Peavey Heritage VTX

solid state pre amp tube power

It has a nice sound to it but its not a metal amp. the cleans are good and the reverb is ok. I run a rockmaster preamp into it and it sound great for harder rock. I also have jensen cn12 in it and it sound pretty full.

I will answer this about 5 yrs from now.

This why i am leaving a review for this amp. When I got it I had question and needed help on find the footswitch and other things. I have been emailing them for 2 month now and no response. I went to a peavey dealer and he told me he would call peavey and get back to me, yeah right. I went down to his store and acted like I was going to spend a grand for an amp. I asked him about my footswitch and the lies stutterd out of his mouth, He blamed peavey so as i see it, if its has anything to do with peavey the customer support is bad compared to other brands that i have dealt with.

I use my amp like a power amp. I have no need for any of the features. I work it like a dog and it keeps up

what i have here is a peavey heritage vtx 2x12 130watts rms amp. tube output, solid state preamp. i think the distortion is great and the eq section very workable. the clean sound is beautiful. good reverb too........ and power? please, this thing will set your hair on fire! i play a variety of music in my band from country to metal and it does it all with no problem.

ok. tone is a personal thing.either you like it or you don`t. if your looking for british sounds( ala marshall)this ain`t you amp. i have 14 amps in my collection right now so i have a lot to compare this amp to. my regular guitar is a 79 strat and it sounds incredible through this amp. i also own two marshall heads(50 watt jcm800 and 100 watt jcm800 and a jcm800 4x12 slant cabnet) my les pauls sounds better through the marshalls and the strat sounds better through the heritage. the strats sustain with this amp is awsome. i set the normal channel to max distortion and mix the lead channel in with max distortion and you can control your sound real good that way. i also own a peavey renown and 2 deuces. live, i use the heritage for my sound and out of the "line out" into the renown(130 watts + 160 watts). both amps are paired with a 2x12 celestion cabnet for a total of 8 12 inch speakers.WOW WHAT A SOUND. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sustain for days.in a nut shell, single coil pickups will sound better than humbuckers with this amp. the brightness of fender guitars counters the dark sound of peaveys.just like marshalls counter the muddy les paul sound.

reliability is another reason i use my peaveys more than any of my other amps. this amp has 20 year old tubes in it and they still glow that nice light red like they should. i`ve had my marshalls re-tubed twice in the past five years have still blown tubes on me twice on gigs, once in the middle of a marshall tucker`s "can`t you see" and we`re a trio so my bass player had to solo it while my roadie had to run to the van for my other head. and yes the bias was set proper, i just play a lot.they always say "re-tube your marshalls every year". thats easier said than done when moneys' tight. i think i`ll stick with what gets the job done, my peaveys!

never needed it.

been playing for 28 years and every peavey i`ve ever owned never ever broke down on me. i will keep buying more and more peaveys as long as they are out there to buy.

Bought by my brother in 1984 at Luca Music in Providence, Rhode Island with the optional 4 X12 cabinet. I own the cabinet now and still use it with my ada preamp through an alesis RA-100 power amp.Its built like a rock! The heritage was never mine but was used on several occasions up until the early 90's. my bro then "garaged" it and sold it in 2001 with the original tubes in it!!! THis was after i told him "hey if you ever want to sell it, come to me first." He did the same thing to me with his 1984 american strat. thanks a lot bro! lets see if memory serves me correctly, it had a built in phaser with a cool feature where you could stop it mid sweep. solid state pre amp and 4 tube power section (never understood this concept. good distorted sound should be shaped with the tubes then amplified. As far as the power section goes tubes are looser sounding and sound better at higher volumes when driven but a solid state power amp delivering clean power from a tube preamp doesnt really break up and fizz (in a bad way like using a transistorized preamp section and amplifying it through ss or tube power amps. as a matter of fact i sometimes like the tightness of a solid state power amp.) lets see, 2 channels;beautiful clean sound, crappy distortion. plenty of power, dudes!!!!huh? did you say something???!!!!

i used a bc rich st3, a strat and a mockingbird through it. never used just the internal distortion. usually would put an eq pedal in front of it to use as an overdrive,or a boss heavy metal pedal.both of these were used in combination with the internal distortion. made a pretty good noise. but the real gem was bypassing the preamp and slaving the power amp with my ada mp-1. thats why i wanted this amp today!like i said distortion is crap on this(i suppose for a country "bite" with a tele it would be fine. give it a 7 overall for sound because of the crap preamp. but the power section is designed beautifully. more on this in reliability section.using the power section with outboard gear yields beautiful results. for this i would give it a 9. so ill find some middle ground and give it an 8 . the phaser is awesome, very rich sounding like i said the stop sweep feature(i forget what they call it) is awesome, and it can be controlled by footswitch if i remember correctly. if not i know for certain that the sweep was stopped by pulling out a w\switch in the phase section

the power section of this amp is a work of genius. it will not eat tubes!!!looking at other reviews here have justified this.you have people with these amps these days still using the same power tubes!!!
Its built like a tank. and if memory serves me correctly it was spec'd at weighing 93 lbs or something like that.its like 1/2" plywood encasing this thing!! maybe even 3/4. same with the cabinet which i use today with the same speakers. another thing to not, i bought a tko bass amp in 1982 (solid state) left it on for a whole week when i was 16 and went on a high school band trip).left it at a friends house where it soon became his(possesion is 9/10 of the law i guess). guess what! he still gigs with it!!!! peavey definitely makes reliable products built like tanks!!! i tell you peavey deserves the highest mark!

four products, my brothers heritage, my 4 x 12 cab, my tko bass amp, and my peavey triple xxx(its the bomb!)....never ever had to contact peavey!!and im sure anyone in possesion of that heritage or tko bass amp never will. peavey is great to deal with due to the fact that they have service centers everywhere! so i dont know how their customer support is, but i suppose the best support is making a product that doesnt break down!it gets a 9 cause ive never spoke to them. who knows? if you call them, they may be assholes!! ha! ha!

ive been playing for 18 years!!(whew)i think i explained enough about this amp in the other sections. lets see overall rating? 6(features)+8(sound)+10(reliability)+9(customer service)=33; 33/2=8.25....hmmm... give it an 8. shouldnt all overall scores be determined this way?

Made in 1982, Very versatile amp. I was desperate for rich Tube sound and POWER without the loud volumes I play Gospel, Jazz, Blues. Two All of the features of the Standard Heritage VTX 130 Watt Combo, and they work vary well. A headphone jack would rupture my eardrums. I wish the low power settings were really LOW. Sometimes I need the EL84 tube smoothness, with a light touch of butterscotch. Line out dosen't work, don't know why. I don't use the ext speaker. I am miked or DI via a tube preamp into the santuary so I get a VERY nice stero spacy effect. Bought used from Music Go Round, Laurel, Md for $350. Plenty of DEEP, RICH tone, Soul satisfing flavor. I'm probally the only person left standing using this Great Old School Amp.

Currently using a 1998 Parker Nitefly SA, SSH, with Dimarzio custom singles and bridge PAF dimarzio, A Jay Turser 137 335 and a Boss GT-5, with a ME-30 backup effect, and a PV Classic 30 for light work.
Amp is very quit with a quiet guitar. I use a inline ground switch due to the amount of equipment we have on stage. Clean channel distorts well with high saturation at 5 or higher. Distortion is not as smooth and pleasing as el84s, but my audience loves it. I can get a good Santana, David Gilmore (Pink Floyd). Wish I could get Fender lush reverb/tremlo, or PV classic 50 trem/reverb (sea sickining) effect.

Very Dependable, Never use a backup, used it in the rain, play every weekend, sometimes every night. Never broken down. Put in new tubes, 4 6L6GC and this baby took me where no other amp has gone before. This baby makes my eardrumbs bleed with pleasure.

Excellent for VTX and Classic 30. Got the Users manuel from on line. Actually spoke to a person once.

I was desperate for Soulful sound, Power without the volume, and the ability to give what the band leader wanted, when he wanted it (Darin Atwater and Handel Smith are awesome brothers). Playing since age 8. Professional for 12 years. Would get a simpler amp. Love it all. Does take some serious tweaking, This thing lasts forever.

I want an amp from this series!

great.

should b okay.

ive been playing 21 years.I NEED ONE OF THESE OLD-STYLE PEAVEYS WITH THAT SKYNYRD SWAMP TONE! I can't get one,'cos it seems they don't make anything with that voicing anymore. I want a Deuce,a Mace,a Heritage or a Stereo Chorus. I CAN'T FIND ONE! I'm in Nottinghamshire,England,U.K. and I'm in a charity band doing swamp-style country-rock and Skynyrd covers-and ONLY THESE AMPS WILL DO!! The Marshall I use just doesen't cut it.Can anyone help me get one? it needs to be in good working order,as it will be gigged,again and again. People can have their Boogies,Marshalls,Line 6s,etc,etc- I NEED AN OLD PEAVEY CAPABLE OF THIS SOUND,It's the ONLY sound I'm happy with! Email me if you can help.

Old-style Peavey tube combo, but updated slightly from the Mace and Deuce series with a PRE/POST amp in/out, a line out, and a few other new goodies like a half-power switch. It's still the old solid-state pre-amp circuitry with a tube power amp section utilizing four 6L6GCs for 120 watts. Drive channel with Peavey Saturation (distortion) circuit and clean channel, reverb and phaser. Two twelve-inch Scorpion speakers. The updated EQ section of each channel yields unlimited possibilities, and each parameter actually does something to the sound.

Much like the Mace, the clean channel is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard ... period. It's not a Fender sparkly clean, but rather a very warm and crystal clear Peavey clean which will not break up until you reach volumes that would kill small animals. Beautiful! The distortion channel yields Peavey SWAMP TONE that Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, and .38 Special were famous for. It's not a Marshall scooped mid crunch, and it's not a Fender crunch ... it's a dark, boxy, sound that is closest to a Vox AC with everything turned to 10. Some of the pre-amps on the Mace and Deuce series sound a little out of whack, and requires the saturation to be back off a little to retain clarity. But just a little saturation, on top of a fully cranked pre-amp keeps it fairly articulate. It's sweet ... it's just different. Possibly it's an aquired taste.

These Peavey VT amps WILL NOT DIE. These things can be found all over the country still running strong WITH THE ORIGINAL TUBES! This series of amplifier is, without a doubt, and without equal, the most dependable vacumn tube device ever designed. It will out-live you.

Even now, twenty years after it was made, Peavey will make sure you get schematics, manuals, or instructions for modding newer switching pedals to work with old VT amps. Every other manufacturer in the world can take a que from Peavey in the Customer Service department.

I have owned Fender tube and solid-state amps, Marshall combos and half-stacks, Crates, Ampegs, and just about everything else. I love the sound of these old VT amps and they have been the most reliable amp I've ever owned. Gary Rossington (and other Southern rockers) still uses the Mace heads and cabinets he got from Peavey in the early 70s today. That says alot.

Bought the Amp new in 1983 - ordered from Peavey with Black Widow speakers.

It's an incredibly versatile amp, but just doesn't quite have a warm enough overdriven sound unless you push the power amp hard. Clean sounds are great.

Two channels with an "Automix" footswitch - also controls the built in Reverb (spring) and Phaser. I've since bought a digital reverb, so no longer use the built-in reverb, but it's not bad. Phaser is used sparingly and in its "stop" mode: ie. you stop the LFO and adjust the comb filter frequencies by hand - goes a good way to getting acoustic tones out of an electric.

It's very loud - too loud for home use - but has a half power SPL switch. Gigged it a few times and have never run out of power, nor have I ever needed to mic it up.

Effects loop is there, as long as pre-amp out and power-amp in is good enough for you. There's also a "line out" supposedly equalised to the speakers. If I need to directly record from this amp, I use the pre-amp out (much higher level) through a DI box.

Pre amp is solid state and power amp is valve (tube, for those of you on the other side of the pond). I read elsewhere here that I might get a warmer sound by replacing the four 6L6's with SovTek equivalents - must try this. However, the original Peavey stock 6L6's are going strong.

A warmer overdriven sound at lower volume levels would be nice. See comment above about the Sovteks.

Never broken down. Peavey stuff seems very well built.

Spoke to Peavey in the USA to get a schematic for the amp - they were very helpful. Never had any other reason to contact them.

Playing for the past 25 years - I don't have any other guitar amps.

If stolen, I'd probably go for something a bit newer.

At the time of purchase, I compared it to Marshall and Laney combos - the sound and BW speakers really sold it to me.

Oh, I play bass through this amp too (can't afford a separate bass amp) and I'm convinced those speakers will take ANYTHING.

Bought from Ebay. No idea to it's age. Man does this thing have features to it. I especially like the saturation and the phaser. I play mostly Contemporary Christian music. This thing is too loud to take to church. Only complaint is there is no effects loop. This thing has more knobs to keep you busy. It is basically a simple amp though. It is 2 channels. Both lead through pre and post amps. At 130 watts you don't lack for volume.

There is a wide array of sounds you can get from it. P100' pickups used and the only way to get a crunch from this thing is to turn it up to a volume that the next county can hear. This is a clean sounding amp. It does make a hum when switching from standby to on but not so much as it is noisy. It does have a reverse polarity switch on the back to take away some of the noise from electric polarity.

This baby mixes both tube power and circuitry for one of the best sounding amps I have ever used. This thing is not very easy to move around, I believe it weighs 95lbs. Tough as nails as all the Peavey equipment I have used. Uses 4 6l6 tubes which I have never had to replace. Also uses the black widow speakers.

Way out of warranty, have never even tried to contact customer service. Peavey is a good solid piece of equipment.

Have been playing 35yrs. If this thing was stolen I would try to replace it. I love the sound this thing has. I use a Peavey 4x12 cab with celestions and it just sings.

I got it in sept 2001 for $200 used but still good. I play metal and christian it covers it. The phaser was broke who cares its a perfect gig amp.
I don't like the back breaking 95 pounds but i can get my bass player
to get it for me. his back not mine

Its sounds great in the mix. I use a boss super overdrive SD-1 and a cry baby its like the perfect rig for me. The lead on the amp even sounds good to me. but my girl singer is always complainig that its to load get ear plugs

Its sronger then Schwarzenegger I never have a back up its has new speakers and thats it. Im going to put new tubes in it soon and thats all I plan to do with it.

if it got stolen i would get a cyber-deluxe and move on

I'm not sure what exact year mine was manufactured. I bought it used in late 1990 for $250.
The amp is verstatile enough for my styles. I primarily play distorted blues, at other times it's clean sound with reverb. I primarily play SRV, Albert Collins, Albert King, John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy things, with a liberal dashing of ZZ Top thrown in. My other ventures are old Van Halen and any Yngwie Malmsteen. This amp handles them all.
I have the two channel model. I lost the foot switch, but both channels are turned on. I simply turn down the volume on the channel I don't want to use or adjust both to my ear when I use both. It does have channel switching - I need to go to a pawn shop and find a 4-bay foot switch and take a schematic to my audio tech and have him rig it for me. I don't have an effects loop in my model. This is a minor drawback to me. I may be mistaken, but it does not have a headphone jack. If it does, I never have used it.
I wish it had a tremolo feature. When I try to pull off some early Billy Gibbons and some early Albert King, I need some tremolo, as in the '60s Fender tweed models or the Vox models of the day. I never use the phase unit in it, although I can say it is a very decent phase unit. I just never had a use for the phaser in it.
I use this amp only in the spare room of my house. I've never played live anywhere, but should I do so in the future, it will go with me. I have played with a drummer and it is one of the rare amps that can punch thru the drums clearly. Rack that accolade up to the 130 watts, I suppose. It has more than enough power for me. In fact, in the carpeted and furnished spare room of my house, it is hard to stay in the room with, has run the cat behind the couch (although that might have been due to my playing - haha) and has drawn a call from a neighbor to turn it down when I goosed it up to only 5 for 15 minutes or so.
I normally don't like solid state and tube hybrids, but this amp is the exception to the rule.

I'm running as my main guitar a 1982 Kramer Pacer, with a finished maple neck, a "real" Floyd Rose (clip the balls off the string and clamp them down in the saddles, not a Floyd 2 where you feed them up a tube with the balls still on), with a single humbucker (Seymour Duncan George Lynch Screamin' Demon) with a volume knob, a tone knob and a mini switch to switch coils on the pickup. I have tried many times in vain to knock this guitar out of tune. This is my favorite guitar, bought used in '89. I also run a Washburn Nuno Bettencourt N2 with no mods except a Seymour Duncan George Lynch Screamin' Demon (you think I like George?) humbucker in the bridge with Washburn's version of the Floyd Rose tremolo. This little guitar has an excellent factory neck pickup which sounds wonderful thru the Heritage amp. Another guitar I run is a 1990 Ibanez RG550 - with the Ibanez version of the Floyd Rose, with two single coils and a Dimarzio PAF Pro humbucker in the bridge. And last I have a 1986 Kramer Striker, with one humbucker (tilted at an angle) with the crappy Floyd Rose 2 tremolo that I never use. I rarely play this guitar. It is a dust-catcher that has plans for a "real" Floyd Rose and will then be ready to see some action. It has a Duncan Distortion in it, I believe. All of these guitars mate well to the Heritage amp with seemingly no changes to amp or effects settings. For effects, I go into an Ibanez Tube Screamer, then into a Rockman Distortion generator, then into a Boss 7-band EQ, then into a Digitec delay, then into the low gain input of the amp. With the hot pickups I'm running, plugged into the hi gain is too much for my tastes.
The clean channel is just fine at high volumes, and does not break up. All the Peavey amps are legendary for their clean tones, hence the large use of them by many country artists.
The distortion is a bit too much. The Scorpion speakers have a tendacy to "whomphf" the higher the volume is turned. This causes you to have to back off your lows in the EQ. Unlike a Marshall, which sounds better the louder you turn it, this is not the case with the Heritage amp - not in my case, anyway. I had a friend who installed two 30-watt Celestions in his Heritage and it solved this issue. Currently, I get a Boston meets early Van Halen sound out of my amp, and I am satisfied. I can quickly go to a Chet Atkins tone or a SRV sound that is fairly respectable.

I would not hesitate to gig with it without a backup.
After buying the amp in late '90, I played it a few months with no problems. While playing it one night at home, I put it on standby and like an idiot pulled one of the tubes out (thinking I had turned it off but forgot I had put it in standby mode earlier) and reseated the tube. A very loud and frightening (when you're leaning over the open back of it) POP signaled the end of that hay ride. I subsequently took it to an audio tech who charged me $120 (in '91) to repair it. I played it another week and eventually it was barely audible (even when turned up to 8) and it sounded as if the speakers were blown. In addition, touching any metal part of the amp gave you a nice little tingle. I took it back to the guy who originally repaired it and he said he found nothing wrong (????). I took it to another amp specialist, he found some bad capacitors and charged me $140. It worked a few more weeks and did the same thing all over again. I went to take it back to this guy and he had moved with no way to contact him. What followed was storage in my mom's un-airconditioned garage with boxes stacked on it, as an end-table by my bed in my apartment, or in the attic of my house until late '99, when I took it to be repaired by a REAL tech. He went thru it and found lots wrong, plus two ripped speaker cones (he thinks from the heat in the garage and attic - I live down South). For $125 he repaired it good as new and it sounds much better than it did when I bought it originally. I've never had a minute's trouble from it since and the only reason it "broke down" in the first place was due to my ignorance, not any fault of the amp itself. I feel bad that it sat as a virtual end table or stacking area for things (and one-time home for wayward mice) for so many years while I used other amps. I thought of selling it many times in a broken state and even once after it was repaired, but I have decided against it. It will likely be a "keeper". I give it a 10 - Very dependable rating because I feel it would've given me no problems had I not broke it.

Never called Peavey customer support for any reason.
The warranty was expired when I broke it, so I didn't attempt to call Peavey. Plus, it was my fault that it broke in the first place. Had it been under warranty, Peavey would've most likely discovered this fact.

I've been playing since late 1985. I own a Washburn D100 acoustic and a generic nylon-string classical guitar. I have an early '80s Kustom 50-watt head (that sounds nice ran thru just the speakers of the Heritage - bypassing the amp). I have a real nice Zoom drum and bass machine, a Pandora PX3, and a Zoom guitar amp modeler - all of which I don't run thru the amp, I use headphones for these.
If it were stolen (by a strong person with a good back), I wouldn't set out on a maniacal mission to replace it, but if one turned up in my path, I would be incilned to buy another.
I love the power and the clean tone and the reverb. I don't like the inferior speakers that break up in the lows under high volume.
Being green in the playing world by 4 years when I bought it, I didn't compare it to any amps before buying it. My friend had one at the time and I liked his, and I wanted a loud amp with two 12's fairly cheap, so I bought that one. Not sorry I did, though when it was broken those 8 years I was sorry I did, but didn't have the maturity then to realize it was my fault, not the amp's.
Wish it had nicer speakers and a tremolo unit.