Peavey Classic 30

Everone has already described the features adequately in other reviews

I love this amp. I can dial in lots of great tones with this little sucker. Clean is very nice, but the OD channel is where I find that this amp really shines. Now I have replaced the tubes with JJ Tesla tubes and this smoothed out the OD channel that was a little harsh with the stock tubes ( I replaced the tubes in my other amp with JJ's and was pleased with the results, so I figured I would try JJ's in this amp) The tube change also warmed up the clean channel as well. I traded a hot rod deluxe in on this amp, the hot rod had a better clean sound but the drive channel was very harsh and not as smooth as the classic 30.

Cannot say, only had this amp 2 months.

Cannot say, never had to deal with Peavey.

Played with my strat I can get Hendrix,Srv,Clapton sounds easily with tweaking the settings. Nails classic rock and blues sounds. I would definately replace this with another if It was stolen or lost. Solid build construction. Quite versatile. Do yourself a favor and go get one of these gems, You wont be disapointed.

It is very versitle and i lvoe the amp its so awesome i just got it the other day. I really dont like how there isnt individual knobs for each channel like my other amps.

Tubes are so pure and the reverb is awesome it sounds amazing. It is true what they say Once you go tube you never go back. Ill never look back at those solid states as computerized as they are getting they will never get the full warmth of a tube amp..

Never had any problems so i guess 10. I dont like the sound of the tubes when you turn it off and it the compacitors cool down..

Amazing amp, amazing price. Love it, so worth it and am so glad i went with el-84 instead of 6l6 hot rod deluxe. So glad!

Tweed model. Not mine, but it was the token amp in a rehearsal room that I used for a couple of months. Features well documented, I believe. I never used the mid-boost, as the stock Blue Marvel speaker was already very middy & I play with P-90s, so the boost was overkill. A standby switch would've been nice. Tubes precariously placed & it's well known that Peavies are a nightmare to take apart & work on. That alone would keep me from ever buying one....

.....having said that, this little beast could put out some great tones. Very loud and very touch sensitive. It seems to get louder the longer you leave it on for??!!? I don't think I ever had the "pre" volume past 2 or the "post" past 5 & the neighbours still sent the rozzers over. I was playing punky r'n'r which it did pretty well. Rips with P-90s. Didn't notice a huge difference between the two channels I gotta say. Occasionally augmented it with a vintage MXR Distortion+ which gave it a nice Pistols/Heartbreakers grind but it has more than enough gain on tap as is.
Ultimately a little too brittle & hard to control for my taste when playing saturated punky rifferama. I find it easier to work with less volume but more clean headroom & bottom end so I was glad to go back to larger setups.
Still a great sounding little amp that I imagine would excel for blues or early Cramps/Gun Club type garagey stuff. Soundwise very similar to a Fender Blues Deville, incidentally. And nearly as loud.

Never any trouble, but I only used it for maybe 7 or 8 rehearsals and never travelled anywhere with it. Would've been slightly wary of taking it on the road, as the exposed tubes in particular would give cause for concern.

Never dealt with Peavy, what kudos they gained with this amp they promptly blew with that 38-channel DSP FX-loop ridden MIDI compatible Joe Twatriani-signature space station that you can bet will not be working in 10 years.
Will mankind EVER learn?

Groovy little box. Plus the tweed makes it look cool. If you dislike strong upper mids & favour downtuned mid-scooped sludgy, gainy, buzzy, nu-metal mud, this isn't the amp for you, but frankly if I had my way, all those fitting the above criteria would be exported to Siberia (and it even rhymes!)

I bought this amp used in 1998, so it's one of the orginal tweeds. The speaker has a plain back, no Blue Marvel sticker or anything. Three 12ax7 tubes in the preamp section and 4 EL84s in the power section. I've noticed that most amps in this wattage (and higher) only have 2 power tubes, so the Classic 30 is overpowered by normal standards.

The amp is not very versatile - it's primarily a blues amp in my opinion. I've used it for rock, but in a band situation its 30 watts are not enough to keep up with the cumulative volumes produced in a rock band. However, in blues bands in small clubs, which is where I've mostly used this amp, it sounds great. If the Classic 30 is mic'd, it could probably work in any environment.

The classic 30 has 2 channels, one clean and the other with overdrive (overdriven 12ax7). It has an effect loop, an extension speaker out jack, and a jack for the footswitch which lets one change channels or turn the reverb on and off. Let me just reiterate what others have said: Switching the reverb on and off is pretty useless. What Peavey should've done is allow the player to engage/disengage the midrange boost. On my amp you have to press a tiny button near the eq knobs to turn the midrange boost on and off. That being said, the midrange boost is a great feature to have and it sounds excellent.

This amp does blues better than any amp I've owned. My blues heros are guys like Albert King, Buddy Guy, BB King, and Roy Buchanan. The clean channel of the Classic 30 is LOUD, and I wish I had the 112E extension cabinet for this reason. It's also a very NICE loud, rich in tone. I think this is because you're getting the harmonics from several tubes in the audio path.

I'm using several guitars with this amp. A 91 LP Custom, a USA Strat with DG20 EMG pickup system, and a 3 single coil tele with Van Zandt pickups. They all sound pretty sweet with this amp playing the blues.

The distortion (or overdrive) is good, not great, but it also depends on what brand of tubes you use. Swap different brands in and out to find what works best for you. I've also found that right around 7/7.5 on the gain is where you go from breakup to full on overdrive. The overdrive sounds better when mixed with a full band than on it's own, in my opinion. But again, this is basically a blues amp and it's been fantastic in that environment.

The midrange boost is great in the appropriate situations/songs, but it's not footswitchable and for that I've got to ask Peavey, "WTF?" I've never used the effects loop but plan to give it a try in the studio this month. The 3 band eq is decent and effective - sometimes for a warm BB King type of tone I'll turn all the eq knobs all the way down. Try it some time! Oh, and the reverb is perfect for this amp.

I'd like to hear how this sucker sounds with a broken in Celestion Vintage 30. I plan to get one when I can afford it :)

Also, I've had many compliments on the tones from this amp. I was in a Clapton phase for a while, trying to cop that "Cocaine" solo sound, thanks in part to a vintage Ibanez chorus, and a very critical blues artist in Seattle not prone to dish out praise really liked it. So there ya go.

Note to harmonica players: Play your harp through this amp with a green bullet microphone and you'll be in harp heaven! I played with a guy who used this setup and I was amazed. Makes me wish I could play the harmonica!

I just got mine repaired for a blown diode, but considering how much I've used it over the last 8 years, that's not too bad. The amp was sitting for a week or two and when I turned it on it just hummed. 125 bucks later I'm back in business. Such is the nature of tube amps, but it's worth mentioning that this is not an easy amp to work on unless you really know what you're doing. Until I played it again I cringed at the repair bill. Now I'm fine with it :)

I do have to deduct points for the tube set up. They're way too exposed and the heat from the power tubes floats right up into where all the electronics are. This doesn't seem very healthy, but in a combo amp I realize this configuration is just about the only option in order to save space. Get a head and a cabinet if you want the tubes on top :)

Never used Peavey customer support.

I've been playing guitar about 20 years. I own quite a bit of gear but nothing that gathers dust. If this amp were lost or stolen I probably couldn't afford to replace it now and would just use one of my other amps. However, it's a great blues amp, it fills it's niche very well. I bought it to play blues and will continue to use it for bluesy purposes, or in the studio for a nice clean tone. These old tweed ones are fetching good resale values, which is encouraging. The new ones are black and modern looking and are not my cup of tea. I'll stick with the tweed!

I have the blue covered version of the Classic 30. Not sure the year manufactured but I bought it in 2000 (or 2001). My other rig was in transit and I needed an amp for a gig, and picked this up after a short time in the store. It was small, simple, and had all I needed (two channels, loop and reverb, plus extension cab out).

It doesnt come with a pedal to switch channels/reverb, but I had an extra marshall switch (the functions are reversed tho, channel controls reverb, vise versa), but hey it works. the loop is very transparent and the reverb is nice, warm and fender-ish.

It definitely has enough power to keep up with a loud drummer in a noisy room, although the dirty channel is a little noisy when cranked, nothing a noise gate in front or in the loop doesnt fix. The clean is great. If u want warm and jazzy, its there...if you want bright glassy blues, there too. The dirty isnt as versatile as I'd like, but a good pedal in front can help, plus the dirty can be used as a extra channel or boost with a pedal or vise versa.

I play a variety of styles with many bands. I'm a session player as well, and perform everything from emo/punk, rock, pop, hip hop, R&B, to reggae, jazz and dave matthews hippy rock. This amp has stuck by me well in all those situations.

Would be nice if the tube retainers were a lil more sturdy tho. Get a rattle when u crank it, especially when u run the bass high. SOmetimes noisy for studio applications.

I have a large array of guitars... 61 Gibson Les Paul SG custom, Tobias Guitar (yes..guitar, not bass), Starfield American Cabriolet (duncan single coils), Heritage 150CM, Schecter Tempest Special (duncan p-90's), Tempest Classic (duncan 59's), Schecter C-1 Classic (duncan jb bridge, jazz neck), Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor, Fender Tele 72 reissue. Every guitar has a great tone thru this amp, and they all keep their individuality (try that on a line 6...a 2000 les paul sounds like a 100 dollar Cort)

You can definitely depend on this amp. I've had it for years..about 5, I gigged like a maniac with this amp, and have only had two instances of problems.

1. The tube retainers: really be careful with the tubes. Once rushing around to a gig, put cables in the back...cable got yanked and ripped 2 tubes out of the thing. Plus u can bend the things way too easy. IF someone can recommend a mod for this I would be eternally grateful.

2. My reverb went on this once, and cut the whole amp out for some reason. I managed to repair it myself, but I worry more now...but I definitely worked this lil amp hard for awhile.

I changed the sovteks and replaced with Svetlanas. Like the breakup and tone a lil better, but overall a really good solid amp, even stock.

No clue...

I've been a guitarist for 23 years, believe me I've tried alot of amps. This isnt my only rig, but its definitely a top contender in the land of great amps. I own Marshall, Mesa, Fender, Carvin...etc... This amps in league with the Fender blues Jr. But with the channel switching and loop, has more to offer.

When the amp went down for a bit, I was gonna buy a new one, but opted to fix it instead...I would definitely replace it if necessary.

Peavey needs to fix the tube rattle/retainer problems. The Fender design has way less flaws, maybe its just the quality of the parts, the blues jr. is the same price bracket and doesnt have the tube problem.

Tone is good, loop is awesome (I typically hate effects loops), reverb is good and the amp is solid. If you want a good, compact, great sounding amp with a simple design...or even a backup or alternative to your giant rig setup...pick this amp up.

This particular Classic 30, was made in 1998. I've owned 3 0f them over the past several years. I bought this one used at Guitar emporium of Louisville, Kentucky for $300.00 ( they have a website and stock a real good selection of new, used and vintage gear at reasonable prices, check'em out ). The Classic 30 is an awsome amp, completely versatile good playing and sounding amp for everything up until heavy metal ( which is my preference, but I'm sure with the right toneless metal distortion pedal it'd cover that too, if that's your thing ). Those of you not familiar with the Classic 30, it has 2 channels, global EQ ( mid, bass & treble ), reverb and boost, and an effects loop. It's a good solid built, reliable all-tube amp ( solid-state rectifier ), that really plays and sounds good. It does have channel switching and reverb on/off with optional footswitch. This amp is good from bedroom to recording to gigging, that about covers it does'nt it. Good warm tube tone, soft & sensitive playability from everyone else in the house is sleeping to you need to be in another room away from it volumes. Okay, this is mostly for those of you who already own one of these all-arond good amps. You know it sounds and feels really good right, but the overdrive channel is'nt quite good enough to your ear. Do away with those high priced overdrive pedals ( that do sound so good with this amp, classic radial tone bone for one ), this amp delivers in spades all by itself for a $30.00 upgrade. NOS Sylvania pre-amp tube in the input position ( the pre-amp tube furthest from the output tubes ). It's the cure all tube for this amp on both channels, it brings it to life and gives you all it's truly capable of ( Sylvania tubes available at Hi Test NOS Tubes, phone 201-750-2445, as well as many other tube retailer's for $30.00 each ). I'm sure an even higher priced NOS tube like an RCA or Mullard would give you an even more sweeter experience, but I'm just speaking from my own experience and just the one Sylvania pre-amp tube in the first position ( the other 2 pre-amp tubes and 4 output tubes stock ) will drastically improve this amp's tone and playability. As well as calm your need to think you need to keep forking out your hard earned money, or more of your tax return than your wife seems to be okay with for different gear etc. ( and even more importantly, it'll keep you from selling or trading this killer amp for some other less than desireable piece of equipment ). I have taste that this amp does'nt cover, as well as my gear addiction, but from clean to blues to hard rock this amp is really me. By the way for that really fat, mud thick, but focused all the while tone of Muddy Water's, try out an Epiphone valve Jr. combo. No mercury magnets or even a tube change ( which I tried and it smoothed the tone out too much ), with the stock Sovtek 12ax7wa this amp kicks ass with right player input, at least from my single coils and to my ear anyway. I think this is an amp to have as a player and for future price increases that are inevitable.

As I've said this amp can make any sounds you want it to up until metal. The clean channel with my guitar set-up will start to give you a good crunch at around 4 on the volume knob, but that's also with my EQ preference of heavy mids and bass, low treble on the amp. Lower the bass and you'll get more clean headroom you know. In general I keep the clean channel volume around 2 or 3 for good clean playing and it's loud enough that my wife has to keep the TV up so I can hear more of Oprah than I care to inbetween my playing from the living room. I'm primarily a single coil strat player, but I also play a humbucker guitar through this amp, both sound good for what they are through this amp. I mostly play blues and rock or a combination of the two and alot of pretty clean rythym stuff. This amp is not noisy on any setting with the exception of my 1,3 and 5 positions on my strat, which is minimal and expected. The sound quality is good and really good with the good pre-amp tube in the first position, really good.

I've had 3 of these amps and never had a problem one. I play several hours a day, everyday and other than tonal experimentation I've never had to so much as change a tube. It's definately a reliable amp.

I've never dealt with Peavey or had the need to.

I've been playing guitar for about 6 or 7 years. I've bought and sold or traded this amp a few times, but I keep coming back to it and I'm going to keep this one. It's just a good tube amp, it covers what I want, it gives me whatever I put into it, it's reasonably priced and besides it's cost I prefer it to everything else I've played through overall.

Features beat to death elsewhere in the reviews, but one thing I do wish it had is a HALF power mode to run it at 15 watts.

Very, VERY surprising little amp. Nice and clean at lower levels, and it breaks up perfectly at volumes over say 60%. I am an amp tech, and get to play just about everything... This one was in my shop, and I am going to buy one for myself. Believe me that says a LOT, but read my overall rating for the bottom line.

Standard Peavey build... too many poorly selected connectors, poor solder. If you can fix one, Peaveys are great, if not figure on some inconvenient down time cleaning up what needs looking after. This one was in my shop for intermittant reverb traced to a crappy IDC connector.

They are great at Peavey... never a complaint there.

If not for reliability issues this guy would rate a 10+++ IMO, if Peavey threw out the bean counters that "value engineered" their boxes, they'd be on top. As it is, this can't be.

I can't imagine taking this one or any other Peavey I own, or have worked on without some very careful reversing of the crap they do to build them.

The bottom line, IMO if you're an amp tech, or can fix them, this one is a GREAT amp to own, if not you take your chances.

30 Watts
3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes
4 x EL84 power tubes
12 inches 16 ohms speaker
2 channels: clean and lead
Boost switch: in fact it is a FAT switch
Spring reverb
Effect loop
Bass, Middle and Treble controls
Volume and Gain (for lead channel)

I dropped 4 points because it doens't have presence control and stand-by switch.

The clean channel sounds great. It has a warm tone and it is very loud.

The lead channel is superb. It Rocks! Warm creamy high gain overdrive that does it all.

However, there is an annoying rattle sound that I will explain better in the reliability field. I dropped 4 points because of this.

That is the reason why I wrote this review. I am not the first one to advise people about this problem. There is an annoying rattle sound coming out of the speaker. It is not the chassis. It is the EL84s tubes falling into peaces. The reason is that the EL84 tube construction is not sturdy enough and the speaker punch knocks them all. The tubes are too close to the speaker.

After 6 months, I couldn't stand the rattle sound. Than I changed the power tubes (for JJs), installed a tube shock absorver and the rattle sound disapeared... for 4 months! When I noticed the first sign of rattle sound I decided to sell the amp.

No matter what you do, you will not be abble to get rid of the rattle sound. This is my peace of advice.

However, if you use mainly the lead channel, You will not notice the rattle sound, because it will be mixed with the overdrive sound. In the middle of a gig, you will not hear that too because there is a lot of noises everywhere mixing to it. So you can live with it.

Because of the rattle problem that shortens the power tubes life, I dropped 6 points.

The warranty in Brazil covers only the first 3 months and it is provided by the dealer, not by Peavey.

As after sales is very important, I dropped 9 points.

It sounds great. However, the rattle noise is very annoying. If you can leave with it, go ahead! I dropped 6 points because of this.

I think it's an '05 with the newer logo. I Play every thing from Allman Bros. to ZZ Top and AC/DC to Zeppelin. I'd say the only thing and I do mean the ONLY thing it won't do too well is Godsmack,Metallica, Pantera kinda stuff, unless you try a MT-2 on the clean channel. I wish the Boost option was footswitchable.
I use it for practice at home and as a backup to my XXX 112 combo that I use live.

I love the distortion this thing has. Much more usable than the XXX. It works GREAT when rolling off the volume on the guitar to clean up the gain, VERY Marshall like. I use An SG, Explorer and a V and I use a H/S/S Charvel at times. With minor tweeks you can get any Hard/Classic or southern rock sound.

I was at the music store and never even considered trying it but I was in need of a backup and figured I would. I was blown away, I thought it would sound fuzzy or tinny. I was wrong.

It sounds like I wisthe XXX would. If this amp had a third "Over The Top" Cahnnel for Metal It would be perfect.
The clean Channel is kinda sterile without a chorus or delay but that's all good, I use the volume on the guitar to clean up 90% of the time.

I can get "THE" Skynyrd Sound Nailed! Blackfoot too. Flirtin' With Disaster? Yeah, It Nails it! Then for a goof we played Love Gun By Kiss and this thing sounded EXACTLY like the record, especially the solo.

I use a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck on my 3 Gibsons and a Pearly Gates and 2 Texas Specials in the Charvel.

I have always used Peavey and none of them ever had dramatic issues.
But never gig without a backup!

I like the simplicity of this amp. It's a 30 watt tube amp with 2 channels - clean and overdrive. It has a bass,mid,treble EQ and a boost switch. There is also a boost switch and an effects loop for your stompboxes. The simple operation of the amp is refreshing to me. I find some of the modern designs are just too complicated when all you need is a great sounding amp with a simple but effective EQ like this amp. The boost switch is the only feature that i have not found any use for so far. It is suppose to scoop your mids to acheive a more rock tone but all it does is ruin the amps great natural tone. Having said that though, if you don't use it then it won't bother you. This is my single amp for all situations. I use it for gigs and garage band type jams. Although being only 30 watts, it packs plenty of punch and i have never had a problem with volume during a gig. In most situations I usually mic up the amp anyway. More often then not, I use the amp as my own foldback speaker and my amp through the PA is all the crowd will generally hear. The main thing with tube amps is driving them as much as you can to get the best out of your amp without being too loud. Being only 30 watts then driving the amp hard doesn't require massive volume levels. I have found that driving the amp at about 4 or 5 acheives the best results both on clean and overdrive channels.

The clean tone on the amp is similar to the clean tone on most fender amps. I recently played through a Fender Blues Junior and found the clean tone to be very close to the Peavey. I play a Fender US 57' Re-issue Strat with original pickups and my clean tone is very warm yet still bright and very punchy. It is close to a Hendrix,SRV,John Mayer type of tone but different guitars and different playing styles will have a different effect on the amps overall sound. The overdrive channel is excellent if you want a great mild overdrive. I think the overdrive channel is not quite as punchy as the clean channel but in most situations, I need the overdrive to be louder then the clean channel so slight loss of punch is hard to notice because your volume is increased. Overall the tone is still incredibly natural and will suit a Strat or Tele perfectly. The amp is not DEAD QUIET but it is quiet and i have never had a problem with the amp being annoying or anything. I mainly play blues/rock/rnb and with the Strat then this amp suits me perfectly. I doubt metal players would be looking for an amp like this but whether your playing rock,pop,country or blues then this amp would do it all with ease. I have to give it a 9 because this is not the perfect sounding amp for me. It's damn close though.

The amp is extremely solid. It could take quite a beating and still sing. Although i do my best to take good care of it. I don't think there's any need for having a backup amp with you for a gig. This amp has proved to be reliable for me. Only thing is would say is keep an eye on the tubes and check the wiring every so often for comforts sake.

I've been playing for 4 years and have owned lots of gear in that short time. I'm all about keeping it simple now and a having quality guitar and a quality amp is all i need now - and sometimes a volume or boost pedal. This is a quality amp and given the retail price of these then it blows away most other amps in this price range and alot above it. I was lucky to grab this amp on sale at just half the retal price but after using it for so long now i would have happily paid the standard price. It's still great value!