Peavey Patriot Bass

I don't know what year my bass was made. I got it from someone who played it about 10 years ago and the bass has been in the case since then. It reads "Handcrafted in the USA" on the headstock. On the rear of the headstock are several patents pending listed. It has a fretted all maple bolt on neck neck, including the fretboard. Big 'ol tuning pegs on it! The body is finished in a bright "Ferrari" type red, black plastic pick guard, 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 bridge position Peavy pick up. It is a standard 4 string full size bass with a "Fender Strat" style body. Major contors on the back of this make it very comfortable. The original hard shell case could double as a bomb shelter. I like having just the one pick up, it is simple, sweet, and sounds awesome. The only thing I did to it was put on a Dimarzio strap lock system and change the strings (I use Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Bass strings).

I play "classic rock" and "heavy metal". Beatles to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Pantera. This bass has done it all for me. I use it with a Fender solid state 50w amp. Sometimes I use a Boss HM-2 stomp box for distortion. The original Peavy pick up has been fine for me. It's not a real deep tone bass with just the one pick up, it is clear and bright. I play with a pick for some songs and without for others. I slap once in a great while. I really like this bass.

I got the bass used from a professional player so it was set up fine, even after being in the case for several years (it was cleaned up and tuned before I went to try it out). The finish is awesome on both the body and the neck. The body looks like it came out of the factory yesterday, very nice. The body contours are perfect. I prefer not to have a big plastic pick guard, that is the only thing I would change.

I think this bass will last longer than I will. It is SOLID. I have never used this bass on stage, but I have for recording and practices. I have never made any adjustments, except changing to the straplocks. I highly recommend doing this- the strap button on the top horn is at a strange angle that a regular strap easily falls off of. Before I had the locks on I dropped the bass a couple of times (Ouch!) but it never even went out of tune. The finish was not marked either.

I never dealt with them.

I have been playing bass for 5 years. I have been playing guitar over 14 years. I use the same Fender amp for guitar or bass. If something happened to this bass I would get another USA Peavy because they seem to be very inexpensive used. I have owned guitars by Gibson, Fender, Jackson, Kramer, Ibanez, Martin, and Ovation. This Peavy is the only bass I have owned, but I have played a Fender USA Jazz,and a Squire P-bass. I like mine better than both of those. I see a lot of Peavy USA made basses and guiatrs used for very cheap prices. I think they are well made instruments. I would like to know any information about the history of the Peavy Patriot bass that anyone would like to share.

This was my first bass. It had a volume and a tone knob, a truss rod that didn't work, a single "Super-Ferrite" pickup and an impossible to adjust bridge. Very unmanagable features.

Sound was almost unchangeable by turning the tuning knob. Definatly not a bass for jazz, ska, or funk (my styles). I used it with both Peavey and Randall amps, it was bad with both. Way to sensitive pickup. Always picked up string noise, and it wasn't the player, the best bass player I have ever personally met played it and it still made that awful string noise.

Action was uncorrectably high. The only good thing about the action was it really strenthened up your hands for when you got a worthwhile bass. Pickup was unadjustable. The nut was totally screwed up and didn't hold the strings right, it had to be replaced. The angle between the nech and the headstock was terrible. It created a buzzing sound because it didn't put enough pressure on the strings to hold them in place.

I wouldn't even use this as a backup at a gig, or at a studio. It felt like it was about to fall apart. Unreliable poorly made instrument.

Never even tried to deal with Peavye about it. It wasn't worth my time.

Good for nothing except training your hands to work witha difficult bass. I've been palying for three years and, not to sound arrogant, am the best bass player after three years I've ever met, and I couldn't make it sound good. Right now I play a nice Fender California P-bass special, and am very glad I sold the Patriot.

OK, here was the rundown: One-piece maple neck, almost a Fender Precision clone. It was a little cumbersome, but workable and VERY solid. Had a 4-bolt plate with micro-tilt adjustment. Body was one piece mahognay with a single Peavey "EMG-ish" pickup. Black pickguard with 1 vol/1 tone. Fender-type bridge/tailpiece and machine heads. A very simple bass, for not a ton of money. And the case was FANTASTIC for the money -- molded shock-resistant plastic that could REALLY take a beating! I know...

WHEN I played bass back then, I was doing mostly Kiss and whatever other bass lines grabbed my fancy. I joined an originals band in late '86, and the drummer wound up asking me to play bass instead of guitar because I wasn't that good on guitar. LOL! Anyways, this bass had a VERY HEAVY, yet piano-like tone. Especially when strung up with GHS Quarter-Rounds and played thru a Yamaha B-100 Mk3 head into TWO Yamaha 2x15 cabinets. This was a wall of bass from hell, but then I biamped with a 2x12 cab and an Ampeg guitar head. This bass never ONCE fed back!! NOT ONCE!

The mahogany body was done in "satin" finish, very natural feel. The neck was WAY over-glossed, so the finish got sanded off the back in short order. It was a little top-heavy to play, but it was nicely rounded & contoured, so it was pretty comfortable over-all.

I only once had to tweak the truss rod, action, intonation, and micro-tilt. ONCE. This thing was a TANK! I don't recall it ever having gone out of tune on me.

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I wish to hell I'd never sold this bass!! I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.