Peavey Classic 30

This tube amp (12ax7 pre-amp/el 84 output)is the vintage style with tweed covering and basic controls. You get one volume for channel one, pre and post gain for channel two. There is a global eq with bass middle and treble along with reverb. The amp also has a luscious boost knob that really sweetens things up. The 12" speaker is also well matched to this 30 watt output stage. There is also an effects loop. The whole package weighs in at a very friendly 45 lbs.

The classic 30 is a suprisingly simple and loud amp. At first I really wasn't sure that I like it. At the store I was thrilled with the tight reverb (two spring accutronics) and solid sound. The bass is very present but can be eq'd down. I was into jazz solidbody sounds and this amp just seemed to match that style very nicely. When i got this amp home i started to be dissapointed by the fact that it was a little hard to get cranking rock sounds...12 month later and many hours of playing and listening later I can now say that this amp absolutly rocks...The clean channel is excellent and allows my Les Paul to play very pleasant bluesy leads and when you back off of the gain at the guitar you can mix a very useful accoustic like sound. This is great when you need to accompany yourself on tunes that have a nice strummy rythmn. The lead channel is much different from the clean channel...the eq or inherent sound is more rocky...there is a hint of a sucked mid that sounds better and better as you pump the volume. Speaking of volume...I have never yet turned this amp up to anything near its maximum...like the instructions say...hearing damage can and will occur at excessive volume. This leads me back to the amp itself...it grows on you. The sound is a little bit hard to get used to...which is a good thing. The amp has a sound that is so warm and enveloping that it gives you a presence. The amp is a wonderful rythmn machine because you can establish your backbone sound very easily. The amp has a very distinct personality, it is full and charming. If you are looking for an amp that mixes well this is it. In my opinion the amp is great because you can get all kinds of super awesome sounds. The added bonus is that the amp has an inherent sound quality that is different from the usual Fender/Marshal/Whatever sound that typically dominates the lead guitar spectrum. Put it this way, when you go to play with other guitarists and musicians this amp puts you into a part of the sound that is uncluttered with other instruments. It makes you feel like you own a whole chunk of sound that doesn't get in the way of others. My only critique would be that the amp reflects it's design...it's simple. It can be difficult to really break it up or distort to the levels you might expect. The answer to this is simple...pedals. This amp really loves to be fed with a processed signal. It takes whatever you can dream up and stamps it with classic 30 identity, again, I think this is great.

I did have to have this amp serviced within 6 months. It was covered by the warranty and was repaired with no hassle of any kind. It turned out that one of the pre-amp cicuits had developed a burn-out and needed to be replaced and the reverb tank had a faulty component. Did this cause me grief and sadness...yes...but the reward was unexpected. The amp came back from the service center sounding better than it did when I shipped it off. My opinion was that the amp, like any tube based equipment, underwent the typical break-in period were all the components really warm up and cook themselves in. The amp survived this with minimal harm. Yes, the amp required service but only of the usual kind. Since then this amp has been gigged regularly to a local club as well as countless trips to the backyard and garage. It has never failed to the point were you couldn't play it. My advice regarding this amp and it's reliability is this...take care of it. I get the feeling that this amp is rock solid but you got to be careful with it. Don't drop it...be careful of the unprotected tubes in the back, especially when you go to put the cord away. don't leave it in the rain and don't loan it out.

Excellent...I have no complaints about the customer service. This includes the shop that I bought it from as well as the customer service center.

Overall this amp is a lot of fun. With a little work you can make this amplifier work any kind of music. The sound is a little intimidating because it is so beefy. The presence that the amp provides is astounding...everybody will know you are there. The beauty of this amp is that when necessary you can back off of the volume and tuck your sound inside of the mix. For example...you are playing a tune that lets other players do their thing...the amp has the ability to let you ease up and hide just above the bass and below the vocals. This could be mostly attributed to the kind of guitar you play but I think it also tells you a lot about the amp.

I just read through the other reviews here which sum up the strong and weak points of this amp (Clean channel sounds nice, OD channel sounds like crap, boost switch is useless). I'm not sure if this is appropriate in this forum but I did some extensive mods on my Classic 30 which I posted on my website including: -Redesigned boost circuit (more like a Boogie shift switch) -Added relay board so that boost is footswitchable instead of reverb -Capacitor replacements to improve the tone of the OD channel -Master Volume and Presence controls added -Bias adjustment pot added (with jacks to measure bias current) If you already have a Classic 30 and know how to solder, some or all of these mods can make your amp a lot more usable and versatile. (If you don't have a Classic 30 but can pick one up for cheap it does make a nice project amp.) With these mods, my Classic sounds like a fairly nice Mesa Boogie or Marshall combo amp, with a very usable OD channel.
The URL for my site is http://www.techaccessinc.com/blueguitar/

Mainly strats w/ Van Zandts and Fralins playing blues and blues/rock.

The amp is constructed very cheaply with a folded light-gauge chassis, and a 3 section circuit board that is folded over with "hinged" jumper wires. If you plan to work on the amp at all, the pot bushings can be easily stripped as can the knurls on the pot shafts.

I ordered schematics for Classic 30 and 50 amps, which were received within a week. Classic 50 schematic was missing all-important board layout drawings. When I told Peavy about that, they promptly mailed me the full set for a different amp (Classic 50 w/o FX loop). Well, at least they try hard.

With the amp modded as outlined in the Features category above, it is a real killer. While the OD channel sounds a lot better than stock, it is more like a Marshall or Boogie than an old Fender. However with the Master Volume mod you can get the cleaner overdriven sounds from the Normal channel. by turning its Volume up all the way, and setting the overall volume with the mv control. Retubing the amp helps a lot, too, if you'd rather skip the mods: V1: Sovtek 12AX7WXT+ (like a vintage Telefunken) -or- Yugoslavian EI 12AX7 (like a Mullard- warmer and sweeter than WXT+) V2: Sovtek 12AX7WB (lower gain than WXT+) V3: NOS GE 12AX7WA or Ruby Tubes 7025STR (use a very clean & powerful tube for the driver) EL84's: Mesa Boogie Note: the ratings I listed here are for the amp as stock. With the mods several of the ratings would be 2 or 3 points higher.

EZ to use, but where's the standby switch? Has channel switching but the switch is extra. Come on Peavey, include the switch!

The clean channel is pretty good and can get mild overdrive when cranked(if you don't blow the cheesy speaker first, like I did). The distortion channel sounds like sheet metal being sanded on a belt sander at low volumes, but at higher volumes it sounds pretty good (if you don't blow the speaker first). Take the original seaker out and make it into a bird feeder and replace it with a Celestion or a good quality Jensen clone speaker. This made a HUGE difference in the tone of this amp when I switched to a Celestion. This gave the amp a warmth and crunch it didn't have before, but still sounds good when in the clean mode. Noticed some crosstalk in the distortion channel at low volumes. The boost switch is pretty worthless, as it adds so much flubby midrange goo to the tone that you can't really dial it out with the tone controls. I never use it. The reverb is pretty good, like a fender. The amp sounds pretty cool when hooked up to a Marshall 4x12 cab (16 ohm only). Try this out at the store when testing out the amp. Never used the loop, so I can't comment on it. Overall it gives a good, workmanlike tone for a reasonable price.

Shitty speaker, otherwise no problems except for bad preamp tube.

The speaker wasn't covered under warranty, so.......

Replace the speaker and put good tubes in it and you'll have a decent amp at a reasonable price. If it were stolen I'd probably shop around and explore my options. I think the innards could be more solidly built for the long haul. The chassis is made of flimsy, bent sheet metal, not real heavy duty at all. I wish Peavey would beef up the construction on all their amps. If the amp is used at home for practice, then I would recommend it, as it is a decent amp at a reasonable price, but for gigs, I would like somthing more ruggedly built.

This amp is fantastic for a practice amp. Switching between the clean and dirty channels is smooth and precise. The effects loop is a little noisy. No headphone jack. The spring reverb unit is perfect. I wish it had a stand-by and a fan, but it's only a 30 watt amp! I had to trade it in b/c I needed more volume. The tubes that came with it are crap Chinese deals, but I replaced them with some Groove Tubes and it was amazing.

This is the strongest feature of this amp. I bought a Fender Dual Showman after I owned this and have subsequently traded it in because I couldn't get the Peavey Classic sounds I loved so much. The amp is noisy, a noise gate could help. The clean channel does get dirty at higher volumes, but again this is a 30 watt amp.

I had to replace the tubes, but I was glad I did. Never had to send it in to be worked on though.

Never had to deal with Peavey.

Great tone, end of story. This amp isn't meant for metal, but if you love that "cookin' the tubes" kind of sound - this is it. I ran a Marshall 1960a cabinet off of it and got some killer sounds when I recorded it by miking both speakers (the Peavey and Marshall) and mixing the two signals.

This amp was made mostly for rock and blues. I play mostly metal like music so it was kinda limited in sound. But very versatile for Rock and clean, bluesy stuff.

I use a LesPaul with a PAFPro in the neck and a DimarzioSuper3 in the bridge. I love the sound especially w/a pedal but I have since changed the preamp tubes w/ some german 12ax7's. I actually got those tubes from my fathers friend, I accidently put the tubes in backwards and blew a capacitor. But the Preamp tones have a very Hardrock almost metal sound now. All this in a 30 watt combo. But I'd like to try out some higher watt heads like the 5150,VHTPittbull.

I'd use this w/ out a backup I've dropped it off of a truck tailgate, fired it up and worked flawless, this was prior to my wanting to take a peek inside see above for details on blowing a capacitor.

Haven't had to deal w/peavy except I visited their site and requested some info and got it within a week and a half. Pretty cool in my book.

If it were stolen I'd probably go with a 5150 or a Laney. But as long as I live I'm not going to sell it. Great amp I just bought a Laney 4x12 cab for it. I couldn't believe how loud the amp was before with just a single 12" now I have to wear earplugs when I crank up to 6 w/ the cabinet. I love this amp but I will probably buy a 5150 since it has monsterous gain. The clean sounds are wonderfull and w/my alder bcrich warlock I can get a Eric Johnson clean sound. I have carvin pu's in that guitar. I couldn't belive how much you can do with this amp and since it was my first tube head I know know what kind of amp I'm looking for. . But I'd like to keep it simple so thats why I want to get a 5150 head.

The Classic 30 has all the features I need in my "alternative" band. It has treble, middle and bass Eq's, as well as a boost button. I t also has a distortion mode, and great reverb. Did I mention it's a tube combo? I also has an effects loop, which I never use. I use this amp when practicing with my band. It's loud enough to be heard over bass, drums, and vocals, so I'm happy. It also has a speaker extension if you want extra juice.

This amp sounds pretty good. I use it with my Jaguar, which has standard single coil pickups. Since the distortion on it is terrible, I use a Boss Metal Zone for distortion. The two get along well except for some feedback. I use this amp for our hard songs, as well as soft. It has a great range. The clean and reverb are among the best I heard in this price range. After playing it for a while the sound does get muffled though. And it rattles when you turn the volume up loud, so if your Megadeth, stay away. But if your Stone Temple Pilots you should enjoy it.

This amp does take a beating when I take it places, but it has survived. But it does rattle which can be annoying. But other than that it has been very reliable.

never had a problem

I would buy this amp again. It's done the job. If your in a high school rock band, buy it. If you playin' with heavy metal guys with monster amps don't buy it if you wanna be heard. Rock on.

This amp is all-tube, except maybe the rectifier, but what can you expect from something in this price range? It has two 12AX7 preamp valves, one 12AX7 driver and four EL-84 output valves. Peavey has fitted these amps with their own specially-designed speakers. It has some nice features: three band passive EQ, spring reverb, a mid-boost switch ( not footswitchable ), and footswitchable channel select and reverb. It's second channel, the lead channel, has PRE and POST volume controls, whereas the clean channel has one volume control.

Let me make this clear: this is not made to please everyone. The distortion isn't totally brutal, it looks unappealing to most guitar players I know, it's not loaded with features and built-in effects. It is, however a great amp for blues, classic rock ( it's not very suitable for hard rock, or punk, etc. ). It's tone can get pretty muddy at high volumes, but I suspect that my pickups are at fault ( cheap Epiphone stock on Flying V ). I don't care for the mid-boost; it muddies up the natural tone of the guitar. The tone controls are nice; they don't give overly dramatic boosts or cuts or act too subtly to be heard. The reverb is also quite nice. It's not noisy, it's not really twangy like a Fender F.A.T. series reverb. Personally, I don't like the overdrive channel. It gives a harsh biting tone that I don't like. I use a Danelectro Fab Tone instead. It sounds great! I plan to change the output valves to Mesa/Boogies, because the stock valves ( Sovtek ) aren't the greatest quality in the world. I think one of them has a loose plate, because I hear a rattling from my amp when I play a hard chord at a high volume.

These amps are very reliable. Despite my problem with the rattling in the back of my amp, it hasn't broken down or anything.

Never dealt with Peavey.

For the price, this a great amp. It can last a long time and sounds great next to other amps in this range.

This is an update of a previous review... 2 channels. share eq, spring verb, 12"bin, blah blahblah Note... it has a mid boost/shift button... it was the supposed saving point of the classic 20, needless to say if it is the same as the one on the classic 30... leave it out! maybe add an extra gain stage or something the mid shift really mudds up the works
the reason for the re-review... I bought mine, I liked it (not as much as the classic 50 212...) and then I lent it to a buddy, he killed it, it sounded like shit. just bought some Sovtek 12ax7's and I now remember why I liked the amp in the first place!

It rocks... the new tubes especially has cleaned up the clean tone... and the distortion finally sounds like it should!
I a, finally ready to say I am "almost" satisfied... it rocks, but can't do the metal thing... I formerly used a DOD thrash master and an EQ for my metal tone, but I just got a zoom pedal and.... actually, adding the eq in the fx loop, I can give it a little extra edge...

Rocks... stock tubes suck , but other than that it is cool, never had a problem witha peavey...

never dealt with them before, told their tech department about the tone problems I was having, they emailed me back in less than 2 hours... very impressive.

Love it, really like the thing, and witht he new tubes, I am no longer looking at smaller/used marshalls!
Stay loose, and keep the thing smokin!

Dual channels sharing one eq (bummer...) mid boost and spring reverb (HOORAY!) 1x12 speaker and 30 watts RMS, I think it has 4 12ax7's and 4 el-84's... but don't quote me on this...

My musical tastes range from crystal clean, to Bluesy distortion to Shred... needless to say this amp CAN NOT do it all... But it can handle clean sounds well and the distortion rocks, but not up to that "METALLICA" level of crunch. (Note: I was playing mostly SRV blues and classic rock when I bought this amp...so I knew what I was getting into...) I like the footswitch (Mine was included by the dealer) and the amp blows away the Stereo Chorus 2-12 I had before... It is a little noisy in the distortion channel, but that is probably because I play a 70's squire strat with a Seymour Duncan Humbucker in the lead, and a piezo electric guitar... (I'll see how it fares when I get my Ibanez RG565 and my Yamaha RGX back from my cousin...) THe clean channel does distort at high volumes, but since I am both a blues player, and mostly an at-home player, this doesn't bother me..

It was really reliable... until I lent it to a buddy... He needed it for a "week-end gig" which stretched into 2 months... He was a country player, but was used to a hundred watt fender custom, so he cranked the snot out of my amp... 3 nights a week, in a smoky bar. (and broke the logo plate) needless to say it doesn;t have the same kick anymore... But he REALLY abused it... I guess if you don't run it at ten for 4 continous hours though, it'll probably be okay...I figure that it's just the factory tubes crapin out.

Don't deal with them, Don't think I'll need to...

I bought it because I had just wanted a new "Real" amp. I've had a Yamaha Budokan 20 watt (Good first amp) a Rexx 100 watt solid state rackmount (shades of Triumph... but I used it with a SHITTY! cab, a 212 traynor from 78... with original speakers... and got discouraged) an original Ampeg Jet trem model (I had it cleaned up and restored by a friend... my first tube amp and WOW! the best blues tone I have ever heard... it blew up when my buddy left it on for like 8 hours one day) a Peavey Stereo Chorus 2-12 (A horrible amp to begin with, and mine needed a new speaker basket (bad voice coil)... good clean, bad distortion, traded it to get the classic 30.. But the ampp is fairly vesatile, You just need a good distortion box for super Metal Tone, and a 7-band eq pedal for dialing in that extra little bit of contouring all in all, I'd definitely buy another one, though I'd probably go for the 50 2-12, mainly because it's distortin was a little harder...

The Classic 30 has three channels: the clean channel, a mid-boosted clean channel (push the "Boost" button) , and an overdrive channel. Right now I'm not sure I like how the EL84s are doing in my Classic 30, and I may or may not change them: I put Mesa Boogies in in November 1996, and they sounded better for two months than they do now. There is an effects loop, and an extension speaker outlet: the manual says you have to connect it to a 16 ohm load, which is a little limiting of one's choices. The amp doesn't come with a footswitch: you can turn the reverb on and off, and switch from the non-mid-boosted clean to the overdrive, if you buy the $20 footswitch. The Boost function is by pushbutton only. The overdrive channel can be set for very subtle overdrive to raging British blues, and you can make a difference in the overdrive channel by pushing the mid-"Boost" button in and out. Like other Peavey amps, there are overdrive channel controls labelled PreAmp gain and PostAmp gain to control the overdrive saturation, and total loudness, respectively. The controls are labelled with white silkscreened paint on a chrome panel, which makes for more than a little difficulty reading them: I think they're also upside down when you're looking at the amp from the side with the speaker. Other reviewers have commented on the potential for breakage of the tubes. The circuit board might be flexed up and down--which risks the integrity of the printed circuit board connections--if you change the tubes without using a little manual restraint.

. The clean channel isn't as warm as my Hot Rod Deluxe: by "warm" I mean that desirable quality of harmonic richness, as opposed to clinical simplicity without overtones. The clean channel doesn't like low frequency sounds very much. According to Musician magazine, a lot of the clean sounds on the country/soul anthology "Red, Hot and Country" (? 1994) were played on Peavey Classic series amps. Check this out, if it's still available: you haven't heard full-bore southern sentiment till you've heard George Jones and B.B. King share vocal duties on "Patches" ("I'm depending on you, son, it's all up to you....") The midboosted sound strikes me as sounding like a Marshall would when playing through its nominal clean sound: I've not owned or played a Marshall since 1981 so maybe I'm not too reliable a source about Marshall sounds. The overdrive sound is pretty cool: it has a certain organic midranginess, a crudeness, that I like, without being always 25 decibels louder than the clean channel, which seemed to be the necessary case with my old Boogie .22 Caliber (see comments on my Boogie in my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe review from 8/24/97: I've since sold the Boogie). My Classic 30 has a little cabinet rattle at moderate volumes, which can be annoying if you concentrate on it. The sound is very directional: it sound a lot louder when you listen on-axis to the speaker, than when you are more than 30 degrees off-axis. I play a rosewood-neck 1982-American-made reissue 1962 strat, a 1995 maple neck Am Std Strat, and a 1994 Tele Custom, the Mexican-made guitar with with a humbucker in the neck position. I like blues/jazz. I don't get up in the morning hoping to sound like the Rollins Band I saw on a Saturday Night Live rerun last night.

No problems: I'm only a bedroom player, though, so I wouldn't know how it would fare in the gigging world. I'd be very careful about preventing objects from banging into the tubes while the amp was in transit: they are quite exposed.

I got a an answer quickly by phone when I called Peavey about the impedance requirements for the extension speaker.

. I just like the clean sound on my Hot Rod Deluxe better than on this amp: I will probably sell the Peavey one of these days. I did like the clean sound on the Classic 30 better than on my Mesa Boogie .22 Caliber when I had those two amps to choose from.