Peavey Classic 30

[Dave Sloven]

Not a new amp day just yet - I just bought it on ebay and have to wait for it to arrive from Queensland - but I have ordered a Peavey Classic 30 to use in practice situations for my hardcore band and for playing blues or other less gainy music at home when I want to.  The main reason for getting it is to save my back, as it was starting to look as though I would have to start carrying my Orange PPC412 (together with my Peavey 6534+) to practices each week, now that we have added a second guitarist and there is no longer room to practice at our drummer's house.  It was one of the amps that was run out by the old Peavey distributor in the first half of 2013 so I saved around $350 on the retail price.  It does mean though that due to the difference in gain levels between the 6534+ and the Classic 30 that I've had to move my pedal board around again to squeeze the Mooer Black Secret back on to the board. It's absolutely useless with my regular setup - it just creates huge amounts of feedback, or if I put it through the clean channel it gives a distorted sound that is inferior to that produced by my amp's lead channel - but I should be able to use it with the Classic 30.

I am aware that the Classic 30 is a solid 21kg. That's only slightly less than the 6534+ head's 22kg and it is probably more awkward to carry but it means I don't have to carry the 50kg Orange cabinet!

[Telerocker]

Fine small amp that should take most od- en dist.pedals well. I had a Peavey Classic 4x10 for a few years. Very nice cleans and also a good drivechannel, just a little too compressed for my taste.

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah, I think it will work out okay in this application, and give me something different to practice with at home too.  The main feature that I like is that it gives me a good tube sound in a small, portable package, even though as I said above being a steel chassis tube amp it isn't exactly solid-state light!   My Bandit is definitely lighter but it doesn't work very well.

[BigB]

I kind of like the C30 (in the "cheap but effective tube combos" range). The OD channel doesn't take pedals very well IMHO, but the clean channel does. And it's not that heavy really.

[Telerocker]

I kind of like the C30 (in the "cheap but effective tube combos" range). The OD channel doesn't take pedals very well IMHO, but the clean channel does. And it's not that heavy really.

I used an old Ibbie TS9 on my 4x10 and that worked well on the drivechannel too, as long as I kept the gain under 12 o'clock.

[Dave Sloven]

I suspect that the lead channel will be a little like the lead channel on my 6534+ in that it's happier being pushed to make its own gain rather than taking a lot of distortion from a pedal, and that the clean channel is the go for pedals.  Difference being that the distorted sounds with pedals through the clean channel will probably be better than those from the overdriven lead channel (which is not the case with the 5150 series).

I'm thinking I might eventually swap out the speaker?  Any suggestions?  I have been thinking that maybe an Eminence Wizard might be a good option.  I will need it for practices with my hardcore (e.g., Discharge, Doom, Mob 47) band but I also hope to play blues and rock through it at home.

[Telerocker]

I can only speak for the 50-watts model. The gainchannel compresses relatively fast, but sounds quite ok with the master up and the gain not too high.

[Dave Sloven]

Just arrived via courier from Queensland ... will let you know how the effects loop works with my effects board



Considerably easier to get to and from band practices than the 6534+ & PPC412 half-stack, which I will leave for gigs and home practice only.  The three guitars in the photo all have BKPs :)



EDIT:

I plugged in my board to the amp and its effects loop and everything works fine.  I haven't spent any time with the EQ yet but I think the sound of the amp could be improved with a different speaker.  Other than that all seems good.  Not a big fan of the lead channel but the clean channel works well with pedals.

[Dave Sloven]

I just ordered an Eminence Wizard (16 ohm) speaker for the Classic 30 after there was a $10 drop in price on the one in my Amazon shopping basket ... should make a substantial difference.  I get quite a bit of feedback squeals etc with high gain at the moment, apparently the Wizard handles that a lot better.

[Dave Sloven]

Wow, this was a screechy little bugger at band practice yesterday!  Not sure if it's the combination of the Mooer Black Secret and the stock speaker or just something that happens every time I use that pedal, but I received an Eminence The Wizard speaker in the mail today and hopefully that tames the screech somewhat compared to the stock Blue Marvel.  The sensitivity is higher (100dB vs 96.5dB), maybe that means I can reduce the master volume?



I suspect it might be the pedal though.  Not sure if my Distortion+ (script reissue) will cut the mustard either.  The Classic 30 doesn't have the killer lead channel of the 6534+

[BigB]

The Classic 30 doesn't have the killer lead channel of the 6534+

The C30 is by no mean an hi-gain amp  - well, the gain channel has quite some gain but not the gain structure associated with hi-gain amps. It's targeting the blues / classic rock players, old school hard rock at most, and doesn't pretend being a down-sized version of Peavey's hi-gainers.

[Plenum n Heather]

The Wizard is 103dB, not 100 ... it's a frightening speaker that will maximize every watt you have on tap! That 3dB is HUGE in terms of effective wattage being used.

[Dave Sloven]

The Classic 30 doesn't have the killer lead channel of the 6534+

The C30 is by no mean an hi-gain amp  - well, the gain channel has quite some gain but not the gain structure associated with hi-gain amps. It's targeting the blues / classic rock players, old school hard rock at most, and doesn't pretend being a down-sized version of Peavey's hi-gainers.

Oh, I totally knew that, and in part I bought it because it would enable me to play more blues-oriented stuff at home or at small gigs, but I was commenting more on the fact that I need a distortion pedal with it in order to get close to what I get from the 6534+ unaided.  The problem is that this Mooer pedal seems to feedback even with the Classic 30 (it was horrendous with the lead channel on the 6534+).  I'm hoping that the speaker might improve the overall sound - even for the blues stuff, as the stock speaker is not that great - but I suspect the Black Secret will continue to squeal.  I use a combination of muting and either my tuner pedal or the volume knob to stop squealing between songs (we don't have any 'quiet parts' in our songs, at most I am quiet for a bar or two of a bass intro before joining in) but it really does squeal like a pig.  I wasn't expecting that through the clean channel of my Classic 30, as it doesn't do it through the clean channel of the 6534+ - hopefully it is just the speaker crying for help and the Wizard fixes that

[Dave Sloven]

I won't bore you with all the photos I took while removing the Blue Marvel and fitting The Wizard but here's one of it installed.  Didn't take me too long. You do have to remove the reverb tank and chassis though.  First step was remove the reverb tank, then the tube guard, then the tubes, then the chassis, then the speaker, then install the new speaker and reinstall all the components in reverse order.



EDIT: I just realized there's no photo of the stock Blue Marvel (also made by Eminence, for Peavey):



At that point the cupboard was bare, so to speak!

[witeter]

Ive heard that the wonderful crunch channel on my beloved JSX is a tweaked version of the Classic30 overdrive channel-will be curious to hear what you make of it :)