Question For Ken Fox, Brad Sarno, Other Electronic Experts

Don Mogle · From: Round Rock, TX, USA

Ken/Brad/Others,

I'd like your advice. Older Peavey amps are reasonably priced as everyone knows. However, what is your take on the word I'm hearing that parts for repairs are becoming scarcer or no longer available?

I would think there should be some kind of current substitute replacement parts available to keep these old work horses going. Is it illogical to be buying these older amps knowing they may not be serviceable in the near future?

Any ideas as to what kind of parts are scarce and/or no longer available? I'm thinking those dual Mid/Shift control pots such found on Special 130s could possibly be one item. Is it the resistors? Caps? Pots?

Please give me your thoughts. Or more importantly, reassurances that these amps can be kept alive and well for many more years to come!

Thanks in Advance.

Don

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

The reason some people are concerned is that Peavey has twice now auctioned off large lots of stuff from their Mississippi operations. Article here - https://guitar.com/news/peavey-to-auction-off-12-million-worth-of-unsold-guitars-amps-and-raw-materials/ - for example, the 2019 auction lots can be viewed here - https://cagp.industrialbid.com/auctions/catalog/id/4200/ - something like $12 million of various stuff was up for auction, and you can see that a lot of it sold. You can see the wide variety of stuff sold. There are also reports that the mainline repair operation is primarily to service current-warranty repair. But see this discussion here - https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=376157 - and especially Bill Ferguson's final comment.

I don't qualify as an expert on Peavey amps. However, things like resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and other generic electronic parts should not be a major issue. As with any brand of old/vintage amps, I think there will be certain specialty components that may be harder to source the exact replacement as time goes on. There may be some digging to find the correct generic part number for various Peavey internal part numbers. But there is an abundance of information on this already if you dig. These issues are also true for any old amp. But there are a ton of these older Peaveys out there, and honestly, not a lot tends to go wrong with them if they are not abused. But there should be hulks from which to harvest parts. In my view, the hard part is finding a hulk that is not either working or nearly working - I've bought a couple of amps that were so cheap that I figured they were basket cases, only to find out that a simple socketed chip, reverb pan, or some simple generic part like a resistor of a few capacitors was all that was needed.

In fact, restoring vintage tube amps created a cottage industry of repair shops, parts suppliers, mod kits, and all kinds of stuff. These initially were geared to vintage classic tube amps. But many players are starting to realize that a lot of these older Peaveys are really great amps. I'm not getting rid of mine - in fact, I've been buying some of the slightly smaller amps - they are absolute work horses and sound great. I like the 70s and early-mid 80s amps myself like the Studio Pro series, Bandit series, Special series, and so on.

I don't want to add to the ridiculous hype surrounding the original Peavey Decade amp, which Josh Homme, guitarist in Queens of the Stone Age, identified as his 'secret weapon'. This is an amp that typically sold for $25-50 used until this 'revelation', which you can see here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3MOsMbXrw8. Now look at the reverb listings - https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=peavey%20decade%20amp - asking prices seem to have settled into the $400-800 range for a tiny little practice amp. This is ridiculous, but the good part is that it has opened the eyes of many people to the sound of these old Peaveys. And there have been lots of other 'revelations' about these old amps over the years. I just hope that it just gives them some overdue recognition without sending prices into the stratosphere.

Ken Fox · From: Nashville GA USA

Older crows foot style pots are about extinct. Used in Nashville 400 and others
As stated above transistors, caps and resistors not an issue

Don Mogle · From: Round Rock, TX, USA

Thanks fellas for the insight! Great analysis Dave!

Jon Snyder · From: Nevada, USA

Fender could reissue the 1963 Bassman that is the holy grail to the Gretsch guitar folks, but it would not be the same. The "magic" came from the combination of transformer and other components that are no longer manufactured. Other makes could do the same but, for the most part, they could not remake the ones we loved.

As soon as the parts are replaced on an original, it is no longer a 1965 wizbang, it just looks like one.

Don Mogle · From: Round Rock, TX, USA

Thanks Jon!

Jeff Highland · From: New South Wales, Australia

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I don't care what make/model an amp is - if the electrolytic filter capacitors in the power supply don't get replaced periodically, there will be problems. And, as Jeff states, electronic components sometimes drift from original spec or outright fail. They must be replaced if you want to use the amp.

There really are a lot of parts that are comparable to the originals. Nothing is exactly the same - but there are and have always been tolerances with electronic components. I want my vintage amps to sound as much like they did when they were new, and that is emphatically not gonna happen if all the components are 30-40-50-60-70 or more years old - I have had amps going back to the 1930s. Only collectors, who want to set them in their living room and stare at them, want them absolutely original down to the dried up electrolytics and out-of-spec components.

I'll also say that there are some truly great amps being built in the last few decades, right up to the present. There's a lot of junk, but also lots of really good stuff.

Steven Paris · From: Los Angeles

Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

Anything manufactured before 1980 used discrete components which usually are easy to find a sub for. I also like the topology of that era. Power supplies were high voltage for good headroom. Not much use of negative feed back like in modern amps. Though NF is well intended to increase linearity at signal levels right up to the rails, its much harsher sounding when you do hit the rail.
Highly integrated chips in amps that came about in the 90s come and go and can be a problem to find.
Things like knobs and other aesthetic stuff can be problematic on vintage stuff. I just traded an amp for a Session 400. It's missing one of those cool aluminum knobs.-unobtanium. The amp is mint otherwise. I'll replace some caps and it will outlive me.

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