Peavey Classic 30

lincolnblue

In my search for a new amp I've come across a Peavey Classic 30 with 12" speaker. 

I'm not too familiar with these. Are they good? How do they compare with something like a fender Blues Deluxe or Hot Rod Deluxe?

brooom

They're good sounding amps, but the construction is a bit atrocious. The printed circuit board inside are nightmarish to work on.

Gassage

Bloody great things, much better than the blackstar rubbish you were considering!

Philtre

Good amps but you'll regret it if ever it needs caps replacing or something fixing on the triple-decker-of-doom PCB.

Get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.

failed_astronaut

I had one for a few years and gigged it in jazz bands and a covers band. I probably didn't appreciate it for what it was at the time but I had to move it on due to the weight (one night traipsing across Edinburgh with the Classic 30 in one hand and a hard-cased pedal train junior in the other nearly killed me!). The clean channel was big and bright but I rarely had it pushed past 3, the reverb was good and the overdrive channel had a lot of colour to it. I always felt that not making the boost function foot switchable was a bit design flaw though. All in all, they are a super solid combo amp that can cover a lot of ground.

Edit. On the Peavey website, the Boost now looks to be footswitchable. The version I had wasn't.

ICBM

As already said... they sound good, but aren't very well made - I'm normally a Peavey fan, they usually manage to strike the right balance between cost and quality, but I think they went too far with the cost-cutting on this one. That said they have sold a *lot* of them...

Also good - they are loud, and relatively light. Also bad - they run very hot, can rattle, and eat valves.

The Fender Hotrod/Blues Deluxe is a much better-made amp, but larger and heavier. Its clean sound is better - easily one of the best at this price point - although (not in my opinion, but popularly believed) the overdrive isn't as good. The Blues Deluxe has a slightly more vintage-sounding clean channel and much less gain on the drive channel (and no second drive mode) so if you want that just-breaking-up sound I would get that.

lincolnblue

Thanks all. I am very much leaning towards a Blues Deluxe...just got to find one locally now

ICBM

lincolnblue said:

Thanks all. I am very much leaning towards a Blues Deluxe...just got to find one locally now

If you can't find one, it may be worth getting a Hotrod - they're a lot more common, and cheaper - and fitting different preamp valves, which can give something closer to the Blues Deluxe sound.

failed_astronaut

I meant to add that a sleeper in the Peavey line is the Delta Blues amp. They come in 1x15 and 2x10 variants and are pretty excellent amps.

lincolnblue

ICBM said:

lincolnblue said:

Thanks all. I am very much leaning towards a Blues Deluxe...just got to find one locally now

If you can't find one, it may be worth getting a Hotrod - they're a lot more common, and cheaper - and fitting different preamp valves, which can give something closer to the Blues Deluxe sound.

I'm browsing for one of those too. I'd be happy with either I think

Parker

ICBM said:

Also good - they are loud, and relatively light. Also bad - they run very hot, can rattle, and eat valves.

^This

ICBM

failed_astronaut said:

I meant to add that a sleeper in the Peavey line is the Delta Blues amp. They come in 1x15 and 2x10 variants and are pretty excellent amps.

They do sound very nice, but they’re really just a C30 with tremolo and a larger cabinet, so they have the same build quality issues unfortunately.

crunchman

I've ranted about the C30 build loads of times over the years, so I won't do that again.

What I will do is point out that a Hot Rod Deluxe will have lower long term running costs even if it costs a bit more up front.

When I sold my HRD, the power valves had probably been in there for 5 years.  When I had a C30, I had to replace them every year because they got really rattly - to the point where you could hear it through the amp.  The C30 also uses 4 power valves not two.  6L6s valves cost more to buy than EL84s, but given that you only need 2 valves, not 4, and that they will last a lot longer, the HRD will be much cheaper to run long term.  If anything goes wrong with it, it will be cheaper to fix as well.

I don't know what the speaker is like in the newer HRDs (probably not great), but the older ones with the Eminence speaker definitely sounded better with a speaker upgrade.  I had a Weber 12F150 in mine, and it sounded really good - up there with a lot of the expensive "boutique" amps.

lincolnblue

crunchman said:

I've ranted about the C30 build loads of times over the years, so I won't do that again.

What I will do is point out that a Hot Rod Deluxe will have lower long term running costs even if it costs a bit more up front.

When I sold my HRD, the power valves had probably been in there for 5 years.  When I had a C30, I had to replace them every year because they got really rattly - to the point where you could hear it through the amp.  The C30 also uses 4 power valves not two.  6L6s valves cost more to buy than EL84s, but given that you only need 2 valves, not 4, and that they will last a lot longer, the HRD will be much cheaper to run long term.  If anything goes wrong with it, it will be cheaper to fix as well.

I don't know what the speaker is like in the newer HRDs (probably not great), but the older ones with the Eminence speaker definitely sounded better with a speaker upgrade.  I had a Weber 12F150 in mine, and it sounded really good - up there with a lot of the expensive "boutique" amps.

I ended up getting a Blues Deluxe Limited Edition with the Celestian cream back speaker. Think it's arriving today!!