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Anyone ever try (or own)a Peavey "Vintage"?

Saxdragon

New member
Joined
May 12, 2002
Messages
303
Not a Peavey "Classic" but a "Vintage". I believe they pre-dated the Classics. Anyway I have one and it was my main amp for years until I got my SFDR. It has 4 10's and is LOUD. I believe it's a SS/tube hybrid.

Just curious as to your opinions of this amp.

Thanks,
The Dragon
 
S

Snags

Guest
Crap, it HAS to be ME to speak up again...

I had a Vintage something or other 2x12 with a solid state preamp and a pair of 6L6s in the back about 12 years ago. Honestly, I liked it's clean sound but hated the dirty channel. It also had a phaser built in, which was too much for me at the time, though I miss it now.
 

Tim C.

Active member
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
6,484
There were two vintage series with Peavey before the Classic series.

The first was an all tube 2X12 amp in tweed which came out in the mid seventies. These were fairly good sounding amps and reliable.

Then Peavey introduced a vintage series of amps in the mid eighties that was a solid state preamp with an all tube output section. The two models were the Classic and Heritage.

Good pre amp tubes were hard to find then and most were microphinic so Peavey decided to uses transistors which don't suffer from microphonic problems.

These were good sounding amps for the every night rocker or country player because they were reliable. They all had a built in phase shifter. You had to play with the disortion channel to get a decent sound. They were not meant for Santana like overdrive.

Tim C. :)
 

sheepy

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2002
Messages
26
Peavey Vintage Tube Series

I had an early 80s 65w Encore, 1 x12" all tube, reverb, split front end. 4 x 12ax7s & 2 x 6L6s. Unreliable & crap tone - just loud!
 

Saxdragon

New member
Joined
May 12, 2002
Messages
303
This amp is covered in tweed, has 4 big power tubes, 4 inputs divided into "normal" and "bright" channels, 1 normal volume and a master "overdrive" volume, reverb, 4 10 inch speakers. It has a brass plate on the front that says "vintage" in Fender-like script and the controls are located on the top of the amp. With some tweaking of the overdrive you can get a nasty ZZTop blues sound, but I always thought the clean sound was rather harsh.

Thanks for your thoughts, all

The D
 

Tim C.

Active member
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
6,484
Hang on to that amp because believe it or not there will be some collectability to it someday. There weren't that many of those made. They used a 6C10 compactron tube in the preamp of those.

It can be modded to sound better clean if you want but basically they were designed as tweed Fender knock offs and as such don't have a lot of clean headroom.

If the power tubes have not been replaced I would do that and have them biased at the same time. That should help your clean sound quite a bit.

Tim C. :)
 

Charmless

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Joined
Jan 30, 2021
Messages
1
Hang on to that amp because believe it or not there will be some collectability to it someday. There weren't that many of those made. They used a 6C10 compactron tube in the preamp of those.

It can be modded to sound better clean if you want but basically they were designed as tweed Fender knock offs and as such don't have a lot of clean headroom.

If the power tubes have not been replaced I would do that and have them biased at the same time. That should help your clean sound quite a bit.

Tim C. :)
I have one of these! What modifications would you suggest?
 

Wally

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
3,535
Hang on to that amp because believe it or not there will be some collectability to it someday. There weren't that many of those made. They used a 6C10 compactron tube in the preamp of those.

It can be modded to sound better clean if you want but basically they were designed as tweed Fender knock offs and as such don't have a lot of clean headroom.

If the power tubes have not been replaced I would do that and have them biased at the same time. That should help your clean sound quite a bit.

Tim C. :)
This all tube Vintage predates the hybrid Vintage amps. I have one sitting here waiting for the owner to put the money up for the alt replacement. It is the oldest Peavey amp I have come across. The 6C10s are an expensive tube and will continue to be so. They contain 3 12AX7 triodes. The PV Vintage runs two of them.
I keep a small stash of these Compactron tubes because I have two Fender Super Champs from the early ‘80s which use one of these tubes. It is possible to build an adapter to use 2 x 12AX7s to replace one 6C10.
This old Vintage circuit is based on the 5F6A Bassman and the Marshall’s which took there circuit from that Fender Bassman.
 
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