Cannot find an internal picture of a Peavey Classic 20 mini head

Telejester

Anyone know of a link to one which gives a good look at the insides ?

ICBM

I imagine it's similar to this, which you won't like .

Telejester

Thanks for that, just cannot find a classic 20 mh internal pic anywhere, you ever had one on your bench ?

ICBM

Telejester said:

Thanks for that, just cannot find a classic 20 mh internal pic anywhere, you ever had one on your bench ?

No, not yet.

But I have to say I recently had to look at a recent Valve King VK100 - because it has the valve-monitoring and auto-biasing circuit, which is part of the main PCB. This had shorted and fried the board quite badly, and even though I cut out as much of the damage as I could see and replaced the burned parts, when I powered it up it ran for about five minutes and then smoked again. So the only sensible solution was a replacement PCB, at which point Peavey didn't want to know and the whole thing is a write-off.

I really do not like this kind of "improvement" to valve amps and I would tend to avoid anything which has it, which includes the Classic 20 Mini. It's unnecessary and causes more trouble than it's worth in my experience.

timmysoft

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

Telejester

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

I really dont likr how amp makers are making amps nowadays that are throwaway disposals, see the first marshall dsl amps, they are a disgrace. Im still looking for a head that might suit my needs, a look inside speaks volumes, strange how pics ofvthe c20mh are so scarce.

crunchman

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

Along the lines of what Telejester said, you want something that will last.  That means that it needs to be built the right way so that it's repairable.

I say this as a former owner of a Classic 30 which I bought not knowing any better.  That one is an absolute pig to work on.  If you are ever tempted to buy one, stop and get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.

Telejester

crunchman said: mi

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

Along the lines of what Telejester said, you want something that will last.  That means that it needs to be built the right way so that it's repairable.

I say this as a former owner of a Classic 30 which I bought not knowing any better.  That one is an absolute pig to work on.  If you are ever tempted to buy one, stop and get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.

C30 is a pile of garbage with the most ridiculous circuit board you ever saw.

Fender Hotrod and Blues deluxe have rice paper strength pcbs and a pair of resistors with alarming fail rates.

Laney L5studio head had chassis mounted valve bases, good idea, but garbage reverb,and sadly a great clean channel married to a lacklustre drive one.

£1700 for a handwired uk made Flynn amp initially seems pricey but 10 years in they will still be going strong......an investment.

I just dont like how amps have gone overseas cheaply made items that just aint gonna last. 

Philtre

crunchman said:

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

Along the lines of what Telejester said, you want something that will last.  That means that it needs to be built the right way so that it's repairable.

I say this as a former owner of a Classic 30 which I bought not knowing any better.  That one is an absolute pig to work on.  If you are ever tempted to buy one, stop and get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.

Absolutely this.

Bought a Classic 30 s/h, needed a new cap job, local tech didn't want to touch it. Sold it and bought a HRD instead. Result.

Note - I also have a Peavey Classic 20 mini head - but brand new with extended warranty. If this fucker goes south they can fix it for free,

ThePrettyDamned

Telejester said:

crunchman said: mi

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

Along the lines of what Telejester said, you want something that will last.  That means that it needs to be built the right way so that it's repairable.

I say this as a former owner of a Classic 30 which I bought not knowing any better.  That one is an absolute pig to work on.  If you are ever tempted to buy one, stop and get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.

C30 is a pile of garbage with the most ridiculous circuit board you ever saw.

Fender Hotrod and Blues deluxe have rice paper strength pcbs and a pair of resistors with alarming fail rates.

Laney L5studio head had chassis mounted valve bases, good idea, but garbage reverb,and sadly a great clean channel married to a lacklustre drive one.

£1700 for a handwired uk made Flynn amp initially seems pricey but 10 years in they will still be going strong......an investment.

I just dont like how amps have gone overseas cheaply made items that just aint gonna last. 

Most fender amps are pretty well built. Where did you hear about the alarming failure rates

Philtre

Seems that all amps are garbage. Every time someone says that Amp A is OK, someone come along and trashes it, says that Amp B is way better. And then someone else comes along and says, no, Amp B is garbage...

DJH83004

As per IC, I haven't had sight of one yet either, and to be honest not massively looking forward to it  Being made in China I suspect it will be a transformer swap!

ICBM

Telejester said:

Fender Hotrod and Blues deluxe have rice paper strength pcbs and a pair of resistors with alarming fail rates.

Not true. The PCBs are fine and although the resistors were a problem originally, they were upgraded a couple of decades ago. Those are not even the most common fault with the Hotrods now, by a long way.

Telejester said:

Laney L5studio head had chassis mounted valve bases, good idea

Only if they're good quality and soldered properly. Sadly they weren't always...

Philtre said:

Seems that all amps are garbage. Every time someone says that Amp A is OK, someone come along and trashes it, says that Amp B is way better. And then someone else comes along and says, no, Amp B is garbage...

The devil is in the detail. You can get a lot of good information from seeing how something looks inside, but it's not always the whole story. Look at what fails, how and why and you have a better idea.

Personally I wouldn't buy a Peavey amp with the TSI valve monitoring system because of this...

Philtre

ICBM said:

Personally I wouldn't buy a Peavey amp with the TSI valve monitoring system because of this...

I agree. But I liked the Peavey Classic 20 mini head enough to buy a brand new one recently, and registered it with Peavey for a 5 year extended warranty. I thought that if I get 5 years out of it I'll be doing OK. After that, I'll have a go at fixing it myself. Or Trump will have nuked us all by then. Whichever comes first....

timmysoft

Telejester said:

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

I really dont likr how amp makers are making amps nowadays that are throwaway disposals, see the first marshall dsl amps, they are a disgrace. Im still looking for a head that might suit my needs, a look inside speaks volumes, strange how pics ofvthe c20mh are so scarce.

I toured for over two years, 100+ gigs all over Europe with a DSL100, with zero maintenance and it was fine. I’ve owned 7 or 8 DSL’s and they’ve been plenty good enough for hard touring.

the problem is the internet is telling you what’s good and bad, unfortunately the internet is full of idiots who don’t actually use the gear in anger, they just think it’s bad because some stupid twat on YouTube says it’s bad.

if you want clean wiring, PTP or turret board you’ll have to pay the labour prices. 

ICBM

timmysoft said:

I toured for over two years, 100+ gigs all over Europe with a DSL100, with zero maintenance and it was fine. I’ve owned 7 or 8 DSL’s and they’ve been plenty good enough for hard touring.

the problem is the internet is telling you what’s good and bad, unfortunately the internet is full of idiots who don’t actually use the gear in anger, they just think it’s bad because some stupid twat on YouTube says it’s bad.

We’ve been through this before - you were lucky. The large number of people reporting major failures with DSLs are not making it up or just repeating what they’ve seen on the internet, and I and several other techs have given you the reasons why these are due to design faults. Just because not every one of them fails doesn’t mean they’re reliable - if the failure rate is 10% that would be terrible for modern electronics, but it would still fit with your experience.

For what it’s worth I once used a DSL at a gig and the failure rate so far is 100% . (Provided backline at a small festival, not mine! It was fine at the soundcheck but died in the set before our one and I had to use a little Hughes & Kettner, which was actually quite good.)

I don't doubt your experience at all, but to say that means they are reliable amps and that anyone who says otherwise is a 'stupid twat' or has never used one for real is simply wrong.

I drive a Renault Scenic - it's the Marshall DSL of cars . You will hear all sorts of horror stories about them, mostly for electrical failures. But I've had one for nine years and done 90K in it, and it has been remarkably reliable... at least until some twat drove into it a couple of weeks ago and wrecked it. I've bought another one, but I won't be *that* surprised if it doesn't turn out quite as good.

Telejester

timmysoft said:

Telejester said:

timmysoft said:

I don’t get the obsession with seeing inside, are you going to play it or just take it apart and look at it? 

I really dont likr how amp makers are making amps nowadays that are throwaway disposals, see the first marshall dsl amps, they are a disgrace. Im still looking for a head that might suit my needs, a look inside speaks volumes, strange how pics ofvthe c20mh are so scarce.

I toured for over two years, 100+ gigs all over Europe with a DSL100, with zero maintenance and it was fine. I’ve owned 7 or 8 DSL’s and they’ve been plenty good enough for hard touring.

the problem is the internet is telling you what’s good and bad, unfortunately the internet is full of idiots who don’t actually use the gear in anger, they just think it’s bad because some stupid twat on YouTube says it’s bad.

if you want clean wiring, PTP or turret board you’ll have to pay the labour prices. 

I had a dsl50 head and a dsl100 head, both had transformer failure......nuff said.

Collings

Telejester said:

I really dont likr how amp makers are making amps nowadays that are throwaway disposals, see the first marshall dsl amps, they are a disgrace. Im still looking for a head that might suit my needs, a look inside speaks volumes, strange how pics ofvthe c20mh are so scarce.

Well that,s almost what they are designed to be. Amps such as the Peavey are designed to hit a specific price point and for volume manufacture and they most likely meet the reliability targets in most cases and serve their owners well. The market for these are probably not a pro player, It you want better construction/parts you have to pay the premium.

ThePrettyDamned

@Telejester jet city have a vintage voiced 20 watter that will be well built and very affordable. Try one of those?

https://m.thomann.de/gb/jet_city_amplification_jca20hv.htm

p90fool

ThePrettyDamned said:

@Telejester jet city have a vintage voiced 20 watter that will be well built and very affordable. Try one of those?

https://m.thomann.de/gb/jet_city_amplification_jca20hv.htm

Exactly, despite being made in China they're well built and simple to fix. There's a whole aftermarket industry of mods too, and a worldwide network of people who can walk you through almost any repair. 

I'm now on Jet City amp number six, they've all been excellent and I still have three of them. 

Like you, I wanted to know what was inside them at that price so I ordered the cheapest 20w head a few years ago, checked it worked, then pulled it apart ten minutes after it arrived. 

I've been hooked ever since, occasionally fine tuning preamp cap and resistor values to my own preferences. Simple, robust and cheap, just like Fender were in the 50s.  

Telejester

p90fool said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

@Telejester jet city have a vintage voiced 20 watter that will be well built and very affordable. Try one of those?

https://m.thomann.de/gb/jet_city_amplification_jca20hv.htm

Exactly, despite being made in China they're well built and simple to fix. There's a whole aftermarket industry of mods too, and a worldwide network of people who can walk you through almost any repair. 

I'm now on Jet City amp number six, they've all been excellent and I still have three of them. 

Like you, I wanted to know what was inside them at that price so I ordered the cheapest 20w head a few years ago, checked it worked, then pulled it apart ten minutes after it arrived. 

I've been hooked ever since, occasionally fine tuning preamp cap and resistor values to my own preferences. Simple, robust and cheap, just like Fender were in the 50s.  

Are jet city not known for fx loops which are unusable ?  I know henning pauly had plenty to say about the loop on the ame!ia.