Peavey Classic 50
 
Note: the modifications / upgrades listed here are a guide to services we offer and should not be undertaken by novices.Valve amplifiers contain high voltages which can cause death .

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PEAVEY CLASSIC 50

LUCAS MILES AUDIO

AUSTRALIA

Quote from Peavey "its got all the classic tone you want".....mmm what tone?

The Peavey classic series of amps have evolved since 1973 into the half -baked tube amp they are today.The original amps wern't to bad , never up there with the Fenders but they weren't meant to be. They were half the price of a Fender but Peavey always worked towards giving quality at a reasonable price. But now we're seeing not only Peavey but all the major American & English manufacturer's in a steady state of decline when it comes to building a decent tube amp. Their whole process now is one of compromise, using cheap components, cheap assembly techniques etc....all in an effort to reduce costs and make more profit. What these companies managements dont realise is that their leaving the door wide open for the smaller boutique producers to grab market share and thats exactly what there doing . If you want a decent tube amp you have to buy vintage or find the boutique maker.

Anyway lets gets a sound out of a Peavey Classic 50...

peavey classic50
The Peavey Classic 50 are built in the USA to a reasonable standard. Three interconnecting boards are housed comfortably in a fan cooled chassis, which can be easily removed for servicing / upgrading etc. The pic to the right shows the main board,and the preamp tubes board .The power tubes board has been disconnected.
The main problem with this Peavey amps sound rest solely on its use of cheap generic components especially the capacitors in vital signal positions..The left pic shows the main board prior to upgrading.....the generic yellow Illinois metalized polypropylene and the brown Illinois poly's . ..,which get upgraded to Sozo's capacitors on the right.
On the left we have the preamp tubes board prior to upgrading.We changed all the coupling/ signal caps to Sozo's and also changed the value of the plate resistors of the three tubes from 150k to 100k. This decreases gain but gives the sound more response and depth.

The left pic highlites capacitors C18 & C24 , two little ceramic tan globs which are used extensively t'out the amp and especially in the tone circuits. hmm...TONE KILLERS. On the right behind the mid and treble pots you have the upgraded yellow tone caps and a browm silver mica cap for the treble tone circuit and to the left of that is a .1uf presence control cap. Now we might get some tone....

 

Overall the upgrades performed add body and depth to the sound.The trebles have lost their harshness and are alot smoother.The bass has warmth and body that wasn't there before and the mids are just nicely pronounced without being harsh. The sound of the amp has improved by about 30 -40 %. It is now very musical and a joy to play through.