NBAD: Peavey Mark VIII XP

[Dave Sloven]

I just bought my first proper bass amp in a long while, to go with the Squier Vintage Modified Jazz bass that I recently acquired.

Went over to this guy's place a couple of times and checked it out; the first time I was worried about high end hiss and thought it might be the capacitors, so I called Frank at FM Audio here in Adelaide and he said that it might well be the active circuitry in the bass that I tested it on, and that I should take my passive bass over there together with some decent cables (he was using an instrument cable for a speaker cable, and the instrument cables all looked like junk) and even my M-80 and see whether it sounds alright with my gear.  So I did that tonight and it started out a little hissy and scratchy but after playing around with the knobs and EQ a lot the hissing and scratchiness went away for the most part.  I suspect it is a bit dirty inside (this guy has had it since new, since the mid '90s) and it's the fact that he hasn't played it much in recent years (or adjusted the knobs) that is part of the problem.  Anyway I picked it up together with a genuine Peavey 410 (350W rated) 4 ohm cabinet with tweeter/horn.  I plan to take the cab to Frank and get him to install a switch so that I can turn the tweeter off if I need to.  I'd like a 115 cabinet to go with it eventually to allow me to run 600W into 2 ohms.   It runs 350W into 4 ohms. The compression works best between 3 and 7 on the dial and the M-80 was really nice through it with the distortion blend knob at 9 o'clock.

It is the very last of Peavey's Mark series, and has a compressor that works pretty well, a 9-band EQ, and several other cool features including a XLR output.  Here are the photos that the previous owner posted on Gumtree.

[dave_mc]

Nice :D

I get hiss with my Vigier- it went away when I turned the tweeter in my cab off. So that might also be worth a try. (Sometimes I just put up with the hiss if I need more treble from the tweeter.)

[Dave Sloven]

I got rid of it by simply turning down the 5k and 10K frequencies, but once I have a switch fitted to the cab I will turn the tweeter off when needed - nice to know that might fix it.

I've had a go at cleaning the carpet covering ... the main part that needs to be cleaned before I bring it in from the garage is the bottom of the cab, which is covered with what looks like course dog hair.

I tried using carpet cleaner on those couple of stains on top of the amp, but it didn't budge them really (I guess they look a little better).

[dave_mc]

Yeah, when I got the cab I kept thinking (when I wasn't playing) "I must remember to try the cab with the tweeter switched off next time I play to see what it's like" and I kept forgetting. When I eventually remembered to try it I was kind of shocked that something so simple would fix the noise issue. As I said- a lot of the time I prefer the tone with the tweeter on enough that I just put up with the noise, but it's nice to know there's a simple fix if I ever got into a situation where any noise was unacceptable (or where it became more apparent). With any luck it might help in your case too. EDIT: My Genz Benz amp does have a graphic EQ built in, so I couldn't try your fix

[Dave Sloven]

Do you mean that it doesn't have a graphic EQ?

One change I might make: remove the Peavey badge on the front of the cab.  While it looks fine the bloody thing caught on my woolen top when I picked it up out of the back of my wagon and tore a hole in it, and I had to squat right down to the floor to put the cab down before I could unhook it, and even then I had to get someone to help me!  It's definitely being removed and placed in a drawer somewhere because I'm not going to do that again! 

[Dave Sloven]

Well, I've removed that badge from the front of the cab, cleaned the amp head as much as I could (got rid of all the dust on the outside, removed as much dog hair and lint as possible, and cleaned all of the jacks with CRC CO Contact Cleaner) and now I am cleaning the cab.  It's the first time I've had a proper look at it.  There is what seems to be a crossover control on the back.  I suspect this controls the level into the tweeter, and the previous owner was apparently told when buying it to never push it past half way.  If I turn it right off (assuming it only controls the tweeter, not the volume of the whole cab) that might mean I can avoid installing a bypass for the tweeter.  The cabinet model is 410TX, and it is 8 ohms, not 4 ohms as I originally thought.  Given that the amp puts out 350W into 4 ohms, and 600W into 2 ohms, will this just mean that it puts out less than 350W at the moment given the higher impedance? I am currently in the process of removing a ton of dog hair from the carpet, especially on the bottom of the cab.  I think I am going to try contact paper or tape instead of the brush I have been using.  Here are some photos of the cab from the back and bottom (note dog hair!), as well as a Peavey blurb