ??

No thanks buddy. For some reasons owner of small-budget studios think that if they have these for session work, then they have "all the amps."

I've used a couple of Line 6 in such studios on jingles, commercials etc. and for that it'll do the job but I would never take one on a gig. Just my personal preference. The popularity these things enjoy is inscrutable to me.

I'm not trying to bad-mouth your amps, I'm just saying that they're not for me, and I want to represent the other side of the argument for our friend here.

If cost is an issue, buy a 90s Fender Pro Jr. for about $250 US and be done with it. 15 watts class A thru 2 EL84s (like an AC15) and this thing packs quite a punch for its size! Loud enough for many gigs! It will be similar in volume to the classic 30. Not sure about reliability on the pro jr.

I WILL say, that with any tube amp, the components with the biggest effect on sound, in descending order, are: 1)Tubes 2)Speaker 3)Output Transformer

Tubes are easy to replace. Get a Mullard 12AX7 and put it in the first preamp slot, and some good NOS power tubes, and you're well on your way. A good weber speaker will take you to the next level. If your OT sounds like crap (as the Peavey ones do, IMO) replace it with Mercury Magnetics interleaved transformer and then you'll have a nice little amp.

But for that money, you could've just bought a better amp! Cheers.
 
:eek: We are taking about an inexspenve tool! I don't want to take my Kendrick Texas Crude or 65'Super Reverb to a club, an alternative to this would be an easily replacable amp thats dependable and covers the need. I will agree that my impression of Peavy was crap, until they came out with these Classic versions. Nothings like the tone of these vintage amps thats why I keep them at home in the studio. I spent a long time lugging a Marshall Plexi and 4x12 cab around and I don't need the workout of the AC30 anymore ...but for what these newer amps are they're pretty **** good at doing what they do. The opinion and the ******* example aside, there are people out there that think that Tokai is Jap Junk...I saw Clapton in a club make a crappy 70's SG thru a Magnatone sound like heaven ...
were not talking about "The Ultimate Tone Machine " just a solid working peice of gear. TG 8)
 
:eek: Regarding the Pro Junior , I bought one back in the mid 90's and for a bare bones little tweed covered amp there isn't a better amp to be found. We A/B'd it with a little Victoria boutique and a 15 watt Kendrick and for the "Money Spent" I had to go with the little Pro, also troble free all these years! :wink: TG
 
I see. Well, my money still isn't on the Peavey, or the Line 6. I also don't have any problem taking my vintage amps out for gigs (or my vintage guitars for that matter). It's what they're made for. Now flying on a plane or something, I'll leave my Fenders at home and take the Tokai.

My money also isn't on the new fender amps, except for the 90s pro jr. (they make the pro jr. a little differently now). I happen to have some NOS mullard EL84s... I'm waiting for the right moment to put them in the pro jr. As protective as you are of your vintage/boutique amps, I am of my NOS tubes!

Good working amps for low $$$ are hard to come by, sometimes you really do get what you pay for. I'll point out that I think the magnatone is a great amp, I'm not surprised that Clapton got a good sound out of it. I had one for a long time.

There are plenty of affordable vintage amps. 60s and 70s Ampeg amps sound much better than most of the stuff out there today, and can still be had for reasonable $$$, and you'd do better with one of those than with a new Peavey. What Guild was to guitars, Ampeg was to amps.

We can agree that the Classic series was better than most other Peaveys. I just don't think they're very good. Perhaps I'm just too snobby.

I don't understand what you were referring to with the "******* example" comment, I sure hope I didn't come across that way.

Oh yeah, another great amp for low $$$ is the old Silvertone Twin Twelve and others in that series. These things are killin'
 
:D "Assholes are like opinions ...Everyones got one!" Regarding amps of great tone, In 65' I bought and still have an Ampeg Reverberocket 2 with a 12' Jenson paid $125! The worst sounding amp I have is a pristine Vox Berkley with chrome stand {a Thomas Vox } absolutly no tone at all. But plug into the Pod and line out to the amp and it sounds as good as it looks! Gerald Weber of Kendrick does all of my amp tweaking so I leave the tech to him. If you get a chance to play a Kendrick I think you'll be impressed. The Silvertone piggy back 2x12' was a good one too, I blew my cousins up back in the early 60's, to get distortion we used a Wollensak reel to reel as a pre-amp ...you got a great "I Can See For Miles"rumble but the amps never held up for vey long!! I still have my 63' Premier reverb tank! Nothing wrong with being a snob, Ya can't help being better than most everyone! :lol: TG
 
I've used Kendrick amps. My opinion of them is that they sound like "real" amps, way better than most anything out there, but there's something about the old Fenders that I still prefer. You can't build "old" into an amplifier.

It's a mystery.
 
I've never had Weber work on my stuff, but have you tried that guy out in Garland, Craig Wallace? He's sort of word-of-mouth only, works out of his house... works on a lot of the big names' stuff. He breathed new life into my '65 Deluxe... now that I live on the east coast I still think about sending my amps back to him for service. I'm waiting to find 'the guy' up here in NYC.
 
:D I have'nt seen Craig in a long time! He ia a great player and used to play the Lower Greenville Clubs back in the 80's. A Tokai endorsee and a great guy. He was in Mike Varneys Guitar Player section years ago. Is that his main gig now ? Does he still play? Small World. I have a leather covered Kendrick Texas Crude that is the Tone Monster. But I have to agree, they all wanna be like the 65' Super Reverb...If I could only have one That's It! TG :eek:
 
:D I have'nt seen Craig in a long time! He ia a great player and used to play the Lower Greenville Clubs back in the 80's. A Tokai endorsee and a great guy. He was in Mike Varneys Guitar Player section years ago. Is that his main gig now ? Does he still play? Small World. I have a leather covered Kendrick Texas Crude that is the Tone Monster. But I have to agree, they all wanna be like the 65' Super Reverb...If I could only have one That's It! TG :eek:
 
Didn't know he was a Tokai endorsee. I don't know if he still plays or not. I DO know that he's a hell of an amp tech and very knowledgeable about Fender amps. Never heard him play except when he was playing through my amp to try it out.

Small world, indeed. I wish I knew where I put his phone #, I could give it to you but I misplaced it. I do have his email address, if you want it you can PM me.
 
Hi guys

you guys seem like a very experienced bunch.

I'm really just a beginner.

got any advice on a practice amp? mainly 15-30 watts (compact and versatile)

and also any advice on a gig worthy tube amp? I'm looking at a
Peavey Classic 30 amp right now... is this the best amp I can get in that price range?

please help..

thanks
 
Hi do they still sell 90s pro junior in the stores?
cause its so hard to find one used. even if I find one used online, its gone so fast.

and also, should I get the Blues Pro Junior, or just the Pro Junior?

thanks for your swift reply

greatly appreciated

Alton
 
They still sell the pro jr. in the store. They are okay. The ones they made in the 1990s were better though (the tweed or blonde tolex ones, as opposed to the black/silver ones). You can still get those for about $250-300, same as the cost of a new one. The blues jr. is okay, but it has a lot of extra stuff built in, costs a bit more, has a reverb that I don't like, and isn't as light/portable. The pro jr. is great, kind of the ******* child of an old champ and an AC-15, 15 watts class A through two EL84s and one 10", PLENTY loud (i use it for gigs regularly though not turbo loud rock stuff) and it can hang without even sweating. Two knobs... volume and an actually useful tone control. All you need in my opinion. When you crank it up you get an enormous distortion tone. It's many engineers' secret weapon... many recordings you've heard where you're like "**** that's one huge sounding Marshall or Soldano," it was actually a pro jr. cranked all the way up.
 
lol I love how you describe amps.

thanks for you advice I will definitely check out the pro junior in the store.

btw someone is trying to sell me a Fender Hot Rod Deville for around 300-400 dollars Canadian. its 1-2 years old. should I even consider? read some good reviews about the amp, and also so bad ones too.

thanks
 
consider it. Those are very popular amps. The reverb sounds terrible but it's a very versatile amp. If I show up somewhere and that amp is the backline I'm not too disappointed. I just keep the reverb off... they ARE a little 'boxy' and midrangey for my taste. It's almost like they made it artificially 'vintagey' or something... as someone with a few real blackface fenders I'm always skeptical about that. BUT i'm a huge amp snob. The only new Fender amp I like is the pro jr. BUT try out the deville. That's a fair price for a good amp, and if it's your first tube amp, you'll LOVE it. Very popular amp. More versatile and powerful than the pro jr. What styles do you enjoy playing most?
 
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