The Watering Hole

A friend bought one and I got to play through it for a few of hours today.

Pretty cool little box. I only took one guitar, my Strat, because I wanted to hear how it sounded in the clean / crunch channel. Surprisingly nice tone! None of the vids I saw really did justice to the lower gain side.

What surprised me was how versatile and sweet the high gain channel sounded with the Strat. Warm distortion and it sang nicely when playing leads. Didn't even break out any pedals so no comment on that. Reverb was decent too.

One slight drawback is the shared tone controls but I set it up for the clean I wanted and the gain channel sounded great. Still it would be nice to have the flexibility to set independently.

Dammit! Now I've got a bad case of GAS.  ;D

Forgot to mention I got to play through a 1963 brown face Deluxe too. Madre de dios what a sweet, sweet sounding amp. Warm honey dripping from every note.

The tremolo was fantastic!!!

If it's got a good clean sound, that's a huge surprise. The modern "revamped" Peavey clean sound, which appeared after the end of the Classic series, has been among the worst clean sounds I have *ever* heard from an amp. It reminded me of the sound of a manufacturer slapping a clean channel into an amp because it had to have one. Maybe adding 1355 to the model number means they can once again do a decent clean channel? That would be cool.  Going to hunt down some clips.

+1 on the Deluxe.  That's got a good tone.  I've been playing some vintage Supros and Fenders lately, to me nothing beats the Supro if you like a little midrange, and nothing beats a Tweed Fender if you like dark, ballsy, and filthy.

The clean wasn't in the same league as the Fender for sure but pretty usable. I will be there again Saturday morning with my laptop. I will record some clips and have a better chance to hear it in isolation. I will throw a mic in front and test the two emulated outs (usb and direct) too.

I think the resonance and presence controls helped dial it in. I have tried the valvekings and other Peaveys and did not like the distortion or clean,. Really crappy to my ears so maybe it only seemed better by comparison. He was running it through a 212 Avatar with some British flavor of Eminence in it. I don't care for Peavey's speakers either.

Edit: I liked the crunch pretty well too and agree about the after thought clean channels. Most who buy this amp will probably rarely use the clean channel.

Brought Rick's 6505 micro home last Sunday. Still getting to know it but I think it is a good match for me.

He had some tubestore 'premium' 7189 power tubes that needed biased so he didn't leave them in. I installed them and biased the amp. Looks like a good build.

While playing with preamp tubes ad researching layout I found out it has an op amp phase inverter and effects loop buffer so all three preamp tubes are used for gain stages. Possibility of six triodes for gain - no wonder the little bastard is such a beast on the red channel. I would like to know more detail about the difference between signal paths in green (clean and crunch / boost) vs red channel (lead). Shared tone controls but the voicing sounds different to me in each mode. placebo?

The cab emulated out worked well for jamming - send direct to the board instead of micing, but I still wanted a cab and for recording it is slightly muffled.

Crunch left (5.5 pre-gain) and lead right (2.5 pre-gain) post gain to match volume and 1 watt power. Louder than conversation... My Strat tuned to open F,

Still working on a clean clip.

I think your amp is voiced differently in each mode... until you believe otherwise.

Open F? wow, I don't think I've ever tried that... FACFCF or..?

ironsheep — Sep 19, 2016I think your amp is voiced differently in each mode... until you believe otherwise.

Open F? wow, I don't think I've ever tried that... FACFCF or..?

CFCFAC

Yeah, I should just play and enjoy. I would hate for a little knowledge to ruin my belief!  ;D I tried using a slide but it kinda wrecked my intonation.

ah, cool - thanks. I'd probably have to string up some .12's for that or something... might give it a shot. Nothing like a new tuning to inspire new tunes!

It is fun to goof around with open tunings. I want to get better with a slide (not much room to get worse) but have not found the perseverance to get the muting down.

My strat action is pretty low and has .009s on it. The low C did rattle on the fretboard but really isn't hit for that song. Muted that with my thumb and tried not to pound chords too hard.

Brief clip done with the microphone simulated direct out.

Edit: I should add First half is the green channel - clean (ish) and of course the red channel for the second half (pre-gain on 3!!).

that sounds pretty good for direct imo.

I hold your opinion in pretty high regard, Sheep.

Surprisingly better than I expected. Pretty quick and easy and no worries about volume or my dogs barking and ruining a track. Convenience factor is high. Would probably mic a serious recording - I may not need my mics anymore!

The USB interface sounds the same and Reaper picked it up with no problems but my asio driver only allows one sound device so I couldn't monitor drums and had to run the cabinet while recording. The master volumes had to be up a ways to get a good signal so it was loud. I could install asio4all but I don't see the need.

The crunch mode with an OD pedal is soaking up a lot of my time. :)

https://youtu.be/SZ2RbydPzRM?t=1247

unsurprisingly, mic'ed sounds better... heh.  ;D

but I'd likely use that DI for it's particular sound (darker/boxy-er)... would work great with reverb, I suspect.

guess I'm putting this amp on "the list"... would be nice to have around.

that darker sound would be a good contrast to the univalve's unholy brightness.

Some like the di layered with mic'd. It is slightly muffled compared to mic tone too. Not as clear...

I like it, Tobe.   Where's the other 4 minutes of the song???  ;D

Edit:  I liked the earlier "Levee" too.

Edit#2:  I was listenening to this Elvis the other day.  Check out this outtake .  Just listen to the first two minutes.  Pretty funny.  Thought the album is a pretty good recording for his last stuff.  Your dog comment made me think of it. ;D  Track one of CD 2 @ 55:00 to 57:00 Minutes.  I couldn't get the time link to stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55FHdoMznHc#

Thanks DM. Funny!  Shoot the fridge and the air conditioner too!

Levee is a hack on a Zep song. The other just came from nowhere while noodling and listening to the direct out through monitors. I may have to add a couple of minutes. Want to do the vocals?  :)

Sounds really good Tobe!

Thanks Marco! Did you get your hands on that Deluxe?

Clean clip mic'ed. Well clean if you don't lean into it too much. I like the sustain and feel best with the gain up about half - hot pickups and a heavy hand put a lot of hair around the chords. Just a phrase repeated a few times.

Sounds good.  I like that laid back groove.  Good Stuff!

DM — Oct 03, 2016Sounds good.  I like that laid back groove.  Good Stuff!

Thanks for checking it out DM. Sloppy playing but I like the groove.

You doing any writing or recording?

No writing or recording.  I just lied. ::)  I did record my self the other day with my phone.  I was curious how my phone would record my acoustic guitar in a video.  I thought the sound was brittle and my playing even worse.

I've been spending a lot of time playng fingerstyle blues.  Timing has been kicking my ass.  Pinches with a steady bass rhythm.  Alternating Thumb Bass, 6-4-5-4 string type shit.  Kicking my ass.

Here's a piece from a guy that I study from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdlorTf0s54

And here's a piece closer to your liking.  LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfch8UROmAE

Enjoyed both of those. Thanks.

I work on finger picking off and on and the independent / alternating bass thumb work eludes me. Also my right index and middle fingers are getting too stiff to develop any real speed or flow but I like it anyway.