Peavey Mark IV Bass Head

I bought this amp used from a piano player that didn't get much use out of it-he got it from a school auction many years ago. This amp appears to have been manufactured around 1982 which is stamped on the front of the unit. It appears to be a two channel amp that you can run with both channels on as well. I don't have the footswitch to turn off the second channel so it appears both are running and needed to be EQ'd. It has an incredible amount of EQ'ing possibilites with 2 channels and a graphic EQ. Including the jacks, this is one of the most flexible bass amps i've come across.

I'm running a Fender American P Bass straight into the head, and running the head into a (gulp) Crate BE410 that i had laying around. I actually took off the nameplate so no one could hold this against me of course. It's an 8 ohm, 200 watt cabinet. The instructions with the Mark IV state you can run this head at 2, 4, 8, or higher ohms. The higher the ohms the greater the resistence and less power ouptut. I believe it's ideal to run at either 2 or 4 to get max volume. This amp is still very loud running with an 8 ohm load. I can only imagine how loud this thing would be at 4 or 2 ohms. The sound is very good-especially for solid state. I've checked out many brands including SWR, Ampeg SVT, Eden, GK, etc and this amp stands with the best of them. I doubt you'll find a better rock bass amp at this price. I can dial in a tubey tone that really reminds me of an SVT with equal end and just as much growl. The more you dig into this amp the more it pushes back. I was looking for the growl of an SVT with substantial volume, low end, and TONE. The amp delivers. You will NOT be disappointed if you're looking for a great solid-state rock head. Oh yah, plenty of headroom as well. Even through a ****** Crate cabinet this thing sounds great.

Can't say as i've only owned this a few weeks and never gigged with it; i've owed Peavey amps in the past and they are rock solid.

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I've been playing guitar for 22 years and bass for 1 month. So, i'm a beginner but know a good bass tone and piece of equipment when i run across it. If you're lucky enough to run across one of these, pick it up. Best money i've ever spent.

I got my mark four used in 1990 from a friend. I alway enjoyed the way it sounded. I added two Peavey Black Widow 2x15 and found my first band. We played bars,theaters and outdoor festivals. There was always plenty of power and never sounded farty or strained. After 18 years I still have that same amp (almost,I killed one of the 2x15 cabinets and replaced with a crate JBL 2x15). My amp alway got molested on stage. Drunk guys would lay up against the cabinets and drunk girls would sit on the cabinets(creepy). I never have used the channel petal. I could go on for hours. Summary- I love the solid midrange punch. God, this is so hard to explain. My friends always have to borrow it because they blow up tubes. God bless solid state.

I alway liked a clean, non-distorted, punchy tone. Like early Faith No More and Guns N Roses. I have kept the same settings all these years. The equalizer looks more like u than a v. Its almost even across the knobs thats where the midrange going to the cabinets gives the punch. For the distortion I use a Washburn bass with two humbuckers. It dirtys up the sound. I don't try to create the distortion through the head because its hard on 15 speakers and Black Widows are hard to come across.

My friend sold me my amp to buy a full stack Trace Elliot. His band played more shows than my band and his Trace was always in the shop to get something fixed. He sold the Trace for a Ampeg SVT Classic (I think). Its a great sounding head, but not road worthy. It always had tubes go out. That Mark 4 we both used for a couple of years until he bought an Ampeg rack system. I have been rough with the Mark 4. I can't tell you how many times it fell out of the truck but it's still working. It has never broke on me.

I have bragged on my Mark 4 for years. People that have had experience with Mark 4s say you either get a good one or a lemon. The good ones are perfect and the bad ones are hell. If mine died I would look for a replacement mark 4. I figure the crap ones are all gone by now. I don't think they have made the Mark 4 since the early 90s. The good ones like mine are all thats left.

I believe this is a 1982 model. I had one back in 97 and left it by mistake a gig, and well anyway no one saw it but I did miss this thing. I ended up buying a smaller tube amp and depending on a good mic set up through a good PA system. I could live with it because I had a pair of Peavey SP 1's. I love the footswitch option to play both channels.

This is the cleanest, most powerful amp I have owned.

Besides coming up missing...for me anyway I bought another one, shows how much I thought of it at the time...and maybe that's why it went missing

Owners manual at www.peavey.com , search on Mark IV and it will find a pdf you can download.

I have 2 Peavey guitar amps, a 30w and 60w. Best Solid State amps for the price.

The features have been covered. It's versatile but doesn't have one or two modern nice-to-haves like a tuner out with mute or Neutrik Speakon jacks. Then again it's 25 years old so no surprise there.

I bought this as my first bass amp then got some urge to try others for some reason. I guess I figured this just didn't have the cool factor I thought I needed. Well, after trying a couple others (namely a GK 700RB and a Peavey Pro Bass 500) I'm right back where I started. Screw the cool factor.

I play in a heavy alternative band (I think... I don't know what all these labels mean anymore) with a pick using a stock 1997 American Fender Precision through this into an Ampeg SVT-410HE and SVT-15E. I also front-end it with a Tube Works Real Tube pedal when I need some distortion or even just a little extra bite. It can get nice and clean but I play it with some growl and lots of punch. The options on this are truly impressive, especially for its age. I think you could probably get just about anything out of this you wanted.

I know a guy that owns an Ampeg SVT-II from the eighties which is a fantastic sounding amp and he commented on how great he thought this sounds. I was stunned.

It's a little noisier than other amps I've tried but nothing worth worrying about. I did have have a sound guy comment on how quiet it was into the board.

It's a Peavey so I don't worry. I don't know about their new stuff but much of what they made during this era is just about indestructible.

I've had pretty good luck with Peavey. I've had some trouble getting responses recently but it seems like everyone everywhere has more things to do than they can handle and customer service is just crap across the board. But I own a couple old Peavey tube guitar amps and they happily emailed me the schematics when I asked so I have to score them high because some places would have told me to pound sand.

I've been playing for about 20 years but have only been playing bass about 2 years.

As I mentioned earlier I have a GK 700RB and a Peavey Pro Bass 500, my Ampeg SVT-410HE and SVT-15E cabs (plus one extra SVT-15E and a no-name 1x15 cab with a Gauss speaker actually), and my Fender Precision.

I love this thing's versatility and simplicity, the fact that I can rely on it and it's portable (tubes are great but there's a price to pay), and I simply get the sound I want out of it.

I wish it had a bit more headroom but it's no slouch. Some modern features would be nice like the tuner out and mute I mentioned. If Peavey was smart they would start making these again in an updated rack mounted form or something.

If it were stolen I'd just get another one. They're pretty easy to come by and are surprisingly affordable. There are plenty of suckers willing to pay ten times as much for a name.

This is a 1982 Amp.
I can play slap, blues, metal, reggae, jazz whatever.
2 channels, a whole bunch of knobs so you can tweak your tone just right.

it says 210 watts at 4 ohms and 300 at two.

thats alot louder than what 300 is worth today.

I play a homemade bass. seymour duncan p+J setup.
it puts out the notes i put in,
quiet as anything
big beefy fat tone.
it can be nice clean tone or balls. and i mean that in a good way.

I got it recently, so i dont know of reliability, but this i my third used peavey amp, and theyve never broken on me.

all tanks. ive read stories of these being dropped downs stairs, beer spilled in em.
tanks.

never had to deal with em

been playing for about 7 years

i own a peavey TNT 115 combo
a peavey T max 500 head
peavey 410tx cab
peavey 210tx cab

1978 bassman 135 head.

i like peavey equipment.

My Mark IV was made in 1981. I play a very wide range of music from 10-piece mini-orchestra to two-piece electronic outfit and this amp has served me very well for the past 15 years i've been using it. The Mark IV has two switchable channels of super-clean sound. I use it in a very basic way and don't even use some of the features it has to offer. I run a rather large pedal board through it and I really appreciate the clean, even sound I get using the Mark IV... you don't get that evenness using pedals with tube amps!

I use the Mark IV with a 1975 Fender Jazz bass. I've never found the Mark IV to be noisy in any way... even after some jerk spilled a vodka screwdriver in it at a show once, it kept going noise-free! In my opinion, this amp has the most growl I've ever encountered from a solid state head. My last amp was an old Ampeg SVT and I hated to get rid of it... but with all of my analog pedals running at different levels I found it near impossible to match levels on the tube amps. The Mark IV solved my problem. You get balls and evenness.

As I mentioned before, I've had a drink spilled in this head, dropped it down two flights of stairs and it still hasn't had to be repaired even ONCE in 15 years. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore.

I've never had to repair this amp, so I couldn't tell ya how good their customer service is. I can say one thing: they certainly made a quality product in this amp.

I've been playing bass for about 15 years now. I've owned just about every bass amp on the market at one time or another. I always come back to the Mark IV. I had one stolen my first year of gigging and luckily i quickly replaced it wth the current one I own. So I think it's safe to say I would definitely hunt around for another if I found myself in that situation again.

I believe the amp is a 1982 model. I bought it from our sound guy who had teched it out and it was just sitting around collecting dust. It has two channels with what appears to be a hi-low input on each side. The power is plenty for my needs, as the 210 watts @ 4 Ohms works perfectly for the Peavey 210 cabinet I bought for it. I intend on getting an 15" sub cabinet to try the 300w/2Ohm setting. Since I play Christian music with a Southern Rock/Blues flare the simple tones work well. The only drawback it has is the lack of an XLR output for PA setup. My Ultra 110 DI works well here, although it relegates the amp to a reference amp for stage setups. It's all solid state power is quiet although I tend to get the Peavey hum from time to time in the PA system.

My current guitar is an Ibanez GSR205, their starter line of bass guitars. It is a jazz bass configuration with two single coil pickups and allows me to get near Fender Jazz Bass tones with the benefit of the low B. The guitar works well with the amp/cabinet combo I use. As my tastes run more old school rock/blues and worship - signal processing is limited to the cable from the amp to the guitar! This is where I live and hence the rig lives here too. Both channels on the amp are clean - with channel B offering more tonal dialing. The eq system allows good tailoring of the sound frequencies. I can dial sweet highs, smooth lows and just enough mids to be full and not muddy.

Dead rock solid. It is the only amp I gig with. It has never failed me in the years of service I have had it. It has been tossed in the back of trucks, crammed in trailers and still gets on stage to do its job without complaining. If it breaks down, my sound guy will tech it for me. It if died today - I would look for another Mark IV in a heart beat.

Never had to deal with Peavey and since this has been out of production for a while I am not sure how much help Peavey would offer. The best part - I can still go to their website and download the manual (which I did and recommend to anyone who has a vintage amp of any sort).

I have been playing music in bands (Christian, country, rock) for over thirty years. I have been blessed to be the drummer, the bassist and rhythm guitar player for many different bands. My current array of stuff - early 70's Slingerland 4 piece drum kit w/Zildjian cymbals, '96 Fender Standard Strat, '64 Fender Princeton Reverb, Marshall Shredmaster pedal, '00 Ibanez GSR205, '05 Seagull Artist AE guitar - in all, a mixed bag of tools for what my friends call the universal soldier.

This amp sits in the middle of this array as the "core" piece, just as a bass amp should be.

My amp was made in 1980, so it's 25 years old! This is a 2 channel amp and the channels can be used seperately or can be combined and used together. Channel one has regular 3 band E.Q.(Low, Mid, High), pre and post gain and crossover control. Channel two has 3 band ACTIVE E.Q.(Low, paramid w/shift control, high), pre and post gain.
Both channels have their own effects send and return jacks. There is also a 6 band graphic E.Q. that can be used with either or both channels. Each channel also has a bright switch. Two 1/4" inputs(High and Low gain). Preamp in/out, line out, crossover outputs(low & high) and power amp input jacks. Remote Footswitch jack(DIN Plug).
KEEP IN MIND-THIS AMP WAS MADE IN 1980 AND IS NOW 25 YEARS OLD!!
Amp puts out 210 watts @ 4 ohms and 300 watts @ 2 ohms. Two 1/4" speaker outputs. I am using this amp with a SteelSound 4x10 cab and a SteelSound 1x18 Sub (4 ohm load).
I have been using Peavey gear since 1974, my first new guitar amp was the Peavey Musician w/large 4x12 cab. I probably have my own file drawer at Peavey, I've bought so much of their gear!
Since I just recently bought this amp, I'm still tweaking and finding out what this amp is capable of. There is more than enough power, even at a 4 ohm load. I can't imagine what the 300 watt load would sound like! With the ability to combine both channels at once, and having seperate effects loops, this is one AMAZING amp to be 25 years old!

As I said above, I use this amp with a SteelSound 1x18 Sub and 4x10 cab. I play an Ibanez SR-405 5 String bass w/45-130 Ga. strings. I use no effects, just straight into the amp via a Samson VLX-TD Wireless System. I play Country, Classic Rock and Southern Rock in a 4 pc. band on weekend gigs. We mic everything thru the P.A. for balance, not power.
I cannot imagine any type of music this amp could not handle, providing that you were using the proper cabs and bass. This is pure Peavey muscle power from the 80's.

I am not leaving a rating in this catagory, but over the years I've only had to have 2 Peavey products serviced-My original 1974 Musician amp, and a defective footswitch to a Stereo Chorus 212 amp that I used for 2 years.
I don't know about anyone else, but Peavey has a proven track record with me! What the hell, I'm going to go out on a limb and give this baby a "10". If it breaks down, I'll have it fixed anyway!

I have talked with several people at Peavey, that's right, on the phone with a REAL person, over the past several years. If you go online and e-mail them, they will usually get back with you in about 24 hours. I downloaded the manual for this amp from the website for FREE! The footswitch is still available for this amp from Peavey, but I was able to save about $30.00 by finding one on E-Bay.
Even when I have "strayed", I always seem to come back to Peavey gear.
Hartley knows how to do it right and his gear has stood the test of time.

I have been playing in gigging bands for the past 35 years. I play Lead/rythm guitar, bass guitar, drums and a little keyboard. I have been a band member, and a band leader. I have owned just about every kind of gear you can imagine, from really cheap, to really expensive.
For the working musician, it's hard to beat Peavey gear. Check out some of the other reviews on this amp. If you can get one for under $200.00, get one! I got VERY LUCKY to get mine for $76.00. After a little cleaning up, it looked almost new! I also own a G-K BackLine 210 combo and have used Hartke gear. For a 25 year old amp, it sure has a lot of features and the power to put your bass right out in front!

....my amp was built in the early 80's and i bought for 450 euros including the cabinet, which is about 540 bucks in american currency.
...i think it's totally worth the price!
the amp is very versatile, has two separate channels and lots of possibilities to do some eq'ing.
i use this amp for rock music, and it fits perfect in my actual "desert-rock" style.
normally i detune my bass 2 steps lower (d g c f) and even do sometimes a "dropped c" thing with my lowest string.
the peavy is able to deliver a reasonable sound even with this extreme tuning, so it should also be ok for all kins of "nu-metal" styles.

i play the peavy with a rickenbacker played with a pick.
i like the combination of brutal low end together with well defined highs.
it is possible to do some distortion,it's quite ok for a solid-state amp.
overall i would say this amp is perfect for all kind of rock-music, punkrock, metal where you need a loud and honest tone.

...never had ANY problems with this amp...

...no experiences...

one of the absolutely best options if you are looking for brutal ramble in your cabinet for a very reasonable price...
a perfect amp for all kinds of rock music, where lot of low end and an agressive sound is needed...
...very versatile...
...not so hard to get one (ebay!!)...
...very good price!!...

conclusion: if i hadn't one, i would need to invent it!

Mine is a 1982, that I purchased in '97 or '98. It's a two channel bass amp,solid state, 200 Watts at 4 ohms, or 300 at 2 ohms, so it's got some power for the big rooms and loud bands. It's got a great EQ and compressor. I've played many styles through this amp, power pop, roots rock, country,heavy metal, prog, funk, jam band and it still hangs in there. I've run either one or two 1 X 15 cabs with it, depending on the room.

I currently have seven basses, but have owned as many as ten(3 Gibsons [EB-O,Grabber,Ripper], two Ricks [2030,4001], Fender Jazz, Danelectro Longhorn, Yamaha Fretless, Epiphone T-185, Univox violin style) at one time or another and all sound great with this amp. It's quieter than my Galien Krueger 400RB which I actually gig with a little more often. It has a clean, solid state sound , even at loud volumes.

As I mentioned before, it's not taken out as often as my Galien Krueger or my Bassman 60 combo, but it hasn't never let me down when I've used it. The power chord is fraying a little and should be replaced, but hey this thing is 25 years old. One of the reasons I don't take it to many gigs, and generally never take it out if it's a multiple band show where someone else may be using my amp, is that there is a vent on the top of the amp where someone could easily spill a drink and fry the thing.

Warranty with a 25 year old amp, no way. I've never had to get it repaired, never daelt with Peavey.

I've been playing guitar since 1969(Stella Harmony acoustic at 6 years old). I play guitar, bass, drums, a little keys, mandolin. I gig live with multiple acts and do home and commercial studio recording. This amp is still a great value, if you see one pick it up, they are rarely over $250, and that's probably top dollar,if it's more, talk them down, you are paying too much. They have a great sound, are durable, versatile, and more than enough power for any application. You can't go wrong with this one, especially if you are a musician on a budget.