Peavey Minx 110 II

2005 USA made small combo. Has one 10 inch speaker, hence the 110 in the name. This is one of the last small USA made combos from Peavey as they have switched small combo production to Asia. This one is labeled Minx 110 on the front and Minx 110 II on the back. The Minx II redesign added an extension speaker output. The amp puts out 35 watts into the internal 10 inch speaker and a slightly larger 50 watts when an extension cab is added. This speaker jack does NOT mute the internal speaker. It has a headphone jack plus effects send/return jacks (post EQ) and one instrument input. The controls are rotary "Pre-Gain" which is the only volume control, low, mid and high passive EQ control rotary pots along with a push in bright switch. The speaker grill is metal which is great. A new squarish Peavey logo is at the top of the grill instead of the wacky Peavey logo we all remember from time immemorial. There is a square black badge at the bottom center of the speaker grill that has a silver triangle in the foreground and some squigly read lines behind the triangle. I'm still trying to figure out what the triangle grill badge means. Maybe that it has a "Delta" speaker? I don't know. I thought these came with "Blue Marvel" speakers as that is what the spec sheet said. Feature wise it is well rounded. The amp is covered in a smoother and thinner Tolex than the old Basic 60 I used to have and it has metal corners to protect the well made wooden cabinet. I've had the amp apart and the cab is made from real plywood, not particle board. That's nice. The cabinet might be the best thing about this amp. There is no passive/active switch and I own two active basses so I found this annoying.

Most people who use these little amps comment on how loud they are for their size. However I find the sound very vanilla, for lack of a better way to put it. When I bought it used on eBay I was hoping for the same amazing tone I got from an old Peavey Basic 60 I used to have, only lower volume. The Minx tone controls are passive. The tone controls on the Basic series amps are active. Who knew? The amps look alike, only the Minx is a little smaller. The two amps even share the SAME manual! I didn't find out until I had the amp and it was disappointing me so I started researching it. Anyway, the LOW and HIGH tone controls aren't very effective with my bass while the MID control is the only one that makes much difference if you turn it past 12 O'clock. The LOW and HIGH controls do work, they just don't make as much difference as the MID control and they don't make much difference at all once you go past 12 O'Clock. I usually play through an Aphex Bass Exciter feeding an Aphex Punch Factory compressor which feeds the amp and when I plug my effects into the Minx amp I get more tone control from the Aphex Bass unit. This amp will make a slight hiss if you turn the highs wide open with the Pre-Gain wide open. I don't recommend playing any amp wide open. Also, this amp is very hard pressed to keep up with a drummer. I tried it at a rehearsal once and I started with everything set at about 12 O'clock. I couldn't hear it at all over the drums even with the Aphex Bass Exciter set to my usual settings. I turned all the tone controls wide open and the "Pre-gain" to about 4 O'clock and I could hear it then. It was not a full rich satisfying tone but I could hear it. This would be an OK practice amp for home practice with recorded music. But I'm practicing on my computer with my pedal board into a mixer hooked to the sound card, so I really don't need it for home practice but hoped it would work for rehearsals, which it doesn't. The bright switch makes no difference with either of my basses but if you use this for keyboards or harp or guitar I'm sure the bright switch would make more difference. This is the most bland sounding bass amp I've ever used. Probably would be better for keys or harp or jazz guitar or accordian...anything but bass. I wouldn't even suggest recording with it. It just sounds bland and blah. It also distorts at high volume, the speaker can't take much bass from the Aphex Bass Exciter before it starts fuzzing up. I did try it with a keyboard and it was very pleasing. Also plugged in a Stratocaster and it sounded fine. This is a decent little all around amp, but if you want a bass amp I'd keep looking. Try to find a Peavey Basic. I'm trying to find one of them next and sell this thing.

This amp is very well made. It is another Peavey TANK. The last of the line too as the reliability and quality of the Asian combo amp line is yet to be determined. I've had the speaker and the amp out to have a look. The jacks are ALL the plastic case jacks that are soldered directly to the circuit board. Keep the nut rings around the jacks tight. Eventually these things are going to cause problems if they wiggle around much. The tone controls are also soldered directly to the circuit board. The power amp is actually one smallish IC chip with a huge heat sink. This surprised me. The cabinet as I mentioned is solid wood which is good and the Tolex is thin. Everything fits and is well secured to prevent any rattles.

I bought this used on eBay. It was working when it arrived. I took it to one practice and to one outdoor gig where I set it up as a monitor for the drummer so he could hear me better. (I have to control this guy as he often tries to speed up some so I want to make sure he hears me.) About half way through this gig the amp just stopped working. I was feeding it from the compressor pedals XLR direct out with a Whirlwind Little Imp impedance matching transformer to match them up. It sounded fine. Then it just quit. Got home, plugged a cabinet into the extension cab jack in case I blew the speaker and it worked fine. I unpluged the cab and it kept working. I took the amp out and started looking around and found a bad solder joint on a tiny PC board attached to the extension speaker jack. It is so small that the jack soldered to the PC board is the only thing holding up the PC board. I resoldered this speaker wire point on the PC board and it has given no further problems. This is a well made cabinet, but the amp inside it might not be as well made. The speaker looked ok when I took it out. I have no warranty since I bought it used so I fixed it myself.

This is my fourth Peavey amp. I've never actually had one mess up before this one. I got help on my do-it-yourself repair job from folks at the support forum. I described what it was doing and they poined me to the speaker jack right away. They were right. My cost for the repair, nothing.

Bass guy since 1968. My main gig rig is an Ampeg stack. I also still have my first Peavey Amp, a Century 200 head from 1976 which I use at some rehearsals and as a backup at gigs and I love that old Peavey Century head. I play a '53 P-bass, a 2004 USA passive Jazz Bass, a 2005 Deluxe Active Jazz Bass and a 2006 Ibanez active SRX-700. I've also had some other combos including most recently an Ampeg BA-115. If you want a Peavey bass amp, I'd recommend the BASIC 60 or the more recent BASIC 110. I would not recommend the MINX at all as a bass amp, maybe keys or harp yes.