Re: Tube amp recommendations?

Restless Fingers Syndrome wrote:
Jim wrote:
Now is the time to start looking on your local Craigslist. I just got a killer deal yesterday.

please tell

Made in US Peavey XXX, three channels all with individual EQ's, 120W 4x6L6GC. The guy wanted $300 because it wouldn't switch to the "ultra" (lead with INSANE amount of gain, more than a 5150, but it adds a rectifier flavor). Peavey's answer to the Dual Rectifier.

So, I figure it's got a switching issue. I pull the schematics and immediately get discouraged by a combination of switches, LDRs, relays... This amp is pretty scary complicated in the switching (for me, at least). I think "do I really need another headache?"

I get there after a good hour of traffic, and show him that his effects loop also does not work (switched in and out by pedal). I told him that I know tube amps enough to fix them, but this thing has solid state logic circuits before and after each gain stage (true, showed him the schematics). He told me that he had tried another guy's footswitch on his amp, with no luck. That made it an even bigger headache. Those amps have separate boars, ribbon cables... Even if it's just a single connection on a relay it'd be a hassle to tear down and troubleshoot.

I told him it was a gamble on whether it'd be a simple fix, or something I had never repaired before. I offered him $200. (Current Guitar Center price is $1249). He took it. He said he picked it up off of ebay 1.5 years ago for pretty low bid, and it came broken.

I got it home and noticed that it would switch when the footswitch was not hooked up. Despite what he told me about his buddy's footswitch not working, that led me to troubleshoot cable and pedal. The cable itself tested fine with all connections, but had serious corrosion on some of the pins. I cleaned them with DeoxIt, to no avail. So I opened up the footswitch. It had three or four bad solders in it. That caused all of his problems.

Tried it, and it is FIXED. ...for now at least.

I'm about ready to play this thing at volume (it was evening when I fixed it). It's a heavy beast, and the crunch channel has tons of gain. the "ultra" channel is complete insanity, at least with my EMG guitar. I see no need for any settings above about 9:00 on the gain. ....probably different on passive guitars, especially single coils.

I've been previously using a spectrum of amps, from clean to high gain. My high gain is a Mesa Mark III. We'll see once the "honeymoon period" is over, but this freakin' Peavey does a nu-metal tone that the Mark III lacks (I had been using pedals and/or a preamp for that). It's also far more articulate on fast runs than the pedals that I used to fake the tone. I don't know if I can justify keeping it when I'm not a shredder or nu-metal player, but it's tempting...

And, the thing came with three vintage Hungarian Tungsram preamp tubes it it!
.

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