New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

[Wattage]

What a great friggin' amp, ridiculous for the money. It is a total Rock N Roll machine, very Marshall-esque. Similar in a lot of ways to the JCM 800/2210 head when running the boost. Very broad ranging tone controls, runs a bit to the bright side but is easily controlled. The Presence, Resonance and Texture controls are great for dialing it in. Straight forward to use and very easy to dial in, it felt like cheating it was so easy.

I wasn't planning on getting the cab but they made it too good a deal not to (scored it at GC). It was kind of stiff at first and very compressed when really leaning into it but after an hour of playing it started opening up and by the end of rehearsal it sounded fantastic. I am sure as I use it'll open up even more.

It is very well put together, and really nice looking on top of everything else it is quite classy actually.

I think Peavey has a winner on it's hands in a big way.

 

[SonofaMitch]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

Yea, I was Playing 1 as well at my local guitar store.....the head will have a new home right on top of my Crate BV-120HR...on top of my Crate 4x12" Celestion V'30's

Real Rock N Roll Machine as you said....and good $$wise

~Mitch~

 

[Baltar]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

congratz man
what kinda speakers are in there?

how would you describe the cleans?

cheers

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

I had fun playing one of those in a store a few months ago. It reminds me of an old 50W Marshall with more gain on tap. I say 50W because even as a 100W head, it seemed about as loud as a Marshall 50W JMP. They look and sound pretty nice for the good price they sell for. I know why they market it with AC/DC logo lettering, because it's got that vibe, tonally.

 

[taphappy]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

Price aside, how good is this compared to expensive amps or a real marshall?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

Price aside, how good is this compared to expensive amps or a real marshall?

It sounds good, sort of like an old Marshall amp with a Tube Screamer in front of it. You might have to hear it to know for sure if it's what you're looking for.
I wonder about it's quality over the long term, since I'm sure it's got small components and pots on a small circuit board, but for the money, it's a decent buy. It'll be an even better buy when some of them start hitting the used market, and you can scoop them up for $275. I mean, it's a 4 EL-34 amp with decent gain....you don't find many for $400 new.

Take an amp like that, and adjust it's gain to make the amp as good sounding as possible, then put an OD in front of it, and as long as the speaker cab is good, you'll have a quality rock lead tone. I'm also curious about how mod-able they are, if you're inclined to improve on it.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

The Windsor family are delighted with their new signature amp.

 

[Wattage]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

Cleans? What are those? Seriously I only messed with those after rehearsal and they were pretty good. Cleanest I get is in the T-Rex area for the most part so they weren't much of a concern but what I got were definitely useable.

This amp so far seems like it can stand on it's own. I can get the sounds I need out of it pretty quickly so what more can I ask for. The amp sounds as good as the Crunch channel on the XXX which is all I wanted my X for anyway so I am good there. I didn't directly a/b it against the DSL 100 next to it but there isn't anything it does that this isn't going to do from what I can tell but we'll see I only have 4 hours on it.

GJ you must have one seriously loud 50wt head!

As the cabinet started breaking I had to turn the master volume down, those speakers started to move and it really opened up both in terms of tone and volume. Can't say I ever had a brand spanking new 4x12 to hear that happen quite like that before, at least I didn't notice. I imagine they're some sort of Peavey speaker I didn't research the cab since I had no intention of buying it. Since they didn't want to get left with just the cab I picked the 1/2 stack up for $600. I start giggling when I think about it.

Obviously I didn't take it apart last night to look at the guts, I have no need for that, but like I said it seems pretty solid and well made.

 

[kevlar3000]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

Very nice!! I love the class a/b knob, really gets different flavor. I got some killer raunch with a Tele and the low gain input, with the master dimed and the pre rolled back. Lotta versailtilty in that amp!!

 

[Wattage]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

You know I didn't even plug into the low gain jack. I bet the cleans are far better through that input.

Friday night I'll have more time to mess with it. It's at my rehearsal space so I won't see till then, I miss it already.

I'll see if I can do some clips on Friday to give an idea what it'll do.

 

[open]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

The Windsor family are delighted with their new signature amp.

Priceless:chairfall

 

[fretburner]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

pardon me for the newbie question... but i don't really have a real experience with a single channel amp... so...

how do you go from

a) dirty to clean? and,
b) dirty to lead?

is it just rolling down the volume knob of your guitar for (a) and the stomp on an OD pedal for (b)?

 

[Reload in 5]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

I bought a peavey 4x12 a long time ago (I sold it 10 years ago)
It had scorpions or something in it. It was one of the better sounding cabs I ever heard. And it was $299 !

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

pardon me for the newbie question... but i don't really have a real experience with a single channel amp... so...

how do you go from

a) dirty to clean? and,
b) dirty to lead?

is it just rolling down the volume knob of your guitar for (a) and the stomp on an OD pedal for (b)?

Yes, usually.

 

[Wattage]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

pardon me for the newbie question... but i don't really have a real experience with a single channel amp... so...

how do you go from

a) dirty to clean? and,
b) dirty to lead?

is it just rolling down the volume knob of your guitar for (a) and the stomp on an OD pedal for (b)?

Yeah that is pretty much it.

The Windsor does have a footswitchable boost that'll give you a bit more oomph for leads etc.

Simon I missed that pic before, that is awesome!:laugh2:

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

pardon me for the newbie question... but i don't really have a real experience with a single channel amp... so...

how do you go from

a) dirty to clean? and,
b) dirty to lead?

is it just rolling down the volume knob of your guitar for (a) and the stomp on an OD pedal for (b)?

The way I do it is by using a Les Paul or a guitar wired similar to a Les Paul- where the neck and bridge pickups have thier own individual volumes. Usually I keep the neck volume down, and change to that from the "dirty" wide open bridge pickup. Then use an OD/Dist. pedal for the boost.

You can also find a relatively transparent pedal and set the volume LOWER than your signal and it effectively becomes a "brake" and you can get your cleans off of that.

 

[fretburner]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

The way I do it is by using a Les Paul or a guitar wired similar to a Les Paul- where the neck and bridge pickups have thier own individual volumes. Usually I keep the neck volume down, and change to that from the "dirty" wide open bridge pickup. Then use an OD/Dist. pedal for the boost.

though this would be easier in a les paul - and i play mostly with my les paul - it still is a lot of work going from my lead/solo tone down to cleans...

clean to rhythm would be easy with the neck vol rolled down and bridge vol at 10... but i solo mostly with the neck pup... so i will have to simulaneously stomp on the OD pedal for a volume boost (if that increases the volume at all ... and in my little experience, it doesn't) and roll up the neck vol to 10... if i go back to clean right away, then it would be like playing a strat...

You can also find a relatively transparent pedal and set the volume LOWER than your signal and it effectively becomes a "brake" and you can get your cleans off of that.

would an EQ pedal work with this approach? Or a DS1 with the dist close to zero?

this seems to be the easiest way to do it.

and i will definitely try it this weekend.

thanks all!

 

[fretburner]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

by the way, i know it's kinda off topic... but i was always into 2-channel or 3-channel amps... but would like to own a head and cab someday and peavey's windsor seems to be the most accessible (financially) for me... i just want to know if it's gonna be too much work on my part changing from clean to rhythm to lead...and my friend's going to HK very soon and he's hinting on possibly buying 1 for me.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

for the cash i bet these amps rock.... Man it's amazing that someone could buy a tube half stack for $600! Crazy man! I have to check these amps out!

 

[Rushfan2112]

Re: New amp - Peavey Windsor half stack

You can always use a volume pedal, maybe in the loop?, in stead of using your volume knob. Then you can go from clean to dirty, and stomp on a box if you have to.