Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

[Dills]

What do you guys think of the distortion channel on this amp?
How do you guys go about miking it if you're using it live? Cause there's to speakers and it sounds real trebly on the distortion channel but thru the mike there seems to be hardly and high end and you get a kind of muffled sound?

[bvc310]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

I really like the overdrive channel on this amp after a few simple mods on www.blueguitar.org. With some basic electronics knowledge, the mod are simple. However, if you are unfamiliar with working with working with tube amps, be sure to read up on how to drain the charges from the filter caps to avoid a deadly shock. Heres a post by Ryan(rspst) who also owns and loves a peavey classic 50(in his case the 410 version):

First of all, I would be less concerned about your amp and more concerned with electrocuting yourself silly if you open it up and start poking around inside. The filter capacitors hold large charges for long periods of time, and if you're not careful, you could end up discharging them through your body. There are several ways of discharging the capacitors. I usually do all of them just to make sure everything's safe. Here's how I do it:

1. Let the amp warm up in standby for a few minutes, then turn it on and start playing. As you're playing, unplug the amp from the wall, and keep strumming as the sound fades out. This will drop the voltages below a lethal level.

2. Next, construct a probe with an alligator clip on one end and a multimeter probe on the other. Cut the cable in half, and solder in a 150 ohm 10 watt resistor. Clip the alligator clip to either the chasis or the central ground point, and touch both sides of all the filter capacitors using the probe end.

3. Once you're sure you've got all the filter caps, touch all the tube pin sockets on one preamp tube and one power tube. I recommend touching all the pin sockets, because I can't remember which one is the correct one to touch, and it varies depending on the type of tube.

After all this, you can safely open up the amp.

Ryan

[bvc310]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

I actually have never miked it live, i just crank it and have never had a problem with not being loud enough. When recording, I use a DI box now into acid, but i used to point the mike towards the cone a few inches off of the center of it from about 3 feet from the speaker. I used this sparingly before mods, but did use it quite often post mod. Unfortunatly I no longer have any of these clips though. I suggest you preform some of the blue guitar mods which will turn a good peavy into a great tone monster.

[rspst14]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

With the right guitar and pickups, you shouldn't have any problems with it being overly bright. Even in its stock form, I was able to dial in the right amount of treble without it sounding too bright. The mods took it to a whole new level though, my Classic 50 totally nails the tone I'm after. I've had mine for two years now, and I haven't bothered to even try out any other amp since I got it. What's the rest of your setup like, and what type of stuff are you playing through it?

Ryan

[bvc310]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

With the right guitar and pickups, you shouldn't have any problems with it being overly bright. Even in its stock form, I was able to dial in the right amount of treble without it sounding too bright. The mods took it to a whole new level though, my Classic 50 totally nails the tone I'm after. I've had mine for two years now, and I haven't bothered to even try out any other amp since I got it. What's the rest of your setup like, and what type of stuff are you playing through it?

Ryan

I feel the same way about it. Ive played many other amps, the peavey kills them all, the only one i would upgrade to would be the Rivera Knucklehead, I just adore that amp though. When I had my amp stock, I used to set the treble at around 10:30, the mids around 1:30 and the bass around 3:00. I was using a bright guitar and I found these settings were the right settings to bring some of the harshness out of the sound and smooth it all out. I suggest boosting your bass and mids while cuttign the treble to get rid of the harsh sound at first, but I still highly recomend the mods.

[inter]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

I had a Peavey classic 50 4x10 that was absolutley briliant. It was very vesatile, has an awesome clean channel and the od channel is wonderful for most kinds of rock. It's not designed to do high gain.

Does it always sounds like that? If so, your tubes are probably stuffed. Go to www.eurotubes.com and get Bob to send you some of his JJ's.

[BS123]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

What do you guys think of the distortion channel on this amp?
How do you guys go about miking it if you're using it live? Cause there's to speakers and it sounds real trebly on the distortion channel but thru the mike there seems to be hardly and high end and you get a kind of muffled sound?

I have one. I started with the 410 model and sold it to buy the 212 model. I don't like the stock tubes. I called Bob Pletka from Eurotubes and he set me up with a really nice set of JJ's. The Classic 50/212 has got to be one of the best working amps made. Oh yeah, you can spend $2k for a Dr. Z, Victoria, and the like; but you can't find anything like the Classic series for under $600. People will tell you to try the Fender Hot Rod series. Don't get me wrong. I love the Hot Rods; but they're a different animal. They're powered with 6L6's while the Peaveys are pwoered with EL84's. I love the EL84's much better than the 6L6's which are much harder to get to break up.

My C50 sounds excellent when miked up to an SM57. The mods that bvc310 spoke of from blueguitar.org are great.

[Dills]

Re: Anyone use a Peavey Classic 50 212?

I am using a PRS santana se with a duncan custom in the bridge and i usual yhave the treble on 2 and the bass on around 10 with the mids at about 5 I use the amps distortion with the pre and the post both at about 8 and the masters set to around 4 One minute i get a real nice sound and the next minute it sounds overly harsh but i am still fiddling with it to get a good sound out of the distortion channel, the mike picks up hardly any high end but more the bass and the mids and sends that thru the pa but too my ears when i stand in front of it it sounds alot differnet very harsh and bright which is confusing at times i usuallyuse a zoom power drive for a boost or slight overdrive and a guvnor gv2 4 higher gain stuff (neither of these sound as good as the distortion channel) thats about it