Peavey Classic 50-410

Features are fine. Keep it simple and still gives you what you need

I have many different guitars, amps and pedals. A few Anderson guitars, strats, les pauls. I also have a Badcat Blackcat as my main amplifier primarily for studio use. I just wanted to write this review to say that this amp sounds incredibly WARM. It's more in the Fender tweed Bassman camp than the typical el84 camp, but it it sounds much warmer than any Fender I've heard, especially when you drive it a bit. I use this amp as my main road/fly date amp. It's incredible to me that this amp sounds as good as it does in lew of both its price and Peavey's brutal history. Give it a chance, don't let your pride keep you from playing this amp - let your playing speak for itself

No problems

My classic 410 is a 2001 model. Thsi is the third Peavey classic I have owned. The first was the 30 112 which is a nice compact and very toneful tweed model. The second was the 212 model which was also very nice. But for my taste the 410 has really hit the mark. It is a really classic looking amp and has a very unique tone that I really like. I play blues and classic rock and some country as well. It really works very nice for all of these. I have played through the Fender deville 410 and though it sounds great in it's own right to me the Peavey has an overall better tone for sure. The amp has a clean and an overdrive channel switchable with a two button footswitch which also turns the reverb on and off. It has a very good effects loop which I seldom use because I don't use effects much anymore but just play strait to the amp. No headphone jack but that it OK with me as I don't need one.The amp has very ample power and I don't usually turn it up more than 50 to 60 percent even in an open gig. The great thing about this amp as with the other classic models it you can turn the preamp post to ten and turn the master volume down to 4 or 5 and geta really crancked tube tone at a low volume. It works great the oposite way as well with the master volume at 10 and the post at a lower setting. On the clean channel you can crank up the clean volume and back off the master and get a really nice vintage drive tone. It is really a versitile and very toneful tube combo. I love the 4 el84 power tubes and 3 12ax7 preamp tubes mounted in the amp chassis with padded panels and not hanging down under the chassis like most. I never hear any tube rattle as they are really protected from most of the speaker vibration. The classic 30 is not this way and does have tube rattle and vibration noise.

If anyone is interested in this here it goes. I have three guitars. A 1997 Hamer Daytona strat with Duncan pro alnico pickups. This is one incredible ax. I just can't say anything negative about Hamer guitars myself or Duncan pickups. The next is a 1994 Hamer Daytona T-51 Tele with a Duncan Broadcaster bridge and Duncan custom 54 mosel in the neck...just an incredible tele. The third is a 1984 Ibanez performer Les Paul model in a Beautiful flamed vintage cherry top. It has super 80's humbuckers. I actually sold my Gibson (sorry Gibson) and kept the Ibanez. It is just a very very nice set neck guitar that plays incredible looks incredible and sounds awesome. Ibanez made the back of these guitars with a slight body contuor like a trat has which makes it very comfortable to stand and play for a long time. All three guitars sound great with the classic 410. The amp really brings out the individual tones of each and the different pickup tones. The start will get the most incredible SRV tone and I really love playing his tunes. OK lets see...the amps clean tone, very vintage clean in my opinion. It can get a bright glassy sound as well as a nice vintage tube driven drive sound as I have already described. The clean channel stays pretty clean all the way up as long as you keep the clean channel volume down under about 7 and then run the master up to get louder. I set the clean at about 6 and the master about 8 and have a pretty clean tone with plenty of volume. The drive channel can get anything from a slightly driven tube tone to something aproaching a Marshall plexi driven tone. This amp can no doubt blow the windows out if you turn the preamp gain up tp ten or twelve and the post volume up to the same and then the master the same. The 4 blue marvel speakers hold their own under these conditions too. They actually start to really turn on at about 1/2 volume and up. They have a similar tone as the celestion vintage 30 10inch speakers. The amp really produces a great blues tone which I use the most. The key to the amps great tone is to let it stay on for at least 20 to 30 minutes and when the tubes are nice and hot it turns into a cream machine. I really do love the amp and think it is one of the best values out there for a tweed tube combo.

You can depend on thses amps for sure. I have had many Peavey pruducts in my life and also use a Peavey power amp in my PA. I have never in 20 years ever had any technical problems with any of my Peavey gear. I may just be lucky or don't run them hard enouph but that's my story and I have to stick to it.

I have not delt with Peavey on any problems but have on several occations called for questions and also advice and they have always taken care of me in a professional and nice way. The warranty on most of the gear I have had is usually the standard 12 month.

I have been playing for about 20 years now. I have some danelectro effect that I seldom use. If the amp was stolen or lost I believe that I would replace it with another classic 410. I am pretty sold on them now. I have no negatives on the amp really other than the weight but what else could you expect with a 410 combo. It really is not that bad though and is slightly lighter than a couple other brand 410 combo amps I have seen. It is made with solid wood of some kind and not particle board. I compared it with some others and liked it better because of the things I have already mentioned. Try one out for yourself but remember to let it heat up the tubes before you really rate the sound. This is basically how it is with tube amps in general but the Peavey really turns into a tonemaster tube amp with hot tubes. I know one day when I replace the sovtek original tubes and put in better quality tubes it will even sound better.

I'm not entirely sure what year my specific amp was made in...but it works like it's brand new. I ordered it off Ebay last christmas (i've hardly used it...maybe 5 hrs a week for a few months for band practice. i've been using it much more lately because it's no longer at my drummer's house). It came cracked because of shipping...and some of the electronics were busted out too, but the seller agreed to pay whatever the repair costed. Now it looks brand new and works perfectly. Like I said earlier, I used this amp for band practice. It was PLENTY loud...and sounded fine at pretty high volumes. It was easily able to surpass a drummer. It's all I want in an amp...the distortion/lead is perfectly fine but I choose to use my pedal instead. I have yet to replace the tubes.

I use it with a Mexican Stratocaster with a Hotrail bridge pickup. For clean sounds I use the next pickup, because the hotrail doesn't sound very good at all on a clean channel. The amp sounds INCREDIBLE on the clean setting. The fan is noisy if you're trying to play low...but if you want to play at a low volume then why get a 4/10 speaker amp ;) The distortion is not "brutal"...it's perfect for any blues/rock stuff and works fine for many other styles. Like I said earlier, I like to use my pedal instead of the distortion that came with it...but not because it's bad.

If you were to drop it...it might crack. I will never know though because I "try" to take the best care of my guitar equipment as possible. When I received the amp it was damaged in shipping and things were pretty messed up with it...but one visit to the repair shop and it looks...and works flawlessly.

Never dealt with customer support.

For the money, it's a GREAT amp. I've never done a full gig with it, but I have talked to others that have and they say it works fine in small clubs etc.

very versatile amp, normally use normal, clean channel, used mainly for band pratice and small room parties but would like to see what it could do in larger rooms

62 RI and american standard strats with stock pickups. suits blues and rock very well, nice tone above 3 with line 6 distortion modeler and vox wah, some complaints of fan noise from other owners so just turn it up. its not really an apartment amp any way. very warm tone

very reliable its a peavey , have not replaced tubes but i do plan on it

have not had to deal with peavey as amp is reliable

been playing for11 years if stolen or lost i would immediately replace it for nothing compares in this price range.also own a classic 30 . the 50 adds loads of headroom and warmer tone . would recommend nothing else in this price range for blues and rock.

You probably already know these. Clean, overdrive, sharing reverb.

This is what a fender type tube amp is supposed to sound like. Very nice fendery clean. The overdrive is way better than the similiar fender amps. A little like Billy Gibbons type tone. Sounds good with just about any guitar. Peavey really outdid themselves with these amps.

I have had mine since about 95 and wore out the handle and 2 input jacks. I have gigged countless hours and I think it was a rental before I got it. The input jacks have been my only problem. Like others have said, tubes seem to keep going. Ihave only replaces them once and that was just to keep the clean channel from breaking up at lower volumes.

Ordered parts from dealer, never dealt with customer support.

Very solid and hard to beat, can't go wrong, if you want a fender type sound and have nice overdrive to boot.

This amp got every thing I want an amp to have. Although I have a Carlsbro amp wich has to master volumes who can be switched between on it's footswich and that's very nice. Accually I wished this one had some kind of volume control on the footswitch but amps I've seen usually don't have that and this one didn't cost so much. Seperated EQ would also be great but I don't think that's neccesary

When I tried it in the shop I fell in love for at the first sight (or first example of sound) when I tried the cleen channel. I was not looking for a amp with a good distortion channel but when I tried it I knew that this was the amp I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and I bougt it. Since then my love has not diminished a bit althogh I think I have to replace the tubes now. I use a strat, sounds lovly. And I have an Washburn hollow body wich sounds even much better. I'm studying jazz and I play in a rock band and this amps sounds awesome for both rock and jazz.

I would accually rated it 9.9 if it were possible.
I've had it for 10 or 11 months now and the only thing that has failed is that the Peavey logo blroke off when I was carrying it in or out of my car onetime. But my idea of the perfect dependible amp is not a amp with unberakeble titanium logo or something. Allthough I've know guys who have had problems with classic30 and delta blues amps from peavey

I sent them E-mail and asked them if they knew about any singe effect pedal who sounded clouse to the distortion channel on it.
They answered in less than a week, but they said now. But their answer was very very polite and they said that I shouldn't hesitate to call them (they gave me phone number) or send more emails if I had any questions.
Accually I don't expect amp manufacturers to know if other manufacturers have simmilar products and recomend them.
But it took 3 of 4 days to get answer (maybe it was weekend but I don't remember) and I would have rated it 10 if it had just taken one day.

The only thing I don't like about this is the weight and the size. (but I am sattisfied with the weight and size of the other love in my life, my girlfriend). I would like it to be smaller and ligter and then also less power. If it were stolen or lost I would buy one again as soon as I could afford it. If I would compare this amp to my Idea of a perfect amp (wich only excist in some kind of dream world) I would rate this one 9 of 10 but if I compare it to what I paid for it I'll defenetly with out any doubt rate it 10 of 10. I bougt this amp used for 80000kr in Iceland wich is ca 1000$ but it costs new 120000kr here and all music equipment is a lot more expencive here.

Early nineties and I bought it used off a guy who played out often and liked to play loud.It has two channels and I only use the clean channel so I can't vouch for the high gain sounds. The reverb is very good and trouble free and sounds better than the reverb in my Deluxe Reverb. Very powerfull and if I were a club player in a loud group, this is the amp I would use.

Contrary to what some reviews have stated, I have found this amp to be very rich sounding and "harsh" is the last word I would use to describe it. The high end is chimey and musical and the EQ is very straight forward. I play only through the clean channel, so as I use this amp, it is a very simple single channel unit with alot of headroom and a very sweet distortion when pushed. The EL84's morph smoothly into overdrive and the character of the guitar is never lost. A really nice Tele amp and it sounds great with humbuckers too, especially when turned up. The fan is barely audible on mine and certainly not a factor when I'm playing. For the money, I'm not sure there is a better amp out there for straight forward rock/blues/country etc. A great idea from Peavey! This will not be confused with any of the highend Class A amps out there and it's A/B operation offers a solid, somewhat tighter attack akin to a Super Reverb, but it's a very good sound and it has its place, especially if one grows tired of the mushy high volume sound of some Class A amps. To my ear, it sounds much sweeter than the Fender Devilles. Also, I have had a lot of fun plugging this amp into other speaker configurations. This amp pushes a 1x12 Celestion 100 Cab mercilessly and overdrives the Celestion very, very sweetly. A closed back 2x10 cab also yielded a smoothly over driven sound. I'm not well! But it's a great affliction.

Rock solid. I have not even changed the tubes since the mid nineties. It is a cheaply built amp with a particle board cab and circuit board mounted tubes, but it sounds really good and always works for me.

N/A

Bang for the buck...hard to pass up. I would love to chop this one up and make it a 2x10 some day and then it would be the perfect club amp.As it stands, one of the great values out there.

Mine is a '93, which I think is the first year these came out. For the funk/fusion style that I play in, this amp is really great. All the features are great, however, a 2nd overdrive channel(a la Fender Hot Rod) would be nice, but I usually use a tubescreamer to add extra kick on leads.

My two main guitars are a '73 Fender Strat w/ single coil pickups, and an Ibanez AG75 (big jazzbox). This amp definitely delivers on both guitars, providing snappy, tight funk sound on the fender and big, round jazz tone on the Ibanez. The clean channel has a lot of headroom, but begins to clip and get that great SRV/Hendrix semi-distorted tone.

Never broken down... Tubes havent been replaced since the amp was built, but they are still going strong

never dealt with Peavey

I also own a 1968 Gibson GSS100, which sucks in comparison. In comparison to the Hot Rod DeVille, this amp has a much less brittle, biting tone. Only Problem is the weight, a whopping 62 lbs.

I'm the one who posted the last review about not being quite happy with the clean jazz tone (probably the review just below). Well, I'm more than happy now. I re-tubed the amp with JJ Tubes and they actually made the amp perfect for my needs! As stated in my other review, I mainly play a jazz/blues style which I mostly finger-pick using a clean sound. I play 2 strat style guitars. One with Kinman trad (56/56/62) pick ups and the other has Dimarzio VirtuAL 2 (all middle position) pick ups. Both guitars sound great! Somehow, the JJ Tubes got rid of the harshness from the high end, just as Bob at JJ said they would. He used the term "even out the harmonics" I think, and that's exactly what the tubes did. In my other review I said I thought there was a great tone somewhere in the amp but that I just couldn't find it. Well I found it- it was as easy as putting in JJ tubes. Amazing! Sounds like an advertisement, doesn't it? The amp now sounds exactly like I thought it could/should: Clean, Warm and Rich. Also, now just like my other 2 amps (see my review below),when I play through my Peavey Classic 50 I just play my guitar, without tweeking the dials on my amp; very refreshing.

Yes, it's a very dependable amp able to handle gigs with-out a back-up beacause I play at low to moderate levels and never push the amp

The best I've experienced.

Been playing 30 years. If I had to replace it I might, but I might consider something else because of the weight. I added 4 celestion "Vintage 30" speakers and now I think it weighs about 75 pounds! The construction is great (it's not a 2,500 dollar amp, ok), the sound and reverb is great, and I really like the 4X10 configuration. The "only thing" I don't like about it is the weight, but it's a 4X10 tube amp, so that's the nature of the beast!

1996,New

I've actually owned a Classic 50 twice. The first time I was playing more Blues/Rock and it was OK, but not great so I got rid of it. I got another one in 1996 and I just can't get what I want out of it. I'm looking for a clean jazz sound that's not HARSH on low to medium volume settings. It's just not there! I changed the speakers to Vintage 30's, & retubed it with NOS tubes. Not much of a difference. Basically, the treble is HARSH. If I back of on the treble, presence and/or the midrange it just turns dull & lifeless (and muddy). Plus (and this is really annoying) I can't get rid of that "cardboard sound"(cabinet design?). I've spent MANY hours tweaking to no avail! I have two other amps and when I play them I settle in and just play my guitar(Trace Elliott Velocette and a Vox Valvetronix). Whenever I try to play my Peavey I keep tweaking thinking "I know there's a great sound in here somewhere", but there's not. At least for me, anyway. BTW, this amp sounds decent when your adjusting it - 'cause when your standing right over it you can't really hear the treble. But when you step in front of it- blechhh!! You must hear how an amp sounds standing directly in front of it to get the real tonal pallette it presents.I just go from my guitar to a boss compressor to the amp. Other people who reviewed this amp said it's good for jazz but I just can't find that sound, unless maybe you're playing a pretty processed fusion type sound.

HOWEVER, the Customer support when you call Mississippi is Class A and you players know that's rare.

I've been playing for 30 years and moved from rock to blues to jazz (sound familiar?) Basically this amp just won't work for nice jazz tones (IMO)-but- for Blues/rock it's good to very good.