Peavey Classic 50-410

I bought mine on e-bay I believe it's a 2003 model. I'm a Harp player and the price of a Bassman was way out of the ball park for me. My 1st "big amp" was the beatiful sounding Crate VC-5310 I still have it and have not done nothing to it. It's a wonderful amp. Ok enough about that beast.I've done my home work on this 50/410 and when it arrived at my door step after u.p.s. beat the hell outta of it one of the volume pots had taken the rath of the brown suit wearers. However it being a workingman's amp she still fired up and played like a dream. As of this writting the volume pot is being repaired.I can't wait to get my hands back on this lil'power box!!!

I can tell ya for a harp the clean channel works the best. I've still haven't played threw the drive channel much but am still willing to give it another good around when it's returned to me.I went threw the phase of effects and have returned to the "old school" of playing. Which to me is the simple way and if your any good you'll need nothing but a harp and great amp.

So far so good.I've heard good things about there customer service. Just think this amp won't need anything but a good workout when returned to me.

It takes a lickin and it's still tickin!!!

I'm speaking from my experiance having 5 amps of different sizes for the different venues I play in. I've yet to put the lil' beast threw it's paces but I'll update when I do.

Hi gang - just wanted to share an easily-missed tip from a few years back on this thread. Plug your guitar into the Bright input, and plug an empty (no cable) plug into the Normal input. Instant increase in gain & beef. Thanks to the OP!

Mine has been modded a bit - different speakers, better tubes, and a switch to turn off the negative feedback circuit. Just about the best sounding amp I've ever heard, at a very reasonable price.

Famously solid. Be careful changing tubes, since they are PCB mounted.

I bought my Classic 50 410 used about 2 years ago - the amp is about 10 years old. The amp has all the features described in the other reviews. It is covered in tweed tolex with an Oxbloood grill cloth.

It has two channels, which can be controlled by a footswitch or a switch on the amp. This is a useful feature for me because my music ranges from country clean to overdrive-soaked blues and rock. At 50 watts, the amp has plenty of power and is very loud. A nice feature is the master volume and separate volume controls for each channel, which enables the guitarist to adjust the amount of overdrive without getting into ear-bleed territory, and to balance it between the two channels.

I am giving it lower marks for the effects loop - when I run my pedal board through the loop, I get a very unpleasant sound through the reverb on the amp (a harsh, crashing sound). Not sure if this is a malfunction (the amp works fine otherwise), if I'm doing something wrong, or do others hear what I'm hearing? Is there a fix? As a result, I end up running my pedals (a Boss Bassman '59 overdrive, Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, Boss Chorus Ensemble, and Boss Tremolo) directly through the input jack rather than through the effects loop.

Despite my problems with the effects loop, I really like the tone of this amp, except for the reverb.

I like the tight, focused punch of the 4x10 speakers. The amp produces a nice compression of the lower strings, which I need to accentuate the bass runs for my finger-picking style. It opens up nicely when strummed and really howls and quacks with a good lead solo. I play in many different styles - Chet Atkins, Albert King, Scotty Moore, Brian Setzer, SRV, and Reverend Horton Heat among others. The amp also plays jazz quite well. I have found that the treble is too piercing for my taste, so I typically keep it around 3-4, with the mids and bass at 7-9. In addition, I usually add just a little slapback from my delay pedal and increase it for the rockabilly stuff. Spot-on match for Setzer's sound.

Both channels do everything I want of them. The clean channel stays clean all the way to the top. It produces a full, rich tube sound that lets every string be heard distinctly. This is important because I finger pick most of my material, and I need a lot of clarity. That is a double-edged sword because this amp is very unforgiving - if you make a mistake, everyone will hear it.

The overdrive channel warms up nicely around volume 3 and the crunch increases from there. It doesn't quite have the harmonic OD that you hear from a high-quality Fender tube amp, but it is quite good. The overdrive is very responsive, as you would expect from a decent all-tube amp. I typically set the OD channel volume to 4-5, and use the volume control and my attack to get more or less distortion. Don't expect to do thrash'n'trash with this amp - that's not what it's built for.

I have found that when I drive the tubes at max power, the amp produces a hum and hiss that is audible to the audience between songs. I have never needed that much volume, so I resolve the problem by lowering the volume controls.

I play a Gretsch 6120, a Fender Telecaster, and a Guild CA-100 hollowbody with an accoustic PU attached. The amp sounds magnificent with all 3.

As I said previously, my one real complaint is with its solid-state reverb. It is weak even at setting 10, and it has harsh underlying tones that were hard to perceive at first, like an unpleasant aftertaste. As a result, I usually turn the reverb down to 3-4. This amp would improve from a really good tube-powered reverb unit.

I have gigged with it off-and-on since the first week I bought the amp. It is a true workhorse. I even sold a solid-state amp that served as my backup because I never used it. I may get bitten someday when I blow a tube in the middle of a set, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Couldn't say - never dealt with the folks at Peavey. No issues with the amp.

I have played for 30+ years, in many bands and many different styles. This is the first tube amp I've owned and dearly love its tone and responsiveness. It plays everything I want - from country, jazz, rockabilly, classic rock, and blues. You can find better amps that feature a particular sound, but for variety, this is an excellent bread-and-butter amp.

As a tone junkie, I compared this amp side-by-side with a Fender Bassman RI, a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and a Fender Blues Deville before my purchase. The tonal quality and responsiveness of the Peavey was equal or better than the FDR and the FBD, except for the better reverb on the Fenders. All three, however, were no match for the Bassman's thick, warm tone IMO. I couldn't afford the Bassman and its features are too limited, so I selected the Peavey - no regrets.

As I've said before, the only thing I'd change is its reverb. I am thinking about adding a tube-powered Fender Reverb unit; even a solid-state reverb pedal, like a Holy Grail, may be a significant improvement at a modest cost.

I play mostly Blues/Jazz/Classic rock, this amp has so far gone far and beyond the call. Two channels, one is "Normal" the other is "Bright". The normal channel has a warmer tone to it, the bass is fuller. Bright gives it sort of a light ring, almost a pop. Bright is great for loud rhythm. There are two settings you can choose(it affects both channels) "Normal" has a nice, fat, clean tone, while "Lead" has more distortion and can be adjusted more using the effects. There are two volume knobs, one is for the "Normal" setting, and the other is the master volume. The amp also has Post and Pre Gain settings, both of which are very flexible. Presence, Reverb, and Bass are the other effects. One more thing about the tone, for a 50 watt tube amp, it is extremley loud.

I'm using a squire stratocaster(3 single coils) with a shielded pick guard and wiring. Although I don't get any hum due to the pick guard, there is a grounding switch on the back you can adjust. The clean channel stays clear when you crank it up, it doesn't get distorted. But if you turn the Pre Gain and the Post gain all the way up you will get a hum in the back ground. I play my acoustic on here as well, it plays like a dream.

I haven't had it for very long and am not sure how old the tubes are, I can't really give a rating for this category, but I would trust this amp any day.

The warranty has already been registered and has expired, haven't needed to contact Peavy so far.

This is NOT a heavy metal or rock amp AT ALL. If you hook a pedal to it you might be able to get the sound you want out of it but the amp is made to give a very natural, full, warm tone(or clean if you prefer). I wouldn't try to convert it. By the way, I am a huge Steve Ray Vaughn fan, believe it or not, I can get the tone from the El Macambo performance and many others, this amp is perfect for SRV players.

93. very versatile but i use a blues driver for overdrive
two channels but only one eq.
effects yes.
two separate eqs.
I use it for shows at clubs and jamming. loud enough to it all.

I use a tele special and play rock muis with another guitar player.Up beat punkish maybe. With the pedal it sounds great for this style.
the clean channel stays clean but gets a little crisp and at higher levels but i like it alot.
I don't use the distortion but it is good to use, but sitching between them is no go for me. I use a pedal.

No back up and i trust it.

they told me the year it was in a day. very quick and they have all the info you need to know about when the amp was born and what with.I am not worried about it breaking, mine is in mint shape.

playing for 15 years and i an acoustic, mandolin and bass.
I would buy another one if i could get it for the same price in the same shape.
I originally bought a fender twin and with my guitar was to thin.
I found the peavey for a lot cheaper and in better shape and i got it and love it.

This amp was made in 2001, and I bought it as a replacement for another Peavey Classic 50/4x10 that I'd been burned for. (I got shafted out of the twin of this amp in a deal with an unscrupulous fellow band member, but I went straight out and bought another one just like it!)

I've been a working musician on and off for nearly 30 years, and I've used a lot of amps in that time, but the Peavey Classic line keeps me coming back for more! I started with a Classic 30 when I was between bands, and just loved the sounds. When I hooked up with a new band, I realised I needed a little more oomph, so I upgraded to the 50 4/10, and man, that thing was honkin'! It's got plenty of power, great features, and moves loads of air...it was considerably louder than my rhythm guitarist's 75 watt custom 2x12 solid state amp. I play mainly Classic Rock 70s influenced rock and rock'n'blues, straight-up blues, Southern rock and the like, all the way through to '90s and current "guitar god" stuff, and I find this amp is perfect for the range of sounds I need to generate...plenty of power, loads of great all-tube tone, and a really rich, full sound on the lead channel.

It has two channels that share EQing, and separate pre and post inputs for the lead channel. It came with a footswitch that can switch between channels and turn the reverb on or off. I'm not a big fan of reverb, but I don't mind using the long-spring reverb unit built in every now and then...it does have got a nice sweeping sound to it...just don't knock the amp while you're playing, or you'll get that annoying whooping echoing sound!

I've used this amp in jam sessions, clubs and some outdoor gigs, and I always found it was easily able to keep up with bigger and more powerful amps. For a really big venue or an outdoor gig, it helps to mic it through a PA, but I've always preferred going that route, even when I was playing through a really big stadium amp, like the Peavey Deuce (120 watts, 2x12, all tube) I used to have. By mic'ing the amp, you can drive it hard without having to blast the volume, which leaves you a lot more room for juicing the sound via the controls...you get it set up just the way you like it, and that's that.

I really like the "chicken head" knobs! They make it very easy to see (and even feel!) the settings. For different songs, I use small cardboard templates with 6 or 8 different settings per page, and keep a little booklet of templates in the back of the amp; they make it MUCH quicker to switch between the various settings during a gig because it saves a whole lot of "knob twiddling"...the template shows exactly where to position the knobs, and the chicken head knobs make it really easy to verify that I've got them exactly where I want them; that way I can get exactly the sounds I want without changing the overall volume level.

I don't use the effects loop often, because I don't usually use a lot of effects...a wah pedal, and maybe a digital/analog delay. For some parts of my repertoire, I do need more effects; that's when the effects loop comes in handy...it's always a lot noiser when you run the pedals in-line through the guitar imput. I use a Jim Dunlop Jimi Hendrix wah, and Danelectro Fab Tone Cool Cat and "PB&J" digital/analog delay, and I get a wide range of sounds from Skynyrd's screaming guitars to Santana's sweet crunchy leads to ZZ Top's awesome, beefy/edgy delay sound with this set-up. The Dano distortion and chorus have several settings for working together, and sound really sweet on "Harmonizer" and "De-Tune Harmonizer" settings, very ZZ Top-esque. (Wah pedals should always be run in-line with the guitar; if you run it through an effects loop, it ends up working more like a volume pedal, and that's just annoying!)

Clean channel driven (knobs to the stops) is beautiful...crystal clear high ends, warm rich middle, and a little boom to the bottom end, all very sweet whether I'm playing my '91 PRS Custom 24, with their Vintage Bass and HFS humbuckers, as well as three different single coil settings. my vintage Yamaha SE350 with standard single/single/single-double with tap pot on the tone knob, or my Godin Artisan ST, which has three hot rail pick-ups with push/pull pot on the tone knob for switching from single to double rail. It really brings decent Humbuckers to life, and gives single coils a very rich, fuller sound than I'm used to hearing from single coils. When I play the Godin with split (single) rails and I really crank the pre on the lead channel, it feels like everything movable in the room is starting to shimmy and shake...and that's in a fairly big room, like the 500 person capacity club I've played most of my recent gigs in.

If you crank the preamp in for the lead channel, you need to reduce the preamp out level accordingly or else you're going to get a LOT of noise, noise, noise, by which I mean crunchy, hissy and generally bad sounds! By carefully balancing pre and post with the master volume and clean channel volume, you can avoid those annoying big increases/drops in volume when you switch channels. It can be a little noisy (hissy) when you drive the clean channel too hard, but again, by micing it through a PA, you can keep the overall volume down and avoid all the unnecessary noise byproducts of driving the amp TOO hard to achieve the same volume level.

I would not call the distortion "brutal," by any means...this amp is NOT ideal for metal heads. The distortion is more adequate for playing Classic/Southern rock, blues/rockin'blues and so on, anything from Allman Brothers to ZZ Top and everything in between. I can even get some very Satriani-ish sounds out of this amp, especially with better tubes.

The standard tubes it comes with are pretty okay, but if you really want to get the most out of this amp, you'd do well to upgrade to a higher quality of tubes, maybe Mesa/Sovtech or the like. If you do upgrade, make sure you get tubes that are biased just right for this amp, otherwise you'll be burning out a lot of tubes...I made that mistake by buying a set of unbiased Mesa tubes for the pre-amp stage. They started failing very soon and I had to go back and spend a lot more to get better, pre-biased tubes...after that it worked like a charm, and my high ends were awesome, my mid had guts galore, and the bottom end had enough grunt to move small mountains. Fortunately for me, this happened when I wasn't with a band, so I was able to sort the problem out before I needed the amp for a gig.

I've never needed a backup for any of the Peaveys I've owned, and this is my fourth in a row.

If you're a "sometime" pro or semi-pro gigging musician, playing small clubs, basement parties, some outdoor gigs and things like that, or even if you're a more full-time working musician playing steady gigs in bigger clubs, you can't go wrong with this workhorse from Peavey...it'll keep pumping out exactly the sounds you want at exactly the levesl you want (I find the controls very precise) it just will not let you down. It's a tank...but man, it's also heavy like a tank...but that's just the price you pay for having an all-tube amp, right?

The only issue I've ever had reliability was when I switched out the pre-amp tubes it came with for a set of Mesa 12AX7s which weren't pre-biased. (see above) Otherwise, this amp has never let me down and I've never needed a backup, or even considered bringing one. I just keep a log of tube hours and replace them when they start to get a little too gritty or run-down.

I've been playing for about 35 years, 30 of that seriously. I own 5 guitars, the three electrics I mentioned previously plus a Fender classical and an Art & Lutherie wild cherry acoustic guitar. I also own a few other amps including a very rare vintage Gallien Krueger 250ML solid-state stereo guitar amp and one Peavey Solo practice amp.

If it were ever stolen or lost, I would definitely get the exact same amp again. In fact, this is the second Peavey Classic 50 4x10 I've owned, which I bought after I got shafted out of my first one, and it's the third Peavey Classic and the fourth Peavey tube amp I've owned.

I love everything about this amp except the long spring reverb, which I can take or leave.

I did compare it to a number of other products, and the only amp I liked better was a Mesa single rectifier Nomad combo, which cost nearly three times what I paid for this one!

If I ever get the chance, I want to get another Classic 50/4x10 and two Classic 4x10 cabs, all tweed, so I can get that awesome and downright chilling sound four times over again! I can only imagine just how sweet the howl would be when I ran my PRS HFS Humbucker through all that tube power being pumped out through 16x10 inch speakers!

Not sure what year mine was made - picked it up used on Craigslist. I play for church, and I would describe the style as rock/alternative.

The amp has two channels - clean and lead, though I almost never use the lead channel (more on that later). My model has the effects loop, though I don't use that, either (more on that later, too).

As I mentioned, I play in a church, so 50 watts is actually too much. That's where the Weber Mass attenuator comes in handy.

I give it an 8 for versatility, but that's mostly because there aren't that many features. BUT I would clarify that the amp does everything I need it to do, so it's simple-featured, but in a good way.

I had owned this amp back in high school/college, but I don't think I ever really got the most out of the amp back then. I couldn't turn the amp up too loud (parents were understanding as it was, didn't want to push my luck), and I didn't understand the concept of driving the tubes to get a good sound. I was just in awe of having a "tube amp" and was happy as a clam.

Sold the amp (and most of my recording gear and instruments) when I got married, but in this last year I've been rebuilding my stash. Picked up two amps - the Roland JC120 and the Peavey Classic 50 410.

The Peavey came with JJ tubes from eurotubes.com already installed. First thing I noticed was, it sounded warmer and smoother in the clean channel than my stock amp - the cleans weren't as sharp or brittle. The lead channel was nice and smooth too - great sound.

Then I discovered the Weber Mass, hooked that up, cranked the pre on the clean channel, and I was in heaven. Regular strums and picking on my strat gave me clean glassy notes, but the minute I start to dig into the notes a little harder, or push the chords harder, the amp's sound just... growls. It's such a lovely lovely sound.

And therein lies my problem - with the clean channel Pre cranked to max, I could not for the life of me get the lead channel up to the same volume. If I cranked the clean Pre to max, and cranked the Lead Pre and Post to max, when I switch from clean to lead channel, it almost sounds like I get a 50% volume drop. Don't get me wrong, the tone is there on the lead channel, but it can't keep up with the clean channel. Not sure if this is related to the attenuator or not.

So, I now treat the amp as a one-channel clean amp, and run either a Fulltone FullDrive or BassDrive in front of it to get overdrive at an acceptable volume level.

FYI - I'm playing a run-of-the-mill clone Strat, built by blurdrcarl (he used to sell strat clones on eBay). Nothing special, but the Peavey 410 makes the strat sound like a million bucks.

I never had problems with the original amp I had back in high school, and haven't had problems with the amp I have now. Then again, the amp sees action maybe three or four times a month, so it's not like I'm pushing it that hard.

I am driving the tubes hard when I do use it, but so far I haven't had a problem.

Haven't had to deal with Peavey customer support.

I also remember back when Peavey was known for the small solid state practice amps (I used to have a Peavey Rage before "upgrading" to a solid state Fender amp), but the Classic 50 has been an awesome amp.

I initially bought it back in high school because I had read that the guys in Pearl Jam used the amp. Now, I don't care who uses it - I just love how it sounds, with the JJ tubes. Thinking about swapping two of the speakers, but hey... if it ain't broke, what's there to fix, right?

I'd cry if it were stolen, that's for sure, mostly because I got a great price, considering it already included a full set of JJ tubes.

im the original owner of this classic fitty, its was made in 2000 i believe. the features are pretty simple, one channel, one eq, clean and dirty channel all tube (6L6 mesa tubes and 12ax7's groove tubes mallard). came with a channel switcher and a built in effects loop.The only complaint i have with the amp is the weight. It needs casters other than that the amp is hands down the best bang for your buck.Hands down. Im a pro player and have played professionaly for about 10 years. In the studio, or live, this amp is a work horse.Has enough juice for any type of live gig even if your not miked through pa it still cuts through the mix and cuts through well. if it every got stolen or damaged i would repalce it in a heartbeat.

the amps diversity is what sold me on it. From jazz to rock to country to blues and even metal can be dailed up on this amp. Both channels on the amp are killer. The dirty channel is surprisingly beefy for a combo amp. I use alot of gain so i use a noise gate to eliminate some of that hiss and hum. The amp at loud volumes can get noisy(tubes have a part in that hiss or hum,also effect pedals too)but nothing that a little noisegate can clean up. I play two custom shop tele's. My maine tele has a pearly gate humbucker, seymour duncan in the bridge and a vintage hot rail in the neck also a seymour duncan. The other tele is a 60th anniver. 54 reissue with seymour duncan little 59 in the bridge and a vintage stack in the neck. All though fenders are my bread and butter, les pauls are just as sweet sounding as well as a nice jazz box. This amp can dial up any tone and w/ effects that are out today this amp can delivry beautiful tones.

Ive been giging on this amp for ten years. In the studio or in front of hundreds of people, its a tank. the amp has never broke or never has it not turned on. Its always there and ready to go. Dont need a backup amp,This amp will probably out live me. The amp will let you know when the tubes are out because it will start to crunch and hiss and you like a diseased cat or something. Pending on the level of use, tubes should last about a year in the amp, longer if you dont play out as much. hardly no other upkeep issues other than tubes.

the amp has never warranted having to call peavey. i personally know cats that work for peavey and there all top notch.

I got the amp right when i graduated Atlanta Institute of Music in 02'. Used a mesa half stack until i played through the peavey at AIM. Thats when the love affair started w/ me and the classic fitty. I immediatly sold the mesa and got the peavey. THis amp will be a staple of my tone as long as im able to play guitar. This amp for the price,quality, and overall package is hands down the best. Dont knock it till you try it peavey haters of the world. I use an erray of pedals as follows.
1.e.b. volume
2.matrix tuner(out through e.b. volume)
3.fulltone fulldrive 2
4.Ts-9 analogman silvermod
5.dynacomp mxr
6.ibanez cs-9
7.boss oc-2
Effects loop
1.Boss EQ
2.Boss noisegate
3.line6 dl-4
4. boss rt-20 rotary twin pedal
This effect chain gives me the best tone without sucking out to much of my signal. Take use of the amps effects loop. I saw that one review hade a complaint about the effects loop not being a true effects loop. That guy needs to do his homework, the effects loop is an independent channel and is a true effect loop. dig it.

I'm the original owner of a 93' Classic 4x10. I'll skip the features. You know what they are. I do wish it had a true effects loop, and I hate the controls in the back. Of course, I didn't like that design from day one. I bought the amp for $325 and a 1/2 decent Marshall transistor amp.

The amp does have a very wide range. It falls short of thrash metal, but then who cares. I play the blues. On clean high volumn, you can put basically any effect such a floor pod through it. That is where I get the distortion when wanted. I play a true 84' Smith Strat (two knob variety), a Gretsch Streamliner, and a Goldtop. The amp does have some hiss at volumn which is not a big deal. It's not a 60's vibrolux or a late model Vibro-King, but it gets a solid 9.

This amp has been going strong for 14 years. It is extremely reliable. We've moved 1/2 dozen times. I've gigged it maybe another dozen. I would take it out more, but the weight is just too much anymore. In this category... 10.

Never needed them, but the website seems fairly decent. I'll have to give them benefit of the doubt, because they built an amp that didn't need repeated calls for help.

I've been playing for 25 years, and anymore, I am a living room guitar god in my own mind. I truly do not like the back of amp controls. This amp was bought as a graduation present to myself from graduate school. The kids were small, limited budget. For the price that they can be bought on Ebay (300-400), I'd say buy one on if funds are tight. For the money they are great. I'm now looking at getting a Vibro-King. So, if it were lost, I would not buy another at this time. Still, the amp gets a 9 overall.

this is my second review. ive had the amp for over a year now so i figured id contribute again.

mine is a peavey classic 50 made in 2000.

its got an effects loop, footswitchable lead and normal channel, footswitchable reverb, presence, three band eq, and four ten inch peavey blue marvel speakers. TWEED. i love tweed.

ive had both the 2x12 and the 4x10 version, and the 4x10 pushes more air so it sounds louder to me. 50 watts is PLENTY for what i play.

this amp sounds amazing.

i play a MIM fender standard tele with a hot rails humbucker in the bridge, a squire silver sparkle jagmaster with a seymour duncan phat cat in the bridge, and a stock silver sparkle jagmaster.

the jag with the p90 gets a great spanking clean out fo the normal channel that gets real loud before it starts breaking a sweat. the telecaster with the hot rails pushes the amp a little louder, but it still stays really clean pretty far into the travel of the knob.

i play indie/ambient/progressive stuff in the vein of gatsby's american dream/the dear hunter/portugal. the man/mogwai/circa survive/etc...

im semi pro, so i need good sounding gear and reliable gear for touring and gigging. my other amp is a marshall jtm 60 2x12 combo. its a cool amp. i run it in stereo with my classic 50 and its sounds freakin nuts. i love it. i use my echo park to run a ping pong delay between the two of them and its unreal.

the lead channel is awesome. up untill about halfway its a really thick, punchy overdrive thats just awesome. its perfect. after that, it starts to get a little heavier, but never gets too heavy. it just ends up being more in your face. the mids are there. all the harmonics from this amp are awesome.

i gotta give peavey credit for their blue marvel speakers. they are really somthin else. i thought they might be cheap and crappy sounding, but on the contrary, they compliment the amp well and pump out some lush tones.

it gets really loud without much noise. the only noise i ever notice is the built in fan. but i dont mind that, it keeps temperatures in control. its an awesome feature. peavey really hit the nail on the head with this amp.

Ive used this amp for over 3 years now. it has come through time and time again, ive never had it fail on me.

i never technically gig without a backup nowadays since i run my rig in stereo, but i used to gig with just the peavey and it was never a problem.

this thing is heavy. the only thing peavey didnt do, and i dont hold it against them, is include casters. no biggie, went to the hardware store and bought four, attached them and there you go, now we are rollin.

ive replaced the tubes once with jj's and they sound great. the stock tubes where sovtek but didnt sound bad. the jj's really brought this amp to life.

emailed them about dating my old classic 50, got back to me the next morning with a date of manufacture, what batch it was in, who built it, a whole bunch of info. then he asked me how i liked it and if i needed anything else. great customer service.

ive been playing guitar for 7 years. ive played tons of amps and had a bunch too. ive had a vintage fender bassman ten, a line 6 flextone 2 head (haha) and some others, but this amp has stood up to all of those and shine through. i havent played one gig without my peavey and thats how its gonna be.

if it where lost or stolen, i would get another one very quickly. you just cant beat the quality and workmanship of these amps. they sound amazing, are affordable, look great, and are tough as hell. two nationwide tours prove it.

the only thing that bugs me is that they changed the cosmetics for the new ones and they do not look good. haha. they should change back. oh well. and add casters. thats all!!

The amp was made in the late 1990s. Basically one channel with a "Normal and Lead" selection. I say one channel because they both share the same eq. I use it for jamming, and I use an ABY switch to toggle back and forth between the Classic 50 and my 5150 combo. It has more than enough power for jamming and when I play live I always MIC, so it doesn't need to be pushed hard.

The clean channel stays very clean, only starts to distort when the amp is pushed to the limit. Nice fat clean channel, best way to describe it as "SWEET", I find The Devilles lacked a certain warmth that the Peavey Classic 50 has. I use A Gison Les Paul, and a Fender Fat Strat, both sound great. The Distortion channel is surprisingly HEAVY, it may not be a Marshall or Mesa Boogie distortion but a very useable HARD ROCK distortion. Think Aerosmith, Bad Company, Spin Doctors. Roll back your Guitar volume a little and you get a very nice Tom Petty, ZZ top crunch. Hard to find amps that both a Clean and Drive nicely, but the Classic 50 is GREAT for both. a Plug in and Play Amp....TUBE TONE all the way

Yeah, I would use it without a back-up. It's a Peavey and they do make GOOD STUFF, Not sure why some people look down on Peavey Gear, they make great stuff, for the working musician at an affordable price. Hey if their stuff is good enough for EVH, or Joe Satrianni, it should be good enough for me eh?

Never dealt with them, but I hear they are quick to respond.

I have been playing for 20 Plus years, I am not a professional but have been playing clubs for fun and money for about 12 years now. My Other main amp is a 5150, it's a One Trick Pony I admit, but it does the HIGH Gain Trick so well...the best out there (IMHO). I like the style, very retro. I love the 4x10's, although the 2x12's have a sweet voice as well, but the 4x10's seem to move a lot more air, seem louder. I looked at the Deville 4x10, but the distortion on the Peavey was better, not as harsh. Also, the clean channel on the Peavey seemed sweeter, or fatter or something...just had more warmth. Bob at Eurotubes says that Peavey hit the Mark with the Classic 50, and I agree. I think it'll be the only amp you'll need to cover all genre's.

It has two differtent inputs, clean and lead channels, yada, yada, yada...

I am a class A junkie with a Bad Cat Hot Cat 15 that does not make a very usable practice amp (think insane volume), so I got the Classic 50 to fill the bill. At first, I was not impressed at all, but it worked. It wasn't until the power tubes gave out and I decided to replace all of the tubes. WOW! What a difference! When I pulled out the stock preamp tubes, two were Electro Harmonix and one was Sovtek! I replaced them all with the Mesa Boogie Chinese 1 and the amp can actually breathe now! I thought the "Blue Marvel" speakers might be contributing to the previous bad sound, but they actually sound good! After this revelation, I'm giving a nine!

Well, the power tubes went out, but that's normal...

No clue...

Not bad. I didn't think the tubes would make too much of a difference in the sound with an amp that has this much silicon!

For sound sample go to:

www.sikluv.com/music

I think it's late 90's. I bought it used.
It has a clean and a "lead", which can be switched either by a toggle switch or a footswitch. It has reverb, which I use as a substitute for echo. I know it's not the same thing, but it works for me. Sometimes the echo can be annoying. Reverb, I don't need to adjsut for each song.
I use it for shows and practice.

It has pre and post knobs that allow you to play with the distortion. You can make it sound really good.
It stays clean for as loud as I need it.
Im using a Gretsch 6118, no effects needed for my style...
I play a mix of rockabilly/psychobilly/garage

I turn everything to about 7, have the reverb cranked...

I've had it for a year, it's been great...
never a problem, never had it serviced.

na

I've been playing 10 years, I would get another.
I had a bassman, the holy grail for what I play, and I thought it was too harsh. with the post and pre knobs for adjusting, it takes that harsh edge off. I love it...

Made in 2005. 2 channels, global EQ which voices both channels together well. Plenty of power for any application. It's a pretty basic bare bones amplifier which is what you really need in a solid valve combo.

Extremely versatile amplifier. Solid clean channel and Good warm well voiced overdrive.

I use it for all kinds of rock situations, soft or hard. You can certainly use it for metal, although I doubt most people would.

I was so impressed by this amplifier that I sold my Mesa Recto & 4x12 cab to get this amplifier and the classic 30 for practice and backup. I realized I didn't need the "stack" thing to get a solid adequate tone. Besides rectos and modern heads are tone suckers and are often a bit lifeless.

Fantastic. This amplifier can get dark, bright, sweet, muddy, fat, warm, crystal clear, and breaks up nicely if you push it to do so. I have never used too many pedals and only use effects sparingly on recordings.

For guitars I use a '77 Gibson RD standard, a modified Epiphone Sheraton w/ classic '57 pickups, a Gibson SG Standard, and an Epiphone Supernova. I have used a fender jag through this amp, but I don't enjoy the sound of single coils as much as I enjoy humbuckers. I like a huskier tone without any spank.

This amplifier truly breathes on both channels. I did swap the tubes for JJ's and the amplifier had a much smoother and warm response, especially at higher volumes. The clean has plenty of depth and breaks up nicely at around 5 or 6 which sounds great. The overdrive is well voiced and is warm, thick and crystal clear. I generally leave the bass and mids up at around 3:00, and the treble and presence at around 10:00. I like a moodier and bold tone for my music. There are some covers that we play where the Classic can't get the job done, but these would include NIN cover tunes (just a few). For all of our originals, I only need the classic live, for the covers, I use a Vetta II combo live.

As far as the speakers are concerned, I tried celestion G10's in this, and a Vintage 30 in my classic and immediately returned them. Then, I tried Delta demon's from eminence and a Texas heat in the 30...not quite. For some reason, I'm very pleased with the Blue Marvels, they maintain a smooth rich midrange and maintain similar upper harmonics that celestions do. They're punchy and well voiced for the classics

I have veered away from celestions due to the harsh upper mid-range spike that they are often characteristic of (yes, even greenbacks and alnico blues). Especially in speakers such as the V30, or the G12T-75. The G10's were voiced similar to the V30, and I highly prefer the Blue Marvels. A spike in the upper mid-range brings out a brittle aspect of the classic's tone that I do not prefer.

Overall, amazing amplifier, I chose this amplifier over an AC30, a Fender hot rod, and any marshall in the shop.

It's a true working man's amplifier that has solid breathing tone that cuts through. My guitars sound expressive and their characteristics are not lost by over compressed tone that many expensive companies produce.

Cheers to an affordable, reliable, great sounding amplifier that looks stylish to boot.

Very reliable. Fixed bias is a plus to be spared from a day in the shop, and my combo was made soundly (no vibrations or rattling)

Very helpful via phone or e-mail. Timely responses and minimal waiting time. They are very attentive and give knowledgable feedback to any questions or concerns.

I've been playing for 8 years. I have owned a Fender hot rod deville, a Marshall JCM2000 DSL401, a Mesa Rectoverb, a Mesa Dual rectifier, a line 6 Vetta II, and now these two classic combos, the 50/401, and the classic 30.

I had been back to the shop to look at warmer combos (hot rod) and realized that what I wanted was really here. Affordable, good tone, reliable, it's all there.

I bought this amp new in 1993 or 94. It's an early model without the effects loop. It's original, tubes, speakers and all. It's got two channels; normal and lead, and reverb, all of which are footswitchable (switch was included). This I believe was Peavey's first "high end, boutique type" all tube amp, with peavey's usual bang for the buck kind of value. It;s got 3 12ax7 tubes in the preamp, and 4 EL84 tubes in the power amp section. These were introduced not long before Peavey introduced the 5150 amp and head, designed with Eddie Van Halen. It's very high quality, with solid plywood case, steel chassis and reinforcment, tough tweed like covering, heavy duty steel switches, chicken head knobs..etc. Yes, it is HEAVY! I wish it had rollers built in..
The lead channel has it's own pre and post gain knobs and the normal channel has it's own volume knob. This is all in addition to the master volume, presence, reverb, and mid, treble, bass knobs. It has a power on switch and a separate standby switch. The two channels can also be switched directly on the amp. There are two inputs, bright and normal.
As well, there are separate 16 and 8 ohm speaker output jacks.

Since this model amp has been around for some time you have likely heard that it has a very "classic" sound. Yes, but it is also quite flexible..
I use a fender strat with two gold lace sensors and a Dimarzio "quarter pounder" in the bridge. I also have a Peavey raptor plus (strat style guitar)with an Humbucker (of unknown origin, it's not peavey..) in the bridge. I play classic rock, blues and metal mostly, and it's very good for these.
LEAD CHANNEL: The amp seems better suited for humbuckers if you want marshall-like distortion in the lead channel. BUT, if you use a trick and plug an old cord into the bright input while you play throught the normal input, you get a slight boost in drive and harmonics. It works well with humbuckers to, but it sounds great either way. I play strat style guitars and I find that turning down the treble and the presence up, with the the bass and mid up gives the amp a very warm sound. Strong bass/mid range but with a strat's strong treble it still cuts very nicely thanx. Sounds a lot like Cream or Bluesbreakers era E. Clapton tone, but not quite as smooth.
NORMAL CHANNEL: I don't care so much for the clean channels flatness, but it is a good starting point, with lots of clean volume. It begs for a tube preamp pedal or other effect to shape it. I use a pedal to boost the bass, treble and gain slightly and give it a fender twin kind of sound.
I used to own one of Peavey's 70's (or so) era "Classic" amps and this is a totally different animal no comparison at all, except perhaps in the normal channel's sounds.

I've owned it for about 12 years and although it hasn't seen a lot of hard use, it's been totally reliable.

N/A

I love it, although it's a heavy sucker. I bought it so I would have a solid, reliable amp, with excellent tube tone for the future and it's given me no problems. Even after many years, I consider it more than ready to take on new musical projects I am starting.

I think it's a '98 or '99. I play classic rock and blues. Two input channels; one normal, one bright. I use the normal. Has switching and FX loop (which I don't use). I used the amp at an outdoor gig for the first time last week. not wuite powerful enough for that. Great indoors. Balancing the master volume, volume, pre and post controls is a little confusing....

I use a Les Paul and a Strat. Amp is quiet. Like all amps with built in distortion/overdrive...it's really not the same as just overdriving the crap out of a standard amp. It will get as dirty as you want, but the real bottom end 'whump' isn't there. That takes sheer power - more than 50 watts into 4 cheesy tens will provide. The clean channel sounds great and if you turn this baby all the way up, it sounds pretty cool.

I bought this amp as a back up. Haven't used it that much yet. I'd trust it. Haven't had any sevice on it...yet.

Bought used.

Been playing pro for 45 years. Main amp for 28 years now is a Music Man RD-100 head into two 10" JBL E-110's. Bought the Peavey from a buddy because I wanted something else cheap. Don't know if I'd buy another if it got knicked. Was also looking at the Crate Clubman 50. Got the Peavey real cheap. Not crazy about the stock 10's in it. Am thinking about either a JBL D-130 single 15 (build new baffle board) or a pair of Celestion 12's. This amp wants to see 16 ohms.

I'm guessing it's an early 1990's model. The versatility of this amp is probablly it's strongest point, you are able to attain a ery wide range of sounds with the 2 channels, clean and lead. Being limited in On the fly sound changing it could use 2 preamp channels, which would make it even better. I've used this amp in live settings and studio settings. It has the capability of being EXTREMELY LOUD, which is great for the studio, I'd suggest letting it heat up for a good hour before hand, allowing the tubes to really get cooking, it will sound even better thah it already does. Having an onboard cooling fan is genius, it keeps the tube temperature under control, which is always important. I read how people change tubes frequently in amps.. I don't see the rational in this ritual, tubes tend to sound better as they age. THis model I've acquiured was retubed at some point with groove tubes, which sound just fine.

I use a few different Stratocasters, a telecaster, and an Epiphone Casino. I play rock, pop, country and blues primarily, it's a really versatile amp. It;s not prone to being noisy at all. The types of sounds I can get from this amp are just so wide in variety, an example would be, a James Gang/Matthew Sweet, Oasis, To an SRV, then over to a country tone, to a solid pop sound, lots of versatility. You can even get pretty crunchy if you want to, but I don;t get really heavy I'm not into not hearing the notes, so i stay away from the super heavy tones which it can attain.

I've never had a problem with it at all, But I seem to have rattled a screw loose on the front, so I have to order another one. As mentioned above, it was retubed somewhere along the line.

I have no idea if it even has a warranty, being I purchased it used.

I've been playing since I was 6 years old, and have owned alot of different amps, this seems to be the most versatile gigging amp Ive ever owned. I'd replace it if it were stolen. I love the quality of the sound it produces. I do not enjoy the weight, it weighs like 7o lbs...I also use a fender blues deville 4/10 with a slew of stomp boxes, The peavey doesn;t have that fender sparkle, but you don't miss it, because the Peavey sounds great on it's own, it's not a fender clone sound...it shouldn't, and that is a strong point. I use my Fender mostly with BK Butler tube driver and an old MXR distortion II, and the Peavey gets the BK sound but actually better, with out pedal board BS happening ie humming, tap dancing around.. it's just easier and sounds sometimes better. I do wish it had 2 pre-amp channels, you could use it even more effectively without runing back to it between songs, it would be a good design improvement.
Just take time in feeling what the amp is about, it took me about 3 months to get used to what it wanted to do with different guitars. I had in a very reflective room and It sounded weird, but when I moved it to a tighter room, it sounded great. So, being it can project sound, it may throw you a little. Don;t fall down with it either it may kill you.

50 watt, two channel, 4x10 combo amp.
4 10 inch speakers. Mine is a '93 I believe, so I'm assuming they are blue marvels, but I'll ask Peavey later.

Awesome tweed covering over sturdy cabinet.

This amp is awesome with pedals. It sounds awesome plugged straight in. All around this amp is amazing. It was my first tube amp. Im pretty sure it will be my last as well.

I play in two bands. My main band is a hardcore/post hardcre/progressive band. My second is a side project. Its an ambient/indie/progressive kinda thing. Lots of delay.

Bottom line, this amp sounds amazing with anything I've ever done. It handles the high gain with aplomb and it sounds astounding with delays and reverbs.

The clean channel is awesome, and you can get some dirt out of it at hight volume with everything maxed out. Sounds awesome. The lead channel is so nice. The overdrive I get from this thing makes me melt. So nice.

I play a Fender Telecaster Standard, modded with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the bridge, and an Epiphone Les Paul LE with 57' Classics.

Basically, I cant gush over the sound of this amp enough. AMAZING.

Its very quiet, even with the gain on the lead channel maxed. The clean channel is very warm.
The EQ has 3 bands and is very responsive. In conjunction with the Presence control, it sounds great.

Ive dropped this thing out of the trailer, knocked it off the top of my Marshall 4x10 during a show, tipped it over, kicked it (on accident) and have had people fall on it. Never a problem. I bought it used off eBay, and I dont know if the guy retubed it before he sent it or not. All I know is that I have had this amp for a year and 5 months and I havent had a single repair need. The tubes are the same as the day I got it. Sounds fantastic. This amp is super solid and rugged. Took it across the country and didnt have one problem all tour. Crazy!!!

Never dealt with them, but Ive heard good things.

Amazing amp. Spunds great, very versitile, and rugged as hell. Plus, I love the vintage look. Cant go wrong here.

I picked up this amp ( which looks almost brand new ) on Ebay for $450.00. THen I had to actually lift this anvil of an amp off of the UPS truck.. holy cats!!! I saw stars for a moment thinking I may have been transported to hollywood boulevard, but realized I had just caved in my nutsack lifting this beast. I have no idea what year it is. It came equipped with 4 noname speakers, which work, but I think they sound a little sterile. After spinning knobs for almost 1 month and driving myself batty trying to find a tone ( that I liked) I think I have a handle on this thing, it has a few sweet spots that are really wild. It reminds me of this particular tone, ( but you can call me crazy if you feel so compelled) the tone sounds like a blackface Fender Deluxe ( a real one ) and an "original" BK Butler 4 knob tube driver.... shut up.. I'm right about this, that's what it sounds like. Very versatile amp, just mind the preamp knob, it'll fool you. It can get super distorted at the slightest push past 5-6 wammo, then your into Nugent land and there's no coming back. And watch out folks, this thing is LOUD, and I mean it.....
I'm learning to love this amp. A few years ago I used one for a recording and was blown away, which is why I bought this one. It sounds.. similar from what I remember. The other one may have had betteror worse tubes, and may have had different speakers. all available if I get interested in swapping stuff out.

I use 2 different stratocasters both single coil setups, one has a humbucker in the bridge which splits into single coil, 1 being a creme/maple neck fender Japanese model (1990?) and a Red Ruggiero custom guitar, which sounds nice. I also have a telecaster which is made by Ruggiero, and prefer the tele over any other type of guitar, because they have a nice lunch box feel and workman approach, are basic and have endless tone varieties for such a simple guitar. My tele has a minihumbucker in the neck and a vintage tele pickup in the bridge for some teeth and richness. I play mostly pop rock, but I like to bring myself back to reality and pretend I can play some country western crazy poppin, chicken picken riffs, but I don;t practice enough to really do it properly. So, pop is my style. I also have a fender Blues deville tweed which I use with a variety of vintage effects that sounds just insanely great, but is very different from the peavey. I do not like the clean channel on this amp, it just sounds nasty and flat, zero color, no depth, that's what a fender is for!! The distortion is very controllable and rich, just don;t crank the bass too much or it will honk and woof at you which may cause you to make bad faces at your amp, or make weird noises of your own instead of concentrating on playing.

I don;t know, I'll tell you after I fall down a flight of stairs with it..and then after I get out of the hospital, if I survive the wily coyote amp on top of head drop.....
BUT usually Peavey makes products that are tougher than the nutsack of a 45 year old rhino.

I'd guess that they are as bored as the Maytag man.

I've been playing for almost 35 years ( yes including just dragging a guitar around, I count that because some people call that art..)
I'd probably replace it, sure. I love the texture of the distortion/overdrive, it's nice, I hate the weight. I chose this amp because I used one in a session and was floored at how it recorded/sounded and how versatile it was.
I wish I had more talent to squeeze out more tone from this beast.
Buy this amp if you like a versatile warm tone, do not buy this amp if you like the type of tone that renders your guitars tone useless, spend that money on getting your ears fixed then buy this amp.

i'm giving it a "10" because it has everything you need, and nothing that you don't. lead/ normal switch, effects loop, ext. speaker cab, footswitch jack....sometimes more bells and whistles equals features that are unuseable ( ie certain company's 3 or 4 channel amps...but they don't tell you 2 of them sound so inferior that they are unuseable!)..i don't need modeling/ digital effects.

also, i am rating the 50 model with the 4/10's. mine are the black back unlabeled speakers, not the blue marvels.

finally, an amp that sounds good on all accounts. distortion range is subtle od to hard rock. much, much better than compareable fender amps in terms of better distortion. works very well with an assortment of distortion/ fuzz pedals i have. i use sc guitars, with an assortment of od/ distortions ( rt 66, jeckyll and hyde, vox tonebender, dano black coffee if i want hi gain). the amp distortion on its own is great! reverb sounds good(not a main use of mine...but who knows? upgrade?)

i play mainly alternative rock/ grunge type of stuff. sometimes i'll doodle a little blues or jimi/ zep type stuff, and it's easy to dial in that sound as well.


this amp is exceptionally versitle in it's sound capabilities. you can use it for anything to jazz, to country, blues, classic to modern rock. you can't really get a metal zone, but get your favorite pedal, and it's no problem.

mine is used, but i think it will hang in there. peavey gives you great bang for the buck. i may replace the tubes soon ( i just got this used in a trade, and tubes are ?? age).

one of my thoughts is this: go into any pawn shop/used store, and you'll see plenty of 80's peavey stuff, still up and running. make of that what you will, but they have a great rep for reliability.

never have dealt with them, but as mentioned, i always thought you got a good product for what you paid for. again, great rep for reliability from peavey.

overall, this amp gets a solid 10. i've literally fallen in love with this amp. i traded a fender blues deluxe for this amp. ( which was a good amp, may i offer, but lacked the distorion i desired, didn't have an ext. jack)

if it died, i'd put money into it, or replace it.

Features have been well documented. I'm basically updating my review from 4 years ago now that I've had a couple different sets of tubes in the amp. Mine is the 4-10 combo...I love 10's for guitar.

I use two guitars: A Strat with Fralin Vintage Hot pickups, and a Samick TR-2 SG with Duncan Desiged humbuckers. Obviously, the humbuckers have a lot more output than the Strat.

I just wanted to comment on the tone of this amp after I installed two different sets of JJ tubes. Before I did that, the amp had a "loose" overdrive sound...kinda like Mick Ralphs in Bad Company. Sounded good for power chords, but kinda lost it for solo stuff sometimes.

The JJ tubes (preamp and power tubes) gave the amp a much smoother, tighter quality to the distortion. This is a nice upgrade for a nice amp. The amp will stay clean at high volume with the Strat, though with the SG, it starts to break up a bit at real high volumes...but in a most pleasing way.

I've played out with this amp a lot. I lug it to jam sessions and guys are always amazed when they hear it, especially since I just plug straight in without pedals. I like to control the degree of overdrive with guitar volume...interesting how many guys have NOT figured out how to do this...they just dime their guitar and do the pedal tap dance thing. The feature I really like is the active presence control, which can add some extra shimmer, or bite if you need it. Really useful when I plug in the SG, which needs a bit of help in the high end to sound crisp enough.

For my styles (blues, classic rock, country rock, folk rock) this amp is awesome. I'll NEVER sell it.

I've used this thing a lot for 6 years...just changed tubes a couple times. Nary a burp. Amazingly reliable. I use it all the time without a backup...well, I take an extra little amp (also a Peavey) but have never needed it.

Peavey has the best customer support there is. Check their web site...they have a great support forum with lots of nice Peavey users and knowledgeable techs to help with any issue you have.

I've been playing about 35 years, about 25 years real serious like. I'm not a major pro guy or anything, but know my way around the guitar. The only thing I don't like is the weight - 63 pounds. But it's worth it to get the sweet tone. Best tube amp value around.

My model was made in the year 2000. It has two channels, an effects loop, reverb (which doesn't work on mine). 50 Watts all tube, 4 10" speakers. One major complaint is that the panel is backwards. I don't understand this really, but I don't mind.

This amp is perfect for what I play. I'm in the band Hot Licks- www.myspace.com/hotlicks - we play blues/rock. The clean channel is warm, clean, and bright. The distortion is enough for me, but it wouldn't be enough for a metal player. It can give you a Keith Richards crunch all the way to a alternative distortion. I use a Fender Stratocaster and it sounds great.

The only complaint I have is that the reverb doesn't work. I'm going to get that fixed, it shouldn't be a major problem.

Never had to deal with them.

I love this amp. The tones are great, it's pretty easy to use, it fits me well. I use this with a Fender Strat and I use a Danelectro Wasabi AX-1 Distortion (for higher gain songs). It gives me everything I want in an amp. It's heavy, but it's relatively easy to carry (just bearhug it and get one hand under it). I wish the reverb worked, but I'll get that fixed. I love this amp.

This is a 1992 model with enough options to suit my playing styles and musical tastes which tend to be classic rock, blues and contemporary Christian. The cabinet is made of plywood and has a nice vintage look to it with the tweed cover. This model came stock with 4 - 75 watt RMS Eminence speakers as opposed to the Blue Marvel's in current production amps. It has a normal and lead option on the amp which you can toggle between the two with a footswitch. A second button on the footswitch gives you the option to engage reverb at some preset level on the amp. Also there are separate inputs to a bright or normal channel. I prefer the normal channel to bring out the bottom end of the amps tonal capabilities. The amp is rated at 50 watts, either at 16 or 8 ohms. This thing has more wattage than most people will ever need. I never have the master volume up past 5. If you need more volume just mike the amp. It is an all tube amp with 3-12AX7 preamp and 4-6BQ5/EL-84 power tubes. One of the nicest features is a built in fan to circulate air around the tubes. The power tubes can generate a fair amount of heat. Mine came stock with Peavey labeled tubes, which turned out to be Sovtek's. I use the amp for home playing/practice, freelance jam sessions and most notably with a contemporary Christian worship team. All in all a pretty vesatile amp. The post-gain and pre-gain feature makes it possible to achieve a variety of sounds from clean to a moderately overdriven crunch. All in all this amp serves my needs very adequately.

I play a 1976 Les Paul Standard and a 1992 Made in Japan reissued 1954 Strat. I use a series of effects pedals for whatever my desired tone may need to reflect. I made two significant modifications to the amp that made a huge difference in the overall tone. I install a quad set of Vintage Weber AlNiCo 25 watt speakers for starters. The specific model was 10A125. They ran about $90 per speaker. The second, and I would say equally as important an upgrade was installing some used old stock tubes. I inserted 3 Telefunken 12AX7/ECC83 preamp tubes and 4 Amperex 6BQ5/EL-84 power tubes. HUGE improvement here. I can not stress this enough. Todays tubes are so lacking in quality tone. This ran about $115. I sold the old tubes and speakers on Ebay for about $140 to offset some of the cost. With the upgrades the amp is a tone monster. Because I do not know how an amp could have a perfect score here I give this area a 9. Besides the equipment is only as good as the ability of the player.

I have had one repair done on the amp because of a faulty resistor. So I must ding Peavey here. Other than that it has been rock solid. I have another older vintage Peavey amp ('74 Peavey Vintage twin reverb)that I've owned for over 30 years and it has only been in the shop once. Basically I think Peavey makes a pretty decent product.

Awesome support. Every question I've asked about this amp or my '74 Vintage Peavey Twin Reverb has been answered. Also the user forum at www.Peavey.com is loaded full of self help info. Check it out.

I've been playing for 30 years. This amp compliments my styles and range of tones. I think for the initial outlay the amp is at best a $350 - $400 investment (used), before the optional speaker and tube upgrades I mentioned. They are always up for auction on Ebay but be prepared to pay a hefty shipping fee. It weighs in at around 70 lbs with packaging. I would recommend this amp to anyone looking for versatility and affordability. It is in no way a Bassman, but it gets the job done for about $700 less. The pre and post gain controls are great at shaping your sound, which the Bassman does not have. I chose this amp based on a friends satisfaction with the amp and the tonal characteristics I heard. Because I have owned another Peavey for over 30+ years and it keeps getting better with time, this amp should do the same. The support at Peavey is rock solid. If stolen or lost I would buy another one. For the price you can't find a better deal around. If you do the upgrades you can come close to replicating a Bassman.

3x12AX7+4xEL84-four10"non labeled speakers(so they used to do in the first couple of years-mine is a 1994 model) efx loop,a nice refreshing fan-blonde tolex-great vintage look-2 channels-foot switch etc.

WARM WARM WARM--Great Fenderish clean- very good reverb-the drive channel brings you in a tube heaven dimension.This is a great blues-rock machine(Chicago Blues,SRV,Classic Rock tones):LOVABLE!!!!!

I've mailed a few questions concerning the dating and others technical aspects:they kindly answered in minutes!!!

I own a few tube amps(Fender,Marshall,Laney etc):this is a really boutique-like,hand crafted amp with a great price/quality ratio,and one of the best sounding around.Absolutely great!

Bought the amp late in 2004. It has two inputs and two channels. Being a 4x10 the cabinet is much taller than a standards 1x12 or 2x12. It is very heavy - I have fitted wheels to it!

The amp is very loud but as it has a master volume you can still get a wicked tone at home / studio / practice levels.

I play mainly blues & country rock. It has all of the tones that you would expect from a vintage Fender only better.

The sound without any FX is brilliant with both strat & tele. If I want a mental metal sound it works great with my Alesis Quasravverb GT.

When wound up the overdrive is thick and creamy.

I bought a Fender Hot Rod first and was very disapointed, the Peavey has the sound that the Hot Rod should have produced.

The amp is quite new still, no problems so far. It seems to be very well built. I have had a Peavey Express 112 65watt combo for about 15 years and it is still going strong - it just sound a little too transistory for the type of music I play now.

The Peavey European operation is based not far from where I live in the UK so I should expect good customer support.

I have been playing since I was a kid - I am now 50. The Peavey Clasic 50 is the best amp I have ever played. I might but a Mesa Boogie if I won the lottery!

Bought this new in I believe 1991 for an unbelievable $350.00 bucks. I'm old and have CRS (Can't remember shit} No later then 1991 I am sure of that. The amp has been clear across the US and has held up great. Last year one of the circuit boards went tits up and it cost me about $140 to fix but for an amp this old that has seen almost daily use that?s pretty good I'd say. The amp has had only one tube change. The amp is a real gig machine and for blues it can't be beat. I do wish the amp had a little more bottom end. The amp has a bright and normal input and came with a reverb and lead footswitch which still work fine. This amp has not a mark on it other then the plastic peavey faceplate broke off years ago. (Use the cover it comes with when transporting the amp)The amp also has an external cabinet outlet. 4 10" blue marvels (again needs some better low end balls)3 12AX7's and 4 EL 84's. 3 band EQ etc etc.

All this amp needs is a good strat and a TS-9 and yer in for a set with double trouble. I do find the amp is a bit noisy depending on where it?s plugged in. With the compressor and TS-9 it tends to pick up radio signals and I don?t know why. The order in the effects pedals seems to make no difference. If anyone has the remedy for this e-mail me and tell me. This doesn?t happen everywhere and I assume it?s a problem with the wiring in the house or club not the amp. I of course could be wrong so if ya know please e-mail me. Great sounding for most styles of music. Clean is silky smooth. Dirty is well....dirty like it should be.

It?s a tank. Only problem described above. Oh the tech said the PC board may have shorted due to a bug but the possible offender was nowhere to be found so who knows.

Peavey has always been great. I have always been able to call and discuss the amp with them. A rare thing anymore AAA+. Warranty on the amp was a year if I'm not mistaking. Didn?t need it until the amp turned 13. Never a problem when calling these folks.

Been playing off and on for years. This amp is the best I have owned and for the money I paid it can't be beat. If it were stolen I couldn?t afford to replace it for what they cost today. I have played through Marshall's and Fender's and everything in between. This amp holds it's own with the best of them. It does what it is designed to do and then some and that's all you can ask. The only thing I wish this amp had was the ability to plug into it and sound exactly like SRV. Maybe it's my playing. The amp is great.

Not sure about the year - bought it new possibly around 94/95. See other users for standard inclusions. Doesn't have an fx loop but never used it anyway. Don't care about a headphone loop as this amp is best played at volume. Only use it for home use now but used it every week for 2 years as a gigging amp. Only comment is that it is rather heavy, but then you don't have separate head which is a pain anyway.

Three guitars used with this amp - a rickenbacker v381, a vintage reissue strat with special bridge single pickup and occasionally plug an acoustic in. Also have an old ricky copy with two high gain humbuckers. All guitars sound 1st class through this one - I used to own a fender 2x12 and couldn't cope with the very high gain but the peavey copes easily.

I play mainly clean/slight overdrive so find the overdrive channel is a little overpowering, only use it up to about 6 before the sound is too much. Clean channel is clear, and breaks up nicely once past 5 or 6 - I find needs to be set a mid to high volume levels before it starts singing. I love the sound - sold the fender within one year of buying this one as was gathering dust!!

No issues. I have dumped this amp in the back of many cars over the years and never failed me once. Had the tube changed a couple of times, but that's about it. Very robust.

Never had to deal with peavey and no problems under warranty.

Playing for about 15 years now. This is my third amp and would buy another if it was stolen. I shopped around a bit when buying this one, but this one was in my local shop and I dreamed of owning it.

I have an older model. I bought it around 94/95 but it was probably a year or two (or three) when I got it. 2 channels, lead and clean. No headphones (who uses that anyway?). I just ordered the effects loop aftermarket kit from Peavey. $25 for that. There's only one 3-band EQ so you have to walk over to the amp and mess with it if you change channels or try to find something that sounds good with both channels. 2-button footswitch also does reverb. Can get plenty loud. When on the clean channel you have a "Normal" gain knob. When on the lead channel you have a "Pre" and "Post" for gain knobs. Pre is your saturation, post is your volume (probably breaks down to your preamp tubes and your power amp tubes I'd wager). And then a master volume knob. All knobs on mine go to "12"! LOL Take that spinal tap! LOL I use the amp pretty much as a loud speaker. The Line 6 DM-4 generates most of my tone. I set the Normal knob to 6 and the Master knob around 6 for most shows and let the DM-4 take over. This is the best amp for stompboxes in the world. The tube feel and reaction is still there even though your sound is being shaped by a TS-9, TS-808, Big Muff Pi, Boss Metal Zone, Marshall Shredmaster, Tone Bender, Pro Co Rat, DS-1, MXR Micro Amp, DOD Overdrive 250, etc.

Wonderful clean channel sound. I dig it. Again, crystal clear platform for decent effects to really sound their best. The lead channel I didn't used to like but I think that had more to do with my guitar(s) than anything. I'm using a Gibson Nighthawk Landmark series which has a pair of Gibson Mini-humbuckers (like in the Explorers and some LP's) and it has coil taps too. The amp is a little noisy with hot pickups on the lead channel. The spring reverb sounds genuine, not fake. The clean channel doesn't break up very easily even at high volumes which is nice when you're pushing overdrive pedals at high volumes and when you want clean....you just want it clean! Anyway, back to the lead chennel: nice thick saturations ala ACDC are possible and in fact, easily reproduceable, nice creamy overdrive right at the breaking point and more poignant blues drive tones are also pretty easily created. Though with only two channels and one EQ, it's not the best gigging amp.

Very dependable. I've ran this thing through ringer many times playing on the road for the last 9 years. It's always held up. Had one issue with a phillips screw head somehow got wedged in the circuitry and was shorting stuff out. Had to have happened at the factory too. Weird. Any way easy fix.

Support seemed helpful and friendly when I called about the effects loop.

For what I do, and the gear I use it's perfect. I've played along side pro's and usually their first reaction to the sight of it is..."why the hell are you playing through THAT?!" Then they hear it and are amazed by the tones I'm getting. Even my sound guy whose been exposed to hundreds of bands and has played in as many himself is absolutely blown away every time we do a show. But here's the trick: The Peavey Classic 50 by itself is OK. Pretty good, I'd rate it. The Line 6 DM-4 gets a similar rating of "Not Bad". The two of them together: Holy freakin cow! How two slightly better than mediocre pieces of equipment can get together and have this amazing tonal perfection is beyond me, but I'm not complaining. Write me if you want to know my DM-4 settings. Happy to share them. :)

The features seem pretty well spelled out in prior reviews.
It has pretty much everything I require feature wise. Mine is a 2002 model. It is mint and flawless. The previous owner played it a few times and put it in his closet when he realized playing the guitar took a bit of time/commitment/work. I stole it for $325. The local music store is asking $699 and it is no more mint than mine.

First a little background. I have been playing since I was 7. I'm 48 now. I've been through a few amps over the years. I used to play primarily Gibsons (Les Pauls and SG's) through Fender amps (Twins, Dual Showmans). Back in the late 80's I switched to Stratocasters but stayed with the Fender amps. In the 90's I used a Paul Reed Smith through a Marshall half stack.
That said, I'm currently playing a MIM Strat through the 50 4X10 classic. This is undoubtably the nicest amp I've ever owned. I did ALOT of shopping this time around. I wanted a 4X10 or 2X12 for portability reasons. I tested all the Fenders/Marshalls/Peaveys/Line6's etc. The Peavey blew them all away. I DIDN"T WANT to like the Peavey. They were always cheesy, joke amps back in the day. This amp dials in great clean sounds or tube distortion sounds effortlessly. I have a boatload of pedals but now they just get in the way of the tone. The amps reverb is sweet. The amp sounds glassy, clean, punchy and sweet in the clean setting. The drive settings will perfectly reproduce Page sounds (Heartbreaker), ZZ Top (Waiting for the Bus), Captain Beyond (Mezmerization Eclipse)Clapton (Layla) etc etc etc. It is stunning.
I compared all the Peaveys against each other as well and I liked the 4X10 and the Delta Blues almost equally, but the 4X10 moved the air a bit more and seemed like a better choice as one never knows how big the room they will be playing in is. The 2X12 was a VERY nice amp too, but the clean sound was not quite as full with it. The amp is quiet as hell (even with a Mex strat) unless you are right on top of it. It can get very loud if necessary.

I imagine so. I have a friend that has beaten the hell out of his classic 30 with no ill effects.

Don't have a clue.

I would replace this were it stolen without hesitation.

my Peavey Classic 50/4-10's is one of the first ones made I believe...there is no FX loop...I play mostly Ble=ues, r&b (60-70's even some 40 50's) I dont plsy Rap!!...No headphone connections, although it is very easy to add a headphone connection if you have just a basic knowldge of electronics...ala Craig anderson...I use this amp for playing gigs in fairly large clubs, and sometimes mike the amp through the PA.... I love this amp because it is all tube, and I am an all tube freak...I HAVE to have those hot (wam) tubes glowing in the amp to feel , and sound the way I want to sound...Sometimes I will run the Classic 50 in a stereo mode using a Zoom pedal...an old 3030...which is flimsy , but does the job nicely. I use at mainly as a boost.to make the Peavey scream....What a difference..

When I first plugged my U.S.A Strat into the peavey Clasic 59, and put the pick up selector in the 2nd position...it felt like Hendrix was playing "Little wing" or "The Wind Cries Mary"..etc etc...This is without the Zoom FX pedal...Hooking up the Zoom pedal, which is ancient by todays standards, and jus giving the front ent of the peavey a little boost , and EQ adjustment, maybe a little "doubling" quick slap back, the amp truly sings, and makes sounds that I wish I couls have gotten 20 or 30 yrs. ago..When I switch into overdrive (withe the Zoom pedal giving me a boost or a bit of distortion, the amp has unlimited sustain,and I have been told by people that I have jamed with.."wow, I have to get that amp") they were using marshals and Fender Twins, but, their sound couldn't come close to the Peavey..they would play a note and it would fade, while my guitar would sustain almost forever, and sound so full that it was almost a joke....I think the key to getting a GREAT sound is to overdrive the front end of the Peavey, pay CAREFUL attention to your EQ and distortion, as well as your compression...(not too much) Now I am talking about using a "lowly Zoom 3030"...I am sure that other "preamps, or boosters will do the same job, if not a better one....I would also like to say that the Peavey, sounds GREAT on its own, if you learn how to tweak the knobs, but it REALLY comes alive when you overdrive the amp..... little for old hendrix, and a lot for Super, heavy and death metal......When I play the peavey in the clean mode and add a little reverb an Tremelo from the Zoom, I sound like Pulp Fiction , or any of the Surf music from the 60's....I'm sorry for going on and on, but this amp does everything I want it to do....You just need to know a little about sound reproduction and you've got it made!!!!

The only negative thing that happened to me is that I had to solder the input jack a bit...I had been careless and put a computer keyboard on top of the jack and broke the connection...I fixed that in about 15 minutes...well maybe longer as I had to take the amp apart a little....I would use the Peavey Classic 50 on a gig without a backup if I had to, but I usually bring another amp anyway... an old Fender Tremelux, which I sometimes use for stereo, but usually don't, as It is too much a pain in the rear...I DID put all "different" tubes 12AX7's in the amp (Peavey) as I have a lot of them (old RCA'S , sylvanias, etc)hanging around, and it seemed to make the amp sound much better...Warmer, louder, more character etc..I still have the same old output tubes in there however....I do intend to experiment and change these tubes in the near future...

I bought the amp used and have never dealt with Peavey.

I have been a musician since a few years before the British invasion, about 1962. I played surf music, Duane Eddie,Top 40, Otis Redding, James Brown, Muddy Waters,Elvis, etc. When the Beatles arrived on the scene, I got into them, The Stones, (my favorite), the kinks etc.....also on to The Cream, Hendrix,Led Zeppelin,UFO, into the new wave groups...Bowey,etc...Punk music......Also Metallica, Cradle of filth, and a lot of the so called "alternative music" of today....But,,,,I have always been rooted in the blues...and R&B....I choose to buy this amp because one day I sat in with a group who was using the Classic Peavey, and I loved it from the first note....It is all a matter of learning how to use the amp for the best sound,,,sometimes just a compressor, booster, will mean all the difference in the world..I just wish I had a new speake cover, as mine is falling apart...but...the sounds that I get....KILL....even Mesa Boogeys, and Marshals...again...you have to learn how to use the amp...how to tweak it...Guitarists nowadays, should learn a bit about electronics....Best amp I have ever owned..

As stated above 50 watts 4/blue marvel 10 inch speakers. 4 EL84's and 3 12AX7's. Has lead and normal channel and came with a eefects pedal for lead and reverb. Has dial EQ so you can get a wide range of tone out of this.

I play it with a fat strat with noiseless singles and a pearly gates. The amp sounds great for blues and probably anything else you want to play through it. It can be as nice or nasty as you want it to be. Just a great all around amp suitable for home (not past 3 or you will blow the windows) or stage. Breaks up real nice after five.

Mine was purchased in 1993. (maybe the first year they came out) I changed the tubes in it with a matched set of EH EL84's about 3 months ago. It started on fire. Cost me 182 dollars. If you change tubes in this and the fuse blows just take it to an amp guy. I didnt and put a new fuse in it and again it started on fire. The circuit board fried. The amp guy said it could have been a bug on the board, bad tubes, tubes to hot or any number of a million things. I have never heard of this happening to anyone before. Peavy really didnt understand it either. One thing to remember is that it is self biosing and if your new tubes dont fall in the set range look out. Maybe 11 years was to long to change tubes eh. Otherwise it has not a scratch or dent on it and has been everywhere. It is a tank as one reviewer said.

Peavy was very good. Answred all e-mails and I was always able to talk to a human that spoke english when I called. Thats a plus anymore. Very good folks at peavy

Other then the tube thing this is a great amp especially if you are playing a strat or something with single coils you will love the tonal range you can achieve from this amp. It can also shred if thats yer bag.

As posted by everyone else...50 watts, 4 EL-84 power tubes, 3 12AX-7 preamp tubes. Two channels, though shared EQ. Footswitchable channel and reverb. I bought mine new in 1999, so it has the effects loop. More than enough power for my use. Despite some who complain about the shared EQ, that's not an issue for me. I just dial in the clean tone the way I like it and if I need more bottom from the drive channel, I use my guitar's tone controls. Overall it's a pretty versatile amp but if you want to play nu-metal or any of that same-o, same-o dropped D stuff, you'll need a pedal of some sort.

I primarily play a Fender Standard Strat which has Fralin Vintage Hot pickups. I also use a very, very nice Samick "Greg Bennett Design" Torino, which in reality is an SG. I play classic/southern rock, blues, power pop, borderline jazz and older instrumentals like surf music, etc. This amp is GREAT for all that.

I like it more with the single coils. The 4x10 configuration is my "secret" to getting the sound I like. Lots of upper mids which really cut thru a stage mix.

I really started playing this amp a lot at a couple jam sessions. I'd just plug straight in to avoid stage clutter...guitar, cord and amp. I'd use my guitar volume to control the amount of overdrive. With the Strat volume on 5 or 6 for clean, then roll it up to 8 for fat bluesy overdrive, all the way up to 10 for huge classic rock power chords and singing, sustained leads.

One night, a guy came up to me and said, "You have the BEST tone. What kind of distortion pedal are you using?" When I told him I wasn't using one he was incredulous. I've taken the pointy Peavey logo off the amp because to me it just looks better. I've received more comments on how great my "Bassman" sounds at these jam sessions since I've been plugging straight in. This gives me an opportunity to tell guys about the Peavey.

I've been gigging a lot lately, too, based largely on being heard with this amp at a few jam sessions. Guys asked for my phone number, and my phone is ringing. I wish the amp were smaller and lighter, but I don't think I'll worry about it any more.

I tend to dial in a darker, richer sound than most Strat players. The Fralins can really bite and sting, and I take some of that out with the amp...treble on 4?, mids on 7, bass on 9 (controls go to 12). Presence control about 6. If I want more bite or sparkle, it's easily dialed in with a bit more treble and upping the presence control.

With the SG, I have to completely change settings to get a more useable sound. But lately, I've been switching guitars in a set and not making any adjustments on the amp. And I'm really enjoying the rich, warm tones of the humbuckers. I use the SG mostly for slide tunes, but have rocked out with it a lot and am liking it more and more.

Get this amp cranked on the clean channel and be prepared for some great creamy tone. Smooth and sweet, and just right for rhythm or lead playing.

I've replaced tubes twice just because. It's built like a tank, but I take care of it and make sure I don't stack stuff on top of it that will break the knobs. I don't put stuff in the back of the amp, except the footswitch.

The only problem I had with the amp was due to my own negligence. I carelessly tossed the footswitch in the back, which loosened one of the speaker wires. So I played the amp a couple times with only 3 speakers working. I noticed the amp lacked power and just wasn't sounding right...slipped the speaker wire back on, but then the tubes were shot, so replaced them with JJ #37's. I think I'll go back to the JJ 38 power tubes, and have put in a balanced phase inverter with the JJ ECC-83 pre amp tubes.

Peavey has the best customer service going. Period. I've never needed them, but what other company can upload a user manual for a product they no longer manufacture? They are just awesome.

I don't worry about repairs with this amp. It's a workhorse.

This is MY amp. I'm looking for a Classic 50 head so I can use it with different speaker configurations...4-10's, 1x15, etc.

I love everything about it. Hate nothing...well, I do get tired of lugging it around. I compared to Fender Hot Rod Deville. The Peavey won hands down.

Very versatile two channel reverb amp with footswitch for blues and rock styles. I have an effects loop in mine, so it's a later built version.

Works wonders with single-coil guitars, not too convinced with humbucker equipped guitars, it gets muddy. Thankfully, my main guitar is an AS Strat. However, I did play a gig with another band where the guitar player used an SG and the same amp, and it sounded pretty good.

I play mostly heavier rock, and the amp is great live. In the studio, I've spent countless hours trying to reproduce my live sound, and it just doesn't work. Even with more than $25k in recording equipment, it just doesn't dial in. It sounds brittle when miked in the studio, and doesn't have sparkle in the highs. With EL84's, you'll get a nice glassy, compressed punch with the clean channel cranked. Distorted channel is a bit "plasticky," where the sound seems to be played through plastic speakers. I don't like Marshall amps for the same "plasticky" sound. It's the crackly midrange that drives me nuts. On the other hand, I'm also not fond of the Dual Rectifier sound, as I feel the distortion isn't thick enough with 2nd order harmonics. They have gobs of gain, just no character.

Overall, the amp is relatively quiet in both clean and distorted channels.

The amp can go from glassy clean to wide-open arena rock in sounds, it's very versatile. Blue Guitar has a list of mods to tame the distortion channel, and give it a bit darker character, which I haven't done yet. One thing I absolutely recommend is replacing the entire tube set with Tesla tubes, they make the amp sing a whole bunch more.

I would replace this amp if something happened to it. It's a great gigging amp, and it beats lugging a half stack around. I've done that and won't do it again until I have roadies... which may never happen, lol.

I may seem to not like this amp, but I'm really particular to the type of sound I'm looking for. I haven't found it yet in any amplifier. I do like the overall voicing of all Peavey amps, all of them... from the Classic to the Wiggy to the 5150 series amps, they all voiced to sound like Peaveys. Now, if only the 5150 had what I was looking for...

Great reliability. This is the second Peavey amp I've owned, and I'm hooked on the quality of their amps. Even though the electronics are on a thin PCB, the amp is built well enough to gig without a backup.

Never had to deal with them. Amp has been rock solid in reliability.
That's the best customer support you can ask for.

For $400 on the used market, you can get a very good sounding amp that will keep 95% of players happy for years.

Bought the amp new in 2004. Features are good enough for me. I play in a church so I cant get it too too loud but it is a pretty loud amp.

I use a standard strat and a Les Paul classic. I really like the strat thru this amp. I have lace sensor pickups in it and the sound is great. The distortion can be a little much at times, but thats ok bc I'll just kick on my fulldrive and all is still good. The clean channel is really good too, no fender but it is a good sound. But for the price, and its sound, I would definitely buy the amp again if it were stolen.

hasn't broke down yet...(knock on wood)

I've been playing about 3 years...owned a Fender Deville...the Peavey beats it...owned a 2x12 marshall tsl combo...had pros and cons...but if i had too choose between the peavey or the marshall probably the peavey only because it is cheaper but they are both great amps...when i get a little more money i will probably get the marshall again. Like I said if it were stolen i would definitely buy it again. great value!

Unsure of year, no effects loop though so an earlier model. Features are listed on other reviews. Very versatile as it has a great clean tone and a very good lead tone, as good as the earlier Marshall's I have used but not over the top like a dual rectifier. Looses a point on versatility due to the lack of effects loop.

I have tried it with a Standard Strat and a Taylor Acoustic/Electric. In a word GREAT!! I bought it the day after purchasing a brand new Fender Blues Junior that had a non-working reverb an hour after taking it out of the box. I bought the Fender after doing a side by side with a Marshall AV20. I wanted a small amp that would sound good at low or high volume. The little fender smoked the Marshall tone wise on clean, to the Marshalls credit it did have a real crunch mode which the Fender lacked but I fugured I would use a pedal for that and went for the all-tube superior tone. After getting home and discovering ther bad reverb I was dissapointed but still liked the tone. THEN I happened across the Classic 50 410 at another store the following day. 50 Watts ,great clean headroom, and a lead channel that is better than a JCM800 cranked even when playing at really low master volume settings. I took it home and ran it side by side against the Fender. There was no comparing the lead channel crunch because the Fender just doesn't have it but the clean was far cleaner that the Fender (the Fender can't really go completely clean). But I noticed the Classic seemed a little harsh and trebbley after an hour of loud volume playing whereas the Fender seemed more musical but muddy. I decided the try replacing the first two 12AX7's with some old GE tubes I pulled from a Techtronics Oscilloscope. What a difference!!!!!! The harshness was gone, the sound has far more overtones, is far warmer, and the presence control now actually functioned as it should, with the stock Peavey super 7's you just could not dial out the trebble without destroying the overall tone and the sound in general was just very clean with minimal overtones. The Fender sounded too trebbley even in the neck possition but with the old GE's in there the sound really changes depending on the pickup selected and the tone controls. The lead channel now sounds creamy smooth with each chord note more dicernable and musical. Tubes really do make a huge difference, I'm now wondering what effect replacement EL84's would have?

Haven't had it long enough but based on what I have read it should be reliable and certainly rates better than the brand new Fender with a broken reverb. I have only had one Peavey product previously, a Minx 30 bass amp, great little amp for low volume practice and coffee shop type gigs, it broke after ten years of good reliable service, the speaker is still being used as a monitor though!

I have been playing for 25 Years and had and played through all sorts of equipment. Do yourself a favor and get a good quality 100% tube amp. I picked the Classic 50 because I love the clean Fender Sound and the Marshall crunch sound and found it in one amp for $400 rather than having to buy both and spending upwards of $2000. The Solid State stuff is the reason so many emulators and medals are made, if you want tube tone then buy a tube amp. I will say that my Digitech RP50 is great for practicing while the wife sleeps and does a good enough job of emulating good tone to make playing enjoyable and inspirational.

'94 model. It has clean/dirty channels and effects loop. The reverb tank was not working, hence the low price!

I use it with a Les Paul Standard(w Duncan 59/JB PUs)and it really sounds nice. The clean stays clean and full and the distortion is cool. It reacts to the way you play which is mostly what I like about this amp. You can push it! The previous 5150 combo I had had too much gain and sounded thin. The 410 Classic sounds fuller for some reason?!
I also plug it into a Marshall 412 cab during band practice and like the post below says it turns into a different amp. Sounds like an older Marshall halfstack. Also, the tubes were 10 years old in this thing, so I retubed it with all JJs. Much smoother sound now.

I keep up with servicing and I've had only one Peavey amp fail me and that was due to a bad power tube. I have used it without backup and it's fine.

Nicest people on earth. The Peavey forum has a lot of info, too!

For $250, I can't complain at all! No, it doesn't do "hyper-gain" so you'll need a 5150 or XXX for that. What I do to get things "heavier" is I throw a graphic eq pedal in the loop and goose the bass up, adjust the mids and highs and it's good to go. This is a great "set it and forget it" amp!

What can I say, clean overdrive and reverb. What else is needed on a tube amp. I like that it doesn't offer more drive like my Fender Hot Rod deville. MY FAVORITE THING IS THIS AMP IS FAN COOLED. That is awesome. Great for all styles except heavy crunch rock or metal. Why use a tube amp for that anyway? I give it a 9 because nothing is perfect. I do wish the knobs and writing were turned for me to see from front like most amps. That gets confusing.

GREAT! The overdrive is awesome. I love the EL84's for power tubes. The overdrive is so vintage sounding it scares me. I use with a Hot Rod Deville and i never use the clean on this amp. I use very little reverb but what i do use is great on here. Very natural sounding. The presence can be too bright and brutal but just makes it more versatile. I choose to keep it down pretty low. I love the mid range. I set it very high.

TOTALLY DEPENDABLE! I have had no problems so far. Hope I don't.

I would definitely buy this amp again. Has the best natural overdrive of any newer tube amp on the market. I never use the clean channel on this amp, i keep it on a mild overdrive for my clean with the Hot Rod Deville totally clean for a classic blues clean sound. THIS IS A GREAT INVESTMENT FOR A TUBE AMP! Beats the poop out the new Mesa dual and triple rectifiers that sound so processed and solid state.

not too may features, I will spare you the discription, read other reviews.

very nice sounds, good distortion, clean sounds. the 4-10 cab makes the amp. I also play the amp with a 4-12 cab, it becomes a very different amp with a closed back cab. Very focused distortion with great bottom end. I would recommend the amp for its sound

Well it broke recently. DO Not Buy this if you think you want to have an amp you can work on or have worked on for resonable rates. Peavey needs to change the manufacture of this amp so that it will be awesome. Other manufacturer's amps are much easier to service. if you buy this used you might spend more money on repairs than what you invested. by the way, call any amp tech or person experienced with the sertviceing of classic series amplifiers. they will all tell you in so many words that these amps suck to work on. Ask peavey ask any one. I like peavey products, i support the company, but i do not support teh manufacture of this amp, they should change. they are reliable I will rate this section low due to how hard it is to service this amp

Uh costomer service can be great, but warranty work on this amp can be a struggle due to excessive bench time to even check the oil on this one. peavey does well to support its users. but beware if it breaks

based on sound I rate this amp high, based on serviceability, I bring the rating back down to where you will see it

I own peaveys, drz amps, a kustom tube head, mesas. I dont compare the amps. they are all unique. you dont reallyaccomplish aything with comparisons. you wither use what you have or dont. its that simple.

I'll start by saying this, when I bought this amp i was trading in a line 6 flextone 210. I needed some cash and was able to get a very good deal on this amp. As far as features are conserned it doen't touch the versatilety of the emulatore style amps but as far as TONE is consernd it BLOWS THEM AWAY nothing can touch the sound of a good tube amp execpt a great one! simpley put 3 12ax7s and 4 el84s make for a great tube amp. two cannels "clean" and "drive" awsome reverb. super constuction i really like how the tubes a monted in the chassis. Tubes can break all to easliy. When your out on the road thats the last thing you want to deal with, i like the extra protection for the tubes. Mine is older so it don't have the effects loop, but i dont think i would need one any more any way. i dont know the year it was made.

i play a 96 fender american strat w/stock pu's as my main axe. this amp really sings. The first thing i noticed was how responsive it is to dynamics. This amp makes me want put the pick down and place fingers all night. I just got it less then a week ago and replace the the tubes right away this made an astonising differnce in the sound. much much warmer and very throuty, you just need let this amp warm up on stand by to soak the transfomers and the el84s. This is why the amp has a cooling fan, i think its a good feature becuse i can't hear it when i'm plaing at the volume this amp was made for, and it allows the transforer to really work hard with less risk of blowing up. Good thinking peavey. My band is a 6 pc R&B Funk and Blues. 2 horns keys bass drums and me. The line 6 was a good amp but for all its sounds it lacked personality the classic 50 is all about that. The first opertonity i've had to play out with it was at a jam in hallow maine that my friend runs he uses a a Gibson lp classic into a tweed fender 212 blues deville a fine rig, but i was blowen away at how my amp sounded next to his that night. i have a fulltone fulldrive2 that i really like so im not realy all that in to the overdrive channel yet what i have heard is pretty good. i took off the back to take a look a the inerds and noticed an ic chip in the pre gain stage of the over drive channel. that means the the over drive is developed the same way a tube screamer works, with transisters, not like a boogie by way of a "cascade" gain stage. hey who cares?, not me! I use a full tone full drive that's like a tube screamer any way. i'm so far very pleased with the sound of this amp. for a mass produced amp it realy out does alot of them out there even ones costing alot more. I will how ever replace the stock speakes with jensens or webbers.

ok ive had good and BAD experences with peaey produces before at one pont i vowed never to buy another one again (i dont know why i changed my mind yet) i havent had this amp a weak yet but just the fact that im takeing the time ti right a review says someing about this amps sonic quailty. so ill tell you a some storys about peavey and me. my first amp ever was a trans tube bandit that i bought brand new about 4 mounths in to it it sarts doing this funny thing called "moterboating" this usally only happens to class a amps im told. Its when its starts have a vibrato like sound, bandits dont have vidrato. whats worse is that it only happend some times i sent out 2 times and finally just sould it back to daddys and bought my first tube amp an 80's teal strip peavey ultra 120 head, that amp never had a problem while i owned it. on good note i have droped a peavey cs 800 down a filght of stairs dented it works fine so i hope for the best with the classic 50. It looks tough!

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im 22 now and was 13 when i started playing guitar i also have a fender silverface music master bass that i some times use and mic up for gigs the line 6 was my main amp and the classic 50 will be replaing it so i wont be bringing a back. i really love the sound of this amp compared to the fenders today if it were lost our stolen i might replace it or find some thing differt like an old music man or a silver face something but i wnt be buy any thing new untill i can afford a carr, mojotone, or a budda

I'm pretty sure I have a model that was made somewhere between 94 or 95, bought it in 95 or 96 (can't remember exactly). Versatility is my biggest problem with this amp...and maybe they fixed this in later versions...no effects loop, no pre out, no headphones, a single EQ for both channels and that's just low/mid/high. The Presense control is nice though and there are two inputs, "normal" and "bright" but there's very little difference in tone between these. There's a single "Normal" knob for your clean channel gain, while the lead channel has a "Pre" and a "Post". The master volume control is a good feature though. At the very least Peavey needs to put in a small hi/mid/lo EQ for each channel. The knobs all go to "12" instead of "10", not that it matters, just an obscurity.

I'm running a Mexican Strat with a SD Hotrail in the bridge and a Gibson 3-pickup Custom Nighthawk through a series of effects to this amp. I really like the clean channel on this amp. Doesn't distort too soon, stays nice and creamy even at high volumes. My biggest complaint about the sound is that regardless of the guitar you put in front of it, it doesn't change *much*. Luckily I happen to like that sound for the most part and I've supplemented for the lacking of the amp in quality effect pedals. But the lead channel...seems to be stuck in 1987 no matter what I do with the EQ. The more you boost that "Pre" the more it sounds like the 80's. The high end does seem pretty harsh too. Again I've countered for these with about $1000 worth of effect pedals. The other problem I have with it is that the preamp seems to overdrive or something after the amp has been used for about 45 to 60 minutes I get this "Vrmph!" sound following palm mutes or any other low end playing. Bugs the hell out of me. Sounds like the thing is broken or something. Maybe it's my speakers or something?

It's too big, too heavey and too loud for small gigs (coffee shops, etc) and the tone of this amp absolutely sucks at low volumes. However at very high volumes it gives me that low-end feedback I mentioned, so it's got (IMO) a limited range in terms of appropriate venues. Not extremely noisy. Some hiss at high volumes on lead channel. I simply use this amp as a loud speaker for the most part and process my signal through a chain of sound conditioners. If you just need a good clean channel, and a way to project sound and can create your own distortion and EQ by other means....or if Def Leopard is your thing, you'll like this amp.

At some point along the assembly line, the head of a small phillips screw (just the head now) fell or was placed inside the circuitry panel. Eventually that screw head lodged itself on the circuit board and shorted out a couple of traces on the board. Luckily I know a very good technician that was able to troubleshoot the problem within an hour, but I was told it had to have happened at the factory unless I had opened it up and was messing around with it (and I hadn't). I found that the knobs tend to come off pretty easy too. The cabinet itself has taken a beating but seems to be holding up quite well.

Haven't dealt.

I've been playing for about 8 years and I've had this amp for about 5 or 6 of those. I traded in my Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 (solid state) for this amp because my 212 was having some serious issues. And before that a Peavey Audition 110. Maybe I'm just hard on amps? Or maybe the fact that I've owned 3, they've all been Peaveys, and all had problems is no coincidence? If I lost this amp I would be pissed and happy. Pissed about having to spend more money on a new one, but happy for the necessity to get something nicer. And I will eventually but I probably will keep this as a practice amp. I think my biggest problem is I've reached a level in my playing where I just want something better. I would recommend this amp to someone that has passed the "just starting out" phase and is into playing with a band, but doesn't have the money for a Fender or Marshall and is not extremely caught up in tonal quality. I might get the 212 instead of the 410 if I had to do it over. Better low end with the 212 I think (and lighter). Definitely needs a separate EQ for each channel. I hear later models implemented an effects loop too. Could be nice.

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.

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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.