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KuruPrionz

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Our small Guitar Center in little Bellingham has 2 Peavey Vypyr X1 amps in stock, I saw one on the floor a couple of weeks ago.

Sweetwater still has them on pre-order status, same price both places ($199).

 

Yesterday I called our Guitar Center and bought one of them over the phone. I already have the newer black version of the Sanpera 1 pedal, Musicians Friend put it on sale briefly for $99, usually $129.

And I found a very good condition Peavey Scorpion 10" speaker, one of my all time favorite guitar speakers, that is here too.

 

I've got the plywood, the tools and the grille cloth to make a new baffle for the 10" speaker, installation is just screwdriver work. I even have a small can of black paint, it's too cold outside to do a rattle-can spray job.

 

We are getting a good bit of rain from Saturday night through Monday and the lows will be above freezing. If the street outside our parking garage is clear enough I'll drive to GC and pick up the amp. We've had a fair bit of snow and ice recently and right now I would just slide out into a well-trafficked street, not good. Even if I could afford snow tires, I can't get to the shop to have them put on anyway. So it goes.

 

Soon it will be here. I plan on running my Vypyr VIP 1 and the new X1 together. I have an older Sanpera 1 pedal as well. That would still be a compact and simple pedal board with a ton of sonic options.

 

Fun!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Congrats Kuru! Good luck on the project and drive safely. Don't forget to give us a report when you get that stereo rig up and running! :2thu:

 

Thanks Larryz AND DBM!!!

 

I am hoping to be able to safely get my car down our short but icy incline by Monday. It's going to warm up and rain, should wash the ice way since it isn't very thick at all.

I would love to have the amp by Monday afternoon. I'll keep y'all posted as I get the stereo rig up and running. I'm looking forward to it, long ago and far away I ran a stereo guitar rig and it's fun.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I plan on running my Vypyr VIP 1 and the new X1 together. I have an older Sanpera 1 pedal as well. That would still be a compact and simple pedal board with a ton of sonic options.

 

Fun!!!!

 

Keep a good watch on road conditions, Kuru!

 

I have to ask, do you have a way to use the single Sanpera pedal to control both Vypyr Amps?

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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I plan on running my Vypyr VIP 1 and the new X1 together. I have an older Sanpera 1 pedal as well. That would still be a compact and simple pedal board with a ton of sonic options.

 

Fun!!!!

 

Keep a good watch on road conditions, Kuru!

 

I have to ask, do you have a way to use the single Sanpera pedal to control both Vypyr Amps?

 

The only road that I need to watch is the one outside my door. It's a short run but sloped enough that when it gets icy I avoid it. Today and tomorrow will be well above freezing, even the low overnight is higher. And there will be rain.

I am planning on going tomorrow mid-morning to pick up the amp and run a few errands. I've been out in town, the main streets are all clear and there are fairly flat routes to everywhere I want to go.

 

I am pretty sure that some of the first version of the Vypyr series had a built in network so you could daisy chain two amps off one Sanpera. The VIP series doesn't have that and I don't expect the X series will have it either.

And I don't want it. I want to be able to control both amps separately. I guess it's "dual mono" rather than stereo. The VIP series offers 12 presets, the X has returned to the 16 presets that the original had.

If I keep them independent I'll have more options.

 

I'll have to check but I think the X has one more pin in the connector. It's a MIDI connector but with more pins so a MIDI network box wouldn't work either.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I'll have to check but I think the X has one more pin in the connector. It's a MIDI connector but with more pins so a MIDI network box wouldn't work either.

 

I'm not a fan of proprietary switches and connectors, and there are quite a few lines of Peavey Amps where finding the right foot switch for a used Amp is a major hassle.

 

I am, however, a fan of parallel systems, and I definitely get your point about "dual Mono" as opposed to true Stereo. Have fun with that!

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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I'll have to check but I think the X has one more pin in the connector. It's a MIDI connector but with more pins so a MIDI network box wouldn't work either.

 

I'm not a fan of proprietary switches and connectors, and there are quite a few lines of Peavey Amps where finding the right foot switch for a used Amp is a major hassle.

 

I am, however, a fan of parallel systems, and I definitely get your point about "dual Mono" as opposed to true Stereo. Have fun with that!

 

In general, I am not a fan of switches and connectors period. Replacement cables for the Sanpera are relatively inexpensive and available from many sources. It's an 8 pin DIN cable: https://www.amazon.com/Peavey-Sanpera-Footswitch-Replacement-Length/dp/B01ENPMDXE So it's fairly standard but a bit off the beaten path. You probably won't find one at a music shop. I've got 3 cables now, maybe 4. I found one at the thrift store.

 

I also dislike having stuff on the floor at my mic station. Less is better, the Sanpera 1 is much less than a typical pedal board and there is only one cable to connect to the amp (and one guitar to amp cable). Pedals each require at least 3 cables, one for power and two for signal path. Stereo pedals require more and yes, I will have 2 Sanperas with 2 connecting cables. I'll also have an AB box over by the amps so a total of 3 audio cables. I don't really need switches since each Sanpera has a volume control, just turn an amp down or up if I want mono./ stereo.

 

My primary reasons for selecting the Peavey Vypyr series are tone and the WYSIWYG interface. I've owned a buttload of tube and solid state amps from $1,200 Mesa to $25 thrift store Line 6 Spyders. I have a pretty good idea what's out there. Current gigger is a Boss Katana 50 MkIII. I'd like a better speaker but I do like that it's already a 12". It's a great amp and I plan to keep it but I'm big on having backup gear - needed it too often!

 

But, my Vypyr VIP 1 with the Scorpion 10" in it just sounds much better than the Katana (or any other multi-effect modeling amp at anywhere near the same price). There are modeling amps that can compete but they are much more expensive (except for some plugins but now you need a computer - $$$).

 

Playing the Peavey sounds great and it FEELS great - that intangible "thing" that we all know and love about some tube amps. TransTube was introduced in 1995-6 Peavey amps but Hartley and team were working on it well before then. They are still working on it, the X series has updated TransTube and I am excited to hear what they've done. I suspect it will be subtle, the VIP series is amazing already. I will say for certain that the X1 will have a fairly crappy speaker from the factory and you will wonder what the f*uck I am even taking about if you try one out. The X3 probably has a pretty OK speaker in it. That said, the Katana 50 speaker is nothing to write home about either, I am considering replacing it as well.

 

The other feature is one I haven't seen in other amps - WYSIWYG. ALL of the knobs on the Vypyr except the Master Volume (which is an analog pot) have a ring of LEDs around them. These clearly display the exact settings you have for your current preset, even on the darkest stage or in bright daylight. Sound crew says "Can you turn your treble down a bit" and you can see exactly where you are on your treble tone control. Tweak it, press one button and it's saved.

I've had that happen with the Katana and I turn the treble knob and it "jumps" because it is not displaying the exact current preset. Bit of a PITA, one I could do without.

 

I do enjoy that the wah pedal is built in and included in the Sanpera too, it's a good sounding wah and I will use it. We had rain last night and it stayed above freezing. I can probably get my car safely down to the street, will take a look soon and go pick up my amp (I hope!). Cheers, Kuru

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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It is here, the box is still unopened.

I'll have it up and running a little later, will check back in with a report.

I am expecting that I will need to make a baffle and replace the speaker, the 8" that came with the Vypyr VIP 1 was feeble and sounded nasty. The 10" Scorpion transformed it into a monster.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Fired it up. Checked out all the controls, played at my usual fairly low volume.

Down low, the 8" speaker sounds OK. I still want to replace it with a 10", it will happen.

 

This version of the amp is a little wider than the VIP 1, I may bring the feet in a bit so it sits better on top. Stereo is usually side by side but what I really want is to be able to blend tones and effects.

The classic stereo chorus amps usually run one speaker with chorus and one without, that's what makes the air "move". A clean tone blended with a dirty tone can still sing but have more clarity and punch on the attack transients and a smoother, warmer low end, that's nice too.

 

Last but not least, both of these amps have a "reverse delay" that is truly weird. I also have a TC Electronic Flashback X4 and it has a reverse delay and stereo outs. I may use the TC for my AB box, I also have a Rivera AB box and either will work - BUT with the TC I could run reverse delay into reverse delay, which I know will sound completely wrong and weird. There are 3 different tap tempo buttons too, one for each unit. So reverse delay plays, then reverse/reverse delay in two different timings.

 

At this point I am more interested in recording with these amps than in performing live. I need to put a completely new thing together to go out and perform live, I want to do it on different terms. Weekly bar gigs is not where I want to be right now.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Last night I fired up both of my Vypyrs and played around with using different effects on each. That is a great sound, very 3d, airy and open.

 

With a dozen effects, 2 instruments (acoustic and bass guitars) plus 12 amps with 3 levels of gain each the combinations are pretty much infinite. Each effect and amp can be adjusted for a wide variety of tones.

 

I'll never get around to trying everything but it will be fun to try!!!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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