Peavey Max 100 Floor Processor

If you have used a processor before this will be easy!

BAD!!! I hate it! I bought it because i like the transtube tone. I have 2 bandits and a supreme head all from the 90's. I know what the transtube tone is and this is not it. The clean is the worst, if you have mid to high humbuckers forget getting a good clean tone. The effects suck but i expected that before i bought it. I love peavey and i hate to say they bomb with this one.

The button would not work right and i had to re-solder the power jack.
It's plastic on metal, so everything plastic has broke at one point or another.

don't know

The only thing i have found bad that came out of peavey was this little piece of junk! They know it 2 becuase you haven't seen the new modle yet have you? It's not even worth trying it out, and if you do this review will be burning a hole in the back of your mind when you see it sucks. :-)

A little update from the last review I left....
I highly recommend getting a noise gate pedal (MXR Smart Gate, Boss NS-2, Rocktron HUSH, etc) and putting it BETWEEN THE PREAMP OUT AND EFX IN to get rid of the hiss the lead channel puts out, especially if you like to keep the gain button depressed, like me! In my opinion, the Transtube drive this unit has makes it makes it worth that purchase.

Mmm, one little qualm regarding this section. My C setting LED is acting up, sometimes coming on and sometimes not. Then the effects matrix switch problem is getting worse with the skipping or lack of reaction. The sounds are good enough to keep this unit, but it can be frustrating to work with.

I have a handy modification tip for users of this effects unit which I have done to my max 100. The mod is to make the switch for more gain footswitchable. (could be done for the thrash switch as well, but I have not performed this mod on mine). You should be competent with a soldering iron(ie, know which is the hot end) and understand what soldering is to do this. You will need: a soldering iron, solder, wire cutters, electric drill, wire, heavy duty DPDT footswitch, 9 volt battery connector, foam (or similar to secure 9volt battery within effects unit), 9 volt LED.
1) Remove every screw in the base. Remove base cover.
2) Remove all plastic jack nuts from rear panel, then lift aside circuit board.
3) Remove the leftmost six screws from the top panel which hold another circiut board in place. (This one has the switch which will be changed for a footswitch).
4) Desolder the existing gain button from the circuit board. Now solder lengths of wire (about 10 inches each should suffice) where the pins of the original switch where soldered.
5) Now orientate the original switch with your new footswitch, they will look the same. six contacts arranged into two rows of three. Draw a diagram and number if necessary, then solder wires from circuit board onto new switch in the same place where they would have been on the old one. At this point you can carefully plug it in and test (shorting out the bottom of the circuit board on the metal casing could cause damage, so take care)

6) now use the remaining pin of the new switch (and the middle contact on the same side as it) to connect up the battery and LED. Again test. If it works the wrong way round, (light comes on when gain switched off) then change the led circuit wires around on the switch terminals. Drill a hole for the switch and LED on the front panel (I put the switch in the middle, but lower than the others) and the LED wherever you want).
7) Then just house the battery in the foam, reassemble in the reverse order, tidy up the wires(cable tie if necessary), then put the bottom cover back on.

Battery lasts for ages. Footswitchable gain makes the unit a lot more usable. Be sure to use a 9 volt led.
While I was doing this mod, I also took everything out of the casing (advisable for the drilling, but with care, remaining circuit boards in unit can be shielded from metal filings from the drilling)), and stripped all the paint off and pulled off the red display screen cover! now looks awesome as well!

My main wish for this unit is for it to have programmable overall out put from left and right outputs (not just effect level). The unit could then have been used as a channel switch as well.

Easy to use. simple to understand and programme, BUT easy, in a way to get the levels wrong, with regard to the effects section. As effect mix is turned up, the dry mix is turned down and overall level drops. All sounds then need to be balanced. heavily effected sounds need the volume turned up considerably on the effects section, and so cause hiss. Just a bit more of a balancing act than other makes of effect unit, though does make the max 100 more flexible. Pre amp out is useful as an 'original sound comparison', to make sure you're not gradually dialing in increasingly sucky sounds as your trying to find that effected sound your after.

I use this unit with Les Paul, with Vox AC50. Unit is noisy, particularly with high gain settings. (Not so bad with mod though, as can be switched out when not needed).
This unit does emulate valves to a certain degree in the dynamics, but not so much in the colour of the distortion. Bit muddy. And sort od raspy sounding. clean pre amp a lot better, and good results can be had by using the clean channel turned up quite loud into gain channel of amp. (Though not with my AC50!) This gives better results than using just gain channel on max 100. The clean channel has a better quality of sound(for clean sound) than distortion channel.
Effects sound really great through headphones, though a bit processed for my liking, but full stereo. But through amps, just sound a bit thin, nothing special to my ears, and actually sound a bit cheap. And rob tone from sound. Used very sparingly gives the best results I have found (even if I wanted lots of a particular effect).

As mentioned numerous times - i have had the sticking buttons and display gone wrong. seems fine after re-powering up. (was doing this before I modified the unit!).

I'm sure this unit would be fine though. Would use it at a gig without backup.

Never dealt with company

I play rock/ indie music. The type and quality(I don't mean cost wise) of distortion sounds are very important to my playing. I used to use Boss pedals, and none of the effects on the max 100 are as good as the equivalent boss pedal. I also use effects, typically delay, phaser, and need a stage tuner.(Bit heavy on the old string hitting). Glitches aside, I think this unit is quite reliable really. I much prefer to use individual effects units, both for sound quality and ease of use. I originally went down the multi effects road due to all pedals being stolen and needing replacements quickly, but unable to afford to replace all pedals in one go. This replacement was a zoom, which produced some better distortions (for me) than the max 100, but due to it being not gig worthy (started to fall apart and fail) was forced to replace the temporary solution.(Though overall tone of guitar through any zoom not as good as max 100) Thats all the max100 was (and is). Not something to base your sound around. Just a unit that will get you through in a pinch. Has all the sounds, plus options to get you through gigs, etc. Sort of unit to keep in the boot of your car, just in case you ever need an effects unit and you havent got your gear with you, or in case your handbrake cable snaps and you need to park on a hill, it can be used as a wheel chock.

really easy to use. If you have a problem call your Dr.

Sound quality good. The distoriton can get really heavy but getting a mild distoriton is harder to do. The effects are standard and its not really noisy unless you have cheap pickups and the gain at full.

Ive had mine for years and havent had a problem.

I have a lot of peavey equipment and never had to deal with them.

great for metal or rock, can get other sounds but doesnt nail them to well. Worth checking out if you see one on ebay or your pawn shop.

Reasonably straightforward to try out, adjust and save effects parameters, with or without manual. However, live switching between (say)OD with phase to straight clean involves some nifty heel and toeing - stickshift sports-car drivers only! Also, changing from mild distortion to increased gain or thrash means bending down and pressing a little, grey button. Not clever.

OK, here's a weird one. I use the unit with bass guitar, into a Marshall 100W valve head. The -6db input pad is handy for switching between active and passive bass guitars. I mainly want a crunchy OD and/or a phased or flange sound. HST, there are some extras here (esp Leslie speaker) that can dial you up a reasonable synth bass. Reverb is also great for funky lines - why do so few bass FX feature it?

I have no problem with the DSP side. All effects are useable and can be easily adjusted to suit. The preamp side was useful in taming a cheap plywood bass but, now I've got the Jim Reed going into a Marshall, it's not such a big feature. The 'dirty' channel really is as noisy as other reviews suggest. It's horrendous - particularly when the gain or thrash button is pressed. Gain HAS to be used to get the bass OD I need, so this is a distinct and heavy bummer.
Finally, there is a pre-out (bypassing the DSP) but I would much rather have a straight bypass allowing a clean out to blend with the processed signal. OD loses the bottom end, so a clean bass signal would be nice as well. Surely this feature would be useful for a one-guitar band too?

It looks solid enough. That strange, 16V PSU bothers me though. No way I can plug in some variable Radio-shack job if it blows out at a gig. I gave away an old Boss multiFX when I got this, and wish I hadn't.

Peavey really score here. I bought it new without PSU or manual. Peavey sent the PSU to the store pretty rapidly. I 'phoned them for the manual, waited a few weeks and 'phoned again. The manual arrived with my uncashed cheque for #5, and an apology for the delay. Result!

My playing is mostly indie, sometimes heading into Fun Lovin' Criminals territory. The preset EQ functions on the DSP could be useful in covering different genres, but I tend to just alter my picking and damping instead. The transtube is not that remarkable - only useful if your bass and/or amp tone bites. The DSP is fine, and a noodler with time on his hands would probably go through all the arsing about of programming them in sequence for a gig.

In my case, I'm happy with my stock tone and only really want one synthbass sound and a decent OD. Most of all, I want to send a simultaneous, clean signal. I would swap this unit for a SansAmp (and buy a separate phase/flange box) at the drop of a hat.

This unit is very easy for me to use. I admit I got the manual for it well before I got the actual product, so I had the chance to cheat and get to know all the facts beforehand...but hey, you study before you take a test, right? (I didn't need the manual's Quick Start section, but it's a good idea for the newcomer.) Editing effects is easy, but sometimes the parameter switch causes a double-jump with a single touch and makes me miss the intended effect. All you guys who said the gain reduction, gain, and thrash buttons stick inconveniently often were right. After owning the BOSS GT-6, I think it would be a better product if it had a power switch (not just unplugging and plugging in), a footswitch jack and footswitch to enable easier toggling of bypassing (tuner) and channel-switching (for those who would use the lead), and none of that split-second silence when jumping between A and B (unless that was intended for some extreme tremolo while bouncing between two different sounds). Considering they took this processor off the market, Peavey should just make a foot controller for their Delta rackmount--if they can beat Rocktron's!

At this point, I'm running a Schecter C-1 Elite through it to a Peavey Bandit 65 combo. I first ran it into the Power Amp In in back so the combo preamp wouldn't interfere. I like the clean channel better than the distortion, and the distortion is fine without depressing the gain switch. That adds a significant amount of hiss, though the addition of the gain and thrash with the pre-gain up to five o' clock make a descent metal crunch. I prefer running my BOSS DS-2 into the EFX IN for my distortion, until I get a tube head with real rock sound. The effects otherwise sound great! I will add that I wish they didn't make the headphones setting so quiet; now I have to get a headphone amp to give my Sony MDR-V900s justice.

It hasn't died on me yet, and I treat my gear like a baby. I'm no stomper, I don't kick stuff around wildly; Joe Satriani and Neal Schon don't need to, and nor do I. But I feel I can depend on it as well as go without a backup.

In the times I have contacted Peavey, I got good treatment. The first time, when I needed the manual for my Bandit 65 amp (I just like having manuals to refer to whenever necessary), I got a personalized response from Human Resources from someone who didn't play professional, but gave her name and treated me very kindly. When the business was done, she told me to contact her again if I ever needed anything else. Good first impression. I guess she's not there anymore, because since writing back for more, I've been helped by others--successfully, though not as personally or as friendly. If you want good customer support, don't go to Fender. They give absolutely no option of contacting them!

I've played guitar for almost ten years, but grew up with a dad in a touring and recording band, so I've learned a lot from him and being surrounded with gear. I would gladly lay this box in front of him and ask him to try it and evaluate it. An idea of my taste: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Guardian, Bride, Tourniquet, U2, Phil Keaggy, Petra, White Heart, Journey, Audio Adrenaline. I remember back when I was looking at this along with the GT-6 and the Digitech GNX3, and though I bought the GT-6 first I still wanted to try this one out OVER the GNX3. I like the fact that it's not a modeler, though I'm not against them since the BOSS GT-6 has great emulators and sweet sounds. I said what I wish it added, and what I wish it would subtract. I also wish it would add more preset banks, and a way to do that would be to subtract what all these things have: noneditable factory presets. Then get rid of the gain noise or add a noise gate to it. As long as I'm at liberty to say so, I'd trade the EQ presets for an (RM) Octavia or (Fulltone) Ultimate Octave effect. But this is not a criticism, because there are people who want the EQ more than Jimi Hendrix' spacy fuzz. I LOVE HOW SMALL AND LIGHT IT IS! If it were lost or stolen, I think I'd try getting it again, but the fact that it's not made or manufactured anymore makes it easier to choose the GT-6 again, unless that stops too.

This unit is easy to use in that you can pre program any combination of effect and store into a pre-set bank, then switch easily from one to another with the foot switches. I found a couple settings i liked in the reverb and delay settings which produce a very clean sound for me.
The manual was easy to use also but would have been MUCH better if they spelled out tips on what combinations produced what sounds, such as "slap back echo", "stereo chorus" or sounds that certain music styles require, "country", "rockabilly" etc.

I use it as a pre-amp going into a fender princton stereo chorus amp. It allows me to use the Peavey exclusively as my amp controls and effects. Made this amp sound way better as a practice amp. Now has much better sound at lower volumes and in every way except the fender stereo chourus has a beautiful sound that i haven't been able to duplicate and I miss using it. But overall the Peavey preamp is much nicer than the one in the fender.

Don't Play professionally but the Max 100 seems very reliable and I haven't had a glitch yet.

Peavey's 1-800 number provides good responce, i called on parts for an old guitar i had and was impressed, haven't called on the Max 100.

I tried a couple danelecto effects boxes and a boss delay box and the Peavey is much better than those were. More versital and better sound gained by the pre-amp.

The analog preamp section is very easy to use, like on a stomp box. The effect section is easy too, but you need the manual, to set it properly.

I'm using a Yamaha RGX 621s with DiMarzio PafPro at the bridge, and a LAney HC MAx amp. This unit rocks! I love the distortion! I hate muddy sound with weak palm muting, this has the opposite! Although, this has an analog preamp with one dirty channel, you can make different distorted sounds using the thrash(mid boost) and the gain boost buttons. The effects are quite good, I dont have problems with it. My only complaint is: when I switch between clean and dirty channels, sometimes I can hear an annoying "click" noise caused by the switches. Because of this I wont give a 10.

This unit is well-built, has a metal chassis, and heavy duty switches "trampling-proof".

N/A

I've been playing a couple of years and I play progressive rock, and it suits my needs, great transtube distortion! I have a Boss OS-2, and I had a Zoom 606. This pedal is definetly better than the Zoom, and has a better sound than the Boss OS-2. I have tried out some other gear (Digitech Rp-200, Behringer V-amp etc) and I have chosen this!

I think the factory sounds are so-so. When I first got it, I had to play with if for about an hour to find the sounds I liked. The manual is accurate, but for some reason, it wasn't a smooth read for me. I had to re-read the "Quick Start" section before it clicked in my mind... It's not difficult to use, but it's easier to change the pre-amp settings because they are on potentiometers, while the DSP (digital signal processing) section is on touch pads and thus are a bit more cryptic. Once you've stored your DSP settings, you can change between patches using the stomp-box style buttons on the front. Can't get much simpler than that.

I got this to use as a pre-amp into my PC and to let me practice with headphones. I suits that purpose perfectly. I have another processor by ART that I was planning on doing that with, but the headphone out and direct out on the ART sound really weak. The Peavey sounds much better thru headphones than the ART. The effects are 24 bit, but the ADACs are 16 bit, so even though the internal processing is 24 bits, the sound quality is 16 bit. For my purposes, not a problem. The only gripe I have is there is a momentary signal drop when you go from a clean to a dirty sound, or vis-versa. If you like the Transtube sound, you will like it. If you don't, you won't.

I got mine used for $25 bucks, without the AC adaptor. Even though I couldn't plug it in and test it at the shop, I took a chance because I've always had good luck with Peavey stuff, and I figured I could get the adaptor from Peavey. I wasn't dissappointed. When my adaptor arrived, I plugged it in, and I noticed the "Thrash" and "Gain" buttons wouldn't stay in the "Down" postion. I was bummed. I played with the buttons a lil' bit, and one popped off. When I put it back on, it worked the way it was supposed to. Even though the top of the knobs look uniform, on the inside, there are grooves to indicate left-right. I guess the person who had it before me put the knobs on wrong, because now that they are in the left-right position, I've had no further problems.

Peavey are AWESOME! When I called them for the AC adaptor, the person I spoke with was friendly, informative, responsive, and FRIENDLY AGAIN! lol I like Peavey, every time I've had to deal with them, their people make all the difference. This time was no exception. I wish this category went to 11! :)

As I said previously, I'm using my Max 100 as a headphone amp and to go direct into my PC. For that, it's flawless. The built-in chromatic tuner was a pleasant surprise, it works well.

Wish List for the "MAX 101"

1) Eliminate the drop-out when changing between clean and dirty sounds.
2) Programmable pre-amp settings. As it is, The pre-amp is essentially manual, i.e., not programmable. The patches only save the settings of the DSP. The memory saves "clean" or "dirty" selection with the patch number, but it defaults to whatever sound is dialed in on the pre-amps when you change patches.
3) 24 bit ADACs to take advantage of the 24-bit processor.
4) Onboard power switch (I use it on a switched power strip instead of having to unplug the wall-wart everytime)
5) More programmable EQ options.

I looked at other multi-effectors from Digitech, Zoom, Line 6, Boss, Korg, and Roland, but I already own about 10 amps, so I didn't want to spend more than a $100. In that price range, nothing else even comes close.

Very easy to use. You don't even need a manual. The patches are not always the same if you change the levels on the different channels. Can't really go from a moderately dirty sound to a very dirty sound, but it is easy to set up.

Sounds good. I used it with a Nashville 400 (very clean solid state amp), and the transtube makes it sound a lot warmer. The clean sounds are very nice, the dirty sounds are okay. Good reverb, good delay.

Only problem is the push buttons stick a bit. It gets warm, but that doesn't effect the sound.

The music store is always helpful.

Played a lot a jazz, light rock. Sold the pedal to get the Boss VF-1 so I could use midi to change the channels. Wouldn't mind getting another Max 100 for certain types of performances.