#1 · Mar 18, 2009 22:52 UTC
I'm wondering if maybe I am just insane. It sounds good on the Peavey videos. I played through the big master, the 120-watt tube version, for about 45 minutes today, and couldn't get a freaking good sound out of it. The clean sounds had no bottom end--nothing like even my Sovtek through a 1x12, and not even close to my SpiderValve. On all the clean models I found myself turning the eq on the low end up all the way, and still not feeling it. This from a 2x12, 120 watt tube combo!
Then, the distortion sounds. Raspy and fizzy doesn't even begin to describe it. The Plexi distorted tone had no gain--even all the way up it was lacking. The British (I assume that's a JCM800) was also low gain, even at full up. Sure, I could have thrown virtual "stomps" in front of them and made them gainier, but, dammit, those amps have SOME gain. The best tones were the three modeled Peavey high-gain amps... the XXX, JSX, and 6505--though I am having a hard time understanding why they modeled all three of these, since they sounded virtually identical. With EQ tweaks, switching between these three amps, I couldn't tell the difference. The Recto model was weak. The Krankenstein model was laughable. And the Diezel model? Kind of like one of those old Mercedes diesels...
Maybe the amp I was playing was broken. It certainly didn't seem to have good gain, depth, power, or any sort of the vibe I was expecting. The EQ was very weak and unresponsive. Cranking the bass seemed to do very little. The treble could never be up past 12 o'clock or you went into hash city (on the distortion models). The mids didn't generate any warmth on the clean tones, and couldn't scoop way back to death metal on the heavy sounds. I'm going to have to hold out hope that I was just playing through a broken amp. The 60-watt tube version sitting next to it WAS broken... the input jack would not take a plug more than halfway. For an amp that's been sitting in the store for probably a month or less, that was discouraging. I didn't play the solid-state model they had on hand.
On the plus side, great user interface. Totally easy to understand, one push gets you into edit mode, where you can change all sorts of stuff. You have a separate, tappable delay and reverb on every sound, as well as a stomp (pre) and rack (post) effect. Would be great if it didn't sound like crap.
Anyone else tried these and had a better experience? Was mine broken?
Then, the distortion sounds. Raspy and fizzy doesn't even begin to describe it. The Plexi distorted tone had no gain--even all the way up it was lacking. The British (I assume that's a JCM800) was also low gain, even at full up. Sure, I could have thrown virtual "stomps" in front of them and made them gainier, but, dammit, those amps have SOME gain. The best tones were the three modeled Peavey high-gain amps... the XXX, JSX, and 6505--though I am having a hard time understanding why they modeled all three of these, since they sounded virtually identical. With EQ tweaks, switching between these three amps, I couldn't tell the difference. The Recto model was weak. The Krankenstein model was laughable. And the Diezel model? Kind of like one of those old Mercedes diesels...
Maybe the amp I was playing was broken. It certainly didn't seem to have good gain, depth, power, or any sort of the vibe I was expecting. The EQ was very weak and unresponsive. Cranking the bass seemed to do very little. The treble could never be up past 12 o'clock or you went into hash city (on the distortion models). The mids didn't generate any warmth on the clean tones, and couldn't scoop way back to death metal on the heavy sounds. I'm going to have to hold out hope that I was just playing through a broken amp. The 60-watt tube version sitting next to it WAS broken... the input jack would not take a plug more than halfway. For an amp that's been sitting in the store for probably a month or less, that was discouraging. I didn't play the solid-state model they had on hand.
On the plus side, great user interface. Totally easy to understand, one push gets you into edit mode, where you can change all sorts of stuff. You have a separate, tappable delay and reverb on every sound, as well as a stomp (pre) and rack (post) effect. Would be great if it didn't sound like crap.
Anyone else tried these and had a better experience? Was mine broken?