Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

[That90'sGuy]

I'm posting this thread because my singer/guitarist uses a Peavey Classic 30 and he's pretty unhappy with the tone (me as well :blackeye: ). It's all stock from what I understand. I've heard about speaker upgrades helping, perhaps a Celestion G12H30? Is there anything else I should be looking into for him? If it costs too much to get it to sound really good, he'll just have to save up for a much better amp (which he is prepared for).

Thanks for your time

 

[RGN]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I'm posting this thread because my singer/guitarist uses a Peavey Classic 30 and he's pretty unhappy with the tone (me as well :blackeye: ). It's all stock from what I understand. I've heard about speaker upgrades helping, perhaps a Celestion G12H30? Is there anything else I should be looking into for him? If it costs too much to get it to sound really good, he'll just have to save up for a much better amp (which he is prepared for).

Thanks for your time

Throw a Full-Drive 2 in front of it and see what happens.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

Whats wrong with it? Mine sounds great even stock. Could use a tube change I'm sure, but the stock speaker is decent. Might just not be the right amp for him.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

The cleans were ok, nothing sparkly or exciting. The OD was harsh, raspy and muddy. Anybody know what the speaker upgrade will do or if there's anything else that can be done to it?

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I know there are lots of mods, I'm sure there's something that could tune it more to your friend's liking. I haven't found mine to be harsh or muddy at all. Very crunchy, rich overdrive.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

http://blueguitar.org/new/articles/blue_gtr/amps/peavey/c30_origmod.pdf

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I guess it could be the tubes. Do you guys have any combinations you swear by?

I'm trying to see how I can turn this amp into a tone machine. I know my singer prefers amp distortion, so I'd hate to have him have to run a pedal through it to make it sound good (only reason why I haven't taken your advice so far RGN).

It's weird. The amp does crunch, but I've found the gain really isn't sweet or articulate at all.

 

[MDS]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

If you're reasonably good with a soldering iron, which you probably are hanging out on this forum, check out the BlueGuitar.org mods. I did pretty much all of them plus a few others to my C30 and the amp is quite the contender now. Cleaner cleans, smoother distortion, and more gain. It is super versatile now too because of the various tone switches I added. I spent about a week of evenings in my garage working on it, but now it is a sweet amp that rivals a lot of amps costing many times more than the $200 I bought mine for (with an ext. cab even!).

A speaker upgrade is a good idea. The stock speaker is okay, but a celestion, Jenson, or eminance would most likely give you a better sound. I retubed mine with JJs and they sound great.

The other big thing to do is to pull the chassis out and put weather stripping all over the place, otherwise it rattles like mad with the increased volume and low end you'll get from upgrading the components.

Good luck!

Mike

 

[Mike M.]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

You also might want to experiment with preamp tubes. You might want to try either a 12AX7M or a JJECC83S in V1 (as you're looking at the back of the amp that's the first preamp tube, far right) and then put a lesser gained tube such as a EH5751 in V2. Putting a lesser gained tube in V2 will help to calm the OD channel down somewhat and make it a bit more 'earthy.' That's the combination that I use in mine and it works well. As far as speakers try either a Hellatone 30 from Avatar or a Weber 30 watt ceramic Blue Dog.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

The stock speaker is okay, but a celestion, Jenson, or eminance would most likely give you a better sound.

I think the stock speaker is made by Eminence, still I've heard that a speaker upgrade helps. I think it's a good idea to retube also.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

Thanks A LOT guys... I'm sure with a few mods this thing will sound KILLER! :headbang:

I'm going to make sure to print out some of this stuff for my friend. I'm graduating electrical school in a week and a half, so I better have something to show for it

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I bought a used Classic 30 a few years ago.... it needs new tubes now but it is a pretty sweet loud amp..... by loud i mean once you get the volume up it starts to sound great. I figure once the volume gets above 4 it starts to really sound much better! I don't like my Classic 30's dirt channel at all unless it is turned up for the power tubes distortion. I find myself backing off the pre tube distortion a lot once i get her cranked up... I'm a high gain amp kind of guy too so it surprises me i back the gain off on that amp.

I also have found i do not like single coil Fender type guitars thru the Classic 30... i find i like it more with humbucker louded guitars.

The Classic 30 is a great amp for the price i paid... it is portable, loud and was a good value all around. It covers me for a lot of playing i do. I add some pedals and stuff.. A lot of the time i find i use DIST pedals thru the Clean channel for the most part but i also do use the amps OD channel too.... I just find it to be a neat little amp... enough so it is my most used amp as it seems to be the easiest to carry over my 5150 and Marshalls....

WhoFan

 

[butnut]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I noticed improvement with a speaker swap. Lucked out on a free Celestion pulled from an old Marshall cab. Also get that tube grille guard. They are dangerously exposed. Thanks for the link YJM...I got some tinkering to do...

 

[Hoss]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

from the research i've been doing on these amps over the past few months...JJ tubes and a speaker ugrade is where i'd start with.

 

[hellatone]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

try going to eurotubes and getting one of the the C30 sets of JJs - i got the blues set - big improvement over stock - smoother, warmer, no longer shrill and muddy -- then i changed the speaker to an Eminence legend 122 which was better than stock but not what i wanted, and finally to a hellatone (hence the name) from avatar - it's a celestion g12h30, broken in -- that was the final improvement and now i'm very pleased with my amp -- BUT - the drive channel, although better than it was, still ain't so hot. Just get a decent overdrive and push the clean channel. Even as we speak, Mr. Spina is modding my TS-9, so i have great hopes.....

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I have a friend with one and it just lacks warmth -- very focused on the upper mids. My Fender Hotrods blow it away for killer clean tones...

 

[Mike M.]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I just remembered something else you might want to try. Run a EQ pedal thru the amps effects loop. It may take a bit of experimenting and going back and forth, but you can alter the tone quite a bit and get it a bit closer to your liking.

I admit that tonally the C30 has a certain character that will always be present regardless of what you do to the amp. I'm talking more with the OD channel here. There's a certain 'rudeness' if you will that does'nt really go away entirely and it either agrees with you or it does'nt. I had my amp modded to the blue guitar specs, changed the speaker, the tubes and even though it calmed things down a lot it can still get a bit rude. But it's a quality that I enjoy hearing (to a point) and one that I enjoy practicing with at a loud level because it's helping me to learn to 'control the beast' if you will.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Peavey Classic 30 owners... any good mods?

I love the "rudeness" of the C30, just something that works for me...

I'm still wondering if anyone has used a SD pickup booster through it, and if they have clips.