I picked up a Peavey ValveKing 112 combo early today for $150. My plan was to use the clean on it and have a stereo amp section coupled with my Superchamp running from my RP500. Two amps running stereo. That was the plan.
Heh.
Got the VK home and plugged it into my tasty little Celestion equipped cab to do some tweakage. And it was a totally different monster out of the gates. I jumped back on line and learned quickly that the speaker in the stock VK's are junk. I also learned that you can 'jump' these just like a Plexi. Meaning running a small jump cable from the 'in'
and 'out' on the effects loop jacks. That simple thingy in conjunction with a good speaker cab turned this little amp into a
MONSTER!
This thing (running through my cab) honestly sounds just like a JSX. I owned one, and it is pretty freaking close.
The Superchamp XD will be sold quickly. It was good until I discovered MUCH better.
Good find Johnny. I wonder how many other amps this is true of. I'm sure there are some other gems out there that have junk speakers and tubes from the factory and a simple speaker change and tube upgrade would take them levels above the stock amp.
I had the opposite experience with ours. What kind of speaker is in your cab? We ended up with a V30... but I still hate that thing.
DreamTheaterRules — Dec 17, 2012I wonder how many other amps this is true of. I'm sure there are some other gems out there that have junk speakers and tubes from the factory and a simple speaker change and tube upgrade would take them levels above the stock amp.
My Hot Rod Deluxe is one example Howie, the thing was mediocre at best on the clean and terrible on the overdrive, I got hipped to JJ Tubes and learning how to BIAS the thing and with that simple upgrade it went from mediocre to awesome on the cleans, and from terrible to nice and mediocre on the overdrive channel. But that was always through the EVM12L cab. Through the stock speaker, it sounded crappy. The Fenderbender advised me on the Eminence Tonespotter for the HRD and I tried it and liked it with the beam blocker in front of the speaker. Still I have to use a nice tube overdrive pedal in front of it for distortions at lower volumes. Although the drive channel is usable and actually pretty good at higher volumes.
DBM, that brings up another good example. Those were known for cold bias from the factory. Much warmer sounding when biased a bit hotter. That is also one of the things I was mentioning to you about the Valve Jr. The bias is way off on them (way more than the HRDs).
@Charger- I've seen so many mixed reviews on those at TGP that the consensus was that there are QC issues and the good ones really are a good cheap amp. (with a cheap speaker) Sounds like Johnny got a good one.
I'm not sure that's it... I've played quite a few at guitar shops and such. My problems with this line of amps run deep. Note that I feel pretty much the same way about the 5150 and the other amps based on these basic channels, JSX, XXX, etc. Not ballsy and rich on the cleans, not enough character on the distortion.
It's like an elementary school playground at our jam, and every other amp gets picked before the Peavey.
Peavey does do some cool things though--that Windsor was as good a $250 Marshall as I've ever played...
charger — Dec 17, 2012I'm not sure that's it... I've played quite a few at guitar shops and such. My problems with this line of amps run deep. Note that I feel pretty much the same way about the 5150 and the other amps based on these basic channels, JSX, XXX, etc. Not ballsy and rich on the cleans, not enough character on the distortion.
It's like an elementary school playground at our jam, and every other amp gets picked before the Peavey.
Peavey does do some cool things though--that Windsor was as good a $250 Marshall as I've ever played...
I had a bunch of Peavey's back in the day. I forget which models but they were decent amps one was a hundred watt 2-12 combo. The other a 200 watt model head that rocked the house. All of them all tube. But I never went back to Peavey's after that one year or so of owning them.
I've always thought the ValveKings sounded like ass. I just picked this one up because it was cheap and had a tube driven clean channel I could use in stereo with my cheaper Superchamp.
But when I plugged it into my cab, it was a completely different amp (running out the 'speaker out' jack cancels the internal speaker on the combo).
I went back and forth several times from the internal speaker and the ext cab to make sure I was hearing it correctly. Hands down, running to the ext cab tightened everything up. And just running a small patch chord from the 'effects out' to the 'effects in' had the same effect as maybe a sonic maximizer. Again, I repeated plugging it in and out, and could very clearly hear the difference.
With a few days with it, I would say my hardon is still full on. But I should admit it sounds more like a Triple X than a JSX...but with much more tameable 'Hair' (for those of you who have played a Triple X, that 'Hair' nob is quite sensitive).
I think it was Charger who asked what cab I'm running to. Heh. It is a'Celestion Equipped' Raven 1x12 cab. Don't know what celestion is in it. But it is well broke in and SMOKES the built in speakers on both of my amps. See attachment to view rig.
With the Boost Gain button pushed, I have 80's sounding hair metal full on. With it not pushed, guitar switched to single coil mode, I have classic tone from hell.
These amps are beasts. Or maybe I got lucky and bought a 'good' one. Who knows. But do what I did to mine before you make your decision.
Yep, we've done that. Also, the two inputs sound different (and don't bother with the "dummy jack" mod, that just makes the second input sound like the first). We turned the resonance to deep (loose?) and went all the way to Class A, too, after trying the other settings for a while.
The fx loop gives the amp slightly more gain, but we want less gain. I think if you want that recto-like tone, but way cheaper, this amp could work for that. In a jam situation where people are moving from instrument to instrument and amp to amp, using lots of pedals, and trying to blend with 4 or 5 other players, it presents challenges.
Anyway, I'm glad you like it! Clips?