Product: Peavey Mace 212BW
Price Paid: US $800 (1978)
Submitted
09/18/1997
at
12:49pm
by
Matt
Features
:
8
The Mace 212BW is similar in appearance to the Classic series. It has a solid-state preamp, but uses three pairs of 6L6 tubes for a total of 150W output. It has two footswitch-selectable channels; an "effects" side (pre/post gain, reverb, 3ch EQ, whoopie) and a "plain" side. With all the tubes in place and the pre-gain at low levels, it plays VERY clean, with a huge punchy presence. To get a dirtier sound, you can either crank up the pre-gain and get a thin solid-state type distortion, or (my preferred method) yank out four tubes, keep the pre-gain around 4, and let the amp distort. Even at 50W, however, at the levels needed to get a nice fat sound, the neighbors will be annoyed. Put in all the tubes, crank everything up to 10, and you can feel your kidneys rattle. Featurewise, pretty bare-bones. No fx loop, preamp in or out, etc. I've never weighed it, but I'd guess 75 pounds. It's a wonderful piece of equipment, and I'll never get rid of it, but it's probably too loud to use on stage unless you're playing in a stadium.
Sound Quality
:
9
You can get a nice warm jazzy feel out of it when playing clean. It probably doesn't have enough of an edge for metal or thrash... I'd say its forte would be straight-ahead rock... a warm crunchy dynamic distortion, maybe a little Marshall-like. I *hate* the spring reverb. You can hear the tube hiss at idle, but it's not really annoying. I pretty much exclusively play heavy solidbody electrics with humbuckers. I have a pair of original DiMarzio Super Distortions that mate nicely with the amp.
Reliability
:
10
I've had this amp for almost 20 years, and it's never had a problem. Still has the original tubes, in fact. (By personal preference.) I never gigged much with it, though.
Customer Support
:
8
I called Peavey once to ask them about the feasability of putting in a high/low power switch, and the tech I talked to said "I don't really know, but I can connect you to the man who designed that amp." I was very impressed. He suggested that I just keep pulling the tubes out as I had been doing.
Overall Rating
:
9
I wish I had two of them.
