What are your thoughts on The Peavey Classic VT series amps from the seventies?

[apatheticbassist]

I'm considering buying one off of guitar center's website. Can anyone give me any insight?

[Mr.Grumpy]

Sorry, no experience with Peavey amps personally. I'm sure you're aware of their reputation, but if not, Peavey gear is considered to be solidly-built and reliable, if rather "vanilla" sounding.

 

If it's an "all tube" amp, it's hard to go wrong there.

 

Peavey also made some 'reverse hybrid' amps with solid-state preamps and a tube power section. If it's anything like my Music Man of a similar design, it's likely to be clean sounding and loud. Great if you get your drive tones from pedals.

 

 

 

[daddymack]

IIRC, these are tube amps from the late 70s, and they were, well serviceable, bit nothing outstanding. 50w, 2x12, pretty loud, could just about keep up with a Twin. Later models [80s] had some geegaws added, like a phase shifter circuit. Working models typically sell in the 200-350 range, and other than the fact they were built at the Peavey factory in Meridian, MS, there's not much story there.

[WRGKMC]

The new classis series are awful .

 

I played an outdoors gig last summer and one of the guitarists used one with a 2x12 cab.

I used my Marshall Valvestate 100 and 4X10 cab. Another guitarist used his 100W line 6 head and 4X12 bottom. The bassist used a 200W crate and single 15" cab

 

To be honest I couldn't hear a dam thing guy played using that Peavey until everyone else had stopped playing and even then it was nothing but noise and feedback from the Epiphone dot he was playing. He must have had the amp maxed out trying to be heard and it sounded like total garbage to me.

 

We even turned way down on some songs and let him take the lead parts. He may as well been playing air guitar as far as the audience was concerned.

 

Peavey typically makes 10 garbage amp models of every one that sounds even half way decent. The parts they use on most are the cheapest bargain basement parts you can buy except for their pro series of amps. They have a few models designed for pro musicians using top quality parts and will compete with most other amp builders. The vt Blackface had tube and SS preamps in fifty and hundred watt versions. All black face peaveys are at the age where you'd want to have the caps replaced. The caps weren't very good from the factory and 40 years doesn't help.

[dcindc]

VT was a series of amps from the 70s and 80s and they are not 20 w amps.

The Artist was a close to a Mesa from some else you could get at the time. 1 each 12" speaker, usually a Black Widow and 4 6L6 tubes.

 

That said, Peaveys are eveywhere, you do want to ship any of those amps, they're very heavy. Just look around near you.