Peavey Forum

I recieved this bass as a gift from a friend a few years back, and I have never seen another one like. I believe that they were made in the late 90's or early 2000's because the serial number starts with 080. I've even had the local guitar shop guys that have been in business for over 20 years look at it and not recognize it. It has 1 active Peavey Soapbar pickup half-way between the neck and the bridge that runs on 2 9v batteries.

The original bolt-on neck has 21 frets and is maple with a rosewood fretboard. The previous owner picked out the frets and filled them in with wood putty to make it a fretless bass. I have replaced it with a solid maple bolt-on neck from a mid 90's model Peavey Fury. They are exactly the same scale.

The body is made of maple, alder, or a combination of the two. The laquer has been stripped off, and the wood has been restained a transparent tobacco so you can see where the wings are connected to the core. It almost looks like two different woods were used. The pickguard has also been replaced with a clear homemade one.

The Soapbar pickup gives it a very large, rich sound with a good bit of sustain. Using just the tone knobs gives you a good range. You can make it sound bright and punchy or dark and moody. I play country, blues, and rock and I can use it for all of these.

I play through an '82 Peavey MarkIV amp head with a GK Backline 4x10 cab. The Peavey head has high- and low-gain input channels that can be used, or there's a button you can push to bypass those and use the graphic EQ. This head gives me virtually unlimited possibilities. And, the definition I get from the added benefit of now having frets in nice.

Because I didn't get it from the factory, I have no idea what the original setup was like, but you can crank the action on this bass way down without getting fret buzz. And, if you can stand hearing a little bit of buzz that won't carry through your rig, you can get it lower still. The original rosewood neck and the solid maple Fury neck are both very smooth and quick. I've started using black coated strings for added aesthetic appeal, smoother playability, and longer string life. The only flaw on this bass is a high spot on the neck around the 18th fret, but that was easily fixed with some steel wool.

It's a Peavey. Other than a little rust on the pickup screws and the few nicks on it from use, it's an incredibly solid bass. I bring extra batteries just in case, but I don't need a backup.

I've had a few questions for the Peavey customer support, especially when I was trying to change the neck. They were no help what-so-ever. Either they have no clue about their own products or they're too lazy to care and think past "find a luthier or buy a new instrument". I've talked to other musicians in the area about Peavey customer support and everyone has had pretty much the same experience.

I've been playing for about five years and actually playing gigs for the last year. I also have an Aria acoutstic/electric bass and a Peavey Fury that now has my Forum's fretless neck. I've just recently started seriously shopping around for new equipment so I don't have much more than about 20 minutes of playing experience on anything else except my buddies' Fender Jazz and Fender P. The feel isn't much different from those, but I'd take a Peavey any day. If it were stolen I would crawl across broken glass to get another, especially since it seems to be a rare find. This bass is very versatile and reliable, and it has a great sound.

I am not a bass player but a drummer. I just aquired this bass off of ebay. When I saw in on ebay I said to myself, what the heck, it's got a good name on it and I wanted a bass for my buddies to play when they came over, and also I could piddle around on it and learn a little bit. It was not pictured or described very well at all. When I got the bass and opened the box, it was a trainwreck to say the least, but not from shipping, but that has all changed since that dreadful day! It was described as a Peavy in search results instead of Peavey, they did'nt have it spelled right, so not many people could find it in search results, lucky me!! This is a 4 string freted bass, not sure of the year, probably early 90's. USA made. It has 21 frets. 3 knobs, 1 for tone and 2 for volume as it has 3 pickups, 2 short picksups offset closest to the neck and 1 long pickup mounted close to the bridge off of the pick guard. It is cream colored with white pick guard. Has the P-Bass body style. No place for a battery. The bass was found at an estate sale and put on ebay along with a Peavy Minx 110 bass amp, also spelled wrong, same seller, lucky me again! I beleive they had been sitting for a good while before they were sold at the estate and then sold on ebay. The neck being really narrow was bowed, I don't think it was ever adjusted at any time. The pickups had fallen apart as they had came unglued from the plastic pickup housings, and nobody ever attemted to fix them. All the pots were loose from the pickguard and really hard to turn, probably lack of play and sitting so long. There are pics of it still on ebay if you care to take a look, item #310110460976. Since I have had it, I have called Peavey support and they told me how to adjust the neck, and so far so good. I have fixed the rest of the issues it had also.

Like I said I am not a bass player but I do know what sounds good and what does'nt. And I also have several friends that are bass players. This thing has one heck of a punchy sound that I've never heard before in a bass due to the pickup configuration, you can tone it down for a more mellow type sound or tone it up for that punch through the wall sound. And then turn both volume buttons up and look out, this thing is a beast, you will have no problem cutting through any of those obnoxious guitar player's sound! It has great slap bass playability as well as normal playability. I mic it from the amp through the PA and WOW, it can't get any better. All my bass playing friends want to buy it already, but I've only had it for about a week and don't see me coming off of it anytime soon, I'll keeep it around for those times when somebody comes by and wants to do a little jamming!

The action is still not quite perfect yet due to the bow in the neck. When I called Peavey the tech guy told me to adjust the tension rod in the neck a little bit at a time as not to shock the neck so to speak, since it has been sitting for such a long time and has not been played. So far so good, taking my time, it should be straight with a couple more turns of the rod nut. I had to re-adjust the pickups as well. They were not installed correctly from the factory. Whoever put them in missed the factory predrilled holes for mounting them, probably made on a Friday or Monday! I am still working on the action and neck which is why I rated it a 9 instead of a 10, but when I'm done, it should be a 10.

As far as live play, this thing will rock the house, it is a very solid bass and since I have done what I have done to it as far as getting it playable again, it should have no more problems, I do class A work, take my time! I actually pretty much tore this thing apart and did a major clean up job as well as fixed the pickups and sprayed the pots with contact cleaner to get them to work freely again, it worked wonders. I took the neck completely off and reinstalled it again with the help of Peavey tech service. Those guys rock! Now it is all back together better than the factory did it and is ready for anything!

Called them and they were more than happy to help out, the tech guy said he had'nt had a call about this bass in years, he was tickled to even know they were still out there, he even said he would love to have it!

I payed $92.00 plus shipping on ebay and don't think I could have done any better! I could probably triple my money if I wanted to, but she's a keeper! This thing is a work horse and the sound is unmatchable. The strings could more than likely be changed as they do have some rust spots on them, but even though they are old and a little rusty, they still have one heck of a punch, I don't know what it would do with new strings. I love it when my bass playing biddies come over and put their bass on the guitar stand and want to play mine, I just sit back on the drums and grin!

I bought this this year 2008, it is NOT an FORUM AX nor a FORUM PLUS, it??s just FORUM! it says on the headstock Peavey FORUM Crafted in the USA, it has ONE BIG pickup, i think is called SOAPBAR? and it has 3 controls: VOLUME and Treble and Bass, wich have a middle position stoping or pause in them, when you rotate them you feel the middle or 0 position.

Is Active and uses 2 9v batteries.

Mine is Black with rosewood fingerboard, and it looks kinda like a stingray? music man?

4 strings

It sounds AWESOME! it??s an awesome bass, it sounds huge, and with the onboard Eq you can sound the way you want. No noise at all. Sound is full and brigth but you can cut the treble if you need to.

I love it. It??s strange that there is no info on this bass at all, but i like to have a bass that no one else has, great!

Awesome action, so easy to play, great intonation and balance amongs the 4 strings. Never goes out of tune.

Will this bass withstand live playing? Oh yes, it??s very solid.
Would you use it on a gig without a backup? well i would but a string could break! only because of that is good to have a backup.

... no info on this bass on the internet so...

Great bass! if anybody else has one please write about it. You will here it soon on myspace . com / fantasmavagon
and in
myspace . com / antenamantis