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Cool Old Amps That Aren't Classics...


Murph

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I saw a beat up Peavey Deuce in a pawn shop the other day. I owned one for quite a while. 2;12's 6L6's, ss pre-amp. Bought new around 1979/80 probably because of Gary Rossington who used a Mace. It was a powerful and durable amp that could handle any gig. 

I replaced it with a JCM900 Marshal half stack. The 900's weren't respected much in those days, but the clean channel was pretty good.

I think Saturn had a Carvin "legacy" Steve Vai combo. I was always curious about those. I never got to play one, but had a buddy with the Carvin 100 watt platform it was built from, can't remember the model. He also had a 50 watt Bel Aire that was a pretty good bar rig.

I also owned a Peavey "Classic" 50 tweed (2;12 combo) that had a fan to cool the EL84's. It was a good sounding amp, but I didn't keep it long after getting the Marshall. Those American built Peavey Classic 30's had a pretty good run too, but I never owned one.

I still have a Fender Prosonic (Zinky) 2;10 combo that should be a classic, but never seemed to get there. I dig it though, so am hanging on.

I'll think of more, I'm sure. What about the old Trayners and Music Mans...

 

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my 1st real amp was a Ampeg V4 100 watt head & 4/12 cab. great amp, real workhorse. LOUD ...  I'd love to find a 70's  Traynor YRM head in decent shape.   the old Peavey Classics US made were good reliable amps.  back in the 70's a guy owed me some $$ and gave me his Fender Vibroverb. I still kick myself for not keeping it.  and, as mentioned in another thread, I wish I still had my Lab Series L5

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38 minutes ago, Murph said:

 

I think Saturn had a Carvin "legacy" Steve Vai combo. I was always curious about those. I never got to play one, but had a buddy with the Carvin 100 watt platform it was built from, can't remember the model. 

 

I remember.

Master Tube Series.

The MTS.

 

 

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I still have a couple from the early-mid 70's:

Clbybew.jpg

On the left is my Musicman HD210 One-Thirty. It is crazy loud and Leo's vision for a supercharged Twin Reverb. Far right toggle switch shifts from 65 to 130W RMS. It's crazy loud for such a small package. With the master volume just a hair over one it can practically blow out the windows. My wife found it at a yard sale 20+ years ago. She called me early on a Saturday morning to say she found an amp priced at $50. She said the guy said it was a Twin Reverb and asked how much to offer him for it. Not really knowing what is was I said to just pay the $50. I was pleasantly surprised when she came home with it. After about 5 years the original speakers cones cracked. I popped in a pair of Eminence Ragin' Cajuns and it has been perfect ever since.

NNadRpN.jpg

Behind my son (one of the reasons the speakers blew in my Musicman) is my bass amp, an Ampeg V4B. Another of my wife's finds. She got it at our town annual police auction of unclaimed property for $50 about 30 years ago. Really great and reliable amp. The only downside is that just the head weighs 76lb. I put heat duty casters on my Peavy bass cab so at least it can be moved somewhat easily. 

Since Murph mentioned it, I also had a Peavey Classic 50:

4Cxcwsg.jpg

Great amp other than the noise from the fan when all was quiet. I was doing a lot of recording at the time so I sold it.

Lastly, my 1968 Fender Bandmaster Reverb, part of my current "mini stack" along with an Orange AD50 Custom Shop and Orange 4x12 cab:

MfNTatp.jpg

The Bandmaster is a great amp but doesn't have a separate gain knob on the effects channel like the more popular Fenders. But you can still get the magic Fender tube breakup sustain by dialing things in. I get the sound I like and use an A/B switch pedal to change between lead and rhythm. Or I used the Fender for rhythm and the Orange for lead.

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Hard to remember back 50+ years....but my first "real" amp was a Fender Vibroverb, it was 1963, I believe.

I got rid of it when I switched over to playing bass, and I got a 1965 Bassman and added a 12" Showman speaker box.  Amp is gone now.

I sold everything, and had no amp until I bought a 1971 Fender Showman Reverb Head from a guy at work.   I later got a 2 X 15" bottom from a friend.

When I inherited my dad's early 70's Princton Reverb amp, I had it reconditioned, (new speaker, tubes, chassis rebuild), so while doing that I had the Showman amp gone through also, and put in  2 "New-Old Stock" JBL's  in the speaker box.

I got a solid state Bassman amp back about 2006 or so....still have it.

I got a Laney HC25R and an Ibenez IBZ10 from my cousin's estate.   Laney hooked up to the keyboard in the music room, and the Ibenez I use for practice when I'm in the kitchen.

I also have a mint-green Fender Super Champ X2 that lives in the living room behind the piano (because the piano is so loud).

So, a total of six amps still in the house, (not counting the PA system, or the Pig-Nose amp).

 

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In the late 70s/early 80s I gigged with a Peavey 50w Classic 4x10 VT series combo, the one with the built-in phaser and 4-button footswitch. 

I went from that to a Peavey Deuce which should have been better but wasn't. 

 

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the peavy classics were great.   especially the 4x10 one

another amp that got no real spotlight time but was a very good combo was the Crate Vintage Club 30.

Great little amp for the money,   the problem was the PCB board design was just prone to failure

 

too bad,  I had one loved it, my son still has one...  works but the volume pot is messed up..  

 

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I have a Peavey 5150 II model. I also have the cabinets that go with it - top and bottom. So loud, it melts faces. Sort of a sterile clean tone but the distortion it gives is no joke… very full sounding. Had it since it came out and no real reason to sell it. Still works great… all original. Some swear by the original 5150, but not sure why anyone that has the II would be aspiring for the original. Bottom line, this amp/cab set is made for arenas. Easily…

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19 hours ago, jdgm said:

In the late 70s/early 80s I gigged with a Peavey 50w Classic 4x10 VT series combo, the one with the built-in phaser and 4-button footswitch. 

A friend in Arizona I gigged with had one of those in the 2;12 version. I bought my Deuce during those years gigging with him in the redneck bars east of Phoenix in the late70's/early 80's. Peavey was a young company and it was dominating the small p.a. business as well.

We made a ton of money, drank, fought and chased wild women back then.

Man, that was fun...

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On 10/19/2023 at 6:15 AM, Murph said:

I remember.

Master Tube Series.

The MTS.

 

 

I have a Carvin X100B half stack and it’s a badass amp. You get 100W of EL34 goodness, a parametric EQ, spring reverb, and a push pull pot that engages a sortof boost or overdrive mode. 
 

A powerful amp like this is really versatile. Unlike a smaller amp which will distort at the volume levels needed to play with drums and bass, this can do it all. As clean as you want, as dirty as you want, as loud as you want

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On 10/19/2023 at 8:36 AM, Murph said:

I think Saturn had a Carvin "legacy" Steve Vai combo. I was always curious about those. I never got to play one, but had a buddy with the Carvin 100 watt platform it was built from, can't remember the model. He also had a 50 watt Bel Aire that was a pretty good bar rig.

 

 

Yes. I bought the Legacy kinda on a whim. It was the first generation model and Carvin put it on eBay at a significantly reduced price after the later models came out. I loved the amp, but it was just so heavy and had no Master Volume, it just wasn't practical for bar gigs. Unless we were outside or in a large auditorium I could never turn Volume past 2. 

Another off brand tube amp I had was a B52. It was kind of like a poor man's Mesa Boogie.  It had 212s and a great Master Volume. For a brief time I had both the B52 and the Carvin. Now I have neither. 

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13 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

I have a Carvin X100B half stack and it’s a badass amp. You get 100W of EL34 goodness, a parametric EQ, spring reverb, and a push pull pot that engages a sortof boost or overdrive mode. 

A very cool amp that Zappa used, as I recall.

Probably explains the Vai connection.

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I actually really only use the Carvin for bass. With guitar it sounds really good on the normal channel especially if you can get some power tube distortion going. The dirt channel just feels a little off on guitar, I’ve heard it can be modded to be a lot better but it’s also pretty easy to just use a dirt pedal

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Peavey stuff never breaks down much.

Here's my '66 Kalamazoo Model 1.  Kalamazoo was a Gibson brand, I guess.  It has a volume control and a on/tone control, lol.  I rewired the volume and tone from the old tone-suck circuit so it's like a Fender Deluxe and it's killer.

2bmbhv8.jpg

Here's my '48-'49 Gibson BR-6.  It was a basket case when I bought it -

kObACGl.jpg

 

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Acquired this amp when a college roommate decided to leave it in our apartment when he moved out.  It was in great shape and I would use it as a "travelling" amp when I would spend time with old friends who had settled down far from me. It was light weight, tough as nails, and killed it with my tube screamer (808). I had no idea that I could "overdrive" this 15 watt, 2x8, solid state combo amp until a friend schooled me about it's "high, mid, low", switch, (set to high)  and cranking it's Vol knob above 8.  Surprisingly, this thing produces "warm fuzz" quite well.  I  had always treated this solid state combo as a embarrassing, but functional piece of kit.  I under estimated it.

Traynor TS-15, 2x8, combo amp

s-l1600.jpg

Edited by Sheepdog1969
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