Peavey Classic 30 ?

[NathanCahill]

I recently purchased a used classic 30. Over all I realy like the sound of this amp. But the catch is no matter how I adjust the passive EQ it can Sound a little bluseish. So far I have been able to work around it. I am thinking about changing the blue marvel for a celestion Vintage 30. Would this be a mistake? What differances can I expect?

[MDS]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

The speaker change is definitely a good idea. That Blue Marvel is far from marvelous. Classic 30s are pretty bluesy stock. If you're handy with a soldering iron, and have a little patience, there are some great mods at www.blueguitar.org. I did just about all of the mods on there to mine and it is an awesome amp now. I voiced the lead channel so its a lot more like a marshall and it gets a great rock sound. MUCH different than my Mesa.

Mike

[sweet_lou]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

Dumb Question maybe and not intended to be critical. But why by a peavy and turn it into something so diferent?

Unless you just love to tinker.

[MDS]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

That is exactly why. I bought a Classic 30 for $200 w/ a Celestion loaded extension cab to get my feet wet with amp modding. I learned a ton about circuit design and varations and I ended up with an amp I'd put up against any $1000+ tube amp for $200 and $50(maybe less) worth of parts.

Mike

[NathanCahill]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

I could always use a good cab so I may try just the cab. But I figured buying a single speaker I could just swap them out at will and save some $$$.

[telerifik]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

Dumb Question maybe and not intended to be critical. But why by a peavy and turn it into something so diferent?

Unless you just love to tinker.

Amen! I prefer peavey amps 99% of the time but if it is a Fender your looking for then go for the Fender bro. Unless as you mention... yer a tinker freak

[xerxes]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

well, i have one. and im a blues player (i consider myself that, im not that great though, lol), so the amp stock i looove. i can get the crunch i want, as well as great rock crunch. the cleans i personally love as well.

[BloodRose]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

A celestion will give you more headroom.. The stock speaker breaks up pretty quick..
I retubed mine last night with JJ tubes and I have more clean headroom, much more distortion crunch. Its amazing!! If I use a hot humbucker, (tone zone) I can get the clean channel to break up enough for blues. but with some sweet single coils or a duncan 59, I can keep is sparkly. I can still break up the stock speaker pretty easily, but the tubes improved the amp 10fold..

[NathanCahill]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

If I were to change the speaker and swap the tubes might that be too much of a good thing, or is it worth a shot?

[Kent S.]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

If I were to change the speaker and swap the tubes might that be too much of a good thing, or is it worth a shot?

Personally I'd go with an Electro-Voice speaker over celestion ... a lot of people have had good luck with the celestions, but not myself personally ... EV makes some nice replacement 12's that won't break up, I'd go with *something* different regarding the stock speaker ... it's good for what it does, but ... well ... nuff said. I don't think I'd mess with the tubes just yet though, there's plently of time for that later. plus as a side note, Peavey offers a 1 12 extension cabinet for it, that has a closed back/half back option that's pretty cool. Are you trying to tighten up the low end, and punch up the mids a bit ... if so then the celestion might be a better way to go; however is you just want better performance (read cleaner) from the speaker then an EV would probably do you better. Try playing thru some different cabs at your local store with the C30 and see what you like best ... Also an EQ pedal thru the effects loop make a tremendous difference on the lead channel (never have like sharing the eq), also you might want to try it straight into the amp as well ... Just a thought FWIW.

[NathanCahill]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

My biggest problem with the amp is the bottom end can come through a little strong but not too bad, but is sloppy!! A little more distortion on the lead channel would be nice though. This is my first real amp, so a XXX half stack is probbably in the future. Unless I find something better between now and then. So im going to try and make the 30 a little better with out completly destroying it (Only paid $300). Right now I am playing through Stock Gibson pickups. I am getting a 59/Custom set installed though. May not need to do much work on the amp after that.

[butnut]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

I'm still noodleing around with my recent Classic 30. When I got it, it did'nt sound as nice as my old Fenders, but it was the size I needed to do small gigs and I could'nt afford any of the amps I used to have but sold. My friend sent me a '70's Marshall Celestion speaker to stuff in, it sounds a lot better with the kind of mojo crunch and punch that was missing. Tubes will be next, but for now, it's rockin'...I'm just happy to have reverb again too. Using it in a club right now and works well miked through the house PA...
Dirty 30...

[Mike M.]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

Nathan, here's what you might consider. Contact Bob at Eurotubes. (www.eurotubes.com). Bob is a great guy who will answer any question you may have. Tell him what you're after and he will set you up with the proper tubes. The complaint that I had with mine was that I could'nt get enough headroom from the clean channel, and the OD channel was rather harsh and spikey. I told Bob I wanted to (for lack of a better term) "brown" it up a bit. He recommended EL84's with a #35 heat rating. As far as preamp tubes go I'm using an ECC81 in V1 and an ECC83S in V2 and V3. The 81 in V1 has about 70% gain opposed to the 83S. This gave me a LOT more clean headroom (volume at 6 with no breakup) and it also helped to calm down the OD channel. The way I now have it all set up is: I set the amps mid, bass and treble for the OD channel. I then run a Boss GE-7 EQ pedal into the effects loop and use that to tailor the clean channel and for me it all works great. Really, I was amazed at what a differance these tubes made in my amp. So much better. I can't recommend these tubes enough. Call Bob.

[msplines]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

I have 2 Classic 30s, one modded, the other stock and you can definately do a LOT by swapping out the tubes - I second Mike M in asking someone who knows the difference and can tell you what is needed for what you want. Speaker swaps after cos they're usually much more expensive and if yer don' like it/them, whaddya gonna do?
The 1x12 extension cab is unfortunately no longer available from PV unless they've decided to reissue - I only have one, but it's well worth it

[MDS]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 ?

Just as a head's up, make sure you get a 16ohm speaker. Peavey cuts corners, and the transformer in the Classic 30 will fry big time if run at 8ohms for more than 39.43 seconds(roughly).

Mike