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PEAVEY PENTA AMP...where did they go?


lumpy555

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are they a one trick pony amp,or what amp does the penta try to compete with? seems like amp companys try to copy the new kid on the block type o thing. not sayin peavey does that, but i wonder if the penta would be an all around straight forward blues amp? any ideas out there?

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It's a single channel amp that runs in five different modes, which you change via a rotary switch. One set of controls, ie. gain, eq, volume, presence, but it reconfigures the internal circuits as you turn the rotary switch from one position to the next. An OVERLY SIMPLIFIED description of the modes are as follows (does not sound exactly like the amps I mention, just an approximation):

1st mode: Fendery type clean sound, minus the beautiful Fender reverb of course.

2nd Mode: Marshall Plexi type sound, very 60's.

3rd Mode: Marshall voicing, more gain than the second mode, very 70's.

4th Mode: modded marshall voicing, more gain and bass than 3rd mode, but still not "hi gain" per se.

5th Mode: Modern high gain mush. Very hollow sounding due to the overly scooped mid voicing. Piercing highs, loose bottom end, and not even close to the amount of gain you'd expect from a high gain PV.

 

In it's stock form, I found the first four modes very good for what they are intended to do, the only one that PV really dropped the ball on was the fifth mode. I don't know if it's a great Blues amp (not my bag, baby), but I do know that Gary Rossington from Lynyrd Skynard endorses it (his signature model comes in Burgandy instead of green, but is the same as the stock model other than the color), so it's probably more of a Rock amp.

 

FYI - JerryP at FJA mods can really take these to the next level for a few hundred bucks. I had him tweak mine to give me an awesome clean on the first mode, old school marshall sounds on the second, modded marshall tones on the 3rd, Mesa Recto sounds out of the fourth, and an approximation of the Framus Dragon on the 5th mode. :thu:

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I really liked this amp, but the damn thing is 140 watts! I had a few dealers that eventually removed two of the power tubes so they could demo them at a decent level in their stores, and they sold through them much better from there.

 

If you like old Cream, AC/DC, or tones in those worlds, this amp has lots of options.

 

You are able to switch between two of the 5 modes (I agree completely about the Mudflap girl mode being pretty bad, unusable really), with a simple single button foot-switch.

 

Great amp if you need lots of headroom. Great amp for pedal boards to run into the front of. Great amp if you play huge rooms with large stages.

 

I think this amp had a bit of an identity crisis as it was started with an artist who was taken out of the loop during production. Also, if there had been a way to jump between all 5 modes that would have really helped. To me it was like having 4 really cool single channel amps in one; with a very interesting take on a high gain amp thrown in for the hell of it. SO LOUD.

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They were HORRENDOUS trash.


That's where they went.

 

Dude, if you have a negative opinion of an amp that's welcomed here, because the point of these forums is to sample a lot of opinions/views on a particular amp.

 

However, when you post an opinion, be it positive or negative, without adding anything substantive on any level, you come across like a complete moron. Are you unable to formulate coherent sentences with substantive content? That's the point of remarking about an amp, is to say what you did or didn't like about the amp so the person asking the question can make their own decision based on what they need or are looking for in an amp.

 

I don't mean this to be a personal attack on you because I see people do this all the time anytime someone asks for feedback about any given amp. At least a dozen people will chime in with "it's great" or "it sucks", but not offer a single iota of substantive information to support their opinion, which in the absence of said information is completely useless. At that point, you aren't offering anything to the OP but your unfiltered brain leakage. Ignore the thread if your monkey brain can't formulate anything coherent to add, otherwise you're just gunking up a thread with worthless posts so that you can feel smart, which is exactly the opposite of how it ends up looking to anyone with half a working brain......

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Dude, if you have a negative opinion of an amp that's welcomed here, because the point of these forums is to sample a lot of opinions/views on a particular amp.


However, when you post an opinion, be it positive or negative, without adding anything substantive on any level, you come across like a complete moron. Are you unable to formulate coherent sentences with substantive content? That's the point of remarking about an amp, is to say what you did or didn't like about the amp so the person asking the question can make their own decision based on what they need or are looking for in an amp.


I don't mean this to be a personal attack on you because I see people do this all the time anytime someone asks for feedback about any given amp. At least a dozen people will chime in with "it's great" or "it sucks", but not offer a single iota of substantive information to support their opinion, which in the absence of said information is completely useless. At that point, you aren't offering anything to the OP but your unfiltered brain leakage. Ignore the thread if your monkey brain can't formulate anything coherent to add, otherwise you're just gunking up a thread with worthless posts so that you can feel smart, which is exactly the opposite of how it ends up looking to anyone with half a working brain......

 

If you could please fill this out and turn it into management, I would appreciate it:

 

butthurt-form.jpg

 

Last time I checked, I sure as shit don't answer to you and therefore have no need to qualify my opinion.

 

That being said, the reason that I believe this amp is complete trash is because I have played it. Two separate ones, as a matter of fact in a small music store in West Palm Beach.

 

While there are all kinds of tones in the amp, they were all mediocre at best. Now, take your hurt butt elsewhere.

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i like the clips. very clean,also really heavey too. are your clips strait into the amp? i mean no pedals,also did the mods change drastic to the original sounds? also what speakers are in the 4x12 cab? finally any clips of the penta with a od pedal on the clean channel?

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I really liked this amp, but the damn thing is 140 watts! I had a few dealers that eventually removed two of the power tubes so they could demo them at a decent level in their stores, and they sold through them much better from there.


If you like old Cream, AC/DC, or tones in those worlds, this amp has lots of options.


You are able to switch between two of the 5 modes (I agree completely about the Mudflap girl mode being pretty bad, unusable really), with a simple single button foot-switch.


Great amp if you need lots of headroom. Great amp for pedal boards to run into the front of. Great amp if you play huge rooms with large stages.


I think this amp had a bit of an identity crisis as it was started with an artist who was taken out of the loop during production. Also, if there had been a way to jump between all 5 modes that would have really helped. To me it was like having 4 really cool single channel amps in one; with a very interesting take on a high gain amp thrown in for the hell of it. SO LOUD.

 

 

Here's what I don't get about a lot of big amp makers: Why can't you guys just do it right the first time? Take the Windsor, for example, a pretty mediocre amp in stock form, but with a few minor changes becomes a pretty damn good amp. Why cut corners? Charge $20-$30 more for it, and build it with better components and a better circuit design. The same could be said for the Penta. I've very, very infrequently heard people say anything nice about that amp. Why half-ass your way through R&D and end up with a half-ass product when you could've just built a good amp from the get go?

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i like the clips. very clean,also really heavey too. are your clips strait into the amp? i mean no pedals,also did the mods change drastic to the original sounds? also what speakers are in the 4x12 cab? finally any clips of the penta with a od pedal on the clean channel?

 

 

The clips of mine are straight into the amp. The mods added some gain and re-voiced the amp a bit to make it more aggressive. It's clearly an improvement over the stock version, but the stock amp is great for classic rock sounds. I got mine modded because I wanted heavier sounds out of it, but if you aren't the headbanging type, you can probably get the sounds you are looking for out of a stock model.

 

One note of importance. The power section on these comes biased pretty cold from the factory, so even if you aren't going to get it modded, having the power section biased properly results in a big improvement. Sadly you have to drop the chassis from the headshell to do this because the bias adjustment is located on the underside of the circuit board, but if you don't mind doing a little work, it's well worth the time it takes.

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Here's what I don't get about a lot of big amp makers: Why can't you guys just do it right the first time? Take the Windsor, for example, a pretty mediocre amp in stock form, but with a few minor changes becomes a pretty damn good amp. Why cut corners? Charge $20-$30 more for it, and build it with better components and a better circuit design. The same could be said for the Penta. I've very, very infrequently heard people say anything nice about that amp. Why half-ass your way through R&D and end up with a half-ass product when you could've just built a good amp from the get go?

 

 

The problem isn't always that a company cut corners. The problem is that most people don't understand that their tone is the end result of their entire signal chain, not just their amp. So, when the R&D work is done with a particular type of pickup in a guitar made of such and such wood, played through a cabinet of very specific dimensions loaded with a particular speaker, you aren't going to get the same sound from the amp unless you have all of the same components everywhere else in your signal chain. So, the R&D work was done to line up with the other components in the signal chain, and when you buy said amp and use it with totally different pickups loaded in a totally different type of guitar and play it through a completely different cab, you aren't hearing what the R&D guys who tested the amp heard.

 

This is why people who mod amps that are any good at what they do will ask you about all of the other gear in your signal chain, not just what sound you want. When I send an amp to JerryP to mod for me and he put clips up on Youtube for me to sample, I'm not naive enough to think that it's going to sound exactly the same when it gets to me unless I replicate the rest of his setup (ie. same pickups, same guitar, same strings, same cabinet).

 

A classic example is the PV Triple X. Because it's a high gain amp geared for metal, most of the people who buy them have high output pickups in their guitars. You'll hear a lot of those people complain about how the gain structure of the Triple X is overly compressed and the Crunch and Ultra channels have a boomy sound that's hard to dial out. Well, I read something written by James Brown about the development of that amp, and he mentioned that he preferred medium output humbuckers to the high output that most modern players use. Sure enough I went home and plugged into my then stock Triple X with some medium output humbuckers and I was in tonal heaven. Because I have mostly high output pickups in my axes, I had JerryP mod my Triple X to sound better with high output pickups. That doesn't mean that James Brown dropped the ball when he did his R&D work. It just means that the amp was designed around a certain pickup output level running into it.

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I think there is always room for improvement. I tried to allude to the fact this amp started as a Signature Model for an artist, and well, things happen with rock stars, and the artist was removed from the project.

 

So (I am not saying this is the case with this amp, I am just throwing an idea out there), you could now be stuck for TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in labor, parts, R&D, etc... on an amp that as is (maybe due to the rock star in question) isn't viable in the market place. Now what? Well, you may have a certain budget to get something done. You may have time restraints, you may have a boss who wants a product now, etc, etc, etc...

 

I know from your computer in your office, it all seems so simple to just build the perfect amp every time. Funny how hard it ends up being for Peavey, Fender, Marshall, Bogner, WHOEVER to actually build an amp that will have sustained sales and be excepted by the market as a success.

 

We have the number one selling amplifier that sells for $1000 or more in the country right now with the 6505+. Half this board hates the amp. I can't stand the original XXX for my tastes... I own one. Half this board loves them.

 

So what I am getting at is... my lunch break is over.

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The problem isn't always that a company cut corners. The problem is that most people don't understand that their tone is the end result of their entire signal chain, not just their amp. So, when the R&D work is done with a particular type of pickup in a guitar made of such and such wood, played through a cabinet of very specific dimensions loaded with a particular speaker, you aren't going to get the same sound from the amp unless you have all of the same components everywhere else in your signal chain. So, the R&D work was done to line up with the other components in the signal chain, and when you buy said amp and use it with totally different pickups loaded in a totally different type of guitar and play it through a completely different cab, you aren't hearing what the R&D guys who tested the amp heard.


This is why people who mod amps that are any good at what they do will ask you about all of the other gear in your signal chain, not just what sound you want. When I send an amp to JerryP to mod for me and he put clips up on Youtube for me to sample, I'm not naive enough to think that it's going to sound exactly the same when it gets to me unless I replicate the rest of his setup (ie. same pickups, same guitar, same strings, same cabinet).


A classic example is the PV Triple X. Because it's a high gain amp geared for metal, most of the people who buy them have high output pickups in their guitars. You'll hear a lot of those people complain about how the gain structure of the Triple X is overly compressed and the Crunch and Ultra channels have a boomy sound that's hard to dial out. Well, I read something written by James Brown about the development of that amp, and he mentioned that he preferred medium output humbuckers to the high output that most modern players use. Sure enough I went home and plugged into my then stock Triple X with some medium output humbuckers and I was in tonal heaven. Because I have mostly high output pickups in my axes, I had JerryP mod my Triple X to sound better with high output pickups. That doesn't mean that James Brown dropped the ball when he did his R&D work. It just means that the amp was designed around a certain pickup output level running into it.

 

 

I agree with on a number of levels, but that's not really what I'm talking about. Take Fender's Hot Rod series, for example. Fender knew how to build good sounding amps in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and into the 80's. Regardless of guitar or pick-up type, not many people will say that a Deluxe Reverb from the 60's or pre-MV 70's is a bad amp...they're almost universally adored. Yet, Fender puts out trash like the Hot Rod series that have nearly unusable 'Drive' channels and sub-par vacuum tubes. Why? It's not because guitars have changed significantly. It's because amp manufacturers phone it in these days because they think they can get away with it. Unfortunately, in cases like the Windsor and Penta, it doesn't always work well.

 

What about the JCM800 variant amps Peavey built back in the day? Or the 5150/6505/etc.? Those amps sound good, so it's not an issue of somebody's guitar pickups not sounding right with a particular amp, it's an issue of bad engineering and bad R&D. Yes, some will dislike an amp no matter how many other people like it, but when your amp is almost universally seen as sounding like dog{censored}, it's not the consumer that failed you, it's you that failed the consumer.

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I agree with on a number of levels, but that's not really what I'm talking about. Take Fender's Hot Rod series, for example. Fender knew how to build good sounding amps in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and into the 80's. Regardless of guitar or pick-up type, not many people will say that a Deluxe Reverb from the 60's or pre-MV 70's is a bad amp...they're almost universally adored.
Yet, Fender puts out trash like the Hot Rod series
that have nearly unusable 'Drive' channels and sub-par vacuum tubes. Why? It's not because guitars have changed significantly. It's because amp manufacturers phone it in these days because they think they can get away with it. Unfortunately, in cases like the Windsor and Penta, it doesn't always work well.


What about the JCM800 variant amps Peavey built back in the day? Or the 5150/6505/etc.? Those amps sound good, so it's not an issue of somebody's guitar pickups not sounding right with a particular amp, it's an issue of bad engineering and bad R&D. Yes, some will dislike an amp no matter how many other people like it, but when your amp is almost universally seen as sounding like dogshit, it's not the consumer that failed you, it's you that failed the consumer.

 

:mad:

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I think you would be a little surprised at some of the parts in the Penta. Very high quality.


The Windsor was a $400 amp. What do you want in an all tube 100watt head for $400???? Oh! You want a $1000 amp.

 

 

That's a pretty bad argument, I'm afraid, and one that won't earn you any points among people that know anything about amps, and it certainly doesn't make Peavey look good to have people like you basically saying "Yeah, it's a mediocre product, but hey, we didn't overcharge you too much so STFU." I suppose it may work to explain away what amounts to lazy and careless product development, but it's a pretty juvenile argument at this point.

 

I'm not talking about different transformers. I'm talking about the circuit design itself. In terms of actual components, what about Fender's god awful plastic input jacks on the early HRD's? An extra $5-$10 per amp would've saved all of that bad press. Tubes? Extra $10-$20 would've made a mediocre off the shelf amp a pretty decent one.

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I think you would be a little surprised at some of the parts in the Penta. Very high quality.


The Windsor was a $400 amp. What do you want in an all tube 100watt head for $400???? Oh! You want a $1000 amp.

 

 

Exactly. Peavey made a nice little amp with the Windsor..and it becomes a BEAST with mods. I think it's a pretty cool platform for modders and amp tinkering enthusiasts. You can't buy a 400 dollar amp expecting it to sound like a 1000 dollar amp. It just doesn't work that way.

 

 

For the record I've NEVER been satisfied with any amp stock. Every amp needs tube upgrades, speaker matching, etc to get it running at optimal level. It's like a suit..yeah you can grab one off the rack and it'll be decent but when it's tailored to fit it's so much better.

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Exactly. Peavey made a nice little amp with the Windsor..and it becomes a BEAST with mods. I think it's a pretty cool platform for modders and amp tinkering enthusiasts. You can't buy a 400 dollar amp expecting it to sound like a 1000 dollar amp. It just doesn't work that way.

 

:facepalm:

 

Price =/= tone quality.

 

Also, the Penta was fairly spendy when it debuted, and still had tone problems, as do a number of other amps that sell north of $1k. That argument doesn't work.

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That's a pretty bad argument, I'm afraid, and one that won't earn you any points among people that know anything about amps.


I'm not talking about different transformers. I'm talking about the circuit design itself. In terms of actual components, what about Fender's god awful plastic input jacks on the early HRD's? An extra $5-$10 per amp would've saved all of that bad press. Tubes? Extra $10-$20 would've made a mediocre off the shelf amp a pretty decent one.

 

 

I like to think I know a liiiiitle something about amps.

 

I don't speak for Fender.

 

You don't seem to have a lot of insight into running a large scale amplifier company. The world does not revolve around 50 people on a message board.

 

And lastly, tone is a subjective matter.

 

Gary Rossington would disagree with you whole heartedly about the Penta. Old guy, yes... Playing to more people than me or you all summer long, yes.

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I dunno, I dont think you can blanket anything as saying its good or bad. There are certainly people out there that love things that I think are complete crap. I dont have any actual experience with a windsor, but Ive heard things on both sides of the tracks. Its SUPER cheap, though, and would be great for modding. I wonder if they take that type of thing into consideration...I really dont know. Look what happened with my deliverance...that amp is pretty well universally loved, and I got it, played it for about 2 hours, and was completely done with it. I think it goes both ways, and every one is always gonna have a different opinion on things. I love my 5150, but I think it needs to be tighter...a lot of people think its too tight and too compressed...I dont find it to be very compressed. Its all a matter of perspective too...compare a 5150 to a VH4 and then tell me the 5150 is compressed...Everything is relative and every one is always gonna have different opinions...and from that spawns variety.

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I like to think I know a liiiiitle something about amps.


I don't speak for Fender.


You don't seem to have a lot of insight into running a large scale amplifier company. The world does not revolve around 50 people on a message board.


And lastly, tone is a subjective matter.


Gary Rossington would disagree with you whole heartedly about the Penta. Old guy, yes... Playing to more people than me or you all summer long, yes.

 

 

I'm not sure Gary Rossington is a recognized authority on tone for very many people. He's famous, yes, but that doesn't really mean much in this context.

 

As I said before, some people will like things and others will not. That's the nature of the game, so it's not really necessary to toss in that last comment.

 

It's not just '50 people on a message board' that had issues with the Penta and the Windsor. How many Pentas do you see out there? That's right, not many. Wonder why that is, being that it's apparently such a well designed, great sounding, affordable amplifier. You can dismiss me all you want, but discounting the opinions of thousands of people who used the amp is a bit naive, and maybe your insulting me on how amp companies are run is a bit premature.

 

What's ironic here is that I probably own more Peavey amps than 95% of the people on this board. You guys used to make pretty decent stuff....it's a trend lately among pretty much all the major amp makers to half-ass your way through R&D and end up with a half-ass product when you could have made a much better one for pretty much the same money.

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I think you would be a little surprised at some of the parts in the Penta. Very high quality.

 

 

The Penta and Windsor are night and day in regards to component quality. The Penta is made here in the US, and the quality of the components is on par with the better amps that PV has produced in the past (5150, Classic Series, etc). The Windsor is made in a sweatshop in China by 13 year old girls, and the components used are probably the cheapest ones they could source, hence the price.

 

I bought a Windsor to use as a project to learn about circuits. I'd been reading up on mods and wanted to try my hand at it, but didn't want to butcher a good amp. So, being cheap and single channel (ie. easy to work on), the Windsor was the perfect project amp. Tried to turn it into a high gain monster, with mixed results, and ended up taking it the opposite direction. Now, with the gain at noon it's pristine, and as you take the gain up past three o'clock it starts to get a hint of grit. It gets plenty of love from my friends who play blues, whereas no on fell in love with it when I modded it for more gain.

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:facepalm:

Price =/= tone quality.


Also, the Penta was fairly spendy when it debuted, and still had tone problems, as do a number of other amps that sell north of $1k. That argument doesn't work.

 

I was talking about the Windsor I do believe. That argument works in some cases..not in others. An amp doesn't automatically get better because it has a high price tag (look at the Engl shit for example)..however for more features, higher grade components, and things of that nature..the price goes up.

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it's a trend lately among pretty much all the major amp makers to half-ass your way through R&D and end up with a half-ass product when you could have made a much better one for pretty much the same money.

 

 

Ya know..I wondered this too. Mod shops have made their living..literally..on fixing the overlooked flaws in amp designs. I often wonder why companies don't notice this and do something about it. If you did extensive R&D and you honestly believe you put out a great product, cool..but when you put it out and people complain about the same things..why not take it and fix it to make it perfect? Or better yet offer a mod shop, like a custom shop only for existing amps. This way you keep your customers happy and they don't go elsewhere because you just threw out an amp with a bunch of issues. With a mod shop you can have the usual amps for those who like it, and for those who don't you've given them a solution to their problem as well as entered a new business bracket.

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