Peavey Special 130

this amp has more than enough power, if only you could get a good dirty sound without losing what your playing into the sea of fuzz.
But for an older amp and for a relative new comer to the world of equipment it does me fine.
When i have reverb on it tends to somtimes pick up radio which totally messes up the sound.

i use a fender strat standard with the standard pick ups in it.
the amp suits generally most styles you would want to play.
the amp does tend to make alot of noise when you use the dirty channel but i use a boss noise gate which helps to get rid of most of the back ground noise.

i wouldnt use it at a gig without a back up.
i got it about a month ago and sometimes it cuts out.

I traded a Fender Frontman 25R and a Randall practice amp for it. The guy thought it was 45 watts, but apparantly it is 130W. Lots of useless knobs for me, no reverb or channel switching on the amp itself, you need a footpedal for that. High mid low EQ, and a Thin-Fat knob. Dirty and clean channel, reverb, "thick" pull-out knobs.
Unfortunately, there is no real Master Volume setting, makes it hard to be clean and loud.

I use a customized Fender Stratocaster. I had two humbuckers put in. I play blues, metal, rock, and some punk. The amps two channels are different beasts altogether...

Clean : I love the clean channel on this amp. It's real powerful, and the amp's reverb is excellent. I use a Digitech RP3 through it for now (planning on Boss GE-7 and MetalZone when cash is available) and it actually sounds pretty good. I prefer the amps reverb over the RP3's, and I use it even with distortion. With good pedals you can get basically any sound you want out of the amp, it wont interfere and screw up the signals. I'm not exactly sure how to turn up the volume with out turning up the gain on the clean channel, so I just turn up the Output Level on the RP-3, and it works fine.

Dirty : Don't expect even a half-decent sound out of the dirty channel. It just sucks. Its kinda hard to explain how bad it is, but take my word for it, its not pretty. The best I have been able to get out of it is an adequate blues lead sound for practicing!

I've had it for only 2 weeks, but it isn't broken, defective, or even beat up looking for an old machine.

N/A

Out of all the amps I have had, this one has been the most powerful, and easily has the best clean sounds by itself. Because the Frontman I traded was almost new, I think both myself and the dealer made out pretty good. If you are looking for a clean slate to add effects to or run a processor through, this is definitely the amp for you. If you want a more practical compact amp that you can take around to plug-in-and-jam, then you'll be disappointed.

its a old amp,im not sure i bought it used.just read the other reviews for this part,they have the same features

im using a fender mex strat and a palmer guitar.the strat sound good,better then what it sounded on my other amp,the palmer is a heavey metal type guitar.it fist my style good(some metal,"grunge",punk,that stuff).this amp could probably produce alot of diff tones. this amp is really loud and sounds pretty good for the age of it.the clean channel is ok but could be better,the dist. channel isnt that good,maybe i need to work on it to find the dist. better but its hard to hear the dist but when you do it pretty good.it sounds good at low volumes,havent tried high voulem yet but it seem like it would be good.

this amp is really reliable.its real solid and i trust it alot.i would most likely use it without a back up,yeah probably would since its so loud and stable.this amp has never broken down on me.

nope

ive been playing for 4 years,im only 14 so i guess its a good amount fo my age.if it was lost or stolen,i would probably get a new amp,or try to get this one back.i dont like the weight of it,its pretty heavey to carry around everywhere but nothing to complain about.i wish it had better dist. and tubes,that would be better,i would buy a dist. pedal for this amp.

this amp has plenty power and volume.It has a excellent tone.This amp is good for country and if you have two amps it sounds great.

I play a glaser strat and get a great sound.I use two special 130s with a t.c.chorus m-one processor and get a excellent sound.I play country,gospel,blues and rock and te amp does the job.

I play every weekend and have used the special 130s for the past fourteen years without any trouble.I use it without backup.

Have not dealt with company.

Excellent sound and very dependable.The amp is good for any music you want to play.You just have to know how to set it.

Bought it new in '89 for too much money. Dirty channel never satisfied me. Clean channel was a decent sounding blank page to add effects to. Effects loop never sounded right to me. Like putting an electronic pillow in the signal path. Didn't like the eq setup after a while. The mid-shift cut/boost pot sucked. Felt and sounded cheap. The pull-out knob "thick" settings were useless to my Strat. Reverb was ok for a spring unit.

Used with an old Aria Pro 2 and an old Strat. Metal/Hardcore/Experimental styles. Dirty channel was ok for classic rock fuzz at high volume. It lacked the chunkiness that I like. Turning up the low frequency eq just made it sound boomy, and with the power of this amp, frapped speakers are easily achieved at high volume. I hooked up an old Traynor PA bin with an 18" speaker to speaker out#2. I'm sure something similar could help fill in the bottom. I lent the amp to a friend and it came back bleeding overdrive saturation into the clean channel. Not a big deal since I never played clean on the clean channel anyhow. Best sound achieved with an old distortion stompbox and a chorus pedal. This amp is FACE_RIPPING LOUD! Feedback galore as you can imagine.

Other than blowing the speaker and that pre/saturation bleedthrough thing, This thing is a solid (and heavy!) chunk of transistors. I played with the blown speaker for a year and it still screamed.

Never had to deal with the company.

I've been playing 17 years. I've tried all kinds of different signal processing equipment in all kinds of configurations with this amp. It doesn't sound great at low volumes. It has too much power for an amp its size to use with only a single 12". Its almost bulletproof and it'll make your ears bleed, but if someone ever steals it, I'll try something else.

Let's head this up by saying this is a nostalgia review...I once had a Special 130, and I wish I had one again. Check other reviews for features, but I remember it as a basic 70s 2-channel combo, with typical characteristics...crystal clear clean channel and distortion designed by engineers who were still confused about the notion of designing distortion "in" rather than out. Gritty, nasal, nasty.

But here's the main thing: it's small, physically smaller than the Bandit I eventually replaced it with, and weighs a ton...mine had a Peavey Black Widow in it, which had a great deal to do with the sound. And it was LOUD. I mean head-ripping loud.

I used it with a 335 with two tappable humbuckers; at the time time I was playing hot rod outlaw country and associated rockabilly/vintage rocknroll styles. It was the only amp I could use to compete with a brutally amplified banjo...and it stayed clean up to dangerously percussive volume levels. (If you don't know Black Widow speakers, and can't imagine one spitting out single coil single note leads driven by a stone pick, you can't know what I'm talking about here.)

Within the clean channel, it was versatile in terms of eq...it had sufficient bottom which rarely broke up, and could be dialed for a smooth sound, though I wouldn't say creamy. I only used the dirt channel for humor, depended on an Electroharmonix Graphic Fuzz for distortion; I also used a DynaComp and EH Deluxe Memory Man to get my then-signature lead sound. I guess I'd say the amp worked well for me because it was reasonably sonically transparent, and reproduced the guitar and effects. Really loudly.

Highly reliable. Never flinched. And I abused it. It got hot, though. When I got it used it had metal knobs, don't know if they were stock. Since I used to wet my fingers before twiddling them any time after the second set, I assume it melted the plastic ones off. You gotta admire that in an amp.

Peavey's Peavey. Industry standard. I worked in a music store and didn't care. Well, that's not fair...good company to work with.

I'd been playing for 15 years when I used it, 32 years now...lots of other gear before and since, not terribly relevant. I love many guitars, and can't seem to find an amp that really satisfies. My main impetus for reviewing the Special 130 is that, with the Black Widow speaker, it was a force of nature. As heavy and dense for its weight as a piece of black hole...louder than you can imagine a box of that size being. I mean, really...would YOU design 130 watts into one twelve in a box the size of your average 30-watt amp? My guess it was built on a dare. I loved its audacity, extreme packability, incredible clean volume, sheer brutal presence.

If you're looking for a "versatile" amp, a metal monolith, or a sweet blues screamer, this ain't it. (Actually, I don't know how it would be with a softer sounding speaker...ARE there any that will stand up to 130 tube watts?). If you're looking for almost high-fi performance from a clean machine, this might be your baby. But no, there's nothing to compare it to. If I could find one cheap now, I'd buy it, put a BW in it, plug in, crank up, and sneer.

130 watts into 4 ohms, 12" speaker with HUGE magnet, 2 channels, very heavy to lug around, footswitch (lead/clean channel, reverb on/off).

I play an early 70's Gibson L6-S Custom that is all original. L6-S guitars came stock with Gibson "high output" humbuckers,which have a heavier midrange and sound less "creamy" than the classic "P.A.F" pickups that went into the Les Pauls. I like to play blues, rock, and some hardcore music. I will replace this amp when money permits. The amp has so much power that it will overwhelm the single 12" very easily. The clean channel is great, sounds good at most reasonable volumes, the distortion channel is poor. I play through an old Ibenez Sonic Distortion unit run through the clean channel. Other than that the amp is VERY LOUD and does not want for more power, it could easily power a 4-12 cab. So to sum it up the Special 130 is perfect for those on a budget that need to play loud and don't need the best.

Seems bullet proof so far and its old, the original manual was in the back of mine and it's dingy yellow. The amp was never apart, none of the screws have been removed and all parts seem to be worn equilly. I would trust it without a back-up.

Never had to contact Peavey.

I would upgrade to a better amp if this one was lost or stolen. As I said, this amp is great for beginners like me who don't have the skills to be worthy of a mean sounding tube amp or a full digital rig. So I'm happy, worth the $175.00 I paid and it cranks. I only wish it was a 2-12 version with better distortion.

12" speaker, 130 watts, 2 channels, channel-switching with footswitch -reverb, low, low-mid, high-mid, & high equalizer controls -pre, saturation, and post distortion controls -separate volume controls for each channel -"pull-thick" feature for fuller (bassier) sound on high equalizer -"bright" feature on normal gain volume -GND +/-
-2 inputs

I play different music from pretty heavy to kind of mild distortion. "Alternative", I guess. Suits my style pretty well. I found the distortion wasn't as smooth as I wanted it. The new TransTube technology found on newer Peaveys sounds much better, but this is an old amp. It seemed to sound worse when I played with drums at high volume, so I got ahold of a distortion box which I use instead of the built-in distortion now. Clean sounds ok at high volume (doesn't distort badly) Speaker is only 12", what can you expect? I use a Yamaha guitar with humbuckers. Distortion is pretty heavy, but I don't like it that much. Stompbox sounds much better.

This is the second used Peavey I've owned, and they seem to be pretty tough. Never had any problems. I'd use it without a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I like it's power, reverb, and the 4 different equalizer controls. I don't like the distortion that much (too harsh) I wish the amp had separate equalizer controls for each channel. I wish the speaker was larger (18" would be great!) I would buy it again because I got it at a great price, but if I had the money I would go for Bandit 112 with TransTube distortion circuit. Overall, amp isn't bad. Good for jamming because it's got lots of power.