Peavey Backstage Plus

Year: It says 86D on the back label. Amp runs great.

Writer / Producer - playing blues rock with a '74 Fender Tele guitar modded with EMG pickups. I use the neck pickup in my home project recording studio. Since the guitar has active pickups, this amp rocks when playing with a live band/drums. When recording, I use low volumes on the amp (NYC Studio Apartment) - and still get a great sound. I use SM57 mics into a Telefunken v76 mic pre cranked up very high into a Dbx160A compressor into a Mona 9624 ADDA converter recording at 9632.

General playback settings: Pre (2/3) / Sat (3) / Post (4/5) / Low EQ (6/7) / Mid EQ (6/7) High EQ (9). Rvb (3).

Sometimes I use brightness, but generally it's off. Read this forum and cleaned the jacks w/WD40 and the contacts. Let it dry. If you turn the amp on when still wet with WD40, you'll soon see smoke if any got on the transformer! Opened the head and cleaned out dust especially making sure 1/4" input jack contacts were working ok (bent then back into place). Reverb unit had faulty RCA jacks (broken wires soldered to the RCA jacks). Replaced with quality RCA jacks.

If noise appears, it usually is due to:
1. Another electrical appliance (Vornado fan) plugged into the same electrical outlet as the amp. Turning off the fan cuts off amp noise.

2. Position of guitar. See 1 first.

Use minimum distortion (Saturation: 2 / 3) . I like clean rock blues tone. Use pedals when necessary.

Open the head and check contacts of the input jack. Check reverb RCA jacks. Other than that it holds its own.

Downloaded manual off website!!

I use the Juicer pedal by Analogman - it makes this amp rock even more. www.analogman.com

By dating some of the Electrical parts, and by the serial number, I've figure this amp was made the last week of 1985 and the serial number is from 1986. (says 86A or 6A).

I basically play, classic rock and blues along with counrty. and this amp is perfect for those styles.

It's a single channel amp, the layout is just like your typical early 80's Peavey product. The only thing that sucks about this amp is that it should of had a Volume knob for Clean channel. But other than that I have no other beefs with it.

I would like to mention, having dealt with other Peavey products made around this time, the output jacks do get pretty shitty and need to be clean with a contact cleaner or WD-40. Mainly the one on the foot switch, if this jack get dirty, it will make your Overdrive/ distortion really weak sounding. Also typical of old Peavey's, My control knobs sounded like they have sand in them, I sprayed some cleaner into them and now they're fine.

I love the reverb on this amp, as somebody mentioned, it's REAL and I would like to also point out that the tank dates back to 1976.
( Peavey must of had some old shit lying around) I hated the Pre Out/ Pre In jack, so I removed the headphone jack and use the hole to make an effect loop out, so now I don't need a Y-cord to have the effect loop function.

If your a young punk who wants heavy assed distortion to the point is sounds like mush, then this amp is NOT for YOU. But if you like a sweet rock/ blues tone, and everything in between, for a SS amp this thing does kick some ass! one thing I wish it would have is, more dynamics mainly when using a strat ,when you roll down the volume knob,it doesn't clean up as much as I would like. but, if you use a TS-9 pedal set to clean you can roll down the guitar volume, it's got it going on.

It's a vintage Peavey, this mutha is built like a tank! need I say more?

found the phone number on a tag which was still attached to the power cord! I called it and to my surprise it's the same number for Peavey, I talked to a tech and he gave my their web address and I went there and downloaded the user manual. warranty? LmFaO!
uh,It went out during the cold war!

been playing since 1980, I went through loads of gear, so I do know a thing or two about this subject....

Bottom line, It's kinda sad to see how far we come. back when this amp was made, it had some quality and it was built in the USA. Most important... it was sold cheap. yea, I know,I know.... it's a SS amp so it can't be that good. that's a load of bullshit. one thing,the old Peavey's have that ANY of these new SS amps DON'T is: TONE!!! New amps are made in God knows where and Out of crap to boot. it's funny, because you can find a old Peavey 2X12 combo for like $150.00 and for tone, it will SMOKE any modeling amp out there. I don't give a rip about how many new digtal effects are built into the amp,it still sucks! These,and any vintage Peavey amps are great buys and are well worth owning.

-I don't know what exact year this speaker was made in, ...but from what I understand it was made somewhere in the mid '80s. It's been our home for a long time, ....when my dad bought it, I was only 8 or 9...and now i'm 26, ....so it's been around for a while.

-The amp is perfect for practice and pretty versitile for most things. It's not an amp for really harsh playing though, ...won't cut it for that

-it has knobs for pre and post gain, presence, high eq, mid eq, low eq, reverb, and you can accentuate the highs if you pull on a certain knob.

-I use this amp in my home for practicing, ...it's not a good amp for playing live because there's not enough power, ...the only use it has for live is if you are going to use it's pre amp as part of an efx loop going to the main board. But otherwise, don't count on it for anything live. I find that for practice at home, ..it sounds really good....you can get that clean warm sorta-dirty sparkly sound out of it which I enjoy very much

-this is a solid state amp (ie not tube)

-The guitar I use with this is a Schecter C-1, ...it has 2 humbuckers

-the speaker sounds fine with the style of music which I play at home which is anything from classic rock, to country to christian stuff, ..to jazzy sounding things. If you're practicing in these styles, this speaker will work.

-if you crank the volume up more than 2/3 of the way it starts to get noisy, ...i never need to crank it up this high for practice at home, ..so it's not an issue.

-As far as sounds you can get anything from clean and polished, ...to dirty and grungy, ......to a mix of both, .....to very distorted ......it does it's best jobs for anything that is not too harsh...dont' count on this speaker for metal or anything like that. It's good for 'slightly' distorted edge to the sound, ..but not more than that. My favorite setting is when i push the pre gain up about 2/3 of the way and pull the post gain down to about half way, ..and add a touch of reverb, ...gives my guitar that really clean sparkly and slighty dirty sound, ..i like it alot

-don't count on this speaker for extreme distortions, ..it's not brutal, ..it'll start sounding lame if you push it too much...thins out

considering this speaker has been sitting in our house for almost 20 years, ...i would have to say it is a very well made speaker. We have never had any problems with this speaker. It's built like a tank. Its been dropped many times ...and it's still working great. very very dependable

never had to deal with them

great speaker for practice for anything from classic rock to jazz to country to anything in between, ...but don't count on it for anything too harsh (ie extreme distorted lead, ..metal etc)

overall,..great for what it was made for: that's practice.

35-Watt solid state combo amp with a 10? speaker. I really don?t know how old it is I bought it used. I would guess early to mid 80?s. This amp does OK with the bells and whistles for it?s size and what it was designed for, one input, gain, (pre. and post) with saturation which was a peavey thing. Pull on the pre-gain for bright. E.Q. with low, mid, and high. (Pull on the high for thick) which will boost the mid-range. Reverb and it?s the reel thing not digital, preamp out/power amp in all on one 1/4? jack so if you have a ?Y? cord it can be used as a FX loop or with standard guitar cord go right to a PA or mixer. Headphone jack and a footswitch jack for reverb and saturation.
The amp does alright for what it was bought for. I use it mainly for practice and light jamming and some recording.

It?s not all that bad for being solid state. I?ve been playing for almost 40 years and I know what tone I want out of an amp. And this one gives it to me. My main amp right now is a Fender Deluxe. So I want a good clean tone. I play mostly blues with a heavy jazz influence. Both with a 62 reissue Strat and a Guild Starfire. The Strat is a little less noisy than the Guild but that?s probably because single-coil vs. Humbucker?s. You have to play with the EQ and Pre-&-Post gain for a good tone I find if I turn the Post-gain between 7 and 10 and the Pre-gain no more than 3 or 4 that work?s well. I set the EQ to, low at 8, the mid between 2 and 4, and the same with the high and I get a pretty good clean sound. If I want a little more volume I rase the Pre-gain, or sometimes up the Pre and lower the Post depending on how noisy it is, this amp has somewhat of a hum to it. The distortion isn?t all that good on this amp it sounds somewhat flat or washed out when I use the thick it dose help. The reverb work?s great but it will feedback if it?s set to high. The amp does not like high volume it will get very noise very fast but it really wasn?t
designed for that.

It?s a solid state Peavey. I don?t think they can break.

I?m very happy with this amp it suits my needs well. It?s not what I would call high end or a top shelf amp, but it does it job and does it very well. If something did happen to it I?d look for anther one. There has to be a ton of them out there after all there built like tanks. If your into heavy metal or hard rock this is not the amp for you. It just doesn?t have the head room for it. But if you need a small amp for recording or practicing this is it.

Plenty of features for its price + size.

I had sold a fender m80 combo a while back and wanted a small, loud amp for small gigs, rehearsals, etc, and someone recommeded these.

Surprisingly good for what it is.
Now for the spooky bit: I have a heap of real and copy vintage amps + speakers (all the good stuff, fender. marshall, vox, etc) and I have been recording lately. Guess what I've been using...trick is that I used a valve pre before going into the Peavey and most things sound very good. I did a gig a few weeks back with my 57 Les Paul Junior and a stomp box or two, and it sounded very good indeed (no valve pre) although repeating with my Les Paul Standard (humbucker) wasn't as good as the P90.

Fine so far (and mine is a used one, don't know its history) and relaible.
Input jack can be touchy.

Have tons of other gear, and tons of geetars.
Have found this little amp a very good all-rounder, usable tones, usable reverb, quite rugged + well made, reliable, compact, good for small live gigs and recording. In some ways a much better amp than you would think. Recommended! I'd have another one or a similar one if this one went elsewhere. I haven't done a lot of comparing, but I guess it is a similar kinda amp to my old M80. Getting a reasonable spring reverb at this price is a bonus.

The amp has its fair share of features. I only want 2 channels, reverb, an eq, and gain, and it has all that and more. like bright switch, thick switch, and a headphone thing, so i'm set. I use this amp only for practice cuz i cant drag my halfstack around, that's actually the only reason i bought this amp, i needed a small combo, loud enough for practice, and i happened to have $200 in my pocket, then i saw this and bought it. BTW, its solid state

So far i've only used it with a '76 reissue Gibson Explorer and it sounds really good for a 100% solid state amp, not as good as a Marshall solid state, but pretty good none the less, better than fender's solid states if you ask me, i played a fender deluxe 90 and it totally sucked. It suits my style ok, i play a lot of Oasis-esque stuff. Its not very noisey either. The clean is pretty clean at high volumes. The distortion is heavier than i need it so i never crank it. I'll rate this compared to other solid states cuz if i rated this against my Marshall JCM2000 DSL, i would just give it a 2, if that, but compared to other solid states, id say....

its a solid state, what can i say?

never dealt with them

I'm in a pretty serious band now (my first actual serious band) and this is very convenient. I just leave it at my drummer's house so whenever we have practice, i just bring one of my gibsons. if it were stolen, i'd buy the peavey envoy, only because this was the only backstage plus they had left and the envoy was only $209. Nothing i really love about it, except how convenient it is. I compared it to an old vox cambridge, and considering the fact that the vox crackled and popped more than rice krispies and there was just a shit load of static and even with the bass on 0 and treble on 10, it sounded like bass was on 10 and treble was on 0 and no im not stupid enough to get them mixed up, i even had the sales man fool around with it, but that's the only amp i compared it to, and also considering teh vox was $300 and much worse than this amp, i decided to get this one. I wish it had tubes, about 65 more watts, no speaker, just a head, 2 reverb channels, 2 channels with 4 modes, a presence control and a stand by switch, but if it had that, i'd be back where i started from. Oh well, i think this amp is good for beginners or for practice. For me, it was a great value, Rock on!

35-Watt, solid state combo with a single 10" speaker. Other features include reverb, saturation(gain), effects loop, and head phone jack.

This amp is no longer with me today, but at the time I was using a Memphis Strat copy, a boss DS-1 distortion and PH-1R phaser. The amp was ok for practice, but it could not hanle live playing very well. The distortion chanel sounded good if you turn the "pre-gain" volume up at lest half way and the saturation on 10. You could then set the overall level with the master volume. The problem is that if you want to switch back to the clean chanel it gives you a jagged, unwanted distortion, not the smooth break up of a tube amp. At low volumes the amp sounded ok, but definately not a sage worthy amp. I guess that's why they call it the "Back Stage" Plus.

It never gave me a problem, like most solid state amps it is very dependable.

N/A

This was my very first amp (the Memphis was my first electric guitar also). It was a learning experience and it was fun to play around with. I don't knock solid stat amps as I am in the process of looking for one now (maybe the Trademark 60). This amp is no longer made, but I guess if you had no other choice or just wanted somthing to fool around with at home this might be an amp to look for (used of course). I sold it several years ago to a keyboard player who actually liked the way it sounded with his Korg O1-W so I guess I could recomend it for keyboard players as well.

2 channel solid state practice amp. Gain, Saturation and Volume, not labled as such, but those are the first 4 knobs. 3 band passive EQ, which comes BEFORE THE PREAMP. Which means if you want to scoop/boost mids or really alter the tone of the distortion, you're out of luck.
HUGE reverb. This thing sounds like a giant empty school gym, really bright, too. The Post gain(volume)also controls the reverb send.
2 button footswitch input,reverb/ saturation.
The peavey Saturation crcuit is goofily arranged, in my opinion. The pre-gain sets the overall input volume, which I believe is intended to be set for a clean tone with the saturation off. The thing is, if you turn it up with the saturation on, it increases distortion, while turning up the saturation knob increases high harmonics in the distortion and sounds more, well, saturated. So you have all kinds of distortion voicings, some quite usefull. Pull bright on the Pre gain, mid boost on high EQ, once again, before the preamp.

My suggestion is to BREAK THIS AMP!
This thing was an OK practice amp before I broke it. Now it has a GREAT leadtone, still solid state in overall quality, but closer to power tube distortion than any other SS amp I've heard. Unique, responsive, compressed, and very transparent. For the best sound I can get out of this amp, I turn the saturation off, the pre gain to at least 5,sometime to 10. A boost pedal and the controls on the guitar give me a huge amount of tonal variety. I usually roll the tone on my guitar off, but sometime the brightness of this amp is desirable, so I open it up, and flip the bright switch on.
I use an Ibanez Universe, usually plugged directly into the amp, sometimes I use a Boss Hyper Fuzz to get a harsher sound at low volumes, IE, when I'm using this as a practice amp.

How I broke this amp:
turning everything to 10, with a cheap overdrive pedal with everything on 10 into it, with my 5150's preamp out with everything on 10 into that, with a broken archtop into that. left it on for about 10 minutes. I recorded this.
How I think you should do it:
Take any distortion pedal with alot of volume(any boss should do, Visual sound don't have much output, DOD would to, too), turn everything to the max, then run an EQ pedal with everything on the max into that. turn the Pre gain and saturation knobs to the max, turn the post up high enough to get your guitar string feeding back and let your guitar feedback for a good long while. Or play through that noise.
This will give you basically no clean tone, but more sustain, smoother tone and an overally more 'natural' sound.

Oh, and this thing gets LOUD! I can hardly belive it's 35 SS watts. The power amp distortion isn't as musical as the preamp, but it is usable. Not tube like, but usable.

I broke it and it still works, the cords to the reverb tank are breaking, but that's probaly for using it to haul cables and pedals.
This was my first amp, and I'll never get rid of it.

I've never had ANY trouble getting help from Peavey with amp troubles. Their website's very informative.

I'm hoping someday to get a tone like this with a real tube amp. The Fuchs Audio Overdrive Supreme sounds about right. Now I just need to find an ould junky tube amp and save up.
This amp can be had for $35. If someone broke it first, less, and it saves you the trouble.
This is possible the best value in a bluesy solid state amp.

Just make sure it's broken.

35W 10" speaker, reverb (when it works) and distortion, foot-switchable.

I use it with an Ibanez AF-120 for traditional quartet and trio jazz. With a touch of reverb, I can get a surprisingly nice, full-bodied mellow tone that I much prefer over that of larger and more expensive amps. It's okay for practice or a quite dinner gig, but breaks up at higher volumes. With the distortion up, it sounds like a typical little solid-state amp.

The itty-bitty wires in the reverb unit have broken oh...several hundred times. Everything else has worked without problems for the past 14 years.

Never dealt with them.

For the money, this was a fabulous value. I'd love to get the same tone in a larger amp with more headroom.

I got this back in the mid-80s when I was first learning to play. It replaced a whimpy Gorilla amp.

I thought it was so cool with it's foot pedal for reverb and distortion. It had hi/lo/mid and pull knobs for thick and thin. Pre- and post- volume knobs. The norm.

Well, it has been a great bedroom amp for the price for over 15 years. It ain't a Marshall or a Fender or whatever. Then again, it didn't come at Marshall, Fender or whatever prices.

It's a solid state, so you get the unremarkable tone. Obviously, you get the convenience of never having to replace a tube or having to let it warm up.

It's noisy now, but it is 15 years later and it has been through a lot. It used to be pretty quiet, so I can't completely fault it for it's show of age.

Even now, it still has a better tone than other solid-state amps in it's price range.

Omigod, it has been through wars. It looks worn, but it is still intact.

I do admit that the reverb has gone out on me twice. After fixing it once, I've just decided to let it die.

As for the noise I get out of this thing. Sure, it's had a hard life, but I would have expected it to last a bit longer than 15 years.

There could have been some better design in the amp's reliability.

Dude, the warranty expired on this thing when Reagan was President. I have never spoken to Peavey.

It was good, in the way that Suzanne Summers used to be hot.

It gets points for a long-relationship with me. However, it's old and it is time for me to find a new playmate.

Nonetheless, it will always stay with me for sentimental reasons.