Peavey Artist

I want to own this amp again! I owned it new in the late 70's. Selling it was one of those unfortunate dumb moves. I remember it to be very agile allowing easy setup, finding my needs and tones in both channels, smooth switching. The footswitch is absolutely necessary to take advantage of the amp's convenient features. Very powerful amp for its stage presence, volume and tonal qualities.

I always thought this amp definitely challenged the dominant Mesa Boogies of the time and far less expensive. The clean channel offers warmth and deep presence and then with the reverb - well, its great! Peaveys have always had great clarity, warmth combined with their reverb. That's why they're often used by pedal steel guitarists. On the crunch side... well, with the 6L6's, the volume head room and especially with the 15" Black Widow speaker... man, its deadly - no pun intended. Really, this amp can sound very angry! But if you're into warm tube blues with snappy highs and ballsy lows... this amp can do it.

Never had a problem with it.

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I've been playing now for over 40 years.... yeah, I'm that old. Of all the amps I've owned, this one definitely still holds my sincere fondness.

I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for trading it in for a Peavey Renown. Although the Renown was a great amp too. Why did I do that? The bass player and other guitarist in the band I was in at the time heard me too much - not because of the power and volume but because the 15" speaker spread my sound across the stage too much. It doesn't make sense to me but they talked me into trading it in.

Because of the 15"-er the amp was a bit heavy.

Made in the late 70s-early 80s, I found this amp on craigs list for $150. I had been looking for a good tube amp for a while and this is one I'm glad I didn't pass up. It has 4 channels: Normal A + B, Bright and Automix. In the back there is 4 and 8 ohm out, effects loop and foot switch. This amp also has reverb. Coming from a 100 watt Flextone II I bought 5 years ago I am amazed. No bells and whistles, just solid tone. Definitely lacks at low volume, like most tubes, but at around 3 the tubes come alive and produce some great sound anywhere from crystal clean to dirty and crunchy. Takes a while to get your tone set up but once you find something you love it's amazing. This amp is loud as hell. Chest thumping loud.

With the combinition of the 4 channels you can produce a wide array of sounds. Anywhere from clean folk, to muted jazz, to crunhy blues and solid lead. If you're looking for a metal amp though, this is not for you. The distortion cranked sounds tinny and fake through a strat. haven't tried it with anything else. I play a lot of jazz and blues and this with tweaking it sounds just as good as, if not better, then a fender duo. Low noise and little hum makes this a great sounding amp.

I haven't owned this for very long but it seems to be built solid and there really isn't much to it. If anything did break it wouldn't be hard to fix. I assume the tubes will need replaced at some point. Some of the knobs scratch when you turn them but it's not a deal breaker and could be fixed if I really cared.

If it were to break, I would just fix it my self. I assume there isn't any warranty since it's going on 30 years since this amp was made. Any guitar shop could probably fix it if it were to break. Like I said, there isn't much to it.

I've been playing for 12 years. I use a Strat and before this amp, I've been using a fextone II digital amp. Compared to this amp, the flextone sound fake and generic. I'm probably going to sell it because of this amp. The great thing about the flextone was the incredibly versatility of effects. It does everything, but nothing really stands out. This amp is exactly what I was looking for. It has a great sound and it's not too fancy. Just need to find a foot switch for it and I'll be set. At the price I paid for it, Im ecstatic.

Made in 1978. Single amp channel of 120 watts with 4 possible sub-Channels Bright, Normal and 2 footpedal distortion effects switched. 3 channel filtering bass treble and midrange and also has a spring reverb.
Awesome rocker or clean jazz with single Black Widow speaker. Loud enough for just about any hall unaided. For its size this amp is quite heavy. It feels like about 50 pounds or so.

Very clean sound for a single speaker. I do use a Marshall 4x12 though as an external speaker system to get a slightly warmer more well rounded sound - especially when playing my Takamine 12 string or Taylor 6 string acoustic/electrics through it. I also own a Hutnik electric guitar hand made by Bill Hutnik who used to be an excellent luthier from the Windsor Ontario Canada area that sounds dynamite (twin humbucking, maple and mahogany with rosewood fingerboard) I use a Digitech GNX3 as my sole effects pedal these days although I do have a few Boss pedals as backup just in case.

I bought the amp new in 1978. I replaced the tubes once and did a minor repair to the speaker cone which has held for about 20 years or so,(so far)and replaced a single power resistor. Other than that it has had literally thousands upon thousands of hours of play time. I would trust this amp to never let me down. The odds are in its favour.

Never needed any.

It will soon be 30 years of solid playing for this amp. It currently drives its internal black widow speaker and a 300 watt Marshall 4x12 cabinet simultaneously for a more rounded sound. I can play it full bore at 10 and still expect clean reliable performance. However you would need to be performing a stadium to need that volume because this baby is LOUD! I couldn't have expected a better return on my investment _ my annual cost for this amp has been about $30 and dropping by the year. I neither desire nor will likely ever need another amp for the rest of my natural life. I am sure though as a negative for this amp that it has contributed to my loss of hearing <grin> (OK, so maybe I'm partially to blame for that as well)

already covered by others.

This amp is a Solid Rock N' Roller of an amp. Power blues...You name it. LOUD!!! very Loud!!! This amp can handle your at home practice sessions miked or unmiked gig without any problems.

Had a tube Die in it once, but dont blame the amp! Replaced and rocked on.

Who needs it.

This amp goes From Clean to Mean with no problems. Plus you get a power tube section to round out the tone! Cheap, Reliable and YES tonefull music can be had with this amp. Throw a few pedals in front of this amp to "color" your tone or just plug straight into it. You can control the amps overall distortion with your guitars volume knob if you want. I have been playing for about 10 years and have gone through many amps. Fender, Marshall , Ampeg to name a few. They all sounded great but reliability has ALWAYS been an issue with those names mentioned. The PV's just seem to always be ready when you flip the power on. A no hassle, workhorse of an Amp.

Early 80s amp. Two channels. Channel mixing with foot switch. 15" Black Widow. Plenty of power (120 watts tube). I play mostly blues and classic rock, and it covers all the bases. Heavy, but most good tube amps usualy are.

I am using a Jay Turser JT 200 Pro and it really screams! With a little tweaking of the automix and tone controls, I can get anything from glassy jazz tones to a Marshall roar. Very versatile controls.

Hey, its a Peavey! I have owned several models over the years, and have NEVER had to lift a finger for repairs. Tank hell! Its built better than a tank! I would gig with this anytime anywhere!

Only time I ever needed support, was when I needed a manual. They were great to deal with. Those southerners are so friendly.

Ive been playing for 33 years, This is by far the most perfect amp for my personal style I've ever owned. If it were lost, stolen, or damaged, I would scour the country for another one. Love the tone and power. That Black Widow is incredible! It's heavy, but with tube combos that comes with the territory.

I bought this new in 1980ish. It's 120 watts of hybred (ss-preamp, 4-6L6)power. It's a Channel and a half kind of arrangement, with several different ways to combine different channels to give you different sounds. it's quite versatile. It's a combo with 1 12" Black Widow, and as you might expect it weighs a ton. But if you want really clean at a high volume it's a good amp. Or if you want dirty at a high volume it's a good amp. You could say it sounds good at a high volume. Unfortunately it's not such a great amp at low volume, but then what 100 watt+ amp does?

I use both single coil and humbucking pickups in a couple of different guitars, I play blues, country, jazz, nothing really noisy or loud.Amp sounds pretty much like a Twin, without sounding as compressed as some of the Twins I've used, but has that basic Fender tone-due no doubt to the 6L6s. I don't play it much anymore, occasionally in a big room when I'm not being miked, and can turn it up some but used to use it a lot and it's a real workhorse. I've even used the power stage for a PA. 20 years have really mellowed the sound out too, it's very rich, fat sounding, even with a strat.

20 years no problems, except for the footswitch which I've had repaced a couple of times. This amp is solid as a rock, and slightly heavier. I used to use it all the time and it's totally bullet proof. It's been dropped tipped over and thoroughly road abused, and nada.

not applicable for this product

Iv'e been playing for over twenty years I currently also own a classic 30 which is my main gigging amp-it's not as nice sounding as the artist, but it's a lot lighter and beteter for the smaller places that I mostly play. If it was stolen I probably wouldn't get another one because I just don't have the need for such a powerful amp. But it has served me well over the years.