Peavey Invective: Why is it not in the discussion?

[Top-L]

Its Peavey's modern 5150 with more versatility and midi switching. I have been in the market for a new amp and the Invective was intriging for about five minutes. My thoughts on the 120 head:

* 5150 crushing distortion, but it also has versatility on the clean/low gain channel. Unknown if it can do marshall crunch.

* Midi switchable. The included footpedal is deluxe, but wouldn't be used by anyone using a MFX or midi switcher.

* The shared EQ between crunch and lead is disappointing. A 5150iii has three independent channels.

* 2K for a chinese made amp. A 5150ii is 2K for mexico made. Feel strange buying an expensive MIC amp.

* Weird choice of endorser. A bedroom guitarist with 15 minutes of fame is a strange choice.

* Fender/EVH stole its thunder.

I think if they gave it more mainstream looks (black), didn't associate it with Periphery, and instead of providing an expensive footswitch, they gave it independent EQ for crunch/lead it would have been a hit. This is just my take. It may be the greatest 5150 ever made, who knows?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Haven't tried one. The association with Periphery stops me from even being interested, TBH. But I highly doubt it's better than the EVH.

I don't think the looks is stopping people from buying them. I'm sure the best selling EVH heads are the white tolex ones.

There was a bit of a controversy when they first came out because they had stated a few times that it was going to be USA-made, and it wasn't in the end. And that happened around the same time that episode of Undercover Boss about Peavey happened. Lots of bad press.

That, and Periphery is certainly more of a niche market than Van Halen. The EVH raises a lot of interest in the metal crowd, but it's not supposed to be a metal-only amp. Even though the Invective probably has a nice clean and crunch channel, it's more easily to dump it as a djent amp.

 

[Top-L]

Haven't tried one. The association with Periphery stops me from even being interested, TBH. But I highly doubt it's better than the EVH.

I don't think the looks is stopping people from buying them. I'm sure the best selling EVH heads are the white tolex ones.

There was a bit of a controversy when they first came out because they had stated a few times that it was going to be USA-made, and it wasn't in the end. And that happened around the same time that episode of Undercover Boss about Peavey happened. Lots of bad press.

That, and Periphery is certainly more of a niche market than Van Halen. The EVH raises a lot of interest in the metal crowd, but it's not supposed to be a metal-only amp. Even though the Invective probably has a nice clean and crunch channel, it's more easily to dump it as a djent amp.

Previous endorders... EVH, Satriani.. Had they fallen so far that Periphery was the best they could do? Are they even still a band? Is djent even still a thing? I could google, but I don't really care.

The amp itself looks good, but 2K is too much for a Chinese amp, imo. I have an Ironheart 60-watt head that new is around 1K and it is also MIC. Dont know what, if anything makes the Invective twice the price.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, I agree.

Then again, the Randall Satan was pretty ridiculous as well. Chinese-made too.

Randall right now have ridiculous prices overall.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampl...be-guitar-head

2,300 for a fucking Diavlo. Which are not terrible amps, but if you've ever seen one in person, they scream Made in China.

I remember the 1W was like 150 at some point. Now they want 650 for one. I used to have one. Fun little toy, but far from being woth 650.

 

[Securb]

Even pre-Internet, there was a bad rap surrounding Peavey in many circles. I think Peavey gets a bad rap simply because of the range of their amps. Yes, they make some budget amps that are lacking in some ways. But they also produce some great equipment. I will admit I was an anti-Peavey snob until I bought my Classic 20h. There is also the regional thing; for some reason, Peavey seems to be more popular below the Mason-Dixon line across all styles of music.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Vas is das Pee Vee you sprechen of ?

 

[misterwhizzy]

I'll just point out that this week Seymour Duncan released a new signature set of pickups for one of their guitarists. I'm not sensing a whole ton of situational awareness in this thread.

 

[jeremy]

are you talking about the scarlet and scourge?

 

[Top-L]

Even pre-Internet, there was a bad rap surrounding Peavey in many circles. I think Peavey gets a bad rap simply because of the range of their amps. Yes, they make some budget amps that are lacking in some ways. But they also produce some great equipment. I will admit I was an anti-Peavey snob until I bought my Classic 20h. There is also the regional thing; for some reason, Peavey seems to be more popular below the Mason-Dixon line across all styles of music.

I had two Peavy heads, a XXX and a JSX. Prior to that I had a Rockmaster pre with a Peavey Classic 50/50. And prior to that I owned several Bandits. I also owned a small Vypyr 15 practice amp. And my first ever amplifier was a Peavey 2x10" with built in chorus. I'm sure there are some products in there that I'm missing. Oh, I still have a Peavey 4x12, and I know I sold another one I had in the past.

It made me sad what happened to them, but they have no one to blame but themselves. The JSX was the last Peavey I owned and despite people's claims, it was a metal/lead guitar amplifier and not versatile or able to do anything in between clean and oversaturated gain. Peavey could have made better amps, but they were one-dimensional metal amps stuck in the 80s. Even Satriani only used the JSX as a pedal platform. The seemed to make amps suited for one purpose, instead of making versatile amps with staying power.

If they had taken better care of their endorsers, maybe developed a line of "custom shop" USA made amplifiers (they owned/own Budda so something like that), and innovated in amp design (they had the Vypyr so they had more advanced tech than a company like Mesa), they could have survived/thrived.

(Just think about it. The Vypyr was a digitally controlled analog circuit that they had nearly twenty years ago. If they had improved the quality and integrated it with tube pre and power it woiuld have been very advanced and forward thinking.)

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Peavey could have made better amps, but they were one-dimensional metal amps stuck in the 80s.

Well, after the 5150, can you blame them? They make arguably the most popular metal amp of all time. Those are the amps that sell for them.

Honestly, I think that's what James Brown is good at designing. Not sure what other circuits he's made, but he seems to get a lot of praise for the 5150 and Ultra series.

I think the XXX in particular, but all of the Ultra series in general are underrated metal amps. Those amps just record so well.

Nothing wrong with one dimensional amps. I mean, not all of us need a clean or crunch sound. And not always, but many of those do-it-all amps suffer from the jack of all trades thing. Not that I like Marshall, but I'd rather play a JCM 800 than a JVM if I wanted that sound. It's not like people who play Bassmans or Vox AC30's expect to get a blistering high-gain metal sound out of them either.

 

[NegativeEase]

Sounds like a great amp -I think a lot of people in the south begrudge Peavey now because they were cut up and moved overseas and people really took that personally.

It may be unfair, but I dont see many people in the south buying anything but retro peavey stuff now -and they used to own the guitar and amp market in every music store from Beaumont Texas to Wilmington NC.

 

[Top-L]

Well, after the 5150, can you blame them? They make arguably the most popular metal amp of all time. Those are the amps that sell for them.

Honestly, I think that's what James Brown is good at designing. Not sure what other circuits he's made, but he seems to get a lot of praise for the 5150 and Ultra series.

I think the XXX in particular, but all of the Ultra series in general are underrated metal amps. Those amps just record so well.

Nothing wrong with one dimensional amps. I mean, not all of us need a clean or crunch sound. And not always, but many of those do-it-all amps suffer from the jack of all trades thing. Not that I like Marshall, but I'd rather play a JCM 800 than a JVM if I wanted that sound. It's not like people who play Bassmans or Vox AC30's expect to get a blistering high-gain metal sound out of them either.

I remember that the XXX and a few years later the JSX were in early 00s, and they were competing with Dual Rectos and the rise of Mesa Boogie and "boutique" amps. Marshall was still a household name. I think there was some snobbishness towards them, considering alot of the classic amps of that era were hand wired, and the Peaveys were PCB. The 5150 had credibility because of EVH. They are great metal amps, but the Dual Recto was king in that era.

That said, I bought the XXX for $800 new (that is probably 13-1500 in todays dollars), and the matching cab was another $400. I'm not sure it records well by modern standards. My early recording attempts about 15 years ago brought decent results, but the mid honk was ever present and at least with standard tuning they sound like an 80s hair band. But we have learned so much since then.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, the XXX cab is kinda hard to work with. I don't think those Peavey Sheffield speakers are good in general, honestly. Or at least, an SM57 is not the right mic to capture them. But the higher-end Peavey cabs seem to be decently build. Or at least, very Marshall-ish construction. Which, BTW, Marshall cabs sorta are built like shit, LOL. I have a 1960A with Greenbacks. But that's kinda what gives them their sound, I guess.

But there was a really cool Arch Enemy record that was a Marshall into a XXX cab. They did use another mic to record it. I forget the model name, but it's that mic that has two elements, one condenser and one dynamic.

And then, this was the XXX amp into a Marshall 1960V cab.

Grind for days if you're into Swedish metal tones.

About the Recto being king, yeah. I prefer the Recto as well. Less honky and more aggressive. But you and I are the minority, man. I'm sure the OG 5150 has sold a lot more. And as far as 5150's, I prefer the Fender.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

XXX in E Standard.

AFAIK, Gary Holt used one as well if you're into that style of metal.

Trick with the XXX I found was always setting the damping to loose. Otherwise, it sounded kinda thin and lifeless. And keep the gain knob low, because it has way too much. Other than that, the tone stack is active. Just don't go to extremes with the knobs. But for me, bass at around 1:00-1:30, mids at 11-11:30:, highs at 12:30-1:00 worked. Nothing extreme.

 

[Top-L]

XXX in E Standard.

C Standard.

Like I said in standard tuning, it sounds like hair metal.

The other problem with the Ultra circuit is when you turn down the gain. Just nasty. It only does clean and ultra.

After selling my Peavey's, I got an Ironheart and have been using it since. It actually has the honk removed and it sounds modern in standard tuning, but it is missing a gain stage and needs a boost.

BTW, I still have the XXX cab. I compared it to a V30 cab and miced I actually prefer the peavey speakers. It is fatter than a V30. I don't think it can compete with an oversized recto cab with v30s in the room but it records just fine imo.

 

[Securb]

The first Peavey I ever played and liked way back in the day was the MX. I just looked them up. They can be had for ~$300. I wonder if I would still like it as much now as my 1986 ears liked it. Has anyone played one of these recently?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

C Standard.

LOL, my bad. C#, actually.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

E Standard now.

 

[JMP/HBE]

.

I had a Rockmaster preamp / power amp rig years ago. It was okay back when PV still had innovation & design.
All metal chassis their own PV labeled USA Phillips & Sylvania tubes.
Too much gear to be schleping around for a 1 trick pony style tone.
Much prefer a good Marshall head & cab.
The FX loop on the RM Pre was very versitile.

This was 30+ years ago.

 

[Top-L]

E Standard now.

Wow. I really like this song!