Peavey Butcher

-Pros
Simplicity. 2 ins, 1 out. Gain, Master vol, EQ, and presence.
If you get confused easily, this amp might make some more sense.
It has a "booster" out which you can use to cleanly slave another amp to this one's pre.
An entire new set of quality tubes costs less than 100 bucks.
-Cons
No FX loop, if you're into that.
No oboard reverb, if you're also into that.
No footswitchable channels, if you might even kinda be into that.
This amp will NOT get you dates. If you're into that.

Sounds great. Full-on gain makes this rich, lush chimey sound that is completely unlike my JCM 800. It seems like everyone says they're similar- I'm here to tell you different. The 800 (A 2210) has another layer of gain. That doesn't mean that it sounds better. If you're playing any kind of modern metal, the Butcher alone straight up isn't gonna handle palm mutes gracefully. You will have to use some sort of OD.

That being said, My GOD this amp sounds good for 200$!!! I record a whole lot of bands, and this amp is the surprise favorite in tracking. It's sound is complex, vibrant, and pretty darn EQ'able. I just put new Svetlana 6L6's and JJ 12ax7's in it, and holy crap, this thing rules. People aren't lying when they say it is loud. It sounds so good cranked, though, that I rarely play it under 5 on the master volume.

This amp seems to like V30's better than standard GTK-75's. The cabs shipped with GTK-85's, which sound better to my ear all-around. I haven't gotten to try them with the Butcher yet, but who knows? Could be a match made in heaven.

There's really just not much to go wrong.

Peavey, when they're not being wiped off the face of the earth by a hurricane, are fantastic people to deal with. They wanted to know how the amp was holding up, etc. Good folks.

This mostly gets played through Marshall and Mesa cabs, with ESP's or an American Strat. It sounds good, and does better than I expected for 200. I'm a fan.

I believe it's a mid 80's make. It's a really simple setup: one channel, pre and post gain, bass, mid, treb, and presence. It also has high and low gain inputs. 120 watts.

Plus a "Booster Output" which I'm still yet to figure out what it does. If anyone knows, email me.

Even though it's a simple amp in it's basic setup, with the right effects this thing is amazing versatile. I'm personally playing an old Vantage guitar, through a Boss OD, Boss EQ, plus a Digitech effects processor which is only used very occasionally, into the amp. I play pretty much solely punk rock/metal stuff and this thing is insanely loud and HEAVY. I keep my guitar tuned to B and run it through an 8 ohm full stack and this thing just crushes. I had been using a Marshall JCM2000 dsl50 with the same gear up until getting this and with consistently having band practices with the Marshall volume running somewhere between 7 and 8, the Butcher topped that at 4. Sure it's more than double the power, but this thing is louder and clearer than the Marshall which I swore by. In fact, the sound and versatility is REALLY reminiscent of the JCM800.

It's probably the ugliest amp I've ever seen, but it definitely speaks for itself once you turn that volume up.

It's easily the heaviest head I've lifted. It's got a really thick casing and it sounds really solid. With all my other heads, you would hear the tubes/springs rattle whenever I had it in the back of my car and went over bumps, but this thing never makes a sound until you tell it to. It's about 20 years old and is still holding like a rock.

I never dealt with Peavey, and I doubt I will (or could) with this head.

Amazing. I got this thing on a trade, and there is no way I regret it. With the right pedals, this thing will put any Mesa or 5150 to shame. Sure it's ugly as sin, but as soon as you start playing, the other guitar snobs watching will recognize.

All tube one channel amp, with pre and post gain, bass, mid, treble, and presence controls. 120 watts. High and low gain inputs. 4 6l6's and 3 12ax7's. I bought the head and matching 4x12 cabinet together recently in new condition. Nothing fancy -- just the basics. Peavey's answer to the JCM-800

It's not very versatile alone considering its a one-channel amp, but with some effcts, it can suit just about any type of music. I play rock, classic rock, alternative, and some metal, and this amp is capable of conquering any style. And it is LOUD. VERY LOUD! 120 watts! I don't think I'll ever have to put the volume above 6 for any reason. I retubed with all JJ's and the sound is amazing. It's also very quiet -- not much in the terms of hum or buzz. I only use the clean (low gain) input and use minimal pedals -- only wah and overdrive -- and the amp produces the sounds I have been looking for. The clean is a very warm clean with just the slightest hints of break-up when you play really hard, and stays clean to ear-bleeding volumes. When I put on some overdrive, it seems to take on a new life. It really suits my style of playing. I use an Austin Gold pedal for light overdrive, Boss ds-1 for medium drive, and Rocktron Zombie for harder stuff. The Butcher with the Zombie pedal is as close to rectified you can possibly get without a Boogie. Overall the amp sounds awesome and will cut through ANY band arrangement.

Fixed bias so changing tubes is a snap. I gave it a thorough cleaning when I got it and so far no problems. Its heavy and built like a tank. I can't forsee any issues. Peavey products last forever.

Good customer support. I received fast responses to all my emails.

I've been playing guitar for about 13 years and have played through many amps, and the Butcher has probably been my favorite thus far. It has the exact sound I have been looking for. It is an awesome bargain if you can find one in good shape. Where else can you find an all-tube head and cabinet for $200 ??? If anything happened to it, I would definitely try to get my hands on another one. The only problem is they've been out of production for about 20 years, and you don't see them around too often.

one channel peavey butcher.. very simple.. pre and post gain,bass,mid,treble,presence. 4 6l6's and 3 12ax7's. as simple and user friendly as it gets.

im using a telecaster with the stock pickup and a acoustic 105 cab.. this head sounds awesome.. the cab is way old but the sound of the speakers getting pushed to the limit sounds awesome!. i play fast and heavy hardcore/punk and it sounds awesome. it could use a little more gain.. im thikning about having a high gain mod done to it i just hope it doesnt change the overall tone.. i just want to be able to drive it a little harder if im in the mood. but all in all . it sounds awesome!

it weighs a ton.. and its peavey.. that says ennough.. this thing should last a long time.

emailed them before when i had my ultra.. nice people

it's awesome! sounds great with my tele and the vintage cab.. what more could i want! i really recomend this head for anyone who wants someone straight foward.. they say this is a huge ripoff design to the jcm800.. decide for yourself.. all i hear is the awesome tone it puts out.!

One channel tone monster. Sounds great - like a jcm800 with more gain.

4 6L6's & 3 12AX7's.

I use a Les Paul & Tele Deluxe. This amp really gets AC/DC & Toni Iommi tones. It's a very Rock & Roll type overdrive. I never play clean, but this amp can do that too. This amp has incredible low-end. It really sounds a lot like a Marshall jcm800 or Laney pro tube from the 80's. To me the gain is much smoother & better than both of those amps.

This amp has fixed bias. You can put any 6L6 power tubes in it.
It has never broken down.

Peavey is great to deal with. They always seem to be helpful without making you feel like you're wasting their time.

I've been playing a long time. This is my 2nd Butcher. I sold my first one back in 93 & have regreted it until I picked this one up a while back. These Heads are HEAVY! And a bit on the unattractive side. Other than that I couldn't be happier with this amp. I've owned every amp you can imagine & for some reason I came back to this big ugly head.
This is an incredible Rock & Roll amp. Punk Rock, Garage Rock it really nails it down.

No fancy crap just pure amplification... perfect for those of us looking to use processing pre or post amp. I go guitar to PodXT live to amp. Set this baby clean and crank it up, or... Crank this baby on high gain straight into a Gibson Les Paul for pure bliss. Ofcourse that depends on your stack too.

Sounds as good if not better raw than any Marshall. Anyone else telling you differently is either a sales person or full of themselves. This thing duplicates the JCM800 and out preforms it all except lack of features. Who needs reverb anyway with this kind of raw power and sound? I use the Pod for all that crap anyway. Naked this thing is freakin sweet and can crank 4 cabs. Can your Marshall do that... If so you paid way to much probably, or you just pay lip service to Marshall, Mesaboogie, etc.

Its a freakin Peavey and one of the heaviest amp heads on the planet that produce less than 200watts. Its a tank and Peavey has been in my sound arsenal for years. Yes vintage is fine if you can afford it or if you have the balls to tour with it. I almost consider this thing vintage, but its so damn reliable that you can just about set a watch to it.

Its again a Peavey... just call them up they can talk for hours about it or direct you to someone that can help you. And they keep most of the amp manuals at hand. Trust me Peavey is perhaps the most underrated in the buisness, but anyone will tell you that Peavey is reliable and there for you. If I could ever get sponsored they might be the only company I would use equipment wise other than Line6. These people are fanatics and loyalist and dedicated to music. Just call them sometime I was convinced in just one call. I was on the phone with an amptech in under 2 minutes

I have been playing for well over 8 years now and this is perhaps going to be a "Holy Grail" amp in the next 20 years. If I can get my hands on another one I would gladly do so in a heartbeat. It sounds better than most Marshall amps aside form vintage, but then again its a third or fourth the price or less in near perfect condition. I have owned several Marshall (JCM800, 2000, and JMP), mesaboogie(triple rect), soldono (custom100 BTW I still own this baby it stays in my studio), and Crate (Blue Doodoo and other pawn favorites) This is my second favorite amp and When I can find another one I will pick it up in a second. I am telling anyone looking into getting one scoop them up while you can.

***This is a follow-up review***

I fixed the Amplifier, now it works!!!!!.....VERY LOUD!!!!....The problem:
1.)This thing is so heavey, in shippment, it could have been
dropped, so microscopically the solder-joints needed to be re-soldered,
& some contacts cleaned, otherwise their was allot of ARKING/SPARKING
causing a strain-of-voltage.
2.)There is too much UPPER-MIDS, I've tried every Speaker/Woofer-Brand
every size & even some hi-fi.....I tried every tone alteration, &
still UPPER-MIDS about 1KHz registers on my SPECTRUM-ANALYSER.... So
I tried other Amplifiers too & I can scoop those mids simply, all
with the same exact Microphone-setup set FLAT....
3.)I like the strength, durability, & quality of this Amplifier,
but I can't get many other sounds other than "GARAGE PUNK" or "ACDC"
& NO-"BLACK SABBATH", I can't even get "80's-HAIR-SOUND" as good,
just that "DRY & DUSTY" brown-tone (NOT "Eddie Van Halen")
4.)Not versitile, not a good enough CLEAN-CHANNEL for FX-PEDALS nor
Vintage-1960s/70s-FUZZ-PEDALS, at least it regulates the mids, but
sounds very HARSH when I use those Pedals on this amp with the TREBLE
turned all-the-way-down & mids-too,, or I raise the MID-Knob just
a pinch, to get a FLAT detail & character, but that might be TUBES in
general.
5.)Don't compare this to a "JCM-800"(old version) nor a "CRATE-BV120"
nor "MESA", but maybe some odd "FENDER"(hardly) just listen to some
"old-garage-vinyle-punk" & you'll get the idea!!!

its main feature is it's lack of features.

it features a slave amp driver, not a DI out or a line out, or a pre amp out, its a post eq, post pre amp signal meant to shoot straight into another input jack on another amp or into a power amp.

it features two channels with no channel switching.

gibson les paul w/II humbuckers

the sound of the hi gain channel is dirty tube distortion at it's finest. some people said you can't get a hi gain sound out of it like a mesa boogie, but i got the boogie tone dialed in perfectly. the clean or lo gain channel is good, it does not distort when cranked to ten and played with the les paul. i use a morley crybaby wah with volume boost and the perfect detuned distortion sound is there. without the boost, the gain channel is not as strong as the mesa/marshall. running a distortion pedal into the hi gain channel on a low volume, the effect of 'overprocessing' was pretty cool.

peavey amps last forever. the butchers haven't been made in ages.

ive owned 4 or 5 peavey solid state amps and they never flaked, my ampegs all flaked at crucial gigs.

never called customer support.

this amp rocks for the money. 120W all tube head, no reverb or effects loop to break your preamp signal, pure tone of your guitar to the tubes. the simplicity cannot be overstated. this amp is for people who know how to dial in tone and know how to use their effects in a chain. for heavy rock like AC/DC or something like that, this amp duplicates the marshall jcm 800 sound perfectly, the guy at the store couldn't believe the tone i got out of it in 5 minutes. 4 6l6 and 3 12ax7 tubes , massive output transformers deliver the full 120 watts into 4 8 or 16 ohm loads, so no loss of volume with different cabs. 4 speaker outputs, meant to push 4 marshall 1960 type cabs in 16 ohm mode. this amp is pure tube tone and massive volume in an affordable package.

120 watts of pure tube nothin else! Thats why I love it! I play psychadelic grung music and this amp is what I think describes grunge music, LOUD, SIMPLE, RAW!!! I believe it was made in 1988 and there are 30 watt celestians in mine. I have about 20 effects pedals but I only use My Jeckyl & Hyde distortion, and my DL4 delay. So no need for an effect loop. I use this amp for gigs and practice. The other guitarist in our band uses a Marshall JCM 900 and they are almost identical in sound, seriously! I bought it at a second hand music store in 2003 and I tried every amp under the sun, THIS ONE FIT ME!

Currently I am playing a fender fat srat with Dimarzio Super Distortion Bridge and a seymour Duncan Screamin Deamon middle bridge with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail Neck pickup. The amp seems to invite pure tonal madness when my two babies hook up. I use to play hollow bodies but there was always alot of feedback from the hollowbodies so I switched to solid body guitars. The amp is not noisy at at all . This amp has a really nice clean tone, I really didn't expect it but it just appeared out of nowhere when I brought it home for the first time. I was expecting a brutal shred metal amp for the mid 80's but I was very wrong. Actually I think I lucked out and accidentaly fell on an amp that would almost right away change my style forever. I play usually the bass at 7 the mids at 5 and the highs at 7 and when I switch from distorion to clean it stays clean. This amp isn't an all out distortion machine, its a very raw overdrive sounding amp with an amazing clean tone. I use a Visual Sound Jeckyl & Hyde Distorion pedal and this amp goes from Raw to Psycho. I love it!

Actually the amp would hurt something instead of something hurting the amp. It has hurt me! But that is the nature of it. This thing is freakin durable and heavy so you don't have to pussyfoot around. The Head is Heavier than the cab I would say. I haven't had it for as long as these other posters have but I plan on it always being around. Probally could outlive me!

Peavey is a good company I have never had to deal with them.
Probally why I say they are a good company since I do own quite a bit of peavey items.

I have been playing music for about 8 years but guitar for 3 I was a bass player befor so I can appreciate durable things. I am a guitar player who doesn't need any high tech mumbo jumbo to get my sound right. As far as I'm concerned This amp just plugged in beautifully to our grunge sound. It has all the dimension like I said Loud, Simple,Raw. I don't know the current value of the Butcher But I paid 600 for the halfstack and I probally would of paid a little more. I don't have alot of money being only 24 but I have played on Marshalls and this thing sounds a whole hell-of-alot-alike. I was looking for a good used Halfstack, I compared alot of other amps like Marshall Valvestates and a JCM 800, Carvin, Laney which where in my price range. But this one kinda stood out. Plus I saved a little money over the JCM 800 which I was going to buy. My was pretty much mint when I got it no dings or tolex rips it was like it was put in a time capsule and was waiting for me to open it up. I think this amp was kinda forgotten about, but to any of you out there who can find one and we play similar styles, freakin buy it right away it is waiting to be reintroduced to the world.

First off, a Butcher is 120 watts not 100!!! I love the simplicity of my Butchers.

BC Rich active electronics also Gibson Explorer with EMG 51/58. Many other guitars. The Butcher just barks. It has a great warm tube amp tone and plenty of power to back it up. It gets great sound from clean to totally overdriven. I use an Alesis Micro Gate which completely cleans up any feedback or between play noise issues. I rarely use any outboard effects.

I have had 4 Butcher Heads since the 80's. I have never had a single problem with any of them. They have all been tubed twice and I never noticed any decay in performance even with old tubes. I can always relay upon them. I have owned many amps and they are by far the most reliable I have ever had.

Peavey has always been a great company to deal with.

I have played for 32 years. I own much gear and many axes. I love my Butchers. I used to play on Marshalls then Hiwatts. They all sound fairly similar and those were also very reliable. best thing to make a great tube amp sound great is the right speakers and cabinet.