Peavey Axcelerator 5

USA made poplar body, with two pick-ups, with 18 volt active bass & treble controls. two piece maple neck with rosewood board, with med/lge frets, enclosed tuners in a 3 by 2 arrangement. excellent candy red finish topped off with a mother of toilet seat pick guard

Overall sound is excellent, but I will agree with Richard's statement above, about the B and G strings being a little weak. The sound is very bright ( which suits my finger style just fine.) Very clear sounding in live situations, I would give it 10 except for the slightly weak B and G

Because I got this bass used, I cannot say about the factory set up. But with any bass I buy I always have to tweak them. The fit of all parts was very good frets are well dressed. And I can never complain about the Quality of Peavey's finish work.

The one thing you can always rely upon, is Peavey instruments being nearly bomb-proof. This is probably the sixth or seventh Peavey I have owned, and I could always trust them not to let me down.

Never had to deal with Peavey direct,( my local store has always taken care of me.) but I needed to some specific info ( pre-amp type, and if the truss-rod was single or double action.), so I went to Peavey's web site, and had no trouble downloading the owners manuel.

Considering that I absolutly hate the sound of my other 5 string. This bass gives me everything I need. If I had to replace it, the only reason I would not try to find this same model, would be to get a Cirrus 5 string

Mid 90's, Made in the USA. Fender-type body with a gloss finish, bolt on neck with rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets. The nut is Graphlon so the bass stays in tune. Tuners are decent quality mini type. 35 inch scale, 2 active VFL Peavey soapbars using 2 9v batteries. Wilkinson bridge and Gotoh-style tuners. Has volume, blend, and active bass/treble controls. No passive mode available.

Metallic Purple with white mother of toilet seat pickguard.
My wife digs it!!!

This would have gotten a "10" if it had been available with black/gold hardware like some of the 4 string models.

Pickups are fine. They are kinda middle-of-the-road so musical extremists might have issues. It sometimes has what I call the Peavey "Honky" tone (not white, nasally). This can be virtually eliminated with amp settings and effects. I play into a Peavey half stack and a bass POD and haven't had too many isssues. I tend to play more jazz, blues, country, and contemporary christian. This is a good "Church Bass" in that it is capable of projecting low notes over keyboards and pianos. The slap tone is good and it is fine for more "finese" bass styles.
If you are looking to break people's ribs in a rock band, you might choose something else.

I bought this on close-out from Brook Mays and they totally treated me right. They gave me a year of free strings and set-ups with the purchase of the bass. So it played like a dream from the get-go.

Heck yeah! In addition to my gigging, I have loaned this bass out to a couple of hard rock and punk bands. They abused it and sweat all over it, but it cleaned up just fine.

5 year warranty.
Never had to use it.
At the local level, Brook Mays treated me well.

I've been playing for 15 years. The bass has alot of features that go beyond its price range. It certainly outshines the so-called Mexican, Japanese, Korean, and Squire "Fender" basses it was created to compete with. Furthermore, it performs well with many of the American P-J basses too. If this bass had a Fender logo on it, it would be REAL pricy.

I was in a situation where I could not afford a custom Fender, Ernie Ball, or another bass over $1000. The Peavey Axcellerator was attractive and handled all of the music I played. In its price range, I could not have asked for more.

If is was lost or stolen, I would pick up another one on E-bay for less than $200. I plan to keep the one I have in my rig, but I am probably going to get a pro bass this year. (Cirrus, B-Quad, Millenium, Music Man, Warwick, etc)

Final Statement: This is a great bass if you need a workhorse for less than $250 used. This is NOT a PRO/Custom shop instrument and should not be compared to high-end competitors. A lot of value for the $$$

Mid 90's, Made in the USA. Solid poplar body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. 35 inch scale, 2 active VFL Peavey soapbars using 2 9v batteries. Wilkinson bridge and Gotoh-style tuners. Has volume, blend, and active bass/treble controls. No passive mode available.

Not happy about the sound at all! VERY weak sounding B and G strings. As these are the outermost strings, I am convinced that the pickups are the problem. The 3 innermost strings sound fine. After looking carefully at some 4 string Axcelerators, I am sure that the 4 string pickups were used for the 5 strings too. If you want one of these basses, look around for replacement pickups BEFORE you buy! You will need them. By the way, I owned a Peavey Dyna Bass 5 that had the exact same problem, and I am convinced that 4 string pickups were used on that one too.

Well-made bass, like most Peaveys are. Very attractive metallic silver body with a smooth satin finish on the neck. No construction flaws that I could find.

This bass is well made and should be able to take whatever you dish out.

See my review of Peavey Fury Bass.

This bass would be a 10 with better pickups! Seriously, if you can find some good aftermarket soapbars that will fit this bass, you will have a hell of a nice instrument. I don't think I'd buy another one though, the 35" scale is a stretch for my small hands.

35" scale 5 string bass, 2 wide aperature VFL active pickups, Wilkinson bridge, active bass and treble, metallic red with white mother of toilet seat pickguard. Price new with case, $535.

I bought this as I wanted to try a 35" scale 5 and the price and features were in the ballpark. I initially didn't like the tone, but when I switched to my favorite strings, Dean Markley SR2000's the bass came alive. There was a low mid honk and a clacky high end I didn't like. I revoiced the treble but I still wasn't happy. I added an EMG bass/treble module (adding an additional knob) to the neck pickup. This boosted the very low end, the high end and cut the mids in a great area. I also added an EMG mid boost to the bridge pickup. Both EMG circuits are controled from the same knob. Now the bass has character and range. I do keep the active treble at 0 and will probably rewire it as a passive treble cut.

The B on mine is clear and consitant with the other strings. There is a dead spot around the 8th fret on the D string, but I find this on many basses.

With the mods I rate it's sound

Set up was pretty good. I have only had to make small adjustments. I've had it for 5 years or so and I still love the bass and it still looks great.

I've had this thing around 5 years and it still looks nearly new. I rarely put it away and usually use only a gig bag. Even though the electronics seem a bit strangely arranged in the pickup cavity, I appreciate the room as I like to tweak my electronics.

I've adjusted the truss rod only 4 times in 5 years (while my fretless 5 requires monthly tweaking.)

As a former amp tech, Peavey has always been one of the better companies to deal with. I do my own repairs and give myself a solid 5.

I have this bass tweaked to where I could live the rest of my life with it. If stolen, I would consider another Peavey. I'm not crazy about the Wilkinson bridge and may replace it with one with a little more mass. I may change the already tweaked electronics some.

I picked this bass because it was 35" scale, and it felt great and although a little flashier than I was used to, it looks great. The neck and overall feel is very familiar, having played a beautiful 64 P bass for years.

5 string, active electronics, Wilkinson bridge, sliver sparkle finish
Great bass control, high is a little nasaly, wish it had mid control

It has a good primus tone(nasaly), decent slap sound, does a good job for the 311 style that I mostly play, but it could be a little more warm, not as bright and yes.....NASALY. Also the pickups don't give the low B string any justice. The other 4 are nice and loud, but the B sounds dead.

I got the bass used and had a pro set up done. The action is nice and plays pretty quick. The pickup adjustability could be better(the faceplate holes are just barely big enough for the picups. The silver sparkle finish though is very nice. My only REALLY BIG GRIPE is that the cavity for the batteries isn't big enough. This monster takes two, yes TWO 9 volt batteries. Putting them in the cavity is a chore, but not nearly as bad as taking them out. Forget about changing them in the middle of a show.

Overall the bass isn't that bad, but I think I'm gonna get a Warwick Streamer standard. I love the bridge though. If I were to keep anyhting from the bass it would definately be the bridge. I would trust this bass more for a backup than anything. For the value and price, I'd go check out the Warwick streamer standard.

n/a

well overall I give it a 6. For a first time 5 string it is great. But if you want a good lifetime playing bass, keep looking.

This bass is 35" scale, alder Fender-type body with a gloss finish, bolt on neck with rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets. The nut is Graphlon so the bass stays in tune. Tuners are decent quality mini type. There are two pickups with active electronics. Controls are bass, treble, volume and pickup blend. The bridge is a Wilkenson model. FYI, this bass is no longer made.

I wish the sound had more body to it, around the 100 to 200Hz range. I don't like the active sound on this bass. The highs are over bearing and there is not enough cut range. The bass feature is useful only for adding bass, not cutting it (Who turns the bass down????). This bass badly needed a mid control!! The mids are way too honkey, to the point that if I add mids on my amp, the sound is unusable. My cheap Peavey Foundation S has twice the sound of the Axcelerator and the Foudation is passive!

I bought the bass as New Old Stock (NOS). It was hanging on a wall for quite a while. This bass needed several hours of work to get the action close to reasonable. The neck joint is OK. One pickup was installed crooked and the monting spring damaged (at the factory). The electronics inside the body cavity suck! The workmanship was poor for a mid-priced bass. It is a rat's nest. I had to open it up to insulate poorly made connections as the sound would cut in and out. UNACCEPTABLE!

The potentiometers are cheap. They are the mini type and will be hard to find and replace when needed. The rest of the hardware seems OK ie. it should stand up to gigging. They skimped on the neck/headstock finish. It could have used another coat for durability. I would keep a backup bass when using this one.

Every time I call Peavey they seem to be helpful. Emails are answered in a timely fashion and support documentation is supplied at no charge.

I have been playing bass for 20 years and have relied on Peavey gear (basses and amps) for most of the 20 years. I would think twice now about buying new Peavey gear without a thorough test and inspection. I purchased it based on my past experiences (good) with Peavey basses. I wouldn't buy this model again. I am going back to my no-frills Foundation 4 string.