Peavey Backstage Plus

okay,this is a review for my 1987 backstage plus amp.single channel amp with footswitchable distortion,and reverb.
was given this amp with an older gibson sg!(i got rid of the sg,just didn't get along with it)but kept this amp,which i've had now for over 2 years.
it sounds amazing,deep and full,the controls really are well voiced.

VERY loud 35 watts into a 10 inch speaker.

using this in stereo with an older peavey backstage amp(both of these are solid state amps).i use it with a highly modded fender strat with gfs neovin overwound pickups,a 1961 es-335,a 12 string madeira,and a broadcaster clone i built with some spare parts in my shop.
run the 2 amps with a pod XT live on da floor,and it just sounds huge.

it easily plays well over unmic'd drums,and has a shocking amount of headroom to it.
every now and then,the reverb pot gets noisy,so i clean it with some contact cleaner,and problem solved.
the original speaker(by eminence,an old square back)blew the cone,so i had it reconed,and put that speaker in the backstage amp.
i put an electro harmonix CS-10 inch speaker in the backstage plus..
and it was incredible...the difference just swapping the old speaker out made.

it's a peavey...it will outlast you,and possibly 5 to six of your generations...no tubes...no hassles.
they have NEVER broken down,except for the speaker blowing,and that was due to age.

peavey's support staff is,and IMHO the best there is out there.period.

these little amps continue to amaze me in their versatility...so glad i switched from tube back to solid state.the dependability is bar none the best i've ever seen,and these amps,don't forget,are already over 20 years old,and still running flawlessly.

how many of us can say the same about our tube gear?hmmmm?

just a superb value for the money.lotta amp for not a lot of bucks.

and it still looks brand freaking new..how is that possible?

Late 80s (88 from what I can make out) but it seriously looks as if it was built yesterday. Unbelievable quality. Dual channel with footswitch, spring reverb (cavernous!), effects loop (via Y cable), headphone jack, 10" speaker.
Only got it today for virtually nothing off ebay and it is already the best practice amp I have ever owned (and I have had a few). The distorted tone (thru a Keeley DS-1) is amazing.

Awesome on clean and especially distorted with a pedal - as others have said MAKE SURE TO READ THE MANUAL FOR SETTINGS before you start otherwise it sounds muddy as hell or thin and shrill, depending on which channel you are on. This thing can even make a strat sound think and creamy (well, relatively speaking) and humbuckers (Bill Lawrenson L200 and a DiMarzio Fred) really get some sustain out of it. I'll give this a 9 because of the aforementioned care you need to take dialing in your tone.

No comment - had it less than 24 hours!

Never used them for this but used them for a Bravo in the 90s and they were incredible.

Been playing 22 years - I play a 57 reissue Strat, a custom Ibanez RG with DiMarzio Fred, a Washburn N2 and a Standard Tele through this - sounds great on all of them.
If it were lost or stolen I would definitely get another - great amps and I was gutted to miss out on one several weeks back. I tried a few modelling amps before this such as the Peavey Vypyr and Line 6 Spider III - all sound 'thin' compared to this little beast.

87-A on the back plate leads me to believe it's an '87 model
Single input with volume utilizing a pre-gain/saturation/post gain set-up. Bright pull on the pre-gain knob. Low/Mid/High eq with a pull swith on the high eq knob. Reverb(which is amazingly good).
Pre-out as well as headphone jacks. 35 VERY loud watts. Footwith
jack in the back(mine was bought used, and didn't come with a footswitch) Single 10" speaker-(do the reviewers with 8" speakers just
not know how to read a tape measure?) Solid-state.

I've been playing guitar since '65 and playing Fender amps since '68.
This little brute rocks. I use it for Jazz with my '63 Guild CE-100D. Country with my '64 Gretsch Tennessean and Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele. Blues/rock with my '69 SG Standard. It works incredibly well for all styles. Very nice clean sound. Overdrive is not what you're going to have for Metal, but for a nice Cream-era Clapton tone, you can dial it up. Good point about not having your pre/post gain settings total more than 10 or 11. Set your pre at 4,
saturation at 5, and your post at 5-6 and with a good set of humbuckers you're in tone heaven.

For major gigs I will use my Fenders, however I constantly take this to local blues jams without backup. Never failed me yet.(knock on wood) Built like a tank. Bullet-proof. It weights nothing!!

I've had it about 10 years, and it was probably 8 years past warranty
when I got it. No issues.

OK, it's not the tone machine my Fenders are. I've got a Hot Rod Deluxe, Super Reverb, '66 Bassman head, Dual-Showman, and a speaker killing Super-Twin(thank God Fender quit making them!). This Peavey has the loudest 35 watts around, GREAT reverb, and a massive variety of tonal options. It weighs next to nothing. When I drag it into a blues jam it's funny to see the looks it gets from some of the tube-purists. My buddy thinks I've performed some tip-top Mojo on this thing to get such a nice warm tube-like overdrive.Would I buy another?
Saw one on craig's list last week for $50 bucks. By the time I called, it was gone. Somebody else knows about these units.

Mid '80s production SS 1x10 combo 35 watts LOUD
Suprisingly versitle, does every thing from a Fender clean to a Marshall growl,as usual W/ older amps we must warn the yougsters NOT A METAL AMP! (although it would be great as power for a pedal based metal rig)

Not really a channel switcher, it has a controllable one knob boost similar to a "fat' switch which PV called "Saturation" this is foot switchable W/ optional footswitch, has line in/out jack which can function as a basic EFX loop by using a Y cord, headphone jack..e band EQ with mid boost (pull the high switch) , and bright switch (pull the pre amp vol), pretty loaded for it's time, and discounting the lack of multi efx not bad for today..does have spring 'verb..which is footswitchable.

Sound's decent..has a nice bark W/ a Tele..not too bright, does OK W buckers, but seems to be at it's best W/ Fender style products..can be noisy at high gain, but again.. well see above!

PV products from this era were designed to last basicaly forever...

Incredible, this amp is over 20 years old& you can still get the footswitch and the Owners Manual from PV...try that with some of the other big makers. BTW if you have this amp and DON'T have the owners manual get on the PV website and download one..it's free and VERY informative..many people who think they don't like PV amps simply don't understand how they work, or how to set them.

20+ years playing,gear comes & goes, but this is a great small gig amp. Does all of the things that the incredibly overrated Fender Super Champ does and the PV is 1/4 the price!

35-Watt, solid state combo with a single 10" speaker (not 8" speaker like some have written below). Bought in 1985 new for $130 I think.

Very Loud Amp for 35W. I've owned it for 22 years and I've never got to play with the volume above 5/6 (even live). It's twice as loud as my Marshall MG30. Plays easily over un-mic'd rock drums.

The sound is not smooth, but rather punchy at high volumes; some might love that. With a strat it is very bright (must tone down the treble).

Spring Reverb is classic. Saturation is a lil muddy by today's standards.

They dont make them like this anymore. Like a tank, not like the stuff today made in China, etc. Never had an issue with this amp in 22 years.

No problems yet.

A solid 8 or 9. Not a 10 on tone in my book, but very nice.

bought new in late April 1984. one input. pre/post volumes. saturation. 3 band EQ. brightness pull pot. thickness pull pot. pre-in/power-out (i have no idea what that is...haven't used it except for recording at times - out seems to deactivate the speaker, so that i can hear the monitors). reverb (great reverb). headphone jack (too loud, will destroy your phones...they started to sizzle after one attempt to use the jack, never tried it again). 1 eight inch speaker.

my style is classic crunch rock [Zeppelin, Ramones, Mother's Finest], but i play everything from funk, jazz, mellow r&b, country and acoustic sounds [mid 80s Yamaha acoustic, sunburst with the spikey pickguard with Dean Markley pickup which sounds great, although i prefer to mic it].

my, how an opinion can change. when i first bought this amp i thought it sounded like an air-raid siren, but after reading the manual [pre and post volumes should NEVER equal more than 10...eg. pre at 3, post at 7 for clean.] and getting used to the solid-state tone, this amp has served me well for 23 years. although it is a practice amp, i have gigged for years with it and it is loud enough to be heard over a practice band [unless Tightrope is the drummer : )]. if more volume is needed, there has always beena PA in use, and it sounds great mic'd live with a humbucking guitar.

not as full as a tube amp, but i usually set the pre-volume at 6 and the post at 5 [ok so that's 11...but isn't that what we all want ?] with no problems, and the saturation at about 3-to-7 for more fullness and warmth. brightness switch "on" at all times, thickness switch "off" at all times. the thickness switch sounds horrible, even with single coil pickups. reverb at 2 [!!!] is enough to contour to a nice full round sound. more reverb will give you that exaggerated reverb sound that sticks in ppls minds, which i used at one point for "flash", but now i'm back to "tasteful". : )

have used it for 23 years without a backup. i have NEVER had a problem with this amp - other than when i first bought it, there was a "Burrrrrrrrt" buzz at certain frequencies. Tobo Sounds fixed it immediately and i have had NO PROBLEMS with it for 23 years [except for once a couple of years ago the power just died on me. then it came back to life with no explaination...and the time a couple of years ago when i was trying to outcrank Tightrope in a jazz group, by cranking it up to 15 and i started to get a sizzling buzz, but she seems to have calmed back down now.] for the record i will say relatively NO PROBLEMS regarding reliability.

never having had to deal with customer support rates a 10 in my book.

i have been playing for 32 years. i've been around and know what i like. i'm old school. i like a simple amp that sounds good for clean and distortion. i've never had high-end gear, although now i'm attempting to upgrade. i have played a 1969 orange competition stripe 3 pickup Mustang [Schaller S6 strat types, with a 1978 DiMarzio PAF in the middle] since '85 and since '98 an Epiphone Special II [stock - one volume, one tone, simple, and plenty of crunch]. i usually use amp distortion, and although an Ibanez TS-9 is the perfect sound (to my ears) i've never gotten around to getting one.

i also have an Epiphone Joe Pass that i haven't really played enough to give a qualified review, but on my few tries with it the Backstage Plus was not at all warm enough like it should be through a decent jazz amp. but "one never knows....do one" ? it may turn out to be servicable.

it's not a tube amp, but it has NEVER been in the shop either. back when it developed that buzz a coupla years ago, i checked out the newer Peaveys. the comparable red face-plate model seemed to sound and operate exactly the same as my 1984 Backstage Plus.

i am currently upgrading to a Valvestate or Ampeg for ampage. and getting either an Epiphone SG Custom or Fender Telecaster Deluxe (don't like the flat beck on the Tele though).

i also have a Schecter Omen-6 which is deliciously warm for mellower grooves. i have bought an AllParts LRO-B bullet trussrod, 7.25 radius neck for the Schecter [as i can't stand flat fretboards] that i haven't put on yet.

after reading reviews here for a few years, i felt i must make a report on the quality of this baby.

I own THREE of these 'Backstage Plus' amps. All 3 were made during the '80's according to the serial numbers. These are single-channel, 35Watt RMS solid state guitar amps, with 10" speakers and a good-sounding reverbs, plus a nice preamp saturation set-up.
I paid $95 for the most expensive to $55 for the least expensive of the three.
All three amps have been completely taken apart, repainted, chrome shined and all knobs repainted and coated with a poly clear coat to make them shine. All three are plenty LOUD even without using an effects pedal, but I always use a Boss GT-3 or a Korg so these 'Plus' amps are dangerous to stand directly in front of, so I rarely do!

I'd have to say these amps ARE loud enough for small venues as long as you aren't thrashing. But gigging is your intention, replace the stock speaker with an Eminence or similar beefy speaker that will breaks up nicely with good efficient power transfer.
The distortion is 'ok'..good crunch..take your TIME and be PATIENT with this and ALL Peaveys. There is a definate learning curve of trial and error mixing the EQ and the 'saturation' to obtain your 'tone'. These generally are NOT noisy amps, but some of those previous posters are real goofballs that have no idea how to treat musical equipment.. not maintaining their amps to make them last.. so they don't! So don't blame Peavey for your own lack of common sense.. abuse is a sign of laziness and lack of maturity.

I play good guitars: Fender and Gibson. Humbuckers DO sound better thru the Backstage Plus.. single coils do tend to sound thin.. but that can be a good tone too if you know how to utilize it.

Very dependable. I've had ONE Peavey bite the dust so far. I bought a 'Backstage 30' brand-new in 1979 in Phoenix, and in 2003 the power supply finally went bad. I gave the amp away to a music store. They fixed it and sold it. So it lives on locally with someone else.

I love Peavey Support and I love their website. They filled one order of parts for me this year: knobs & feet. Good price, fast enough delivery.

The warranty on all my 'Backstage Plus' amps are long-ago expired.

I've been playing since I was 14. I have lots of good gear, I don't scrimp on gear.. since you generally get what you pay for.
Have a early '90's Strat, and a much older Les Paul 'Black Beauty' Custom. Also a Korg pedal and two Boss GT-3 multi-effects pedals. I own more Peavey amps than is allowed by law, so I'm soon going to be giving two of them away to people I love. One is a 'Backstage 30' that I bought only last Wed on eBay. I restored this 31 year-old amp to a very good condition..replacing the speaker and power cord plus plenty of paint and 'Armour-All'. Looks and sounds great!

I have no idea when this amp was made. I was looking for the smallest amp that I could find that had reverb and a foot switchable distortion. I found it used in a music store an purchased it for $125. Probably the best money I have ever spent on an amp. I have a black face twin that I have been carrying around since the 60's and 5 hernias later I decided to find an amp that would work for most gigs. I have only used the twin twice in the last 15 years. I love it but can't carry it.
The backstage plus if very versitle. And has great tone usually. Sometimes if I have to play really soft it is hard to get the sound I want. It is a used instrument and when I crank it up with distortion it makes some really scary sounding noises. I thought it was the speaker but tried a diffent one and it didn't help. I took it to someone to check out and he said it wasn't worth fixing the problem. I dissagree if it is fixable and will someday look for a second opinion. I have used it for jazz, blues, rock, country, and at school where I taught for class and after school jams. It always worked and was loud enough. I even purchased a Bandit 65 to have more volume, but hardly ever use it.
A great feature is the trebble pull switch for a fat tone. The one on my pre gain doesn't work so I don't know how it sound. I also like that it has treble, mid range and bass tone controls.
I tried running a line out to the sound system and didn't care for the sound. We usually use a mike if we are recording through the system.

I have played a Fender tele, a Fender Strat, a Gibson Les Paul Signature, a G & L tele, and a Graziano Hulicaster ukulele. It works well with all of them because of the tonal variety you can dial up. It's more guitar sounding on the ukulele than I like but it is fun if I want that sound. This uke works great with distortion and wah, but usually I go through the sound system or a Roland Keyboard amp.
You have to add some pre gain to get volume out of the clean channel, so, you have to be careful to not get distortion. The nice thing is that if you take your time setting it up you can get a little crunch with the volume up an your guitar and clean with it down a little. I like the reverb sound compared to all of the new amps I have tried. I play in a Hawaiian group that does some surf music and I like the spring reverb sound after using a twin for all these years before.
I like the variety it gets, but I am more of a jazz, blues sound of person. My students like all the new pedals etc. But they loved the sounds of my pod running through it.

This amp has been like a good luck charm for reliability. I have never taken a backup and I know it has a problem at high distorted volumes, but it always works. My twin needs tubes every time I turn around. I keep looking for an amp that I like more that is small enough to carry but so far no luck. This thing has really been a great asset to my music life.

I know nothing about customer service.

I've been playing since 1957. I have 2 tele's, 1 strat, a Les Paul Signature, Fender pro junior, Kustom kga 10 fx and a black face twin. I have already started to look for another one, because I don't know how long this amp is going to live.
I love the weight, the tone controls, reverb and distortion.
I am constantly comparing it to my other amps and it really does hold it's own. I choose it because of it's size and having a good sounding reverb and distortion. We bought a newer one for school and it sounded really bad.
I wish it had a direct out that kept the tone. (I need to try the headphone jack, but, then I'll loose the monitor value of it. )
Weight for weight this little amp is great.

Purchased new in '87, and i am pretty sure it is an '86 model. I bought it at the time as a small practice amp. 10" with 35 watts, single channel, three tone adjusts, a saturation feature, effects loop, headphone jack, real reverb.

It mostly sat in various closets for something like 15 years, it really didn't compare to the distortion that I got out of my Fender Twin, so I just didn't play it. It still looks new, and the power cord tag is still on it. Then in the last year or two when i was looking for a small solid state amp to play jazz/clean on i took it out and started reconsidering it.

Recently changed the speaker for a new Eminence Copperhead ($25 on Ebay), that was lots of bang for little buck.

It works well for around the house to small gigs. I should give it an 7-8 here for the saturation effect, but i am going to give it 9 because everything else is great and solid for a small light weight amp, and there is actually something useful in the saturation more on that below.

I couldn't get it to work for rock. The saturation, especially with the original speaker sounded like a million paper bags tearing at once. But... With a new speaker, and when i started using it for clean work, adding in the saturation in very small amounts, and fiddling with the pre/post a bit, i found that i could do a lot better at getting a light breakup tone, sort of a vintage sound. Played with a large archtop, i felt it did a good job nailing a Montgomery-ish tone.

Also I have used it by running the guitar into a 10 band EQ then putting the EQ in at the effects loop, bypassing the pre all together. This gets it a real clean, almost DI sound, and until i finally figured out the pre/post adjustments, it also eliminated the hiss i was getting using the preamp. You can dail out this hiss balancing the pre/post gain.

There is an 'art' to tweaking this thing.

I find it usuable. Like a lot of small amps it needs some room to breath. Played im my small 10x10 home office, everything sounds pretty crappy. But take into a bigger room, esp. with high ceiling and it sounds much better

VERY durable, i don't think they have the build quality in this class of amps like this any more. Real spring reverb. Made in USA, solid, chromed metal corners, and strap handles, heavy tolex, and sturdy grill cloth. You still see these things selling on ebay for as much as $150? go figure, not sure but i think that is about what i paid for it.

While it did spend alot of time in the closet, nothing seems to have failed yet

No Idea

Good enough for clean work, with 35 watts it is loud enough for small gigs, in the right forum (small ensemble/light drums, jazz group, solo, etc). I had it all these years really couldn't use it much, i now have found a music style that seems to suit it better, and I found the magic hand shake to get what i want out of it.

A modern upgrade speaker is a real big imrpovement that is if the guts are all still in order, mine was.

If it were stolen, i might try to find one on Ebay for $50-$100, spend $50 for after market speaker. I haven't seen a new one with this tone for those price points. And it is solid compared to the latest Chinese fare. Now for $300-$400, i would probably look at a Roland Cube 30/60 or maybe a small Fender.

Single channel, pre(pull for bright boost), saturation, post, low, mid, high (pull for thick aka mid boost), reverb, fx loop, headphone out, and on the back a footswitch jack for saturation and reverb defeat.

This one was made in 1986, and it is the second one of these I've owned. The first was one I bought from a friend used and it was made in 1984.

As I said this is my second one. Wish I never traded in my first one! I went through a number of rigs lookng for "that sound". A late 60's Fender Bassman, a Marshall bluesbreaker reissue, a couple of Vox AC15TBX reissues (ones I also wish I never got rid of). My first guitar was a Les Paul copy and didn't have that sound I was looking for with the Peavey. The Bassman was closer, and the Marshall was it, but 50watts is LOUD! After changing styles a bit I went for the classic Rickenbacker into a Vox sound. Great sound, just not that versitile. So after quitting for a bit (ok, ok money problems came and went and so did the rigs and axes..LOL) I picked up a Squier Strat for cheap money. Found this Peavey for cheap money and man! The tone it has with the Strat is unbelievable! This is the combo this amp needed all those years ago! The sound is fuller than others I've heard with this setup (I use 11's on the Strat for a fatter tone) and the reverb is as lush as, dare I say, A Deluxe or Twin reverb. Good clean tones and decent distorted sounds (aka Layla album) although not quite as good as a tube amp, but it is close. Sort of like a Tweed Champ, but with reverb.
The first Backstage + I had was not that noisy with the humbuckers, but with the Strat, this one has the typical hum to be expected with single coils. Its ok though, adds to the sound! A great practice/club amp. (doesn't everyone mike through the PA now anyway?) If I had to give this one up I would buy another in a heartbeat. But for now I'm not giving it up!

Its a Peavey, need I say more?

More reliable than my old Bassman, or my second Vox AC15 reissue.

Neither one of the Backstages I owned had a warranty, both were used, but I suppose the warranty would have run out around the time The Smiths broke up!

Peavey's website is great, I dealt with them years ago to get an owners manual for my first Backstage, now its even easier. Its on the website as a PDF file!

Fantastic amp for a Strat player looking for a versitile recording amp or practice amp.

If it were lost or stolen I would buy another. But for now I'm not letting history repeat itself by getting rid of it! Its mine, get your own!!! LOL