Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

[karpathion]

I got this amp a few years ago in a pawn shop. I only gave $75 for it.
It's a Peavey Ranger, 120W, 6l6, 2x12 combo.
The guy told me it didn't work, but that wasn't so true. There were no pre-amp tubes in it.
I loaded it up with ruby 12ax7s the day I got, it and it worked for a few days, then it just died.
I put it in the closet at my house in Macon, and it sat there for 3 or 4 years.
I forgot all about it.
Well, a few weeks ago I was at our house in Macon, and pulled it out of the closet and brought it back here to try and work on it.
Last saturday, a friend of mine from school came over and we decided to work on it, " being electronics students, we couldn't help it". We put all new tubes in it, changed the corroded main fuse holder, replaced all the fuses, and gave it a good cleaning. It fired right up!
It doesn't sound all that bad. It seems to like classic and hard rock the most, but it can get you into a 90's metal tone, if you push it a little harder with a pedal.
It's 2 channels. Has a spring reverb, a tremolo, effects loop, plus resonance and presence controls.
Any of you guys ever owned or used one? I know nothing about them.

 

[Mattr4president]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

I almost got one a couple years back. They were only asking $300 for it. Good amps from what I can tell. You can certainly do a lot worse for the money thats for sure. I don't think I could quite get it into the metal area though. Weiged about a ton and a half too

 

[DankStar]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

75 bucks for a 120-watt tube amp with celestions, effects, tons of knobs and a loop. even a lot of extension speaker options with the impedence switch = nice!!

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

I played one years ago. I liked it clean. Didn't like it overdriven too much. Then, some other dude came in the store and was like "Awesome! A Ranger!" He plugged in made it sound GOOOOOOOOOD.

Not helpful, I know. But that was my experience.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

I don't think I could quite get it into the metal area though.

give me any OD pedal off the shelf and this amp and I bet it would do old school metal just fine. watchyou think karp?

 

[karpathion]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

give me any OD pedal off the shelf and this amp and I bet it would do old school metal just fine. watchyou think karp?

It does a mean Metallica on it's own. I've put a couple overdrives in front of it, and come up just shy of my kind of metal tone. Hard rock to old school metal is where it shines.
It's just a little loose on the ass end for a 6l6 style amp.

And yes, it weighs a freakin' ton!

 

[sosomething]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

Peavey can and have made some good amps.

but

Why is it that Peavey always designs everything like they're trying to win the award for ugliest-looking product??

I'm not kidding.

It's like they try to make stuff ugly on purpose.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

I'm assuming from the appearance they were targetting the Metal crowd with that one, especially if those Celestions are stock, so they had to lose their age-old turquoise trim.

That's the first Peavey combo I've seen with more than just preamp tubes. I had a Transtube Bandit 112 some years ago, and seem to recall seeing these at the local dealer when they came out. The thing I didn't like about the appearance was the big red squiggly in the triangle. I mean, WTF is that supposed to be?

 

[karpathion]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

Peavey can and have made some good amps.

but

Why is it that Peavey always designs everything like they're trying to win the award for ugliest-looking product??

I'm not kidding.

It's like they try to make stuff ugly on purpose.

I agree, they make some hideous looking amps.

This is just a good, throw it in the back of the truck and go, amp.

I'm not scared to hurt it.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

The thing I didn't like about the appearance was the big red squiggly in the triangle. I mean, WTF is that supposed to be?

hehe, I love how in the 80s that type of marker/paint squiggle was on nearly everything. where did it come from? what does it mean!?!

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

Trapper Keeper!

And it meant you were both RAD and TOTALLY TUBULAR.

 

[karpathion]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

I'm assuming from the appearance they were targetting the Metal crowd with that one, especially if those Celestions are stock, so they had to lose their age-old turquoise trim.

That's the first Peavey combo I've seen with more than just preamp tubes. I had a Transtube Bandit 112 some years ago, and seem to recall seeing these at the local dealer when they came out. The thing I didn't like about the appearance was the big red squiggly in the triangle. I mean, WTF is that supposed to be?

I've seen cabinets with the same triangle on them. I assume they where part of the same line.

I'm thinking of building a new enclosure, and just making a head out of it.
It is a bit of an eye sore.

 

[Mattr4president]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

give me any OD pedal off the shelf and this amp and I bet it would do old school metal just fine. watchyou think karp?

Well yes, with OD's I'm sure that can be done. On its own I felt It could do loose heavy rock really well, not 5150 territory though. I don't believe that's what they designed it for though. It wasn't suppose to be a metal amp because when they released these they already had the ultra series and the 5150. The ranger would have been redundant.

I believe the Delta(triangle) symbol Camje about in the early to mid 90's. in the 80's every peavey amp some sort of blue/turquoise on it.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Ever heard of a Peavey Ranger?

Sounds awesomely loud and hilarious --- I would love one.

As a clean player, I bet it would be pretty good.

Adam is right, they are fugly - like all Peaveys and Crates.