I was at my local music shop today and saw a used Peavey Classic 50, played around a little with some POS guitar they had on the wall and it sounded great. I'm really jonesing for some tubes now that I have my 5120. Is this a decent amp? Is it worth $350? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Peavey Classic 50. Pull the trigger?
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- Rated: 8 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 1:09 p.m. Ripley1046:
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Sep 5, 2008 1:34 p.m. J$Dub / sslvo:
Take your 5120 in and PLAY with that.....price ain't bad.....i have a little PEAVY tweed unit full of tubes (my son has it somewhere?!?)....been a good little amp....tubes are the shizzbot!!
(or save up for a VOXAC30....LIKE ME
)
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- Rated: 19 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 1:47 p.m. Gretschadelphia:
I had a Peavey Classic 50 4x10 many years ago and it was a USA built, well made, excellent sounding amp...but way too much amp for my down in the basement playing. Ironically, the 50 watt 4x10 Peavey (they weigh a ton by the way) had more manageable clean and overdrive volume than the 40 watt 1x12 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe I bought a few years later. If I had to choose between the Peavey and the Hot Rod Deluxe, I'd take the Peavey back. If the Peavey is real clean, it's a good deal (the fake vinyl tweed looks great and is bulletproof). Just remember, it's more of a stage amp than a basement jammer. Then again, a Weber Attenuator can cure that.
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Sep 5, 2008 2:39 p.m. TyPierce:
The Peavey Classics are great amps. The Classic 30 goes for around $350 in good used condition, and the price on the C50 is around there, sometimes a bit more.
If it's in good shape and you like the sound of your 5120 through it - and I'm guessing you will! - I'd say grab it. Try and talk him down by $50, obviously, but they're great amps.
That said, I'll echo what Gretschadelphia said - if you're just doing some basement playing, it might be way too much amp. If you'd like an amp to play at home and on the stage, no worries, but if you're just basement jamming you might be better off with something in the single-speaker, 5-15 watt range.
Keep us posted!
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Sep 5, 2008 2:59 p.m. flyneye:
If you don't mind not getting tube crunch,the amp does have plenty of volume.Peavey only used 6L6gcs in the poweramp,solid state preamp. If you dial in some grind,it will be even throughout with no tube dynamics.
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- Rated: 8 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 3:38 p.m. Ripley1046:
I'm definitely not a basement jammer, I play out a lot (when I'm in a band). I use a 120watt solid state Crate that was an amazing amp until I got my Gretsch. The SG sounded awesome through it, but I was also playing mostly punk rock, and some metal. I've since lost much of the distortion to get the tone I have been chasing for years. I played through an Ampeg Superrocket a few weeks back and have been dying for one of those, but I was really blown away by this Peavey. And it's a lot cheaper.
FYI this one is a 2x12 not a 4x10. I think I'd like the 10s better, but I've been playing 12s forever. Now I'm trying to scrape together the cash by selling everything I can that I don't use anymore. Mostly sound equipment.
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Sep 5, 2008 4:01 p.m. J$Dub / sslvo:
RIPLEY...NO DOUBT. I HAVE A OLD CRATE 2X12 50W THAT'S BEEN GREAT FOR THE DISTORTED STUFF (STRATS/IBANEZ)BUT THEN ALONG CAME THE GRETSCH.....AND THIS GRETSCH CHANGED A LOT OF THINGS(how you play,what you play,how many sounds ...other guitars are getting dusty 'ya know?)IT'S A JOURNEY MAN AND I'M DIGGIN' IT!
....If the PEAVEY feels good/nail it!
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- Rated: 92 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 4:44 p.m. Baxter:
I have an ancient (early 70s) Peavey Classic. Nice reverb, decent tremolo, great clean sound, awful overdriven.
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- Rated: 66 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 4:48 p.m. Walter Broes:
That's a different earlier breed of Peavey Classic Bax, aren't those 100 Watt too, with 6L6 output tubes? A friend of mine has one, sounds kinda like a silverface twin, with awful overdrive indeed.
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- Rated: 26 ↑
Sep 5, 2008 4:51 p.m. ksdaddy:
I had an old Fender Twin for years. It was a '74 so it wasn't a collector... good thing, as I hacked it down to a Dual Showman style head and hacked a Bassman 10 cabinet down to a 1-15". Paid $250 for it in 1986 and ragged the snot out of it until 1997 when it began making all kinds of nasty crackling noises; probably needed to be recapped in addition to nine tubes. A friend offered to swap me a pristine '88 Peavey Classic VTX with 2-12's. I said I wanted 24 hours to try the Peavey.
Shoot, it did everything the Twin did except louder.
I made the swap and I still have it eleven years later. I think I may have bought one set of 6L6s for it but that's it.
Not claiming it's the best amp in the world but if you like nice clean "straight into the board" tone and don't want to spend much, it's a great choice. They run forever and they're worthless on ebay.
Edit: yeah, the overdrive sounds a lot like someone threw an electric razor into a pile of dry leaves. I don't use distortion anyway.
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Sep 5, 2008 4:51 p.m. troy6120:
I'd buy one. They sound better than decent, and they look good. The local tech guy said they were a pain-in-the-cheeks to work on, but only due to their internal design. Not a bad price. I say get it!
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Sep 5, 2008 5:30 p.m. BrianBlaut:
thats a terrific price. They usually go for $400-450 on craigslist here. I have one and love it. They are LOUD. But they are way better at softer volumes that Fender's offerings, except for the Bassman. But I can easily get very decent tones at normal small room level. BUT you'll never reach power tube saturation in your basement. This amp has the power to blow your pants off if you stand in front of it and turn it up. Having said that, I've been playing(clean) with a small group at acoutsic levels and have remained very pleased with the sound coming out.
What I really like is the incredible amount of clean headroom. If you like to play clean and need volume from time to time, this one will be there for you.
Mines the 410. Most people mistake if for a bassman because they pretty much look identicle, but the Peavey has EL84's and the reverb doesn't hold a candle to the Fender standard, but I don't use reverb so there you go.
Grab it. If you change your mind down the road, you can sell it and likely profit. Or at the very least, break even (providing nothing is wrong with the amp). If you need new tubes, check out this page as he has different sets to take the amp in different directions:
https://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_products&category_id=8&...
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Sep 5, 2008 6:33 p.m. Proteus:
Agreed that at that price, it would be hard to get hurt.
At 50 watts, it's more than I need, and because of the power I've had a harder time getting to the clean sweet spot (when I've tried the 50 in stores) than I have with my 30.
The 30 has adequate clean headroom even for moderate gigs, certainly, but still gets a throaty tube fullness at lower volume than the 50.
Note the difference between the 70s Classics and the ones that came out in the 90s. Both have great clean tones and tons of headroom, but I believe it's the 70s models on which the dirt is really horrible.
I haven't played with the dirt channel on the modern 50 - but the one in the 30 is quite usable, preferable to many pedals.
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- Rated: 30 ↑
Sep 7, 2008 11:08 p.m. greg:
I just sold my Classic 50 212 for 550 canadian and i really miss it.But it was too big for the basement hacking so i am looking for a good SS Laney amp.Laney makes some really good ss stuff.The peavey is really nice,go for it.
