Peavey Bravo amp

[KuruPrionz]

Anybody remember these or own one at some point?

Today I found one at Goodwill, out the door for $76.

It reminded me that: A) Tube amps are heavy! B) Older Peavey amps are heavy!!!!

 

This one looks like it sat in one place for a long time, no dings, bumps, scratched up corners etc. Quite the accumulation of dust.

I fired it up and it works great, no scratchy pots or sputtering jacks. I am surprised to be honest.

Spring reverb, sounds nice. There is a fairly heavy duty Fender speaker in it so somebody used it at some point, probably blew the original speaker up.

 

Oddly, it doesn't channel switch with either the Marshall footswitch or the Mesa footswitch. In fact, with the Mesa it stays on the clean channel if you use the channel switch on the amp. Weird.

I think I'll clean it up nice and flip it, somebody else's fun.

[RABid]

Nice find. What decade is it from? I had a few Peavey amps back in the 80's when they all sounded like they had blankets over them. That was also a period when every garage/club band, including mine, saved up for a nice Peavey PA. They have improved a lot over the years.

[KuruPrionz]

1988-ish.

It is a bright little beast, especially the gain channel. Sounds much better to me using the Low Gain input, I can get more of an overdrive tone. I might put a Scorpion 12 in it just to see what happens. I'll need to take it completely apart anyway to clean it, much easier to sell a nice clean amp and this one will clean up well since it shows very little signs of use.

 

A 5751 in V1 might help too. The "blanket tone" in some older Peaveys is probably the speaker, the lower level stuff all benefitted from putting a better speaker in it. I flogged an LA 400 for at least a thousand gigs, 200 watts rms and a 12" Peavey Black Wdiow speaker. It would get brighter than anybody would want. For a while I had the LA 400 AND a Reknown 112 (160 watts - Scorpion Plus speaker) both running. The "Mini Stack of Death!!!."

[desertbluesman]

Cool. I only had a few Peavey amps in my 50+ years of playing. On my first night out of the practice room long long ago, I used a Peavey amp, a hybrid tube SS combo, 3 songs into the set the amp blew the speaker, luckily I had some Fender amps at home which was 15 minutes each way to pick up the working amp, and I finished the gig with the Fender. That was my last Peavey amp I think. I went back to Fender, Marshall, Mesa, then Fender again I now have a Hot Rod Deluxe, and an Egnater Tweaker 15 watt head. That is it, and the HRD is for sale locally every weekend on Craigslist, then I remove the ad until Friday the following weekend.

[KuruPrionz]

DBM. I've probably played more gigs with Peavey amps than all other brands put together. I've had a Peavey amp knocked off the stage while it was on, it fell about 6 feet and landed on the top of the combo.

Was still on when we put it back up on stage and still working fine. I continued to gig with it for a couple of years.

 

I've always upgraded my speakers on all of my gigging amps with very few exceptions. After your choice of pick, pickups and strings, the speaker is the most important part of your tone and an easy one to change.

 

Good luck selling your HRD!

[Larryz]

I've never been a fan of Peavey. I did own one Peavey amp until it broke down on me. I can't remember the model but it was a small 112 tube type with a cooling fan (which I didn't like). But while it was working it had a great little sound and was a great little grab and go practice amp that put out plenty of power for it's size and could be used at small venues. I took it in and had it fixed. I put it on consignment to pay for the fix and it sold a week later for $150. Which paid for the fix and I walked out with a pedal for my share. Other than the amp that broke down on me, I will say Peavey makes some real roadworthy equipment. One of my buds has a PA that looks like it had been in WWII LOL! He still has it and it still works like it always has for the last 30 or 40 years! I've sang through it many times but still never really cared for the verb or sound all that much. More power to those that like Peavey equipment though!

[desertbluesman]

DBM. I've probably played more gigs with Peavey amps than all other brands put together.

 

I've always upgraded my speakers on all of my gigging amps with very few exceptions.

 

Good luck selling your HRD!

 

I only played that one gig with that particular Peavey amp. I had several others over time, the one that went south was a combination SS and tube amp, and something in the SS part went south and sent raw AC power into the speaker which blew. It was still under warrantee so the music store fixed it free. All of the other Peavey's that I once had were all tube and not one of them ever failed like that. But I never bonded with the tone of any of those Peavey amps that much. I sold or traded that amp in, and stuck with Fenders, Boogies, Marshalls and some others from then on. I never thought Peavey made a "bad" amp, just not any that I could bond with personally. It was a tone thing more than anything else.

 

Thanks for the good wishes on selling the HRD. there is no hurry ever, when you try and sell in a hurry you lose money. So I can wait, it ain't hurtin anyone, it is paid for, and it sounds great so I use it one week a month to keep up the caps etc. If it never sells I will give it to some family member when I quit playing, which should happen within the next few years.

[RABid]

I have a Vyper VIP-3 with the big pedal board. Wow, they have come a long way since the 80's.

[KuruPrionz]

I have a Vyper VIP-3 with the big pedal board. Wow, they have come a long way since the 80's.

 

I have that same setup. In my experience, if you dial that amp in carefully it is by far one of the best sounding guitar amps I've ever owned.

 

I've had several vintage Tweed Fenders, a variety of other vintage tube amps, a hot-rodded "clone" of a Fender 5D3 build on a Hammond organ chassis with original transformers, a Vox AC 15 Top Cut (first version) "clone" built on a vintage hi-fi chassis with original transformers and an EF86 preamp tube like the original amps, 9 Mesa amps, Allen Accomplice, Fender (Rivera era) Concert, 2 Fender Champ chassis with consecutive serial numbers run in stereo, a RedPlate Blues Machine and probably some other cool stuff. And those amps all sounded great. Some of them needed to be LOUD before the sweetness came through and this is one of my disagreements with tubes. I want a 1 watt tube amp!!!!!

 

The trick with the VIP3 is to use turn the Power Sponge control on the far right all the way down to 1%, choose one of the lower gain amps and make sure it is in either the Green or Orange setting (not the Red), turn the Master volume up to about 11 o'clock or noonish, and then dial in the gain and the tone controls. The 3rd version of Transtube is by far the best, it really starts to react like a tube amp if you push the output section and the Power Soak lets you do that at a fairly reasonable volume.

 

And you heard that first right here!!!

[RABid]

... I want a 1 watt tube amp!!!!!

 

...

 

I have a Blacksttar 1 watt tube amp. It is much louder than I expected. Don't really like it. It has been on a shelf in the garage for 6 years.

[KuruPrionz]

... I want a 1 watt tube amp!!!!!

 

...

 

I have a Blacksttar 1 watt tube amp. It is much louder than I expected. Don't really like it. It has been on a shelf in the garage for 6 years.

Have you ever hooked it up to a good speaker/cabinet?

[KuruPrionz]

I took the Bravo apart for cleaning. I cleaned the cabinet inside and out, looking good. A bit of wear on the bottom corners, just paint no dents.

The reverb tank has a broken spring. It is a solid state circuit, I have two Accutronics long tanks from SS Peavey amps, one of them probably matches plus I have the black bag which is nicer than a naked tank.

 

There was a dust accumulation at the bottom of the front of the speaker cone, it got in through the grille cloth and dropped down. All gone. I might try a Scorpion in it just to see what that sounds like.

 

Just cleaned all the pots, they were designed to be easy to maintain from the top side so not a struggle. The EL84s are Groove Tubes, they might be Russian, I'd have to pull them to confirm, the phase inverter is also Groove Tubes, the other 2 12ax7s are Peavey, all of them are Chinese. A vintage 5751 in V1 might be nice, not sure I want to bother with it yet but I might if I do the Scorpion. I would never gig this, the tube cover has 6 screws AND there are 3 fuses inside the amp - 4 more screws. You'd need a backup amp if you were going to gig it or just take your chances on failure. Ugh.

 

The interesting thing to me is that there is only one 8 pin IC, I think it is to manage the channel and bright switches. All of the rest of the components are discrete, there are 3 small transistors and everything else is resistors, capacitors and diodes. So it is a real tube amp, running at correct voltages with fairly beefy power supply capacitors. A rectifier tube would smooth out the attack but they chose solid state, done deal.

 

Gonna clean the jacks tonight, see if I can find a way to lubricate the small fan, it may just be noisy due to it's location. It isn't super loud, if you mic'ed the speaker close I doubt it would be heard on a track.

I find it interesting that nobody mentions the fan noise. I do remember trying one of these a LONG time ago when they first came out and I liked it pretty well back then. I do still have quite a stash of tubes for it.

[Larryz]

 

Gonna clean the jacks tonight, see if I can find a way to lubricate the small fan, it may just be noisy due to it's location. It isn't super loud, if you mic'ed the speaker close I doubt it would be heard on a track.

I find it interesting that nobody mentions the fan noise..

 

I've never been a fan of Peavey. I did own one Peavey amp until it broke down on me. I can't remember the model but it was a small 112 tube type with a cooling fan (which I didn't like).

 

 

Nobody LOL? The fan noise was what I was referring to...

[KuruPrionz]

 

Gonna clean the jacks tonight, see if I can find a way to lubricate the small fan, it may just be noisy due to it's location. It isn't super loud, if you mic'ed the speaker close I doubt it would be heard on a track.

I find it interesting that nobody mentions the fan noise..

 

I've never been a fan of Peavey. I did own one Peavey amp until it broke down on me. I can't remember the model but it was a small 112 tube type with a cooling fan (which I didn't like).

 

 

Nobody LOL? The fan noise was what I was referring to...

 

 

And so it is!!!! Not mentioned by name but I can't think of another Peavey guitar amp with a fan. Sorry, Larryz, I overlooked your comment but it is spot on!

 

I've played well over a thousand gigs with Peavey amps but they were all solid state. I used to have the Rockmaster tube preamp and a 50 watt per side rackmount Peavey stereo tube amp to go with but I never took them out to gig and didn't care for the sound I was getting so those are long gone. I had a Mesa at that point in time, a much better sounding amp by far.

 

I've mentioned not feeling comfortable with tubes and reliability before. If the tubes on this were easy to access then it might be a bit less scary but it takes 6 screws to get at them. With 3 fuses inside the amp (4 more screws) it's just not a gigging amp to me. And with the fan noise it would never be a recording amp either. I am almost done putting it back together, I will find a happy new home for it, make a few bucks and move on.

 

We have a practice outdoors tomorrow, I might take it for a shakedown cruise but probably not, too heavy. The Roland Cube will more than do the trick and it's small and light.

[KuruPrionz]

Up and running, clean and shiny!

 

I had the same exact reverb tank but with both springs, the cardboard bottom and the black bag so that's in there now and sounds just like spring reverb (which I do like).

 

I use CRC electrical grade 2-26 to clean pots, it also lubricates. I gave the fan a shot of that and it is quieter now.

If I use the low gain input and the Ultra Gain Pre knob pushed in I can get some nice overdrive tones. Otherwise it is way over the top 80's hair metal tone.

It is a good sounding amp and except for the fan it runs quiet. There is nothing wrong with it.

 

Somebody will love it. It won't be living here for too long, hopefully.

[Danzilla]

I used to borrow a friend's Peavey Mace amp back when I was starting out. Decent for a solid state amp. Had a footswitch-engaged boost/overdrive, that added some edge, but not anything amazing, But if you put a distortion pedal on while you engaged that, you could get a really monsterous sound. Not sure that I mean that in a good way... But heck, we were young.

[KuruPrionz]

I used to borrow a friend's Peavey Mace amp back when I was starting out. Decent for a solid state amp. Had a footswitch-engaged boost/overdrive, that added some edge, but not anything amazing, But if you put a distortion pedal on while you engaged that, you could get a really monsterous sound. Not sure that I mean that in a good way... But heck, we were young.

 

I've created all sorts of monstrous "tones" in years past and am probably not done yet. It can be fun to not worry about what the sound is for, just make some crazy noise.

 

My primary purpose for a guitar amp is to play gigs, I rarely plug in at home. For me, reliability is paramount. Next is versatility.

We have a pretty good sized PA for bigger gigs and everybody keeps their volume under control - even the drummer!!!!

So I don't need or want a loud amp, enough to hear myself on stage is plenty.

 

All around, my Boss Katana 100 Combo does everything I need and the great sounding DI makes it super easy to run into the PA. The foot switch system is user friendly and easy to remember.

 

For smaller gigs, I've been using a Roland Cube 40 gx and it's a great little amp. Still messing with a Peavey VIP 1, I shoehorned a Scorpion 10" into that and it's a great sounding small amp.

I need to spend a bit more time getting the Sanpera 1 and that amp up and running. Maybe then I can run the Roland and the Peavey in stereo (dual mono) and get all sorts of fun tones without lugging too much stuff or having a complicated mess on the floor in front of me.

 

The Bravo just isn't it. I bought it because I knew I could makes some money selling it.

[Larryz]

@ Kuru, mine could have been a Bravo (if that's the only one with a fan). I know it was a 112 with a fan, but I don't remember it having more than one input jacks. It was many years ago and I think a buddy wound up with it once it was fixed. He also didn't care for the fan and sold it. I also have a Roland Street Cube EX 50 watt ss amp (5, 25 or 50 watt). It is a great little lightweight amp for outdoor gigs as it can be run on 8 double A's or plugged in. Great little busking amp/PA. I too have moved away from tubes. The Peavey fan noise bothered me. It reminded me of my old CB days running a 400 watt tube linear with a cooling fan. The radio mic would pickup the fan noise when transmitting and it drove me nuts till I found a way to silence it a bit...Anyway, glad you got the Bravo working and it should sell quickly as it may be a collector amp these days...

[desertbluesman]

I too have moved away from tubes.

Did you sell your Hot Rod Deluxe?

[KuruPrionz]

It could be that they changed the amp a bit over the years, not uncommon at all.

I vaguely remember trying one out when they were new but I've only ever bought 2 amps new, a Yamaha 2-12 combo and a Mesa Mk III head - both long since gone.

 

Everything else (and there have been many) was purchased used. I've never seen any other Peavey amp with a fan but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Besides the fan being annoying, it's really heavy for it's size. I don't care much for that either, no good reason to lug heavy stuff around anymore.

 

Counting the Bravo, I have 8 amps laying around. I recently sold 2 amps and should sell a couple more plus the Bravo. I don't need them, somehow they sort of creep into my life, like banjos!!!

[CEB]

Bravos are after my time. I traveled with a pair of solid state Peavey Bandit 65s. They were dependable. I traveled with two in case one went down. Ran them stereo out of my effects rack. Everything in the band was Peavey. Hartley was highly supportive of country music. The Bandit 65s were bullet proof. Gene at Peavey always said it may not sound the best but they designed everything not to fail. That was back then.

 

I still have Peavey pedal steel amps. Nashville 400s. A friend is selling a pristine Session 500. I"m considering it but it"s heavier than hell. The Nashville 400s are heavy enough.

 

Lately I"ve started playing out with a little single neck ShoBud Pro1 and a Boss Katana 100. The weight is great.

[Larryz]

I too have moved away from tubes.

Did you sell your Hot Rod Deluxe?

 

Yes, I still have the 112 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the 410 Fender Hot Rod DeVille tube amps. They have been sitting for awhile so I need to plug them in and charge the caps up a little. I will sell both of them along with a 112 Club Z ss amp, one of these days. They are both great sounding tubers...

 

ps. I'm pretty much using my Roland Cube Street EX ss amp/PA, and my Fender 112 Tone Master Deluxe Reverb ss amp now exclusively.

[KuruPrionz]

Sunday a kid in a metal band came by and picked up the Bravo for $160 cash.

Somebody else's fun now!

 

On to the next...

[tedmich]

The Bravo is a cool little amp, a few tweaks away from being epic if you like high gain! They regularly sell for $375-450 on Reverb. I got one of Clist for $50 with an internal fuse blown. Since the tubes are all hidden (PAG in Peavey speak) many who own them have no idea they aren't solid state.

 

For future reference they benefit GREATLY from a better speaker, bagging the reverb and a few mods to lose their sizzle. One guy on the Youtube played his through a Mesa Thiele and it was godlike! I'm working on (2) currently but just the amp shells with no speaker box.

 

I've had /rebuilt a couple Peaveys, all purchased dead off Clist (some way more dead than others!)