Peavey Blazer 158

Made in China, paid $27.00 used from some guy
Versatility: Narrow
2 Channels, lead and clean. Has Modern and Vintage switching but hardly any difference in tone.
Difference between Blazer and Rage is that Blazer has a Reverb channel.
Headphone Jack: Yes. Strange thing is that the distortion comes out crunchier like an early Green day sound and improves through the out.
I use this amp only at home.
With the volume set to over halfway it's not that loud. All 15 watts aren't usable.
Uses Transtube technology.

Jackson Kelly Std Pro.

Doesn't really suit all of my playing styles. It does a decent job for one, see next paragraph. It has really low amounts of drive, like a fender amp. When you palm mute on max. Gain it has a round bloated sound, not sharp for any kind of rock.

The type of overdrive on this makes my guitar sound like its using single coils, without the twang. It seems to sound a lot like the indie Jrock band Noodles overdive through a strat, and suits that style. Take note I'm using a Kelly with Humbuckers. It even hums on any guitar like its single coiled. Isn't that strange?
The amp sounds pretty veiled, as if you have cotton in your ears or something. Not raw enough for even AC/DC sound.

This thing is already at least a decade old and has no issues and I paid only $27 usd for it. So its reliable, but just like your gramma its slow and muffled in the ears.

Too old to deal with customer support.

I'm a new guitar player but I understand sound and effects, equipment over the years through being a gear nerd.

No I would kinda rejoice from its demise actually.

I don't like this amp too much it makes my expensive guitar sound like a squier. Interesting i can get a single coil sound, but not desireable since I can't turn off that kind of effect that's permanent to its character. Yes I've tried other humbuckijng guitars on this, that cost way more.

I guess I knew what I was getting into. Strapped for cash but I needed an amp til I can afford a Peavey Vypr. 27 bucks I guess I got what it was worth. I don't see why anyone would pay anymore for it.

A lot to be desired. Peavey makes good stuff but they drop the ball on some of their products.

This is a solid state amp made for bedroom practice or very small gigs with very small bands (trio?). It was made probably in the nineties, the design with the blue underlined chassis and aluminium stripes left and right. It is a versatile amp for the money. It is a two channel amp with reverb, preamp out, headphone out (switches speaker off) and delivers 15 Watt into an eight inch speaker (4 Ohm). I never use the pre out. I use the headphone jack but never with the distortion on. THe sound is so buzzy it saw your head off. I use it for practice. For the price it is good value for money.

The clean channel is quite good, a lot better than most other amps out there in the same price range. It starts to distort at 2 oClock (with humbuckers). The reverb sounds good if not cranked up too much. The distorion channel is ok but no favorite of mine. You can tailor different types of distortion as the eqs work in the right range. The clean channel is more dynamic. I use a Srat, an ES 335 copy and an Ibanez Sustainmonster SZ320, incredibly good guitar.
You can use that amp for jazz and rock practice. It will do the jopb. It will neither replace a studio nor a Full Marshall stack. It is just a rather noisefree clean amp with a really decent reverb and a distortion option. I give it a nine for the clean tone and the reverb.

I never had problems with this brand or amp. I would never gig without a backup. In some cases a cheap backup amp is better than noe.

They have a good website.

It is a great bang for the buck. The amp sound pretty good and is a good choice unless you really nedd to find some modelling amp or want to play with a rock band. This amp does not model. It just sounds good.

I figure mine was made in 2004 or 2005. All the features have been covered, so I just gotta put my two cents worth on this amp. What is is that people expect when they buy a 15 watt practice amp? From the reviews here, it would appear that people expect to spend 100 bucks on a 15 watt 8 inch speaker practice amp and expect it to sound like a Marshall JCM 900 or something. Jeez - it's a practice amp for Christ sake. Now with that said, I'll rate this for what it is supposed to be - a practice amp, nothing more, nothing less. For a little practice amp, it's quite versatile and does a good job with classic rock, blues and country. No - it won't do metal unless you have some pedals, but then again, most 15 watt solid state practice amps sound like crap with the gain turned all the way up and all the mids turned out. This amp is a good little practice amp and has more than enough power for your living room or bedroom. What more could ya ask for?

I play blues, blues rock, classic rock, country, hard rock, outlaw rock and southern rock and this amp handles all of that very well. The clean channel is pretty doggone good on this amp and it doesn't break up at higher volumes. The distortion isn't brutal - even on the modern settings, it is more of a crunch that does well with hard rock or southern rock but not for metal - which I don't need anyway. I've got two strats, one with h-s-s config and the other with 3 single coils, an SG with two humbuckers, two tele's one with two single coils and one with two humbuckers and a PRS Standard with two humbuckers and the amp sounds fine with all those guitars. Suits my music style just fine for a practice amp and it isn't noisy at all.

Seems built like a tank.

Never head to deal with Peavey's customer support and I use Peavey exclusively.

I've been playing about 40 years and I have the gear mentioned above plus a Peavey Valve King for gigs. I bought this amp for the bedroom to preserve the tubes on my Valve King. I'd get another one if it were lost or stolen. I've compared it to the Marshalls and Fenders in the same price range and this one won out. Best bang for the buck.

I got mine second hand, it was one of those old ones with the green stripe control panel, opposed to the new red stripe. Normal controls, 3 band EQ, 2 channels and a reverb, with headphone and output jacks, though i dont suggest you output this amp. The reverb and EQ suck, reverb makes no difference and makes a loud pop when you turn it on, the EQ doesnt make a difference either. I use it for small practices with my band and it can't keep up, it seems so quiet for a 15W, my friends 10W is even louder.

I'm running it through a Strat with 3 singles, play a lot of anything, metal especially, but also a bit of blues and clean stuff. The clean doesnt distort nor hums but still sounds bad. Sounds a bit funny, can't really explain it, sounds too fake and chords sound rounded, in a bad way. It seems to be very, very hummy, I run it through a Carvin Distortion and it hums sooo bad, It could be just my single coils, but im still not satisfied. The built-in distortion sucks, its very cloudy, you cant even tell what you are playing half the time. the channel switch and the volume are pretty much the only variables, either clean or distorted and volume, other switches dnt alter it drastically. This amp is probably best suite for metalheads, but at this point I don't suggest you use it for anything unless you want a cheap amp.

It is quite solid, would probably survive a hammer attack, but i don't know about 2 hammer attacks... It seems to buzz violently when I drop it however, I think something inside is going to snap soon, like if i dump it onto the ground with it switched on, it makes a shaky sound which I absolutely hate! I would not use it without a backup, but in this case, i wouldnt use it at all beacuse its not good enough.

N/A

Ive only had this and a Ashton 10W amp in my playing year, have noticed this amp is quite bad, though better than the Ashton. I thought it was good when I first bought it, but now after playing for a while longer, I know its junk. Id rather pay another $50 to get a marshall practice amp. Bottom line, It is not a good amp and I don't suggest you get it seeing as there are so many other amps out there. Oh and if someone stole it I wouldnt care.

i buy it new, for price and sound is a good choice.

im in two bands, a punk oll school and a blues progresive, this amp is versatile for that styles FOR PRACTICING and smalls jams. i mosttly use the clean channel, my overdrive come in the pedal, but sometimes i used the lead chanel for more punchy sound, the reverb is fine at 5.
yea is enough power for a little jam, or a small gig, really....., i dunno the previos opinions those guys expect to play in a coliseum with this?? please,
once a take to a gig (100 people) and thake the signal trough the PA, and works very fine.

i will think in add a effects loop will be go into a very fina small amp.

the eq is a little triky until u get ur set up, then works very fine, just going thru modern and vintage switch.

im on a fenders, got a strato 1990, duncan picks, and a fat strat 1993 american clasic picks. this trough a korg 100ax, and works so fine, especially in the dist sound, even better than a marshall 60w and a kustom 65w ive try.

the amps sounds works fine as a clean start to find a sound, u got to find ur sound first, imagine if u change to a fender frontman, a crate, a soldano, ur sound will be always changing, first find ur sound and then try to recreate that on an amp, if it can do it, is a good amp, no matter the style, soung, watage, etc.

never broke, it looks new, is very strong

never ask for some

ive benn playing 10 years, my sound is my two strato, and like changing the sound very often, but "my" sound is deep in my brain for years, so no matter the amp, i try to put it in that, and this practice amp work fine, is versatile, have crisp higs and deep bass, maybe more bass will be great, but it will give personalitty to the amp sound.

i like to ask to the people who say this amp is crap, etc,,, if they have been record in a studio some, and i as a studio musican can say this amp is enouhg, whit some effects and racks, u can get pro sound, believme.

if u want to play in a stadium will spent some 10 000 in amps, and a guitar of 3 000, and 6 000 in racks and effects so do the math.

so for 100 bucks, this amp sound pretty well, a medium pedal, and u can get some very decent sounds, and even jam live.

and most important--- the final sound is in ur brain and ur fingers, no matter ur equipment,,,,, so when u where ready to go into very pro stuff, ur fingers and brain (theory and thechnique)will be pro too.

i it were stolen i will try onother one, for sure.

I bought this amps in 2002. It has 2 channels, 1 clean, and 1 dirty one. There is one equalizer with bass/mid/treble. It has reverb, and you can select vintage or modern sound. It got cool feature for a little amp. Just a footswitch might have been great. I give a 8 for that kind of amp, I am not comparing it with a 100 watts head...

I'm using a fender fat strat. I use a boss overdrive/distortion OS-2, because the distortion is not really good. I play old hard rock, like Deep Purple, Led Zep, and some AC/DC, and the disto wasn't able to give me that. I got some difficulties with the reverb, well I can't use it anymore, well I never use it because it was already broke. The reverb, whan put on, starts to make a kinda feed back sound, and it kill your sound. If you are a beginner, the sound is good, but if you have been playing a little, maybe you won't like it

As I said, the reverb is doing feedback. And the equalizer (bass and mid) never work !!! Only the treble is doing something

I've been playing for only 2 years, I can say I'm a intermediare player. I change my blazer for a peavey for a marshall tsl 602. Yes it's 8 time the price but my good, we can't compare. If your begin it will make you a nice amp for one or two year. But if you want a little amp with a good disto, go look away

This is the lowest priced offering from Peavey that has reverb. The Rage is the next lower step and the Audition the lowest priced. Two channel that can be selected by switch only. Clean has volume only and dirty has pre and post gain knobs. Low, mid and high knobs and reverb knob. Vintage and Modern switch and Instrument, CD and Headphone inputs. Single 8 inch speaker with 15 watt rating on amp. For an amp in this price range it is well designed and I would not expect more features or power. Quality of cabinet and electronics are as good or better than others in this price range. The only change I would have made would be a closed back cabinet.

I have to believe from other reviewers that they think they should expect boutique sounds and do world tours with this thing. This thing was made for bedroom jamming or at the most low volume practice with friends. For the price it sounds way better than alot of the "practice amps" out there. I play on the neck pickup on my Strat ot the bridge hotrail on my Tele with the tone knob rolled down a bit on the guitars to get the best sounds. This thing smoke the old Peavey Audition I had in the 80's. That was noise! I keep the dust cover on my $1000 amp because this thing sounds sweet at low house jam volumes and is plain fun to play through. I expect the low ratings are because the average age of buyers at this price point are lower and some think if it can't make them sound like Hendrix it's crap. Metal players may pass on this model but for everything else it can do the trick. I rarely use the clean channel. Playing with the pre/post and your guitars volume/tone will get some great tones. Been playing 20+ years. This amp does it's job well. Is it perfect sounding? No. But for the price it does the job well with mellow jazz or nice blues rock crunch. I guarantee I shop harder than most for my equipment. A best buy for the price! I rate on bang for buck, not it doesn't sound like my friends Mesa. Duh....

Peavey builds good stuff. Working man's gear at a fair price. The cabinet is built tough and everything nicely finished. I take care of my stuff unlike some here that seem to enjoy trying to trash theirs so mommy can buy them something else.

Never needed it though others seem pleased with their service and website.

I looked at practice Marshalls, Fenders and the others. The sound and construction quality seemed better in the Peavey. I may swap out the speaker like one reviewer mentioned and see what happens. I know I got my monies worth and will enjoy many hours of practice and small house jams with this amp. You can pick these thing up on eBay for half the retail price. Mine was in like new condition. Thanks HC for the great site!

Bought this in 2001 from Sound Control in Edinburgh for #99. I've been playing for a few years so I'm an intermediate level guitarist I spose and I like to play various Rock (AC/DC, Ash, Darkness, Radiohead, Manics, White Stripes etc.) and some more mellow acoustic stuff too. You know the score with the channels/controls etc. They do the job at a basic level. Powerwise its fine, I only use it for playing at home.

I use it with an Ibanez RG320, which I bought purely for the features and the value for money, I'm not a metal fan in any way. Maybe the guitar is partly to blame for this, but the clean channel sounds crap, and varies each time I use it. Sometimes it decides to vary half way through a song. On overdrive it is unbelievably noisy, like the guitar is an aerial and the amp is some cruddy radio that just makes a static fuzz. Variety wise, it can give a heavy fuzz which has no real quality to it - if you strum a chord its just a mass of fuzz, and when you play a chord progression it sounds terrible. It sounds better with basic power chords but still not great. It sounds mildly better at volume to a point but then it becomes far too noisy again. Basicly, this was my second amp after a Fender Squire strat pack amp which was horrendous, so at first I thought it sounded ok. Now I know what I want it to sound like it lets me down in every way. Its a cheap amp granted, but it should be a lot cheaper. Save up some more and get a marshall AVT, which is what I intend to do.

Again, a let down. Shortly after buying it it started doing this weird thing where the volume would just increase of its own accord to a shrill shreak and then the amp would just sort of 'pop' while it corrected itself. Its never actually broken but it doesn't have any consistency at times and it annoys the hell out of me.

I took it back to the shop and the idiot behind the counter kept it for a day and tested i but found nothing wrong. It never went back to Peavy, which I should perhaps have demanded, but I don't really care any more.

if it broke I'd chuck it out and not feel a thing, if it was stolen I'd cry laughing at the thought that someone had taken the effort to steal such a piece of crap.

I'm using the older version of the Blazer (think it's a 1996), the one sans all the red lining and the vintage/modern switch. Two channel (clean/dirty) w/volume control for clean and pre/post settings for dirty. EQ with bass/mid/treble and reverb. Line out and headphone jack. Carry handle on top. Fairly solid body and construction with factory 8" speaker.

A footswitch for the dual channels would of been good, but I never use the dirty channel anyway. For a practise amp, it's well-kitted enough to get by on and has everything the basic user should need. One should note it's a practise amp after all, designed to be used in low-level personal use. A lot of people seem to have bought this with gigging in mind and whilst I'm sure you could play to a small venue of 30 people at the local pub in a room the size of a garage, you'd never want to gig with it.

The clean channel is the superior of the two and the EQ controls are reasonably responsive if tweaked right. The feature I like the most is probably the reverb, it sounds quite authentic. This is one of the first 'Transtube' Peavey amps. I haven't noted the 'Transtube' technology making it sound more like a tube amp until recently when the clean channel started doing weird stuff as I mention in the Sound catergory.

There are definitely nice practise amps out there, but this one is pretty good for the price I paid. If it had some effects, even just a chorus and tremelo built it, I would of rated it far higher. I think the modern version of the Blazer looks a little tackier, but has a nice adition in the vintage/modern selector. I like the fact it's 15w as well - I've compared it to a couple of 10w and 12w practise amps of similar make and age and this amp sounds a lot better.

I use this amp with two guitars, my pride and joy, a '95 Epiphone G-400 SG replica with dual Alcino humbuckers and my backup, a 2003 20th Anniversary Squire Bullet Strat with three single coils. My setup usually goes like this:

G-400/Bullet > Boss DS-1 Distortion > Boss BD-2 Blues Driver > Ibanez SC-10 Stereo Chorus > Danelectro DJ-1 Pastrami Overdrive > Danelectro DJ-11 Pedal Tuner > Peavey Blazer 158.

I play rhythm guitar/fills and do vocals in an 5-piece indie-rock band with three guitars. For what I use it for, the Blazer works okay. It sounds good with the BD-2 for subtle overdrive and SC-10 for a variety of chorus effects. The DS-1 played over the BD-2 sounds great, just give the sound a bit of extra bite. I use the Pastrami when I want to get a really fuzzy sound.

These effects all work very well on the Clean channel, which actually sounds very nice on its own, especially on humbuckers. I virtually never use the Dirty channel on this amp because it quite simply sucks. Sounds hollow, cold and lacking - the only time it ever sounds any good is with single coils i.e my Squire Bullet. I get a much crisper, warmer sound from my effects, though this amp has a 'lukewarm' sound overall in terms of tonal colouring.

The Reverb is the best of all the features. It's solid sounding with a definite punch. It works best set between 3 and 5 - any less and you can't hear it, any more and it muffles the sound. I think it'd sound great with a delay. The EQ section is most effective when set on no mids and bass/low and treble/high a little over halfway. The mids just haze the sound to much.

The downfall of this amp is its volume level - it hits after 7 and starts to sound like crap - all volume, no sound and a horrible thumping noise. I've found it's actually pretty effective at 6 with the guitar volume/s on full and the level knobs on my effects cranked up a little. However, it's still only got a very limited sound and I've tried it with single coils and humbucker, the latter sounding better but the single coils proving better on the Dirty channel.

The most interesting thing I've found is the Blazer has a quite nice low natural distortion on the Clean channel with no effects at around 9 on the volume and the EQ set flat (all on 5). It's not tube, but it's pretty close, though it can be a bitch to replicate and and I don't like pushing the volume above 7 generally unless the guitar is down really low.

However, my bandmate uses a 10w Park amp with far less features and no reverb on his Squire Telecaster and it tears my Blazer to shreds. The only effect he has is a Danelectro Fab-Tone distortion and he can get some brilliant powerful distortion like you'd not beleive. The volume on that Park is amazing as well. I got this amp because I wanted to sound closer to the other guitarists, who use the afformetioned Park and a tidy Kustom 12 Tube preamp, which again slashes me to ribbons. The Blazer manages to hold its own, but I have my plethora of effects to thank for that.

The biggest downfall is the lack of volume and crap distortion on this amp, but the EQ and Reverb quality do balance it out. A 10" speaker over an 8" would of probably sorted all the problems.

The one thing the Blazer has proven time and time again is that it is a solid little unit. I've transported this thing around in the back of my car and those of my bandmates where it's been thumped about and generally roughed up. There is not a mark on it and the speaker seems pretty intact for its estimated age. I think the last owner may of been quite careful with it as it was well presented when I bought it.

The wood used for the costruction is solid as granite. I tested it by poking a pin into it and the pin actually broke! It's strong enough to balance my weight on it for as well, though I'm one of those tall, lanky types so I can't weigh much =D The speaker cloth is pretty thin though, but the switches are well attached and hard to get off. The washers on the speaker jacks are particularly tight.

I would gig without a backup, but only if I was playing at a party or small bar. This amp could not handle a crowd of more than 30 people I wager. It's never broken down, but I believe that I am quickly wearing the speaker out and will probably sell it and upgrade within the next six months, possibly to a small tube amp or solid state with amp modelling like the Roland Cube 30.

Got it second hand, never spoken to Peavey or even looked at their website. All information I have got on this amp has been from Harmony Central.

I've been playing the guitar for about six or seven years on and off, but only seriously in the last eighteen months. The band I'm currently in only gets together to jam once a week and although we haven't gigged, it could grow more likely next year. The Blazer suits my needs for now, but it is starting to show its limitations more increasingly.

Whilst it's been very reliable, it has proven itself to be very lacking in the variety department. I can only get a limited range of sounds out of it even with effects pedals and they often require a bit of adjusting.

If it was stolen, I'd probably not buy another one - the newer models are about $300 and for a hundred or so more, I can get a 30-50w solid state with built in effects, footswitch and possibly amp modelling.

Overall, this product is best purchased second hand and used for the first six months to a year of guitar playing or if you like a clean sounding amp for quiet practise. This particular amp gets a 7 because it's done everything I bought it for.

Bought and made in 2002. I play mostly punk and oi...bought this amp to practise around the house. Two channels, clean and dirty. An effects loop'd definitely improve the overall rating of this amp. Standard 15 watt solid state features. Nothing on here to create any unique tones. Enough power? Well, for a practise amp, sure.

With the reverb on the speaker farts annoyingly upon turning it on. Haha. Yeah, not much versatility in the EQ...you can't tell a scoop from a smiley. With a bunch of effects you can make this thing sound alright. Umm, lets see, what else. When cranked, the clean channel distors minorly. The distortion is ok. Nothing special and yet it doesn't completely suck. Good for beginners.

Yes! In the year I've had it, this amp's taken alot of abuse. Crazy feedback, accidental dropping, etc. It sounds the same as the day I bought it.I tip my hat, Peavey.

Haven't dealt with them. Don't need to, this things a bloody tank.

Very good to start with. It's relatively cheap, and blows the doors off the Fender Squire. Haha. Wow, I even gigged with this once. Basement show in front of 30 or so people. It sucked, but still, for a practise amp, it'll suit any beginner just fine.

This amp is a basic solid state practice combo amp. It's average so I'll give it a seven.

The distortion is actually alright on this thing, just don't turn the treble above 5 on the amp. If you do it kinda craps out these real nasal sounds. It also depends on what type of guitar your using. for a while I was using a strat with it, it was alright, but not like running a strat through a nicer amp like a Jtm or Matchless. It's more of a metal type tone. When I had my Ibanez Destoryer[the old one] it sounded pretty good. Kind of a low end growl. but the thin cabinet really makes the speaker suck. Personally I don't like peavey speakers, they sound like garbage, this one was no different. It put to much Highs in the signal. In my experience the sound was about average for a practice amp

I actually gigged with this amp once. It performed as well as it could. I never had an electronics problem with my amp, but I have done service on the older Peavey blazers.

never needed it.

Decent practice amp, but I traded it in with my destroyer for My line 6 Flextone III obviously that amp is superior. but for what it is this amp isn't bad. I much prefer my Vox pathfinder to this though.

input, cd, lead (pre, post) 3 band eq, reverb knobs. play mainly blues and guitar based insturmental. is a transtube solidstate amp. use it for home useage. doesnt do the job very well

using a mex-strat. doesnt do the job with bluse becuase the overdrive and distortion is terribe. the only good feature on here that is even OK is the reverb. the rest sux. if you are a high gain junky dont even look at this amp. speaker cant handle very high volumes, starts to crack and pop. clean is decent. distortion/overdive sux. you can get nice sustain if you turn the reverb up, its about the only nice sound you can get out of it. but i still dont recomend it. it cant make many sounds that actually sound natural. you will most likely have to run a few pedals or even a multi effects processor through it to get a little more variety but it wont be straight through.

very relible for home use, has never done any giging. the speaker has a very loud noticable pop when you turn it off. input gets kinda loose after a while, but its is easy to screw in. no tubes, no fuss

N/A never needed to call them, ask for anything

it is a nice beginers amp, but after maybe 5-6 months you will start to hate it because of lack of sounds you can get out of it, the distortion/overdrive arnt that great. clean is decent. for a begineers amp it is ok but if you know exactly what you are looking for then shop and try a few more amps out and buy 1 that you can have forever

I have to sound off on this. Especially based on the reviews I see below.

It's a 15 watt practice amp with an 8" speaker. Anyone who looks at this as anything else is kidding themselves. I bought this for my nephew who is learning to play. The only other feature it could use is an effects loop but even that is getting carried away.

First off, look at the amp. Do you see gigs? Do you see stadium tours? Do you even see garage jams with a full band? I don't. I see a practice amp that's capable of getting a reasonably wide range of decent practice tones. From clean to gritty to a nice overdrive this amp has it.

This one is a 2001 model which is one of the new generation transtubes. I don't know if that makes a difference or not but I mention it anyway.

In the store I compared it to similar sized practice amps like Fender, Crate & Marshall but the Blazer was head and shoulders above them all: More depth. More low end. Better overdrive with less buzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just so you don't think I'm completely nuts, no, it didn't have any real low end thump. The maxed out volume would not be enough to do anything but practice or record but the speaker wasn't farting out either. Perhaps you could gig with it if you mic'd it but I wouldn't really plan on that unless you had to. If you've gigged successfully with it then I tip my hat. It just lacks too much (like foot switchable channels, effects loop, sufficient power and speaker size) to be a good gigging amp. But I dare say that I think the fundamental tone is there. Even if it is in a little bitty form.

I can't say. I played it for a couple of days before I gave it to my nephew. Generally speaking PV makes very durable products.

Peavey has an excellent web site with very attentive moderators. They answer questions quickly most of the time and I was able to download a manual for this amp.

I'll say it again... it's a 15 watt practice amp with an 8" speaker. I'm not sure what else you could want from this package besides what it provides. I'm not rating it a 10 because it sounds awesome next to a 5150, Bassman, Twin or Mesa. I'm rating it for the little practice amp that it is.

I got my first practice amp in 1974. It was a Fender Bronco with 6 tube watts and one channel. It was shallow sounding and the speaker farted horribly at full volume. I just sold it two years ago so I'm haven't forgotten what it sounded like. I wish I'd had this Blazer instead of that Bronco when I was a kid. I would have had many more satisfying tones at my disposal.

For a tiny practice amp it's a great little stick of dynamite. Accept it for what it is and I doubt you'll be too disappointed.

features are already listed by the fools before me.

This little amp was made in 1996, the "old" version of the transtubes, but not the really bad old versions that came before this. Bottom line 96' is the best year for these things. I've played a modern version of the rage (non-verbing cousin to the blazer) made around 2001, completely different amplifier. Total ass-tastic sound compared to my own.

The Blazer has enough power for practice, and gigging (I've had some sorry ass gigs, the trick was getting the drummer to play quietly. I said "Dammit jack there's 30 goddamn people here, you don't have to pound it out!" so the amp up halfways on its drive channel can play for tiny crowds......unless they were all screaming at once for some reason. Anywho, yeah the thing meets my needs volume wise.

For my musical taste, Alt-blues based grunge rock, the blazer managed not to chop up my playing to much, I mean the notes still came out of the carboard sound daiphram thing.....the trick is to have good intonation I can stress this enough.

I did like the play along jack.....when I play with my favorite cd it's like I'm really there in the studio playing with lisa lo...err Van halen...yes, tough hetrosexual van halen. And the headphone jack is good cause you can rock out without waking anybody

It is a solid-state device but peavey uses it's PATENTED TRANSTUBE technology invented by insane chinese robots.

I'm using a MIM stratocaster with the rig/Epi SG......works well with both brands of inferior third world magnetic devices.

You have your basic drive and clean channles. The clean is quite nice for SS.....very clear, and it sort of breaks up like a tube amp when the volume is all the way up, but you really have to push it. The lead avenue is alright. Nice punchy distortion, good for whatever, but it still sounds a bit like ass......meh good enough for things

Don't plan on it sounding good cranked, it doesn't do "loud" well, especially with reverb......the tank has a habit of clanking around

The insides are top notch...good quality components, great layout and design. The input jack breaks on all of the rages and blazers, nothing 1/2hrs worth of soldering can fix. The box is very heavey..looks solid, I have yet to set it on fire and drag it behined a pickup truck, but it looks solid.

I would gig without a backup, I can't see a very tiny SS device blowing up on me

I bought the amp used, so no warranty....I'm sure peavey loves all its customers even if they are taking sloppy seconds

It's the best 15watt 1X8 SS combo I've come across

Got this amp september 2002. originally this amp was quite impressive. Its features are reasonable given the price. Never understood the difference is sound between vintage and modern. Reverb is ok. I hate the switch to go between clean and Overdrive. No foot switch. Fairly standard amp for the price range. Nothing special.

I play rock music generally... ranging from hard rock to very soft indie sounds. Led Zepplin to the datsuns. REM to Smashing Pumpkins(the best band ever). Its versatile enough. just lacks the depth and quality of sound.to make it special.

I play a Gibson Les paul studio. Got it second hand. original studio pick ups. WHen I first got the amp it was very good. Over drive was very good... now after less than a year is has a buzz when I turbn it on. I will be taking it back to see if I can get this fixxed under the guarentee. overdrive has really dies recently. Clean is nothing special although when on a mellow tone on trhe guitar with reverb it sounds great! I think my clean channel has also lost alot of its power to how I remember it. It used to be good-- better than my mates marshall amps in the same price range. but its not a durible one.

Its just a practice amp. But its let me down in its poor state after just a year. I take good care of it... not so much now that its broken though

never dealt with them as yet. I am taking it back to the place I got it from soon to see what they can do... I reccomend "Coda music" for cheap prices but they aren't the most effeicient shop... certainly cheap guitar prices.

I have been playing guitar for two years now... electric for just one year. I still much prefer the good old western acoustic guitar. I am saving currently for a fender deluxe 90 DSL. Not a peavey or marshall. If this was stolen... I wouldn't buy peavey again. Very poor durability. Hate the humming overdrive. I wouldn't reccomend it if you're after a lasting practice amp.

Enought power to fill your bedroom. Nothing else. Headphone jack (mine does a weird buzz. my drummer likes it "sample it!"). Clean channel and "tube" channel. This one is a bad joke. Reverb. To explore. Perfect first amp.

Kind of poor. I use it to explore a new dimension of noise and "errors". I use it exclusively for noise. My main amp is a fender pro jr. I use it for clean sounds. I play in a slowcore experimental minimalist noise band. If I want to bring weird noises to the world I use this little bastard. The shit can be useful too. When my guitar is feedbacking I move it and it produces some beautiful "klankkkkkkkkkks!!!!" and "brrommmmmmmkkkkkkkks!!!!"

It seems kind of fragile. I abuse it very much. One day it will die and anyone in the band will cry.

never deal with peavey

I've been playing for 15 years. I must admit this amp is totally crap but just fits in the kind of music I'm interested in. If it were stolen probably i'll never get the same sounds from another peavey blaze. The abuse has customized the particular sound of the amp. There is a wery particular relationship between the amp and me. I hate it as a musician but I love it as a romantic experimentalist. In normal conditions I play mostly blues and folk tune in the style of nick drake with many diferent tunnings. In the future when the amp die, I dont know what will I do. Probably go to another flea market to find more noise units.

sorry for my english. :-)

I purchased this amp in the year 1996. This is a 15 watt amplifier, with an 8" speaker. 3 tone controls (High, Mid and Bass), Seperate volume for clean channel, Pre and Post distortion controls, Reverb, Headphone jack, CD/Tape input. The overdrive channel features Peavy's "Transtube" technology which is more of a marketing ploy. The cabinet is open in the back.

I'm using this amp with a Squire strat w/ a seymore duncan bridge pickup or a Art & Luthiere acoustic/electric. The midrange and treble is very clear and bright, but the bass is another story. The tone of low E and A strings severely lacks depth and sounds very unnatural. It can sound loud, but not very complete. The reverb works pretty well, if the amp didn't have it, it would be a very sad amp indeed. Overdrive is one-dimensional. An A power chord may sound a bit gutsy, but play a D power chord and it sounds quite nasal. No amount of tweaking the pickups, volume and tone controls will fix this. If you like heavy distortion, forget about this amp completely.

The CD/Tape input lacks a volume control. The audio performance from it is mediocre, I really don't see it as very useful.

The cabinet of the amp is very tough. I'm sure it will survive rough treatment. The input jack is another story. It tends to get loose and becomes intermittent even with little use.

Never had to deal with Peavy.

If you want to use this amp when first learning how to pluck out a few chords and don't want to make a high dollar investment this amp may be adequate. Once you learn the basics dump this amp immediately and get something better. A cheap amp like this robs you of the joy of playing the guitar since you can't even hear your own music to it's fullest!

I got this december of 2001, not sure what year but it was new at the time. I play mainly alternative rock and general rock and it sounds fine for that when used below 7 on volume. There's a lead and clean channel, with eq for each. Its also got a modern/vintage voicing switch, which is handy to subtley alter your sound. Reverb is also cool. Its got a headphone jack, but no effects loop. I use this amp mainly for playing in my room, but thats all the wattage is powerful enough for. I use it at band practices but its just not powerful enough. I have to use it at about 9 just to be heard beside my other guitarist. Im hopefully gonna be getting at least a 60 watt soon, enough for band practices and gigs.

I am using an Ibanez GRX20 (cheap) with a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal, and a Boss CE-5 chorus. Its good for practice, and it can be noisy, although that could be my pedals, or the guitar. The lead channel when used with lots of gain is really noisy and lots of feedback. This is one of the reasons i got a pedal. However i did like some of the dist sounds i could get out of the amp alone. The clean channel does distort occasionally at volumes above about 8, and sometimes sound even cuts out completely.

This aint powerful enough to gig with, and even if it was i wouldnt, as it occasioanlly cuts out when used at high volumes for a while. However its great for practice, when used below 7.

never dealt with company, but i think the warranty was for a year. i might take it in and just get it checked for the cutting out problem.

I have been playing for a year now and this was my first amp. I will soon hopefully be upgrading to a more powerful amp which can be used in my band. My setup is Ibanez GRX20 > Boss CE-5 > Boss DS-1 > Peavey Blazer 158. If it were stolen or lost, id just not worry about it and get my new amp sooner. I like the eq on both channels, and i like some of the distortion sounds i can get out of it. if it had more power and didnt cut out, it would be great. overall a great practice amp.

15watt (1x8") transtube amp. 2 Channel switch> Clean/Overdrive.
All standard knobs> PRE/POST - LOW/MID/HIGH.
Features Reverb which is pretty good for a 15watt amp.
CD/TAPE input. Which you can also plug a 2nd guitar or bass amp into but you only get clean sound through it. You could also plug in a mic. Also has headphone input for practicing in silence. Nice little amp for practicing with at home, it can be pretty loud for its class.

I play heavy rock and the like. And for its size its pretty sweet. On my epiphone les paul the clean tone is very sweet, nice open feel to it when you use the reverb. The tone of the clean sound also sparkles. It has some end of sustain too when you use all that reverb. In distortion mode this amp can achieve a nice sound. Upping the pre and keeping the post down it has a nice little crunch, and with reverb on full it gives that echo of sustained crunch. But it doesnt pack a huge whollap, I find it plays well on both overdrive extremes be it that high gain crunch or the low end sounds. But it doesnt have that perfect 'in the middle' that you slightly start to hear if you down the reverb.

The Clean tone starts to shake when you put it past 7, but on 7 it transcened's that nice echo of power you want in a clean tone. It's pretty nifty for its size. If Peavey put a 10" in this It would be one amazing little amp. Also in distorion mode the buzz and feedback is insane if you have high gain, not nice at all, But not that you hear it when your playing =p Another factor is when I use a wah in distorion, it seriously sucks. Gets very overprocessed and if you turn down the gain it has no crunch. But It's expected with a little amp like this.

I bought it new about 5+ years ago, never had it serviced. Only have it for home use but its been kicked and so on, hehe. And it seems to be handling that very well.

Never had any problems with it, So I've never seeked support.

This is my first ever amp, But I've played on many others. Im soon to upgrade but this little baby has been very helpful. I still love the clean tone of it. This is a perfect beginners amp!. Overall its very nice for home use and practice. I wouldnt use it for gigs, It could probably get over drums but not cleanly and it doesnt have that crunch so its a start amp, a stepping platform to move up from. If it was stolen back when I first got it, I would look for the same kinda amp but maybe more watts. Still it does well for a 15watt amp. I wish it had a 10" speaker also the 2nd input (CD/TAPE) Should click to distortion also, that would make it an awesome package.

Just wanted to share a mod I made to my amp. I got this amp 2-3 yrs ago from my wife, Christmas present. It immediately impressed me with the tones and volume I could get, especially with pedals throught the clean channel. The only issue I had was the original speaker started to bottom out and sound muddy at volume of 8-10. Let's face it. Nothing sounds better than an abused little amp. I found a webpage (Vintagespeaker.com) which carries Jensen guitar speakers. I ordered the 8" and plugged it in. What an incredible difference. This amp absolutely screams for mercy now. Ths sound is fuller, louder, and crystal clear. Actually had to back off on the treble setting quite a bit. I use this amp for practice at home, with the band, and on stage. Stick a mic in front of it and wail! Anyway, it became obvious where Peavey saves on materials cost. Otherwise, this amp smokes!

15 watts, 2 channels, pre-amp tube, solid state power amp. Has a reverb knob. Has an input jack, CD input, which is a pretty cool feature and can be used for a second guitar (though it only goes to the clean channel), and headphone jack. Also has a Modern/Vinage switch, which is pretty cool. Pretty much standard practice amp feature with a couple cool add ons.

This amp perfectly fits my style, which is blues (John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy), blusey hard rock (Hendrix, Zeppelin), some metal, and R&B/funk/soul (Parliament/Funkadelic). The clean channel is very clean - it's virtually impossible to tell if you are hearing the amp or the unplugged sound of your instrument. I wish it was a bit warmer though. The clean channel is noticably quiter than the lead channel. The lead channel, however, is much warmer and pretty much the only channel I ever use. With the pre-amp gain on about 5 or 6 you can get some very nice blues tones (though I wish the amp had more bass for the blues). Up toward the 8s, 9s, and 10s, you'll get very good for bluesy hard rock like Zeppelin (my favorite band, btw, so I play them a lot). Think of Rock & Roll by Zep or Foxey Lady by Jimi and that's pretty much the type of distortion you'll get (and that's exactly what I wanted). If you like darker metal or nu-metal, this probably isn't a good amp for you to practice on (as I've noticed with some of the eariler reviews), though I can get some decent Sabbath tones. The lead channel gets a bit noisy on really high volumes, though if you're playing that loud you probably won't notice it all that much. The clean channel isn't very loud at all, but for a 15-watt solid-state practice amp, on lead channel this amp is loud!!! On pre gain to 8 and post gain on 2, I can be heard anywhere in the house, and with post gain on 5, I can be heard across the street. It's no Fender Twin or Marshall stack, but it has good tone for a practice amp. Compare it with similar practice amps and it's great. Just wish the lead channel didn't have that noise and the clean channel was warmer.

This amp is built like a tank. If you can put a dent into these walls, you must work for the demolition derby or something. The electronics are inside a metal box inside of the wooden armor, so they're pretty much impossible to damage (though I guess it would be hard to fix if they were broken). It's very dependable. I got it pretty much to practice at home and do small jams with friends, though if I was too lazy to get a bigger amp it might be able to do a small gig. Wouldn't think about gigging with this on a regular basis at all though.

Haven't dealt with them.

Pretty good practice amp. The features and sound would make this amp rated an 8, but it has two features that push up the score and are vital for a practice amp: it's ultra-dependable because there is no way it will break, and it can get that extra volume when you have friends over to jam. If I lost it I'd probably buy one again just so I could jam at home. Even Jimi Hendrix used a cheap practice amp when he jammed backstage, so I see no reason why you should keep one of these around at home. This is definately not an amp to practice hardcore metal on (repeat, don't buy this if you to practice if you want to be in a death metal band!), but it's good to practice blues and bluesy hard rock on.

Well I'm sure all of you can look at the other posts and see the features but in a nutshell theres two channels, clean and distortion, and 3 knob EQ with a modern/vintage switch (practicly like those bight switches on old fenders). Wish it had a "line out". Hence it gets a "9". Only had it for a couple weeks but got it set up perfect. Impressing people already. Oh yeah sound goes to hell over 8. But what do you expect? It's 15 watts and its louder than the 30 watt fender my buddy has. Wish it had a "line out". That being said it gets a "9".

I use a Mex strat, I guess I could bore you with my life story of guitars and such but.... I don't ever use the clean channel, I leave it on the distorted channel with the distortion around 1 or 2 (off), and use a Danelectro Overdrive pedal. Took me a while to figure this out. Now that I have tinkered with it it works and sounds AWESOME! I love the reverb effect.

Doubt I could ever really gig with it. Do small little party gigs w/o a drummer I guess. Once I dropped it down the stares cause I got distracted and it took a nasty hit on the knobs! Looked at them and they turn and work fine. Just like new. No worries.

Never had a problem. Dont think I will but if I do I have a warranty.

Playing for a year now and have two guitars and another little amp. So this amp was a godsend. Still wish it had a line out. For a practice amp this is you ticket. If the reverb isn't worth the 30$ then get a Peavey Rage 158. Or better yet bring your guitar in to play on the amps in the store and pick out you an amp.

The new models w/ the red trim and Modern/Vintage toggle switches, reverb, etc.- all covered in other reviews. No line out, no effects loop.

I play rock in a covers/originals band using a Mesa Rectoverb 50 combo & 4x12 cab and Les Paul. However, that setup isn't very convenient for practicing in front of the TV, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Anyway, I went out looking for a cheap-ass small combo, so I could play some Jazz in my livingroom with my wife who plays piano, using my 1989 Washburn J-10. I tried the Fender Frontman, and found it to have a warmer & louder bass, but it was too sharp sounding and had crappy distortion. The cheapest Marshall's had cooler distortion, but no low end. The Peavy was right in between, with both channels sounding good. I like the way it sounds for a livingroom/bedroom amp. I also use it as a tool for working out guitar parts for the band. The reverb is about the "tin-canniest" sounding reverb of the bunch, because it's an unusually short reverb. The Frontman's was more lush with a longer tail, and the Marshall's was a tad mid-rangey. There is however, plenty of reverb to be dialed up on the Peavey- you just sound more like you're at the bottom of the can. The Clean channel sounds nice and round, if perhaps a bit plain, and the controls are effective. The Lead channel, depending on how you set the pre & post gains, can give you anything from very clean to metal type sounds. Maximum gain is still smooth & slightly compressed. I realize that distortion is a highly subjective thing, so I'll just sum it up by saying that it seems to cover everything from clean to blues to metal. Any expectations beyond that would point you to a more expensive amp. The amp also has a two-voicing switch for "Modern" & "Vintage", which yield subtle sonic differences. Modern gives a slightly scooped mid w/a bit more lows, and Vintage focuses a bit more toward the mids. You have to turn the amp up a little to hear the difference, but it's there. -Kinda cool and useful to me. This little box does enough for my needs. So for the price I paid, I think it's the best deal I could find in a small and cheap practice amp.

Seems tough, and also seems overly simple in costruction- there's really not much to the thing. The back cover does seem flimsy, but it isn't really needed anyway.

N/A

I payed $20. less than the common retail price because these were on sale. Either way, for the $119.99 average price, you get 10 loud watts, an 8" speaker-(not 6" like some others have), 2 channels with separate volumes and an overall master volume, reverb, two voicings, headphone jack, CD Input, & rugged construction. Excellent overall value. What the heck else could I ask for?

I have a Blazer 158, and It works just fine.
Dont raise the lvl over 8 or you'll sound like a mini dano amp.
I like the reverb.

Fender Fat Strat-
Custom Humbucker

It is a 15 watt amp. Not much for gigs.

It was ok.

Ive had it for 4 years. Great little 15 watt wonder.

This is a 99 or 2000 Peavey "Transtube" Blazer 158. It's a decent little solid state practice amp. It has two channels, a CD input, headphone jack, and one instrument input. There is shared three band EQ (bass, middle, treble). The clean channel has a volume control, the lead has pre-gain and post gain. I have used this as a practice amp at home, it is not loud enough for gigs or practices with all but the softest drummers. 8 inch Blue Marvel Peavey speaker. 15 watts.

I'm using a Godin SD (h/s/s, great blues and rock guitar) and a Boss OD-2 overdrive (great little blues and rock pedal). As you can tell from the previos sentance, my style is blues and rock with a little pop thrown in. The clean channel is pretty good, if a little sterile. The lead channel, though, is very noisy, especially with high gain, and the distortion is typical solid-state fuzzy. Since this is a solid state, the clean channel does not distort. EQ allows for a decent range of tones, from The distortion i guess can get brutal, but by that time it is very noisy. However, for the price this is a pretty good practice amp. As I am forming a band, I am upgrading this to a Fender Super 60 tube amp.

It's dependable. I wouldn't gig with it, it's just not loud enough.

I've never had to deal with them.

I have been playing seriously about half a year. In addition to the gear listed in the sound section, I also own a DOD FX-65 chorus pedal and an Aria Pro II accoustic guitar. If it were stolen or lost, I would still get the Fender Super 60 I am getting (though I would be pissed that I wouldn't be able to get some money off selling it). I like that it has a good clean sound, but since i got the Boss pedal I have never used the lead channel. As I bought this in a package with the godin, I didn't compare it. I wish it had a good lead channel. But I knew what I was getting: a small, low-wattage solid state practice amp.

Bought brand new yesterday (Nov 3, 01). Reverb sounds pretty good. Clean channel is a little dull but sounds, well, clean. Modern/Vintage switch seems useless. You can plug a second guitar into the CD input. Nothing too fancy but what can you expect for the money.

Distortion is noisy and sounds like shit at higher volumes. Also the thing just has way too much treble, so I generally turn the high switch to zero and turn the bass all the way up. Screw with all the knobs and you can get the thing to sound pretty awesome. Very very loud for 15 watts. Set it up on a table/stand about 10 inches from your face and you're ready to rock!

Seems to be really solid. Walls are very thick.

Nothing spectacular but very solid with great quality. Looks good too. Paid an extra $20 for this model because of the reverb switch, and I'd say it was worth it.

Pretty basic 3 band EQ, 2 channel. would have given it a 6 if not for the reverb, pre and post gain is a nice touch. mine is the old style, so I don't have the Vintage/modern switching

I play through a Ibanez RG 270 and a B.C. Rich Warlock (even though the Rich usually is used with my nicer stuff)the ibanez is basiclly a fat strat sound, and that works pretty well with this amp. the distortion could use more gain, but with pre at 10, and post at 5 with bass and treble on 6 and mid on 3, you come close to any sound(but not right on any) by useing the volume control for tone. I especially like the sound you get with those settings and the volume at just enough to make sound, it reminds me of a nice glassy marshall combo.

This thing is tough, when it was my only amp, I had to play bass through it for about 6 months, then later on, when I switched to guitar, I used a multi (Boss ME-30) with the output cranked to put it over my loud drummer at practice. even totally over driveing it beyond all safe parameters 3 times a week for about a year, the thing crapped out only a few weeks ago, but it still works! No repars neccessary! I just can't push it like I used to. Basicly, be nice to it and it'll last forever.

never delt with peavey, my bass player had used a peavy Bass with a missing part, he e-mailed them about it, and he had the part in two days, without any warrenty papers or anything.

I've been playing about 6 years now, but don't play through very good stuff because I am poor, If it were stolen I woulden't buy another because I don't need it any more with my 100 watt fender combo, and soon to be mine Marshall AVT (mmm...Half stack:yummy)woulden't gig with the peavy but it does what it was made for and a little bit more, wish it had more gain, but it's otherwise good.

2000 model Bought this amp for a specific purpose! I work as a boiler operator and it's kinda like flying an airplane moments of shear terror followed by HOURS & HOURS ov shear boredom, so I bought this to take to work to keep myself busy, Perfect size great sound plenty of features for my needs. At the store (Absolute Music in Fairborn Ohio) the Guitar MAN! Casey $ I A/B'd this with just about every small amp we could find and were floored at this thing even against stuff three times the price!!!

My main drag to work guitar is a USA Peavey Predator with a little customization, a set of fender custom shop '54 pick up's in a black pearloid pickguard w/stew mac parts. This set up really has a great sound very shimmery when you want very bluesy when you want and just about everything in between, for us old fart's anyway just what I wanted in a small package

This isn't a play it out amp but it get's hauled more places than any of my other amps, Mainly because of it's portability Had 0 prob's ever

havn,t had to deal with them ever and I've got way to much Peavey equipment none of it has ever given me a minuet's trouble!!!

I'm a hack and just play to entertain myself mostly, and annoy my co-workers & wife with to much stuff to maintain fresh strings on. Been hacking at it for over 25 yrs. It sounds great for me and has nothing else I need if I was recording or whatever a line out would be nice but for what it was designed for it's first rate. Yes it doesn't compare with my Trace Elliot C-50 tube monster or Roland Jazz chorus but it's versitility with different guitars is well beyond what it should be for it's price range

This amp was made around 99' so it's the old style blazer without the modern/vintage voicing switch (which doesn't really do anything I might add). It has the standard clean/lead channel switch with pre/post gain knobs for the lead channel, the usual three band eq and a dail for the reverb. It has a headphone jack and an input for a cd or tape player. The amp is solid state and the power cord is not grounded but it does have an isolation tranformer instead which apparently helps with noise reduction.
I bought this amp as a practice amp and it suits
my needs just fine it's really nice for blues/rock (led zeppelinish stuff) and it really doesn't matter that it's a low watt amp because this thing can get pretty loud. I'd give the amp a ten because most practice amps I've seen don't really have much for effects so the reverb is a nice touch on this one.

I'm using a fender standard double fat strat and the amp seems to complement the pickups nicely. It has a nice crisp clean channel but the disortion is a bit lacking (more like a buzz saw than a violin like tone) but the eq does a nice job of making the distortion either fat with a lot of bass or nice and tinny with a lot of treble. The clean channel remians fiarly clear at high volumes but it does break up a bit. The one thing I really like on this amp is the reverb which is equal in quality to most fender tube amps. The amp is very quiet at most volumes except really high on the lead channel. So the amp sounds pretty good but i'd recomend getting a good distortion pedal to make up for the mediocre lead channel.

Well I've had the amp long enough to make a well informed opinion (about 2 days) and it looks pretty stable to me. I doubt it will break down beacause it's a solid state. I would use it without a backup in a gig (a very small gig) since there's little chance of failure.

Never dealt with them but I've heard thier quite helpful. Good website.

I've been playing for around a year and a half and I pretty much play into the amp with just the guitar. If it was stolen I would replace it (if I could find the older style of this amp). When choosing this amp I played with the marshall amps and the little fenders ,but to be honest I liked this one better mostly because I only had $150 to spend but also becase I really liked the sweet reverb. So, if your looking for a decent practice amp at a low price this amp is a good chiocee

This is a brand new 15 watt amp, I bought it a month ago.
It has 2 channels, clean and lead. The clean channel is expecially nice for an amp this size, and in conjunction with an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer pedal (which costs as much as the amp) this thing is a little overdrive machine. It has good overdrive alone as well, but you may find that you have to turn up the pre-gain. If you try it, set the gain controls to six and three.
The amp has a channel switch and a modern/vintage voicing switch, both of which are very durable and have useful effects. The modern/vintage switch is really nice, it lets you switch between Nirvana sound and KISS sound in two flips (flipping your guitar's pickup switch is the second one...). This amp has more than enough features for a practise amp, excluding a speaker out like the Fender Frontman 15R has. I used a Frontman for three months, and I hated it. This is a far better amp with any guitar, for the same price.
This amp has more than enough power. Set the pre gain to six, post gain to five, and people can hear you in the street. With your windows closed. It's solid state, and I won't claim that it sounds like a tube, but its features are very good for the price. Now for sound...

I am using it with an Ibanez SA160 (Similar to the GSA60 some guy listed as having below) and I find the two to be a very good combination. It is suitable for old school metal like Yngwie Malmsteen, newer rap-metal and stuff, and hard rock ranging from the Nirvana grunge style to the Orgy techno style. I haven't tested it with much else, other than chord songs, and the chords come out clearly through the clean channel or with light (pre-gain 4) overdrive. It is not noisy, nothing seems to be able to throw off it's circuits. There isn't even transistor fuzz like with the Marshall G15RCD or Frontman. With my Frontman I had to stick three layers of aluminum foil on both sides of the walls and back to make the sound bearable! The speaker is high quality, and very powerful. The speaker outmatches the amp, being higher quality than the rest of the combo by a lot. This thing makes a GREAT speaker cabinet, plugged into the headphone socket on a larger amp. The distortion absolutely blasts if you turn it up, past five on pre-gain, but is a little muddy below three. And now the coolest part...

IT IS INVINCIBLE. The sidewalls are like a half-inch thick. A half-inch of friggin' vinyl! Jesus! My friend has a Peavey Rage, same amp but without reverb, and he couldn't get a NAIL into the sides to hang his cable on! He eventually had to drill through the thing! You literally can't pierce it if you try, at least without a drill! On the topic of my particular amp, i've bashed it around and carried stuff inside of it and nothing's gone wrong yet. It isn't even dented!

Never dealt with them, and considering the above, probably never will.

Overall rating: More than good enough as a practise amp. It has all the obligatory features, good sound, and it's built like a tank. People on here rate it low simply because it is usually their first amp and they hate it compared to all the tube amps and stacks their friends have. The Fender Frontman is rated better than this, but I don't know why. Peavey produces quality goods with good sound at value prices... It's great. Match this with an Ibanez S Series guitar (S, SA, GSA, SC, etc...) and you've got your own little tone machine. I'm gonna take this opportunity to share a little trick... Use a combiner to send your guitar signal to two of these, with slightly different EQ and gain settings. Instant 30 watts. Sounds nice, too. Between giving me the opportunity to make music, not costing much, and sounding good, I practically love the thing. If you're looking for a higher wattage amp, try the Peavey Studio Pro. Wow!

its features are nice and simple i havent been playing that long so i dont want to be spending hours twisting knobs for a good sound. it has volume, lead pre&post, 3 band EQ, reverb, input, and a nice CD input jack to jam on with your favorite cd.

i play metal and some rock, it can easily handle black sabbath, and ozzy, but some slayer shit might be a little harder. but what do you expect a marshall stack??? it is good for a bedroom where you dont want to wake up your siblings. play with the settings to get a nicer tone and a more subtle overdrive, the reverb is nice to. i have a pro co. RAT destortion box and it does fine with it.

well its lasted a week in my house, my family can barely say that. it wieghs a ton for its size so if it falls on you your dead. theres not much frilly, wimpy, parts in it. and no tubes to blow up. so it is preaty durable. dont try it but it could probably stop a small bullet.

havent dealt with them but i hear there good i but this amp used and it looks brand new so i hope i dont have to use the customer service any time soon

for a practice amp and my first amp i bought it is good. if you complain that it doesnt sound like a marshall stack then maybe look at the fact that it is a small 15w amp. perfect for its job. true there are a lot better ones out there, but for the price, durabilaty, condition, and being my first amp its preatty good. would i get another one if it was stolen...no i would go find the guy and beat him senseless (thats a yes i would buy another one) wish i had a million dollars so i could get everything i want, but i think at this time i can scrounge up 10$ and be happy.

Well, I needed a practice amp for my dorm, and this is what I ended up buying. It's one of the new transtube blazers with the red trim. 15 watts, with an 8 inch speaker. There is a clean volume, pre and post gain for the dirty channel. The EQ and reverb is shared by both channels. A new addition from the old blazers is a Vintage/modern EQ switch which changes the sound and effect of the EQ knobs. It's not gonna turn this baby into a Classic 30 or a 5150, but It was a good idea for a practice amp. That being said, there's nothing too special on this amp, but what do you expect for on a practice amp?

(Keep in mind the fact that this is a practice amp) I was most impressed by the shimmer of the clean sound, and the distortion channel was versatile enough. I can get very rough distortion easily, but I was really happy when it tried to smooth it up a bit and get a nice overdrive. For a small solid state amp, the blazer delivered some useable sound in that light overdrive area that solid states are notorious for not being able to pull off. It gets a little noisy sometimes when it's loud (quite loud for 15 watts), but it might just be the flourescent lighting in my dorm. It covers a nice range of sounds for all kinds of music very well.

Never yet had a problem with peavey gear, and I don't think I ever will.

They have taken really good care of me in the past, hooking me up with literature for out of production amps and such. A great bunch of people.

I paid way too much for this thing, but I really wanted it then and there. I like it better than my roomates Crate GX-15R (basically the same amp), although if you're more of a heavy player the Crate might be the better amp. I love that it's small, it's great for my dorm. I'd get another one if stolen, but try to pay less for it.

I've played for the better part of six years and use a Carvin DC135 (with duncans) through a Peavey Classic 30. Althougn I have a lot of cool effects, I've been running straight to my amp lately. I've owned lots of amps before this and I expect I'll probably get a few afterwards, so I think I can compare with a fair degree of knowledge.

yeah, don't know. it doesn't work. It's broken. I use it as a second speaker cabinet for my Dean Markley K-20, so I only use the CD-input.

Sound very good, gives that fat bass I can't get out of my Dean Marley

I have never heard it working, but maybe it has ever.

don't know.

A friend of my brother bought it in the US, I live in the Netherlands so it's very difficult to contact the store where he bought it.I tried to fix it, but it still doesn't work. I don't mind. Like this it sounds very good. So for a broken Amp my rating's high.

I bought this amp in mars 2000, fresh from the store. Features (?) are as others have described: two channels (clean + not so clean), a 3-spring reverb, CD input, headphone jack & a 3-band equaliser. While not a tech-phreakes dream, it covers my basic needs so far.

I use it for what it was surly designed: a small basic amp for home use. As such it amplifies both my Epiphone ?Joe Pass? and my Seagull with a LR Baggs (do I really need an amp at home for the Seagull? No, but it is fun at times?.). I use the clean channel only, mostly for jazz & bossa.

The sound is ? after a few adjustments I had to do ? quite ok. I paid less than US$ 100 for it, and I don?t expect a BMW for that price (not that a BMW would sound better..)
Compared to a first class valve amp, the sound rating would be 2, compared to its price, I give it an 8.

Depend on it my friends: I would not depend on it for other purposes than what it was made. While reasonable sturdy, it is not meant for heavy duty, so don?t use it for that purpose!

It has not broken down, but some tightening of screws has been necessary at times. Worse is that I already have had to clean the potentiometers due to oxidation. This may be why some reviews are so critical when it comes to the sound. Better potentiometers don?t cost that much more.

I have done the necessary work myself. The amplifier is easy to access & service.

I have played for many many (to many?) years. The two guitars I mentioned above are my only electrical, otherwise I play classical guitar. If this amp was stolen it is possible that I would buy another, but there are a lot of them out there, and I?m sure it is possible to find others with about the same or better quality.

This is not a Fender Cyber Twin or a $2000 Crate and it don?t pretend to be. It is however a sub$100 basic amplifier with enough output to make your shack vibrate with a decent quality of the sound. If that is what you want and need ? buy it. Knowing the circumstances, my rating gets high!

Hey, this is my first and only amp (I'm getting a rare kick-ass 50w all tube Seymour Duncan). This baby got it's job done. I just need a small amp to play in my room, since I didn't know if I would stick with guitar. 3 band eq, crappy distortion, and an ok reverb are about all the features on this amp, but what do you expect for a 15w practice amp?

I'm using an Ibanez GSA60 (excellent for metal)my first and only guitar, but I like it and won't replace for a while. So anyway back to the amp. This baby is pretty noisy likes to hum a lot very noticable with an overdrive/distortion hooked up. I'm surprised at the clean sound on this amp it's pretty good. How brutal is the distortion? Well it sounds very muffled and crappy. If you get this amp a distortion/overdrive pedal is neccesary. I'd recommend The Visual Sound JH-1 it sounds pretty good on this amp.

Well the bitch hasn't broken down yet, it hasn't left my house still sounds the same has the first day I got it

I've been playing the geetar for 6 months now. Well i've i'm passed the practice amp stage and looking for an all tube in a higher wattage. This amp does it's job. Hell, you don't wanna blow $400 bucks if you aren't gonna continue with guitar. I don't regret purchacing this. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

The features are ok for a small amp, 2 channels, 3 band eq, reverb, etc. It doesn't have a footswitch, but doesn't need one, its a simple 15 watt amp. I use it for bedroom practice, its plenty powerfull for that; but if you try to use it in a band, it will sound really bad at higher volumes.

I use an ibanez RG270 with a semour duncan JB pickup in the bridge, ran through a ProCo RAT 2 (good) distortion. The distortion on this amp is absolutely god-awful, no matter what you do with the eq. It sounds all muffled and crappy. I understand this is a cheap non-tube amp, but there are MUCH better sounding solid state practice amps competing against this one. The clean channel is OK. But since i mainly play distorted, i absolutely have to use distortion pedals, which help, but the amp still holds your stompboxes back from sounding as good as they could. Poor tone overall.

Its very reliable.

never talked to them.

I can't say that I'm happy with this amp. I wish i had gotten something else for the same price. Like everything, this amp will sound better or worse depending on your guitar and effects, but most people who play on an amp either are just beginning and don't have good sounding equipment to begin with, or use it as a secondary/tertiary amp and won't be able to stand how bad it sounds.

I recommend you seriously consider a different amp, but if you have to buy this, make sure you have some good pedals.

It has 2 channels, 3 band equalizer, reverb. It is very small and lightweight, making it nice and portable

I've played an Ibenez RG570 through it and it sounded pretty good. The distortion was pretty good, and the clean channel was pretty clear. There is a very slight hum even when nothing is connected to it. For a 15W compact lightweight solid state amp it is a great value.

No problems so far.

I really don't think you can beat this amp in this price range. It's nice and small, light and has a pretty good feature set. The sound quality is very good for a sub $100 15W amp.

I bought this amp on a whim in the winter of 1999. This is a great practice amp. It is lightweight and has enough space to carry stuff (pedals, chords, a tuner, etc.) in the back of the cabinet. You get 2 channels with this amp; a clean and a Lead. Both of these channels share the same EQ, which consists of a hi,mid,low. There is also a CD input, headphone Jack, and a Reverb.
I use this amp everywhere. It can keep up with a Peavey Bandit 65 at normal (non ear ringing) levels, but it sounds bad next to any tube amp. The reverb is decent, but there is no footswitch. I chose this over other amps in the store because it had the most features for the price and I was in a hurry.*-*

I played all kinds of guitars thru this amp (not all mine), they include: G&L Legacy Special Strat, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Fender Roadhouse Strat, and numerous cheapies.
The distorted channel is adequate, but not blistering, good for blues, hard rock, and some metal.
The Clean channel is awesome! It isn't super loud, but it rules for apt. life, and it is way better than the bandit 65. I use it the most, and I usually like distortion. It has a lt of headroom, and it is a good clean sound.
The reverb is great. I am not as much as a reverb freak as I used to be, but as far as reverbs go it gets the job done.
I realize that a lot of people think this amp sucks, but I look at it this way. You should get a good sound out of whatever you play, if you are expecting your amp to define most of your sound then you are focusing on the wrong thing. Ultimately, you will sound like you no matter what you play through.
The bottom line is that the clean channel is awesome and the lead channel sound good enough. It does best at higher volumes when the Pre is between 4 and 7 (in other words, don't overdrive it too much.)
My rating is based on the best part of the amp, which is the clean channel.

It makes a loud pop when I turn it on, but otherwise I have never had a problem with it.

N/A - Never neede it.

A great portable practice amp!!!!
Decent price, features, great clean sound.
If you use an EQ pedal you can get almost anything you want.
This is not a Tube amp so it does not sound like one, but if you are practicing by yourself, or jamming at reasonable volumes with your solid state buddies, this amp will do fine.*-*

For a portable practice amp, it has enough features to get a pretty good clean channel, and the distortion isn't half bad for a solid state. There are seven knobs, and they are (in order): Volume Control (Clean), Pre-Lead and Post-Lead (Gain control), 3-Band EQ (Bass, Mid, Treb), and a Reverb knob. There are also two inputs, very rare for an amp in this price range, one for guitar and the other for CD/Aux input (Clean only). There is also a headphone jack for quiet practicing.

I have played a Fender Strat and a Peavey Predator Plus on this amp and both sound pretty good. The amp does a good job of being distinct from neck-pickup playing (playing near the neck) and bridge playing. Tone is great, and you'll have a hard time finding a better distorted palm mute sound in a practice amp. The best setting for good metal distortion, is Pre-Lead at 9, Post-Lead at about 2 or 3, Bass and Treble 100%, and no mid at all. For a good-toned overdrive, turn the Pre down to 7 or 8 and turn the mid up to about 2 or 3. As far as clean, it's a little muddy without much definition, but it IS a Peavey. It also starts to break up at about 70% volume, but for a 15W amp, once again, 70% is actually REALLY loud on this amp. When in my room, I normally play clean no higher than 5. In summation of sound features this amp is, hands-down, the best distortion amp under $150, but the clean is a little behind in ratings.

I have kicked this thing around, dropped it off tables, and my bed, actually had it roll down the stairs once, and it still plays like the day I bought it (that's a good thing). Of course it's not a gig amp unless you're playing for little Johnny's 7th birthday party, but you'll find it suits your needs just perfectly when you're playing for yourself or a few other people. I give it a 9 only cuz it's not a "gigger".

I have never had to deal with customer support because both my Peavey Predator Plus Guitar and this Blazer amp have never had any problems whatsoever. Because of this, I think it's only fair that I don't rate them either good or bad.

I have been playing guitar for about a 15 months, and I picked up my first electric along with this amp about 6 months ago. I've been looking for reviews on good amps here at Harmony Central, and I thought I should drop a line about the Blazer in appreciation for all the good reviews other people are leaving. I think I have decided on the Marshall TSL122 2x12 combo amp, but that is obviously a step above the peavey (about $1700 new). The funny thing is, though, I won't be selling off the Blazer anytime soon. It's just a great little amp to truck around to your friend's house, or to just jam too without worrying about waking up the entire neighborhood. If someone ripped it off, they'd be getting an awesome entry-level amp, let's just put it that way. If you can't decide which amp to get your son to match his first guitar, or you're having trouble choosing a good practice amp with good sound that's easy to tote around, then, my friend, your troubles are over. The Blazer 158 is, in my experience with practice amps, one of the best.

All the usual stuff, plus 3-band EQ, reverb, CD-in for practice. Pretty complete feature-set for an amp in this price range.

The TransTube setup sounds a lot better (and fatter) than a regular solid state amp in this price range.

I dropped mine off the bed, kicked it into the street, ran over it with my truck, shot it full of holes and threw it in the pond next to my house. It still works.

Peavey support rocks.

You people crack me up: "I've been playing for three weeks, and this amp sucks! I would never play a live gig with this amp! It doesn't sound NEARLY as good as my buddy's Marshall stack! This amp blows!"

C'mon, people - it's an inexpensive little PRACTICE AMP! For the money you pay and for what it's intended to do, this amp is awesome. If you wanna squawk about the reverb, the gain, the EQ, or the font used in the Peavey logo - GET A LIFE. My main amp is a Peavey Classic 50 2/12, and it's great. It also weighs 4,712.6 pounds and is bulky. If I'm playing live, I use the Classic 50. If I'm playing in the front room of my house, or over at some idiot-friend's house (Jerry Fuselier - who can't tell the difference in what sounds good or bad anyway), I take the Blazer.

For the money and its intended purpose, this amp "goes to eleven".

I hate it. It's too tinty of a sound. It's only 15 watts and not enough power.

This was my first amp. The sound is too tinty.

I can depend on it because it's solid state. It has never broken down.

I wouldn't recomend it to anybody

Hey, It's a tiny practice amp. With that in mind I'd say it has some descent features. Reverb and Distortion

I'm using an Ibanez GIO. Isn't to noisy except on really loud distortion. Speaking of distortion this distortion is incredable for a practice amp. Clean channel is pretty clean. The reverb is ok, nothing special.

Ha, like I would gig with this tiny amp. It's pretty dependable haven't had any problems in the 5 months I've had this.

Dunno

Hey, this is the perfect beginner's amp. Can't go to wrong if you're a beginner on a budget

The features are all pretty good exept for the reverb which seems to give off a strange bounce sort of noise when you touch the strings. Also the clean channel is extrememly quiet

I've heard a lot of people slate the amp for it's sound quiality but what do they expaect for a 15 watt practice amp. I'm using a Encore Les Paul style guitar with it and it seems to work perfectly. The only grumble I have with it is that the clean channel is abnormally quiet. The distortion suits my style of playing (rock) very well.

So far I've had absoloutly no problem with it, and I've dropped it more than once.

N/A

As far as 15 watt amps go this rates pretty highly. The sounds are good on a relativley low volume (what practice amps are for), and the distortion works well

Well, its got some pretty nifty featues, like a jack for your guitar cable... and tone knobs... but it doesn't really go beyond that. It has two channels, and is good for a beginner. But you'll soon want to move on.

I use a fender fat strat with this bad boy, and I guess its not too bad in this department. The clean channel sounds grainy to me... Not too clean, really. But its better than a crate.
With some tweaking your lead/crunch channel can get those high end, noisy distortions that all peavery amps seem to have. My friend has a Peavey combo, and the distortion sounds exactly the same on both amps. This is only a good thing if you like distortion with now bottom ends, even with lows all the way up.
The distortion tried to emulate extreme, but seems to come up short, being just corny. I guess if you use your imagination, you can kind of hear what a good distortion would sound like with your playing.

I would never gig with an amp this small. But thats just the way it is. I'm too proud. But it seems to be a pretty tough cookie. I've dropped it several times, Its fallen of my Tactical Amp Support Rack (THe chair in my bedroom) and survived. Hey, no complaints on this end. And I'm a total jerk with me gear...

Never dealt with them. I'd sooner buy a new practice amp then pay money on repair.

Hey, for the price, you can't go wrong, its something to learn on, right? .... Right.

Not extremely versatile, but not bad for price. I got it for $85 new. 2 channels, but no footswitch, which is a drag. Reverb is crap, and the distortion is weird. I use this amp at night so nobody is disturbed. It shouldn't be used loud as gets crackly.

Gibson Les Paul w/humbuckers.........doesn't really suit my style (quasi punk-grunge) . It's pretty noisy, and kinda hissy- but I have heard worse. Sounds aren't special-nothing great. The clean channel is ok, the distorion kinda bad.

Mine broke after about 9 months. The input jack kinda fell into the amp, and all the knobs kinda followed. I also had problems getting it to detect the guitar at times. However, it lasted 9 months.

N/A - 90 days

Hm.......playing for 4 years.....15 years old.....I have a Fender amp about 150 watts (without getting up to look). I would suggest getting bigger than smaller b/c of options. I wouldn't replace it (the Peavey). Not to much love or hate either way. As you can see, I don't really care about it...It's kinda crappy. Wish it had more options and stayed together.

Disortion is controled by a pre and post channel. It also as a reverb

I play with an Ibanez GIO. It sounds ok on this. Crunch channel has a lot of fuzz in the backround.

This amp seems pretty durable probably won't brake for a long time.

Not sure if there is a warrenty. Never talked to them.

I'm a newbie. It's a good solid practice amp. I'd have to be pretty stupid to take it to a gig. The disortion could be a little better, but hey I paid $110. Pretty good for the price.

Solid State Tube Emulation - 2 Channels, one E.Q. controls both channels, separate volume controls. CD Input (GREAT feature), Headphone Jack, Reverb. No Speaker output & No footswitch. This amp is purely meant to be a PRACTICE amp!

I play an Epi w/ P-90's (mostly Blues/Rock). I intentionally bought this after a long search for a good practice amp. The clean channel is VERY clean, but could be a little warmer. The Overdrive channel sounds great for my style of playing. Compared to all of the other 8" amps out there, this one is by far the best tube-like overdrive. It sounds great with the mids boosted & the pre-amp set on about 5! For all of the idiots out there that are ragging on this amp because it's not as good sounding as a full sized tube amp - GET A CLUE! - It's not meant to be a performance amp! And it sound GREAT for what it's meant to be.

NO PROBLEMS

I had a friend who E-mailed them a while back about biasing on a Classic-30. He got prompt respoonse & a direct phone # to a technician. It can't get much better than that.

If it were stolen, I'd definitely buy another, unless something better came out in the meantime for under $125!

Not bad for a practice amp. The usual controls you will find on any amp.

Peavey Blazer 158 Transtube practice amp is a direct rival to the Marshall Valvestate VS15R. Both have exactly the same controls and are the same price. I tried both and this one sounds like dung compared to the valvestate. The distortion is weak, has no character and the bass is non existent. The EQ controls don't seem to be doing anything, just to make the sound louder. I can't differentiate between the bass, mid and treble! And even with a real tube effect in front of it, like I tried with the Ibanez tube king, the Blazer just makes all your good effect pedals go up in flames. Impossible to get a thick fat bassy sound from it. High end is also too buzzy. Only the reverb saved it from further death.

From the start, my input jack has been giving me problems - I have to shake the cable until there is sound. And then try not to move too much after that. And I found out that my friend also has this problem with his Blazer. So it must be a fault with the basic construction. But other than that, it is quite reliable.

Strangely enough, this seems to be the practice amp of the 90's. Almost all my guitar playing friends used this as their first amp at home. It's not exactly cheap, as you can get maybe a Dean Markley at a cheper price. Now I'm using a 70's Marshall Lead 12 (12watt, 1x10 combo) as my home practice amp and it is the ultimate. Those 12 watts sound 100 times bigger than the Peavey's 15 watts.

15 watts, reverb, EQ, Distortion and Cean channel, CD/Tape input and a headphone jack

The more you turn the PRE up the more background noise you get. If you try to play with the PRE up you might mistake the background noise for distortion. The clean channel makes a wierd "plink" sound. The Reverb sounds pretty good, I usually have it at about 3 or 4. The distortion is bad. It sounds muted and has so depth to it. If you want a good sound try using effects pedals.

It's a solid built amp. It has fallen off my bed a few times and it works the same as when I got it. It would probably hold up real nice.

This is a good practice amp. It is light and can be pretty loud. If you put some effects pedals on it it sounds good. I think the $100 dollars I spent on it was well worth my money, and if it broke I would get a new one just because it is a good practice amp. People have given this amp a bad rating, but hey, you get what you pay for, and you pay about $100 for this amp. It wont sound like a 200 watt half-stack it anything, it will sound like a 15 watt practice amp.

15W, 8" Speaker, Solid State. 2 channels, headphone jack, reverb. 3 dial EQ's.
It's a little practice amp, you can't expect much.

The amp itself, is not too special (after all, what do you expect for $125). But for practice, it's fine. I don't use the overdrive channel, because the distortion is pretty weak. What I do is use the
clean channel and use a Boss Metal Zone distortion in front of it. It
makes this amp sound quite good! I set the levels on the amp at 10 on
bass and treble, mids at 0, reverb at 5 and then do the overdrive modulation on the Metal Zone. The distortion is somewhat noisy, but
it's much thicker and I can get very good tones out of it. So for $200 between the two, I can't complain.

Only had 1 problem - the input jack came loose and the grounding was lost. Tightened up and it was fine.

n/a

Again, it's a practice amp, so you can't expect it to sound like
a Mesa stack or Marshall Plexi, but if you're just jamming in your
apartment and want a decent sound, it works (just add a good overdrive
pedal).

This amp has nothing special it has 2 channels NOT foot switchable, an EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and a reverb

I'm not impress by the sound of this amp it's noisy if I go over 5-6 and the distortion is working with a PRE and a POST knob and when you get the POST knob over 1-2 it's noisy as hell the only way I got a decent distortion is with the PRE knob at 9-10 and the POST know as low as I could hear what I'm playing

I'm not very rough on it so I can't really say it just sits on the floor and lately when I play it's late at night and everybody sleeps so I play unpluged. I should get some headphone and try the headphone jack

Can't say never call them or anything

well for a practice amp it's not that bad, I could've got worst... but I wouldn't use it for a gig or something

2 channels, 15W solid state amp with "trans tube technology" (which doesn't seem to do anything)... 3 EQ settings, reverb, CD and headphones jack...

Granted that my guitar is pretty bad also, the sounds I get out of this amp are pretty bad. No sustain, has a very thin sound. The distortion is bland and one dimension. Stomp boxes will help a lot.

It's pretty solid. Should last a while.

Dunno.

Was my first amp. Didn't know anything and bought a piece of shit. I can get better sounds out of my Vox 1W mini amp (I'm not kidding)! There are better practice amps out there.

2 Channels ; clean and lead. Volume control for clean channel, volume and gain controls for lead channel. 3-band EQ settings for whichever channel you're on (Bass, Mid, Treble). Reverb control, headphone jack and cd/tape input.

I use an Epiphone entry-level guitar, humbuckers. I like to play lots of metal. The clean channel is, well, bad. The lead channel is the most pathetic overdrive i've ever heard in my life. 15 watts - it can't get very loud at all, sounds terrible anywhere past 6.

Definitly dependable. I would never use it at a gig. Period. Never broken down, but ive never used it so that it has an oppertunity, just home practice.

Never had to deal w/ them.

I bought this after playing guitar for 6 months....If you are a newbie, buy it...inexspensive, and is fine for a beginner. Definitly a good practice amp, for newbies of course. When you get a 'lil better, buy a zoom 505, u can get nice distortions out of it, pretty damn heavy ones considering the amp. Then, upgrade your amp later.

Well, you get what you pay for. But I thought I paid more than that! They call it transitube technology, but where the hell was my tube?! Solid state distortion will always suck ass compared to a 12AX7. My toaster has more features than this piece of shit. 1 channel, headphone jack (don't try that unless you want a little chainsaw to go in your ear and tear up your eardrum), low mid and high EQ, pre and post gain, and a shitty shitty reverb.

I play metal. My main influences are MetallicA and cheesy-ass nintendo music. I'm currently playing with an ESP with EMG 81s in it, yeah, who isn't? This amp sounds almost decent at high volumes, don't even think about using the reverb though, unless you want a tiny little man to steal your first born child(Come on, if you really wanted a serious critique you would've stopped reading my review way up there somewhere.)

There was a period of time where the amp would cut down to half volume in the middle of songs. But I kicked it pretty hard and it fell back in line.

Yeah, I called up peavey one time and said "Your blazer amp sucks dick" and they hung up on me.

If it were stolen I would laugh for about a week, and then I would hunt down the little bastard that stole it and kill him for being so stupid.

The Amp year was 1998. its good for a little rock n' roll just a basic practice amp, does the job decently for the power

im using a peavey predator and evh wolfgang. it gives a pretty good distortion sound, especially using an effect pedal. the noise level aint much after 6. the clean sound is decent if you got a good guitar

no doubt i can depend on it, no troubles there at all amp never broke down, no problems i can smash it all around and its still cool

never dealt much with them, but who cares if it breaks get another one

if it was stolen i'd collect the money and go buy a 5150 amp!!! i like the reverb thing on it. i dont like the distortion as much as i thought its a good product for a beginner

Peavey's little 15W, 8" Transtube practice combo. Straight forward design: two channels, clean and dirty. CD input. Phones out.

I use a customized Mexican Strat. Neck pickup = SD '59; Mid = don't use; Bridge = Tom Anderson HN2+. I use a Boss GX700 preamp through the clean channel at all times. I never use the dirty channel though it sounds good if you preamp it with a Ibanez Tube Screamer (blast the stompbox's volume while using the full gain on dirty channel). HINT: if you use a processor through the clean channel, keep in mind that the pregain knob on the the dirty channel affects your sound DRAMATICALLY. I keep it at 10 and it adds a warm tube sound. Honestly, I love these amps (I run them stereo). In fact, I went crazy trying to find a get up that faithfully reproduced the sound at a higher volume. (See my Bandit review). Oh...I play metal over jazz, fusion, and funk.

One of mine is great. The other lost a bit of volume. I don't know why. Nevertheless, they are extremely reliable. I've owned them for years, play regularly, and even at high volumes--still no problems. (I had an extremely old Bandit years ago that fire finally claimed while extremely high volume playing). Hard to kill a Peavey.

Peavey is absolutely fantastic. Knowledgeable and friendly. Their web site is great.

I would definitely buy them again. I tried the Fender Frontman (sound okay but poor build quality) and the Laney Harcore 25 (also poor build quality). If you get the right combination (Sansamp GT2 or other box/preamp), you will appreciate the value and sound you get from these little amps.

Peavey Blazer 158, 8 inch speaker, 2 channels: clean and overdrive, shared EQ, spring reverb, headphones jack. Used as a practice amp.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Classic Birdseye with 2 humbuckers (which, I might add, is one hell of a guitar). I was somewhat broke after the purchase, so I decided to rent the Peavey till I had enough to get a real amp. This one does the job if you are a beginner (which is what I was when I got it). Now I'm starting to know what I'm doing and this amp is starting to suck. It's quite noisy in the clean channel. The overdrive channel is almost as bad. It sounds like it has a ground loop problem. It does have some crunch when it's cranked to 10. Other than that, it pretty much sucks. I've been looking for tube amps, but you have to spend a grand to get something that sounds good. I'm planning on getting a Marshall Valvestate VS-30r. This amp is not expensive and sounds wonderfull. If you want to make the Blazer sound any better, disconnect the speaker wires and run them to a low wattage 12 speaker. It makes the sound go to about the 6 range, but that's still not a 10!

Very reliable so far. Like I said before, it's a great beginners amp, especially for beginners like me who didn't know the importance of being carefull when moving your equipment around (tipped her over a few times).

After a week I took it in to the store because of the hiss problem. They assured me it was normal (for a low end Peavey).

Great beginners amp, but get ready to wander into the world of good sounding amps as soon as you can play an E major.

I got this amp 8 years ago, when I started guitar. It wasn't bad then for what it was used for, and the features were actually quite good for an amp for it's size and price range. I only use this amp for travelling/party usage since my main amp is now a Roland JC-120. However, I have no complaints really for the features for this amp in this range.

The sound quality isn't great, but then again it also isn't bad (my main guitar used through it was a Washburn with Humbuckers). I find the distortion fine for what it is...just a cheap distortion on a small cheap amp. The reverb is quite nice for an amp of it's size...surprising nice on mine. The 7 is in consideration of it's price bracket...it sure as hell doesn't compare with a higher quality amp such as my JC-120...but it ain't bad for it's size.

I've had it for 8 years, it's rolled around in the back of my car on numerous trips, been dropped and banged around pretty good...never had any probs with it. However, the power button seems to stick somewhat, and doesn't always click in properly...Hardly use this amp anymore, but I find it reliable. Of course I would never use it in a gig, simply due to it's lack of sound quality and power.

I've been playing for 8 years. I am now playing an American Deluxe Stratocaster through a jim dunlop wah, and a DOD distortion box (FX-55B). My new guitar however has never been played through this amp...it would be a waste. It was a good amp however when I bought it, since I was looking for a cheap little practice amp with some features. I would have no real reasons to buy it again, unless I could get it real cheap (still good for parties etc).

It is not very versitile at all I play metal and it has horrible distortion for that. It has 2 channels and the clean is fuzzy and the distortion is weak. It is also very weak It sounds like it is a 2 watt.

I'm using a Peavy Preadator (another TERRIBLE buy!) and a Gibson Les Paul Studio. It has bad distortion and a unclear clean channel. This amp is poor for every kind of music except maybe punk with the peavy guitar.

It hasn't broken down on me yet but I haven't played it for long. I got it an within months got a crate amp because I was fed up with it. But I am looking to buy a Mesa/Boogie.

I haven't talked to the company.

I've been playing for a year, and have a pretty good ear for music, and I don't recomend this amp. It is good for a really cheap amp for your kid if he is only slightly intersted in music. OTHERWISE DON"T BUY ANYTHING PEAVY!!!

many features. The reverb and CD output jack is a plus. The 3 band equalizer are very usefull. What i hated about this amp is that its channel switching(clean,distorted)is non-footswichable. Other than that everything is good.

For a practice amp, this is a very good choice. The Distortion kinda sux so get a distortion pedal instead. The equlizer does a good job and the reverb sounds okay..The clean channel sux if you have a sucky guitar....

Very, very reliable. Ive dropped this thing many times already and it still works.

NO idea

This is an excellent budget amp for begginers and practice... Will definetly blow your room or garage up... You have to be crazy to gig with this though..But for house and garage parties,this will serve you well..

this amp blows

it sounds good in the the clean setting but its not loud enough. the distortion sucks crap because it doesnt really sound distorted. the reverb isnt very good.

the speaker has started to crackle a little and ive only had it 9 months

n/a

DO NOT BUY THIS AMP BUY A CRATE GX 15R IT SOUNDS MUCH BETTER AND IS ABOUT THE SAME PRICE

There is not enough power for the kind of music I play my volume is always at 6 but when I try to put it higher it makes a noisy ugly sound.It's not a good amp to play blues.But for the price I paid it's OK. for this kind of amp it have a lot of feature

I use a Fender Stratocaster with Lace Sensor Gold Pickup and my other is very cheap, it's a Renegade with a Humbucker pickup.The distortion is controlled by PRE and POST but it's not a big distortion I found that OK.

I played with it just 3 months after that I bought a BIG MARSHALL.125 watts. I wouldn't buy it again.I love anything about it. THIS IS MY LAST SENTENCE,I HATE THIS AMP.

The amplifier has a clean volume, a small channel switch (non-footswitchable) to kick in the "lead" channel. The lead channel consisits of a "superstat" control (pre-amp gain) and a master volume control following this. The amplifier also has a three-band passive E.Q. A spring reverb, a single guitar imput, heaphone output and recording output. This amp was the first amplifier I ever had, and has served me well. The spring reverb gives a sizeable twang for when I want to get all Dick-Dale and "surfey", and the recording output was great when I borrowed a friend's portastudio. My biggest gripe in this area is that there is no footswitch for the "lead" channel, and the lead channel has no footswitch. An effects loop would also be a bonus. Other than that this little amp has everything a beginner could need.

Unfortunately, this little amp does fall down quite severely here. It's sound is nothing to write home about (please note, this is the pre- "Trans-Tube" version), although I have once heard its "Trans-Tube" replacement and that sounded quite raunchy. I am fortunate enough to have a Gibson USA standard Les-Paul to use the amp with, and the high-output of the hum-buckers (particularly the bridge pickup) is enough to run the clean channel (and the speaker I think) into distortion at just a quarter volume. The distortion is pretty horrific. I play mainly vintage rock (Led-Zeppelin etc.) and some Seattle Grunge (Foo-Fighters, Nirvana), and sadly the amp fails to excite. The distortion is way too fuzzy, and yet bizarrley isn't fuzzy enough to get a decent fuzz sound! A major revelation came when I found that totally cutting the mid frequencies reduced the "quack" and "honk" of this amp considerably. The spring reverb is quite good actually, although a little more depth and severity to the sound would be nice. The amp hisses badly at all volumes though, and I feel this is a truly un-acceptable fault, as all the other problems can be put down to the amp being a starter amplifier.

This amp is totally dependable! If I ever did a gig (I'm a drummer by profession!) I would use a backup purely because I worry about my gear. But it's be bumped, banged (and even had a fender bass played through it!) without any problems. Totally dependable!!!

I've never had to deal with Peavey, although I suppose this is testament to how well modern gear is put together.

This amplifier was bought for me along with my guitar when I was 12 and to be perfectly honest was about the best around at the time. Nowadays I'd probably look one of the Marshall valvestates (although both the guitarists in my band have VS65R Marshalls and both have broken down). The amp doesn't really come close to the quality of sound my guitar is capable of (I tried it through a friends all-valve laney and it sounded stunning), although being something of a duffer on guitar, (like I said I'm a drummer!) I can't really justify forking out money on another amp. I'll probably buy a DOD Grunge pedal when I have the money, in fact that's propbaly the best thing I could do with this amp. Overall if this amp had channel switching, and a better distorted sound, I'd pretty much be happy with it. Only it's total dependability and reliabilty keep it's final score reasonably high.

The amp has two separate channels for clean and distortion, which is a rarity on smaller amps (I have a heck of a time messing around with the knobs on small Fenders). There is also a master EQ and reverb, as well as the ever-so-handy CD Line In jack. It's one of the best practice amps I've ever played, and it get's pretty loud for a 15 watt. The distortion is controlled by pre- and post-amp knobs, instead of a volume and gain.

Clean, the amp needs to have all the EQ settings on full to get a semblance of the natural sound of my guitars. The EQ knobs act like the tone knobs on a passive guitar, mainly because they only take out highs, mids, or lows, but can't make them more emphasized. After about 12 o'clock, the clean channel starts to break up and sounds really crappy. The distortion on this amp is non-existant. It colors the sound of the guitar a little, and may even be able to pass as overdriven--almost like a fuzz box--but there is no real distortion.

I have dropped my amp down stairs, slammed it into the occasional door, and carried it through the rain, and the thing never so much as crackled. Very tough little box.

Never had to contact Peavey.

For a practice amp, the Blazer 158 is a very good little amp. I would never play out with it because of its relatively low wattage and lack of distortion. I sounds good with and reacts well to effects, although the lack of a loop is kind of annoying. I probably wouldn't buy one again, but that's just because I don't really use smaller amps to often.

This little, 15 watt amp does pack quite a punch. The transtube Technology helps tremendosly. I really like its CD in, because I take a spare guitar cord and put one end into the input, and the other end into the headphone out on my keyboard. This amp really needs an effects loop and an external speaker out.

Granted this is no Marshall stack, or even a nice Crate combo, it does blow away all of the other amps in its feild that I have seen. It even out preformed the little Marshall ValveState! Using a chorus pedal in line before the amp really helps the tone. (with the speed knob at about half, and the wave knob at about nine o'clock) The distrotion really is noisy, but that's what happens when you run a crappy strat through it! the reverb could stand to be better, i.e. less noisy, doesn't feed back on itself, and is more springy to the ear.

I think I would really give this amp an 11 1/2. I have dropped it, kicked it, ovrloaded it, closed a garage door on it, dropped it down a few steps (3 or 4), spilled coke on it, let it over-heat, played it in the snow, left it out in the snow (don't worry, it was covered up), taken it apart, and God knows what else. Need I say more?

It has never needed repair, sprisingly.

I have been playing for over a year, and it really has helped me with my playing (for not breaking down). Now that I am getting a Marshall jtm622 60 watt all tube combo, and can honestly say I have been through it all. I would buy this amp again for a practice amp, and would reccomend it to a friend. As long as I have this amp, it will always be used.

This amp does live up to expectations in this category. There is a phones jack along with another CD/ tape input. This is a good feature because I can play music while listening to it. It has dual channel switching (lead and clean) , uses transtube technology and others. The reverb is okay, depending on the songs you play. If it does sound weird, use the tone settings on your guitar to control the reverb. Furthermore, it is durable, strong enough to take knocks and versatile, light enough to carry anywhere.

For this category, the sounds sound impressive. I play different songs....from old Beatles classices to Metal to Rock. The problem I encountered was with the Metal songs... there was too much distortion and I felt that the song went wrong. But try playing songs from Michael Learns To Rock and Beatles.. the songs were beautiful. I went for my first audition for Teacher's Day and my friends, who were in the audience said it was beautiful. With the help of a drummer, bassist and lead singer+guitarist, the song I Want To Hold Your Hand was the best...I owe it all to my amp.

Now, this is one category that is this amp excels in. So far, I have not experienced any problems with it...Just wipe of the dust, play with it once in a while(once a week preferably) and this amp is bound to have a long life. It can take slight knocks...such as knocking it SLIGHTLY against a wall, but on full contact(I have not experienced this before), I think the transtube mechanism will go to the repair bay.

Nothing much to say about this but Peavey Electronics doed know how to treat its customers well. Here in Singapore, I do not know if they have any branches here. I have not encountered any problems with the amp so, there was no need to get it repaired. There is a warranty along with the amp and it lasts for a period of 90 Days. I have no opinion on this category but follow my style of taking care of the amp and there is no need for a warranty.

I would definitely buy this again because of its durability and versatility. I love the sounds that it produces when I play the songs mentioned earlier. I compared it to other products and the only challenge that I concluded was from Fender. I wished it had a distortion switch but everything else makes up for the loss. For all you guitarists veterans or novices, get this now if you don't have one. It is value for money.

Not bad. Channel switching,Headphone out.One good thing is the CD-in, which lets me play along to jam tracks.The transtube tecnology Peavy use lets the amp sound approx. tube like and it sounds a little like a tube amp,considering its solid state. P.S. could do with a footswitchable channel.

I play blues-rock,and the sound is not bad. The distortion is quite good, and when Cranked up,is real good for Punk sounds.Reverb is a little noisy,especially when turned up.I use it with Humbucking pickups and am quite happy with it.

Never had problems with it.

N.A.

It's my first amp and I would recommend it to any first time amp buyer The sound is okay,considering some others I have heard in the same price range.also,the transtube technology is a plus.

well, the features on this amp arnt to shabby or to great. its got dual channels with no stomp box imput(so you plug it in the regualar imput and plug you guitar into the box). its also got reaverb,and eq(what amp doesnt?) the distortion is totally terible. its more like a not very distorted fuzz. oh by the way it is only 15 watts so its not very loud. the reverb is crap too. basicly the only reason i got it was becaus it was one of the only amps i could afford.

this amp is a piece of crap that doesnt really suit my music style (hard-core alternative, metal, etc.) i personally like feedback and makin noise with it but this amp has way to much of it on distortion. it even has feedback at low volumes. another thing that sucks about it is the clean channel is very weak and empty sounding. and like i said above the distortion sucks. your defanatly going to need a stomp box or petal board with the amp to get a ok sound out of it.

well this is one catagory that this amp comes in pretty good. ive never had a problem with it

i cant really say

i defanatly WOULD NOT buy this amp again. i think i specifyed why earlier.i say if you want a cheep starter amp get a crate or something