Peavey Classic 30

You know by now all of the features that this amp has. I have been playing for or 25 years and use this amp for home, stage and studio. I will rate this section on features......but one thing is garbage and that is the extension speaker output jack is for a 16ohm speaker......seriously........whos has one?

Ive got a 52 Tele, 63 Strat, 3 Les Pauls and a 70 SG. The amp sounds like shit with a Fender at high volume levels due to interference. One may as well hold up a TV antenea for all the noise you gather unless HOLDING the strings all the time.......annoying on stage and not a pro look! Bad earth because touching the control panel will stop some of the HUM.......The gain is mud as is the boost.Clean channel gets a 7.

Ive so far had this amp changed TWICE in 2 weeks and this is another dud full of faults. Bad earth problems, faulty valves and I am now waiting on a replacement.......AGAIN!!!

Pretty sad all round......NO QUALITY CONTROL WHATSOEVER.

Ive had Laney valve amps and they rock.......as does Marshall and Fender.....this one is absolute garbage and if I cought someone stealing it I would probably help them carry it to the car. Never again will I buy PEAVEY products!

I wanted to leave another review. If you are good with upgrading parts and soldering, I highly recommend doing the modifications on blueguitar.org. I did and I'm very satisfied. I bought this amp used and with no warranty so I said what the hell. I used a combination of silver mica, WeberVST, and Orange Drop caps and carbon film resistors. The changes were done to the input caps, boost caps and resistors, tone caps, and output / coupling caps and resistors. The tone is full and lush, harshness is all gone. This amp sounds so thick and gooey / crunchy at the gain at 5 and picks up dramatically from that point to very high gain. The boost function is usable now. Before it was too muddy and congested. Now it just punches through and sings when engaged. Output tubes are JJ's and input tubes are Mullard ECC83. I also use a Weber load dump if I want to get that hot VOX pushed EL84 tone or just get a wicked sound with the gain maxed along with the output dimmed.

Seems to be holding up well.

They responde to my emails.

I great amp stock for its price, but a little harsh before the modifications / upgrades. Now, its absolutely wonderful. It beats any 1x12 that I've tried up to 2x its price range. Can't ask for anything more.

Bought this amp new in 2003, and it works perfect for what I want to play. I like to play rock without huge amounts of gain, so if you want an amp with death metal gain then don't get this amp. Two channels, effects loop, extension cab output, reverb, etc. I wish there was a seperate EQ for each channel, so that's why it loses two points for features. This has four EL84s and three 12AX7s. This has plenty of power to play in a band situation, and enough to gig. The "boost" switch is pretty useless, so I never touch it.

I play rock, ska, and...just about anything I think sounds cool and this is a pretty versatile amp. You can get about any kind of sound out of this besides really high gain stuff (metal). Which if I ever decide to play metal I could always get an overdrive pedal. This sucker can be loud. If you think you'll ever need more than 30 watts of tube, think again. The clean channel is really nice, not Fender clean, but that's not what it's supposed to have. This was my first tube amp, and it really does sound worlds better than MOST of the solid state stuff that's out right now. I'm really surprised at the sound you get from this amp for such a good value!

Haven't had a single problem, but like most people I'm pretty worried about the tubes being exposed in the back. I guess I'll have to order a tube guard for it.

Haven't had any problems so haven't needed to contact them. I think it has a two year warranty, though?

I've been playing about two years, and previously I've only owned a Squier Champ 15 (I think...) and a Marshall MG30RCD, both solid state. This amp sounds miles and miles better than either. I play this through a Gibson SG and occasionally bust out the ol' Squier Strat. I love this amp!

Hardly any features at all other than the obvious. Has a boost switch which boost the input gain but sounds like it just adds a whole lot of mids. Two channels that share eq. Reverb. A loud little amp that could be used anywhere providing it was close enough to you. Mine came with a tube guard. Apparently some don't.

Pluging straight into this little baby is very dissapointing. The dirty channel isn't too bad if you have a guitar with high output. But when I set the bass and mid to full, treble to half-way (to get rid of a horrible 'honk' in the eq) then boost the level and eq on my boss CS-3 with just a little sustain then -'voila'- it starts to sound like a decent amp. I adjust the eq on the cs3 for 'shimmer' that the amp alone doesn't have. The boost button just adds mids but is supposed to be an input gain boost however - my Roland VG-88 sounded yukky in this amp until I pressed the boost button. WOW. Sound fantastic now. I guess this would work for most pedal boards. The little classic 30 now sounds a bit like a fender something or with the vg-88 pluged in sounds very Mesa/Boogie or BobCat or even Marshall. Considering my experimentation I don't think I'll get rid I of this amp. And it it very loud with both combinations even clean sounds don't break up when pushed to 'stage tolerance' levels. It would have scored a 5 but because of this I'll give it an 8. I'm being brutal I know but compared to a high-end Mesa or Fender or Marshall this is how it sounds.

Not sure yet. I really need to gig with an amp for about a year day in day out to see what's happening with it but this a Peavey - very reliable amps. Lots of hum with reverb level up so not sure if that's the beginning of a problem.

No idea what-so-ever.

If you use this amp purely to plug in another decent piece of equipment or pedal combinations to get a sound then it rates very high. Speaker doesn't fall apart at high volumes. It looks great. Simple to use, simple to get a basic sound out of (needs a compressor badly though).

Bought it new in Oct. 2003. I assume that by now you know the features on the amp, so I won't bother. Two features that really should come as standard equiptment on this amp are a tube guard and a tube retainer. The exposed tubes ARE an acdident just waiting to happen, and theres enough vibrations that make the tubes rattle. One of the power tubes in my amp does just that when you play low notes. One night after the amp was good and warmed up I put on a heavy glove and touched each tube as I played a low E note and found the culprit. As soon as I touched one of the power tubes the rattling that I heard was gone. I know that Peavey is aware of these problems and its something that really should be looked into. So based on the lack of these two very important items, I'll give it a 7.

Ah yes, sound. Well, the reason that I bought the amp was because for my needs I thought the sound was very good. I'm 50, been playing guitar for about 7 years now and even though I'm just an at home player I have all the desire to want to be the best player that I can possibly be. I love the Marshall type of distortion but I have no need for that much power. I tried a Carvin Nomad and Traynors YVC 40, but neither amp really impressed me much. The distortion on the Carvin sounded like the amp had three blankets over it, and the Traynor sounded kinda fuzzy. The thing that I really liked about the 30's distortion was that it has (in it's own way) a Marshall "type" of quality to it. I mean, for an amp with EL84's in it I was quite surprised. No, I'm NOT saying that it sounds JUST like a Marshall because it does'nt. But it does posses that full "crispy edge" needed to pull off certain tunes, but it does'nt have that tight bottom end to it.
Like anything else, you start to notice things that you'd like to change after a while. One thing that people are right about is that this amp does not have enough clear headroom on the clean channel. Stars to break up at about 3. I experimented with various pre amp tubes and the ones that I so far favor are Sovteks. I've got a 12AX7WA in both V1 and V2, and a 12AX7LPS in V3. This gave me a lot more clean headroom, but it also gave me more treble. While I'm still searching for that magic combination this one will do for now. The distortion also got a bit fuzzy. What I do is to set it rather low with the pre amp at about 4 and the post at about 7. This gives me a nice breakup that's good for a crunchy but audible rhythm. I then use a Boss SD-1 overdrive pedal for leads. I've got to find another overdrive pedal because while the SD-1 has the right amount of grit and clarity it rob's the signal of bass. By the way this amp is very pedal friendly. I use a Boss delay in the loop which works great, and I also use Tonebones Classic and Hot British in the clean channel. Because there is so much variation with these pedals it's not hard to get a good sound out of each with this amp.
This amp does have a loud hum to it. It can't be heard when you're playing but it is there and I'm going to have it looked at.
As of right now I'm pretty happy with the way the amp sounds. I might find a replacement speaker to use as the main, and build an optional open/closed back cabinet. But as of now I have no idea what speaker would do me best. So based on the tube "mods" that I did, I'll give this amp an 8.

Seems pretty well built and since I just play at home it should out live me. (That's a scary thought!) I'll give it a 9.

I have'nt dealt with Peavey yet but it see,s that they are pretty easy to get along with according to the reviews that I've read here. So because i have'nt dealt with them myself, I'll give them a 5 based on "we'll see."

Again, for my needs I'll give it a 9. The tone of the amp is basically pretty good and it can get pretty loud when you want it to which is part of my learning process: I learning to play thru a tube amp at a fairly decent volume. I'm not trying to be loud for the sake of it, but to learn how to play with control. Anyone can play loud but how many can play loud with control. This amp is allowing meto do that. Nice small package, nice sounding package that can kick it out and it's very pedal friendly. For me it was a good buy. I'll give it a 9.

This amp was purchased used on EBAY.
It's a 1 X 12" combo all tube amplifier with the tweed finish.
This amp can get snappy blues ultra-clean, or distorted when driven.
It has a nice Low/Mid/High EQ and a boost switch. The only thing i was disappointed that it doesn't have was a headphone output. That is the ONLY reason that I rated this category a 9

Let me tell you this, the Classic 30 is one of the best amps I have EVER heard. The stock setup is great on it. The tone is so warm and clean, its like BUTTA.
I even like the dirty channel of it . Although, it would be nice if it could get a little nastier. No problem, thats why i have effects =)
The amp is no noisier than u should expect an all tube amp to be. If your looking for a great amp for a good price, this is the one!
It can get VERY loud by itself. That being said, it also has a cabinet out on the back of it to connect an extension speaker cabinet for more output. This could be the loudest 30 watt combo I've ever heard.

I've only had it for a couple of months soI dont have enough input for you here. So far, so good. Build quality is EXCELLENT.

Havent had to deal with them yet...so no input here yet either.

I would certaintly hunt down the fokker that would try to steal this great amp. It was WELL worth the price I paid for it used. (mine is in NEW condition) and if somehow, I had to replace this amp, I would definately buy another Peavey Classic amplifier!

got it used think its about 3 yrs old,2 chanles effects loop plus chan switchin and pedal,got plenty of power to do small gigs or just swing a mic in front and still get the big sound! all tube this little bastard kicks some major ass!

I have a fender devile and a musicman hd130 which are both wonderfull but real ball busters to carry around,this little beast will get you some of the same sounds at half the wieght without losing the tones I like.I use a john bolin custom built strat ,a vintage custom built strat with pups wound by vintage vibe guitars which are wonderfull a custom Tele and a 335 and get any
sound I need!

yes I would not worry about a back up at all this amp is a tank i have used many peavey amps I had one fly out of the back of my van at 65 mph roll down the hyway when i got to it it had a few bumps and scrapes one broke knob, but I pluged it in and it work I used that amp for aprox 3 more years befoe I traded it in sold that kind of sold me! lol

I have dealt with Peavey in the past and they were extremly helpfull and fast to get me the parts I need so i have no complaints!

I have been playing for aprox, 38 years now 26 of those were out on the road,used many different kind of amps and if this amp were riped I d would not bat an eye buying another they are made to last I dont use many effects just a duncan pickups booster I guess I m still trin to make my shit sound like a guitar then I ll branch out the fancy stuff LOL

All tube. 2 Channel. 3 band EQ one set for both channels). Effects loop. Reverb. Extension jack for ext cab.

Sounds like a full sized amp with a list of features that long.

Purely features it won't be a full 10, but this is a small compact practise amp, not exactly a full sized amp... but then again the Vox AC30 is a "full sized" amp with even less features and same Wattage.

Items that would make the Features section a full 10:
-Tube Guard (on an amp with this design this should be a given!).
-EQ for both channels.
-Tremolo/Vibrato (The Classic Series Delta's have this feature though).

Most people view this amp as a different category - a small practise amp, if this is your viewpoint the features are a 10. If you view this amp like I do now (a nice "full size", useable, recording/gigging amp), it's a 8 in the features area (the one set of EQ takes off 2 points). The Effects Loop is an extreme plus on this little dog.

I admitedly use this mostly with humbuckers. Mostly. I also use on a regular basis p-90 and Telecaster single coil pickups... but, the warning still stands - I'm a humbucker type of player.

Through a DiMarzio Super Distortion it crunches exceptionally well. Nice and weighty/ballsy. Through a Seymour Duncan Little '59 for Tele it has nice bass and meaty mids (still keeps the Twang). Through my semi-hollow Gibson with '57 classic pickups it is nice as well (maybe almost too weighty though). Standard Tele retains it's high sharp twang but has a nice body to it. Through my Gibson w/ p-90s (Gib in the neck, SDuncan CustomCustom in the bridge) it is very awesome. Clean is warm but brighter than an old Fender. Not sharp and brittle like non-tube amps but not old Fender again :) Dirty can get a bit muffled when really cranked, I usually back off on the gain anyways (sort of an Angus "cleaner dirty" idea). When the amp is pushed the clean warms up a bit more, and the dirty gets more "middley". Nice and old school tube gain, more cranked to near the top than turn of the Gain knob kind.

I use this for Hard Rock Alternative (theCult, GnR, mixed with Pixies/Pink Floyd clean and trippy with heavy delay at times).

The amp is a bit noisy, but overall the tone is good, so this subtracts a point. The fact that Marshalls, Vox, and Fenders all do their things slightly -SLIGHTLY- better also takes off a point.

So far don't know yet. BUT...

I have 2 Peavey Classic 50s (a 4x10" and a 2x12") and both have seen some godawful accidents... only to live to tell the tale. One fell off of a chair, one tipped over. They are pretty tough amps, so I have confidence in the Classic 30 "mini me" version. I'll give it a default 5 instead of a "No Opinion" only because of the track history of my other Peavey Classics.

Nice website forum. Haven't had to deal with them though. I did have my first Classic 50 repaired once a while ago... I think it was covered by warranty, but I don't remember.

For comparison here is the equipment I use and have:

Amps-
Peavey Classic 50s (classic rock to the MAX godamnit!!!)
Fender Blues Junior (a great blues/classic rock amp)
Marshall JCM 800 (one late 80s 100 watt, one early 90s 50watt 2 channel w/ Reverb) - both of which I had to Sell! I miss them.

Guitars-
Gibson CShop 2001 '57 Reissue LesPaul Custom (all mahogany)
Gibson ES-135 2002 special edition (classic '57 humbuckers and bigsby)
Gibson Les Paul 2001 Junior Lite (with SDcuncan Custom Custom in bridge)
Fender Standard Telecaster 1998 (with customized controls and a SD lil '59 in the bridge w/ coil splitting options)
Fender Standard Telecaster 1994 - stock p'ups
Jackson 2001/02 RR5 (pre Fender w/ a SD JB in the neck and a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge)

Effects (basically a delay and wah)-
Boss GE-7 EQ pedal (for lead/solo/volume boosts via fx loop)
Boss Digital elay/Reverb (for spacey effects and old school rockabilly delay)
CryBaby Wah pedal
Boss TU-2 Tuner (the best pedal tuner ever)

--

If it were stolen I'd replace it. It's more portable than my 50s and sounds similar. Great for practise and/or gigs.

4 power amp tubes, 3 preamp tubes. It has enough power to practice at home and for a small gig. Versatile amp. Reverb, bass, middle, treble, 2 channel selector. External speaker capability.

I got my amp from eBay with 4 JJ tubes for the power, 2 groove tubes for the preamp and 1 electro harmonix tube for the last preamp. It also came with an Eminence Alnico 122 speaker and a Metal tube guard that protects the tubes in the back.

The sound is beautiful. Great warmpth and a wide open sound for many styles of music. No distortion but just get pedals and you'll be fine.

Damn reliable. These things last forever. Get a tube guard to protect your tubes though.

Haven't had to deal with Peavey. But you can the manual and tons of other info about the unit on their website.

Great amp. I would get another if It were stolen/lost/etc. I love the sound!

I don't know when this amp was made since i got it used. I'm guessing around 1998 - 1999 since that's the date on the info package that came with it. The amp sounds awesome for the price I got it. $250 used from the Guitar Center. Not sure if the channel switching works since I don't have the footswitch. Clean, gain, boost, bass, treble, mid, and reverb. One 12" eminence made speaker that sounds pretty damn good, very chimey.

I love the sound of this amp. Very hot Vox sounding, there's plenty of gain if you need it, but keep in mind, this is an EL84 based amp. When's the last time you heard or seen a Nu-Metal band (or any Metal band) play an amp with EL84 tubes? There's a reason, EL84's are very rich and complex tubes but dont' have the bottom end needed for Metal sounds. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of gain, but its not a bottom heavy Marshall / Mesa type gain. More like Brian May, Brian Adams or the Beatles on steriods. Very smooth, rich and harmonic. Sounds even better with a compressor or treble booster up front. All in all a really, REALLY, cool little amp.

Not sure, just got it and its used so I'm not expecting much.

Don't know,

I have over 18 years of experience and I've gone through tons of amps, especially smal combo amps. Line 6, Behringer, Rocktron, Marshall, Mesa, Crate, Vox, and Fender to name a few. This amp without a doubt blows away those amps when I factor in cost, looks, weight, and sound. The only combo i really liked was the Mesa Nomad, but that was over 4x the price and very HEAVY. The Classic 30 has as much gain as the Mesa but is more open and chimey - more like a Vox AC30. I plan to upgrade the capacitors and a few resistors just to improve the sound a bit more. Why not, its used and not under warranty - might as well see what its capable of.

mainly i use SC gNl tele tigh HB in da neck(keef rockz harder than any otha motha out their but i must say i like MICK taylor era stones da best)and a 62jag and casino. but i only have one thing to say the coolest thing about this amp it that on the drive chanel it has the sound of a marshall or any other nice medocer to higher gain amp but your guitars tru voice still comes thrugh like like it doze on a fenders this is my second reivew but i just thought how cool it was how the amp doze that and the clean just kickz ass

You know what goes here.

Stock this amp sounds good but not awesome. This amp suites my strat very well and has a great blues and rock sound.

If you want an awesome sounding amp upgrade the tubes when you get it new or used. The best tubes for the money are jj tubes.( www.eurotubes.com ) They make the amp sound much more defined. The tone quality increases dramatically and all aspects of the sound are made much better. The reverend all tone speaker combined with the tubes give it a very enjoyable sound.
http://reverenddirect.com/reverend/amps_etc/alltone_speakers.html

This amp was gigged for 3 years by the previous owner and has held up great. My friends 2 y/o classic 30 is still like new. This amp is built to last many years.

N/A, never delt with them. Great website though ( www.peavey.com )

Well this amp isn't perfect but it is a great value. With out the JJ tubes this amp would be an 8 out of 10 but with the new tubes it sounds wonderful. The new tubes ran me about $62 from www.eurotubes.com and the shipping was as fast as it gets. Email or call Bob and he will set you up with a custom matched set of tubes for you classic 30. Any questions get a quick answer and you can't find a better person to deal with.

If you are reading this you probably already know the features of this amp. Pretty basic 30 watt, tube amp with 2 channels. I rate this a 7 mainly because it doesn't have separate eq for clean and overdrive. I also think peavey should include a footcontroller to control the reverb and channel select.

I'm using a Gibson BluesHawk and a Breedlove acoustic. I primarily play rock, contemporary christian, and blues. The amp suits my playing style, however, like several other users I made modifications. i immediately changed the tubes to JJ (Tesla) from eurotubes.com This improved the overall warmth of the amp, and gave me clearer cleans and unmuddied the overdrive. I also changed out the stock speaker with a WeberVST 12F150. The speaker isn't fully broken in yet (takes about 20 hrs), but again this really made the amp sound bigger and gave be better bottomend.
The classic 30 is very quiet from my experience when compared to amps like the Fender HRD. I currently run my effects through the effects loop (delay, chorus, flange, noise gate) and run a Ibanez TS9 direct from my guitar. This really works for me. Not a heavy metal amp, but I can get great crunch with a pedal and great blues/rock sound from the amp's OD channel thanks to the new tubes and speaker!

Seems to be built well. The first thing I bought was a tube guard on Ebay. This is a must have investment if you want to protect those tubes! I keep an extra set of tubes handy, but I have experienced no problems.

Haven't dealt with the company except to order an amp cover and footswitch. Both took a longer than expected time to arrive. When the foot switch arrived I thought "you must be joking!" it is a cheesy plastic body with an ultra thin cable. For $25 I expect more. My Marshall footswitch is built like a tank in comparison!

Overall a great starter tube amp. I'm no pro and I only "gig" in church. I don't need a $1000 amp or a huge stack. Currently I mike the amp with a Shure S57 and it sounds great! The amp is plenty loud for small clubs, and miking it is the way to go anyway. Even stock, the clean channel is very good and the OD channel usable for leads. Like I said, it should come with a better footswitch and separate EQ, but I bet that is how they keep the amp price down to ~$415.

You know the features from all the submissions below. A 6 because while it offers the basics, it's nothing above average. Mine came with the tube guard. Comes stock if you get recent production.

Using a 91 les paul junior, Stock P100s or 89 US strat. Nothing else, just a simple rig. It sound very sweet FOR THE MONEY. It's no fender, but it cost a hell of a lot less. I'm a dirty blues/rock, generally sloppy player. I like to dabble in other stuff, but the classic 30 suits my ears, with a fairly growly tone. It suffers from a lack of sparkle on clean, a bit dissapointing as I have played both guitars through some fenders that really shone, particularly in relation to the Gibson. The Classic 30 seems to enhance the darker tones of the Gibson rather than the sparkly nature of the pickups. In terms of the strat, nothing is ever going to compare to a Fender amp. When it comes to a little distortion, and a growling bassey grind it delivers adequately. Again, not a revelation of tone if youre in the upper end of the market, but if you want a good versatile tool that you can mod without being afraid of the consequences, a great little amp. I give it an 8 because it is a great little tube amp, with a lot of balls FOR THE PRICE. Don't stack it up with things 3 times the price (or more), compare it to all the trani amps in the price range, and you'll have no regrets.

It's been pretty good so far. 3 gigs. But I've two friends who've gigged with these for years without hiccups. Beware of the tubes. They're like high e strings.

No Idea. I hope never to have an idea.

What's with all the people giving 10s for everything. I use this sit for critical reviews. I say 7 because it lacks some clean sparkle, is a little noisy with the reverb making that worse, It's never going to be worth what I payed for it again (who cares!), and it is just a basic honest valve amp. I've been playing for 9 years, own all that's listed, and a Maton accoustic. I chose this amp because it sounds great for the price, is easily modded, has great reviews from my mates, and I'd started to hate my strat, playing it through a lesser 100w piece of crap trani amp. Love it again now. If stolen, I'd get another one. In comparison, I played everything I could find in a combo (don't want to lug a stck around) from second hand to new. This was the best compromise. No regrets.

After reading all the reviews for both Classic 30 and Classic 50 combos, the main differences are the Classic 30 doesn't have a fan, no Presence control, and no Master Volume (which may be a good thing.) The old 50 was 4 OHMs, new ones are switchable 8 or 16. My Classic 30 was made around 2000 and is 16 OHMS. (I read that Classic 50s have been made since about 1977.) Weight of the 30 is about 20 lbs. The Classic 50 combo weighs 60 lbs. Huge difference.
This has 7 large chickenhead control knobs located on top rear area. No headphone jack. It is all tube 30W Class A, 1 12" speaker, has reverb, effects loop, extension speaker jack, and 2 switchable channels (clean & gain.) It is not a high gain amp. I give it an 8 here because it does not have any built in effects, but it does have Reverb!

The sound is similar to my old Blackface Fender Super Reverb, with about 1/3 of the weight too! I have only tested it with a Fender USA Strat, but others say humbuckers work well with it. Both the Clean and Gain channels sound great with the stock tubes and Eminence Blue Marvel speaker. There is no feedback with the single coils! The only hum happens when you use Reverb all the way up. The Reverb is Nice and can be switched with the footswitch.
I play blues and classic rock. This amp is not for Metal! If you want to use active pups, use the Gain channel only. Don't use a Big Muff with it. Other pedals work fine.
I play it in a small room with carpeting. I have not gone above 5 for Volume, which is loud. This shows that I can push the tubes and speaker and have them break up nicely. Other owners say it is good for small gigs. Remember, the Classic 50 is much louder, too much for a bedroom, better for very loud band rehearsals though. The neighbors thank you, I thank you.

Peavey amps are very reliable. I had an old Triumph 65 that I loved. I might use it at a gig without a backup if I had to. The 4 EL84 tubes are great, but supposedly they need replacing more often. I still have the stock Chinese 12AX7 pre-amp tubes and Sovtek power tubes. Will replace the pre-amp ones soon.

Comes with a 1 year Warranty, except for tubes. I have only had it for a short time, but all owners say it is built like a tank (good quality wood & metal corners.)
About 2 years ago, I called Peavey and spoke to someone that was helpful in pinpointing the date of manufacture for my Triumph 65.
This is very important because most amp companies are not easy to deal with.

I've played since 1977 off and on. I own most of the major types of guitars, Fender SF Bassman head, Fender Princeton Chorus, Peavey Classic 30 tweed head, Silvertone 20W, and just sold a Crate 80DSP.
If lost, I would buy it again. I read many reviews on popular amps and chose this because it got the best reviews. I'm happy with it. If you know of a better amp for under $1000, please write me and let me know. Or, write me if you just want to talk about amps. Chow!

Features. this amp has a few but it haz the one that matterz the most BAD ASS TONE

any one who dose not suck will dig this amp thatz all their is to it. it rawks oh so hard and that is no lie i just luv it so much i own a a.c.30 and have owned a fender B.J. and hot rod delux both had no head room witch dose not bug me to much becaus i rarely play 100% clean but when it came time to rawk they sucked at least with my g&l tele thing with a bad ass humbuking picker in the neck any ways this is just the best amp out on the market 4 the cream.itz clean is not as chime freindly as my vox but it is so much easyer to rawk hard core with this baby but I will say it is hard to beat the tone of the vox with a rat in front but all and all u can beat this thing my twangers r a 62 jag g&l, tele,and epi casino my baby girl

it is tight i wold depend on it if my life was at stake

i bought this amp from a good man who is tall as hell............ but any who i luv it so much iam 16 and my band has taken a samll break but now we r giging agian thank god and this rips it up hard core every time. the stuff i rock out to it mick taylor era stones ooh u have to luv that shit,live at leeds who,beck era yardbirds,oasis,weezer,GnR,erly zepplin,the strokes,and last but far from least my god CHUCK BERRY and i luv tom petty i luv mike camble but i must say i hate SRV or any other white man who plays only blues come we have stole enough from black people at least try to do something new with what we have stolen and by the way i like my tone the way the O.D.B. likes hiz bitchez RAWWWW

i've already submitted a review, but just wanted to address a statement from someone else about 10 or 15 reviews below. He states that peavey listened to customers and finally installed a tube guard on the classic 30.

Well, i hate to dissapoint you all, but i just got done ordering a second classic 30 thru a dealer and thru this experience i found that while some people at peavey seem to think this is the case, they are NOT, I repeat, NOT shipping with guards. What they did was to design and manufactur a tube guard, but it is for after market sale only !! In other words, peavey has chosen not to add a needed piece to a defective design, but instead they want you to pay for thier mistake ! Nice, eh? Well, i bought a second c30 anyway because i really wanted a pair to run stereo. But i assure you it's the last thing i'll ever buy with the peavey name. The tubes are exposed in a way that makes them so vulernable to being knocked out or having the tune pins bent that even while being as carefull as possible i have bent the pins numerous times in the years i've owned my current c30.

Just a note for those of you who are considering this amp. A great amp, but thought you should know.

Listed below a million times... mines the old one when they still used Chinese tubes but they're long gone. I bought mine new in about '97 give or take...
I must say I disagree with most comments about the boost switch - on it's own it's good a bit to full on, so I had a tech mod it so there's a tiny screwdriver adjustable pot and it's also now footswitchable. Now it's perfect with a strat to boost the mids as well as volume for a kind of Gilmour-ish solo boost. Nice

Generally use a Fralin loaded Strat and it sounds great. When I bought it was biased way too hot but with that sorted it sounds great - more open and less harsh.
Clean channel is great but the dirty one is superb - higher gain sounds great too, but I tend to stick with gain on 6 or seven because it is just so dynamic and responsive. I use pedal (either RAT or Boss Line selector) to send a heap more gain to it for heavy sounds.
I've still got the original speaker, but that's got to go. I generally run it into a 65 Fender bassman 212 cab and that really brings out what this amp is truly capable of.
The volume level is fine - I was initially worried it wouldn't be loud enough on stage but even with a reasonably loud drummer I have never had it in my monitors. I now play in a band with samplers and acoustic instruments as well and the volume is perfect - loud enough to not need foldback assistance not loud enough to swamp everything else.

Gigged with mine constantly for about 7 years. The only time it failed at a gig was because I had been lazy and hadn't retubed it or serviced it in years. No one to blame but myself :-)
I now generally have a Sansamp as backup but that's just 'cause I'm paranoid (and better organised these days!)

Over all I'm very happy with it. I also have an original 65 Super Reverb and both amps excell at different things so both get used a lot for recording.
Evereyone whinges about things like the cheap speaker and tubes etc but that's fine with me because once you've made the changes it sounds amazing and unique - no one else is going to have your exact compliment of mods. When I bought it I coouldn't have afforded a boutique amnp or Boogie (I was pusching to pay $AUD800 new for it) so I bought it - liked the basic tone but have now evlolved it into something that I really love and will definitely keep.
I guess the point is - it's a good base to create whatever you want. The quality is there and the stock tone is good - with plenty of options for improoving what you don't like while keeping what you do like.
Gotta get me a Weber and tube guard now...

The Peavey Classic 30 has two channels, reverb, a volume and gain control, three-band EQ, an effects loop, a "boost" button that I never use, a single 1/4" input jack, a single 1/4" rear-panel power output jack, and a 1/4" rear-panel channel footswitch jack. In short, everything a good combo amp needs with the possible exception of a headphone jack.

I play a Peavey T-60 for softer sounds and a hot-rodded Stratocaster (Seymour-Duncan Quarter Pound SC bridge, Seymour-Duncan Hot Rails HB middle, Fender Lace Blue neck)...sometimes with an Ibanez Turbo-Tubescreamer and a Voodoo Labs Proctavia...for outrageous sounds. Meanwhile, the Classic 30 can manage any sound from clean to dirty. There are very few analog guitar sounds that can't be produced by this combination. Now...if I could only quit my job and practice 24 x 7 (grin).

It's a Peavey. Anything made by Peavey that I've ever owned has been built for eternity. Good stuff.

I've never required any.

I'm an intermediate guitar player with more dreams than natural talent. But I do enjoy the time I'm able to spend with this stuff. I've been working on "Smoke on the Water" for twenty years now (laugh). I've also owned a Fender Champion and a Tech-21 Trademark 10...two nice solid state combos. I also once owned a Gorilla amp, but let's not go there. I bought the Peavey Classic 30 because it was small enough to fit into my house, loud enough to annoy the neighbors, and very nice sounding. I would buy another one in a heartbeat (although I hope to own this one until I can no longer remember how to turn it on).

Described well by other reviewers. Ordered last Tuesday, got mine this past Saturday at Milano's in Mesa, AZ. I picked the Tweed with Brown amp cover included, nice extra! Needs to have footswitch included though. Could use a Standby switch. I also heard that tube protection covers were being shipped with Classic 30's now. Not this time, so I bought one off E-Bay. At the $409 price point, the features are great.

I use a modified Strat, changed with Bill Lawrence L-290/280s and Eric Clapton Strat electronics. The amp suits my playing style just fine. I like a clean platform to start with. I use a Boss GT-6 through the effects loop return when I need a lot of sounds, or will plug straight-in the Input jack for jam sessions. This amp is ambiently very quiet and has good tone with my guitar. It can get very loud if desired. I a/b'd this amp with my new Gibson Goldtone GA-15RV and it held up fairly well, tonally speaking. This is considering the Classic 30 is $300 less in price, has a cheap speaker, with more features. It is even slightly smaller that the Gibson amp. However I do think that my guitar configuration has alot to do with the nice sounds I'm getting with it.

It seems vey well built, but I've only had it a short while.

The repair shop, M-Troniks, is right across the street from Milano's. I'm not worried about getting repairs during or after warranty.

I've been playing on and off for 29 years. I now am in three bands. after owning large combo amps, I decided to go with two smaller tube amps, using one most of the time unless more volume or a backup is necessary. I just couldn't turn up my large amps to get to a tonal "sweet-spot" at the Churches and small gigs I play. Plus, the large combos are too heavey to carry around and pack. Hence the Classic 30 and the Goldtone GA-15RV, with the Boss GT-6 for effects. I will use the Classic 30 much of the time, since it seems to take the GT-6 very well. It will be the workhorse, and I will pull out the Goldtone for a backup if needed.

Well, I think that the features that it does have, are very minimal. Clean and overdrive channels with footswitch, and an effects loop, WOW.... Big whoop..... even though I do not like digital effects, this amp could have way more features.......

I am looking for more of a clean tone... This amp sounds like its on a slight overdrive no matter how you have it set up.... It sounds okay for some styles of music such as rock, or metal, but not cleaner soft tones...

I have literally gone through about 6 of these amps.... And trust me, my dad and I take care of our stuff like its a child..... I was carrying the amp out of my house to go to my friends house to jam, when suddenly, the handle broke right off. I ended up dropping the amp right on the concrete, not to mention all of the other problems it has had before then..... I haven't used this amp in about 2 years... I hate it.

DON'T BUY THIS AMP!!!

rather than cover the same ground, i'll leave this mostly for other reviewers, as it's covered fine by previous reviewers. but i will say this. for the minimalistic cost-effective design, i take my hats off to peavey for doing their home work. they have kept the most usabe features - ie, 2 channels: clean and overdrive, and reverb.

this is what's it's all about, right? don't be fooled by the affordability of this amp compared to fender,vox, marshall to name a few. this amp is pure class. i've just bought it and compared it to my vox ac30 and it holds its own tonewise. in fact i am smiling with surprise at how good this amp is. i have lots of vintage amps - fender twins, a bassman, and other old australian amps people you may not have heard of. but i really have to praise peavey for retaining a classic sound. an el84 power section, which the classic 30 has, almost always sounds good.

i still love my vox ac30 and my fender basssman, but the peavey is so easy. i mean the overdrive channel had a top-end crunchiness that is not easy to get from the vox - not at a lower volume level. and the clean channel is fine: an articulate high end and plenty of low end as needed. nice reverb too. of amps with reverb, i have owned at least 3 fender twin reverbs, a fender pro-reverb, a musicman 210 sixty-five, a rivera m100, and roland jc-120. the classic 30 is fine by comparison.

time will tell...but it's made of chipboard - not ply or solid timber so don't spill your beer on it if you want it to last

given how expensive valve amps are now, peavey have done a great job. the size, features, and good tone, at such a good price makes this amp an excellent buy. i bought this amp just to try and sell down the line but i may hold onto it after all!!! its just so practical for the money. it your skeptical about peavey, as i was, just try one. you can take the peavey badge off - as it doesn't much the tweed era look - if you like, and you have a great amp that looks the part and sounds it as well, and it's such a good buy!!!

year... I think 2002. 1 channel with 2 gain stages + boost (ueseless), shared eq, 30 tube watts, light enough, big enough. Might be the perfect amp considering features only, very basic. Which I apprecciate. A 4, it does one thing, and does it good.

Sound... Whether I use my Strat or Maverick F1 or Gibson SG, it sounds bluesy, lots of rich mids, and a soft, smooth top end, but very thin and flat. I (try to) play everything from metal to country, but it only works at low-volume low-gain settings. And the mids... no matter how you turn that button, it sounds the same. just a little thinner/fuller... it would be a lot better with a real speaker in it, instead of that crappy 'blue marvel'-shit. can't turn the amp up half-way before it begins to distort... since I love a good clean tone over everything, there's no chance it will work.

and how brutal is the distortion...? well, the small ammount of distortion you can get out of this bastard is as brutal as my grandma... =)

have owned this for maybe... 1? month, it don't feel that solid... but it have stood up with 2 speaker changes, and is still working. good enough for me!

been playing for 11 years, and the only things I've been able to depend upon is my Yamaha CG-101 and Fender RocPro 1000 (excellent amp by the way). if it were stolen... I'd probably just be glad and go get some insurance money. this could be the perfect amp, and I really want to like it... but it sounds so... wrong... not my kind of amp. I'll sell it, and go for a Traynor YCV40. now, that's what I call an amp... =)

You know the features...this review will focus mainly on modding the amp. I'll go into what i did and what gave the most tonal benefits.

As stock, the amp is without a doubt good for the money. Nothing spectacular, but useful and has no real bad aspects. However, they can be made to sound much better with some simple swaps and mods that anyone can do. There are also some mods that should be left to those with more experience.

You will find lots of mods for this amp at blueguitar.org by the way.

I wanted to describe what i've gotten from the amp with a number of mods i've done and explain a few simple things those who aren't experienced enough to do all of them can do to really improve the amp.

Fisrt off i'll explain what i feel can be done SIMPLY to give the amp a much better sound that will put it in a whole other league IMO.
First of all, replace the speaker with a reverend all-tone. I assure you i don't work for the company, but i gotta say this speaker is possibly the best i've ever had, and i've tried a lot of speakers. They're only $59 at reverenddirect.com
If you do the speaker upgrade you will have to connect it differently than the stock 16 ohm speaker because the all-tone only comes in 8 ohm. To do this, remove the speaker wires and tape up the ends so they don't touch. (you won't be using them) Make a 1' speaker cable with an "angle" plug on one end and solder the other end to the speaker with the lead attached to the hot of the plug to the hot terminal of the speaker. Then you will plug the speaker into the extention speaker jack. When the extention jack is used it switches the transformer to the 8 ohm tap so it'll be compatable with the all-tone 8 ohm speaker. This "mod" by itself will greatly enhance the tone, and is a must in my book.

Next, replace the tubes with JJ tubes available at eurotubes.com (no, i don't work for them either) This is a worthwhile "mod" too, tho not nearly as important as the speaker.

Lastly, this is actually a mod, not a swap as with the speaker and tubes. This mod REALLY makes the amp sound much fuller, bigger, rounder, less buzzy, more vintage, louder, and best of all takes literally 5 minutes ! This mod is a MUST ! Once inside the amp, you'll see that the 3 circuit boards are jumpered together with many little wire jumpers. You will be looking for one that is connecting the bottom board (the one against the chassis that the tube sockets are on) to the middle board. look at the side where the input jack is and count from the end jumper. It's the 8th jumper from the end. So count 8 jumpers over from the input jack side on the bottom edge of the board where the bottom and middle boards are connected.
Snip the jumper wire and push the ends away from each other so that they're definatly not touching and you're done. What you have done is remove the feedback loop from the 1st preamp tube.

Do those 3 things and the amp will absolutly improve a lot.

For more advanced guys i would suggest installing a presence control. IMO the amp's treble range isn't quite right, and doesn't have that sparkle that lets it sound articulate. Try and turn up the treble and because of the range it's in it just gets thinner and ratty sounding. The presence allowed me to turn the treble down more than usual and replace the lost high end with the higher range presence, giving the amp a more flat and balanced high end with plenty of sparkle. And it doesn't get thin like you might expect, especially because of the feedback loop mod which fattens the sound a lot.

The 1st 3 mods will really make the amp a lot better, but IMO adding the presence to those 3 REALLY does the trick. I have done other mods i got from the blueguitar.org site such as the cathode bias mod, replacing the tone stack caps with better quality, fenderizing the input, and a few other small things.

But i think doing the feedback loop mod, the presence, and replacing the tubes and speakers are the ones that really made the biggest difference for very little work. The cathode bias mod also made a big improvement......maybe the biggest of all, tho it's

I've owned 3 of these amps, and the only problem i ever had was when one of the jumpers i mentioned in the feedback loop mod broke. A simple fix, but you had to find the problem 1st. Might have caused a trip to the tech for those not used to working on amps. But other than that they've been totally reliable.

Don't know

As stock these amps can't be beat as far as bang for the buck. Only critical players may be unsatisfied in the long run. But even many of them will be content with them. I personally think they are one of the best buys ever in tube amps, and the bonus is that they can be made to sound a lot better by messing with them. The more time you put into modding them the better the results. I made mine my main amp because it just plain sounded better after the mods than my marshalls. I sold em !
Gave it an 8, but after the mods it's a definate 10 considering the price.

People like to talk trash about these amps, and there really isn't any good reason too. It seems so many people who submit reviews are jackasses, so I thought I'd take the time to jump in the fray on the side of the classic 30. Mine is a 2001 I believe, purchased at Fred's Music Shop in Lancaster PA for $350 on sale. You should know the features. The only thing that has bothered me about this amp is I can not find a footswitch that will activate the boost. If I could solve this problem I would give it a nine.
I was originally hoping to get a fender 15 watt amp to play in my small college apartments, and decided since this amp sounded almost as good, and could be used to play with friends (if I had any) this was the better buy. Another thing I don't like is the effects loop, but this could be because I prefer my few effects in front.

This brings up another problem I have with so many other reviewers. This is where they would list a half million dollars woth of primo gear that they also own, and then bitch about how bad this amp is. No, nobody dreams of owning a peavey, but this amp sounds great for the price. You can get great blues and rock tones, mellow out for some jazz (at least my sorry attempts) and then clean it up and pretend you electric is an accoustic.
The distortion is a bit noisy when driven with my collection of shitty single coil guitars, but quiets down when driven with my danelectro distortion pedal. STOP LAUGHING AT MY GEAR!! When my Hamer Eclipse feels like working you can get nice tones with a humbucker guitar. I think when reviewing an amp it's important to consider the type and quality of the guitar that is most likely to drive it. Some people review these amps using a vintage les paul they stole from jimmy page or frank zappa or something like that. How rediculous!

Here's where I'm not sure what's going on. This amp rattled loudly when ever I played any note within a step to an A on any guitar. I took it in for free service under the five year warranty, and they said they got it. I brought it back again, and they said they found it. Latter they told me it needed re-tubbed. I'd only had it a year, and for most of that it had been left at my parents house. I had never really opened it up with friends (whom I don't have). I took it back again, and the repair guy had peavey send all new parts and componets, which were switched for free. Finally they told me what I was hearing was unavoidable with small combos because the tubes and speaker were in the same enclosure, and I sat near by and played at low volumes. Sure enough all the small combos of every brand did the same thing in the store. Some people tell me there full of it, others say the same. I hardly notice any more, but what an ordeal!

I suppose this speaks more for Freds than peavey, but they always took time to help and talk to me, look over the amp, call me with updates, and get the amp back to me in a timely manner. Peavey did pay all the service charges and fees, except fot the new tubes.

I have been playing for 7 years. I'm not as good as I could be, or would like to be, but school and work have gotten in the way of guitar. I'll be done with college soon, and hopefully will have more time to persue the instrument. If this amp was lost or stolen I might replace it with the same amp. Getting new stuff is always fun, and since I have so little gear, I always want something else different. I might get a Fender 15 watter, just because I don't want my neibors to hate me (still trying to make friends). If I anticipated alot of jamming and playing small clubs I would surely buy it again.
I drive this bad boy with a mexico strat, Dan-o 56 U2, the eclipse, and friends (not good friends) guitars. I think this guitar would work well with a Epiphone Casino, because it has lots of clean headroom. I deffinately think this amp is a great value, especially if used in a small combo and miked. It's not too heavy, and sounds good at volumes that won't make you ears bleed. Fun to turn up and pretend you don't suck!!!!

This tube combo has loads of features. At 30 tube watts, it has 2 channels (clean/distortion), Pre and Post (Gain, Volume) knobs for the distortion channel, Spring Reverb available with both channels, A boost button, and Bass, Mid, and Treble Knobs (the same for both channels.) It also comes with Effects Send and Return jacks, as well as Footswitch (sold seperately but worth getting) and External Speaker jacks. Also has a very attractive toggle on/off switch and red led light. The amp comes fitted with a Blue Marvel Speaker and a very nice and rugged Black Tweed covering.

I use this combo with a Squire Fat Strat (Humbucker, Single Coil, Single Coil) It performs astoundingly with both my humbucker and single coils. I have recorded with it on an album and I intend to use it at all my future live shows with a Marshall 4x10 cabinet plugged into the External Speaker Jack. The distortion can be quite crunchy and at the same time you can get mild and light distortion sounds and all the while have it sounding an performing beautifully. I play blues, jazz, rock and alternative music and it fits all of these styles beautifuly. The boost switch is the only function I've never used, it gets a bit muddy, but it's really only a bonus feature and not really needed to me. Sounds beautiful.

This amp is about as reliable as a tube amp gets... Tube amps are prone to problems more often than Solid State, Digital, etc. because of the tubes being glass and fragile. The fitting for the tubes is very solid and also about half of the back of the combo is covered by the casing of the amp and tweed (which also protects the speaker.) Nice feature for those moving the amp around alot. I haven't had it long enough to see how long tubes will last in it, but it still sounds as great as day one.

I haven't needed customer support yet, but I have heard that Peavey is extremely good with repairs, services, and warranty coverage. Comes with a 5 year warranty.

The overall rating value is 10. It is fantastic. I was looking around at tube amps for a few years before I bought one. I used to own a 30 a few years ago and I wish I had never gotten rid of the first one.
For the price, it's pretty much the only tube amp I'd get. They are originally $400+ and I got mine on sale for $299.00, which was great! Either way I still would have paid full price for one. I'd definitly buy it again if it were lost or stolen. My prior amp just didn't cut it. it was a Crate DX100-H Digital Head (with my Marshall 4x10 cabinet) Tube is the way. This amp will get you there.

You all know the features, so nothing about that.
I use this amp mostly for playing blues. 30 Watts might not seem much BUT IT IS LOUD!
No problem at gigs. Last gig: 200+ people. Still power left.
I give it a 10 cause I believe that an amp is an amp. If You want effects: Use pedals

I use my Fender Am. std. strat. This amp is perfect for Blues. You can go crunchy or wild without ANY additional effects.(I actually sold my Tubesceamer TS-9 recently - With this amp You really dont need any distortion/overdrive)
For rythm its just fine - Warm tube sound.
Bill Gates could learn a lot from the Peavey staff. This is the REAL "PLUG AND PLAY" thing

I have gigged several times with this amp without backup. Im confident.
As others has stated the tubes are exposed, So Watch out! I have mounted a tubegard for the same reason.
Only 8 beacause of the exposed tubes

Havn't dealt with Peavey.

I have been playing on and of for about 20 years. I've had Hiwatt, Carlsbro and MusicMan amps before, But this litte babe beats them all.
If it were stolen, I would by a new one straight away.
I bought the Classic 30 (a demo model) cause it has the precise sound I want (And it was cheep too)
My "normal" band plays 60's and 70's pop. I don't use this amp in this band. Im plugged into the mixer and PA through a Boss GT-3. But thats a completly different story.

THE FACTS: Made in 2003, this amp is a two channel 30W combo with spring reverb and a 12" 16 ohm Peavey Blue Marvel speaker. Channel one has a volume control, and channel two has pre-gain and post-gain controls. There is a standard three band eq and reverb level control that service bot channels. There is also an effects loop and a gain boost switch.

The separately purchased $20 US footswitch provides channel switching and reverb on/off. There is a 16 ohm external speaker jack, and last but not least, the tubes: four SovTek 6QB5/EL84's with an ElectroHarmonix 12AX7 driver for the power amp section and two ElectroHarmonix 12AX7's for the preamp section. I'm sure there are more facts to list, but good God, if you need more get it from Peavey's website.

THE OPINIONS: I feel that the principles of electricity dictate that the more stages and knobs you have on an amp, the harder it is to keep the sound good. This amp does not have a ton of knobs, and it does sacrifice some features like separate eq for both channels. However, I believe the Classic 30 makes up for what it lacks in extremely clever feature choice and good sound quality.

First, the ability to turn reverb on and off with the footswitch is excellent! I don't like a lot of reverb in my rhythm work, but I do want reverb for leads. This is a very classy feature available in a $460 US amp. I didn't find this available in any comparably priced amps.

While I haven't needed to use this feature yet, I like the fact that I can drive external speakers with this unit. In addition, I find the effects loop useful for my Boss delay and eq pedals.

I don't find the gain boost switch very useful, because I feel it kicks the amp into an overly loud, ugly sound.

The only feature that I really miss in this amp is a presence control. Without this control, I don't use distortion as often as I might. This is not a huge problem for me, since I primarily play clean, but this could be a problem for someone else buying this amp.

I love the way this amp sounds. It pushes a clean tone that can range from smooth to cutting. The reverb is subtle and sweet. When overdriven at about 5 on the main volume, the amp growls.

Distortion through channel two is nice, but not the best feature of the amp. Since I rarely use heavy distortion, this is fine for me, but if you're looking at this amp you should be aware.

I play a 1997 Ibanez Artist Reissue AR300 with stock (Ibanez Super 58, I believe) pickups. I play with this amp once or twice a week in a church band. I usually play in a clean, twangy rock tone a la REM's Automatic For the People.

This amp does not push a lot of bass. I was looking for this in an amp, because I ride on the theory that I leave bass for the bass guitar and use the highs and mids to get my point across.

The amp puts out a slight noise hiss when the volume is up, but more or less what you'd expect from a tube amp.

SUMMARY: If you're looking for a reasonably priced amp with a very good clean or slightly overdriven sound, you'll like this amp. If you're looking for a metal tool of annihilation, look elsewhere.

You'll probably want to order the $20 US metal grate tube guard for this amp, because the tubes are exposed in back. I haven't had a problem with this, but why risk smashing your tubes with an ill-aimed 1/4" cable?

Outside of this, I can't really comment on the reliability of this amp because I haven't had it very long. Seems good so far.

Very good. I had to call them to ask where in the circuit the effects loop comes (it's the last stage before the power tubes), and I had to order the tube guard. Peavey got on the phone with me right away and was very friendly for both calls.

I've been playing guitar for 17 years. I own a lot of other musical equipment. If this amp were stolen, I would buy it again.

I liked this better than any other comparably priced tube amps (Fender, Crate, Marshall).

If you're looking for massive distortion, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a glassy clean tone and rich overdrive for less than $500 US, buy this amp.

This is the part of the amp that for me stops this amp from being an overall great amp. There are 2 channels but with a shared eq. I was able after some time able to get a good eq setting that would work with both channels but I am still not totally happy. The 2nd thing would be the boost switch, while it did give an overall boost to the amp I think it added too much mid scoop and therefore was useless to me and 3rd was the fact that there is no standby switch or master volume. I can do without the standby switch but I really wish there was a master volume. The one real great thing here is you can make many different mods to this amp at a reasonable price, which for me makes a big difference.

Now here?s where I have to give 2 separate reviews, 1 as the amp sounded the way I got it which was stock and 2 the way it sounded with some fairly inexpensive mods. First the stock version. I paid about 250 for this amp on ebay, which if you look you can find them for around this price or 300. It came with fairly cheap Chinese tubes and a peavey blue marvel speaker. With the stock amp I was able to get a fairly good clean sound with some nice tones reminiscent of fender but admittedly not as good. The clean channel started to breakup at around 7 or so to a very mile overdrive. Now for some this might be a great thing but for me I like a lot of clean headroom. The gain channel is where I was totally shocked. After trying many fenders the peavey just had so much more gain, that?s not to say it was in the heavy metal range. I was able to get some real nice classic rock to modern day tones (Aerosmith, Clapton, Zeppelin, Matchbox 20, Tonic). I was also able to get some real nice blues from slight overdrive to singing SRV. The main problem was the clean channel and the lack of headroom. So as stock I would have to give it a 6.5 ? 7.0. Now the 2nd review. The first thing I did was get some new tubes. For the power amp section I got a matched quartet of Tesla (JJ) El84?s and for the preamp section I got an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH for V3 which gave me a little more clean headroom and some slight gain drop-off. For V1 & V2 I got Tesla (JJ) 12AX7?s. The next thing I did was replace the speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30. Now yes these mods while simple did cost around 165 but consider that this amp goes for about 450 new and comes with a stock Peavey speaker and cheap tubes. Most people when they get a used tube change the tubes anyway. So with the minor improvements the sound was much better. My clean channel now has more headroom, now my breakup is around 9 to 10 and I have some better bass response. My gain channel even though I put an Electro-Harmonix to get more clean headroom I really didn?t sacrifice much gain. I even think that the gain smoothed out considerable. I really thing the improvement were worth it. The amp is more responsive, it is much quieter and much better sounding. That?s why for this part I have to give the amp a 7.5 to 8. Now I know that might not sound like I great ratting from the stock ratting but it is, remember no amp is a 10 unless you bye a Bogner or so other Boutique amp and even then there not perfect. For the price I paid I think I got a great little amp.

I haven?t had the amp for too long so I can?t really give a fair ratting here but from what I hear this amp is pretty sturdy.For those who have made comments about the fact that the tubes are exposed, then get a 20 dollars tube guard like I have and the problem is solved.

I good little amp for at home or small clubs. With a few small changes this amp can hang with anything and oh almost forgot it loves pedals.

My newly aquired amp is a Classic 30 BT (Black Tolex) from 2002.
I want to post this review as an update of the previous posts.

I haven't used this amp long enough to give a statement on the sound and such things. I just want to inform all potential buyers about a few points.

Improvements have been made!
It seems that Peavey really have listened to the critics in this database! I'll list some quotes below and the remedies from Peavey:

Quote: "The only problem with this amp is that it comes with chinese tubes in the pre-amp. Very noisey, I recommond changing to russiain tubes much better for tone. That why this category only gets an 8.5." - Kevin Kelley at 01/12/2003

Remedy: Peavey now use Electro-Harmonix EH12AX7's and Sovtek EL84's

Quotes:
"I don't like the way the tubes are exposed in the rear of the amp." - Frank DeSalvo at 11/26/2000
"I'd do the following: add some sort of firm metal mesh to protect the tubes... add a reinforcement/bracket for the power cord, down low, to keep it clear of the tubes... " - Michael at 05/15/2002
"They really need to put a valve guard on the back of these things." - Anonymous at 11/09/2002
"No protection at all for the tubes. Cord gets tangled easily in tubes" - Choir Boy at 04/13/2002
"Tubes are very exposed and I have already damages 3 tubes with the power cord catching them other than that no issues"

Remedies: Peavey has installed an own "TubeGuard" from factory. A metal mesh that "embraces" the tubes, both underneith and on the back. They have also added a cord clamp that guides the cord on a safe distance from the tubes.

Conclusion: If you ever hesitated buying this amp for the above reasons (-I did), don't hesitate anymore!

I'll be using the amp for my Fender Rhodes Electric Piano.
My first impression of the sound is really great!

After the improvments It should worth be a 9, based on the current average 8,3

Peavey seems to be listening to their customers... Great!

I've put together a page with some photos of the improvements. Please check it out: http://user.tninet.se/~ynt784g/peavey_c30/

Traded a '70's Flying V in 1999 for new Classic 30 and 70's, silver- faced Princeton Reverb. Work wonderfully together. Best features: Thirty blazing watts of tube power. Nice reverb. Beautiful NOS tweed frame with oxblood grill looks great onstage.

Use with '72 Strat reissue and '72 Tele Custom. Sounds like a poor man's Vox to me, but that ain't bad. It lacks the high-end Vox and/or Fender chime and especially the, for example, Vibrolux thump required to make it a "10" to these middle-aged pop, surf and soul music ears. I have come to ignore the boost and channel stuff (see reveiws below) and merely crank the main to about six and rattle the windows with classic rock tone. For more bottom I sometimes add a 4x12 and stand back. Considering the typically remarkable price, this booger gets the top grade after all! Seek info on re-tubing and mods. Interesting reading whether or not you go for it. Mo money!

Like a tank--blah, blah . . . See below.

Never needed help but have heard very good things about Peavey support.

Played mainly pop and rock for 35 years. Have owned and played some great stuff along the way, with my favorite guitars being the Tele Custom and a Rick 360. Best of amps, a '68 Super Reverb. One problem with the Super and other olympian amps, however, is the weight. The Classic is half the pounds of the Super and is, therefore, much easier to tote. The 30 has good tone, is powerful enough to blast a gym, and is low enough in wattage to get a tad of natural tube overdrive without ear damage. If stolen I would go get a used one as they seem to be ubiquitous and also are very durable. Wish it had more beef in the bottom end, but that would mean a heavier amp in both weight and price.

Other people have already listed this amp's features. I play a variety of music, including jazz, blues, rockabilly, surf, and classic rock, and this amp covers it all pretty well. Clean sound is compressed and "tubey-sounding," which may not be every jazzer's cup of tea but sounds great for clean rock tones. Frankly I don't think I've ever used the gain boost switch, never having found it necessary for the kind of music I play. As for power, in spite of what 14-year-old metalheads will tell you, this amp really has all the power just about anyone needs. It's more than loud enough for gigging in bars, frats, and the like, and anything bigger than that now has a sound system you can mic up into. The days of playing in front of a wall of stacks just to fill the hall are long gone. The foot swtich is very convenient, and although the lightweight plastic switch box looks and feels flimsy, it has withstood years of stomping from 210-lb me with no problems.

I use a strat copy with Texas Specials and an Epiphone Sheraton II semi-hollow guitar with big, fat pseudo-PAF humbuckers. The amp fits all of the music I play just fine, with a very warm, singing distortion tone, compressed, vintage-sounding clean tone, and some very cool sounds ine between the two (more on this later.) It makes a lot of noise with my strat copy, but that's the fault of the guitar's single-coil pickups and poorly shielded wiring harness. On other channels it's quiet, humming noticably only when the distortion is cranked way up. There's a pretty smooth transition from clean to distorted as you increase the gain on the overdrive channel. Around setting "4" there's a great sweet spot nobody else has mentioned - a compressed, almost clean tone that gets crunchy around the edges when you really dig into the strings. It's perfect for aggressive surf guitar or rockabilly. The distortion never really gets harsh, even at the highest end - metal fans should look elsewhere, or use a stomp box.

After amost 7 years of using this amp on a daily basis and gigging with it whenever and wherever I can land a gig, I have no complaints. The amp has been dropped off of the front edge of a stage onto a concrete floor, had half the tubes knocked out by a falling cymbal stand, and withstood countless other abuses, never needing any repair beyond straightening out the bent pins on the tubes and putting them back in place. The only problem I ever had was when the amp was stored overnight in a car in sub-zero temperatures and then wouldn't work right the next day. It was fine again after 24 hours indoors.

Never had a problem, so I can't comment. Although it's pretty cool that it's been 7 years of constant use without a problem..... see my comments under "reliability."

I give it a 9 only because I reserve the 10 category for gear whose use directly causes religious revelations...

I bought this amp 7 years ago when I was in high school, expecting to use it for a couple of years and then move on to bigger and/or more "prestigious" amps (fenders, marshalls, etc.) Somehow I never did - this amp is the right size for what I do, sounds great, and is totally dependable. I've tried a lot of amps over the past few years, and while I've played through some that I liked better for one sound or another, none were as versatile and all cost at least three times as much. This amp is all about bang for the buck - it's not perfect, but it beats the pants off of anything Fender, Marshall, or Mesa will sell you for under $800. And that's assuming you get a great deal on the Fender (or Marshall, or Mesa...)

This is my first REAL amp (moving up from a crap starter amp). I heard some really good things from several websites, so I took a chance and bought one (Also tried a Marshall VS; didn't like it). There wasn't a lot of choice for music stores where I live, so I was limited in my selection, but I can't imagine finding a better price for the features this one has. I play hard rock/prog rock, this amp sounds great! It sounds huge, which is good because I'm currently the only guitar player in my band.
This amp has:
2 Channels
Bass/Mid/Treble
Pre/Post for gain channel
"Normal" volume (clean channel)
Effects loop (not sure if it's series or parallel), but it always on if there is an effect plugged into it
Reverb (Good, but I like my delay pedal more)

This is amp really loud, I filled up my whole school's auditorium (about 700 people) on half volume.

The one reason this amp scored low is that it only works with a Peavey footswitch, and will only change channels if you have 2 or more buttons (one button will only work the reverb).

I'm using a decent Aria Fat Strat copy with a PAF in the bridge. It's used mostly for Rock/Prog and sounds good. It doesn't have a lot of gain, and when you turn it past 10 (Nobs go to 12... take that Nigel!!) your dynamics get cut off. The amp itself seems quite, but I don't use that much gain. This amp (I would think) lends itself very well to blues and classic rock. I actually saw one performer at the Poconos Blues Fest using one. The clean and distorted channels both work well with dynamics, but in my current enviroment, I haven't been able to pump either up past halfway.

I generally am careful about how I travel with my amp, especially because there isn't anything protecting the tubes on this amp. However, in just a gigging environment, it seems to hold up quite well. The tubes, however, seem to get quite hot and there is a strange rattling occuring even after I took it to a tech (it goes away when I play quitely). These are why it didn't score as high as it could have.

Don't know about peavey, but their website was quite helpful.

I think this amp will suit most non-metal needs, even though I've met several metal players using one. In short, this amp has tone. No advanced cab modeling, no multi voiced channels, just tone. It's price is also the best I've seen for any amp coming close to being gigable.

2 channels-clean and overdrive with reverb. 2 EL 84s in the power section. Has all the features I need and enough power. I have seen other reviewers compare this amp to Fender amps, which I don't think is fair-only the blues Jr. has EL84 tubes. The amp has more in common with Vox and Marshall than fender (on the clean channel, of course-the overdrive channel is sort of unique).

Using several guitars with this amp-Les Paul Jr, tele, strats and Hamer Special FM. I like blues and blues based rock, classic rock and old metal. This amp is versatile enough for all these styles.

On the clean channel, strats sound classic-hendrix tones are right there. Cranked up, the clean channel breaks up around 6 on the dial (goes to 12)and sounds great with all of my guitars.

The dirty channel needs some time to find the sweet spot. I usually keep the gain around 8 and use my guitars tone and volume knobs to tame the distortion. I keep the treble knob set at about 4-5, the mids all the way up and the bass at around 6-7. With the Les Paul junior, I bring the treble up just a little, but not above 50%.

Tone secret-mids is where it's at kids! (Except for the 80s scooped middle metal/Randy Rhoads thing) Some people here do not like the mid boost switch, I say try it and really take some time to adjust your guitars tone and volume pots-this amp is capable of some great tone.

the reverb is nice on this amp-I keep it at around 3-4. It is not a fender sounding reverb, but it thickens up the tone nicely.

This amp offers tremendous tone for its price range, but you do have to tweak to find it! EL84 tubes are a great match for P-90 pickups, by the way.

I have been playing 17 years and I like this amp alot. I also own 2 vintage fender amps and this amp sees just as much playing time.

I bought this amp new in 1999. Simple, simple, simple. Three 12ax7 and four EL84 tubes. All tubes except the ss rectifier and reverb. This is one easy amp to use. Clean and Drive channels with shared three band EQ, reverb and boost(they could have left this feature out) and an effects loop. The two channels are footswitchable, however the boost and effects loop are not. The effects loop is series, but I have not had a problem with any of the pedals I use, the only issue if any really is that they never designed a standby switch into this amp. No biggie, it gets hot but nothing you'll need to worry about, I have had mine nearly four years and it never over heated. I think that covers it. I give it an overall 8 for features because how much do you really need in a guitar amp. It either sounds good or it doesn't, period.

This is not a do it all amp, they really don't exist. Even my THD Univalve doesn't do it "all". This amp can be a little more than a one trick pony however. Stock these amps are great, but everything can improve a little, right? First of all, listen to those who say to use the JJ/Tesla EL84 power tubes, they speak the truth. I like to get mine from Antique Electronics(tubesandmore.com). Because of the EL84 power section this amp sounds more on the British side of the pond than anything else. You can get some fenderish clean out of it if you flatten out the mids, not scooped metal head, just flattened. It is more so however a culmination of Marshall, Vox and maybe a bit of Matchless with not as much adjustability in the EQ. For style examples this amp can easily do Hendrix, Zepplin, Bowie, Space Hog, Radiohead, The Who, some Stones work, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith. Basically a great amp to cover nearly the entire spectrum of rock n' roll. You can get some earlier 80's type metal but for the heavy low thrash today, you will never get the low end tight enough on this amp.
this is a rock n' roll guitar amp as you may tell by the examples for comparison tones. I is also quite loud enough for any drummer with out the assistance of a PA.

As I said I have had mine nearly 4 years and never had any problems. I have cold started this thing in a basement at temps around 30 degrees farenhieght and it played great after maybe 5 minutes of warming up. I have and will again play with out a back up. You can too.

I have called Peavey for a few personal inquiries about the amp itself, but never for any problems. They have always gotten on the phone with me immediately and answered all my questions untill I was satisfied. A seven as I have not had to deal with them on any repairs. Or does do they actually deserve a 10 for that alone? You decide.

Out of a Marshall TSL, Mesa Dual Recto and a THD Univalve, this is my favorite amp of all time because I know what to expect, how to get what I want out of it and the fact that I know I can rely on it no matter what enviroment it gets thrown into, it always plays the same. Great!

This is a basic amp but I rate it highly because the only feature that I wish it had that it doesn't is seperate EQs for clean and distortion. I find it hard to get settings I like for both channels. I usually set it up so the distortion sounds how I like but then the clean channel isn't as lovely as it can be. I really like the reverb. When I bought it I originally wanted an amp with two distortion channels but I now think that if I want any sound this cant do I can just add a pedal. No internal effects but I think thats a good thing as I can pick and mix pedals and play around.

I mainly blues, with a little rock and very little metal. Gives a lovely warm, valve distortion unlike my old solid state amp. The clean channel is exceptionall, especially if the eq is set right for it. A little noisy but that doesn't really bother me. I play with a cheap les paul copy which isn't the best of guitars but does the job fairly well. I was surprised how versatile the amp is, from its looks you'd think that it'd do blues, country and nothing else but you could just about get away with metal I guess. I think the stock valves and speaker are fine but I would like to experiment if I had more money.
In the shop I also tried a Marshall AVT 50 to compare, which made me buy this amp as I thought the Marshall sounded dull in comparison. The 30 watts is probably loud enough for gigs but can be made to give power amp distortion without deafening you. The reverd's great.

I got this amp cheap because the reverb was broken and the amp made a whistling noise. There was one wire broken in the reverb tank and the whistling noise was created by a faulty valve. Its very solidly built and should last well, but is a valve amp so might have problems.

When I emailed peavey about the whistling noise it made they very quickly told me that it was caused by a faulty preamp valve. It turned out to be a power amp valve, but they had suggessted that I replace all the valves in the amp as it was second hand. I think Peavey were fast, and have a good reputation for customer service.

I really love it, had a great deal on it. Probably the best #200 I've ever spent. Sounded so much better than the Marshall AVT.

This amp is a 2000 model with Sovteks for tubes and very good build quality.I purchased the extension cab off Ebay for $200 to add some fullness live.Two channels share same EQ with mid boost switch and no standby.Plenty of tube power,just right so you can crank the power tubes good and make it sing.

I am using two new SG's,one with alnico hums and a Classic with P90's.I have went through a lot of amps in the past 5 years,8 to be exact,and this is a keeper.The best warm clean I have heard and a smooth but gritty overdrive.This covers all the bases but metal and I don't go there anymore anyways.5 to7 on preamp gets great blues tone,7 to 9 classic rock,9 up gets you Santana on neck pickup.I play my Hughes & Kettner Club 65 and Marshall DSL from time to time but am always amazed when I come back to this amp.

I tried a variety of speakers with this amp and a Celestion Greenback really brings out the sound qualities I admire
most in this thing.I tried a Vintage 30 but the midrange was overkill to my ears but was way louder.If you need more volume and like punchy
mids go that route,if you want vintage vibe and sweet,singy highs go green.I also replaced preamp tubes with JJ Teslas recently and some
good tones there also.

It is a Peavey,built like a tank.Way better than the HK which sounds good but has a problem everytime it's moved.The Marshall has a lot of plastic and particle board and the Peavey feels like it is built to last.

The Peavey web site and forums are the best,bar none.I have sent emails to Marshall and HK and never heard back.Peavey has techs who read and post constantly and very good with follow up.

The best smaller tube combo out there.I have spent thousands as I like to buy new and I always praise this amp.It has never failed and the louder you crank it the better it sounds.You can get them in black now if you don't like the brown tweed but I like the retro look just fine.If the Peavey thing bothers you pull the logo,the amp snobs will thank you.Buy one of these and keep it,you will be glad you did.

The amp is a 1998, and the amp covers ever style from cool jazz to hendrix. Two channels clean and overdrive, & effects loop and reverb. This amp has all the features you can expect out of an amp. I use this amp for bedroom pratice and on stage. 30watts all tube is loud enough to play over most drummers. If not you better find a new drummer.

I use a strat and tele both with dimarzo pickups, and a samick tv twenty with a JB in the bridge. And play mainly blues, grunge, and classic rock. This amp covers every style great. The only problem with this amp is that it comes with chinese tubes in the pre-amp. Very noisey, I recommond changing to russiain tubes much better for tone. That why this category only gets an 8.5. The clean is great classic fender. The overdrive is great for that classic James Gang tone.

I would put my life on this amp. Just change the stock pre-amp tubes.

I never had to deal with them be the guy who re tubes my amp said they are great to deal with. Much better than fender.

I have been playing 14years. And have had many amps this one is by far the best, even better that many fender tube amps I have had, and much more durable. If lost I would get another one, maybe two. This amp blows the fender blues deluxe away. If you are a tube amp fan on a budget this is your amp, and any fender or marshall user will be converted if they ever tried one.

ALL TUBE, COMBO, 1 X 12, CHANNEL SWITCHING, REVERB, EFFECTS LOOP, TWEED COVERING

I USE THE STEVE VAI MODEL JEM AND REPLACED THE BRIDGE PICK UP WITHA SEYMOUR DUNCAN JB. IT HAS A MUCH SWEETER TONE.
I PLAY ALL STYLES AND THE AMP FITS ALL QUITE WELL

BRAND NEW

BRAND NEW

THE REASON I'M ENTERING THIS REVIEW IS BECAUSE I WAS SINCERELY KNOCKED OUT BY THIS AMP.
I HAVE BEEN USING 100 WATT MARSHALLS WITH 4 X 12 CABINETS FOR YEARS. I PLAY EVERY WEEKEND AND PLAY A VARIETY OF STYLES. THE POINT IS I'M WAS GETTING TIRED OF LUGGING THE MARSHALL AROUND ALL OF THE TIME. I DIDN'T THINK A COULD FIND A SMALL AMP THAT I WOULD LIKE. WHEN I PLUGGED THIS ONE IN WITH MY PEDAL BOARD, MISC BOSS, DS-1, DELAY, TC ELECTRONICS CHORUS, WAH WAH ETC AND MY WHITE STEVE VAI JEM WITH THE SEYMOUR DUNCAN JB PICK IN THE BRIDGE POSITION, IT BLEW ME AWAY!!!!!
I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS THINGS DONES AND FOR ONLY $400 NEW FROM SAM ASH. ALSO I WEIGHS ONLY 33LBS!!!!!
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A SMALL AMP WITH GREAT SOUND AND INEXPENSIVE, TRUST ME, TRY THIS ONE OUT. I JUST HAVE TO GET OVER NOT HAVING THE HUGE MARSHALL BEHIND ME, BUT IF I CLOSE MY EYES..........MMMMMMMMMMMMM

2000 classic 30, '93 extension cab w/ sheffield

strat, les paul.
good clean, breaks up nicely past '5'.
distortion more saturated with yugo (ei) power tubes.

- have used for 35 gigs with high gain/volume over last 3 months. re-tubed recently as one tube became microphonic. no backup, no worries.
- stock tubes are fine, but it's fun to experiment.
- this is my 3rd classic 30. # 2 broke down from a fall, repair was fairly inexpensive. i've toured with this amp and if babied, it will be reliable. no hard knocks, don't freeze it & then fire it up. let it warm gradually.
- it's dimensions are such that a standard width rack mesh grill (2 space works nicely) will screw onto the back perfectly, protecting the tubes. these cost 10-15 bucks and should be installed immmediately.

a few phone calls and transfers will get you an actual tech. have a reasonably intelligent question ready, and you'll be taken care of. not sure about warranty.

* if the volumes are down, no pop will occur when shutting the amp off. those of you who cannot live without a standby switch, remember this.
- the extension cabinet is highly recommended and fills out the low end. it should be 16 ohm. get the matching peavey for $200.00 and swap speakers if ya want.
- these amps record very well. i've achieved monstrous tones in the studio that could pass for any competetive tube amp.
- kills the marshall dsl 401 at 1/2 the price and at least has metal inputs and corners, unlike the plastic laden marshalls.
- better overdrive than comparable fenders. pro/blues juniors are cool, however.
- a few more amps are finally coming out to compete with the classic 30 in this price range, (reverend) so i'd look them over before buying another classic 30. they'd have to be spectacular to sway me from peavey.
- i've dealt with scoffs from gear snobs for years as a result of playing these amps - primarily from trust fund, fly by night boutique amp owners in the boulder, CO scene. it's all ultimately in your fingers. i think peavey is an americana, nutty company with a zillion products - some cool, some not so cool. keep your logos on, you're not fooling anyone.

GREAT TUBE COMBO AMP!
2 channel, effects loop, speaker out, 2 selectable foot switch.
I think it was 1 year old when I bought it used.
Nice reverb and all the distortion you need unless you are a metal head. I play inside my house and it is too loud at times for me. I know a couple people who have the same amp and use it at gigs indoor/outdoors for alt country and is unbelievable hooked up to PA or miked. Don't need to mike it if in a bar. Nice for rock, blues, country, you name it. Mid Bass and Treble controls make this amp put out all kinds of tones. For half the price of a Marshall it is a must buy. 30W tube is all you need.

Currently own Washburn MG74 and sounds great. I have heard a Fender Tele and a Gibson LP through this amp and both of those sound even better. Blues, Rock, Country, it's all good!
Nice distortion, nice reverb, nince low punchy bass, crunchy to clear highs and hits the sweet spot with Mids.

Haven't blown a tube yet! Use without a backup? I know a few guys who do and hasn't failed them yet.

Ordered a footswitch and cover from Peavey.com, very easy smooth transaction.

I've been playin for 10 years and am currently 21 years old. This is the only amp I own, but have played on a Peavey solid state for a few years, Tube is better. Absolutely love it, no hate.

Mine was an early 90's I do believe. This amp has got a really great clean channel, distortion channel, boost switch, reverb, and really tacky "tweed" tolex covering. My amp was abused to no end in the high school jazz band and a various multitude of garage bands. It not only survived but never let me down.

I almost exclusively used only a Gibson SG Standard through it. It sounded really punchy with a nice warm tone. It really worked fantasticly for jazz band. I would always fight with the other guitarist (the "b" guitarist) about him bringing his piece of junk crate to competitions. My classic really sounded beautiful on the clean channel with the reverb up to level four. I am not a fan of really heavy distortion, for blues and the like it works. I mean it had the tone what more could I ask for? I never used any effects or anything through this amp. Just my SG and that's it. I loved the clean channel on that amp.

This amp is a tank! You have to be careful about the tubes though. Backup tubes are a must! It is definetly a pain that the tubes are so freely exposed to the world but you deal. But like i said this amp survived jazz band. Gaggly weak nerds tripped and fell with this amp, then it got bounced around underneath a bus. Very durable!

Never dealed with them.

I had the amp for three and a half years I'd say. It was my first tube amp and "real" amp I guess you could say. I had four years prior stuck to a cheap pratice amp. I really loved that amp, but sold it so I could buy a Fender early 70's twin (the love of my life). I am definetly thinking about buying this amp again for those smaller gigs and practice sessions. I did love that little amp and reccomend it for anybody on a budget. Nothing sounds nicer for the money by far.

This is an update to comment on the TubeGuard for the Classic 30 made by Dan Bartosik. I found the TubeGuard on E-Bay after reading about it here. It is an engineered metal grill that almost perfectly matches the Classic 30 chassis. It attaches to the cabinet with 4 screws and will keep the tubes from getting banged or broken, a common complaint with Classic 30 owners. At $19.95 plus $6.00 shipping, it is a bargain.

N/A

N/A

I have talked to Dan and swapped e-mails. He is a guitar player who found his own fix to a problem a lot of us have and decided to have some fun and make a little money and share it. Shipping and delivery was prompt. A really nice guy.

If you have a Classic 30, you need one of these. If you don't get one, don't complain about busted tubes.

i bought this brand new in september of '01 for $370.00 US. i use it for harmonica. i liked the footswitch for switching cannels and turning the reverb on and off but don't use those features anymore. i find the reverb unit isn't that good for harp playing and now run a danelectro slap echo instead which was a dramatic improvemant also as for the preamp-postamp settings, they do VERY well when the band is at a lower volume to give an excellent dirty tone, but when the band gets loud, forget it, the signal gets too compressed and i can't get it loud enough to keep up without feeding back. i can't hold that against this amp because it's a common problem and when the amp gets turned up on the clean channel it sounds good anyway.

i guess i covered some of these questions above but i would like to say the tone is very beautiful for what i do. i try to play a more melodic style than just a straight dirty chicago blues sound and this amp is just about perfect for that. we play a more accoustic blues-country sound and i don't know if i could get a better amp for that, very clean and mellow tone. plus, like i said above, as long as the band doesn't get too loud the preamp-postamp channel is great for crunch when the song calls for it even though it's useless at higher volumes. i do love the tone but like i said, for harmonica, try replacing the reverb with a danalectro slap echo, i think you'll like it better.

like with about everybody else, my handle broke off once and is now fraying apart, i bet someone lost their job over this chronic problem. i know it's stupid to nit pick but it must be kind of embarrassing for peavey. otherwise never a problem yet. yes i gig without a back-up amp, but, being a harmonica player, the p.a. system is my back-up.

never had to use it.

i've been using it since i bought it new in sept. of 2001 i gig fairly often currently once or twice a week. i also bring out my old gibson 6 from time to time which i love but it's so old! in closing i'd like to say that most amps are made for guitars of course and not made to amplify an accoustic sound, when one works good for harp it's kind of a fluke. this amp does work. if you want a warm and mellow harmonica tone i'm not sure there is a better amp anywhere. and the pre-postamp channel gives you great versatility even if only at lower volumes.

Features are the basic, its classic

The reason why I am submitting this is because i am concerned. I purchased this amp after reading the numerous good reviews, and with the good price, i decided to purchase it. The clean channel is nice with good reverb, im not that demanding, but the overdrive is horrible sounding, so muddy, no smoothness, over compressed, i think there might be a problem wit my particular amp, i got it off ebay, excuse my run ons, but i dont care, so basically it sounds so muddy and horrible, and especially on the higher strings of the guitar, tehre is no give and the sound is incomplete, it makes the guitar almost feel unplayable, like i cant make it do what i feel. Please let me know...

If the problem is what i think, then my amp has a defect, and teh reliability is bad

na

email t_dey@email.com, i am thinkin about getting hte fender cyber deluxe

Two channels (clean/overdrive), 3 band EQ (shared), reverb, effects loop, footswitch, extension speaker jack.

I often see this amp compared with Fenders, but it sounds much more like a Vox to me. It's very loud for it's size. I bought it to use as a practice amp, but now I'm gigging with it. I replaced the stock speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30. This made a big improvement in the tone. The stock Blue marvel speaker sounded kind of boxy and one-dimensional. The overdrive channel is decent, but I found I can get the best blues sound by cranking the clean channel up around 10-12. It begins to break up nicely past 6. I use a TubeScreamer to get additional overdrive for leads when I need it.

The only failures I've had have been self-induced. Twice now I've cracked tubes trying to straighten out the leads after the tubes got pushed back. I bought a TubeGuard on eBay which shrouds the tubes, so this shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Don't know, but I hear they treat their customers well

For the money, it's a great amp. It displaced a Hot Rod Deville as my main amp following the speaker upgrade. I've played through a lot of amps over the years, and the Classic 30 stands up to some of the best amps owned. For me, the days of Marshall stacks are over. The older I get, the more my back appreciates big sound from a small package. I guess size does matter :)

You can read all the reviews below for its features.. I will list the biggest non-features of this amp. One set of tone controls for both the clean and the overdrive channels. That just doesn't work for me.
Also another non-feature, you can not easily disconnect the built in speaker to drive another speaker cab instead. The built in speaker is not one of the nicest I've heard.

I have a number of amps and use this amp only for weekly band rehearsals. I gig every weekend and use 2 Rivera's, which are perfect for me. I "save" them for gigs and just leave the Peavey at the rehearsal site. It can be a good sounding amp, especially the clean channel, once you play around with it a bit. It came with JJ's that everyone loves, I will be swapping out the JJ preamp tubes with NOS tubes I have just to try them out. The JJ power tubes sound fine when pushed, so they are staying. As I said above, I truely dislike the fact that there are only one set of tone controls on here. During gigs that is totally unacceptable, for rehearsals its a majoy pain in the ass. I play mostly Les Pauls and a strat, but I find that I can set the amp up to sound good clean, but when I switch to the over drive channel it sounds like harsh crap.. or I can set up the overdrive channel and then the clean channel sounds like shit. I have some overdrive petals (a Keeley ts-9 and a fulltone2) and that get me through rehearsals, but live it would never cut it. I am considering swapping out the speaker as well, to a Celestian V30 as those sound killer in my Riveras. I play classic rock and blues (i.e Hendrix, Zep, ZZ Top).

So far so good. I don't move it around much so I don't worry about the exposed tubes (that is a peavey brain dead design move). If I were using it to gig, I would fix that. It gets very hot and I know the heat will eventually effect the circuit board, but as a rehearsal amp, it is doing very well.

If I need work, I'll bring it to the amp tech I go to. The peavey website is pretty ok, nothing great.

Overall, I would say its a nice basic inexpensive amp. I use it in a limited way, for rehearsals only, and in that capacity it works well enough. I would never use it to gig, it doesn't sound good enough, it isn't flexible enough nor would I trust it enough for that. If it were stolen, I probably look for something else. Its Ok. That's the best I can say about it. Its ok if you can dial in a tone and leave it, but I don't use one tone for all the tunes we do, I go from a BluesBreaker kind of Les Paul tone (which the Peavey really doesn't do very well, the Rivera's DO it REALLY well) to a warm, clear and clean tone often in the same tune. If you gig every weekend and do material where the sound of the guitar has to change often, this is not the amp in my opinion.

i think every one knows the features.

I play a 72 custom tele and a standard strat. i get great tone from both. I play bluesy southern rock and a bit of new stuff. I can do it all with this amp. I dont get the mid boost though. it totally chages my sound so i dont mess with it. peavey should put that on the footswitch. i get standard single coil hum with my strat like everyone else does. other than that there is no extra noise. all in all it is a great sounding amp.

i have only used peavey amps and have never had a problem with them. although they should do something to protect the tubes.

never delt with them

i've been playing for 9 years and this is a great amp for the dollar. i gig with it and have had no problems. it is perfect for my music.

My C30 was made in 2001...it covers what I try to play, blues and classic rock very well..all other features have been cover very well over the past 6 yrs, and the other 120-something revues...mine came from the factory with the Electro-Harmonix EH12AX7's and Sovtek EL84's...I have replaced the tubes with JJ/Tesla ECC83S's and Tesla EL84's, but do respect Peavey for putting in very good tubes that beat the hell out of cheap Chinese tubes that most amps in this price range come with..the 30 watts works very well, cause you can get to power tube saturation without blowing your ears off, tho, still plenty loud..I do wish it had seperate EQ for Normal and Drive channels, but 'ya know what ?...this would make this a more expensive amp, so it don't count now does it..considering COST, size, quality and what I expect from an amp of this design, I give it a 10...

Let's talk about this "sound" thang for a moment..."Tone is in the ears of the beholder", and most of all, IN THE HANDS!!!...you have to use an amp for what it was designed to do..the physical size, and material of the cabinet, open or closed back, the signal prossessing of tubes or solid state ,gain structure, tone stack "curves", electrical conditioning of either rectifier tube or diodes, PC board vs. point to point wiring, and size of speaker...you gotta have a clue as to how all these things work together to create "tone"...most of the tones I like (blues and classic rock) came from "open-back-1X12-all-tube" amps as far back as the "tweed" Fender Delux, and "black face" Delux..the amp over all is quiet, and I find the tone stack to be very versitile...clean channel starts to breakup nicely by about 5 with my guitars (stock '93 Am. Strat, and an EC Strat w/Gold Lace Sensors)...I would not call the drive channels distortion brutal, but my GTR's are not set up for brutal, and again, the design of the amp ain't set up that way either...this is not a shred machine..if that is what you are looking for, re-read the 1st part of this section...for ME, and my WALLET, this thing is a 10, and if the name "Peavey" is a problem for you, why 'ya readin' this in the first place...BTW...the tweed look just slays me...

THIS IS A TUBE AMP...I don't care who makes it...tubes are fragile and unpredictable..if your gonna gig with this, or any tube amp, at least have extra tubes or a "plan B"...Peavey seems to make amps about as solid as anyone, and I would highly recommend a tube protector of some sort cause these are just hangin' out there...

I have never dealt with their CS...

I am 42 yrs. old, and only picked up "geetar" in the past 2 yrs...BUT...I played drums for 35 yrs., 20 yrs. professionally in NashVegas, engineered for about as long, grew up in a musical family surrounded by the best of what is now called "vintage" amps and guitars, so I have some idea what great tone is and what makes it..I won't ever play out of my living room cause my playing sucks so bad, so if I lost this amp I would definitly make "The Worlds Stupidest People" TV show...I would at some point love to run this thing through a closed back 4X10 cabinet, or move up to the Classic 50/410 amp, but the 50 watts thing bothers me...believe it or not, just too much power for my needs

I have used my classic 30 on stage many times.
It is a basic amp with very good tone.
I wish it had dual reverb and dual eq.
I play the dirty channel with the mid up(6 or7) treble down(3 or 4) and bass 5 , and gain about 6,

The clean channel with this eq is not as clear as I would like it to be. But I have received many compliments on my tone.

I use a les paul and a telecaster, both with seymore duncan pickups in them. I am really happy with the dirty tone. I play Alt rock not heavy metal, think of Goo Goo Dolls or Tonic.

I also use boss pedals:
super overdrive to boost the dirty channel for leads,
compressor for a snappy clean lead sound, ( You country guys listen up!)
Delay for whatever.

I have had a fuse blow before a gig, 10 minutes before the gig. I had to use a peavey backstage amp for that gig, Horror story
I also have had the tube knocked out on numerous occasions.

They really need to put a valve guard on the back of these things.

never delt with them.

I am a pro. I have had a Marshall JCM 800, Fender stage 100 (Horrable sounding thing) ADA rack gear, Sans Amp PSA Preamp (Sounds Awesome) I wanted a small yet loud and great sounding amp. The peavey Classic 30 fit this bill very well, even though I don't trust it without a back up. I wish I had better control over the eq (dual eq)
All said I really love the amp. and I didn't think I would ever say that about a Peavey!

Classic rock and blues guys this is your Amp.

Read below or visit Peaveys website for specifications. For what I was after, this amp is nearly perfect. The last thing I wanted was a "50 Amps-In-One" programmable monstrosity. I love the simplicity of the Classic 30. The chicken-head knobs can't be beat when you want to take a glance and see where everything is. My only complaint is that my unit is one the older ones where the controls read from the back of the amp. Peavey figured out this was a corny thing to do and has fixed it in the newer models.

I was after a 60s-70s classic rock sound and this amp hits the nail on the head. I mainly play humbucker-equipted guitars, and I can get really get singing leads that cut through without getting muddy. My typical settings are to set the treble and bass at 10, and drop the middle down to about 3. I usually set the Pre-gain at about 7-8 for a nice rhythm crunch, and stomp on a Tubescreamer for leads. I also own a Peavey Delta Blues, which is basically the same amp with a 15" speaker. The Classic 30 has much more midrange than the Delta. The boost switch boosts the mids even more. I don't use the boost switch unless I'm just tinkering around at very low volume and want to get a lot of sustain.

I bought it used and the handle was kind of falling apart, but I won't hold that against them. I haven't had any problems other than that. The same goes for the Delta Blues.

I haven't had to deal with them, but I hear that they treat their customer well.

Its just a plain and simple, great sounding amp. Tube groove all the way! It's more than loud enough, yet small enough that I don't break my back carting it around. The only real design flaw is that the tubes are hanging out there just waiting to be broken. There is a tube guard available "http://www.geocities.com/c30guard" which I purchased and installed. It does a great job of protecting the tubes.

Features:
All the features just like everyone else has said. The boost button is quite useless without a foot switch and it changes the tone a bit so I don't use it.

Sounds:
This amp is LOUD.
Clean channel has GREAT sound and tone, but the post/distortion channel sounds like crap unless I turn it up pretty loud. Since I don't want a divorce ;) I went out and bought a DOD fuzz pedal and through the clean channel I now have the sweetest overdrive sound.
Depending on the pedal setting, I can get great blues to heavy rock. I am VERY happy w/ the sound this amp provides w/ my Les Paul.

The tubes rattle a bit, but that is common on tube combos so no deductions there.
I've only had the amp 3 months, but it has worked like a dog for those short 3 months.
Peavey has a great name so I would rely on this amp.

There is a 'POP' when I turn off the amp. I emailed Peavey and they emailed back within an hour or so telling me that it was normal.
With today's customer service standards, I would give this kind of response an A+ from Peavey.

Bottom line...This is a great amp for under 400 bucks. I would buy it again if lost / stolen

2001 C30. 2 channels. I play in a cover band that does a lot of classic rock, country (especially Pat Green) and some modern rock (U2 Smashing Pumpkins).
This amp has footswitchable channels and reverb. It has a boost switch that is useless because it isn't on the footswitch. Peavey should fix this and I would score this one a 9.
At 30 tube watts the amp is plenty loud; and if you get your power tubes scored right you can dial in as much saturation as you want.
The speaker is ok, it doesn't have much bass response especially at higher volumes. The eq is allright, but a fish and chips makes a world of difference for the better.

I use a left handed mexi start with a little 59 bridge. The amp can be noisy around certain light fixtures and other electronics (TV, computer screen). Turn off those things to reduce noise.
The amp has a fairly wide variety of sounds thanks to the 2 channels and the ok eq. I use only two effects, big muff and small stone phaser, so my plate is full as far as getting the sounds I want. I'm not a wah guy but they do sound very good through this thing. The amps distortion is enough to do 70's rock but not much harder than that. If you need more gain and you don't want fuzz I recommend the revered drivetrain for a great 808 type drive.
IMPORTANT- HERE IS HOW TO FIX THE REVERB- When I first got this amp I left the reverb on zero because it caused this weird bass feedback if you turned it up past 2, sort of like a "whoooooomp" noise that grew and grew until it was unbearable. To fix this I switched out the V1 pre amp tube. I replaced the stock 12ax7 sovtek with a lower gain 5751 from sovtek and the reverb works great now. The overall amp sound is much cleaner and I highly recommend this simple mod. much better. Check tubestore.com to read about lower gain tubes.

Had it for 18 months, gig about twice a month and practice weekly. I changed the tubes once. Not because they broke just because I wanted something different. I switch the V1 to a sovtek 5751 and put in JJ tubes everywhere else (from eurotubes.com, a great site for JJ tubes). This dramatically improved the sound. I gig without a backup because I am broke. I plan on buying a tech21 sansamp so I can go direct if this baby dies.

My first tube amp and I love it. It's a great value and much better than the solid state crap I have been playing for years (valestate, kustom, peavey). So whenever you want a good cheap tube amp this is a great place to start.
If it died I will probably next go for the reverend goblin or a tech trademark (I know tech is SS but I like their stuff).

I bought the amp in 2000. I was looking to spend not more than 700 canadian dollars for an new amp. I wanted tubes, it has it. I wanted a nice clean sound with warm reverb, it has it. I needed an output for recording, it has it. I wanted something that looked like a vantage so I got the beige one. I payed $550 (can.)

I use a Godin LGT with this amp and it sounds just amazing. When you get the right tone you stick to it for a while and it sounds so right. The distorsion channel is really good as well if you are looking for a rock sound. When I add my Metal Zone Pedal to the clean sound of the amp I can make it sound amazing.

I carry the amp every sunday for jams and once the handle just broke on me. Not very convenient to carry this amp without the handle. I fixed it a month later! Other than this little problem, it is reliable.

never had any problems to report to Peavy. I can't tell

I've been playing this amp for 2 years and for the price I paid I am very satisfied. I would recommend it to anyone who wants an awesome sound and don't want to pay 1000 (canadian) bucks for an amp. It lasts, it always sounds great!

Standard features for a C30. The amp I used wasn't mine but was in the studio we were recording in - as it wasn't mine I'm not sure how old it was or if it was standard. Didn't have the footswitch but I don't think I can really blame Peavey for this!!! Nice variation in the channels but seperate equalisers would be nice. Reverb okay - not too special.

Used with my ES and Tele (both standard). I mostly used the clean channel (as I mainly play rhythm) and it sounded really nice - it gave a real deep, warm, valve-like sound which I was really impressed with - it sounded really rich and full as well, properly miked this gave one of the best recorded sounds I've heard. After a few minutes with it I decided to drop my other amps and just record through this one - it was that good!!

For comparison the amps I was to use were my Marshall DSL (which I regret buying as I bought it more for the label but am not very impressed by it - not as good as the C30 clean), and my Fender Reverb (didn't sound as rich or record as well as the C30) - as I said I dropped both for the C30, and both are considerably more expensive!!

As I was short on time I didn't get much of a chance to play around with the gain channel - what I did do sounded good, it seemed a touch fizzy to me but I'm very picky about overdrive/distortion and tend to keep it all turned down a bit - I'm sure a lot of heavier players would love it (My music's very jangly/stone roses-ie)

One final note - I've scored this down a touch as I'm not sure how stock the amp is, if it was stock then this should read 9.

Unsure as it wasn't mine - it seemed battered but worked okay and has clearly seen a lot of studio use, the tech there said it got used all the time and everybody loved it so I'm presuming some pretty heavy usage - have rated it on my presumptions!!

Have dealt with Peavey before and found them very friendly & helpful.

As I said, this amp really impressed right from the start and gave me the sound I wanted, a really nice airy jangly tone but it seemed versatile and I'm sure it could be tuned into almost any sound. It seemed to want to give a lot more all the time and I could imagine it being good for a lot of different situations and styles.

It could probably cut it at smaller gigs and came out really well in recording, a great practice amp as well.

It instantly made me drop my other amps (which made me wish I hadn't just lugged them all the way from my flat!!) and I will be buying one as soon as funds allow - very impressive, just wish I knew if it had been modified and if so what had been done to it.

This amp is brand new. I bought it off the show room floor after trying it out. This amp is plenty versatile for my modest needs. I don't gig just play for pleasure and to entertain my wife in our home.
The features have been extensively explained in previous reviews. My only beef is the lack of a standard footswitch. It has plenty of oomph
for my usage. I sure I'll be hearing from the neighbors.

My present guitar is a PRS Santana SE with their stock humbuckers at the bridge and neck. On the bridge pickup with all the knobs at 6 to 7 it produccs a crystaline screaming bite that I love! With the pickup switch in mid posistion it renders a beautiful, full sound that I also love! The clean channel is very clean. Not overly bright. It's a very rich sounding amp. The onlt noise is a modest tube hiss that I would expect. I'm not one to use any pedals or boxes. A traditional blues musician. It produces all the sounds I want or need. This amp could easily do gigs in small venues.

I've only had it for a week but Peaveys have a good rep for durability and the amp is very well made.

I bought it at Dave Phillips Music In Allentown, Pa. They are very easy to deal with. I've never dealt with Peavey.

I've resumed playing guitar six months ago after a hiatus of many years. As I only need 1 amp I wanted it to be one that I'd be satisfied with for years. I did a lot of research before I bought this amp and feel that, price aside, it's one hell of a good amplifier. I chose it over a new Blues Jr., a used Hotrod Deluxe and used Mesa Subway.

I have no idea of the year. I got it from a guy named Randy Volin...a really good guy...he only said it was a "90's Classic 30." That's good enough for me, as long as it works...and it does.
I play alot of metal, sometimes really super heavy, sometimes more mellow. I've been using a Crate Blue Voodoo 120 half stack for both grindcore/death metal and some mellower doom/stoner stuff. I've been wanting to do a more blues based thing, so I decided to go for the Classic 30. My god...it's great. Possibly the best bluesy rock amp ever, save maybe a Plexi. It's got amazing mids, some tasty reverb, and great control over the gain.
I was also very surprised at how heavy it can get. When you crank up the pre gain (with the mid boost off), it smooths out and gets really beefy...sorta like a Mesa/Boogie type tone...not really but that's the best analogy I can make. Surprising and exciting.

I'm currently using a Dean Caddilac X with a Dimarzio Distortion in the bridge. That's my standard rock/blues guitar. Stuff like Clutch, Kyuss, 60 Watt Shaman, Sleep, Clearlight, Primus, and even a little heavier like Down or EyeHateGod. The Classic 30 does wonders. It gets a really thick and crispy glassy tone without gobs of gain. For bluesy stuff I keep the settings like this:
bass: 3 or 4
mids: 7 or 8
treble: 4-6
pre-gain: 6 (when playing at low bedroom levels)
Mid boost on
It sounds amazing. Really clear and crisp...that glassiness is just what I was looking for. You can really hear those tubes.
I'm also using a DeArmond S73 tuned to B for stuff more like EyeHateGod, Soilent Green, Crowbar, Acid Bath, Warhorse, Coalesce, etc. Really heavy doom stuff. I was surprised to find that the Classic 30 does this very well. I haven't experimented much with this yet, but here's what I got so far:
Bass: 7 or 8
Mids: 6
Treble: 4-6
Pre gain: 8 or 9 (when at low bedroom levels)
Mid Boost off.
As I said earlier it's got a nice smooth tone, as opposed to the crispness of the blues settings. Very heavy and bassy, while maintaining clarity. Just what I like in my heavy sound.

Haven't had it very long, can't comment.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing guitar for 4 or 5 years now, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's what I want tone-wise. This amp has it. It's super phenomenal. I'm finally happy with what I have. If it were stolen, I would cry little a little Sally Nancy boy wearing a skirt and then buy another.
I compared it to every other combo like it, and it's by far the best. Better than all the Fenders, Marshalls, or whatever you want to compare it to.

As I have stated in my review of the vtm-60, I rate features on what is realistic about this particular amp and amps of similiar design.
By this I mean that I do not compare the features of a classic 30 to those of a line 6. That is known as comparing apples to oranges. I have a standardized system that I use when looking at an amp to buy which helps me narrow down to a specific amp, so once again, here's my little lesson. I rate the features by how many features the amp has compared to what other amps of similiar design have or should have in my opinion.
1. Does the amp have more than one channel? Yes, 1 point.
2. Does it have reverb? Yes, 1 point.
3. External speaker capability? Yes, 1 point.
4. Standby switch? No.
5. Separate eq per channel? No.
6. Selectable ohms? No.
7. Presence knob? No.
8. Footswitchable channel/reverb? Yes and yes, 2 points.
9. Effects loop? Yes. 1 point.
10. Does this amp have something unique that similiar amps don't have? Yes, a boost switch. 1 point.
The points total 7. I think that is totally realistic.

Sounds are obviously different from ear to ear and I grow extremely tired of listening to peavey owners talk about their amps as having a "Fenderish" or "Marshallesque" type of sound. Do you read reviews of Fenders that are remarkable in the way they sound like a Peavey?
Of course not, it doesn't work that way.
My Marshall sounds like a Marshall, my Fender sounds like a Fender.
My peaveys have always sounded like peavey's interestingly enough.
I prefer to think in terms of what kinds of music I play and does it work in those given circumstances.
I used a stock '77 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Fender Strat, Fender Tele, and a locally made custom SG with Dimarzio pickups and mahogany body.
I play classic rock, blues, country, and metal. Does the amp have the capability to do all? Let me explain something first.
I listen to classic rock and hear power tube distortion and a speaker heaving back and forth working like a living organism. Yes, the classic 30 has loads of this particular characteristic. In fact, I would say that it excels in this area.
Does it break up smoothly and respond to the player's attack when playing blues? It totally does. Also a winner in this category.
Country? For recording purposes, yes, not enough headroom for what most country players like when playing live though.
Metal? Certainly not nu-metal due to the midrange quality or lackoff that are characteristic in this genre, but yes it will do old school metal given the right volume.
I personally don't like reviews that encourage readers to change the speaker right away or get jj tubes or both. Don't get me wrong, it is very helpful advice but when purchasing the amp initially, the amp should be able to sell itself. In other words, this amp in it's stock form can do different genres of music and quite well. That should be the primary focus. Speaker and tube upgrades do just that, they increase the already good characteristics about the amp, they do not make the amp a different beast than what it already was.
Here in Canada where I live, if I was to buy a new classic 30 and immediately feel that I had to change the speaker (vintage 30) plus tubes (jj's), it would cost more than a comparable Marshall tube amp (dsl 201 - I know 'cause I bought one as well.)
I believe my point has been made.
This database has way too many 10s, given to a lot of crap out there which is certainly not cool. I will never give 10's in sound until I see one amp that can do it all and that is not realistic.
In a standardized setting I give 2 points for each style of music that I play. One for being able to do it, two points for doing it well.
Classic Rock/Rock 2 points.
Blues/Jazz 2 points.
Country 1 point.
Metal/Nu-metal 1 point.
Total being 6 points. Totally fair.
Don't get my wrong, I love what this amp has to offer in sound quality.
I realize that nobody who loves their amp as much as I do would consider giving that low of a mark in this database but it's completely honest and fair.

No problems and it's been through alot.
I truly believe that Peavey are the most reliable amps out there.

Love the amp forum, friendly people and good advice.
The website has all the amp manuals that you'll ever need.
Great company.

The overall rating only makes sense to me if you average out the total scores that you've already given.

I bought my C30 about 6 years ago; everyone's covered the features, pro's & cons here. I traded in a 2x12 Lab series and about $150 for it. The Lab was 100 watts... this seems about as loud! I give it an 8 for including 2 channels and an effects loop for the dirt-cheap (even without a trade-in) price.

I play American Strats, stock. I use this amp primarily for recording original music that's sorta like "U2 on Acid"... kind of spacey trip-hoppy stuff with a driving beat and funk-ish bass. I was seeking a really unique, but articulated & "heavy" sound. Yes, I re-tubed it and was very pleased.

But the best mod for my money (and the sound I was looking for) was to add an output jack for the MAIN speaker (just wired the leads into a project box with a 1/4" connector, screwed this into the inside of the cabinet) and plug into an extension cab loaded with ElectroVoice EVM 12L's. (This was WAY easier than disassembling the amp to swap speakers, and the amp itself is still very lightweight... those 12L's are HEAVY).

The 12L doesn't seem to be considered a "guitar" speaker (seem to be used in high-end floor monitors a lot). They're way-efficient (I figure a 20-30% volume boost over the stock 12"). They won't give you that Celestion "grunge". But there's something incredibly punchy about a Strat cranking through the 12L. Just a smack-ya-in-the-face edge, with plenty of low end.

I tend to use the following effects: Roland SDE1000 delay (love the tap tempo), and for solos will sometimes kick in a compressor or distortion pedal. However, with the 12L/C30/Strat combo, the gentle use of an exciter/enhancer is just magic (especially with chorus). I've used an Aphex C2, the (surprisingly tasty) Boss stompbox, but actually the exciter in my old ART SGE MachII is really sweet with this setup.

OK, guess this is a little fringe-ey for you blues players, but it's a surprisingly nice tone... all the Strat character, but some strange kind of edge to it. It's the C30/12L/Exciter mix I believe. Wierd sort of traditional rock sound, but amazing articulation... I swear you can hear the tremolo springs!

Had it for years, cranked it for hours. No probs. If I were traveling with it (and may start gigging again before long) I'd do the following: add some sort of firm metal mesh to protect the tubes... add a reinforcement/bracket for the power cord, down low, to keep it clear of the tubes... and use some sort of fan. it does get HOT...

I've played piano for 36 years (started at age 6, now I'm 40) and guitar for 30 years. Yeah, I'm pretty good, but struggled with "tone" forever. This little thang was too good to pass up.

Well, I think the others got this pretty much coverd. What I miss is a standby-switch and foot-switchable boost. It would be nice of Peavey to include a footswitch.

This amp covers most styles except for very high-gain metal. The drive channel sounded *a lot* better after I replaced the stock tubes with some JJ's. Overall I think it has a tweedish-basmann-old marshall kind of character. It sounds nice when you crank it. Very good amp for blues/classic rock kind of styles IMO. I replaced the stock speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30 and that altered the sound a bit, I like it this way but I guess it's what you prefer. I use this amp with a strat w. single coils and I think it's a very good combination. Think David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Big Head Todd, SRV etc. I'm not saying that you will get their exact sound, but I think that's the kind of tonal character this amp/guitar combo has got.

Hmm, I haven't had any problems with it, have had it for a year or so. I don't like how the tubes are not protected by anything, I'm always afraid I'm accidentally going to knock out a tube or something when I move it. The circuits are pcb, I opened it up one time and it didn't look very solid. Having said all those things I must say that it has held out very well so I guess that that speaks for it. Oh yeah, it gets very, very hot and that worries me sometimes. I know that the classic 50 has fan-cooled tubes and I wouldn't mind that in this amp.

I've never dealt with Peavey directly but I live in Holland and I think the closest official Peavey dealer is in the UK or something. In any case, when I ordered this amps it took months to arrive.

For the money this an awesome amp. And even if you don't consider the price it has got some killer sounds in it. I reccommend changing the stock tubes, it will benefit both channels but the gain channel in particular. I got some JJ tubes from Eurotubes (www.eurotubes.com) and am very happy with them. I also like the sound of the Celestion Vintage 30 I put in it, it alters the tonal character a bit and it is a *lot* more efficient (louder). I use this amp mic'ed in a band situation with a p/a, it is plenty loud for that. And unless you are going to play with a very loud band and don't have your own monitor it is probably loud enough. Although I think 50W (tube) is safer to have in an amp just because you never know what the situation is going to be like.

I've been playing for almost 10 years now. I play all kinds of stuff but I mainly use this amp for a contemporary praise-type-band and for some other band-stuff.

The Peavey Classic 30 (C30)is a standard 30 watt (RMS) combo all tube guitar amp with reverb and two channels (clean and gain). I bought my C30 in early 2001. It has a boost option that gives a 25 db boost however I have found that this boost is only useful while playing through the clean channel at a high volume (6 or more). The boost provides added mid-range to the tone through the clean channel at high volumes however once the boost is on it is on for both channels. In other words the boost is not controlled by the footswitch (footswitch not included what's up Peavey???). So I use the boost only when I want straight up classic blues tones through the clean channel at a high volume otherwise the boost is always off. Unlike other reviews I have read here I do think the boost has value on the clean side of the amps personality expecially if you want to play a straight-ahead blues lead. Some other things I do like: the reverb is solid classic tube reverb that is controlled by the footswitch, the pre & post gain controls, the bass, middle and treble tone controls allow for incredible dirty blues tones, classic rock and a decent attempt at a nu-metal, all-middle-tone-scooped type tone. However the nu-metal tone attempt is missing something and since I do not play any styles like that I am not concerned. The size and weight of this amp is just right. It weights 40lbs however unlike other wider tube amps with a single 12" it is easily handled and transported through tight spaces etc... My back thanks you Peavey! I do not play out at all except the occasional gathering of fellow guitar-hero-wanna-be's however I am into my 15th year of playing guitar and I have learned that an easy-to-handle tube amp has many long-term health benefits built-in. Back to the amp.

I played through this C30 for almost 18 months with the original speaker and was really satisfied with this amps tone in comparsion with my previous amp a vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb (post-abc). What brought me to the C30 was the gain channel. I wanted to be able to go straight into a tube amp and get sweet clean blues tones with reverb and stomp on a switch to move to a classic rock distortion tone. The deluxe reverb required a distortion pedal and just was not cutting it for the distortion tones. I am tired of pedals. At high volumes through the gain channel (pre-gain set 7 or higher and post-gain set 6 or higher) the C30 produces some harsh gain with my Gibson Les Paul 1960 Classic. When I say harsh I mean unuseable setting. However I can get the C30 rocking pretty good at the same setting with either of my american strats (one with standard american pickups and one with vintage noiseless). For my Les Paul I usually have to peel back the volumes two notches. For dirty, classic rock and blues tones I usually never have the post-gain set past 3 or 4 with the pre-gain set any where from 6 to 10. I prefer to control the level of distortion with my guitar's volume and tone options. In my opinion the beauty of a real tube amp is the tone and volume response to pick attack, fingering attack and guitar settings. Overall the C30 tones were all full and fun until I changed the speaker from the Blue Marvel to a Celestion Classic G12H (heavier magnet). After that upgrade this amp's tone went from solid and fun to down right righteous in all settings. The G12H gave this amp a low-end and mid-range of proprtions that can only be compared to when a guitar's strings are changed from super lights to SRV 13's! I used to play 10's and went back to 9's and lost a noticeable amount of bass and mid-range. I gained all of the mid-range and bass lost and a lot more! The tubes that came with my amp were all sovtek of russian decent. After further research into the sovtek's I discovered that my C30 came with some of the sovtek's best pre-amps and el84's. When looking at the amp from the back I have the following pre-amp tubes from left to right: 12AX7EH and two 12AXLPS'. I am extremely happy with the current tubes with the new speaker however I am going to experiment with sovtek 5751 pre-amp tubes. It is my understanding that the 5751's will calm down an overdriven pre & post gain stages to allow for more volume before the distortion gets out of control (i.e. loose bass and screachy treble).
If your interested in a tube amp that can be used to develop high-quality blues and classic rocks tones with no pre-amp pedals then you have to give the C30 a run through. I highly recommend the speaker upgrade. I give the pre-speaker change rating for tone an 8 however the post-speaker change is a 9.

No problems so far. The speaker upgrade/change was a little more work than anticipated. The exposed tubes could prove to be a difficult thing to deal with if you travel and gig a lot. It is not a problem for me however I am thinking about installing my own tube guard.

Went I purchased this amp March 2001 Peavey required that you mail in the warranty info to get the 5 year warranty otherwise if you forgot you would only get the 3 year warranty. I did no care for that policy and thanks to the music store I was able to get my 5 year warranty.

The C30 hits the ground running after it has been warmed up for 15 to 20 minutes and you have specific needs for great blues and classic rock tones. The reverb is a just the right amount of classic Fender without the hiss and the gain channel has enough to rival any classic rock distortion pedal. I find these amps new for $420 ($445 with the footswitch)and the value for the dollar is untouchable. The used prices range from $150 to $300. Put $150 into a new celestion speaker and better tubes (mine came with the sovtek instead of china crap)and this amp jumps of the porch and starts to play with the big dogs! Again I wil rate the amp out of the box with an 8 and after the speaker upgrade it is a solid 9 with the potential to be a 10 with the right pre-amp tubes. This amp has gig worthy power, tremendous tone, fun and useful gain straight out of the box. Can't go wrong with that.

Check other reviews. Why does it need 4 el84s whene other amps of it's size only need 2?

I had it for a year and it served me well. It has the kind of sound that some may love while others like me will get frustrated with in time. The good points are that the lead tone is the one of the best I have ever used period. The clean stays clean untill you want it to overdrive. Now for the bad, Not very versitle in clean or overdrive, not enough distortion {for my taste anyway}, no head room for pedals in front. I really did like this amp untill I got an amp with more wattage {50 watt mashall 900} and notice how the head room brought the rest of my gear to life. This amp sounds best pluged straight in. My advice would be to try it and others in the price range first. If you do go with the Peavey replace the speaker!!!!!

Mine was a couple of years old with the stock tubes still in. I toke it apart changed tubes a couple of times and never had a problem. I don't think a back up would be neccisary.

The only thing I can say here is that if you have one of the ugly yellow ones andwant a black casket for it be prepared to spend over $200 on it. A new yellow one is only about $80. What?????? They were happy to help though if I wanted to spend enough money to get a new used one.

I lookedat a Blues jr and a Laney LC15R and picked them up and noticed how light they were compared to the peavey and thought of how dumb it is to carry the Peavey that does not sound as good and is heavier around. Try it out first with others in the price range. If you can not get what you want out of it at first you never will with out spending an arm and a leg.

Has two channels, nice spring reverb, external speaker jack which are useful features. Mine did not come with a footswich, no big deal. it has all the features i need for the studio and small gigs. Tubes could use a strip of aluminum or something to protect them as on Mesa's small tube combos.

I use a strat with Duncans H/H/H, so I have a very hot guitar going straight into this little guy, no effects, although it does have a loop. I changed the preamp tubes and it sounds a lot better. Without the preamp tubes I would only give it 7 or 8, but now it sounds less sterile and OD sounds better. Stock speaker sounds good to me, I don't turn it loud enuf to distort on clean so I don't get breakup in clean. OD produces a wide variety of classic rock/crunch/blues u name it. reverb is quiet too.

I use it without a backup, but i have the original tubes just in case.
It has never failed.

I made a few calls about the tubes and they told me what I could do with them (in the amp).

Been playing 25 years. This is a great deal. Sounds better than cold Fenders to me, I have many amps. This has the best combination of clean/classic sounds and reliability. Wish it had stanby switch.

Same features as all the other reviews. Mine came with a footswitch. Bought it new for a little over $400. I play rock, blues and contemporary worship through it, primarily in a rhythym role, and it suits those styles fine for me. Never used the effects loop--don't play with effects. The power is surprising for a 30 watter--I've never played in a venue that made me wish I had more. I never use the boost switch--doesn't sould like it adds anything of value to me. I like its portability--I never hessitate to take it anywhere, and it probably gets used more because I hate hauling my other amps around--for practice and gigs. My demands are not that sophisticated, so the features meet my needs. I have to take points off for the worthless boost and the exposed tubes. I always feel like the tubes are going to burn the power cord and wish they ran the power supply differently. I also wish I could EQ each channel seperately.

I play an Epiphone Les Paul, a Kramer Striker, a Fender Squire Strat and a custom built guitar through it. I had a hard time getting the humbuckers on the Epi to cut through the band when I used any distortion. I don't notice a lot of response from the pre and post knobs. I can change them two or three numbers before I notice any tonal differece, even at high volumes. The clean channel is clear and warmly crisp with any pickup. I don't notice distortion on the clean channel until right about the level that seems too loud to me anyway. The amp seems to be tonally suited for a strat style guitar, even though the humbuckers in the Kramer sound sweet with it (the Epi hummers are muddy). I like the distortion sound with the post knob burried, but when I want less distortion and try to back it off, I don't like the quality of tone I get. I can't seem to find that "slightly overdriven" sound I want.

I don't play in high expectation venues, so I don't play with a backup. The amp has never let me down, though, even though I've moved it around a lot. Never had it serviced, but I can tell its about time to replace some tubes. I've had it for three years. In light of some of the other reviews here, I might be able to get the finer response and slightly distorted sound I'm looking for with different tubes. I wish the knobs had more resistance to them, so they didn't spin so freely. Looking at them seems to make them move.

I think the warranty was five years, except on tubes.

I've been playing guitar for over 20 years, and even though I've always wanted to be a rock star, I'm fairly new to the electric guitar (less than 5 years), so I may not be as discriminating as you need to be. I am a value shopper and more of a purist, so this amp represented a great value to me and offered me the classic tube tone. I've been pleased with the amp, but disappointed that my favorite guitar doesn't sound that great through it (my Epi LP). I like the amp so much that I will not buy another guitar until I hear how it sounds through this amp. I chose it over Fender Blues Jrs. and Hotrods because the tone was at least on par and the cost was much better. Even though I think it can be improved, it is perfect for me.

Made in 2001 I assume, I can't find a date stamp anywhere. Mine the BT (Black Tweed) model with dark grey grill cloth. You know the rest.
I'm taking points off for the following lack of features:
1. No footswitch. Even cheap amps ususlly have them.
2. No presence control or bright switch.
3. No protection at all for the tubes. Cord gets tangled easily in tubes. It should plug into the chassis.
4. No Cover.
5. No standby switch.

Clean channel sounds better than Fender tube amps to me. OD channel blows away fender. I'm comparing this to a Hot Rod Deluxe, which I also own. Blows away the Blues Jr. Reverb is good enuf, sounds sweet to me. Mine came with three 12AX7EH made in Russia by Sovtek, but Electro Harmonix put thier name on them. They will sonn be replaced for lower gain tubes to let the EL84s get a little more saturated. The speaker is good at low volume, sounds harsh when cranked. A new one is on the way (Eminence 50 watt). Later i may put a V30 in it. Amp is super quiet and reverb does not hiss like Fender. OD can get brutal with gain at 12, I will try to get better upper-lever harmonix by using 5751 tubes like SRV. I play Worship and praise through clean,
Blues, rock through OD. Boost switch should be removed.

It's new so we'll see. It's built like a tank. The reason I didn't but a Marshall is because they are built like crap. I went to try a few out and none worked. Peavey looks and feels solid, reviews are very good.

Nice web site.

I paid a lot for this, but it sounds beautiful so far. Very clean. I went to buy the Marshall DSL 401 but none worked. I tried the Fender tube amps and they sounded sterile. Next I tried the Line 6 lineup and they all sucked rat's ass. Last in line was Peavey. (think Jim Mora post game interview ("PLAYoffs. PLAYoffs?!") That was me, "PEAvey,PEAvey?!" I tried all the modeling amps (Transtube, TransFex) they just don't sound like tube amps!
Well, I was sold the minute I heard the classic 30. It sure could use a make over (see features section) but the only other amp that came close was Fender's Cyber Deluxe ($700.00).

not sure what the year is. bought it 9/01. the C30 has basic features; 2 channels (kinda one channel with extra gain stages for channel 2). basic treble, mid, bass, reverb, effects loop, external speaker out, boost switch (more on this later), etc. i didn't but it for the features, i did for the organic like-sound, at least thats what i thought.

run a LoneStar strat with virtual vintage neck and mid pu's into this beast. when i first picked it up i thought it sounded pretty good. with in the next week, i found a website (blueguitar.org) which went into detail of several easy mods, along with some more advanced ones. i decided to try it since the auther of the site seemed to be very pleased with the results. basically you let more bass response though to the OD channel, change the value of the boost (VERY helpful, as the boost completely sucked balls before), and switched out alot of capacitors for ones of the same value but better quality. also, i switched out the stock speaker for a Reverend Alltone 12" and changed 12AX7's for a variety of different ones.

after doing these mods, i totally dig this amp. it now has alot of charecter and smoothness esspecially in the lower gain range. it starts getting a little rough around the edges (a bit too buzzy and trebley) when too much gain is dailed in. some might like this, but to me, it is undesirable. My C30 is very responsive to pick dynamics, so much that i find myself really digging in the strings and breaking alot of them. (i think this is a good thing because the versitility at one setting is quite a bit.)

the clean channel is alot of fun as well. while not having the massive headroom and sparkle of a fender, it can be coaxed into a light grind with the volume up.

all and all the amp is great for blues / rock, not much for the death metal, but if it was, it would not have the sounds i really like. and for $300, i don't think i could have got a better amp.

seems good so far and even after i've taken the thing completely apart twice.

i e-mailed a question once about pre-amp tubes and got a reply the next day (a faily helpfull one at that). seems as good as can be expected.

if it were lost or stolen, i would be super bummed. i think i would go get a new one (or another used one) and start the project all over again. (i put many a hour into working on this thing). i plan on holding onto this amp for a long time. i love the warm "just clipping" sounds of this amp, it makes me want to play it. i joy.

there are other amps out there i have my eye on like the Reverend Hellhound, but it's about twice as much and the C30 w/ mods definately gives it a run for it's money. i only wish it had (at least) a separate treble control for each channel, if not a complete EQ. great amp, if you like the vintage kinda sound (smooth, rich overdrives and pick dynamics), go get one of these.

No use going into the details. Everyone else has described these quite thoroughly. A good amp, solid controls, no frills to speak of. The BOOST switch is pointless. The effects loop has some use, but the REVERB unit has some quirks when used. Meaning, don't run distortion through the loop and be careful with delays; both have a tendency to make the REVERB hyperactive. Or just don't use the REVERB when using the loop (or maintain a low setting)

First off see comments in Reliability. This is my second Classic 30. This one, after becoming frustrated with the bland sound, decided to do what many others have done. I upgraded to a Celestion Vintage 30 (8 Ohms). It creates an enormous difference in clarity. The stock speaker wasn't bad, but eventually you'll notice that it doesn't quite cut it. Second thing I've done is put some brand new tubes in to compliment the speaker. A matched Quad of Sovtek EL84's in the power stage, and (from r-l in the preamp), Sovtek 12AX7WA - Electro Harmonix 12AT7 - Sovtek 12AX7WA. I initially had the 12AT7 in the first stage (far right) and liked it alot, because it cut the "ambient" noise down considerably. However, soon after reaching a steady state, it started giving microphonics. Really ticked me off. Still don't know why exactly, it may just be a bad tube. It still acts up a little in the second slot, but not nearly as bad. I'm still experimenting, shall we say.

I've been running stuff through the Effects Loop recently, cause I noticed some of my effects becoming lost or garbbled in the mix when ran straight in. This has created some issues with the Reverb. I don't use the reverb much because of that. With this new speaker, I'm going to be attempting some new routings, so maybe I'll find the "perfect" routings for everything

I play an Epiphone Les Paul and a Dean EVO Special (coil taps), so mostly it is used for humbuckers, but with the coil taps in the EVO, I've experienced a bit of both worlds. The amp handles fine under both. In fact I think there is a bit of a tone improvement when using the EVO. Either way, it is a versatile little amp.

Part I: Okay...here's where things get messy. I mentioned above that this is my second amp. I've bought both used (both on Ebay actually). The first one came kind of jacked up. Major Reverb issues. Found out the reverb unit was screwed in too close to the magnet on the speaker. As far as i can tell the springs were getting caught up in the magnetic field of the magnet, and were getting some "Reverberation" going that wasn't intended. It would feedback real bad anywhere above 2. After i moved it back a little, the amp was my best friend for about 1.5 years. At which point, in the middle of a gig, started cutting out. By the end of the night it was hissing and squealing at me. This would happen regardless of whether anything was plugged in or not. In fact the volumes could all be on zero and it would still sound like the volume was cranked to "eleven". After some analysis, thought it might be a bad tube socket. Ordered four new tube sockets direct from Peavey. Didn't solve it. Found out there were about 6 wide open resistors in the circuit board (not supposed to be that way). Replaced those. Still doesn't work. Same sound. Have no idea. So I think instead of paying an arm and a leg to have Peavey repair it, I'm going to gut it and build my own amp.

Part II: I loved that amp for the time i had it so much, that I almost immediately went out and bought another. Used again. This one seems to be fine. I've had it for about 6 months now with no problems. The tubes were the original stock, which of course by this time were getting old, hence the replacements i mentioned. All in all, a good amp. Not entirely reliable, though. I'm not sure what my recommendation si on using it. I've gigged and still gig without a back up. Call me stupid or risky. I dunno. I give it a 5, cause I guess at this point there's a 50/50 chance I got a lemon the first time. Time will tell.

Well never dealt with them, since both of mine were used. I did call them directly to order the tube sockets. They were fine that way. No problems. Had the parts to me in no time. Sure they were probably a little overpriced, but I wanted to make sure i got exactly what I needed.

I've been playing for over 6 years. I play mostly classic rock and blues, 90's alternative, and hard rock. This amp isn't made to be a metal grinder or anything. It's a good amp that suites my needs very well. Great for Blues and Classic rock tones. Reasonably light and compact. There are of course things you have to do with this amp as you would with an tube amp. They all require a little "love & care". If you want a maintenance free amp, go buy a solid state, but kick yourself later when you realize for every tube amp problem, the vibes that you can get with them is well worth it.

If it were stolen, I'd be ticked. If it broke again, I don't know. I think depending on what went wrong I might be forced to consider another brand. Two of the exact same amp going bad would just seem real suspicious to me. So far, the one I have now has treated me well. With the new speaker and fresh new tubes, I'm looking forward to a long and healthy life.

Great tube amp with just the features I need... only wish it had a standby switch.

I play blues, rock, hard rock, jazz and this amp is close for all of these but it has a few limitations but for the price I haven't found anything that comes close. I have yet to try any new tubes, mods, or speakers but I bet there are all kinds of cool sounds waiting to come out.

I had lots of peavey gear through the years and the products seem bullet proof. This amp won't leave my house except for small practice jams so I think it last as long as any other peavey product (long long time)

I delt with them many years ago and they were great. I hear it's the same today but I haven't need to call...

I have a few other amps a fender bronco ss, and a mesa mkII C+. This amp is whatr I play the most but I play them all as each amp does give great although very different sounds. I bought this to try my hand at some mods but the sound has me waiting... it sounds very good so I'll leave it alone or get another one to play with. I don't think there is a better value in tube amps. The only suggestion to peavey would be to make a limited edition version with maybe ptp, premium parts and an option of speakers in 10",12",15" sizes. This would have an impact on the high-end market like the 5150 has had in the rock world. Thanks Mr. Peavey for some great amps at real world prices.

I bought this amp before Xmas caus emy guitar teacher told me about it. I think the 2 channels are good and there's is no 200000 effects like the Line 6 or others. IT'S A TRULY AMP.

First, when I play, I hear a little noise that comes from ... well I don't really know. But when I play louder, I do not hear it. The clean channel is good. The ''distortion channel'' is alson good cause you can create good sounds by playing with the PRE and the POST buttons. Maybe I'd liked more heavy distortion as the Marshall. I had a problem with this amp : the tubes did some noise when I played the 6 string (the bigger). I went to the store to fix it and they gave it to me with the same problem. Next week end, I gonna change it for another Classic 30. SO THE SOUND IS GOOD. I PLAY BLUES, ROCK, PUNK, A BIT OF MEATL AND JAZZ AND I NEED ONLY ONE AMP : THE PEAVEY CLASSIC 30 !!!

As I said, I had a problem with the tubes but I think it's a problem in the amp. Also, I command the foot-switch that comes in option three months ago and I didn't receive it. So...

The warranty is 2 years but you give to PEAVEY a copy of your proof of your purshase and you'll get 3 additionnal years. The foot-switch didn't arrived yet. But for the warranty it's good

GOOD AMP. SOUNDS GOOD. VERY VERSATILE. WARRANTY OF 5 YEARS. NOT PAID A LOT FOR IT. I CAN PLAY VERY LOUD WITH IT EVEN IF IT'S A 30 WATTS. PERFECT FOR STUDY AT HOME, FOR A BAND AND FOR SHOWS.

Bought it new. 2001 model. I won't redundantly name the specs here. Plenty of features for the price.

The Clean and Lead channels are very meaty and deep. Lots of bass. Very loud. The reverb is awesome, although if you have reverb and boost on and play hard, an increasingly loud moan will be produced. Result- you can't use reverb and boost together =(. VERY VERSATILE!!! You can produce just about any sound out of this amp, especially clean sounds. It cranks out the distortion and gain, too, but it can't do heavy metal, which is okay, the amp wasn't designed for it. Many different tones. I play through a Mexican Strat and it sounds great, whatever tone I play. Wonderful amp!

I've only had it a few weeks, but it's holding up great. The handle is starting to loosen, however, and I suspect it might be a problem later on. Peavey is rock solid.

N/A

I've been playing for 2 years and this is the best amp - price combo I've ever found. Sure, there are better sounding amps, but not for this price. If you want a cheap, killer sounding little tube amp, get this. It's great for practice and plenty loud enough for gigs. I'd mourn it's passing if the day ever arose.

I'm guessing this amp was made around 1997. That around the time I bought it. Can't really remember though. It suits my needs fine. I think it would be great for most Blues, Classic Rock, Country, etc... It's not a thrasher's amp though. So if you're a thrash or metal head, you might wanna try a Marshal or something like that. It's an all tube amp. It has two preamp channels that share the same EQ (trebble, mid, and base). Has a nice sounding reverb. It has a mid boost button??? I hardly ever use that. When engaged it doesn't sound very good to me. It has an effects loop which I use alot! It has a foot controller for channel and reverb switching. And it has a 30 watt 16 ohm power output for and external cab. I have the external cab that was originally designed for the Classic 30 (the 112E). The cabnet provides a deffinate improvement over the already great sound of the classic 30 itself. The cab kinda cleans up the sloppy areas of the 30. Not that it has a lot of sloppy areas anyway. Another strange thing, it does not have a stand by switch. But it seems to work fine without one. You can remove or insert the guitar's 1/4" without making a peep of noise.

I've had this thing for a few years now. So I've tried a few guitars through it. Here's a list (American Strat, Epiphone LP100, PRS, Samick PRS copy, Mexican Strat w/Rio Grande PUs, Samick Strat copy (Best strat yet!), and a Parker P38. Oh yeah and I've tried my Seagull accoustic through it. Don't bother with an accoustic. It doesn't sound very good at all. Anyway, the strat style guitars seem to sound the best. I use to run my Toneworks AX1G through the effects loop. The AX1G is a great processor as long as you don't use it's built in distortions. With this set up I could get some really cool sounds. However, the out put of the amp is a little too much for the venues I do. I play for my church and they like to hear themselve sing. So now I have a new set up. Ok sit down! Grab your pencil! Are you ready for this??? OK starting from my Parker P38, I send it's magnetic output to the input of my Classic 30. From the effects loop send of the Classic 30, I send a signal to a Johnson Jstation. The Jstations Amp emulation is turned off. However it's speaker cabnet is set to the 4 Celestion Greenbacks. It's output goes to the AX1G where I do just a little more EQing. Then from there I send the final product to a Rolls ABY32 A/B box. On the other side... From the accoustic output from the Parker I send a signal to a Boss AD-5 Accoustic Processor. Then to the other input of the A/B box. The A/B box has two ins and two outs. I have it set up so that the inputs can be switched with the pressing of the buttons. The outputs are static. One of the outputs goes to my own personal monitor (Galaxy PA8X). The other output goes directly to the mixing board. Now there is one other thing that is a must for this all to work. The Classic 30 will not use the effects loop unless there is a 1/4" inserted into the return of the effects loop. So what I ultamately had to do was this... And don't ask me how I figured it out. It was just a case of trial and error. I got a sterio to mono converter (female sterio input to male mono output) from Radio Shack. I then insert a 1/4" mono male into that. And insert those two items into the effects loop return. I know it sounds complicated. But, it works great. I can get all kinds of really cool tones and I have an accoustic at the click of the A/B box without a peep from the Classic 30's main speaker. This really works well for what I am doing. I can send that saturated tube sound right to the mixing board. But I will admit that the amp by itself really does sound better. :-) BTW, if your not careful you can get some noise from it. In fact I can even pick up radio stations if i don't set it up right.

Everyonce in a while the amp seems to not work. I think this happens when I don't give it an adequate power source. Other than that, It seems bullet proof. I've been using it several times every week for almost five years now. Pretty solid. Just make sure you have a good power sorce.

Never had a need. :-)

I am very pleased with this amp. If you are looking for a nice all tube amp. It's really hard to beat this one. Especially for the money. It seems very sturdy and versitile. And you can get some really classic tones out of this baby! :-)

My Particular amp is a '99 model, but the Classic 30 has been a part of Peavey's line up for years. This is a pretty good, versatile amp for the blues, rock, etc. that I play electric. Two channels, but EQ settings are used for both, so I guess it not a "true" 2-channel amp. Enough power, really- if you need more, have the sound man mike it. Giant stacks are just phalic symbols for guitarist who don't have the equipment they REALLY want, know what I mean? Has all the features you are likly to want- channel switching, either at amp or via foot switch (uses standard foot switch circutry, so you don't have to use a Peavey foot switch), even an effects loop. I can't see any real use for the brightness switch, and I don't like the sound it adds- no one else seems to, either. I would like to see a second ext. speaker out, but that's just because I aquired two 15" EV speakers in cabs that are the same width and depth as the Classic 30's cab- makes for a cool-looking mid-sized stack. I'd also like to see active, not passive, EQ, to be able to boost bass (see below for more ranting about this amp's lack of bass.)

I play single and humbucker pu's into this amp. A bit of noise creeps in when I turn up the reverb. Distortion is fine- tube-warm, breaks up nicely. But, this amp NEEDS MORE BASS- those 15" speakers I have can't reproduce what isn't there in the first place. Other players have said re-tubing with Groove Tubes helps, but this is such a glaring deficiency of the amp, I can't imagine why Peavey does not address it, and I don't think a buyer should have to shell out another $40 in the HOPES of getting what he wanted in the first place. Clean channel is fine for electric, but this is no acoustic-guitar amp. Your acoustic will sound like an electric guitar thru this amp- all the acoustic warmth is lost. If 3-way EQ was active, that might help, but for some reason, you never seem to see active EQ on tube amps. Wonder why...

Seems reliable, no problems in the year or so I've had it. Would have given it a 9, except those tubes hanging down in the cab, with nothing to protect them scare me.

Pretty good, but I am not too happy that Peavey wouldn't allow me to tour their facilities when I was planning a trip to New Orleans, and wanted to detour by the factory. Yeah, I'm being petty- so sue me.

Good little amp. Seems like it does have the tube vibe I, and most other guitarist, seem to be seeking. I would replace it with something with tremolo if I was gonna replace it at all.

2 Channels, Clean and an Awesome Dirty channel - Not suited for metal though! Wish it had different eq for each channel. With its' stock tubes and speaker - it is well worth the money!

I use a Ibanez Talman with lipstick pickups and it sounds incredible! This is the first amp where i can actually hear myself above the rest of my band without causing blood to spew from my ears. It cuts through the loudest of band practices and retains it's tonal excellence. I used a Boss Metal distortion pedal...FORGET IT!! I think you are better off using the built in distortion, or using an overdrive distortion pedal. I have not heard any metal/grunge petals that sound good through this amp. The built in distortion is to die for. There is an extra boost button, and it sucks dog ass! it makes the amp sound like green jello farts. DONT USE IT!. I bought this amp to play at a show here in downtown Salt Lake during the 2002 winter games, and am looking forward to it kicking butt! Only 30 watts, but seems to be louder than my LINE 6 Flextone Plus 65 watts as far as cutting into the mix. Plus you don't need air freshners/incense as the warm tubes will fill your house with warm ambienetic smell!!

I have had it for a month and it still works. Holy hell!

I have played in many bands with many amps - Sovtek, Line 6, Crate (i mean Crap), and other peavey's, and this has sounded better than the top line of the fore mentioned!

Bought new in Nov 2001. Not a true two-channel amp ? EQ is shared by clean and lead configurations, but it has a wide range of sounds and
is very versatile.

I play mainly blues using a Gibson LP studio, so I?m not looking for tonnes of overdrive dirt.
I?m pretty happy with the sound. I wanted the valve amp sound, and it certainly delivers this. Some other reviewers have commented adversely on the valves as supplied new. The valves that came fitted to my amp (bought new) were: one 12AX7EH by Eletro-Harmonix (probably made by Sovtek), and the rest are Sovteks. Two 12AX7LPSs and four EL84s. The 12AX7LPS is a revised Sovtek design, which is supposed to have a better sound than previous Sovtek 12AX7 types, except that a reviewer on a valve webstore (http://www.thetubestore.com/sovtek12ax7lps.html) doesn?t recommend it for high-powered compos, as it can be bit microphonic. I have experienced no problems with this so far.
The clean channel doesn?t stay clean for that long, but has a great crunch sound, switch the boost option to get even more. I don?t think the clean channel sounds much like a Fender valve amp - well, the one Fender I?ve actually played that was built in the 60s, as others here have claimed. But I guess if people will change the valves for boutique amp quality, they might get different results. The amp doesn?t have the headroom clean of a Fender, but it does sound nice at low levels.
The lead channel is very versatile, and you can dial in quite high levels of pre-amp gain at low volumes. But like most valve amps, it really only delivers its best tones when cranked a bit, then you get the power amp going into overdrive.
When buying the amp, I compared it to the Fender Blues Junior but found the Fender far less impressive on tone, even if I prefered the Fender name. But it is the tone that counts.

Too soon to say but Peavey has listened to criticism it seems (at least that which has appeared in UK Guitar mags) about the exposed valves, and this one came fitted with a solid steel cage to protect the valves during transport etc. The cabinet is really solid.

Trying to get a cover for it aint so easy. Been waiting months for the UK distributor to send one to my dealer.

For the money, it?s a very good amp. You?d have to spend a lot more money to buy something significantly better sounding. If you want nice valve tones for not much money, this amp does it.

I like the feature it comes with. Normal channel volume, Gain channel volume and gain it self <post and pre>, reverb, bass, mid, treble. It also has and effects loop which i think is crap, it gives off way too much feedback. It has an etension speaker jack whish i like because i am planing on getting the classic 112E. And the footswitch is great for letting me switch between clean and the drive channels. My reverb is either broken or just really sucxks but hey i dont care since i never use it anyways.

Im playing an Epiphone Bully modified sg and it sounds great. Frankly i wont play anything else but twin humbuckers. And this is my first real amp and i love how it sounds. But it has a little bit too much feedback sometimes. i I play punk/ska and the drive and clean channels are perfect for how i play i just wish it wasnt such a low sounding amp. the distortion isnt too muddy and its not too soft its great for punk. i am currently practicing in the basement at my drummers haouse and it sound good there and in my basement too. Just one recomondation do not use effects pedals on this amp, exspecialy DOD.

I kick this SOB around all the time and i end up hurting funiture more then the amp. I also kick the amp to get a cool unnatural sound from the spring reverb. I have had no trouble from the amlp but the footswitch was being gay so thats why i bought a pedal and then i fixed it so now i dont need a pedal anymore.

never had to deal with them but i beat its good like the amps they make

I give it a ( because it could be better but for how much i paided for it i got more then what i expected. i love this amp and i recomend it to the upcoming. classic rock, blues,or punk/ska guitarist. dont try to use this amp for metal. if you wanna play metal then be a pussy and go buy a mashall and use that piece of crap. but if you want something dependable and crunchy then get this.

Decent features: Channel switching between "normal" and drive channel. Drive channel has post and pre knobs. Treb, middle, bass knobs (eq is even in both channels), reverb knob (reverb on this amp is not the best but ok), "boost" button which I normally don't use but does add more drive.

I'm using this amp with a hot custom made tele (Seymour Duncan stacked humbucker on neck, custom wound Harmonic Design SC on bridge, internal Black Ice module) and a stock 77 Gibson Les Paul Custom. The amp is a little noisy on drive channel with the Tele (expected) but near dead quiet with the LP.
Here's what I've found to drastically improve the sound of this amp: First get rid of that stock speaker..sounds flat and lifeless. Use any good 50 to 70 watt speaker, Vintage 30, Jensen C12N etc. I'm using a reissue 8 ohm C12n and an extension cabinet housing an 8 ohm black frame Kendrick 12". I connect both speakers through a small box I concocted that runs them at 16 ohm total load (what peavey recommends). Second: Replace all the tubes. In this particular amp I'm using (from right to left looking from the back) Raytheon 12AT7, JJ EC83, JJ EC83, Ei EL84, Ei EL84, Ei EL84,Ei EL84(Tesla yugoslavia). These simple and reasonble $ changes totally transfomed this amp from a "5 or 6" in sound to a 9+, bottom end is fantastic. It's astounding. Has very good headroom for a 30W amp. Clear tones are very Fender like, easily reaches that SRV tone by pushing the clean channel if you want it. I play a somewhat odd mixture of blues/Pink Floyd and the Vintage 30, setup in this manner, is more than capable of handling it. In front of the amp I'm using a modified TS-9, Boss DM-2 delay and Boss CE-2 chorus. Incedible sound. Power is sufficient for most situations and mics very well if necessary. Distortion can go over the top with drive channel cranked and post/pre knobs maxed.
Isn't a Dumble..only 10 I've ever heard..

This is an early tweed Vintage 30 that I bought from a bass player who bought it used. Not one single problem so far..except for having to change speaker and tubes. Can't imagine it breaking down. No backup necessary.

Never had to deal with them

Value would desrve a 10
Been playing for over 30 years..quite a bit over..and have owned many vintage Fender, Boogie, Traynor etc etc etc..blah blah blah..they were all excellent to great amps. They could all do one or two things well or awesome, this amp does several things extremely well. Incredible amp for the price. Don't hate anything about it..50W would be nice but not essential, better reverb would be really nice. I think I might have done a review of this amp here in the past..not sure and too lazy to look through them all, so this might be an update. If it was lost, stolen or destroyed I would buy another immediately. I see Daddy's Junkie Music has one in their used catalog right now for an unbelievable $170..hmmmm..

This amp offers a lot of bang for the buck. Channel switching, reverb, tone controls that work well and a boost button that is not my cup of tea but does offer another tonal variation.
The effects loop works well also. It may not have all the bells ina whistles that the new modeling amps have but the features it does have are all very usefull.

The clean channel is enough to make any strat or tele player smile. All of the nuances of these guitars come through. Granted the complexity is not what you might hear with some outrageously expensive boutque amps but hey for the working musician it's hard to beat.
The amp also loves humbucker equipped guitars. The lead tone are more suited to roots rock and blues than metal but they are very musical.

It appears to be well made. I have owned a couple of other Peavey amps over the years and have never had a problem with them. Great reliable gear that is resonably priced for the working musician.
I would gig without a backup but would have extra tubes on hand as you should with any tube amp.

Never had to use Peavey support.

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and have been through many amps during that time. This little classic 30 is light, easy to transport, powerfull enough to gig with, reliable and has great tone.
What more can you ask for in an amp for the working guitarist.
I'm looking for a second used classic 30 so I can run them in stereo.
You can't beat this amp for the money whether you buy it used or new.
I give it a 10 rating because of the fantastic value this amp represents. You can spend a lot more cash, get slightly better tone with some amps but for what this amp represents it is very tough to beat.

Brand new C30. 1x12, All tube, 2 channels + reverb. Mine didn't come with a footswitch. It has an FX loop, and a boost switch. No standby switch or headphone jack though. I play blues/alternative. Great amp.

Using it with a stock Mexican strat, it suits my style, but it can't handle metal at all. It's pretty noisy....one problem mine has is that when you turn the reverb up, you get a hissing sound. The Distortion is actually more of an overdrive.

The tubes in the back are exposed, no problems so far

never dealt with em

if it was stolen, i probably would get an amp for more high gain type stuff. i like how it handles effects nicely, and i hate how much feedback i get though. I wish the tubes were caged in the back. All in all, a good amp.

Purchased this amp new in June of 2001. I'll spare you the details and try to get to you the information that I think you should know!

This is highly subjective, but here it goes.

First thing that I did was change the speaker to a Celestion Greenback just for fun. The difference was interesting. Smoother and more gradual distortion in the overdrive mode, and a smoother, blusier breakup in the clean mode. Fairly good for starters, but that's just the beginning.

Next, I purchased a Celestion vintage 30, and there was an even greater difference. More punch and volume now came from the amp. The overdrive channel now had a little more agression, and with more wattage being rated in the speaker, I could crank the volume up on the amp a little more and not worry about blowing the speaker. Buy this speaker if you want more punch and volume out of the amp, buy the Greenback if you want a stronger vintage sound and earlier breakup. I love the Vintage 30 in this thing!

A huge tonal difference was noted when changing the horrible factory suckteck tubes to higher quality Groove Tubes. I first changed the power amp tubes and noticed an immediate change in power. A little more power was noticed as well as a slightly more dynamic sonic range. TUBES ARE THE KEY IN THIS AMP!

Now for the greatest difference! I swapped out the preamp tubes for nice Groove Tubes. What I found is that at first, after placing a 12AU7 in the first stage of the preamp, trying to clean up the clean sound of the amp, the tone controls seemed to have lost a lot of their dynamic range. The overdrive channel became a little more agressive from the better quality tube, but a lot of the bite was taken out of the amp. The highs were not quite as dynamic, and once again, the entire sweep of the tone controls became a little mutted, but the amp was a little cleaner on the clean channel.

Then, I placed a new 12AX7 in the first gain stage, and the amp and the tone controls became much more dynamic. A great deal of life was returned to the amp simply by making this change. I don't know how the gain stages of this amp operate, but after placing a new tube in the first position, I put a new one in the second position, and the second channel gave me one of the best overdrive sounds that I've heard from a small amp. It sounded good with the first tube replaced, but after puting the second tube in, the highs gained a lot more sparkle and definition, as if it were operating as a presence control. I haven't the time or inclination to take some of my NOS tubes out of my Matchless and place in this amp, but I'm certain that this amp would sound that much better. I just can't justify puting in those expensive tubes into this thing. That just leads to more tube adiction.

So, if you're trying to hotrod this thing, tubes should be your first and least expensive step, unless you get crazy with some new old stock stuff. Then change the speaker.

I'm using several different PRS's with this thing, as well as a few different Strats. The clean channel is much louder than the overdriven channel when cranked, so if you feel that volume may be a problem, just run the clean channel and a good overdrive pedal in front of it. For the money, you will not beat it.

Watch the tubes, as they are not protected very well! I play the amp very loud and very hard, so I keep a close eye on tube life. So far, so good!

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 18 years, with the last 12 years being full time professional. I would replace it if it were stolen. It's one of the best bangs for the buck out there.

$360 for the amp w/ footswitch
$89 for the Vintage 30. Get it from Carvin!
$60 for power and preamp tubes. You do the math!

Wish it had just a little more volume on the overdrive channel.

Probably a couple of years old. Play the blues. Perfect for that. One channel,has also a lead channel switch, and a boost switch. Has a preamp and post amp knob so you can dial in as much distortion as you want. Has plenty of power for a small club setting. All tube amp.

Use it with Fenders and others with single coils and humbuckers. Sounds really good. You can get as much distortion as you want. Can be a little bit noisy.

Have only had it a few weeks. But generally Peavey's are long lasting.

Haven't used them yet, probably won't.

For the money you can't beat this amp. Almosta s good as my Deluxe reverb, but not quite. Bought it at E-bay. Worth looking into if you want a bargain amp that can kick. Stay away from solid-state!!

Born 2001. This brand new C30 tube amp has two channels, 3 channel equalizer, effects loop in/out, footswitch, speaker out, and a really horrible "boost" button (ruins the overall sound IMHO). The knob labels are readable from the front (I've heard they were reversed in earlier models -- and the useless manual still is). This amp has more power than I really need, however, I only use this amp for practicing, jamming with friends, and very amatuer home recording. All the features that I really need are here, however, I suppose if I made a wish list, I would wish that (1) there was some way to save settings and make them switchable (I've only seen this feature on digital/modeling amps, but wouldn't it be nice to see some knobs "magically" turning to my desired settings!) (2) that the effects switch on the footswitch would bypass the effects rather than just turning off the reverb (what a useless switch!).

I have an Ibanez Artist and this guitar interacts beautifully with the C30. I play blues, classic rock, alternative, folk, and country. The C30 accomodates all styles extremely well. With the occassional help from some effect pedals, this amp shines. Most times, I can dial in the right sound without any effects (I lean toward a cleaner sound). The amp's clean and dirty sounds are perfect for me. The distortion is limited, but adequate for most things except metal. Now, the really important thing about this amp is that it just plain sounds awesome! This amp, even with the standard tubes and speaker, provides a nice fat, warm, and rich sound. Not too high, not too low, goldilocks would have picked this one because it's just right!

I've only had this for a couple of weeks, but it seems to be built solid and I have not had any problems with it. The only complaint I have is that the tubes are exposed. At the store, one of the tubes was bent and broken before I even played it. Without much effort or money, I put a wire cage around the tubes.

I hope I never find out.

For the money this is definitely the best tube amp available. It is a shame that I was almost hesitant to buy this amp because it was a Peavey. I've been so conditioned by my other guitarist friends that I initially had a bias against the amp just because of the manufacturer. Listen, Peavey did a fine job with this one and I have gained respect for them solely because of the C30. If someone put a Fender logo on this amp, I have no doubt that someone out there would be saying how "Fenderish" the amp sounded. The Peavey name might hurt me in the resale market, but I don't think I will ever sell this amp.

When I was amp shopping I was very interested in a Line 6 Flextone II, Fender Ultimate Chorus w/ DSP, Fender Cyber-Twin, Fender Twin Reverb, and a Fender '65 Reverb (re-issue). If you know amps, you know that all of these are much more expensive amps. All I can say is that the "little" C30 kept purring to me and my wallet.
Modeling amps are fun, but to my ears, they don't truly match a real tube sound and that is really what I want the most (The Cyber-Twin came closest IMHO. The Flextone II doesn't come close IMHO). If I didn't have kids, a mortgage, a car payment, and still want to buy more "toys", I'd probably get one of the tubed Twin's, but all things considered the C30 rocks my world perfectly and is much more portable. Besides, now I can spend more money on other things (can't wait to get that Roland GR-33 guitar synth).

New C30 wtih 1 1/2 channels, not a real 2 channel amp and an effects loop. I changed the pre amp tubes to Sovtek 12AX7LTS and the power tubes to Sotvek EL84's.
This amp is plenty loud for small to medium gigs and jamming with a rhythm section.
My only complaint here is that the "Boost" switch is useless and even if it had a use the Peavey pedal doesn't have a button for it, just a useless reverb button. Who the hell turns reverb on and off in a song.

I play old rock covers in small venues, we also play some newer rock but mostly stick with CCR, Stones etc.
This amp is perfect for my style. It has the best distortion I've heard for the music I do. If you want nu-metal get a big muff and a mesa. If you want to rock, get this.
The distortion isn't brutal and that's fine with me. The distortion is smooth and really just brings out your pickups and guitars own sounds. I switched my fender single coil bridge out for a Little 59 and it smokes.
This amp can be noisy, if I jam with MP3s on my computer I have to turn off the monitor or it will buzz. Also some stage lights will make it buzz. Not enough to hear once you are playing but it is always there.

Had the amp for 4 months and no problems. Just be careful because the tubes are naked in the back of this thing and just beggining to be destroyed.

This amp is great, if you want a classic rock sound it is perfect. Sometimes when we play 80's hair metal or alternative it still finds that perfect sound. Unless you are about to join Drowning Pool or Rammstein get this amp. I DON"T USE ANY PEDALS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS. I just switch channels. It's great. A BARGAIN YOU SHOULD OWN.
Screw marshall. Get this amp.

this one's a 99-er.I play a very wide range of music styles so I needed an amp which can do anything..but most important must be clean unlike any other while overdrive can be worked on with external pedals and stuff.

I play a gibson es135 limited ed. with classic 57 hummies...yummie!!!
It's got an unique sound fitting perfectly with my G...very warm...very sweet but yet ..super screaming and very sharp nagging, delicious!
The distortion is way too fuzzy , I don't like it!!!So I added a marshall jackhammer to it and I am satisfied, although I usually think marshall in general sucks I found this to be a very unmarshall-like pedal!!!
When you drive this baby's clean channel up to 7 or 8 or more...whoosh!!! a nasty screaming amp that is, I love it!! it really responds to your guitar and you feel you are very present, even when you're playing with more guitarplayers.

had no problems this far , but I am really concerned about the tube-placement...now this is fragile.I think I will build a little cage around them which I can remove easily.
And.. shouldn't a valve amp have a standby switch???Well this one hasn't!

nope

I have been playing for over 13 years now and I own a godin acousticaster, a normal es 135 wine red with p100's, a yamaha FG450 folk guitar and a crate tube driven 35 ampy.I've owned lots of guitars like Gibson les paul, strats, teles, gretsch, ibanez but my es135 natural maple with 57 hums is the greatest yet.
One big disadvantage of gibson ... the laquer of the neck really sucks!!!When i'm playing it for 5 minutes it gets really sticky...I've had that phenomenon with each gibson I owned... but all that vanishes when it's plugged into my peavey and sings along!!!

2 channels clean & dirty, boost switch, reverb the bare necessities.
Installed Sovtek tubes and a Celestion V30

I use a 91 customized Strat with a humbucker in the neck position and a 91 Les Paul stock.
I play mostly classic rock style but I have been known to play anything from Allman Brothers to Zappa.
I have owned so many different amps looking for the "killer tone" I can't even remember half of them.
EVERY time I play through this amp somebody comments on how fucking killer the sound is and how do I get it? That's the best part...I didn't do anything!! Sure I replaced the tubes ( I didn't pick Sovtek for any particular reason they were just getting old) and the speaker I added for more punch and let me tell you what a difference ( just crank it at least half way on the lead channel and at least 8 on the gain)this thing sings! I use a Boss compressor and a Tube Screamer and that's more than enough to get the gain I need for ANY kind of music. More gain would just kill the tone (pay attention kids). I used to have (2) Classic 50's and a Mesa Boogie MarkIV for playing live but now in small clubs I would use this amp.
Currently I have a Fender Twin that I put V30's in but I think I might try using the C30 as a preamp and just use my volume knob for leads. I very rarely use the clean channel. I would rather cut down the gain to 5 and drop my volume on my axe. It gives me just a little edge and I can turn up for fills or a leads and theres always the tube screamer. Sorry for the lengthy message but this is the second time I wrote about this amazing amp, that's how much I love it!

Plenty of people (including myself before I discovered the classic amp line) rank on Peavey, but they have some of the most dependable amps made and the best bang for your buck by far!
I used to play in a southern rock band and we beat the shit out of our amps. Some of us were even known to kick one over on occasion when it didn't "work". Turn out it was almost always a bad cord. (oops)

never needed it.

Playing for 24 years (ouch I'm getting old!)
I would buy another one in a heardt beat. In fact before a shelled out a grand for my Twin I was going to buy two more and run stereo with a mono amp in the middle, but I was afraid it might not be load enough for bigger clubs.
YOU WILL NOT FIND A BETTER AMP FOR THE MONEY!!!!

See below for good review of all the features. I understand that this is Peavey's budget tube amp and I would say it offers great value for money. Lots of good features and some versatility. That said, I would have liked to have a bright switch or presence knob added.

I offer this review because I thought there might be others in my position. I am primarily an acoustic player and have developed a keen ear for good acoustic tone. My quest has turned to great electric tone in the last three or four years. I think great electric tone is harder to come by! So many variables contribute.

Anyway, I started with a japanese fender tele and a SS ampeg amp with a digitech RP6 mutlifx. They all were stolen and I replaced the amp/effects rig with a Flexton 112. This was a step up for me - I grew tired of the digitech which was fun to toy with, but difficult to get a great live tone from. The flextone ended up being similar. It was a blast to play through at home and offered a wide tonal variety. I wasn't a fan of its modulation effects (chorus/flanger), but liked the concept and package. Playing out at a gig was a whole other matter. I couldn't get a tone I liked - it seemed muddy and
distant. Maybe it was time to try a tube amp?

I read all kinds of reviews, but couldn't find many here that compared the C30 to a modelling amp. (In the meantime, searching for decent tone and just for fun, I sold the tele for an Ibanez AS80 semi hollow. basically a 335 clone.) I bought a used C30 and ab'd the flextone and C30 for a couple of weeks. Hands down, the flextone offered much more variety and even sounded cleaner or tidier on some settings. The C30, however, had a extra dimension to it - the tone sounded present and full. I especially noticed this when playing out. Finally I had tone that cut through and sounded good to me. Now the C30 has some flaws that have been well documented here and I agree with them.

I think the boost is useless as a boost, but can be used as a "channel" if you adjust the settings. I think the clean channel is decent. The OD channel is so-so to poor. The amp responds well to pedals and has the capacity to produce great tones with pedals and/or internal mods. The amp needs a presence or bright feature to push its clean more toward fender land and away from nasal midrange land. (The C30's clean tone is actually quite nice, but is not fenderish IMHO.) I think the reverb is surprisingly good and that overall, peavey has offered a GREAT package for the money!

So I offer this review to say that in my opinion, the C30 beats out the flextone for basic tonal quality. I miss the variety that the flextone offered, but love the two or three good tones I now get with the C30. In short, I have converted to tube amps and cannot agree that the flextone models a tube amp accurately. The flextone is still a great tool, but to my ears, definitely lack the tube character and dimension.

I will likely sell the C30 for a higher grade tube amp - I have played some Riveras that I like. Meanwhile, I would happily recommend the C30 for high value for money

My amp is at least 5 years old and showed no sign of slowing down

no need yet

see above for details. I'd like to hear from people who have found a low priced tube amp (under $600) that offers great clean tone AND great distortion/overdrive

The amp is a '95 classic 30 in "tweed". It has all the features you'd expect from a "classic" tube amp and one that's quite useless. The "Boost" button just sucks the tone out while increasing volume. It comes with a footswitch to switch from the "normal" to "lead" channel. I've been able to eliminate all distortion effects using the "lead" channel.

A Strat sounds a little thin (probably due more to the single 12" speaker than the amp),but plug in a guitar with humbuckers and this baby shines. My Hamer sunburst archtop with Seymour Duncans sounds like it was made to mate with this amp. The clean sounds are very "Fendery" while the lead sounds cover everything from blues to rock (maybe not extreme metal). You wil need to mic this amp on stage though if you want to keep any clean sounds because the "clean" channel breaks up (quite beautifully though) as you move up past halfway. In fact the "clean" channel at 3/4 is a dead ringer for my old blackface Bandmaster. Quite a bargain considering the price of this amp.

No problems yet!

I've only had it a short time but I expect to have to maintain it (it is a real tube amp).

I've been playing 31 years now and consider this one of my best values considering tone/vs/dollars spent. If stolen I would immediately look for a used "Classic 50" to replace it (the extra power is all that's needed). Don't spend the big bucks for a "modeling" amp that only emulates this "REAL" tube tone!

Y'all know the deal. All-tube, 2 channels. Wish it had a headphone jack and footswitchable boost. Footswitchable boost alone would boost the 7 to 8 or 9. The 30 watts is enough to play lead against my malicious drummer and my rhythm guitarist with a 90 watt fender 2x12.

I play my Yamaha Pacifica (s-s-h) through this thing. I used to think the clean sound didn't have enough sparkle, but after doing some recording with it I've realized that it's got just enough highs and that it's just oozing with thick mids. And in spite of what other people have had to say about the dirty channel, I think it's smokin'. Very thick, very full. I can get everything from smokey blues (a la Hendrix, Clapton, B.B. King) to in-your-face punk and hard rock (a la AC/DC, Rancid, Zeppelin, and Crowes, holy cow, does it do Crowes). My only complaints are the reverb--gets muddy at high volumes--and the rattling that comes from this thing, much more so than my old Fender Princeton 112. And don't ignore the boost: use it to get killer blues tones. Still, I wish it were footswitchable. So in sum, this thing sounds killer for blues and almost any kind of rock.

Only had it for a few weeks, so I obviously haven't had any problems with it yet. As others have said, it's kinda scary having the tubes so exposed in the back, but it doesn't worry that much.

Dunno. Got it used, without any warranty that I know of.

Overall, this is a great amp for the money. If you're looking for a tube amp that's loud enough to play with a band, go for the Classic 30. It won't do metal, but, hey, who the hell does metal anyway? This has been such a huge step up from my solid state Fender Princeton 112 klunker. I'm never going back to solid state.

This is a fairly new amp, 2000 I think. Due to $$ problems, I had sold all my amps and needed a "cheap" tube amp. I had a buddy with this one and I got it for $100 !! How could I pass it up? You know the features, 2 channel, tube powered w/ PCB board. I will talk about the sound quality in a minute. The tweed covering is great looking and the weight of it is even better. I think the amp would fit in my daughter's car seat !! 1 12" "Blue Marvel" (what the heck is a Blue Marvel?) speaker. This amp fits my needs just fine. Of course I wish I had 3 other amps to choose from, but if I needed one small amp to help me out in a crunch, this is the one.

I play an Epi Les Paul w/ SD Screamin' Deamons. This amp is easy,... I just plug in the amp and turn it all the way up. If not all the way, at least half. This amp is loud but not near overpowering. Example,.... I played in the bedroom with the volume to where I could not stand it anymore. That was on 3 1/2. I played at an outside gig last Sunday and had the amp all the way up,... it just needed more punch. I plug in my 2x12 extention cab in and that solves a lot of problems. I play mostly blues, classic rock and this amp is perfect for a poor man's Deluxe Reverb. It breaks up very early in the volume stage, but you can back off the volume on your axe to clean it up. This amp is in love with my pedals !!! I have a "Real Tube" 12ax7 overdrive, a Danelectro Daddy-o, a Crybaby, and a Danelectro Dan-Echo. (Love the Dan-Echo, get one if you can) It all adds up to a very good sound and I'm actually impressed with how it sounds. I will replace the Sovtek's and 12ax7's and the speaker. But it does sound ok with those in it.

So far so good.

Don't know

I love the amp. I was in a bind with limited cash and no amp and this little dude is helping me out. If anyone needs an inexpensive amp, but wants tube sound, get this amp! You will need to replace the tubes and speaker, but that's no biggie. Also, if you plan to play outside, get an extention cab, you'll need it.

A newer model Classic 30, probably around 2000. Tweed covering, very similar in styling to an old Fender Bassman combo. 2 channels, pre and post on the overdrive channel, reverb, 3 band eq. 1 12" Peavey Blue Marvel Speaker, 30 watts RMS. Four EL84 power tubes (Sovteks) and 3 12AX7's (stock Chinese) in the pre-amp. A really loud amp, perfect for recording or small club gigs. Nigel - mine goes to 12 - one louder than yours!

I'm a rock player, some of my favorite players are Jimmy Page, Sterling Morrison (Velvet Underground), Syd Barrett, Peter Green and Bob Stinson (Replacements) and Nigel Tufnel. I play a Fender Tele with a Harmonic Design Super 90 in the Bridge and a H.D. Vintage plus in the neck. I also play an Epiphone Sheration with stock pu's (soon to be upgraded to HD's) and a 74' Les Paul with a really shitty Seymour Duncan Alnico II in the bridge and a pretty nice SD '59 in the neck. This amp really digs the single coils. I can get some really nice clean sounds out of the clean channel, more akin to an AC-30 than a Fender. The boost switch that most people deem useless adds to the AC-30 mid-rangey sound in the clean channel. The real beauty is when I get a chance to crank the clean channel, hitting about 8 or 9 makes for some really nice power tube breakup. The Sovteks do a decent job, but some Tesla J.J's would really do wonders. The overdrive channel is quite a suprise! The sound is pretty Marshall-like, with oodles of overdrive. Why anyone would want anymore overdrive than this amp can produce is beyond me, but it is definitely not suited for metal. I bought a modded TS9-DX in anticipation of needing a little boost, but it's really not necessary. The stock humbuckers on my Epiphone now sound nice and fat, as where previously I was eager to replace them. This is the real suprise for me. Still, adding some Harmonic Design buckers would be an improvement. The Classic 30 really accentuates the natural tone of your guitar pickups with little colorization. Likewise, the shortcomings of the Alnico II in my Paul are painfully obvious.

I've had this amp for three weeks, so I don't know yet. Peavey's are known for reliablity, if anything.

I dunno.

Peavey products really have an image problem with rock musicians. I pretty much hate them myself, based on past experience in my easily impressionable teen years. I've been playing for almost twenty years, and the mere mention of Peavey usually resulted in nausea. I recently began looking for a reasonably priced used tube amp, and after pouring through user reviews I settled on the Classic 30. This is a remarkable product that is worthy of a name other than Peavey. I'm going to retube it and replace the Blue Marvel with a Celestion Vintage 30. This should make this really good amp a great one, and for $280 + tubes and speakers the sound will be second to none in this price range and on par with combo costing two or three times as much. My complaint is that this thing rattles, which is typical for a combo. I record on a regular basis and this issue will have to be worked out. The tweed look is a bonus, too. You can easily remove the Peavey logo to save embarrsement.

1x12 peavey blue marvel speaker 30 watts,2 channels,boost button,extension speaker jack,line out jacks,reverb,sovtek tubes.
sexy black tweed :)

Ill keep it simple.
The clean channel is good,though not near as good as ANY Fender Twin,deluxe,bassman,deville.
This amp has a compressed character to it,doesnt have the openess ,multidemsional sound that Fenders have,
otherwise its not bad in the clean department.
The dirty channel is way more pleasing for a amp in this price range.
Thicker,chunky distortion,more musical/less harsh than say a Fender Hotrod deville.It can almost reach marshall territory as far as gain goes.Nice, but I still would use OD,dist pedals none the less.
YES this is a very loud,powerfull 30 watter!
The spring reverb is very nice, not a nice as a fender,though way more richer than any marshall.3 dial eq works well also,accurate in dailing in your tone.

Had it almost a year,used for reheasals mainly,no problems so far.
TUBE PLACEMENT SUCKS,bent a few back into place so far,handwith care transporting it to gigs.

For the money I am very satisfied.
Sure I would like a more "complex" deeper,clean channel ,but for under $500 you cant beat it.
Small size makes it great for small gigs,rehearsals.Though I wish it had a mesh grill to protect the tubes(hello homedepot).

Nothing Is a 10.Never
only in gear heaven

This is a very simple amp, which I love about it. Clean and overdrive channels, reverb and thats about it. The controls are easy to use and the one I got has the labels readable from the front. I've noticed other people have complained about how when you're standing in front of the amp, the labels are upside-down. Well, I got on that's rightside-up.

Wow. I play a Gibson '66 ES-300 (two P90 pickups) through this amp, and the sound is so sweet. This amp came to me with the Celestion speaker/sovtek tubes upgrade. It has a lot more punch than I expected from a tube amp, even at low volumes. I never play it much above 4, and it is loud enough for my needs. I use it mostly at home as a practice amp, but I plan to take it around with me. I play in church, and there I have a Marshall VS265r 2x12. I love the Marshall sound, and the Classic 30 emulates that sound very well. Overall, this amp is smoother than the vs265 and a lot more quiet. In fact, its dead silent. Even when I play a single-coil guitar, there is almost no extra noise. This alone makes the amp a winner.

I think I'll buy a cab to run off this amp, just to add some extra volume. I like the disortion in the amp, it's perfect for blues and light rock. For anything heavier, it lacks the harshness of a diode distortion pedal. But hey, this amp isn't made for metal guitar anyway.

My other amp is a Fender Pro Reverb. The 90lb. beast is too big to drag around, so I use it at home and for recording. I love the soft sound sometimes, and other times wish for more punch. The Classic 30 gives me both, and comes in a nice lite box.

Just got it, so I don't know. I have a smaller Peavey that I never play (Rage 158) and it has held up pretty well. I guess we'll see.

Never dealt with them.

This amp is exactly what I was looking for. So far I've played my Gibson ES-300, Epiphone SG-310, Jackson AT-1, Yamaha Pacifica, and a borrowed Gibson ES-335. This amp sounds great with any of them. I still like the sound of the P90s in my Gibson the best, with the humbuckers in my Jackson coming in second.

If I lost it, I'd get another. No other amp comes close, for the price. I looked at smaller Fenders and they were all too much for the size. I can't justify $500 or $600 for a single 12". The Vox amps were all solidstate (in my price range), and I wanted tube. The Marshall I have at church is nice, but its a solid/tube hybrid, which I am not crazy about. This amp rocks, and you can't beat the price. (Did I say that already?)

As it has been noted by more than a few others, the best feature of the Classic 30 is its lack of "features." In fact, my only feature-related beef with my little tweed is the "Boost" switch. I generally think of myself as a pretty creative guy, sound-wise, and I'll be damned if I've ever found any use for it.

My guitar is an '81-or-so Ibanez Blazer with a maple neck and an ash body, two humbuckers, phase switch, and single volume and tone pots. I run a Digitech RDS 8000 Delay in the loop, plus a DOD 680 analog delay pedal and a Morley PVW volume/wah out front. If you ever see a DOD 680, by the way, grab it. I got mine for $25, and although it's rather noisy, it's really musical and beautifully fuzzy-sounding. I tried a couple of different overdrive and distortion boxes with the amp, and always ended up liking the dirty channel on the amp better. The clean channel is really cool; as a small amp, the 30 breaks up in the clean mode when cranked. The break-up is just fantastic and very usable, I've found. Again, since this is a relatively low-juice amp, it can be pushed harder and its dynamics exploited more fully than a bigger amp. This is also true with the dirty channel, where I could back the gain down to about 7 or 8, and got all the raunch I needed, plus some fine, fine power-stage compression. I really dig EL84s. For the volume needs of better than 85% of players, 6L6s never get pushed hard enough to add significantly to the sound of one's playing. I speak from experience. I owned a Yamaha T50(the Soldano-designed tube unit Yamaha made in the early 90's. If you need a big-balls rock rig, find one of these. They're louder than hell, and if you like Marshalls, they out-Marshall any Marshall I've ever heard). I did a recording with the band I was in at the time. It was mostly live, and to keep from killing everone else in the room, I never got to crank it enough to really work the tubes, especially the 6L6s in the power section. I wish I'd had my Peavey then. When I was amp-shopping, before I found the 30, I was struck by how much tweaking of knobs is required on most amps to get even an acceptable, much less a desirable, tone. Not so with the Classic. Plug in, turn on, and rock out. Just for shits and grins, I cranked all of the tone controls all the way up. Sounded great. Backed the middle off. That was pretty good, too. Jerked the top and bottom around, too. I really had to work to make the thing sound bad, which is really to Peavey's credit. The reverb is really fab. I like the fact that it's a little looser-sounding than a Fender. I think Fenders are too sterile. The drummer in a band I was in heard the 30 with the reverb on and a little delay, and pronounced it "pretty." Pretty, indeed.

No problems. I've only ever had to replace the tubes.

Only had to deal with them once, and they were friendly and knowledgeable.

I think that the 30 is a keeper. Simplicity and good sound are becoming rarer and rarer in this age of "modeling." I don't want an amp to sound like every other amp under the sun; I want an amp that sounds like a guitar amp. A little rude; nice and warm...I think I'll go play it right now.

I HAVE A 1999 CLASSIC 30 AND AS OTHERS HAVE POSTED MOST OF THE INFO ABOUT IT, I WON'T GO INTO DETAIL. THIS IS A GREAT LITTLE AMP! I PLAY SRV,WES, STEELY DAN, AND MOSTLY BLUES AND JAZZ. I USE BOTH CHANNELS AS NEEDED.I USE MAXON CP 101,A LINE 6 MODULATION MODELER,AND MAXON OD808 WITH THIS AMP..ALSO, A PEAVEY 112 EXTENSION SPEAKER . GRAET SOUNDS!

I USE A 1999 HAMER 25th ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION, A HAND BUILT TELECASTER WITH SEYMOUR DUNCAN MINI HUMBUCKER IN THE NECK POSITION,AND A QUARTER POUNDER IN THE BRIDGE POSITION (WHAT A SWEET CLEAN TONE), AND A HB30. I'M LOOKING FOR AN SRV TONE,WHICH THE TELE COMES CLOSE TO.ALSO, I'M LOOKING FOR A NICE JAZZ TONE TO PLAY WITH WES AND JOEY DEFRANCESCO,JIMMY SMITH,ETC. I FIND A VERY NICE CLEAN TONE, AND NICE DISTORTION WITH THIS AMP.I DON'T FIND ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS AMP ALTHOUGH I'M VERY INTERESTED IN ANY HELP TO IMPROVE THE SOUND, SUCH AS BETTER TUBES OR EFFECTS TO HELP ME GET CLOSER TO SRV,ETC.

IT SEEMS VERY DEPENDABLE WITH NO PROBLEMS IN 1 1/2 YEARS. I NEVER NEGLECT ANYTHING I OWN.

I HAVEN'T NEEDED IT TO DATE.

I STARTED PLAYING IN 1959 ON A $38 SILVERTONE FROM MY PAPER ROUTE.HOWEVER,I PROBABLY HAVE BEEN PLAYING IN REALISTIC TIME,ABOUT 6 OR 7 YEARS, WHAT WITH MARRIAGE,KIDS, DIVORCE, VIETNAM,ETC. I CAN'T SAY I WOULD BUY THE SAME AMP WITH SO MANY NEW PRODUCTS EVERY DAY.IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE SHARE THEM WITH ME. THANK YOU.

This is an update of a review I posted in June of 98...I have just upgraded the amp with a Celestion Vintage 30 and new tubes...a matched pair of Electro Harmonics 12AX7s in the pre-amp and a matched quad of Tesla JJ EL-84s in the output section...I have a high end Audio Glassics 12AX7 in the driver spot...The tubes came from Triode in Chicago and the Speaker came from Carvin, who had the lowest price I have ever seen on a Celestion Vintage 30...WARNING...If you are replacing the stock speaker, be aware that you will have to drop both the chassis and the reverb tank to get it out and the get the new one in...I learned this the hard way by poking a hole in the stock speaker with one of the baffle board screws...duh huh...After that, though, things went smoothly, about one hour for everything...

Wow!!!What a difference!!!The overdrive is thick, thick, thick!!! The Vintage 12 is so smooth and the JJs add a lot more punch...I try hard to be an amp snob, but I swear that you will not be able to buy anything that sounds better for less than $1,000...If you are considering a Valvestate or something like that, forget it...Find a used Classic 30 or even a new one, spend the $150 or so for the tubes and the speaker and you will have a great TUBE amp for relative peanuts...One other thing...I have a 112E cab which I run closed back...It adds a lot of bottom end to the sound and I never use the amp without it...It has the Peavey Sheffield 12 in it, which is the Peavey version of a Celestion that they also use in the 5150 cabs...I am now tempted to buy another Celestion Vintage 30 for it...With an overdrive mode, reverb, and an effects loop, anybody who can't gig or record with this amp just ain't trying...I use strats and an Ernie Ball Axis Super Sport with it and it sounds great...I can also carry the whole setup in one trip from the car...

Never a problem...

Never needed it...

Love it...Use it instead of my 1967 Super Reverb, so it won'y get lost or damaged...My only bitch is the internal fuse and no standby switch...For what it costs, though I am not displeased...Any other manufacturer would add these features along with a Celestion and charge $1000 for the amp...I will never sell it, but being afflicted with G.A.S., I might buy something else someday...

I got it 4 years ago, it has to channe, overdrive is gread reverb is bad ( In my opinion Fender has bets reverb sound). I play it at home on low volumes.

I have Stratocaster with kinman avn Blues pickups, Parker Fluy deluxe, Parker Fly Concert and D'angelico NYL-2. I play blues rock and jazz

Never had any problems with it, didn't even change the tubes at all still has a good sound.

they have a web site but I never need their help.

I've been playing a guitar since 1975 I had Feneder Deluxe Reverb II. Currently I have POD and J-Station but they do not come close to classic 30. If I loose it I would get THD Univalve if I loose it and go broke I will get Peavey Classic 30 again.
For that price range Classic 30 is the best.

Two footswitchable channels(clean and overdrive), effects loop and reverb

I use a 1996 Les Paul, a 2001 and 1992 Fender Strats. Play mostly classic rock, southern rock and blues. The clean side sound good and starts to break-up after about 6 but just roll off the guitar volume and she cleans right up. The gain channel sounds great for me up till about 7, anything past that is a little too muddy for my taste.

I have two of these amps (got one new in 1995 and one new in late 2000) and both of them had to be re-tubed within two weeks. The dealer took care of this in less than a couple hours at no cost to me. Other than that they have been rock solid.

Never dealt directly with them

If you aint got a lot of bucks to spend on a tube combo try this one-you will probably be satisified. I have really enjoyed mine. If stolen or lost I probably would get another one. The 1995 model has been great. The 2000 one is still a little noisy even after the dealer worked on it but when playing with the band you dont notice it.

I've looked far and wide for a small combo amp with an effects loop. It would've gotten a 10, except the Boost channel is not footswitchable (who needs switchable reverb?). I bought this small amp to use in my studio, so I can find the sweetspot without my wife divorcing me.

I retubed the amp the second day I got it with JJ ECC83S's and EL84's. WOW! What a difference! The OD channel is AWESOME. It sounds like a half-stack but at much lower volumes (Yes, Dear!). My Heritage 535 loves the gain set at about 4-5. The clean channel is nice, but not as smooth as my Fender HotRod Deluxe (too much midrange). I prefer 6L6's for clean tones.

N/A - I've had the amp only a week.

Even though I just bought this amp, I called Peavey to find out info about the stock tubes. They were very help and friendly.

I've playing for 23+ years and play all styles except death metal and rap. I would definitely replace this amp because it's going on my next CD. I really like having a club amp that is switchable AND has an effects loop. As I said, I wish the boost channel was swictchable instead of the reverb. I would give it a 10 if the clean tone was just a little more creamy. But it's worth buying for the OD alone, but only AFTER the retube with JJ's.

I have had this combo for about 6 years, so I assume it was made around or before that time period. I have found this thing to be extremely versatile for various music styles. I enjoy and try to play different styles of music, including hard rock, country, funk, and reggae. The combo has two channels, is all tube (3-12AX7's and 4-EL84's), 30 watts, has a three-way passive EQ., a 12" speaker, spring reverb, one input, an effects loop, a footswitch for channel and reverb, a boost function button (not footswitchable), and a jack for an external speaker.
Improvements could include seperate EQ's for clean and overdrive channels, ability to bypass the effects loop and activate the boost using a footswitch, and an extra input jack.
I have used this combo in a group in New Orleans for two years. We played a variety of music, including blues, rock, calypso, and country-like tunes. We played every Saturday and some Sundays with practice once a week, so I dragged this thing around alot.We played in a large older church that was obviously built before the concept of amplified music. It always retained clarity, even with multiple effects with distortion. The volume in this setting was great. Smaller combos allow you to crank the sucker up in small to medium size venues without causing blood to spurt from the ears of your listeners!
I also do not like the tweed covering. The exposed tubes on the back make it a risk to shatter or bend the connections. In practice, I broke one tube carelessly yanking a chord out the back. I also bent two of the powertube post after it fell on something (they bent back easily and still worked!).

I use three guitars with this combo. I have an old Pro-Line Series Ibanez with heavily wound, coil-tapped, passive humbuckers and a Floyd-rose tremelo; a Carvin AE185 with a maple top, fixed bridge, and two humbuckers that are coil-tapped and have a phase switch; and an Alvarez acoustic that I use a Lawrence sound hole pickup (I play slide on this as well). I currently run several analog effects in front of this (no models!).
I find this combo to work well with all instruments I play. The clean sounds stay clean at high volume levels and are very warm. I find the reverb to create a thinner sound, so I do not use this much. One of my favorite things on this combo is the EQ. I tried several different tube combos before deciding. On even higher end Mesa-Boogies, I could hear no signifigant changes when turning the knobs. With this one, the high, mid, and low all did something to the sound! (These were useful differences). The overdrive channel is also excellent. The gain levels, in my opinion, go way beyond what is useful, but this is usually a good sign. If the preamp is turned to around 3, an excellent rockabilly-surf sound can be obtained (great for smacking open chords). Around 5-6, the distortion gets more aggresive. Around 7-9, an aggressive harder rock/metal sound grabs you (AND IT GOES UP TO 12, NOT 11! Those smart-butt southern boys...). I find the attack less thumpy (one of the dwarves?) as say a combo with 6L6's in the power section, but I play with 10-11 gage strings and beat the devil out of the strings when I play, so this works for me. I find the distortion pulverizing without being harsh.
This said, it can be noisy depending on effects, single coil use, lights, and volume. You will not get a CD quality, pristine, Ricky Martin "shaking-my-little-tooshie" processed sound, but the tones make people take notice.
In regards to the boost function: this is a bizzare switch. It signifigantly boost the volume, but also seems to change the entire character of the Classsic. There seems to be less available overdrive but a ton of midrange boost. This causes the sounds to feedback at higher volumes, but it it controllable. It sounds great for thick, singing solos but not so hot for chords. Also from a practical view, the volume boost and need to tweek the EQ after it is engaged would be troublesome if this was used in a live setting. I don't use it much.
I really enjoy the sounds in the Classic, and many others have remarked on how nice it sounds. However, it is probably not for everyone (see below).
I think Peavey uses Sovtec tubes, and I replaced them with Groove Tubes. This gave a clearer and more powerful sound.

I have never had trouble with this product. I cannot say that I babied it, because I am rough on everything I own. The sounds were consistant every week, and this was nice. In the hot, humid environments I experienced in New Orleans, it never once farted on me.

I have dealt with Peavey in the past with a used combo I bought (a Triumph, an oxymoron if I ever played one..bad sound!). They provided me with a users manual and a tech spent time with me explaining the different tube functions. They seemed knowledgeable and were very friendly and professional.
I also heard they have a computer link with all their service centers that can help track solen equipment (take that, you thief).
Most places I have lived have a service center at least within driving distance. I never needed service on the Classic, so I cannot make comments in regard to this. My rating is based on the above listed limited experience.

Overall, I really enjoy this thing. It is portable, offers alot for the money, and is extremely versatile. It is not for a large venue, but its smaller size is closer to what most of us will play (keep your dreams, though). I also feel that equipment performance is heavily related to playing style, other interacting pieces of your sound chain, and personel preferance. I enjoy Metallica, but I do not like active pickups for myself. I have not found anything I like as much for the price. I wish it had three channels, as these could be set up with the various sound. I would buy this product again, and I am thinking of using two to have the sound combinations described.
I really like it, but again, YOU have to try it with YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT! Other guitars in the store are not yours, and it important to play it clean, loud, overdriven, etc, before buying. If the store personel have a problem with this, we live in a market economy; go elsewhere!
I have been playing for about 10 years seriously. I do music as a hobby but play whenever I can. I am a Physician and I write songs frequently. I enjoy all forms of music, although I tend to play rock the most. I just moved to south Georgia, and am working on getting another band together.
This is my first review, since I have only had a computer for a few months. Hope it is helpful!

The amp is loud!!!!!
I was looking for a fender deluxe one day and I stumbled onto this little guy. Fortunately his bark is bigger than his bite. I have some mesa boogie tubes in it. pleasantly surprised. Only wish for a little more versatility.

This thing plays creedence like a dream. GReat for southern muddy blues as well as a little texas sizzle. it is a little noisy with the three gold lace sensors in my strat, but not so much with a humbucker like an active EMG. A nice subtle distortion, nothing like a marshall dsl. Beautiful natural distortion. I would suggest a fatter single coil. I have a set of fender fat fifties that i am going to try.

I am still unsure of the open back that exposes the tubes. so far so good.

never needed them

been playing six years. I am not sure if i had it stolen if I would by it. With my available funds I definitely would. I have my heart set on a Mesa Dual rectifier though. awesome amp for the money. Very sweet looking.

I bought this amp used from a locaol music store for $300.00.
I play in cover band in which we play everything from Clapton and the Beatles to Dave Matthews and Van Morrison. This amp has the ability to cover all of these styles and then some.

I use this amp to play out in various size clubs, halls and outdoor venues. Obviously, it doesn't have enough punch to not be miked in the bigger venues, but then again, I always mike it regardless of venue size.

The factory tubes are crap...replace them!!!

I play vintage style tele and a strat with noiseless in the neck and mid position with a "pearly gates" humbucker at the bridge.

With the tele, this amp makes a really has a great twangy sound. It's as if the two were meant for each other. When I eventually upgrade, I think that I'll keep this amp just for the tele.

The Strat also sounds great through this amp. The pickup configuration in this guitar really brings out great sounds from this amp.

Most people don't tend to like the distortion that this amp gives out...and this is probobly because the factory tubes are still in it. I put in Mesa Boogie tubes and the distortion is thick and creamy! I love it. Also, anyone knows that the clean channel in this puppy is sweet! It stands up to higher level Fender amps.

This amp did give out on me on a gig. The reason was the unprotected tubes in the back. As suggested previously in the reviews I will be adding some sort of protection for these suckers.

I have not dealt with these guys

If this sucker were stolen, I would definitley upgrade to a Fender Prosonic. But for the time being, this works just fine for me!