Peavey Valve King 100

ecc83

Head I am assuming.

Guy elsewhere wants to know if any good for £100?

Dave.

samzadgan

£1 per watt...yes.

Also for much improved tone put a patch cable into the effects loop, makes a big difference on these amps.

ICBM

Yes. The valves are worth not far off that!

Well-made if not quite as bombproof as a USA Peavey, OK-soundng but nothing really special - a bit flat and characterless… best for modern style sounds, both clean and dirty. Not as good as a Jet City, but more power and features for similar money.

You'll laugh at the "Class A/Class AB" control .

close2u

samzadgan said:

Also for much improved tone put a patch cable into the effects loop, makes a big difference on these amps.

I have a Valveking 50 combo ... I used to do that ... forgot all about it, will try it out again

ICBM

samzadgan said:

Also for much improved tone put a patch cable into the effects loop, makes a big difference on these amps.

That's very interesting - I just checked the schematic and what that does is introduce a single-transistor emitter-follower (which is there to buffer the FX send) into the circuit, plus a couple of caps and resistors associated with it.

A transistor improving the sound of a valve amp?! Who would have thought…

Mesa actually, they do that on several of their amps . They're just very cagey about it .

samzadgan

proof!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBGEwPsE8Q

 

ICBM

It sounds more open and deeper with the loop in - I'm not sure I would say it's a *huge* difference, but it does seem to sound better. That's not a type of sound I would ever use though, so I will try it with something I use myself when I next get the chance.

samzadgan

yeah @ICBM...its not huge...i may have taken creative license on the extent of difference. But it does sound better.

i think on an overdriven sound you would hear the difference more than full on distortion like he had.

BTW...after much back on forth...the fx loop jumping on the CR120, i decided that it doesnt make any difference...it was more a case on a very very slight volume increase than anything else.

ICBM

samzadgan said:

yeah @ICBM...its not huge...i may have taken creative license on the extent of difference. But it does sound better.

i think on an overdriven sound you would hear the difference more than full on distortion like he had.

BTW...after much back on forth...the fx loop jumping on the CR120, i decided that it doesnt make any difference...it was more a case on a very very slight volume increase than anything else.

It depends how the loop switching is done. Often, it's nothing more than the return (usually) jack opening a switch contact which breaks the straight-through signal path - no circuit difference at all. In others, including the Valve King, the straight-through signal is taken from a slightly earlier point in the amp and so some other circuitry is bypassed when nothing is in the jack. Usually it will be either a buffer (like this) or a full driver and recovery stage - eg Fender Hotrod. Although oddly, no-one seems to notice a tone change with the Hotrod!

Maynehead

Hmm, I would say the tone gets worse with the cable in. It just adds more fizz over the top.

It's actually very similar to what happens on my Dual Rectifier when you go from loop bypassed to loop enabled, and I think the tone is a lot better with the loop bypassed.

timmysoft

Solid and good sounding amps, I'm a big peavey fan though.

dilbert

timmysoft said:

Solid and good sounding amps, I'm a big peavey fan though.

+1