Favourite Valve Amp

ElectricXII

OilCityPickups said:

I'm going to sing the praises of - to me - one of the best sounding 'live' amps I've ever played for 'Americana'. The Peavey 30w Classic. Probably not the best if you record more than play with a band ... but this thing just flatters the hell out of your playing on a stage, it just seems to work on stage in the way I haven't found in an amp since my old JTM45 many years ago. 
Mine is modified with a Celestion Cream Back - but even with the stock speaker it really does the business. Rockabilly, blues, country, straight down the line rock - does it all. Not two million different sounds - just two channels with a couple of truly excellent ones. It's also light for a valve amp and takes pedals like a champ.

Down sides ... it get's hot enough to poach eggs ... the boost feature is pointless and the chromed face plate is impossible to see under stage lighting (get a little goose neck). 

Pisses all over the Laney LC30 I used to have.  

PS ... I prefer the look of the older ones that didn't have the 'pregnant Peavey' bump for the name plate ... but at £300 or so second hand ... insane value. 

They sound great and they're good value secondhand. Techs absolutely hate them though.

Neilybob

Ash @OilCityPickups you should try my Peavey Classic 100watt head. It's amazing!

It still surprises me how good and open it sounds. My favourite amp tbh. 

TheMarlin

This amp is fabulous. Kicks the ass of a Fender HRD, and this one is going crazy crazy cheap. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/235764/fs-ft-kustom-coupe-36-valve-amp

mo6020

The blonde one... it really does absolutely everything I need.

OilCityPickups

Neilybob said:

Ash @OilCityPickups you should try my Peavey Classic 100watt head. It's amazing!

It still surprises me how good and open it sounds. My favourite amp tbh. 

Oooooo with a 4x10 .... yum! 

Haych

I used to own a Peavey Classic 50 head with the matching 410 cabinet.  I recall it was rather good, and the 410 cab was surprisingly light and portable!

My first 'proper' amp was a Classic 30 but I was still a ham fisted heathen back then so didn't know how to get the best out of it but I recall it was alright.  I also had the 112E cab to go with it which was really useful and at gigs I'd place the amp on a chair behind me, stage left and use a long speaker cable and place the cab stage right - really helped balance out the sound without having to go stupid loud.

A few years later I also had a Classic 50 212 combo, the clean channel was awesome but the dirty channel was pretty grim, raspy and just hard to dial in a good tone.  I modded that, changed some of the caps and whatnot in the tone circuit and it made the world of difference.  I also added a mid shift switch which was really useful - I should have wired that up to the foot switch so it changed between channels but sold it (had too many amps at the time) before I realised I could do that.