The Watering Hole

Anybody have or have used the Peavey Valve King 20 watt head? I am going to try and sell my Super Champ X2, and get something decently cheap and all tube.......

No, but funnily I just sold my Superchamp x2 too. Although a great amp, just still too "processed" for my liking.

We have the other ValveKing-- I think it's 30 watts?  The clean channel is bland, and the distortion channel is ridiculously over-the top.  I thought it would be like my old Classic 30, but with a couple of nice extra features.  But the tone isn't even remotely close to as good.  No decent overdrive, trebly, harsh, loud, lacking character.

The Egnater Tweaker 15 is the same price, and though it has no reverb, it's a far better sounding amp.

Thanks Charger, I also have been looking at the Tweaker 15 Watt combo. As well as the head. Tell me more about it, cleans as good as a Fender type clean? The EQ's good and work well? If I buy one, I will need only the clean sound, as my pedals will do the rest.

Jon — Aug 06, 2014No, but funnily I just sold my Superchamp x2 too. Although a great amp, just still too "processed" for my liking.

The SCX2 is a real nice grab and go amp. It does everything I need, but it is just too harsh on the high end. I have the trebs turned way down to 3 and the Bass on 2 and the Mids in Fuze in the middle. It is the best balance I can find, but still way too ice picky on the top end. I even put in a hemp cone speaker which improved it a bunch. But If I can get most of my money out of it, I will be satisfied. (I have $473 in it with the speaker, the foots witch and the amp cover) I am asking $350. If I can't get that I will find a use for it and maybe buy a graphic EQ and cut everything above 9K to the lowest amount I can anyways.

desertbluesman — Aug 06, 2014[quote author=Jon G link=1407277881/0#1 date=1407318329]No, but funnily I just sold my Superchamp x2 too. Although a great amp, just still too "processed" for my liking.

The SCX2 is a real nice grab and go amp. It does everything I need, but it is just too harsh on the high end. I have the trebs turned way down to 3 and the Bass on 2 and the Mids in Fuze in the middle. It is the best balance I can find, but still way too ice picky on the top end. I even put in a hemp cone speaker which improved it a bunch. But If I can get most of my money out of it, I will be satisfied. (I have $473 in it with the speaker, the foots witch and the amp cover) I am asking $350. If I can't get that I will find a use for it and maybe buy a graphic EQ and cut everything above 9K to the lowest amount I can anyways.

I went to a 12" speaker on the SuperChamp... made a world of difference.

The Tweaker has some really great cleans, and has some nice breakup.  I run the clean gain up around noon or higher and get a little bit of crunch in it.  In my experience, nothing really sounds like a Fender, no matter what anyone claims.  You need a Jensen alnico speaker, that Fender tone stack, and it needs to be pretty loud, and then you get close.  But the Tweaker has a great sound and a wide range of settings.  My only knock on it is that it's a little bass-light.  It's not bright or harsh, but the bass is definitely not big, at least with the included combo G12H30 speaker.  

charger — Aug 06, 2014the bass is definitely not big, at least with the included combo G12H30 speaker.  

Cannabis Rex will fix that a bit.

Howie seconds Chargers assessment. Tweaker 15 maybe 40 is on the short list......

Well, I took a chance that the Peavey Valveking II 20 Watt Micro head would be a winner.  I think it is the best amp that I've had through here since the MIG 50 and the Classic 30.  The difference is that on the 5 watt setting it it so fucking manageable.  I think it has a great clean channel and the lead channel is very good.  It has a good reverb.  It has a good sound.  I had just recently upgraded my speaker to a Jensen 12"  25 watt.  I think the lower watt speaker makes a huge difference in the sound of these low watt amps.

I have only played this thing on the 5 watt setting, but that's what I bought it for.  I haven't tried the Speaker defeat for the headphones, The USB recording out or the XLR out, yet.  Thing has awesome home use features.  It smokes the VHT Special 6 Ultra that I bought from Howie.  I think it is very comparable to the Classic 30.  Charger this is a Valveking II.  They have totally reworked them.  The larger Valvekings are 6L6 amps.  The Micro Head is an EL84 PT amp like the Classic 30.  I think the only difference in Knobs is the addition of the Variclass knob.  I do think the Gain can get "over the top", but I have it set on 1 and get a very pleasing Crunch much like I remember on the C30.

I stole this thing on Ebay.  The guy had it for $299 buy it now free shipping and I had a $50 Ebay coupon, so it showed up here for $249.  I sold my POD X3 and FB express floorboard to spring for it.  Totally Line 6 free for the first time in many moons.  The thing just collected dust anyway.

So, as originally asked in this thread by DBM, I think the Micro Head 20 Watt is a very good amp.  Decent Clean, Decent Crunch, Effects loop, other recording features TBD, But it's the best Amp I've had in awhile.

There is a great demo of the thing.  If you skip the first four minutes of talking, he does a very good demo I posted it in another thread of Johnny's.  The demo is in Italian, but after the four minute intro, it's all playing.

PEAVEY VALVEKING 20 MICRO HEAD DEMO/TEST (ENG SUB) Review+Sound test+Performance - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzz9KzQcyxY

Really nice sounds coming from that demo. Nice amp. What is the deal with the footswitches? One is a combination boost and channel switcher.

I haven't messed with the switch jacks yet.  It has two jacks.  One is for the channels and the Gain Boost.  The other is for the Reverb and Effects loop.  I'm assuming use a two button switch in each for hands free gig type switching.

I like the clean channel and it takes pedals really well.  The loop works well.  I put a tremolo, chorus and delay in the loop.

I played it on the one watt setting for a while.  It's really like a 3 channel amp.  The gain boost is a whole jump to another realm.

I still haven't messed with all of the features.  I still haven't played it on the 20 Watt setting.  I dig it though, it's a great sounding little amp.  It's very neatly put together.  I was surprised at how small it is.  It's 6" x 14 ".  Everything right on the front.