GGiles
17 posts
Mar 13, 2009
5:29 AM
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Tone, Tone .... TONE !!! It's all I can say about this great amp. Fender cannot touch it with anything they have under $1000.00 !! I picked up one last Thursday and I cannot stop playing with it. Haven't mic'd a harp through it yet but I know it's going to scream .... Jimmy Hall has used one.
This amp is what the Blues Jr. should have grown up to be.
The new ones now come stock with a tube guard and all the tubes are now JJ's. The 15" blue marvel speaker with 30 watts behined it pushes a lot of air making a beautiful sound. Want to play at home .... no problem ... it still sounds sweet as honey at 2 on the volume! Need to play a small gig ... turn it up and get those tubes cooking and you can make the drummers ears bleed!
Has anyone else had a chance to use one of these amps?
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XHarp
15 posts
Mar 13, 2009
6:39 AM
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AGREED !!! GGiles. I played an one at the local shop here about a month ago.
Fat tone at all volumes but absolutely great blues tone once the tubes are saturated. I can't comment on the electronics or details but I can say that Peavey has a done a great job with the tone and headroom in this amp for sure.
I've been a Fender fan for long time until I plugged into that amp. Its now on my GAS list.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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Scoltx
38 posts
Mar 13, 2009
7:19 AM
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Sounds promising for Peavey they must have changed the circuit from the Classic 30. I'll be interested in hearing your review after you plug a harp mic into it. There's one sitting at a local shop collecting dust, I should give it a try.
I have a Classic 30 with a 12inch speaker and it squeals like a pig at anything close to jam volumes. I've tried preamp tube swaps to as low as 12AU7's and I'm still not happy with it. I was thinking of modding it but from what I've read on Harp-L it's not worth the effort. It's now for sale if you know any Guitarists looking for one. First $250 Canadian plus shipping takes it.
Last Edited by on Mar 13, 2009 7:21 AM
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GGiles
18 posts
Mar 13, 2009
7:46 AM
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The circuit as far as I know is still the same as the Classic 30 ... did you ever have an amp tech go over your 30? It shouldn't squeal. The differences that I know of are the 15" speaker (that's a big one) and the on board tremelo.
Go to the shop and give the Delta a try ... see if you get the same squeal (if they will let you turn it up).
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kudzurunner
309 posts
Mar 13, 2009
8:05 AM
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When you say "tone tone TONE," but then say that you haven't yet plugged a mic into it and blown harp through it, this raises the obvious question: tone of WHAT? I'm assuming you mean guitar, but perhaps I'm wrong and you should clarify.
Here's a YT video demo w/guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYHYgB1ljm0
I've used several older tube amps with 15" speakers for harp, including an Ampeg Rocket (it came with a 12" but the guy I bought it from had put in a 15") and an older Fender of some sort. At the time, I thought the amps sounded pretty good; in fact, HARLEM BLUES was recorded on that Ampeg in tandem with a Mouse. But in retrospect, a 15" speaker is clearly not ideal for the harp--unless you're Dennis Gruenling and want to match an amp up with very low harps. Amplified harp sound lives and dies not just for overdrive--which the Peavey can get--but a particular set of high-midrange harmonics. These are produced in significantly higher quantities by smaller speakers. This is why harp players, as a group, have over time gravitated to 8" and 10" speakers. It's why Little Walter used a Masco PA and strung little PA speakers up around clubs. It's why harp players who may play bigger rigs at gigs generally use smaller amps for recording. (Heck, it's why Clapton recorded "Strange Brew" on a Fender Champ.)
This isn't to say that some harp players don't dip into 12" speakers. Kim Wilson was playing a pair of Tweed Twins with the T-birds; I've seen Butterfield and Magic Dick playing through Twins. Those have 2 x 12". Almost nobody blows amplified harp through 15" speakers. This doesn't mean it can't be done. It does mean, though, that to praise the tone of your new amp before you've actually blown harp through it is a little.....well, premature. Great guitar amps tend not to be great harp amps, although there are exceptions, most of which go by the name "Fender Tweed." Anyway, I hope it works great for you. Please let us know. The tone you get will certainly depend on the mic you use, with higher output mics giving a better sound. You may find that you can get what seems like a good sound in your practice room but that sound may not prove to be workable on a gig. Gig play requires a lot of high mids so you don't get buried by the guitar and/or keyboard, both of which produce a sound that conflicts with the frequency range of harmonica UNLESS the harmonica is amped in a way that boosts high mids.
Last Edited by on Mar 13, 2009 8:13 AM
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GGiles
19 posts
Mar 13, 2009
8:45 AM
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Thanks for the advice Adam .... you are correct that I'm refering to guitar tone at this point. I've got my Champion 600 as a harp amp right now which is a 6" speaker. I only "read" on some forums that this is a okay amp to blow through.
(I got all carried away with the guitar sound I'm getting, just had to blurt it out ... I forgot this is a harp forum)
I'll let you know as soon as I do .... Hartley Peavey is quoted in a letter as saying this is his favourite of the classic series and it is a great harp amp. I don't know if he ever played a harp so his ear could be way off.
And as I mentioned above Jimmy Hall uses one:
http://www.jimmyhall.com/photos/index.html
you can clearly see the amp with his harp mic resting on it
in some of the photos.
In any event if if does sound bad as a harp amp ... at least the harpest will know his guitarist will sound good backing him up!
Last Edited by on Mar 13, 2009 10:00 AM
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XHarp
16 posts
Mar 13, 2009
11:31 AM
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From my research, The current amp design calls it as 1 x 15 but the talked about change on other forums is that its going to go to 2 x 10.
Nothing on the Peavey site on that though.
They are OK for Harp. That is how I played it, albeit with a off the shelf mic. Now, I will admit that I only had a few short and sweet minutes but what I got I liked.
Like the Fender DRRI it has a 3 channel bass/mid/high equalizer as well as Peavey's reknowned reverb. You can tailor the thing to get the mid and high responses that Adam is talking about and I would think that with the help of a harp mic the whole set up would be very flexible and responsive to the harp.
If only I never walked away....
There's got to be a song in there
By the way Adam, I noticed that a lot of Harp players use typically a 2 x 12 or 4 x 10 set up or, like you do, two amps. I noticed that Charlie Musslewhite does, Jerry Portnoy does and it seems to me that William Clarke also played through something similar.
It's always puzzled me that Harp players prefer smaller wattages while the masters prefer larger amps.
Any thoughts that you can share on that would be appreciated.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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GGiles
20 posts
Mar 13, 2009
11:40 AM
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Xharp ... they make it in two styles:
classic tweed with 15" speaker (Delta Blues 115)
and a standard black amp with two 10" speakers
(Delta Blues 210)
same guts.
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jbone
32 posts
Mar 13, 2009
12:59 PM
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i had the pleasure of owning a delta blues 210, which as the name says, sported 2 10's. a pre amp tube swap did a lot to cut feedback and i really liked this amp. plus it had a speaker out si i usually plugged it into a 4x8 cab i have. it was really a great amp with plenty of room to adjust for different tones. high, mid, and also had tremolo. i think it was built in the 90's. sadly i had to let it go in hard times.
never have tried a 15" speaker for harp. i guess it would be HUGE bottom end!
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Scoltx
40 posts
Mar 13, 2009
1:08 PM
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GGiles, my amp works fine as a guitar amp, which it was designed to be. It's just got a modern preamp stage which has too much gain for harp but just right for it's intended purpose. The thread on the Classic 30 on Harp-l was not very kind to this amp and basically suggested selling it for a more harp friendly amp, but I don't mind the tone at all for guitar. A coworker of mine who has been building and modding amps since the 70's suggested pulling 2 output tubes to drop the gain from 30 to 15 watts with the thought that I could use the clean channel (less preamp gain) and get some distortion in the output gain stage (same effect when working a small amp hard). Due to the design of the heater circuit, wired in series in the Classic 30, the remaining tubes would not light up when I pulled a pair so I couldn't confirm how that might sound.
I recently played through a Peavey Valve King Royal 8 that has an 8" speaker, single 12AX7 preamp gain stage and single el84 output. It is definitely more harp friendly than the Classic 30 as I could get a decent chicago tone without feedback at moderate volume. I didn't really get a chance to crank it in the store and it would have to be mic'd for gigs as it's only 5 watts. I'd love to see a schematic for this one to see how close the design is to the Epiphone Valve Jr or Champ 600.
Last Edited by on Mar 13, 2009 1:14 PM
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GGiles
21 posts
Mar 13, 2009
1:22 PM
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I've seen talk on the tube pull ... not a good thing to do to an amp. What you do is use 2 old tubes and cut the pins so they only heat but don't sound ... there is an entire thread on it at the Delta Blues Yahoo group on how to do it.
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MrVerylongusername
192 posts
Mar 13, 2009
1:26 PM
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I had a tweed classic 30 for a while - as Scoltx says it wasn't very harp friendly. Very bright and the preamp stage was way over the top for harp. I sold mine to my guitarist and used the money towards buying my '59 bassman. The guitarist loves it, so much so that he bought a second one and ran them in tandem.
Personally I wouldn't touch anything with speakers bigger than 10". 2x10 is way more harp friendly than 1x15. Bigger the speaker, the greater the feedback. I think it'd just sound muddy with a harp.
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jbone
33 posts
Mar 14, 2009
10:11 AM
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i got to try out a classic 30 for an afternoon one summer at a party. the band was loud. i had a 4x10 cab at my disposal which i plugged in, and the extra air they pushed seemed to alleviate the feedback issue some.
i use a 4x10 replica bassman for big and medium venues and an electric band, which didn't cost much more than a classic 30 probably. for small rooms and the acoustic duo i run a silvertone 1482 with single 12", with 12au7 in the pre amp socket. otherwise stock. it works very well and exudes great tone, easily colored by swapping mics and dialing the tone knob up or down, maybe adding in a bit of trem for added warmth. it's about 12 to 15 watts and is not so suitable for higher volume gigs since it gets drowned out, even miced off. that's why the bassman, at 40-45 watts and modded for harp with a good mix of speakers and a couple of 12au7's to back gain off. the fender circuit used on this amp is just about ideal for harp as far as i can tell. this amp will really howl if turned up, i've actually been asked to turn it down a couple of times, with 2 guitars on stage laying down some hard loud blues rock.
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Bluzdude46
31 posts
Mar 15, 2009
8:31 AM
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The only 12" speaker I like for Harp is the Epiphone Vjr Cabs they have the eminence Lady Lucks in it. That being said I just recently got a 59 Bassman LTD Re-issue. Tried 12AU7 and 12AT7 but wound up replacing the 12AT7 with a 12AY7 to tame it a bit better and I'm loving life. I still have my smaller amps 35w Bogen, 20w Bogen and 5w VJr but I like the Bassman it's got drive and tone. My neighbors are starting to be annoyed by volume I fear.
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