I used a Peavey Valveking VK100 head at my local rehearsal rooms & it seemed pretty decent - but I only used the clean channel though, & ran my pedal board through it (I didn't try the gain channel).
These are only about £340 + delivery UK & seem exceptional value. Does anyone have any experience of these re distortion quality, features, reliability etc?? Reviews on Harmony Central seem favourable but that doesn't necessarily mean a lot.
Rich ;)
The cleans are pretty good but the crunch and lead sounds really suck for a Peavey tube amp. Don't they make the 5150 and the JSX??? :(
cgtrox 8-)
Heard the same reports elsewhere Cgtrox, so thanks for confirming. And yup, Peavey make those other amps too.
Rich ;)
I have to agree. The Clean channel is pretty good. The lead left a lot to be desired. It's just a cheaply made amp. What do you expect?
It's funny cuz they also make the Windsor 100W tube amp 1/2 stack for about $500. Very nice cleans, and that's about it. Is it the transformers or the preamps that suck?
cgtrox 8-)
Wow, check this out...
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Peavey-Windsor-Studio-All-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp?sku=481660
the Windsor in an all tube 20W 1-12 combo with a built-in powersoak! It even has the capabilities to change out the single EL34 power tube without a bias! It automatically biases itself!! WTF?? Pretty cool! Reviews say to change out the speaker and stock tube and it sounds really good. Hmmmm
cgtrox 8-)
I actually quite like the distortions on the Windsor. Not a bad amp at all. For me, the ValveKing sound does not "suck" so much as it's just not very useful. There was no real crunch on that amp. It was clean on the one channel, and saturated, thick distortion on the other. No middle ground. Not enough middle ground for me.
The Windsor, on the other hand, was all middle ground. Lots of really nice Marshally crunch without a whole lot of gain. What it did it did well, but it was not of a great deal of use to me... too loud, and I really kind of need a great clean sound if the amp is only going to give me one channel. Without channel switching, a great distorted sound is somewhat useless for me, a lot of what I do is clean.