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1991-ish Peavey Classic 50 212 EFX

Fred Sanford

Fred Sanford

Addicted Member
Got this today from a very generous forum member :angel:, I'll just consider this an early birthday present. :tresbon: Many thanks!

It was a curbside find, and it's had a hard life overall. Lots of signs of the rigors of the road...in fact, it looks like it's been dragged down the road for a while behind the tour bus.
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First quick look:

Missing all the chicken-head knobs, two pot shafts broken (clean channel master shaft split in half, midrange shaft broken clean off).

Handle is a goner.

A few screws missing, a few replaced with incorrect screws.

Reverb tank pouch screwed down with scrap wood blocks.

Fuse holder broken/intermittent, 3A fuse replaced with 20A. :scratch2: Might have just been for a test power-up, dunno.

Dirt & rust & mung just about everywhere.
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Tore it down, poked around, cleaned out the fan a bit, found manual & schematic (non-FX loop versions) on line:

Manual:

http://forums.peavey.com/download/file.php?id=7264

Schematic:

http://forums.peavey.com/download/file.php?id=7311

Re-assembled, fired it up...it's all there. Haven't tested footswitch or FX loop functions, but things look pretty good for now. I've got a gig coming up running the PA in a ~340 seat theater, I'll bring this & let the guitarist give it a blast at rehearsals if I get knobs on it by then.

Pics & more details to follow.

je
 
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4 Groove Tube EL84 power tubes, 50W. Not nearly as loud as my old 100 watt Classic (that's actually a good thing), quite usable.

3 Sovtek 12ax7wa preamp tubes. Supposedly medium output, strong bass.

12" 8 ohm "Blue Marvel" speakers, no stickers. Probably Eminence, I'll check into that. Some rattles, can't quite tell if they're all chassis or some from the speakers. Lots more cleaning & tightening ahead of me. I'll also be testing the amp into other speaker cabs.

Tried three guitars quickly: an Ibanez super-strat, a modded Gibson L6S Deluxe, and a strat-style Vantage AV330. All did well, the Strat setup sounded best overall at this point. Looking forward to getting my Tele & P90-equipped Les Pauls into the mix. Overall, it's got a very snappy clean that can hurt if you're not careful (not too much natural compression), but it's real pleasant. Not too bright or too thin with all controls at center, though just messing around I wanted more from the mid's control range than I was getting. That's what Boss GE-7s are for, though. :thmbsp:

je
 
Pics:

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You ain't kiddin about the rough life!

What's up with that bent circuit board for the power tubes....is that fromthe heat?
 
I love the tone out of the one I heard a few years ago....still the best guitar sound I've ever recorded, using just one 57 aimed between the surround and dustcap.

Great gift!
 
Horn Head said:
You ain't kiddin about the rough life!

What's up with that bent circuit board for the power tubes....is that fromthe heat?
Click to expand...

I'm still piecing facts together (as in, OEM vs. "mods"), but it appears that somebody piled up a few layers of dense foam at the tips of the tubes, presumably to reduce vibration/microphonics. This upward pressure (the tube sockets are at the top circuit board, the access panel at the bottom is steel) has bent the board over time. Removing the access panel & foam lets it relax a little, but it's a frown shape on its own by now.

je
 
spideyjack said:
how in the heck did it end up like that? i've seen 50's deluxes that are in better shape
Click to expand...

Rock 'n' roll, baby. :guitar:

:scratch2: My best guess, to result in this pattern of damage I'm seeing (I haven't yet shown you the sides & bottom), is that at least one previous owner transported it quite often in the bed of a pickup truck, face down, along with, say, a few 50 gallon drums of pesticides, a large snow blower and a few loose chainsaws, and his truck's exhaust pipes were very, very close to the underside of the pickup bed, allowing scorch marks to adorn various parts of the cabinet.

je
 
vinyldavid said:
I love the tone out of the one I heard a few years ago....still the best guitar sound I've ever recorded, using just one 57 aimed between the surround and dustcap.

Great gift!
Click to expand...

Yep...tone-wise, these are pretty much plug-n-play. One channel gives you the straight guitar tone or your pedals' tone as loud as you want, the other channel gives a pretty smooth overdrive.

Try EV RE10s, RE15s & RE16s on guitar amps as well, if you have the chance.

je
 
People pay good money for a "relic" finish - yours is legit. I can smell the stale beer and cigarettes from here. Congrats on the nice amp and I am really glad to see it coming back to life. I am on the lookout for a killer deal on a tweed Peavey combo, myself. Hopefully, the funds will be there when the amp shows up.
 
tensleep said:
People pay good money for a "relic" finish - yours is legit. I can smell the stale beer and cigarettes from here. Congrats on the nice amp and I am really glad to see it coming back to life. I am on the lookout for a killer deal on a tweed Peavey combo, myself. Hopefully, the funds will be there when the amp shows up.
Click to expand...

It actually DOESN'T stink, thankfully. I'm a little bit shocked at that bit, but quite happy about it.

As far as the "relic", it feels a bit strange to me, 'cause the one I got rid of around 1991 had a little road rash at that point, and it kinda feels like it's the same one come full circle back to me with channel switching, master volumes, and battle scars added along the way.

Aren't you living in the land of Peavey combos? Hopefully the stars align for you soon. :thmbsp:

je
 
Is that fixed or cathode biased? Have you fooled with the bias at all yet? Maybe you can run the outputs a little hotter for more compression?
 
Fred Sanford said:
Rock 'n' roll, baby. :guitar:

:scratch2: My best guess, to result in this pattern of damage I'm seeing (I haven't yet shown you the sides & bottom), is that at least one previous owner transported it quite often in the bed of a pickup truck, face down, along with, say, a few 50 gallon drums of pesticides, a large snow blower and a few loose chainsaws, and his truck's exhaust pipes were very, very close to the underside of the pickup bed, allowing scorch marks to adorn various parts of the cabinet.

je
Click to expand...

thats a country song right there :yes:
 
JonL said:
Is that fixed or cathode biased? Have you fooled with the bias at all yet? Maybe you can run the outputs a little hotter for more compression?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice- it appears to be fixed, and notoriously set cold from the factory. I've also got an assortment of 12AX7s here to swap around for fun (other 12" speakers, too, actually), but still have a bunch of other testing/repairing to do before real tweaking starts. It's not a very urgent issue, overall it's darn good already. I played a 335 copy w/coil taps into it today, and it was pretty sweet (think Crowded House / "Don't Dream It's Over" sound). Still some chassis/speaker vibes to tame, as well. EVERY screw holding the baffle board on was loose!

je
 
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The foam rubber at the tips of the tubes is stock, it was Peavey's attempt at a tube retainer in these models. I bought one new in '92 or thereabouts, my uncle still has it as far as I know.

TP
 
B3Nut said:
The foam rubber at the tips of the tubes is stock, it was Peavey's attempt at a tube retainer in these models. I bought one new in '92 or thereabouts, my uncle still has it as far as I know.

TP
Click to expand...

Thanks, Todd. These foams are doubled up, so that explains the extra force that bent the board.

je
 
Quick update- parts are still on the way, but it's responded well to quick freebie "mods":

1] There are two inputs, 'Bright' and 'Normal'. Plugging a dummy plug into 'Normal' and a guitar cable into 'Bright' gives you the treble boost of 'Bright' without the high-pass usually on that input. Nice.

2] The FX loop jacks need cleaning/replacement, so a 6" cable linking output to input makes things a bit clearer & much more consistent.

3] Pulling the outer two power tubes makes the 50W amp safely into a ~25W amp, enabling you to turn the master volume up a good bit & hit the power tubes harder and still stay in the same room with the amp. :thmbsp::yes::D

Haven't played around too much with spare preamp tubes I've got kicking around, but that's next. Handle & knobs are on the way from Peavey.

je
 
I had one of those back in the early to mid '90's. Got it as part of a trade with a blues singer/guitarist (The guy was REALLY-good too... Played around NYC.... Jeeez, I can't even remember the guy's name anymore...). Nice amp for the price, and it was a good plug-and-play amp for players who don't like hauling around a bunch of different distortion pedals.
 
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