Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Well I am anything but quiet. Oh yeah no doubt I made the point because I have rarely seen a shop that'll really let you open up an amp to demo it.

I've got to tell you the longer I have this amp the more I like it. I bought it as a stop gap thinking it would hold me over until I found a "real" amp I liked, I haven't looked at a new amp (for gigging & rehearsal) in quite a while, basically I have stopped looking. Not to say I wouldn't love another amp but I just have no needs this thing doesn't cover for me in that context. I haven't recorded with it yet but I may, I don't really have a recording area I can crank up but maybe I'll drag the gear to our rehearsal space and drop some tracks down with it.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

A few years ago I was running just that setup : Peavey Windsor, with a Boss ME-50 and a Gibson Les Paul studio in it.

It was a decent setup, and I did get good tones out of it, but it was very generic sounding, and very ''sterile'' for a tube amp. I think for me the biggest problem was the distortion, as I was never able to push it hard enough to get the amp really working to it's potential.

So yeah, if you dig it, more power to you. Odds are that eventually though, you will want to graduate to something with a little more character.

There is nothing wrong with the windsor - it is a lovely crunch rock amp that evokes marshall master volume tones. its the pedal unit that is sterile. plug in, crank it and its all there for you. not very versatile,sure, but no less versatile than a jcm marshall.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

There is nothing wrong with the windsor - it is a lovely crunch rock amp that evokes marshall master volume tones. its the pedal unit that is sterile. plug in, crank it and its all there for you. not very versatile,sure, but no less versatile than a jcm marshall.

dude, the windsor is dammed versatile for being a single channel. with it's a/ab knob and resonance/presence setup, it can be allover the place

btw i always ran it through the low gain input, the cleans are cleaner and there's more headroom.

 

[Alex79]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Almost bought one of these (the 100Watts were the reason I didn't), a good amp and ridiculously priced. I strongly preferred this one over the Valveking I must say.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Pull the 2 outside tubes and run it at 60wts.

As for versatilty in the modern sense it is a single channel amp so there isn't a lot to it. Obviously the player/skills come into play when you run a single channel rig especially one with no FX. Knobs and a little tweaking do an enormous amount but that has to be where your head is at. There is the Boost switch but since it can't be dialed in I find it a little too much.

I have no issues, I can be as dynamic as needed and I think most players with a little break in period would be comfortable pretty easily. Yes it is very much in the JCM 800 family, I mean that is exactly what it aimed at. I would say even more specifically the 2210 as it has more gain than a straight up 800 and since the 2210 is my fave Marshall I am good.

 

[guitarkid]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

I've only got to gig with my windsor once and that was in a small highschool gym so I didn't get to turn it up very much but I am hopfully going to be playing some gigs with it soon so I'm excited about that.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

I reckon you would get an even better sound if you just plug straight in. Use your fingers and the volume/tone knobs for effects. Windsors are good amps. Effects units - especially multi effect units - tend to suck all the subtlety, colour and harmonics out of your sound. You may feel a bit naked for a while but persistence will give you rewards. If you really cant get by without some more versatility then just use a nice true bypass overdrive to add some different texture to the amps response at the front end. For live music, simple is usually better.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

I've only got to gig with my windsor once and that was in a small highschool gym so I didn't get to turn it up very much but I am hopfully going to be playing some gigs with it soon so I'm excited about that.

good deal

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Pull the 2 outside tubes and run it at 60wts.

As for versatilty in the modern sense it is a single channel amp so there isn't a lot to it. Obviously the player/skills come into play when you run a single channel rig especially one with no FX. Knobs and a little tweaking do an enormous amount but that has to be where your head is at. There is the Boost switch but since it can't be dialed in I find it a little too much.

I have no issues, I can be as dynamic as needed and I think most players with a little break in period would be comfortable pretty easily. Yes it is very much in the JCM 800 family, I mean that is exactly what it aimed at. I would say even more specifically the 2210 as it has more gain than a straight up 800 and since the 2210 is my fave Marshall I am good.

You mean outside as in each end?

meaning 1 and 4 of 1234 leaving 23
or 1and 2 of 1234 , leaving 3,4?

Also, what tubes have you had the best luck with? thanks

 

[jeremy]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

pull 1 and 4 or 2 and 3. NOT 1 and 2

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

thanks!! Either/ or?? really? I get nervous pulling tubes.. I finally took JMoose's advice and pulled one of the tubes on my JCM800 to tighten it up and am glad I did, but stressed over it for months.. haha

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Yes that's all essentially. You will run different ohms though. If you run a 16 ohm cab set your head to 8 now - double check me on that though.

I have EH pre's and PI and Svet Winged C EL34's.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

So I had a little sonic funkiness sneaking through occassionally and since I use the amp a lot I figured I would get it bench checked. Good thing I guess, a lot of the solder connections near the tubes had crystallized which seems to be pretty common with the new RoHs solder. One of my pre tubes was getting pretty noisy and it only bench checked at 8o watts so I'm thinking it might be time for some new power tubes.

See what the final verdict is shortly.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Played a windor head yesterday and thought it was OK. Not enough of a clean tone for me. The pre-amp all the way up was kind of a nice sound.
I think the one I tried could use new tubes. Something about it felt like I was fighting the amp a lil bit. It also looked a lil beat up and kinda dusty. The dudes wouldn't let me crank the master much though, so it wasn't the best test.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Played a windor head yesterday and thought it was OK. Not enough of a clean tone for me. The pre-amp all the way up was kind of a nice sound.
I think the one I tried could use new tubes. Something about it felt like I was fighting the amp a lil bit. It also looked a lil beat up and kinda dusty. The dudes wouldn't let me crank the master much though, so it wasn't the best test.

eh, that's definitely not the way to play that amp. the way i usually had it set when i had it was i kept the preamp around 1 or 2 just to have a nice fat clean-ish tone, and have the master up to about 3 or 4, with lots of presence and mids and not so much bass/resonance as those frequencies would eat up the sound. this way, you get the amp opened up a bit even though you're not running it at super high volume. i also changed v1 and v2 of the preamp to lower gain tubes. it took OD/drive pedals really well too

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

So the power tube issue was resolved, flakey connections were cleaned up and it got a proper biasing. Sounds great though slightly compressed until I opened the gain up to 8/9 out of 12. Far more responsive with the bias set warmer that's for sure.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

eh, that's definitely not the way to play that amp. the way i usually had it set when i had it was i kept the preamp around 1 or 2 just to have a nice fat clean-ish tone, and have the master up to about 3 or 4, with lots of presence and mids and not so much bass/resonance as those frequencies would eat up the sound. this way, you get the amp opened up a bit even though you're not running it at super high volume. i also changed v1 and v2 of the preamp to lower gain tubes. it took OD/drive pedals really well too

changing v1 for a lower gain would really help the clean, I bet. Then you're free to boost the hell out of it with a pedal, I'm sure.
I wish I could try one some more, in a real context. One that I could be sure was in good shape, too.
I really wish they would let me crank it. The got on me about the hot rod deluxe on 3 and since then I knew they weren't very tolerant of volume. Sucks cuz they have like 5 100W heads on different 4x12s in there... 2 EVH 5150 III's, a JSX, a XXX, and the windsor. The JSX was kinda cool.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Yes lower gain tubes will help.

The amp has an extra gain stage over an 800 that even going into the low gain jack doesn't eliminate. By nature of it's design there is a fair amount of distortion (not gain) in the signal path before the eq which is probably not the best thing for a great lead tone. The low gain jack is just a padded input and now that I think about was probably why I had a little compression when running a little lower gain through it. I don't know why I noticed it more now but it still sounded much better with the proper bias settings, it was far too cold apparently.

I get the impression that this amp is more for a basher like me than someome who is a more articulate player, fwiw. More for Malcolm than Angus in other words.

Learned a little about the A-A/B setting. What it does is cut power to 1/2 the phase inverter so you are only pushing 2 power tubes making the amp single ended. It uses power tubes 1 & 2 when it does this. I think the amp pretty much sounds like ass on the "A" side and keep it full A/B all the time.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

Yes lower gain tubes will help.

The amp has an extra gain stage over an 800 that even going into the low gain jack doesn't eliminate. By nature of it's design there is a fair amount of distortion (not gain) in the signal path before the eq which is probably not the best thing for a great lead tone. The low gain jack is just a padded input and now that I think about was probably why I had a little compression when running a little lower gain through it. I don't know why I noticed it more now but it still sounded much better with the proper bias settings, it was far too cold apparently.

I get the impression that this amp is more for a basher like me than someome who is a more articulate player, fwiw. More for Malcolm than Angus in other words.

Learned a little about the A-A/B setting. What it does is cut power to 1/2 the phase inverter so you are only pushing 2 power tubes making the amp single ended. It uses power tubes 1 & 2 when it does this. I think the amp pretty much sounds like ass on the "A" side and keep it full A/B all the time.

Yeah I bet crappy stock tubes don't really help the extra gain stage. The circuit matters too. I mean people use the tremolo input on the Deluxe Reverb cause of the trem tube acting as a gain stage, but it sound sweeeeet. A few vintage low-gain 12ax7s would probably go a long way towards smoothing the gain out. A little less gain overall, but sweeten up any harshness. I dunno, I'm big on sparkly cleans (half the reason I got the night train), and the whole stock lack-of-cleans- thing is a bit of a turn off on an amp like that.

Yeah class a/b texture seems like where it's at. I'm done with single ended and "class A" amps for a while. even if you get to really really great true class A amps, most of em aren't very good at canceling out the odd order harmonics like a push-pull design.

Maybe if I just had $300 to blow for no reason, I'd get a windsor just to mess around with. The value is there. With some tweaks I bet some nice raw rock tones could spew forth. Too bad that there's so many more expensive amps I wanna buy first. Money is an issue, tho. I gotta move across the state in 4 months and that's never cheap

 

[MesaDCLP]

Re: Peavey Windsor: What does everyone think about it?

I've got a friend with a head/4x12 slant. He leaves his rig here at my house, and I like it. Sounds great to me with my Les Paul.

He on the other hand doesn't think it's clean enough. He plays a strat with single coils and he wants Fender clean. I've tried to help him dial it in for the cleanest setting, but I think the preamp tubes need to be swapped for a lower gain model. Wish I had a 5751 laying around to try in V1. I bet that would get him where he wants it.

I'm trying to convince him to lower his pickups, but he's scared to turn a screw and won't let me do it for him. Oh well. Some people are so stubborn.

Anyway, great amp for the money!!