Peavey Butcher

Like everyone else has said, its main feature is that it's pretty bare-bones, only the essential things, which I like. 120 tube watts, four 6L6s and three 12AX7s, six knobs, and two inputs (high and low gain). It can push four cabs, but only if they're all 16 ohms. Otherwise, there's only one jack apiece for 4 and 8 ohms, which I would say is the amp's only downfall in terms of features (can't run two 8-ohm cabs at once).
The hum balance is a really great idea, and I find it's easier to find the quietest spot if you've got a guitar plugged in with all knobs on 10 and the guitar volume at 0. The booster out is also a good idea if you're into using multiple amps.
Plenty versatile for what I play (post rock to surf punk to stoner/desert rock to sludge).

This is honestly an amazing sounding amplifier. The day after I bought it, I went to a show and saw a guy playing a JCM800 half-stack, and thought, "I just bought an amp that nails that sound plus some for less than half the price."
According to the owner's manual online, Peavey chose to limit the Butcher's bass response because low frequencies can take up a disproportionate amount of power, which basically means there is more power to devote to sheer volume, which this thing has in spades. I also own a Peavey Valveking head, and when I first played the Butcher at home, I was amazed at the difference in volume between the two. Played through a half-stack it keeps up with a cranked 700-watt full stack on bass. The pre- and post-gain knobs will both increase the volume, too, and the volume increase is much more linear than most amps, which is a big plus for me.
I've found that the tone changes a lot more with the pickups you use and the amount of gain and presence you use on the amp than with the tone controls, but it's still all killer. It has this nice woody bark from the low-gain input; not really similar to any other 6L6-type amp I've played, but very dark and throaty. The high-gain input is the tone Motorhead should have used; raw, gruff, throaty, and mean as hell. Chords can be brutal and out of control or smooth and liquid just depending on where you put the gain knobs.
With the gain on 10, it's just about the most gain I ever use, which is nice compared to most amps I've used, where I never turn the gain above 4 or 5.
The only problem I've encountered in trying to get a good tone is that the amp can have very very pronounced high frequencies, especially with single-coils, which you don't really notice until you get about 15 feet away from the amp. I usually leave the presence between 1 and 3 for this reason.

Haven't owned it for very long, but if other reviews are any indication, this thing will never die. The chassis, boards, and traces are all thick and sturdy, transformers are probably twice as big as they need to be to handle 120 watts. Simple circuit, too, so not much could go wrong in the first place. The thing's almost 25 years old and everything inside looks like new. It runs pretty hot compared to other amps, but has never missed a beat for me.
Seriously, just the wood in the cabinet is about 2 inches thick. Without the chassis in there it weighs probably 45 pounds, and I'd say twice that all put together. I worry more about the cabs I'm putting it on than the amp itself.

I've dealt with Peavey before, though not relating to the Butcher, and they were extremely helpful and easy to talk to. Owner's manual and schematic were simple to find if I ever need them (I doubt I will). But Peavey builds reliable stuff (Tour series bass heads aside), so I don't worry too much about customer service.

The other amp I play is a Peavey Valveking head, and I sold a Silverface Bassman to pay for this amp. If it were ever lost or stolen, I'd definitely get a new one. I haven't heard an amp that has this raw, bare-bones tone for less than twice what I paid for the Butcher. It is plenty versatile and has everything I need, nothing I don't.

O.K. I have read all of the opinions on this head and now I must speak. I have owned two of these amp heads for years and knew the features when I bought them. So the features I find are fine.
One channel,Gain,volume,low eq,mid eq,high eq,booster out,on-off-stand by,two led's.four speaker outputs,hum control. Very basic down and dirty amplifier. If you needed more when you bought this amp then you are an idiot to buy it in the first place. It does what an amp is supposed to do feature wise.

The "low" input is clean and very thick. The more "volume" you give the thicker it gets. I run mine in a stereo set up with two Butcher heads and outboard processing into the low inputs. This thing can take any pedal or effect unit and still have tone to spare. Those of you who say it sucks or sounds bad, Maybe it's your playing that sucks. When you play through a un-effected amp you hear only your skills of your playing. Not being able to get "that sound in your head" is only your fault. The amp can't play the riff for you. The Peavey Butcher head is an awesome no-frills amp and should only be used by musicians who know what they are doing. The High input is 6db louder than the low and as such can deliver those tones we call distortion. Yes it is LOUD and the best results are obtained through VOLUME. Marshall JCM800 is also mentioned as a close toned machine to the Butcher. They are what they are. One being expensive and the other not so. I myself like the not so same sound American made 120 watt tear your head off version named Butcher. Marshalls are WAY over rated as are many "boutique" amps on the market. Peavey has always been my choice for amplification and I play ROCK all the time. They are the only company that gives us music types more flavors to choose from. The Butcher altough no longer made is a good example. The most underated amp in the history of modern rock guitar.
You can get any tone from this amp that you want,with a little knowledge and patience it can be had. Knowledge of how things work,proper signal flow etc can get you there. Mine are just as well suited for rock as they would be for country ar anything in between.

I have used these heads for over seventeen years without failure at any gig. I also take care of my equipment more than most. Those of you who did'nt rate the reliability high probly don't take care of your equipment in the first place. I own several Peavey amps and have NEVER had any problems and I use them all.

The best customer support there is. I have only used their web based support and find it most user friendly.

I have been playing for 30 years and gigging since I was able to get into the bars. I have many guitars and gear that I could fill many pages with. My main guitars are a Charvel model 4 and a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. Both have their own sound and are just awesome through this amp.
If these amps got stolen I would hunt the m-fers down and stomp them into the ground. Then do a nationwide search and find replacements.

Features are very straight forward. If you use outboard sources for your overdriven tone, this amp would be right up your ally. I have owned this amp for roughly ten years.

right now I am running a roland gp-8 straight into the low gain input. This amp is not equipped with an effects loop, but it doesn't hurt the sound quality any. It has a very well rounded eq, and although this isn't exactly designed for new metal tones, with the right pedal it will do anything you can think of. My guitars have ranged from strats to emg equipped hardtails to my floyd rose guitar with a dimarzio evolution in the bridge. All of them sounded awesome.

I bought this amp roughly ten years ago. It was used and I had to have it re-wired right off the bat. since then, I have had to replace one internal fuse....that's it! It has been super reliable and I wouldn't want to play without it.

I contacted peavey to obtain the schematics and manual and they sent it to me free of charge. I have dealt with peavey on numerous occasions and they have always taken care of me.

Have been playing for over twenty years. If this amp were lost, I would try to replace it as soon as possible. It's tone stands up to anything on the market and it's perfect for my cornucopia of styles. I have owned quite a few amps, including several other peavey products, and this is still my all-time favorite. The only things I wish it had were an effects loop and reverb. If you come across this in a pawn shop or other shopping venue, I would highly recommend picking one up. One minor detail in the "con" column-this thing weighs a friggin' ton! It's built like a tank, but it weighs like one, too. If you are on the "slight" side and don't have a roadie, better take that into consideration. Cheers!

I'm not sure why people have something that has only a few knobs and downgrade the features. You bought the silly thing KNOWING it had only one channel and NO reverb and then like idiots, you downgrade it because it lacks features. You need to rate it on its own merits: Are the AVAILABLE features USABLE and to your liking??? Don't downgrade because of your ignorance of the product. That's my soapbox. I'm tired of buyer's remorse showing up in reviews. You can look at my reviews and I???m VERY OBJECTIVE to each product I review....except samick, they pissed me off! LOL. Now features for this Butcher....SIMPLICITY almost at it's finest (my THD univalve is total simplicity) It all is SO EASY, UNDERSTANDABLE and USABLE...I don't need a two channel amp, I tweak it up ahead of time and USE MY GUITAR VOLUME!

Mine has STOCK peavey tubes...yes 21 years old with STOCK tubes, they are actually relabeled Phillips duel getter 6L6's. I'm torn...do I buy JJ's or just play these till they puke? I've learned slowly over time that a 6L6 amp CAN be more than a simple fender sound...always a fan of the EL34 based amps or E34L's or even EL84???s, I've stayed away from 6L6 amps for fear I???d have either a fender sound(which I already have and love) or a Mesa Sound (zzzzzzzzz-sorry MESA, I???m just simply not impressed with any mesa I???ve played...if you had INDEPENDENT TONE maybe a simpleton like me could find a sweet spot). I've played LOTS of JCM900s SL-X with the 5881. Everyone says the Butcher is an 800...BEG TO DIFFER; it's the SL-X with 5881's! This amp can really smoke (especially with a little American mad BAD MONKEY-YES I STILL LOVE IT!) and yet turn right around and dial in Fender super reverb (minus the reverb). Does it get close to an 800....sorry guys...sadly NO but what it DOES do is something INHERENTLY PEAVEY...makes its OWN sound, its own vibe and its own LIFE! Is it a 900??? I'd say YES close, but still IMHO something EXTRA...I LUSTED the 900 SL-X with 5881's but EBAY and the local music stores put the price up so high I wasn't considering them. I found this Butcher at a pawn shop for 100.00 by ACCIDENT...cleaned it up...played it and discovered something missing in my collection....well not really missing but it certainly added another SMILE to my face! Anyway, think JCM900 SL-X 5881 model and you'll be real close....but again, with that special something PEAVEY USED TO DO that makes it STAND OUT...my opinion? BETTER bottom, tad more sparkle and thicker mids than the 900 dirty, and pretty fenderish close on the clean...hard to pick a favorite there...but dirty wins clean matches, price was right, loves all my effects and guitars...ESPECIALLY my Genny! WOW, WHAT A TONE!!!!

pawn shop purchase...haven't had it long enough to tell...but it's over 20 years old, same TUBES and still sounds great...how's THAT for reliable????

It's peavey....they are always at least an 8, even on a bad day!

This has got to be one of the most currently obscure under rated and little known GEMS of the peavey world. Here I sit in my living room looking at some of my most prized possessions and they all say PEAVEY...but...all of these are no longer in productions...the Butcher, the Classic 20, the classic 115E cab, the classic 50 in tweed (although the classic 50 head is still in production I don't know if it's offered in tweed anymore). My question, what caused peavey to buckle and quit producing many of their best products? Look at the BRAVO!!! My god, how can you quit making that??? It is so much like a Marshall stack in a tidy little back seat box, it's crazy! I LOVE the bravo...then when you ask peavey reps, they offer the valvekings....sorry PEAVEY...PEAVEY should always have MADE IN AMERICA...we grew up with you Hart-man, we loved you thru the mace, the deuce, the bravo, the VTM's, heck I even have a great deal of respect for their SOLID STATE stuff...look at the Bandit...can't go see a country band ANYWHERE and not see a Bandit. My point? Buy up as many Peavey gems as you can...because if the Valveking is doing the Writing on the Wall, Peavey is just going to be another Vox made in china....

The features have been explained well enough in previous reviews. It's simple, which is what makes it great. It may not have the bells and whistles of the newer amps but I don't need that stuff most of the time. It gets my award for coolest name too.

The best word to describe the tone that I personally get out of this thing is "brutal". You can tweak the knobs and get sparkling cleans, glassy clank, metal chunk, just about anything you want. I personally like a cross between the glassy clank and metal chunk which suits my style well (heavy alternative like Jesus Lizard, Shellac, etc.) Of course it is really friggin loud too.

I agree with the previous reviewer (Swede) that recommended JJ tubes. I have them in my Butcher and my VTM 60 and they are simply awesome, and priced well. I got mine from Eurotubes in a set. That guy knows everything about Peaveys.

As others have said, this thing is a tank. It's not fun to haul but with the way it's built you would have to go out of your way to hurt it.

As for the internals I've never had any trouble and haven't heard of anyone who has yet. One word of warning: be careful about putting drinks on top of it. If you spill down that vent your tubes will go boom (that happened to a pal's 5150). I wouldn't doubt if you could throw new ones in and fire it right back up though.

Peavey is known to be one of the best in this regard for good reason. You can go to their site and find manuals on anything right now. Heck, I even called them up and they happily sent me the schematic too. How many companies do you know that would do that?

I've been playing for almost 25 years and have had my Butcher for 3 or 4 years. I'm not a regularly gigging musician but it's a hobby and I jam a lot and play the occasional small show for the most part.

I also own a VTM 60 which is a good amp, although pretty different from the Butcher, and an old 412MS which is an incredible cabinet. I put Eminence GB12 and V12 speakers in it and it's mean as hell. It's built like a tank too and is the perfect partner for the Butcher. Between the Butcher and the VTM 60 I prefer the Butcher.

I recently switched to bass and I own a Peavey Mark IV bass amp and T-40 bass. So, it's safe to say I am comfortable with Peavey gear and stick with it. It might not have the cool factor that other brands do because of some of the other junk they've made, but people's expressions change fast once they hear it.

Honestly I would have given this a review earlier but I thought by not doing so I was keeping a secret or something. But the cat's out of the bag. Luckily they're still very affordable. There are plenty of suckers out there that are willing to spend hundreds upon hundreds more on boutique amps and the like.

Aboslutely perfect, You plug in, tweak the eq, set your pre and post gain (volume and distortion if you don't know how to run a peavey) and play. That is it, really. No bells and whistles, it is actually harder to fall off of a unicycle than run this amp. In addition to that, you can run up to 4 412 cabs and can use just about any ohm cab you want. SIMPLE = GOOD.

This is the PERFECT amp, I have played just about every guitar you can imagine through it, and it always sounds perfect. The best part is, all you have to do is set your eq and gain, and when you play the perfect tone for what you are doing comes out, It's like magic, the harder and more aggressive you play, the more aggressive the butcher gets, when you back off a little, it mellows out, it has the JCM 800's beat hands down, better tone, less noise, more versatility. The sound ranges from sweet and syrupy like the JCM 800 wishes it could be, to a glassier 5150 (the old ones, not the 5150 II's or the 6505's) with a lot more meat to it, and much clearer highs. I play everything from blues to jazz to hardcore to metal on this, and t always sounds perfect, without me ever having to mess around with the settings.

I put it in my girlfriends Taurus, the back end dropped about 4 inches, this thing is HEAVY, you could drop it out of a third story window and break concrete, the Butcher would have nothing worse than some cosmetic scratches, and the knobs would probably come off. It is a friggin tank.

never dealt with 'em, never anticipate dealing with 'em.

If you see one, DONT GET IT, I WANT IT, one just is not enough. and does anyone know where to get ahold of some of the cabs for it, I feel the need to find it's prooper cab to fully maximize it's greatness

i give it a 8 on features because it dont have any. but thats not a bad thing.

im using a couple of guitars (all of them are humbucker equiped)

i play country/blues and southern rock.

i use the hi gain side but keep the gain low so i get that slight break up when i dig into the strings. so far it does everything i want it to. it is big and heavy! i use a 2-10 cab with it and it hangs over the sides of the cab.

so far so good. its built like a rock. and it seems to be easy to work on if it ever should ever come to that.

never had to deal with them. i hear that they are easy to work with, but ive owned many peavey products and never had any promblems.

ive been playing for 18 years and have many other amps but this one is now my main amp.
if it was stolen i would find who stole it and beat them down. and if i could not find them i would look for a replacement butcher.
over all this amp rocks with the best of them . my main amp before this one was a fender bassman but i had to retired it from the road (its way too old and expensive to replace)so for a 150 bucks i cant go wrong!

I believe mine was made in 1985. It's a really basic amp. I believe it was Peavey's answer to the popularity of the JCM 800 in the mid 80's - they went for sheer power and tone, rather than versatility. It's a single channel (though it has either high or low gain inputs, but no ability to switch between the two). The knobs are pre and post gain (which control volume and gain in the channel), low, mid, and high, and presence.

It's a 120 watt head, so it has alot of power. It can run at 16, 8 or 4 ohm loads, and has been known to be able to push four 4x12 cabs by itself.

I'm not sure what signifies vintage these days, but for more than 20 years old, it definitely has the vintage power head ability.

I usually play through a Dean ZX or Vantage VP700, both with humbuckers. For raw volume and feel it in your chest power, this amp is great. For those who like all of their effects and sounds available in head, move straight on the the Mesa's. This thing is basic, but powerful and can sound however you want with the right effects in front of it.

Mine basically produces no noise or hum when it's on it's own. The clean begins to distort a bit when it's turned up and those 4 power tubes start to cook, but that's just what I look for as I usually play stoner rock/doom metal.

It's sound really is comparable to the JCM 800 in that it can easily mold to anything you want. It just takes some work and the right effects.

Built like a tank, just like the saying "they dont' make them like they used to". Never rattles or makes any indication of anything not being tight as a drum inside. It always heats up fast and has never given me any problems whatsoever. I would definitely rely on it and not need a backup.

These are long out of production, and I'm not sure if Peavey still deals with them. I've never had to, and even if I did, I'd probably consult a local amp tech rather than bother wasting time calling them.

Awesome amp. Reliable and easy to use. Perfect for volume fiends like me. The only way I'd give it up is a trade for something by Sunn (speaking of which, if anyone has a Model T or Coliseum they'd trade/sell, drop me a line at morgantician@hotmail.com!).

Everything I need!

Here's an update on a Butcher I've had for a while now!

Put some JJ Tubes in this head & there won't be a boutique
120 watt amp on the planet that can touch for pure tone.

It sounded great before with Electro-harmonix 6L6's.

Call Eurotubes or another retailer & get some new JJ tubes.

It's tank!

Great to deal with.

I loved this amp before with other preamp & power tubes.

If you have one of these heads, again put JJ Tubes in it.
Butcher are fixed bias so a tech deosn't need to change &
bias your tubes.

JJ Tubes are the only tubes I will run in my amps.
There's not a JCM 800 out there that can touch the tone of
this Butcher, REALLY!

Tube! 1 channel, no bells or whistles, no fx loop, no push-pulls, no reverb etc.. PERFECT!!! I play this amp on stage. Small to medium venues.

I play a Strat, a Tele, a LesPaul and an Explorer through it. This amp was probably designed for the rock crowd back in the day but I use it for everything. Blues, country, funk, rock, hard rock etc.. I keep the gain all the way up when playing a Strat or Tele and I roll my volume knob back for cleaner sounds and then up for crunch. I use a DIST. pedal for full gain as the amp isnt designed to supply modern boogie style gain. Which is great! I can cover all my gain needs with my volume knob and 1 pedal! The best part is that when rolling the volume back, the tone is still FULL. Marshall's IMO have been bad through the years with this issue. The other thing I really like about the Butcher is that the tone is good at lower stage volumes. Most amps I have played that have enough power to supply a tight low-end do not really have the ability to play at low volumes. You know how a marshall sucks until its too loud for a small club??? Not the Butcher.

It's been good to me so far! Peavey has done me good through the years.

never had to deal with them!

Playing pro for 20ish years. After probably 100 amps in my career. I am finally not thinking about my tone anymore. I just play. I am looking for another!!! I do wish it were a bit smaller in size. I dont use a giant 4x12 anymore. Just a Bag-End 15" and the Butcher is way bigger! LOL