Peavey Firebass 700

I've been playing through this amp since it came out in 2000. The versatility is simply incredible. This amp does just about anything you could ask of it. Lots of features, lots of options and easy to use with third party gear to fill out your sound.

I've played about a dozen basses through this and I think it has represented all of them well. It is an honest amp - a crappy bass still sounds crappy but a nice bass sounds great. Right now I'm playing a six string fretless Brice and a 6 string fretted Ibanez btb. I play through a vintage acoustic cab with and 18 and two 10s, and a straight up peavey black widow 15 with a tweeter. The amp doesn't crap out on the lower end needed for that low B string (like so many others do), but it still has the sensitivity to give me a good sound all they way to the twelfth fret on my high C string.

I've recorded with this amp in pro studios and got fantastic sounds. The best sound I've got in the studio was with a three track set up, one track with an avalon DI, one line out from the head and one mic (sennheiser 421) on an ampeg cab. The mix of the three signals gave a great sound, but the line out from the head kept up with the avalon - Now that's impressive!!

The only criticism I can think of for the sound is the preamp. It's not bad, but it's not the best. It doesn't give you the kind of warmth you'll get out of a top-of-the-line ampeg. But I bought a 3rd party tube preamp (not even name brand and I only spent 150 bucks) and now it sounds great. The combo I have now is simply unbeatable.

If you're willing to get a couple of extras (like a nice preamp and maybe a compressor unit) you'll never find a better bass sound.

7 years and I've never had a problem with it. Plug in and play - works every time.

This thing is build like a tank, very heavy but very strong. You could throw it down a flight of stairs and not even worry about it. Although this amp is temperature sensitive. Store it in a heated room when not in use! Keep it in a smoke free environment and generally don't do anything stupid and it should go the distance.

never needed

If someone stole this amp I would probably cry.

all the goodies.......simple to dial in

just dial it in....i play blues and classic rock and southern rock on mainly Fenders....clean and bright or muddy...which ever you like...havent noticed any distortion

its a peavey....no need for backup

only peavey i ever had repaired was one i bought broke.........repair was simple and cheap...wish they made cars.

been playing on and off since the 60's....have fender,crate,ampeg,gk,peavey,kustom,etc....compared the reviews and then made up my mind....i like that it goes down to 2 ohms so i can play two 4 ohm cabs....it is heavy so bring along a strong roadie.....has way way enough power...is quiet....bought mine on ebay.....watch out for the shipping cost

Stacked with features, i like the versitility of the line out features giving the best chance of getting a good clean signal to the mixing desk in both live and recording situations, i like to run my amps with as flat an EQ as possible but with the flexability of the controls it is easy to lose those nasty frequencies that can easily blight a sound

I run acouple of old Precisions and a Jazz bass through the Firebass into two Peavey 1x15 BW cabs, whilst i love the 2x15 sound i find that the firebass lacks the magic of my previous Trace amps, the sound is not lacking in any way but it just does not excite me in the way previous amps have

100% reliable, no issues, no crackles, i just hoist it up on top of my cabs plug it in and away we go

As above 100% reliable so far so i have not needed customer support

Its loaded with features, it does everything it promises to do and it does it reliably, would i buy another? probably not, i miss the warm, coloured sound of my previous amps, given the chance i would keep the Firebass as my reliable back up and go for something with a warmer sound that breaks down every other week!

Got everything you need. See all the other reviews.
Unbelievably heavy - take care of your back with this.

Clean good sound. Doesn't add or take anything away. Great if you have a good bass and a good cab. but does make a cheap bass sound even cheaper than normal. Very easy to dial in pretty much whatever you need.

Now here I have to beg to differ with all of the other reviewers. I've had my Firebass for 5 years - and then this year, all of a sudden it ups and just dies on me. I've had it looked at and I've been told the main board needs replacing. No idea why yet - but Peavey (UK) won't supply parts to an engineer who isn't a peavey authorised dealer (apparently). Up until now- it worked fine!

Awkward (so far). I'll see how it turns out.

Great amp this - It's the older white face version, but it's still going well. It's a pretty simple amp to use. The FX loop seems a bit redundant, seeing as how there's a pre-out and power amp in loop, as well as seperate hi & lo outputs from the crossover. The crossover itself is pretty good, sweepable from 100Hz to 1kHz, with a hi-lo balance control. It's only 12dB/Octave though, whereas 24 would be more useful, but these are really the only criticisms I have. It's got tons of power, easy to use EQ (including the contour control, which is like a whole EQ in itself) and it's solid.

This amp is about the loudest I've ever played through. I put it through either 1 or 2 2x10s, or a 2x10 and a 1x15 (all rated 400w @ 4Ohms each)and it shifts a LOT of air. On one occasion I was playing with 2 half stacks and a LOUD drummer, and the Peavey kept up easily, gain & volume both on about half. The EQ is really simple but pretty flexible. Bass and treble controls, swept mid (200Hz-2kHz), contour control and a bright switch, and can do everything from funk to punk. My final aim is to use the amp in a biamped stereo arrangement. By coming out of the lo out into the power amp in, the internal amp can feed my 1x15 and deal with the bass end, while the high out goes through my AX300B into a stereo power amp and out into the 2x10s. I could even use the preamp out to feed my Laney combo, so the drummer could have a full range monitor. This should give me about 1300 watts to play with - more than enough even for me!

It's a Peavey, therefore it's built like a tank and never goes wrong. I don't know anyone that's had any trouble with Peavey stuff.

Never goes wrong, so I've never had to deal with them.

This is a great amp - good sounds, easy to use and power to spare. A few criticisms aside (see above), I'd recommend it to anyone - just make sure your speakers are up to the job, or this amp will EAT them!

Not sure what year it was made it has a speaker protection circuit and Push button for active electronics.It has a bright switch, tuner send jack,line out with pre and post eq and ground lift. it also has a crossover with frequency cutoff controls and gain and master volume with jacks for Bi Amping, But with 700 watts of power who wouls really need to?

I am using this amp with a Fender American Jazz Bass with an s-1 switch And a Line 6 bass pod. I play mostly classic rock and funk with a swr workingMan's 4-10 And a peavey 2-15 and it kicks serious butt. It can do just about anything from growly funk to popping and slapping it just sounds good and clean. If you crank up the gain you can get some good distortion for rock and turn it down and the volume up for the clean sound.

I bought this amp used and it has been very reliable so far. I have had no issues with it yet and do not see any need to really push it hard so I don't think there will be any reliability issues.

Have not had to deal with them.

If it were stolen I would definately replace it. With bass you can never have too much power and this thing has tons of power. So it is simple lots of power lots of clean bass if you want it clean or the ability to run the gain up and get some serious distortion and not have to worry about clipping the amp.

Not6 sure what year it was made. I have heard several amps like this one and they sound great. It can make a lot of different tones with the limited controls it has. I use a bass pod also .

Using it with a 2004 Fender Jazz bass with the s1 switch fender noisless pickups(not true unless they are both at the same level). I just bought it and got it home and it makes this god awful hum like it was being driven full gain and full voulme with no signal and I shut it off it made a very loud pop and that was it dead in the water.

Only had it for about 3 hours and it was dead.

Don't know yet will update later.

I'm not sure when this head was made because it's one of the white face models, but I've had it about two years. This amp is the most veratile amp I've ever used, and believe me, I've been playing music for 35 years and I've had them all from SVT's to Fender's to Acoustic's, etc. I won't go into the feature because everyone below has pretty much told you what all this amp has, but I will tell you that it blows the doors (litterally) off of everything else I've tried. I play mainly jazz and rock, and with 700 watts, you'll go deaf if you have the right speakers, and you'd better if you plan on turning it up past 4. I use this head with a Hartke 2.5 (2-10" and a horn) and a Hartke 215 (2-15" aluminum cone) sub. Like they say: "it doesn't rock the house, it levels the house!!!".

My main basses are MusicMan Stingrays (2) with the fat humbuckers. With these basses, even if one of them is just sitting there in the stand and the amp is on, the amp quiet as a mouse. I use this amp in my home studio because of how quiet it is. Different tones? Oh my God, you can get about anything except distortion. At least I've never been able to get it to a volume level where it distorts. If you like clean powerful bass, this is your baby!!

reliable? This thing is bullet-proof!!! It's as solid as a rock. I've ran it down to 2-ohms and it never whimpered the first time. No need for servicing, just plug-n-play.

Nover had to deal with Peavey, but I'm sure they take care of their customers. Mine is probably out of warranty, and it's never needed it anyway.

Like I said, I've been playing for 35 years (old fart). I own way too much gear to list, but the gear I'll always keep is my Marshall full stand, my Ampeg V4B head and 8-10 Ampeg cabinet. If it were stolen, I'd buy another one in a heartbeat. No other wishes. This amp has it all. One note: check eBay for these things. They are a real deal on that site, normally around $300.00. And it'll be the best three hundred dollar head you'll ever buy!!!

Ive had this amp for about ayear now and i love it part of it. It has a pretty plain paint job but it actually works for it. I love the DDT speaker prtection on it Itwould saveme bg money in thelong run lol. I can get any kind ofsoundthat i want ot of this baby by just tweaking the countour on it. No dstortion what so ever.

Ive been playing for almost 4 years and must say that this amp is the best sounding amp ive ever come across. I use my Ibanez SRX 300 on it and my Dean 5-string with EMG's on it and i cant complain at all

the reliability of this amp is remarkable. its builtlike a freaking tank as well as heavy as one but i think its worth it. ive never had any problems with it at all.

i really wouldent know ever used it i dont even know the number. this amp from what i can see it would never fail me

This amp is like my best friend i would talke it to all my gigs and never replace it ever. if it were stolen ateri got done crying lol i would get another one if i had the money of course. its a great value for 7oo watts backing you and you can get it for around $1200 i think thats pretty impressive the only thing is the weight but i can live with that i got detachable caster for it right when i bought it.

No need to repeat what others have already covered.

Using it with a Peavey 810TX cab and a Peavey Cirrus 4. Great sound overall. All the volume I'll ever need. It shakes the ground and everything else around.

Built like a tank.

Never had any problems.

This is my second Firebass head. I bought the white-face model and a Peavey 412TXF cab when they came out and sold it for an Ampeg SVT-4PR0 amp, SVT-810EN cab, and SVT-215 cab. The 4-Pro blew up once and once the fan quit. I wish I had never "upgraded" to the Ampeg sh...tuff. I love this amp and will never stray again! :-)