Peavey Trans-Tube Fex

It's not that this product is hard to understand. It's really unflexiable in live situations. I've played music for a living week in and week out for 20 years and you can't have anything on stage that can't be tweeked in a hury.We play everthing from Garth Brooks to Hendrix. So I have a wide variety of sounds to program. Every time I buy a new axe or change pickups or anything really, it takes two months to get it back in line. This is not a harsh judgement I've owned a trans tube for 7 years. Mine is the rackmount version because we are in-ear monitor wise. I just perchased a new Tele and spent 3 days and every break inbetween sets this week programing it. Gonna sell it and get back to basics.

I've used strats, paul reed smith, and teles through this unit.The clean is nice.The reverb and delays are clean. Don't like the distortion at all. It goes from a mild crunch that works good on some rhythms to extremly distorted tones that are non musical and sounds like anything but a guitar. If your looking for early ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughn type dist, This Is NOT your amp. I use a board full of pedals and it trows the digital EQ in shock. I have 24 tracks of DAT in my studio so I'm not running down digital. But digital EQ sucks in my book.There is no warmth to it. It's also noisy when your around large light shows with lots of dimmer packs. Thats the case with all digital gear though.

Ive have to do some tech work 3 times in 7 years. My dad is a tech so it wasn't a big thing for me. But for somone who has to send it off it would be. Had a couple of power surges that erased all of my programs and the factory presets are bad so I was pretty much screwed on those nights as well. But on it's behalf Ive played alot of gigs with it just fine.

If you want something for the studio yea maybe? It's fine if you want to spend a few hours searching for a certain sound. But live on the road different venues every night. It will deal you head aches.

Ease of Use: "4." If 10 was "very easy," and 1 was "very difficult," then that makes 5 "neutral." So a "4" for being just south of neutral. In other words, it's not that easy to use. You'll need some time, maybe a few weeks, to really get the hang of operating it. You can get lost making your own patches, especially since some effects have overlapping functions--like you can control the EQ with an EQ patch, or with the "Transtsube" patch. That's two effects doing the same thing, which could spell trouble sometimes.

The manual could've been made more user-friendly I think. Too much technical jargon in my opinion. Not everyone knows what MIDI stands for, you know? Could've dumbed it down a bit more.

My Transtube Fex controls a mid 90's Peavey Transtube Bandit and a 112 extension speaker. It's plugged into the "return" jack of the effects loop, therefore bypassing the combo's preamp. My guitars are all equipped with Seymour Duncans, and they are a Cort Les Paul Custom copy (get one if you find one on ebay or anywhere else!), a Japanese Fender Tele, and a Samick Torino (SG copy, though more beautiful looking in my opinion).

When you turn it on the first time, the first sound you'll hear is from the "Browncake" patch. It's Van Halen's sound--and it pretty much nailed it I think. This gives you an idea of the capabilities of this little monster.

I call it a monster because sometimes programming your own patches will make you tear your own hair out. An example would be how easy it is to program too much low end into your patch that the sound is just too muddy. That could be attributed to the programmer of the patch, of course, and not the unit itself.

After a few weeks I began to learn how to program my own patches, and I have 3 favorites: a Led Zep patch that captures the early Zep tone (not just one tone since he had so many, but the basic Jimmy Page sound), a John Squire of the Stone Roses tone (I guess like a hot-rodded Fender combo), and a HiWatt sound a la Pete Townshend (that open-sounding overdrive). I would say I would give myself a B+ or A- for capturing those sounds, and most likely I will continue to tweak those patches in an effort to get ever so close to those tones.

Most of the effects sound good WHEN USED PROPERLY. The distortion sounds are very flexible that they can copy many famous distortion sounds pretty well. The chorus, flanger, phaser, and all the other commonly used effects are produced really well by the Transtube Fex. The other effects, well, I don't even know what "coil tap" does, but it's there and I have used it for some reason.

So, an "8" for great sound quality, but one that can easily get you sour tones if you don't know or overdo what you're doing.

I've had it probably three years now, and I've never had a problem with it. Never had problems with patches all of a sudden disappearing or getting messed-up sounds like what I get from my Peavey Max 100 (foot-operated effects processor).

I would say it's pretty reliable that the only "backup" you need is a ram card to store your patches in case they do disappear or get messed-up.

A "9" because 10's are only for those that were dropped, kicked, whacked, etc. and still works, and I am very careful with my gear.

I think I've contacted Peavey for something regarding the TTube Fex, and I did get a response right away via email or their message board. I do remember calling them on the phone once, and the person was very helpful and even gave me a direct number to him.

Let's give them a "10" here cos I think they deserve it.

I play guitar in a four piece rock band. Our sound is a cross between 70's rock (Led Zeppelin) and 90's britpop (Stone Roses). The Peavey Transtube Fex is an indispensable tool in achieving the guitar tones I want, which is heavier than pop/rock, but lighter than metal (though some patches are getting there). In short, a rock tone.

I've been playing for 8 years now, and I've tried/owned various effects processors and pedals. The TTube Fex gives me the sounds I'm looking for in one convenient package.

If it were lost of stolen, I would definitely try to find one (it's discontinued by Peavey). I might get the tube version if that's the only thing available or if it's affordable enough, but that's also discontinued. I think Peavey decided to follow the "amp modeling" trend and abandoned this model.

I love that this one unit can give you a lot of different sounds and tones. I hate it that sometimes you just don't know how to do it even though you know it can be done. Too many effects to choose from. I also hate that when you switch patches (via the Peavey foot controller), you get a drop-out before engaging the patch you switched to. A seamless transition like those you get from pedals would've been great.

My favorite feature would be the different channel modes--clean, crunch, lead, and ultra (like lead, only with active EQ).

I can only compare this to other Peavey processors like the Max 100 and the DeltaFex. I guess it would be comparable to Boss' high-end guitar processors. I would say it's better than the $200 Zooms and Digitechs.

This unit is amazing in digital recording, by the way. If anything, this excels at that.

A "9" because, while it's great, it ain't perfect. But I do love it.

my first attempt to get a ''good'' sound out of this unit was instantaneous. when I actually took the unit home I dialed in some pretty cool sounds quick. Finding a manual for this unit is difficult I must say. but if you have experience with other multi-effects units it shouldnt be a problem. honestly I never even bothered checking if this unit has an upgrade chip. I dont care for one anyhow, it does the job

I am using several ibanez guitars with this awesome preamp. I am a Peavey freak so I am using the preamp with other Peavey gear. I am using the preamp with a Peavey classic50/50 power amp. In the effects loop I have a TC Electronics G-Major multi-effects along with a Rocktron Intellifex. The G-Major is patched in mono but the Intelllfex is ran stereo between the preamp and a Peavet XXL head that I A,BandY between. Both the head and preamp have the BBE sonic maxizer in the effects loop as well. The G-Major channels switches my XXL so I have total control using the Peavey PFC 10 midi foot controller. Last they are bothed pumped stereo into a Peavey 5150 straight 4x12 cabinet. Seeing how I use otther effects units I never had any use for the effects with in the unit. I do have user presets stored that use some of the units effects but for the most part I have no love for them.I use this preamp strictly for its monsterous tone. I demand the heaviest and most realistic sound from a piece of gear.This unit never ceased to fail. The distortions are great. I havent found any preamp that can come close to this one. I am evry pleased with this unit. IF ANY OF YOU OUT THERE WANT TO SELL ME YOURS E-MAIL ME BLESSEDRTHESIK@AOL.COM

I can depend on this unit all the time. allthough I am serching for a back up so if any one out there wants to sell me theres e-mail me blessedrthesik@aol.com

I have never needed to ask for assitance on this unit

I play really agressive metal.check out STILLBORN1.COM I have been playing for about six years now. I own several other preamps and heads but the rig I desribed is the one! IF SOME ONE EVER STOLE THIS THEY MUST NOT VALUE THEIR LIVES VERY MUCH! but yes I would replace it immediately.I love the fact that I can acheive any sound imanginable and there is not stupid tube hasle. I dont have a favorite feature.I have compared it with a Digitech 2112 that I own. Also with a Marshall JMP1 that I could have purchased instead of this unit. I chose this unit because for one it gets the sickest tone and second there are no tubes! This unit has done more than help me make music. It has made the music I have wrote sound furocious. If you are looking for the sickest genuine tube like tone this is the unit

This response is to Mike DiBernardo's review below. Had he spent more than a few minutes with the unit or maybe read the owners manual he wouldn't have included two very misleading comments. The TransTubeFex has 128 factory presets AND 128 user slots. It just so happens the 'user' patches that are programed from the factory are the same as the 'presets'. You DON'T need the ram card to store your own patches. You also don't need the factory foot controller. The TransTubeFex will work with any 'MIDI' foot controller. Lastly, the 'NO TUBE' error comes up when he attempted to use the front panel preamp controls when there was no 'tube' used in the patch chain. The front panel pregain, eq and postgain only work when the 'tube' is inserted in the patch. Mike: Next time read the manual!

Even though a lot of the factory presets are overly saturated with effects, there are some really really cool ones. To name a few, I like SmoothLead, Implant, DirtySustain, and Cereology for lead sounds. There's also a few renditions of Eddie Van Halen's brown sound, like BrownCake and Bossman. It's fully programmable, but the RAM card and the floor controller are 100% necessary. You can't save user programs without the RAM card and you can't call them up on the fly without the midi floor controller. Yes, they're both sold separately.

It takes a little toying with if you're using it in front of a combo amp or head. The tube fex is a preamp itself, so if you have the gain on your amp turned up more than just a little, it'll geet squealy and feed back. Make sure your Lows, Mids, and Highs on your amp are turned way down also. However, if they're all the way down, the sound tended to get a little muddy. I use a 50 watt Marshall JCM 800 head and I just turn the Presence about half way up and set my lows, mids and highs flat at about 9 o'clock. That seems to allow the processor to do its thing and let my amp allow my guitar to cut through (unlike a certain Boss Metalzone pedal).
Other than that, just experiment with the sounds until you find what you like. This unit has *more* than enough for everyone.

Every so often, I get a message that says NO TUBE, etc...but it seems to be an ever so slight glitch in the midi, so i doubt it's anything since it goes away in a matter of seconds. This unit also switches from effect to effect a lot quicker than I heard it did.

No direct web page support. Peavey is usually pretty smooth about things, since the music store I work for deals with them all the time.

I play liquid grooves. This machine can handle any type of music, since there's something for everyone. If you're a jazz player, look towards an Alesis Quadreverb. The Trans Tube Fex will suit any style, because like I said, there's something for everyone in this. If you're like me, and are looking for ballsy distortion that cuts, crunches and growls and have grown out of relying on those cheesy metal pedals for a nice heavy crunch, check this out.

IT HAS KNOBS ! ! ! it's very easy to get a good sound; but, to to achieve the supersat sound that i used to get from my supreme 160 took me about a week.
I didn't get any manual untill i downloaded the transtube pro manual from peavey about a month later. I found some errors in the manual, saying parameter ranges were from here to there, but when I tried makeing edits I found they didn't go as far as they said they would.
Otherwise the manual is very well put togeather and gives alot of the in-deypth stuff I like to know. If you have ever programed any other digital multi-effects you will be able to program this too.
I think the foot-controller would boost this rateing to a 9

I traded a half stack for this 1 rack space monster. I play ibanez x-series guitars into an ibanez power trio in line to the transfex. Also going into the transfex through the effects-loop in is a korg delta (premidisynth). all this gets pluged directly into the mixer in stereo.
all the different effects can be seperately stereo spacialy placed. delay time can be synced to midi clock:)

Can I depend on it ? Its a peavey . There is no escapeing peavey

The transtube efx is not directly supported from peavey web page.
Its kind of a drag the way all companies seem to do this with thier older products. Peavey does not give excelent phone, but thier customer support is excelent

I play a kind of techno-industrial-ambeint sound and my main insturment is keyboard. I use the midi controlers to do control changes and program changes. so far its worked out quite well the effects can be beautiful or ugly. it is totaly programable and so it is only limited by the finite efforts I or you put into it.

Easy to use if you have used programmable rack effects before. Similar to MidiVerb (Alesis) in programming.

I am using this effect as my primary preamp/effect straight into a stereo amplifier, then into a pair of Tube Works 2x12 cabs. I play a Zion guitar (www.zionguitars.com) maximized for hot lead. I really like to sound quality. For the most part the effects are EXTREMELY quiet. Some effects (2 preamps patch, for example) are a bit noisy, but not as noisy as a Marshall head set on 11. (no offense to Marshall fans). The unit has a pretty lush chorus/flange/phase but I have heard better analog units. The distortion is not only highly configurable, but very impressive. (Remember, this unit is the one that does NOT have a tube). The "clean tube" setting gave a clear picture of my guitar's true tone. It did take me a week to find a distortion tone that I liked for lead, though. Tremolo is as expected, and very configurable. Reverb is VERY nice. Delay is very good, with no noise.

I have used this unit extensively for a few months, and have left it turned on for 3 or 4 days. It gets hot enough (even at idle) that I was concerned at first, but the unit itself does not seem to care. Although the system has never glitched or failed on me, my advice is as always: keep backup on standby as your wallet or playing situation permits.

I have never dealt with Peavey for support. That in itself is worth a something.

This is the NON TUBE Fex unit. The TUBE version sells for nearly $300 more. I was honestly impressed with the smooth distortion this unit is capable of. I have always thought Peavey transistor distortion was "gravelly" but this unit is smoooth and VERY tube-like. I am completely satisfied for my distorted lead and rhythm sounds. The configurablility is GREAT. Like most preprogrammed effect, the stock sounds tend to be extreme examples and are not necessarily musical. Tweak this unit for awhile and you will find it is capable of anything you need (It may take you a few weeks, though). The LCD display is difficult to read when off-angle. There should be a QUICK way to adjust it. Want to switch patches using a foot pedal? It requires a MIDI controller. It would be nice to be able to step through a bank of presets without popping the extra bucks for a MIDI pedal. Even a "BYPASS" pedal input would be nice. Otherwise, this is a great effects unit.