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

-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.

Amp was made around 1985 and I purchased it in late 1985. No effects loop. More than enough power. All tube. I bought it because it was way cheaper than a Marshall and it supposedly had a good distortion sound, which is all I wanted. I used the amp for band practice but got rid of it before I ever started gigging. I found the clean tone better than the distortion. I owned the Butcher for about 5 years, roughly 1985 to 1990.

I use a Randy Rhoads Jackson (1985) with a duncan humbucker and an Ovation Ultra GS (1984)with a jackson humbucker and Fender Jaguar (1964). At the time I was playing strictly thrash/speed metal. I am amazed that some people think this amp can even approach a good Marshall! It is not even on the same planet. It had a dull, lifeless distortion that is best suited for boring classic rock played to depressed boring people in dive bars. I had to use a Boss GE-7 just to get by. Without the GE-7 this amp was laughable. I never did have any problems with noise. I put the Butcher head to head with a Peavey all tube power amp and an ADA MP1 and the ADA rig blew it away. I replaced my Butcher with a Metaltronix head and ran another side to side comparison. Once again, the Butcher lost big time. The other rigs had much better, thicker distortion with fuller sounds than the Butcher. I have heard that with extensive modifications this amp can sound similar to a Marshall, but it would take so much time and energy and money to find someone to do the work properly and it still could sound bad. This head was only in production for a short time for a reason!

Like all Peavey gear I have owned, this amp was bullet proof. I have been using peavey speaker cabs, bass heads, and practice amps for 20 years plus. No peavey gear has ever broke down on me or gave me any problems. I would never play a gig without a backup amp. It would be a great back up amp if you like to carry heavy things. The only problem I would forsee when using this as a back up, is that the audience may mistake the Butcher for a 25 year old solid state practice amp covered with a wet blanket.

never had to use them

I have been playing for 23 years and run Peavey 4x12 cabs with 85 watt celestions exclusively since 1985. I also have a Crate practice amp and a Charvette. Usually I use a Marshall Valvestate head but occasionally use the Metaltronix. I sold this amp to help pay off the Metaltronix and would never buy another Butcher unless I could find a heavily modified version that sounded like a Marshall for 1/10th the price.

Not many features.The channel switching was aggravating before,but know I use a tone works ax1500g which has 2 channels per program so that works for me.I got mine back in 1986 and have been trouble free except for 1 blown speaker.I have the 2 4x12 peavey celestion cabs with it.This thing is powerful for all my styles of play from metal to blues and some nice clean tones to.

I mainly play my 85 tokai through it and it cranks.the hum balance adjustment makes this thing really quiet when you want it to be.I play my 72 strat for cleaner sounds.I've tried lots of amps over the years and this one has alot of power and better sound then most and for a cheaper price.I love marshalls too but if im not using my butcher im using my cybertwin.

Hands down on this category.Mines gone through years of rough wear especially in my younger punk gigs in the late 80's.Like alot of other people say it probably could withstand a nuclear blast

n/a

Ive been playing for 18 years and if thing was stolen I would definely find another one.Nothing compares with tube heads,something the solid state guys are always trying to emulate...good luck.But the head is very heavy its a bummer luggin it around.I would definitly recommend this head though especially since they are underated and the more bang for your buck applies here.So get one if you can find one and before people start figuring out how much these things should go for.

This amp was first manufactured in 1985, i dont know exactly what year mine is. This amp is versitle but also simple. It has a high gain channel and a low gain channel but no channel switching. It has no effects loop or headphone jack(who needs that?) but it does have a booster input which allows you to drive other amps. The lack of effects loop doesnt really matter much to me, running effects through the front end of the amp is no big deal unless you are using lots of pedals. If I buy anymore effects i'll probably get a loop installed on it which is no big deal. I use this amp for everything, practicing on my own, band practices, etc. I havent had the chance to play out with it yet but i have had it up to gig volumes, trust me, you wont need anything louder than this unless you are deaf. THIS AMP IS ALL TUBE which is the only way to go. I have heard countless amps claiming to emulate tubes perfectly, nope they don't. Whenever I get into an argument about which is better solid state or tube I always win with the line, "Then why is it that 90% of solid state amps try to emulate tube amps if solid state amps sound better?" This amp has 3 different ohm jacks to drive anywhere from 4 to 16 ohm speakers. It also has a hum balance switch which is one of it's best features i think. It allows it to be played at high volumes with moderate to high distortion and still remain quiet. It has Low Mid and High EQ adjustments and a presence control which is the equivelent of a bright switch, only it is more versitle as a knob because you can set exacly how bright or dark the sound is. It has basic gain controls, pre and post. Saying this amp is heavy is an understatment. I read many reviews on here that said it was heavy but I figured they were just looking for something to write about. THIS AMP IS VERY HEAVY!, heavier than my cabinet. Very simple but effective.

I use alot of different guitars through this, my main guitar is a Squier limited edition affintiy strat. I have EMG active humbuckers (81's)in the neck and bridge position, i also use a Epiphone SG through it sometimes, and once in awile i'll run my stock Squier strat and Squier showmaster(p.o.s) through it. I play it through a Crate 4x12 with Crate speakers in it. This amp is great for crunchy distortion and the clean channel is absolutly pristine, though with the preamp cranked and descent volume it will overdrive nicley. This amp is very quiet and anyone you says diferently is blind and didnt see the hum balance on the rear. This amp was designed for hard rock. The distortion it produces is great, i havent heard any amps distortion that I like better than this. The EQ definatly leans towards the highs and the midrange. The owners manual (can be obtained for free at peavey.com) says that it was designed with less low eq because it takes away from the mids and highs. This doesnt mean that it wont produce a bassy sound, palm mutes are very pronounced and thick, but when playing normal chords and leads you will notice that the mids and highs are very defined and the lows are present but not out in front. My EQ settings are LOW:10 MID:7 HIGH:7 and I usually have the presence control any where from 5 to 10. The distorion is not as brutal as a Dual Rectifier, it is much closer (almost identical actually) to a jcm800. I like it this way, I can go from Tom Morello sounding distortion to Jimi sounding, to grungy, and anything in between. it basically distorts to any sound except death metal, black metal or, nu metal type distortions. It does classic metal like Black Sabbath, old Metallica, and Van Halen very good. The clean channel is award worthy though. I rarely use it because of the style I play (Hard Rock, Metal) but I would honestly have bought this amp for the clean channel alone. I bought this amp without hearing it of ebay and I have never regretted it. I trusted the good reveiws on here and got lucky.

This amp was shipped from Alabama to Connecticut with nothing breaking. It was shipped uninsured UPS ground. Anyone with experience will tell you that UPS breaks alot of stuff. I was told that they carry packages on their shoulders and when they get them to where they are carring them to, they are dropped there. This is a heavy piece of eqipment that would be very easy to drop. It arived to my door with no damage other than what was shown in the ebay desription. Reliablity is usally the downfall of most tube amps, this one is the exeption. I would and will gig without a back up and never think twice about it. It is built with super thick wood and tolex that looks like they ripped it off a rhino's ass. This amp came to me with corroded inputs that made bad conections with the guitar cables. I sprayed some contact cleaner down into them and havent had a bad connection since except for once with a cheesy 50 cent cable. This corrosion was do to neglect on the sellers part, but if he neglected it and corroded inputs is the only problem that came of it I think it's safe to say this is a reliable amp. It's from the late 80's and still has the original tubes in it and I have never had it serviced. The guy I bought it from might have but i doubt it. Peavey sells solid products.

Never had to deal with Peavey for anything. The warranty was obviously expired by the time I got this amp but it is probably older than me and in better shape than i am, i dont think i'll ever have have it repaired except to replace the tubes eventually. The Peavey website is so helpful. They have a tool on the homepage that allows you to type in any Peavey model name and search the site for an owners manual free. This is the second Peavey product I've owned and I've never had a problem with them. I wont give a rating because i've never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for close eight years. I own a Peavey Backstage practice amp and an original late 60's Fender Pro Reverb(awesome). The Butcher is my favorite. I would love to see someone try to steal this thing, they would need a forklift to lift it off the cab. In the event it was stolen I would buy another. Hopefully that wouldnt happen because I would be pissed. I love everything about it and would not change anything. It's so simple but so versatile and sounds so nice. I compared it to and chose it over JCM 800's, JCM 900's, Fender M-80's, Peavy 5150's, Fender Showman, Randall RH100 and many others. Everytime I found a new amp I would decide that "this is it, this is what i'm going to buy" but everytime, I came back to the butcher because it sounded like a better deal. This amp defines "more for your money", and "best bang for your buck". It is so underated. If you get the chance to try one out, try it. These are available on ebay frequenlty and I have seen them elsewhere in music stores on the net. Buy one before everyone else finds out about them and prices go up.

This amp is a little piece of history. It was built around 1985 (according to owner's manual downloaded from the Peavey site)- and is very similar to early 80's Marshalls in configurations (but uses 6l6s unlike Marshalls), especially the Jcm 800. It is a very simple amp, no fx loops, one channel, etc- however I am sure it can be modded to include all that stuff- the tolex encasing is big enough! I play metal. I also like to have good clean sounds for dynamics. It does both, but is similar to a Marshall when doing the high gain thing. You have to roll back the volume. However, the clean of just that alone is better than half of the previous amps I've owned. Very warm, very rich. Awesome tube amp, though an fx loop would be nice. I like to use some fx and am still figuring out what works with this thing. I gave features a 4 because I'm still trying to figure out how to use certain pedals with the thing without it being noisy, etc. But then again I like things a bit over the top and haven't spent enough time setting things right. So an FX loop would be nice- and a way to switch between low and high gain, maybe a alternating switch to lower the wattage to 60 watts, etc. But sometimes the best things in life are simple, eh?

Amazing tone, for such a value. I have no idea why they discontinued this thing, probably to make way for the Ultra series of Peavey. This one is the granddaddy of the 5150. When cranked- it does Metallica, Megadeth, Maiden to a tee. My nads shake, the walls quake. This amp kicks major ass! I can't believe previous reviewers claimed this didn't do metal! It outdoes a lot of newer Marshalls! This is a high quality, shredders amp! I use it with a Carvin 2x12 and various Jacksons. The Carvin has two Vintage 30 clones inside, so it does really well when pushed. The tone is marvelous- and the "lead boost" mentioned by a previous reviewer is definitely present. I don't know if thats the type of tubes it uses or what. It kicks ass whatever it is.

No diode clipping distortion (just tube excellence), and not a big risk of shit being fried because its so simple!
I've owned several Peaveys over the years. Theyre not always the greatest, but this is a case in point where these things still sound good, and of course are still around nearly 20 years later. If it had any dependability problems, I'm sure it would have been modded for other shit, but it doesn't so I doubt it has had too many problems- other than changing the tubes every once in awhile. Ok, heres the kicker- I've posted on many forums about this sucker, before and after buying it - I've had a few professional amp techs (one in paticular has done work for such guys as George Lynch) say its one of the most underrated amps they've encountered, and it has a reputation of being better and more dependable than a lot of newer amps. Think about it- I got this for $100- with a trade in of a very shitty, shoddy amp. I got more than I ever expected- if you see one of these- pick it up! Its definitely a "hidden" treasure.