Peavey Classic 30 Tweed, any thoughts.

wrinkleygit

Starting to feel the need for a valve powered combo again, don’t need massive power but clean & dirty switchable channels with reverb are a must. I’m sure that lost in the mists of time someone told me the early versions ( pre oval logo on front ) were well built & good value for the money, any previous owners out there, Mike 

MattBanshee

I have a Peavey Classic 30 head; it is loud as fuck and basically does only one sound, but if that's the sound you like then it's best for it.

There's a new Classic 20 mini head, which if paired with a 1x12 cab might be another option.

leerocker

Love mine. They get a lot of hate tbh and they work for me and I have had a lot of amps costing a hell of a lot more that the peavey has seen off.

I have the head version  and paired with the right speakers they are great amps that cover a lot of ground. Oval logo ones are fine as are the newer Chinese made ones. The new ones dont have the awkward circuit board like the earlier ones and they have improved some of the circuit and there is more gain on the drive section on the latest Version.

They take pedals really well and I would take a classic 30 over a hot rod deluxe any day.  

Philtre

MattBanshee said:

There's a new Classic 20 mini head, which if paired with a 1x12 cab might be another option.

And very nice it is too. I use it with an Orange closed back 1x12 (Celestion V30)

Mark1960

wrinkleygit said:

Starting to feel the need for a valve powered combo again, don’t need massive power but clean & dirty switchable channels with reverb are a must. I’m sure that lost in the mists of time someone told me the early versions ( pre oval logo on front ) were well built & good value for the money, any previous owners out there, Mike 

I have a Peavey Classic 30 for sale - See Amps Classified. They are a really good amp in my opinion. I've had it for several years, with no trouble at all. I bought it used, and had new valves fitted, and it's been fine.It was my son's originally then he bought a new Blues Junior, and we kept it as a spare, so it doesn't get much use now which is why I am moving it on, mine is the later version - there are some pictures, if you are interested or have any general questions please feel free to ask or PM me 

wrinkleygit

Thanks Mark, I did see your ad, that’s what started me thinking, but you’re a bit far away, I won’t bore you with the details but I don’t do couriers.

Mark1960

wrinkleygit said:

Thanks Mark, I did see your ad, that’s what started me thinking, but you’re a bit far away, I won’t bore you with the details but I don’t do couriers.

OK understand. No problem - If you want to know any general stuff about the amp just ask.

crunchman

wrinkleygit said:

Starting to feel the need for a valve powered combo again, don’t need massive power but clean & dirty switchable channels with reverb are a must. I’m sure that lost in the mists of time someone told me the early versions ( pre oval logo on front ) were well built & good value for the money, any previous owners out there, Mike 

I'm a previous owner of what I would guess is an early one (bought it in 1999).  Get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.  It's a far better amp.

The C30 has an abomination of a 3 sided circuit board that is horrible to work on if anything goes wrong.

Even if it's working, it chews up valves at a very fast rate.  EL84s are not the most robust and long lived valve, and the Classic 30 runs them pretty hot in a non-adjustable fixed bias.  I used to get about a year out of a set of power valves (sometimes less).  With similar usage, the power valves in my Hot Rod Deluxe had been in there for 4 or 5 years when I sold it.  The Peavey uses 4 power valves instead of 2, so it gets expensive quickly.

Having owned both, I can say that the Hot Rod Deluxe is a much better amp in just about every conceivable way.  With a good speaker in, it sounds better as well.

TheMarlin

The later models are the ones to look out for. I picked up mine for very little money, I personally like them a lot. Particularly once the awful stock speaker has been replaced. 

Mark1960

I currently have a Blues Deluxe, and the clean channel is better than the Classic 30, however the drive channel on the Classic 30 is awesome! So horses for courses really.

Philtre

crunchman said:

wrinkleygit said:

Starting to feel the need for a valve powered combo again, don’t need massive power but clean & dirty switchable channels with reverb are a must. I’m sure that lost in the mists of time someone told me the early versions ( pre oval logo on front ) were well built & good value for the money, any previous owners out there, Mike 

I'm a previous owner of what I would guess is an early one (bought it in 1999).  Get a Hot Rod Deluxe instead.  It's a far better amp.

The C30 has an abomination of a 3 sided circuit board that is horrible to work on if anything goes wrong.

Even if it's working, it chews up valves at a very fast rate.  EL84s are not the most robust and long lived valve, and the Classic 30 runs them pretty hot in a non-adjustable fixed bias.  I used to get about a year out of a set of power valves (sometimes less).  With similar usage, the power valves in my Hot Rod Deluxe had been in there for 4 or 5 years when I sold it.  The Peavey uses 4 power valves instead of 2, so it gets expensive quickly.

Having owned both, I can say that the Hot Rod Deluxe is a much better amp in just about every conceivable way.  With a good speaker in, it sounds better as well.

My experience exactly.

I once owned a C30. I now own a HRD.

Eski

I’m in the “I like mine a lot” bracket.  Tend to run it on the clean channel with pedals for dirt, etc.  Never had any major problems with it.

wrinkleygit

thanks for the replies, I know the HRD & Blues deluxe are well thought of on the forum but for some reason in my head I thought the peavey would be lighter in weight, just checked the specs & theres next to nothing in it. The peavey's generally come up as lower in cost but the major factor has to be sound so it looks like a Fender is the one to look out for.

Dominic

I have a Peavey Blues Classic 50 with a 1x15 and the clean channel is awesome sounding
I have played loads of top amps and it's just taken me 3 sessions of 2 hours long playing the Peavey clean alongside a Carr Rambler to decide I prefer the Rambler and will sell the Peavey ...........it's not as good but it sure as hell isn't 2 grand different !

dazzajl

I have Themarlin’s amp here and it’s easy to see where the dislike of these amps comes from. It looks like a fender, so will he compared to its nearest spec, which I guess is the HRD. 

Having had both now, I’d say they’re almost totally opposite. The fender has glorious deep and round cleans and the drive section is pretty nasty. The Peavey is the other way around. The clean is ok but not especially inspiring to my ears. The drive section is stunning though and with the boost, goes all the way to some outrageously addictive raucous lead tones. That’s not really my bag but it is fun and definitely makes me smile. 

Voxman

I had a classic 30 1x12 combo around 15 years ago. I quite lìked it for the first week or so but found it lacked versatility and whilst it's clean was 'ok' and it's crunch was 'ok' it didn't really do it for me and after a month I sold it.  That's not to say it was a bad amp, just that it didn't sound anything particularly special. I also found that it sounded very boxy and it's small cabinet, whilst great for portability didn't really do it justice.  

Some years later I tried a classic 30 head through a 2x12 with greenbacks and it sounded really good.  So, if you are thinking of getting one the head is definitely the one to check out.

Philtre

Voxman said:

 I also found that it sounded very boxy and it's small cabinet, whilst great for portability didn't really do it justice.  

Same here. It was better with an external cab connected as well as the internal speaker. But in the end a HRD gives a fuller sound.

crunchman

dazzajl said:

Having had both now, I’d say they’re almost totally opposite. The fender has glorious deep and round cleans and the drive section is pretty nasty. The Peavey is the other way around. The clean is ok but not especially inspiring to my ears. The drive section is stunning though and with the boost, goes all the way to some outrageously addictive raucous lead tones. That’s not really my bag but it is fun and definitely makes me smile. 

The HRD drive sounds aren't that good, but put an OCD in front of it on 18V, and it is much better than the C30.

peteri

I've had two over the years, haven't liked either - and have no idea why I bought the second.

The common thread for me is they sound quite impressive in the shop, but actually when you get home - there's very little variation in the sound and the volume control isn't the best for home usage (I know it's a 30 watt amp).

I would far rather have a Fender amp as a pedal platform, or almost anything else for the drive

ICBM

Peavey’s worst amp.

... and I like Peaveys.

It now has some stiff competition from the Valve King MkII though.

jpfamps

ICBM said:

Peavey’s worst amp.

... and I like Peaveys.

It now has some stiff competition from the Valve King MkII though.

Valve King is worse in my opinion; PCB mounted fuses in an amp where the PCB is tiresome to remove.