Posted by Thermionic [ 70.173.82.75 ] on October 19, 2005 at 10:12:09:

In Reply to: Re: amp choosing help posted by todd on October 18, 2005 at 17:05:48:

Hi Todd,

A Peavey Classic 30 can usually be had used for around $300 (sometimes less). IMO, there's nothing anywhere near that price range that sounds as good, and being a 1-12" combo it's infinitely portable. While the tone won't do battle with a good boutique amp, it'll lay waste to most any other 1-12" combo you'll find in your average music store nowadays. But get a Weber VST speaker, change a few caps and resistors, and it WILL do battle with boutique amps. The Classic 50 definitely sounds better than the 30, but that 4-10" cabinet is a real backbreaker.......... Also, be aware that it can be had in an ultra cool black instead of the standard tan, which is the Classic 30BT (Black Tweed) model.

The 30 has a great clean tone, and does a good job of letting the guitar's tone through instead of masking it. It also has a nice, smooth sounding FET driven reverb as well. AAMOF, the way it's filtered, it actually sounds smoother than some tube driven reverbs! Just don't look for a super loud pristine clean tone. It starts breaking up fairly early, so you'll definitely wanna crank it up even a bit past your normal church playing volume to see what it does when you try one. Of course, you could just mic it.

The Peavey Classic series are are the only mass produced, current production amps I know of that don't have clipping diodes in the preamp section. Those nasty clipping diodes are a major part of what give the distortion of today's amps that buzzy, gritty, fuzz, and are why you can't get a smooth overdrive sound. There are other reasons as well, but the clipping diodes are the A Number 1 reason.

I'd recommend ditching the factory tubes, and replacing the EL84s with JJ and the 12AX7s with Electro Harmonix. BIG improvement over the stock tubes, especially if you get an older, used one with the Chinese 12AX7s (yuck!).

Thermionic

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