Opinions on the Peavey Valveking 112

[Guest]

My first and only amp I ever owned is my Peavey Valveking 112. I like nice clean blues, so seldom venture out of the clean channel and it seems to get me where I want to be, but I have no other reference points.

 

I have it set to "A" rather than "AB"

 

To me it sounds fine, I was just wondering what the considered opinion is on this amp.

 

I have seen a Fender Blues Junior and a Hot Rod Deluxe on Swedish ebay for prices I could manage by topping up a little after trading the 112 in.......... would they be a big leap from the Peavey....?

 

Interested in your feedback.

 

Spending a lot of time modding these guitars just want to make sure I can get the best of them once they are finished.

 

Would not want an average amp to hold things back.

 

So give me your thoughts on the Valveking 112, considering, I want just mostly clean blues, with maybe a little bit of reverb, heavy gain and distortion is not my thing.

[Noijj]

Hi Joe,

 

Peavey does a decent job but Fender is a better amp all round in basically every way from experience. Blues Deluxe out the current range is far better than the HRD, which can sound harsh (looks cool in tweed too wich can be shellac coated if you want to do a quick cosmetic mod). The gain channel on the HRD is not subtle like the BD. Next step up is the Blues Deville which is basically the same but with a 4 x 10" which again is a classic arrangement for blues.

 

With the new gen. Fenders there are limitless speaker and tube mods that can help. For example, I have a little SCXD for the living room which is a cheap all tube with dsp voicing and effects built in. Chinese made with **** tubes and crappy speaker as stock but you can tell there is something in there trying to get out (a bit like a stock Sheraton!). I changed these for top end quality and now it's marvelous. The 15 watts can go very loud with plenty of headroom on the clean channel and the voicings are true on all but the 2 high gain ones (which I would never go to anyway!). It even has a Fender Jazzman voice for your JP and an acoustasonic voice. The Tweed Bassman, Blackface and Champ settings are almost flawless with creamy tube breakup perfect for blues. As for the effects, they are subtle and well voiced. 3 reverb settings, 3 delay settings (including a great slapback which is great for country blues), 3 tremelo settings, chorus and vibrotone.

 

I have 3 other amps. Vox AC30 and Fender Twin (both ridiculously loud and heavy but delicious!) and a new Deluxe VM which I think is a future classic and again, more refined than the HRD (and lighter to carry to practice and gigs).

 

For out and out cleans the Princeton Reverb is awesome but a step up in price. On the used market there is even more choice though they tend to hold their value high in Europe (but for good reason). Even the solid states have amazingly detailed cleans and are great value (like the 90's deluxe amps). It's pretty hard to go wrong really.

 

The real ultimate for you (and I know what ends you've gone to with tone detail on your guitars so you're right to marry the right amp) is a Fender Bassman. Expensive, particularly a classic, but every Krona well spent, simply breathtaking. You only have to look at the players and albums that have used them to know you're onto a lifetime winner.

[peeper]

Never used the Vavleking, but Peavey makes some decent stuff. I had an old Classic 30 1x12 combo and a Classic 50 4x10 half stack that I had modded into some really great amps. Now we have a Peavey XXX that ain't too shabby, I think it's missing a little something, maybe I'll crack it open and play around with it. Stock they have always left me wanting a little more. They're kinda like SD pickups, it is very much a signature sound right out the box, and while not bad per se, it may not always work for you.