Peavey ValveKing 112 Combo

The features are published by the manufacturer. 50W Tube amp. Let me start by saying I only owned for about a week and took it back and got a Fender Frontman 212R, which purists might turn their noses up at cause it's not a tube amp, but the ears don't lie, it's better than this over-rated bottom line tube combo. But as for features they are ample, so I have to give it a 9.

This is by far the most important thing, and this baby isn't it. Sure there are tubes in there, but comparing this to some solid states, I disagree that it's better. Not much bass, too much treble, even with it at zero, breakup on the clean channel way too early, at about 4. The tone controls don't make that much difference on either channel. The drive channel isn't bad though, but again, not any better than a lot of cheaper solid states. And the famous texture knob is just a gimmick in my opinion. Maxed out either way (AB or A) makes very little difference.

The amp does provide variety to control your tone, but all the sounds are achieved better with another amp. Kinda jack of all trades but a champion in none.

I've read that if you replace the speaker and tubes it sounds really good. Well for that money I suggest buying the Laney VC30 and leave it stock. What's the point in hotrodding a mediocre amp? I suppose I got spoiled by an old Fender deville I had that when I returned to a tube amp years later I expected to hear that sound...not even close. Like I said before, my new Fender frontman 212 is much closer, tubes or not. Trust your ears above whether it's tube or not.

Don't know, I took it back. But the construction seemed cheap, plastic knobs and input jacks. The look of a cheap solid state. And since it's a tube amp you have to worry about the tubes breaking.

Don't know

This is a economy grade tube amp, which is worse in my opinion than a high-grade solid state. These days manufacturers do an excellent job at emulating tube sound. Companies like Fender and Laney do that well and in a natural sounding way, not artificial. So don't kid yourself, if you absolutely need a tube amp, bite the bullet and get an expensive one. But buying this is like getting a Porche with a Volkswagen engine. Sure you can swap out engines, but why would you want to?

Been playing to 15 years. Have several guitars and have owned tube and solid state marshall, fender, other peaveys, Randall. This won't go down as one of my highlights.

There are several amps in the same price range that are better, including the Laney LV300, Laney VC30, the Fender I got, or a Randall, although they are very metal oriented.

this is an update to my previous post.
1. i apologise for double posting
2. this amp definatly improves with time. previously i had an issue with a lacking low end. now the vk comes into its own and the bright switch is now a usefull tool making the clean channel very fendery.
thus earning the vk a 10 in sound quality. all my comments are of course relative bareing in mind that the amp cost under 300.

Well...There's plenty of people who have touched on the features, I'll just say it's got everything a combo amp should have plus a few surprises. Dual 3-band EQ (one per channel), gain, lead boost, A/AB knob and a presents button that acts like a bass response button.
I believe it's a '08 model but not sure...baught new this year in Feb from MF though.
I play a bit of everything, but mostly hard rock and metal, both modern and classic such as old Metallica, etc. All the way up to modern grindcore.

I'm using a cheap Epi with a humbucker in the bridge, no OD pedals, direct into the amp most of the time. It has awesome cleans especially if you turn the trebble down and shut off the bright switch, it really warms up the tone and gives it a nice mellow feel. The gain channel had a few issues with the stock tubes in it, it sounded classic rock-like with the slightest hint of trying to be metal with sloppy mud in it. Solution? Toss those Sovtek 12AX7WA decorations and put a few spare LPS's in it. Sure they're still Sovtek but it's the best they make until I stock up on good tubes. That change alone made the distortion tighter, more gainy (like the 6505's baby brother kind of sound), but still retaining that rock tone, which I like. Those tubes also made the clean channel louder and fuller as well. I got a good ACDC tone and some other artists without too much effort.
This amp's distortion can do metal fairly well without needing an OD pedal or actives driving it, however if you're playing modern death metal or something else like BLS where there's gobs of gain everywhere, you're going to want to run an OD pedal in front of it or turn off the gain altogether and use a true distortion pedal. Remember, EQ is everything. Before people start complaining about how crappy their amp sounds, experiment with EQ-ing both the amp, using the tone knobs on your axe, an EQ pedal, swap some tubes that have less mid or whatever, etc.
I was able to get a nice blues tone by turning off the boost lead and backing off the gain almost all the way and cranking that volume, flip over to class A and boost the bass and mid for a nice full sound. It's not a Fender and it never will be, but it's still pretty awesome.
The next thing was to test that effects loop conveniently on the front panel. If you have a good distortion like the Metal Monster, you can stick the amp on clean and EQ it and control how gainy it gets with the amp's volume. Very nice! This is probably the quietest FX loop I've used, no annoying humming or hissing. So overall this amp kills for the money if you're willing to put in some thought and work.

It's a tank. Well, it's a wooden box... Anyways, very well built and there's a little guard holding the power tubes so you can't hit 'em easily which is good for protection and gigging. I've gigged with this for a few months, dropped it, had it in the back of a truck whilst it was raining, and she always fired right up afterwords. All the knobs and buttons are nice and tight and don't feel sloppy. Awesome. One point knocked though, two screws were missing from the reverb tank; I've seen this reported in other reviews other than on this site and it seems to be a common thing among this amp. But, hey that's what screwdrivers and brains are for...

Never needed them, but it's got a one year warranty and Peavey seems friendly enough.

These are the words of a metalhead who has a few tricks up his sleeve, been playing 11 years. I've tried several amps and pedals to get a beafy tone and a good box to put it through. The VK112 is a budgeter's amp and is well-made, and it's an easy amp to mod. I won't fall into that speaker replacement fad that most people get holes in their wallets from unless it's totally and utterly necessary, which for me it isn't. If you're unhappy with your tone, start simple and work up from that. EQ, volume, preamp tubes, power tubes, maybe close off the back of the cab, then if all else fails pop a new speaker in and then you will have tried everything. If you're so obsessed with that custom tone you really want and can't squeeze out of this amp, maybe you should consider buying a more expensive amp and try before you buy. But this amp has a lot to offer and if you're getting into tubes, it would be foolish not to check this out.
One thing I wish this amp had though, were the resonance controls and the speaker outs that didn't mute the combo and let both the combo and the external cab play at the same time, found in the 212 combo and the VK head. But I am after all in an apartment...

For all styles, but mostly for nice filthy rock and blues, and metal with a good OD in front of it.

Bought this amp 2008 used, for about $200. Before that I used a Fender G-DEC amp and a Korg AX1500G.

This amp has one high gain input (guitar signal) and one low gain input (line signal) denoted 1 and 2 respectively.

Channel switching from clean to lead, and vice versa, can be made with a pedal which can be bought separately. I do not own such a switch, I go with my Boss pedals instead. Fx loop exists.

Unfortunately there is no headphone jack for practicing those late nights.

The output power is rated at 50W, which is a somewhat high figure for a tube combo with only one 12" speaker, but the actual power in terms of sound in reality has much to do with the actual efficiency of the power tube and their matching with the speaker as well as speaker response. Nevertheless the VK112 is loud enough for my purposes.

I play mostly rock mainly as keyboardist and secondly as comp guitarist in band, and that's how I use the Peavey.

First of all I want to say that I am a guitarist on a learning curve right now. My main instrument is piano/keyboards (20+ years) and I'm only knowledgeable on guitar (a few years). My band needed an additional guitarist so I jumped the opportunity to fill in on some of our guitar based songs with simpler riffs/chords.

I tried out the Peavey Classic 30 in a music store and C30 amp had that wonderful sound, but I eventually bought the VK112 used, mainly because of its price and demos on the internet.

At first the VK112 was a disappointment. The sound was very harsh, or "middy", no bass punch, without any life. Cleans ok, but also annoyingly harsh. Especially the lead channel, sounded like a "bee in jar", fuzzy and undefined. In this stage the amp would have gotten a 2 or 3 for sound quality.

Then I read some of the forums and got some valuable info. Many recommended a speaker change and some recommended valve change. Do them both! The speaker improved things and cleared up the sound a great deal, but the VK112 still had that lifeless sound. Until I decided to change the valves.

The speaker change combined with new valves opened up the sound completely. The amp now really sings and rewards me with endless sustain on the lead channel. Defined crunch and cleans are back again, and convincing.

This mod consists of a Eminence Red Heat Governor 12" speaker (attention: 16 OHMS)and TAD 12AX7 RT010 7025 selected preamp valves and TAD 6L6GC-STR (selected/matched) power tubes.

Many people recommends speaker change as a first measure for VK112. But I say: also change the valves while you're at it. In particular if the amp is used. The preamp valves influences the sound most. If the power tubes are bad, it will not drive the speaker accordingly.

I have a stock Mex Strat and Boss Pedals like SD-1, DS-1, DS-2, CH-1, CS-3.

No trouble yet.

No support needed.

I am still evaluating it...

features have been listed many times by other reviewers.
less common ones:
volume boost
gain boost
bright switch

no headphone jack but I dont need one. effects loop is brilliant really made my pedal chain sound natural and organic.
wish the reverb was better it sound like a bit of a nasty after effect rather than a lush spacey sound.
I only got it recently so havent used it live yet but definatley plan on it, it's plenty loud enough for band practice as i dont need it past 3 or 4 and we play quite loud. i bought it as a more portable option than my half stack and was suprised by how wieghty it is.

I use a mexican tele with a seymour duncan stl-2 in the bridge and a lonestar strat. the bridge p/u on the strat sounds quite harsh and i immediatley noticed the amp has a very week low end. after hours of tweeking i love it. it sounds great with my tele with both pickups selected. but on the clean channel i have to max the bass and cut the treble back to 2 or 3 to get the warm clean i really like.

the lead channel is fantastic i use it maxed out and with the gain boost on it gives a great thick distortion perfect for hard rock bridging on metal tones. my band plays alt rock mixed with metal and sometime a bit of bluesy stuff so i need a very versitile gain channel.

it can get noisy but thats because of the unsheildable beast known as the telecaster. so once i stand away from it it's all fine and dandy.

i think it would definatley benifit from being driven through a extention cab possibly even a 1x15 to boost the low end. loads of other reviewers have said it needs a speaker change and this would probably be a huge help in getting the low end tone im looking for but i bought this amp because of the price tag for an all tube amp and my budget isn't very big so i dont have any cash lying around to tweek my purchase.but i found that a good free alternative is to back of the tone controls on all of my pedals. and as I am now using the amp gain it frees up my blues driver as a lead boost and my eq to add the low end i need so for me the sound is perfect.

peavey generally are reliable i have been using one of their PA systems with my band and have never had problems with it. the valveking is heavey as hell and feels realy sturdy but when it first arrived it had this really anoying ticking sound and i sent it back and had it rplaced and there have been no problems thus far with the new one. would gig without a spare but would feel reluctant to take it on the road without a backup

when the first one was faulty i sent it back to the shop so i've never had to deal with peavey

i've been playing for about 7 years and have been through more than my fair share of gear. i've owned plenty of ridiculous shaped guitars to truly appriciat the classics like the tele and the strat. i've been on a hunt for a valve combo for some time and due to being in fulltime education my budget never stretches much past the 500 quid mark. this amp is worth every penny I paid for it. if it were lost or stolen i would either replace it buy the 212 version or depending on my bank balance buy a fender hot rod. when on my hunt for an amp i tried the hot rod and the windsor. the hot rod was to expensive but definatly worth the extra cash (the other guitarist in my band has one and we both love it) and the windsor wasn't versitile enough. i would definatly say it would hold its groung against the fender with its supperior lead channel but would be shoved out of the way with the fenders sparkling clean and shear power.

features have been listed many times by other reviewers.
less common ones:
volume boost
gain boost
bright switch

no headphone jack but I dont need one. effects loop is brilliant really made my pedal chain sound natural and organic.
wish the reverb was better it sound like a bit of a nasty after effect rather than a lush spacey sound.
I only got it recently so havent used it live yet but definatley plan on it, it's plenty loud enough for band practice as i dont need it past 3 or 4 and we play quite loud. i bought it as a more portable option than my half stack and was suprised by how wieghty it is.

I use a mexican tele with a seymour duncan stl-2 in the bridge and a lonestar strat. the bridge p/u on the strat sounds quite harsh and i immediatley noticed the amp has a very week low end. after hours of tweeking i love it. it sounds great with my tele with both pickups selected. but on the clean channel i have to max the bass and cut the treble back to 2 or 3 to get the warm clean i really like.

the lead channel is fantastic i use it maxed out and with the gain boost on it gives a great thick distortion perfect for hard rock bridging on metal tones. my band plays alt rock mixed with metal and sometime a bit of bluesy stuff so i need a very versitile gain channel.

it can get noisy but thats because of the unsheildable beast known as the telecaster. so once i stand away from it it's all fine and dandy.

i think it would definatley benifit from being driven through a extention cab possibly even a 1x15 to boost the low end. loads of other reviewers have said it needs a speaker change and this would probably be a huge help in getting the low end tone im looking for but i bought this amp because of the price tag for an all tube amp and my budget isn't very big so i dont have any cash lying around to tweek my purchase.but i found that a good free alternative is to back of the tone controls on all of my pedals. and as I am now using the amp gain it frees up my blues driver as a lead boost and my eq to add the low end i need so for me the sound is perfect.

peavey generally are reliable i have been using one of their PA systems with my band and have never had problems with it. the valveking is heavey as hell and feels realy sturdy but when it first arrived it had this really anoying ticking sound and i sent it back and had it rplaced and there have been no problems thus far with the new one. would gig without a spare but would feel reluctant to take it on the road without a backup

when the first one was faulty i sent it back to the shop so i've never had to deal with peavey

i've been playing for about 7 years and have been through more than my fair share of gear. i've owned plenty of ridiculous shaped guitars to truly appriciat the classics like the tele and the strat. i've been on a hunt for a valve combo for some time and due to being in fulltime education my budget never stretches much past the 500 quid mark. this amp is worth every penny I paid for it. if it were lost or stolen i would either replace it buy the 212 version or depending on my bank balance buy a fender hot rod. when on my hunt for an amp i tried the hot rod and the windsor. the hot rod was to expensive but definatly worth the extra cash (the other guitarist in my band has one and we both love it) and the windsor wasn't versitile enough. i would definatly say it would hold its groung against the fender with its supperior lead channel but would be shoved out of the way with the fenders sparkling clean and shear power.

This is another amendment to my review below. I ran into a problem. I contacted Peavey before installing the Gold Lion KT66s I bought for my ValveKing 112. I have to confess I wrote that part of my review based on how I envisioned it would sound. I guess it pays to do your homework. Peavey responded to my query within two days with detailed information; GREAT customer sevice. KT66s cannot be used in the ValveKing because, A) They won't fit, and B) They have WAY too much current draw for the amp's architecture. It has nothing to do with the output transformer; the tubes are wired in series. The ValveKing is biased hotter than most of Peavey's other amps, so the adjustment mentioned below probably isn't necessary. ValveKings have a fixed idle plate current draw of ~30-35ma. The amp should not be biased hotter than about 35ma/tube depending on the tube. My solution is to search for a 6L6GC tube that has characteristics close to what I'm looking for. Hope this helps and sorry for the misinformation.

This is a minor correction to my post below. The fellow further down the page recommended adjusting the bias * -5ma *. I typoed.

I might as well also add that the overdrive box I drive the amp with to get my high gain sound is a Nady TD-1 tube distortion pedal. I just don't drive it into full distortion, just a small amount of boost and some soft overdrive. It's got a lot of tone-shaping controls to make it transparent or, at the flip of one of two switches, supply a treble boost for my slightly bottom-heavy Ibanez AR200 and/or a mid hump for a fat, Boston-like tone. I switched the tube in the TD-1 (predictable, am I?) with a Sovtek 5751. This is a bit cooler still than the Jan-Phillips and gives me another *slight* gain reduction and keeps the amp tight at high-gain.

After the TD-1, there's a Dunlop MXR M-109 graphic EQ. I cut it at 1.6K for my "mid-scoop", which is really more of a "slice" than a "scoop". "Flying V"-style guitars all produce a lot of nasty low-frequency treble because of the body shape, so when I get that Reverend Volcano, I'll use the MXR EQ to cut at 3.2K to tame the treble.

Real happy with the amp, though.

The 'ValveKing' 112's features have been covered adequately below so I'll only mention them when I need to. It has basically the same controls as any combo amp, plus the "Texture" (Class-A sim) and "Resonance" controls. The manufacturer claims the speaker is "voiced" for the 'ValveKing' series.

Out of the box, the 'ValveKing' 112 sounded "just okay". I knew what to expect since this isn't my first Peavey tube amp. I used to have a Classic 50 410, which actually sounded better stock than this one, probably due to the speakers, but that was a different animal for a different job. This is a $400 amp, not a $1400 Genz-Benz 'El Diablo' or $2000 Rivera 'Quiana'. It ships with stock Sovtek tubes ("eh") but frankly the weakest point of Peavey amps are the speakers. They aren't stellar and I've blown a couple, "specially voiced" or not. All that said, there's a lot of tweaking that can be done to drastically improve the sound and performance of the 'ValveKing' 112.

In a tube amp, the tubes are everything. Yank the stock tubes and swap them out. Your requirements will probably require different choices than mine. My sound is prog rock/fusion and I need a smooth, sweet, sustaining, singing tone like Santana or Larry Carlton. But I also need the versatility of an occasional hi-gain sound. I used a pair of Tung-Sol 12ax7's with a Jan-Phillips 5751 at the front end. This accomplished two things: It smoothed out the distortion and gave it a little extra edgy articulation (like what the 12at7 in a Hi-Watt does, but not as much so) AND it cut down the front end gain in the clean channel making it cleaner and more more dynamic while improving the soft breakup when I use the "Boost" function. I need a crystal-clear clean sound too.

Then I changed the power tubes. This is where you might want something different. I installed a pair of Golden Lion KT66's. A KT66 is an even bias swap for a 6L6 but has a rounder, warmer sound without the gravelly mids. They're just as bright and have just as much headroom. Most rock players *like* gravelly, so use Ruby Tubes or Groove Tubes or something.

Next I got the amp a new speaker. I looked at Guitar Player's taste test and opted for the Weber VST P12B "Blue Dog". It's half the price of a Celestian Blue and was reported to sound almost the same, if even a little "creamier", which sounded good to me.

At this point, the amp sounded absolutely fabulous.

A reviewer below recommended a slight rebiasing of -.5 which sounded reasonable to try. I tried it and it did just what he said it would. The 'ValveKing' got much more open and lively.

Now, the amp sounded absolutely *boutique* fabulous.

About those boutique amps. Go to the websites of the ones I mentioned and listen to their audio samples with your ears instead of your wallet. Then go to Peavey's site and listen to samples of the 'ValveKing" when it's set up properly. The Peavey actually has more character and nails the classic rock tone better. It's looser and sloppier at high-gain and there's a good reason why: only three preamp tubes.

High-gain amps typically have four or five preamp tubes instead of three like a Peavey Classic, 'ValveKing' or old Marshall has. With three tubes in the preamp you HAVE to drive the power tubes to get that extra layer of distortion. The newer Marshall Super Leads and all the Boogies have four or five. The effect is different than just cranking up the Pre Gain. If you try to get that much distortion with three preamp tubes, the voltage will bottle-neck and it'll go "over the top". Your pick attack will get flappy, the noise floor will come up and sound like frying bacon, and your tone will turn to crap. Gain is like paint. Four or five thin coats give a better result than three thick ones.

Set your Pre Gain so the amp sounds solid. If you need more gain, put an overdrive box in front of it but DON'T crank it up. Just add a little extra kick and enough drive that it fades to clean. Set the tone on the box so it's transparent, no difference on or off. It'll act like an extra tube. Your amp will scream and the feedback will sing instead of howl. Without the mods...7. With the mods, 10. Average and round up.

I've used Peavey P.A. gear as a soundman and now use it to power my other guitar rig, which consists of a modeling preamp/processor, a graphic EQ (to correct the speakers), a Peavey PV900 power amp and a pair of small TSL112H P.A. cabs. Ten years and no problems. My grandparents got me a Peavey Pacer 112 solid-state amp when I was in H.S. in 1977. I blew the original speaker and output transformer and now, just lately, blew the transformer again. Not too bad for 32 years. I didn't have the Classic long enough to comment but if this 'ValveKing' proves as reliable as my other Peavey gear it will outlive me.

I needed parts for that Pacer so I called Peavey's Meridian, Mississippi plant. A very nice lady with a southern accent answered the phone, I told her what I needed, she connected me with the factory and a guy told me no problem, took my order, the price was cheaper than I expected and they were delivered tute suite.

I didn't mention earlier that the "Texture" control does give you *some* of that Class-A goodness. It cuts the apparent wattage, makes the overdrive more gritty and compresses the sound. Set it up right and you can do AC30 things with it. The "Resonance" control expands the low end nicely and makes a little amp sound bigger. Balance it with the BASS tone knob. I've been playing over 35 years. My main electrics are a '97 Fender Deluxe Strat Plus and a Godin xtSA. I'm still using my BOSS GX-700 for the effects but would like to get some pedals. They're fun.

Not only is this a great entry-level tube amp but at present I see no need to get a more expensive one. In fact, I might buy another one of these so I can run them in stereo.

2008 mfg. date
No need to review features as there are several reviews out there that do that.
Clean and lead channels separate eq's.
I play at home which means I never turn it past 3. Does everything I need it to do.

I use 01 Epi LP w/EMG p'ups and 08 Epi LP with stock p'ups, and a Fat Strat copy w/ stock p'ups. I play mostly Zep, Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest, SRV.

OK, here are the two reasons I am reviewing:

1. I depend on user reviews heavily to make most purchase decieions, as they are usually helpful.

2. I see, especially with musical equipment, very unrealistic comparisons. This amp is a low cost tube amp that performs very nicely in that regard. I get good tone, good distortion, sustain and, with my effects, a very good, inexpensive setup. It's not a Mesa triple rec. or a Marshall whatever. If you want that sound, man up and pay for it. A Ford mustang is a very capable $30K sports car. It will never be a Porche 911 no matter how much you want it to be. Yoiu get what you pay for. It's unbelievable the bad reviewf trying to compare one product to something 3 or 4 times more expensive. The valveking is a superior choice to a solid state amp and nothing more. If you are like me and love to play guitar, live on a budget and want something capable this is your amp. As stated above I use copy guitars because $2500 is too much for a Gibson. Do I expect my Epi's to sound like a Gibson? No, but when I am cranking out some killer tunes from a band I worshipped growing up, I couldn't give a damn. Joe 18 year old or 35 year old dude wanting a decent, affordable rig, this fits that need. Mr. self-proclaimed "tone freak" keep looking.

Has never let me down.

Never needed it.

I love this amp. I would have had to settle for a solid state at this price range. I would buy it again if it were stolen. I love the decent performance and the paltry price you have to pay for that performance. I comparison shopped for months and couldn't find anything comparable without paying hundreds more. Fender Hot Rod Deville was better but almost 2x price. Marshall MG50DFX was more expensive but solid state. Probably my second choice. Line 6 Spider III 120W is a kids toy. I just kept coming back to this amp and eventually bought it.

Amp was bought new in 2008. You can set the amp from class A to class A/B. Also has a damping button. Plus the usual bass/treble/middle/gain, increase volume and increase gain buttons.
Clean and dirty channels

I only really use the overdrive channel. Gives a great classic rock sound with lots of middle. Not so good at doing cystal clear overdrive like Marshall. The gain boost makes everything really noisy - but as I say i only do classic rock. The reverb sounds poor - maybe best to ignore it for professional use. I try to get the scooped metal sounds from it but its a very very thick sound compared to marshall. I've never had the anp above 2 yet in my bedroon and then my ears were ringing afterwards !
The class A - ClassA/B dial didn't seem to make much audible difference - I think it's supposed to mean that with Class A you can fully crank up the amp to give a sound only obtainable usually with high volumme gain. It also has a damping button but I can;t really hear the difference.
Overall I'm happy with it - great for classic rock - not so sure about metal as it doesn;t give a clear sound at all.

n/a

One year warranty

Been playing now for 6 years - if it was between a Marshall AVT and this I probably couldn't decide. The AVT gives a clear sound but this gives a thick sound - verging on muddy. So that is what the option would come down to.
However try buying a valve amp at this price !

2008 made, it's not the "versatiliest" amp in the clean channel, well, in some way, it sucks for everything but ska, I find the OD channel pretty "versatile", although it's high gain.
it has a lot of gain, you can play punk, hardcore, rock, and with the gain at 2-3, you can also play perfectly well led zeppelin-style with it.

it has a silly, useless thing on the back called "a-a/b" switch; ok, it does almost nothing to the sound....in my opinion, of course

ok, 2 channels, the clean one with "bright"-switch, the OD with footswitchable "more gain"- and "volume"-switch.
It does have an effects loop, but there's any headphone jack(just because it's an ALL-VALVE AMPLIFIER)

I wish it had an DI-out, because you have to have a microphone when you play live.

I use it for practicing and live, and it's rough enough not to break when bringing it up late at night after a gig, with a couple of beers of more

i have an aria guitar with an SD invader at the bridge, i play mostly punk, hardcore punk, ska and a sometimes, metal(but only sometimes)

it fits perfectly well, but before I installed the invader, i have to say that i did not really like my amp.

but now i'm the happiest person in the world

it sounds it's best when it has been warmed up for 2/3 hours, what can be sometimes a problem live, butwhat the hell, it's a tube-amp, it's normal


of course, i have to say the clean channel sucks, HIgH tones are always there......ska......that's the only thing for what can be used this channel..and sometimes, with a lot of tweeking of the knobs, you can make an OD-pedal sound really good(my jackhammer fits well after half an hour of tweeking....but then it's really ok)

hell yeah!!!

it's ROUGH, very rough, better look it for yourself, you won't be dissapointed

keine annung, but i don't think they would be very useful...

i have been playing punkrock for 6 years, i am not a pedalist-man, i like to keep it simple, so i have only the jackhammer(which i do not usually switch because i find better the OD of the amp) and an MXR-microamp in the effects loop, that i switch in the solos


FOR THE MONEY, GREAT VALUE, i really mean it when i say that you WON'T find anything better for 389???(new)

Good solid features to this amp. 2 channels each with seperate EQ-awesome. Passive Effects Loop works great with my setup. I like the texture control, although it just feels and responds more like a volume boost? I wish it had a line in/out or preamp in/out, something like that. No worries, I just mike it or plug into an external cab. This amp is loud, loud, loud! Don't be afraid to turn it up and let those tubes do their job! An excellent amp for an excellent price!

The amp is miles warmer than the old Peavey Bandit 112 amps I was using for small clubs and church. It suits my style well, which is a fusion of blues/country/classic rock. I play alot of small and medium clubs and this thing handles them well. I am used to keeping my bass turned up but on this map I have to roll it back a little cuz it tends to get overpowering and muddy. The mids and treble or nice, but I really love this amp for it's overdrive. I can get a great, clean crunch, chunky rhythm, or smoothe, milky sustain drive, perfect for leads when the boost is kicked in. This amp really convinced me to take all but 1 of my overdrive pedals off my board...which I now use to boost the 2nd channel.

I've only had this for a short time and gigged twice with it. So far, it's been a tank. I have never had a bad experience with Peavey products..so I don't expect that this will be any different.

Peavey is a great company and I love their products. I would trust them with any and all of my musical needs.

I've been playing for going on 13 years now. I've been through many amps and to date, this has been my favorite, next to my old Delta Blues. I may purchase another Delta Blues in the future, then A/B it with the Valve King. That would make for a sweet sweet setup. I use my own custom modified "strat style" electrics, as well as a Reverend Club King. This rig changed the way I approach the electric guitar forever. I'm really grateful that I stumbled across this deal. Got is used for $299.00. Can't beat that for a great Tube Amp.

2008 made Peavey ValveKing 112. This is an amp I'm using for home use, and its plenty loud and versatile enough for my style(s) of play, primarily classic rock, jazz, and finger picking electric guitars. The features are covered in other reviews, so I won't repeat. A feature I don't like is that when you use the line out to add a speaker, it turns off the speaker in the cabinet, as opposed to just adding it, so you cannot achieve a stereo effect (I suppose this can be used as a headphone jack).

I'm using it with a very well made custom Telecaster with Rio Grande pickups in a strat configuration. This guitar is very sensitive, and I wanted an amp that would be equally versatile. Out of the box, this amp was not that -- though I should say that I did not find my Marshall 401 to be that great off the shelf either, and neither are the Fender Hot Rods. Pretty much all of the entry level tube amps are a bit chilly and narrow, and only a small step above well made solid state amps. Stock tubes and stock speakers in all of these amps are really nothing special, despite all the talk about "warmth" and "presence". This one had a problem with the speaker, and the previous owner upgraded to an Eminence speaker and Ruby tubes ( I did a similar upgrade to my Marshall 401 before I enjoyed playing it). With these upgrades this amp is very satisfactory.
On the back, the RESONANCE switch works essentially as a bass boost. In the clean channel, I found this to be an excellent tone, when accompanied by using the Bright button on the front, and then turning down the treble a bit. I found this maxed the bass tones, when playing clean, using the neck pickup on my tele. The TEXTURE button on the back, though subtle, does allow you to get a bit of very natural breakup while playing clean (rotate the TEXTURE button all the way to the left). This is true distortion without using any of the gain boosts. Basically, if you're playing clean, you can play softly with no distortion at all, then hit it a bit harder and get just a bit of crunch. Very nice.
The Gain controls are adequate. I never find that gain controls on amps are as good as pedals, but these aren't bad. I use a Fulltone OCD for distortion. If you don't have a good distortion pedal, you'll get one eventually. But in the meantime, you can get by with what's on this amp (not if you want to play metal, but then, this probably isn't the amp for that to begin with). I rate this as an 8 including the upgrades, but I think it would be a 6 out of the box -- as would a Marshall 401 or a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

Too new to know.

I've dealt with Peavey in the past and found them very responsive with information, but I have no experience with getting them to replace a part.

I've been playing on and off for 35 years. I've gone through Marshalls and Fender twins, a Peavey Classic 410, Les Paul Custom, 82 Fender Strat, Jackson USA Sl2, G & L Strat, Epiphone Sheraton, Eastman 335 s, uhh, and so on, and my current custom Tele. If it were stolen, I would replace it, or get another Peavey Classic and upgrade it (I might prefer a 2 x 12 cabinet). With the upgrades, this is a solid entry level performing tube amp.

Made in 2008.
Very versatile as is. I play a Boss ME-50 through the clean channel and it sounds really good too.

I paid $290 for a used one and it is a great deal for this 50 watt tube amp.

Replaced the stock Sovtek tubes with Matched Groove Tubes. Not much difference in tone to my ears.
For kicks I connected my MESA 2x12 rectifier cab to the speaker jack. WOW!!!!! Straight into the amp with no effects is awesome. I riff out some slash and old AC/DC and it sounds like a marshall stack!!. Even without using the boogie 2x12..it's a great buy. I recommend this one.

Been playing 30 years now.

a lot already said
Texturing feature is useless, no real effect noticable. Who sais it gives it??s great and gives you lot of variaty is a peavy promoter or just repeats peavy advertising without own opinion.
2 channels, bright only for clean channel, EQ for both but low effect range.
Gain Boost and volume boost switchable by foot pedal, must be preselected on the amp. That means you can??t switch them individually by foot, only both if they??re booth preselected.
Volume boost works only noticable from 5 on (12 o??clock), at lower level it??s useless - you need to use gain for an increase, as long as you use low gain settings for standard. But this changes sound dramatically.
No foot pedal delivered, but a simple stereo 6.35mm cable connected to 2 on/off switches will do the job. Same system is for my old Peaveay Backstage 50, seems to be Peavey standard.
16 Ohm external Speaker possible.

Playing Les Pauls copy with SD humbucker, and Kramer with SD humbucker at bridge and single coli at neck. No effects except compression for the clean.

Was impressed in store by the sound, but at home i became more and more dissapointed. Sound felt not very precise. Clean is ok but no highlight. Distortion comes early but seems to come partly from the speaker. A friend played a Engle Screamer 50, for classic rock much better, much clearer sound. With the 112, i had the impression to come close to the sound of "money for nothing" however. It lacks brilliance, hard to describe.
I had an external box with a Celestion, sounds much more precise with less distortion ( i need higher gain settings). Changed the speaker now. The valveking speaker in the box sounds horrible now, especially with overdrive, the combo sound nicer now. So i think the speaker is a problem in the combo.
Reverb is not the best.

It??s a cheap amp. Wall thicknesses are low. It??ll not break up for me, but it??s not as tough as others for sure.

Played it half a year now in a band with standard rock songs and found it not very useful after all. It may have a lot of distortion, but for guys loving the heavy side: who is going on stage with such a small amp? For kids starting playing and who search a cheap startup equipment, searching distortion more than any other, it??s probably ok.

2008 valveking 1x12
versatile amp
2/3 channels
used from practice to gigs of 500+ - plenty loud

i use a prs se semi-hollow, gibson les paul special sl, and a tele with semour duncan lil' 59er and vintage tele pickup. Each has its own unique sound (this is expected because they are all different guitars and this is a tube amp). I have had no problems with noise, though i have a hard time getting just slight breakup on the gain channel. I am about to retube that channel with a 12dw7, that should solve that problem. Though plenty of gain - no longer use any distortion/overdrive pedals except my boss metal zone.

I have not had any problems with it. I haul it around everywhere in my truck - rides VERY rough. Not a single problem. There is a delay in switcing channels - going to the boost stage. Not a problem, most people would never notice it. To all of those who complain about the footswitch - there are schematics online to build one. I ordered all the parts for about $20-25 and built it in an afternoon. Only 6 total solders - easy project. The volume boost DOES work. Very versitile amp. For those who complain, most of them just can't set it up right.

I have not had to have ANY involvement with customer support

I own two fender amps and this one trumps both! My dad has been using the same peavey bass amp for his acoustic guitar for almost 18 years and the only problem is a dirty pot. Peavey makes VERY reliable products

Features have been covered in other reviews. This is a 112, 50 watt combo with a specially voiced speaker made specifically for the VK. I really like the volume/gain boost feature. Effects loop jacks are in the front, which is very convenient.

There is no presence knob, which might be nice. A rear cross-panel would be nice for protection although the tubes are amply protected with a metal cage so they cannot accidentally be bumped and broken. It???s a good looking amp. I could do without the wings on the front but it???s not that big of a deal.

I???m using this amp weekly to play for as many as 200 people in a medium sized room. The amp is mic???d and run through the P.A. I play a Nashville Tele, Wolfgang Hardtail and an LP through it and each has their own personality. In the loop I use delay, chorus, tremolo & phase as needed. Some open backed amps sound noticeably different when changing rooms, this does not. My VK is amazingly quiet.

The voicing of this amp, to my ears, is very Marshall-like. It isn???t fuzzzzzzzy like a lot of high-gain amps, which is good. I hate fuzzzzzz. It also does not have scooped mids. I do not consider this a high gain amp. It has enough gain to easily hit pinch harmonics and it sustains very well. It???s got a well balanced tonal range. If you???re looking for a lot of low end thump, you???ll be disappointed. But it is very balanced. Not too bright. Not too dark. Using the gain/volume boost is great for solos and it does nudge it towards high gain territory, but the tone becomes too messy for my rhythm work.

The effects loop may be the clearest, quietest loop I???ve ever heard, certainly in this price range, which really gives the delay some dimension. Reverb is fine. I can see where people who rely on Reverb more than I do might be disappointed. I don???t use a lot of reverb so this doesn???t matter as much to me.

The clean channel is very nice. Fenderish I guess. I can???t believe anyone would hate the clean channel. As stated earlier, the lead channel is a Marshall type of tone. It can be a little grainy but with reasonable and prudent adjustment of the eq, it is not harsh. It???s got a bit of a throaty growl with some teeth make the tone sound bigger than the box it comes out of. I???m not saying that it???s big boomy because it is not. The basic tone though has shades of that deep growl made by a 412 cab. It doesn???t ooze a lot of harmonic overtones but it cuts through the mix well without being harsh

The lead channel responds really well to volume pot changes from the guitar. Probably better than any other amp I???ve played. At every increment the gain dials down to a different, usable level.

Without pedals,it is a Rock/Blues amp. Again, think of the different situations you could use a classic Marshall tone, and that???s the kind of music you???d use the VK112 with. In addition to Classic Rock and guitar Rock in general, it???ll do 80???s Hard Rock (Judas Priest, Ozzy, some pre-5150 VH) No Metalica or other Metal without the right pedal or eq pedal. It won???t do 5150/6505 or Saldano high gain tones. The clean channel takes pedals well so that???s where you might find more tones.

One critique could be that it is not a very loud 50 watt amp. This is fine because I don???t use it live without micing it to the P.A. And it is loud enough to jam with or to play small venues. But in the world of 50 watt amps, it isn???t one of the loudest. It does seem to cut through the mix o.k. though.

The resonance and texture controls are neat. They are subtle but you can hear a difference depending on what volume you play. I recommend setting the texture control while playing the clean channel at at least half volume. This allows you to actually hear how much power tube breakup you???re getting. It can be hard to hear a difference on the lead channel. The Class A setting tends to sound more restricted with less headroom in both clean and lead. The lead channel can sound pretty spongy with more gain in the Class A mode. At full volume on the clean channel, the Class A setting is quite distorted. And it should be pointed out that the owners manual states that it is Class A Simulation, so my guess is that the texture is basically a variable half power knob that does indeed change the texture.

Peavey tends to be very reliable. The front baffle board is plywood, not particleboard. I think the actual cab is particleboard though. It wasn???t made for world stadium tours so knocking it because it wouldn???t handle that seems a bit silly to me. I got mine used and it works like new.

Peavey has a very user friendly website and forums with friendly moderators ready to help in any way they can.

I???m with others here who do not understand the 1 ratings. I also laugh when I read that a reasonable person couldn???t possibly like the lead channel. Whatever. I???ve been playing for 35 years. A Peavey Classic 100 has been my main amp for 7 years and I???ve owned several other amps though the years

Anyone worth their salt who has been playing for a while knows that you can get usable tones out of about any piece of gear if you know how to set it up and play it. -within reason of course.

To be sure, THIS IS NOT THE HOLY GRAIL OF AMPS, nor do I expect it to be. I expect it to be a good value for what I paid. I expect it to work well within the context that I bought it for. It is a punchy little workhorse of an amp and I have zero regrets.

Some people hate Peavey (for some reason). Some people hate gear made in China. (Fair enough). For these people, the VK would not be a good choice. For those who just want a pretty simple plug, play, good sounding Rock/Blues amp that is easy to carry around. I can whole-heartedly recommend considering the ValveKing 112. If it were stolen, I would absolutely replace it.

Highly tweakable for the price. Clean channel high boost really works magic. variable amounts of gain with gain knob and gain boost. almost too much gain. spring reverb is ok a larger one would have sounded better. texture knob allows for more crunch at low volumes for lead (my usual application, live I use full ab setting) power tube cage solid as a rock and gives a sense of security. pre-amp tubes impossible to get to. (I removed the hardware for easy removal) Loud amp but good at low volumes to. I play metal, blues, funk, praise and worship (ballad type stuff) It pulls them off with ease.

I am playing a HSS Standard Strat. I play pretty much anything but primarity blues, shred, funk. I have to be honest after about two months I was sorry I bought it but was going to make do (not rich). It sounded ok for the bedroom but lacked in tube warmth and responsiveness. Kind of harsh sounding and not too musical. I know Peavey biases their really amps cold to get minumum warranty claims/returns etc. so I took it to my tech and he put a bias adjustment pot and re-biased it (only -5ma from stock is where it's set) Now I am in tube heaven. It really opened up the amp, warmed it up and removed all the harshness and the muddiness. It also improved the resposiveness (it FEELS like a tube amp) (those have played really good tube amps know what I'm talking about) It sounds like an amp costing four times the price.

Before modding the amp it was pretty good but very little mojo factor. Now, I smile when I hit certain sweet spots. This amp modded has a lot of them.

So I will review the modified amp..

Clean is very warm, chimy, and responsive, almost el34 glassy sounding with the high boost in. It is a real joy to play RHCP or Hendrix/blues on clean.

Lead channel all settings sound clear and responsive, all the notes can be heard when chording, not muddy like it used to be. leads are soulful and sing beautifully. my favorite tone is with both boosts in and gain at 11:00. If I back off a bit on my guitar volume I can get a perfect semi-dirty blues tone. If i want shred I just put a bad monkey on or turn up the gain a bit (pedal works better live) there is NO crossover distortion when cranked. ( I used to crank it and think to myself "This is a tube amp?" Now it responds like a tube amp, It loves to be loud. I still have the stock speaker in and it sounds fantastic. due to the bias re-adjustment, it sounds a little thinner at the lowest volumes, but thick and creamy when power tubes kick in. I am not too concerned about brutal distortion ( I can get a pedal to do that) the distortion with the mods is very musical and can sound anywhere from blues to eighties metal or early metallica.

I also shorted r100 to fix the gain boost nasty crossover distortion problem (simple mod)

This amp is loud and almost can simulate a half stack tone. I have no problem keeping up with a drummer. In fact my drummer plays louder to keep up :-) sounds good.

I will stick with this amp now till I get rich and can afford a Cornford Hell Cat or Marshall JVM.

no problems yet. Peaveys are very reliable. I would have no problem gigging without a back up. I always bring extra tubes/strings just in case.

I probably voided the warranty with the mods. Oh well, it was worth it.

5 year warranty

I have been playing for about 25 years. I have always liked peavey gear (bandit 112, classic 50 head, 5150 head) but have owned a laney and a couple other half stacks. This amp is great with the mods. Ok stock. I don't know why peavey sacrifices tone for cost. I compared it to a B-52, marshall tube 112 (not sure what model) line 6. This seemed most versatile and had best tone. I highly recommend a bias adjustment mod to anyone who owns this amp. peavey biased much too cold for 6l6 tubes. If it were lost or stolen I would get another one and do the mods again or save up and get a marshall jvm 212.

It has bass, mid, and treb for both lean and distortion seperate. Also has Texture knob and resonance switch. Decent for a combo amp, if you want all the little effects go buy an effects pedal :)

Im using the ESP Alexi 600 with Blackout pick up bridge, I play mostly metal(Children of Bodom style). And this amp provides as a good recording amp for now. The distortion on this thing is decent but who cares? Most people that play metal or rock have thier own effect pedal. Run it through clean channel and it has a good sound to it, the effects loop sorta sucks *** though, takes away from the tone. If your looking for an amp thats cheap but sounds good this is it.

The only ive had to do to this amp is change the tubes, and that was because I just 'wanted' different ones. Ive had it for 3 years and its still kicking. If it can survive 12 hours a day of hardcore playing for me while on my ship in the Navy and being tossed around in rough water it can survive you.

Never delt with them, never had to. Besides I take it to my local shop I bought it from and they do the stuff to it.

Ive been playing for about 13 years and this is my main recording amp for on the road and when im in my friends apartment. Has good sound but doesnt have to be cranked. I also own Laney VH100R head and 2 4x12 cabs, a matamp GT1 head and the white retro 4x12 cab, and a marshall MF350 head with 1960a and B cabs. While all the gear I have is very good, Its not practical for me to record with while on the road or in my house or friends apartment. I love how it CAN crank out some volume for its size, but doesnt need to be turned up to get good sound. I chose this amp as a "Hey look tube amp." and bought it just because i needed one when my marshall combo went to ****. I recomend it, its served me well and can for you too.

You know em by now. 50 watts, all tube, gain boost, volume boost, resonance switch, the texture knob, and a built in masterbator.

Some features not mentioned much: speaker is 16 ohms, and sounds quite good I think. I think lots of people are trying to justify the low price and immediately target the speaker or tubes because their easy replacements. I would think an EQ pedal would be a quicker, cheaper, and less permanent fix, but then again, I LIKE this amp. It's got a front-mounted effects loop, master reverb, 2 inputs (high and low, low if both used).

Sound is so subjective, so this is just my opinion, but I love everything sound this makes. Distortion cranks, the clean is super clean, tone controls are super sensitive, so you can really shape YOUR tone. There's no presence knob, but I rarely take the treble over half way, so it's not needed. I'm a shredder, my other amp is a Marshall JCM900, so I just dime the gain and rip. The VK does NOT disappoint. The clean channel is very full, very dark but has a bright switch that actually works. Takes to pedals EXTREMELY well. Even with my brittle DS-1, I actually had to back the bass off on the amp.

I just don't get the "1" ratings. The only think I can think of is that the got lemons, or bad tubes or something. Or maybe they are all foreign, and think "treble" means bass, so they have their settings all boogered or something. Like they're plugging the guitars into the Effect's Send jack. Or that built in masterbator.

The reverb tank was barely on when I got it. But lucky for me, I own a Phillips screwdriver. Actually, I own several, so I'm really lucky. A couple of twists and it was nice and tight. I just attribute it to some little Chineese dude who prolly wasn't strong enough to tighten that sucker down. But the fact that I had to screw in a REVERB TANK and not tighen up a reverb chip should say something about the thought process with this amp.

Emailed them today about replacing the speaker with a different impedance. We'll see how long it takes for a reply...

I gotta give this a 10. For me, my playing style, and where I am now with my playing career (studio recording, session gigging), this is perfect for me. I've been playing 20 years BTW. If you are even thinking of checking this amp out, just go take it for a test drive, and try to ignore those "1", "this amp sucks" mindless drabble. ALL things aside, this is a really good amp.

I bought this amp new last month from my local dealer. 2 channel 50 watt 6L6 powered all tube combo, reverb, seperate eq for clean and lead channels, presence button and texture control on back face of chassis. I play mostly classic rock and blues and was hoping this amp could cover a lot of ground for me.

I play a Parker Fly and a Mexi Strat so I cover a lot or variations of single coil, humbucker, and piezo pickup sounds. Now here is the bad news, this is the first amp I have ever taken back for refund. Clean channel does not stay clean past 6, and when it does break up it sounds like solid state as opposed to warm tube breakup. Lead channel overdrive too sounds too solid state and dry, and man there is way too much gain for my tastes. Maybe good for nu-metal, but not what I am looking for.

I cannot comment on reliability, I did not keep this amp long enough to give a good opinion. I can say that I did knock around in my trunk during transit with no ill affects.

My dealer refunded no questions asked, so that is as close to customer support as I came to Peavey

Seems to be a tough little amp, not very loud for 50 tube watts though. I traded for a Kustom Defender that is also rated at 50 watts and is MUCH louder than the peavey. I have a VK royal 8 also which is a sweet little tube practice amp, but its bigger brother seems soulless in comparison.

Please read the other reviews that list all the features, no sense repeating all the other posts

I was really looking forward to this amp having read all the reviews and all I can say is I've NEVER been more dissapointed. This is the worst sounding tube amp I've evr had, Icouldn't send it back fast enough. What an overrated overhyped pice of garbage. This was the most overpriced tube amp you coul buy. Wouldn't be a good buy at half the price. Does the stratocaster no justice, shrill and useless. Hasn't a good tube amap sound in it, lacks any kind of tube warmth

Don't know, tried it for 30 days and was totally discusted with it's lack of tube depth and warmth.

don't know or care. Would never own another peavy amp.

After this experience you couldn't give me a Peavy tube amp. The most overhyped, overrated amp in the market. Except for the legion of Hi-gain teenagers that know 3 chords and call themselves musicians. I can't see why anyone would every buy anything peavy. These tube amps lack warmth, deffinition, depth and any type of characteristic that all tube amps are known for. If your looking for a good tube amp...pass on this one and keep shopping. You'll save yourself a ton of dissapointment.What a hunk of JUNK!!

2 channels,reverb, texture class a to a/b control, speaker outs, etc. I got this amp after trying it at guitar center and watching a boatload of youtube vids of it. Features I never use are the resonance ( i leave it on tight),reverb (i have a reverb pedal) and the texture control ( i leave it on full power class a/b. I don't know what year it was made 07 probably,made in china. I use this amp in my music room. It has too much power for me-i never turn it up past like 1.

Ok, I bought this amp to play metal,I have faded sg with a super distortion in the bridge and a epi les paul with a seymour duncan distortion pup in the bridge. It is not "voiced" for metal. It will not sound like a dimed mesa or marshall. It kind of doesn't really do any one thing very well, rather a couple of things ok. With the gain cranked and the volume low it sounds like a cheap marshall plexi-you get that cheesy van halen type of tone that I just have come to associate cheap 2 channel tube amps with. It can do some blues, butnot that well,won't sound like a fender. It is just ok. I realize that tube amps are made to be cranked but I don't due to a baby in the house so my opinion is for amp response at low volume. But,a really good amp like a mesa or a marshall sounds good at low volume too,keep that in mind. bOTTOM LINE, I bought htis amp hoping for a near to mesa sound and am disappointed. I swapped all the tubes out and talked to amp tech and he told me I was wasting my time. Tube swaps don't matter he claims-after doing it-gotta admit thast i agree with him. He says all I did was make the amp less noisy. The clean channel is warm and basic sounding-bright switch is unuseable.

This amp has never broken down,but it is a made in china peavey and a guitar amp tech told me that they put the cheapest transformers they can find in them. If one of those goes you are goingto be buying another amp. It happened to my peavey windsor.

Never dealt with peavey,hope never to have to, good thing baout them is there stuff is cheap enough you can probably just go buy another one if something happens to it.

I've been playing over 13 years and have owned alot of cheap tube amps-this is not the best or the worst. The problem is it's sound doesn't really fit into any category. Lots of guys-like myself bought this amp for metal and are disappointed. It is after you get over the worthless textture control and reverb-a basic run of the mill-cheap 2 channel tube amp. Nothing special-nothing terrible. A very telling thing about this amp and what peavey really thinks about it is that for a long time-the peavey bandit was priced higher. Think about it- a solid-state amp costing more than a same wattage tube amp. That should never happen.

Amp has man features on it. Resonance class A&A/B tube switch. Clean channel and overdrive channel. Headphone Jack. Two Inputs. 50 watts. Alot of cool neat stuff.

Sound quality is good. It could cover lots of types of stuff. The distortion on it is a little weak to do metal. But you can always crank it up with a Overdrive pedal along with it or metal pedal on clean channel. Clean Channel is awesome killer. The amp could do many things to cover other peoples music.

Never gigged with it. Sometimes if you switch the amp off to fast it makes a exploding sound to the amp. Gotta do it pretty slow. Pretty solid and tough for anything

Never used customer support

Well this was a very big amp I ever owned and can do many things and its very cool. I wished the distortion was more tougher and thicker and stuff. But its cool.

Two channel, each with it's own E.Q. Clean channel has a bright switch. Lead channel has a gain boost switch and a volume boost switch. If one of these are depressed when using the footswitch, it will be controlled by the footswitch. The F/S also controlls the channel select. Master reverb. Loose/Tight switch on the back. Also class A/B to class A adjustment knob on the back. External speaker jack which when used bypasses the internal speaker. It comes loaded with Ruby Tubes 6L6's.

Clean channel has a nice pushed sound at performance volume. The bright switch is a little too much. The lead channel can get quite hairy but I prefer to set the gain at no more than 9 o-clock and bring the volume up to 1-3 o-clock. If that still isn't enough to keep up with the band the volume boost is really helpful. I dont use the gain boost. You can tell im going for a decent classic rock/blues sound. I use my efx spairingly. I don't even use the footswitch. My favorite tools are the knobs on my guitars and pick attack. The class AB/A control can only be some type of tone/wattage control. In case you don't know it's not really class A. I just leave it at full AB. I have a couple of real class A amps for that job. This amp runs at 16 ohms, nothing less. The speaker sucks! When I realized that it is a 16 ohm amp I had the answer. I have a Laney 212 slant front cab for another project with an Eminence Wizard and a Texas Heat that is wired for 16 ohm. The small size of this combo seemed perfect for making a little pocket sized head out of. Man did that ever work out good. This amp with good speaker(s) actually has a great sound. It has become my favorite giging rig. It's light, inexpensive, unusual, and I don't care if it gets bar spooge on it.

So far so good.

I have had some problems with Peavey lately but they say it was because they were changing to a new computer system. (for three months ).

It is a tube amp.PLUS. Made overseas.MINUS. inexpensive.PLUS. Terrible speaker.MINUS. For a beginner or for adding to the collection it's a good deal. Has some good features and has a straight forward tone, nothing fancy, just straight up.

This amp has enough features, nothing crazy. But features arent what i buy amps for. the class a-ab knob is this amps best feature. youll want to stay away from the bright switch, this thingll make your ears bleed. the volume boost on the lead channel isnt noticeable until you get into the higher volume levels.

If you're buying this amp, you're buying it for the clean channel. At the 50 watt setting, this amp is very clean, you cant really get any grit on it until about 11:00, really digging in. It's basically a copy of a super reverb. nice clean tones, very bright. however, when you bump it down to 30, this thing gets very bluesy. at 9:00, digging in you can get some good grit, and then when you bump it up to 12:00, it gets nice and bluesy. full tilt this thing's not half bad, lots of distortion. I tend to stay between 12:00 and 3:00 for a nice dynamic tone, but still getting full gain when i dig in. Also, there's a bit more treble response at the 50 watt setting. I basically use the a-a/b knob to controll headroom, i'll usually get a nice clean tone, and then use the a-a/b knob to tune in breakup, or just go A and get some nice dirt.Reverb sounds good, not great, but for my uses it works out just fine.
Lets face it, the lead channel sucks. sounds very solid state, it cant dial in "breakup" at all. You get no bass. Theres also a lack of direction - it seems to be voiced for extremely high gain sounds, yet there's not enough gain for that, or bass for metal players. the dirty channel is only good for leads high up on the neck where the lack of bass is less noticeable and with the reverb cranked.

But this amp isnt meant to be a dirty amp. to be honest, they should have left off the lead channel and given more parameter control over the clean channel. A presence, and master volume would have been much more useful.

there was one scare where it got quiet and distorted, and i looked at the tubes and they were a vibrant orange. came back a half an hour later, and they were fine. no problems for the last few months, so i dunno.

great clean and american bluesy tones, crappy distortion. good reverb.

Follow up review. Lots of features as previously described. Changed the stock speaker for a vintage Hiwatt Mackenzie. substantial improvement here.

THIS IS THE ONLY AREA WORTH READING! channel 1: Nice clean at low levels, at gig levels the 6l6`s really shine. LOVELY spankey rounded sound with rich tube overtones. 9/10 for this. READ CAREFULLY: channel 2: rather gritty unsubtly traansistor-like distortion. its NOT the tubey bloom and breakup every tube amp should have, its been engineered for high gain, it comes in WAY too soon, its not particularly nice whatever you play through it and however you tweak it. I put this side by side with a Laney VC30 (which costs roughly the same secondhand in the uk, see smartass know-nothing comments below) for USA readers substitute peavey Classic 30. The Laney is MUCH better built, EVERYTHING has a more substantial feel. the clean channels are on a par, if i`m completely unbiased I slightly prefer the laney at low volume and the peavey at high, but its very close.
The gain channel however is a NO CONTEST and if you disagree i`m afraid youre deaf or have NEVER heard a class valve amp. the Laney starts off almost clean breaks up beautifully at about 4 for all those classic blues tones and goes right up to vintage rock tones at 7+. full up its too compressed but if you want to play thrash or nu-metal use this and a Marshall jackhammer. I put a gov'nor GV2 and a bluesbreaker in front of both the Laney and the Peavey. the tones from the Laney are to die for. YOU SIMPLY CANT RATE THE PEAVEY MORE THAN 6 ON THE GAIN CHANNEL, ITS NOT GOOD BY ANY STANDARD. SO IVE GIVEN IT 7 OVERALL BECAUSE THE CLEAN IS NICE. It took a lot of tweaking to get a nice sound on channel 2, the Laney took NONE! The Flextone III does comfortably better blues and thats just poor for a valve amp.

Given it a good thrashing and its stood up well

no experience to date.

Ive been playing NEARLY 35 years. ive had just about every decent amp up to 1000 dollars. this is a reasonable amp for the money BUT buy a secondhand VC30, LC30, Classic 30, JTM30 or Delta Blues and a marshall govenor. its WELL WORTH the small extra outlay. The valveking is a well built, decent, good value, loud valve amp. I just think Peavey have voiced the drive channel all wrong. If youve rated it for sound more than 7 your a kid into metal, never played a valve amp before or your trying to justify your choice. Ive got one to sell so this review it totally honest. its not bad but there are several better choices for not much more wonga, thats all.

First off, this is a follow-up review. I have owned the 1x12 50 Watt Valveking combo for about a year and a half now.
Quick Specs List: 50 Watts, 2 channels plus Gain boost on Channel 2. Bright switch on Channel 1. Volume boost on Channel 2. Channel 1 is Volume and 3 band EQ. Channel 2 is Gain, Volume and 3 band EQ. Master Reverb, No Master Volume. Front panel: Effects Loop, Rear panel: Resonance Switch for Speaker Dampening, Footswitch Jack and Dual Speaker outs.
Tubage consists of 2 6L6GC tubes in the power section and 3 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section.
I don't notice any difference when the volume boost is engaged. Perhaps mine is defective. That aside, the Valveking lineup is generally a very versatile set of amps. This is very loud for 50 watts. I would place it between Marshall and Fender Volume wise. Gain is very dependent on the pickups you are using. The gain structure does a very nice job of conveying the intensity (or lack thereof) of your pickups. I am currently using a Parker PM-20 with a Dimarzio Paf Pro in the neck and a D-Sonic in the bridge position.
The sound quality is fantastic and much more powerful as compared to the stock Parker pickups. However, there is a slight drop in clarity due to the higher bass response of the D-Sonic. But, as I said, the amp follows the tone of the pickups very well.
I play mostly variants of Rock, but this amp is capable of handling most anything.
I have played out a few times with this amp and it is quite capable of handling itself live whether playing clean or dirty.
A master Volume would take this amp up to at least a 9, but it's not a huge deal if you don't have to make adjustments on the fly.

Unfortunately, this amp is a bit noisy on the dirty channels, but as long as your guitar isn't noisy as well, it's not too bad.
I covered the guitar and pickups and style in the section above.
The distortion isn't a Mesa, but it can come close with high gain pickups (such as the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker or Dimarzio D-Sonic as well as EMG 81 actives). Lower gain pickups give a more sedate distorted quality, but, still very versatile for a lot of styles.

I feel this is a dependable amp and I have no choice as to whether or not to use a backup as I only own one amp.
However, I have never had any problems with this amp. It even still has the original tubes. The tube cage seems to do a great job of protecting the little buggers well.

No Opinion. Not yet needed.

While this is my first tube amp, I have had the opportunity to play a wide variety of amps, both tube and solid. I feel that for the price, this amp compares very favorably with anything close to the price and some things out of the price range. The big brother, the 2x12 is even more capable and is on a par with anything made by Fender or Marshall under $1000.

I honestly love it... its the best amp i have ever had... before i had this one on i had two crappy amps a behringer v-tone....and as bad as this is going to sound a firsts act bass amp from wal-mart...ha ha ha

i do use it as a bass amp as well as a guitar amp

i love how it works .. i love the way its sounds

its AMAZING

i have a washburn bantam xb120 4-string and a agile les paul knock off .. i play preaty much as heavy as i can and the amp meets all my needs and standards for what i need to do... i play in bars in my small town and it preaty much gets the job done.. as said earlyer that i had two small amps .. i kept on gettting out powered by my drummer ... that dosent happen any more .. HA HA

its perfect size and everthing .. as a small note it works great as a bench when your on stage.. ha ha .. but in all seriousness its reliable .. its big but not too big .. its easy to transport and it one takes a minute for the tubes to warm up...

i bought it used form a friend so i am not the person to ask...sorry

i have been playing bass and guitar for five years now...i am nineteen and i will continue to use this amp until it breaks... and then i will fix it... if it was stolen broken damaged lost ... I WOULD DEFINATLY GET A NEW ONE... i love the fact that its small and still puts out enough sound .. and i hate nothing about it....i mean the only other thing i could think it could need is a picture of chuck norris .. but then it would just explode..

ha ha


so think what ever you want of me and my age.. i have been around this stuff since i was 3 ... my dad tought me everthing about what to look for in an amp... and i learned ... so i might just be some teenaged punk to you but.. i know my stuff

i would sugest this amp to any one..

Amp is about four years old. which means it was probably made in 2004. I've used it for country, southern rock and got it after playing one belonging to a 90's nu metal guitarist. I would have no problem using it for anything from Metallica to Johnny Cash. Two channels, Clean and Lead. Clean channel is pretty simple volume, treble, middle, bass and a bright switch. Lead channel has treble mid,Bass, volume, and gain, it also has a clean boost and a gain boost.
The clean boost and gain boost are footswitchable, but not seperately if the button is pushed in on the amp the pedal turns it on or Off. I wish it had an independent button on the footswitch for the gain boost mainly because it sounds really good with the clean boost on for certain rhythm parts and it would be nice just to hit a swith for the leads with the clean boost already on. I've mostly played it at home but I have played it out at rehearsal and it has enough power.
I also wish it had resonance and presence control pots rather than just the resonance button. The effects loop on the front is very handy and the class A-A/B knob does a lot for tone adjustments. The bias on mine was too low at 13ma per tube. I got another set of tubes that brought it up to 20ma but I'm sure 33ma or so would be better. If you get one of these that sounds bad, try some better tubes..

I use a mohogany body guitar with dimarzio's that are like hot gibson pickups (496t 790r style). It has coil splitting and can sound close to a tele or strat as well. I play everything from old country, surf, metal, 50's 60's and 70's rock. I'd like to try a different speaker in it. when I hooked it to a cab it came alive.
Running a boost pedal in front helps the dynamics alot, as it does with most good amps. Also with a good 412 cab and good tubes this thing gets a ton of distortion.

I got it used and it was cutting in and out a little. I found over half the screws that held the pcb's were missing. Once replaced it worked perfect and continues to do so. Peavey is very good about getting you parts quickly and easily..

I did get some missing screws from them. While it was not too difficult, they have a little trouble getting the parts nailed down exactly because the parts folks don't have an exploded view of what you are looking at. so if you tell them what you need they kind of have to guess which part it is. They got a couple of them wrong and sent replacements out right away for free. second time was the charm. Parts were inexpensive and shipping was free,

I've played for almost 25 years and like and play many style of guitar based music and so far I would say this is the best bang for the buck.. If anything this good said Marshall or Fender on it, it would cost twice as much.

I've tried or owned, classic 30's, Blues Deluxe, Blues Jr, Pro Jr, Rivera R100, KHR, Bogners, Diezels, Mesa,s and too many others to list, so while I agree that there are better amps out there, It's hard to find one in the $500 range... If it were stolen, I would probably replace it with the 212 or head because of the resonance adjustment..

??269.00 for a good 50 watt valve amp

??269.00 for a good 50 watt valve amp

??269.00 for a good 50 watt valve amp

Lets face it for the minimal outlay I have paid for this amp it sounds great and is a well built little amp thats easy to transport, it does have gig worthy sounds, and with a little tweaking you can get all the sounds, if you want to be a mug and pay double for an amp that sounds the same thats fine aswell. hail to the mighty communistic manufacturing plants of the peoples republic of china...

Reasonably well put together, not heavy to carry around, smart looking and loud enough, the few additional features that you wouldnt expect at this price range A/AB control & resonance are subtle to say the least.

Used with a really good quality frankenstrat the clean channel is pretty good, breaks up nicely at about 6, if you need a fender type clean sound all the way to 10 forget it. The gain channel is where this falls down. I read the review in guitarist magazine and bought it mainly because of that but i disagree with the review strongly. it had distortion with no real raunch or guts and fizz with none of the liquid sustain offered by a good quality valve amplifier. Changed the stock speaker for a Mackenzie and the valves for new old stock Brimars. i played this side by side with a Laney VC30 and it was a complete no contest. the laney doesnt have the level of gain available BUT in every other respect, clean headroom, warm blues clipping, crunch with body and tone, quality reverb and subtance of build it was streets in front. Preferred a Flextone III to the valveking, even though its transistor it was just better in every respect.

Well built too new to comment on reliability, but it appears to be decently made.

Not dealt with peavey yet.

I will be letting this go as soon as. I wouldnt replace it. From memory a peavey bandit i sold about 10 years ago was better for cleans and crunch rhythm and following the reviews i was disappointed. Ive been playing 34 years and can only assume the positive reviews are from kids into thrash that are happy with the amount of gain on tap. My advice? Buy a Laney VC30, an LC30 MK2, Peavey Classic 30 or Delta Blues and just about any decent overdrive pedal for the extra gain. You get what you pay for and I couldnt live with the compromises the valveking serves up.

Amazing amp....Buy it...its really gud...

Gud sound, clean and overdrive...

Gud...had it 4 a wile and it is still as gud as new...

Sam ash so idk...

Gud amp buy it...

You read the rest. 50 watts 2 channels , etc... Bought used without a reverb tank, so I cant comment on the stock reverb yet. Has everything you'll need for gigging.

Humbuckers & P-90's, it loves both. Goes from fendery cleans for country & rockabilly to jazzy smooth to great blues crunch, all on the clean channel. Takes a bit of tweaking on the controls for each guitar, but it's there if you bother to take the time. Quiet as a church mouse, quieter than any other tube amp I own. Great OD channel goes from classic rock to heavy blues to whatever short of metal with EASE. I swapped out pre amp tubes, and I suspect that the negative reviews here are from players with little or no experience in the care & feeding of tube amps. The stock pre amp tubes were harsh and sterile sounding(EH). Sounds great now, blowing away boutique amps at a regular jam I attend. If you cant get good tones out of this amp, I can only conclude you have no clue what you're doing with a tube amp.

New to me but it's a Peavey. I giged with it the day after I got it, and 3 times since in 2 weeks. Seems sturdy to me.

Best in the business. Reverb tank on the way.

Been playing for 35 years and have owned 30 different amps over the years from near every manufacturer. I have 8 different guitars, varied makes. I gig 3-6 times a month, and I can tell you this amp is the real deal. China, shmina. This amp rocks.

Brand new (2008) Valveking 1x12 combo.
2 independent channels, global reverb & series effects loop.
Bright boost on clean channel, gain & volume boost on lead channel.

I wish it had channel assignable reverb or separate reverb controls for each channel, because the reverb sounds pretty bad on the lead channel.

I also wish it had an global master volume control after the effects loop. The effects return is gained way up to accomodate low-voltage effects pedals. The problem is that the amount of gain is overkill for even the whimpiest pedals. The result is a constant hiss that cannot be dialed out. You can turn down all levels & reverb, and the hiss is still there. A master volume between the effects return gain stage & power amp section would allow proper effects recovery gain setting. It would also provide a simple, one-knob way to change the overall volume of the amplifier.

The clean channel is certainly based on the Fender Twin & Super. However, Peavey uses a linear taper treble potentiometer which turns up the highs quicker than the audio taper pot used in a Fender. To compensate, Peavey uses a 1-Meg bass pot, which allows too much deep bass. As a result, it is difficult to get a good balanced clean sound without getting too boomy on the low end. Tweekers may want to try changing the clean bass capacitor from 0.1uF to 0.01uF-0.022uF. Unfortunately the clean headroom is also very limited on the Valveking.

The lead channel sounds nice at bedroom volume, but totally falls apart at higher volumes. The stock speaker is largely to blame for this. It has brittle mids & the top end dissapears as the speaker starts to break up. You can even hear the brittle mids at low volumes if you bring your ears in line with the speaker. I swapped out the Valveking speaker for a Celestion G12T75 from my Marshall cab, and the problem was cured. However, I think this amp has way too much gain on tap, and isn't voiced properly for an open-back combo. This amp wants to shred, but the focus & definition is lacking due to the open-back cab. With a speaker upgrade you can get decent classic rock to AC/DC sounds with the boost off & the gain in the 1 to 5 range.

The Reverb is pretty bad. At low volumes it's useable, but it really gets splashy as you turn it up. It also gets much worse when you run the amp louder. It could be that the opamp reverb drive circuit is clipping, or perhaps the tank is picking up too much mechanical vibration from the speaker.

I bought the Valveking 112 to use as a low-cost, portable amp for rehearsal & small gigs. Unfortunately it has too many issues. So I returned it to GC for a full refund. You gotta love their 30 day return policy. I took it back after 29 days of evaluation.

Peavey packed a ton of cool and useable features into this amp. The front mount effects loop was an awsome idea, the texture control is also a great feature. It aloows for a wide array of sounds out of this little amp.

The independant EQ's for each channel with a Gain and Volume boots is great aswell.

Kudos for peavey for hitting all the features many boutique amps miss.

The amp is amazing right out of the box. I literally played in for 3 minuted in guitar center and fell in love with it. The clean channel can do anything from jazz to funk and the gain channel can do anything from slight overdrive (gain set on 2 and gain boost disabled) to full on shredd. I play with alot of gain and I constantly finding myself backing off the gain and / or turning the gain boost off. I have still yet to turn the gain past 6.

I am amazed that this little $400 amp can deliver tones like this

I have toured most of the US with this amp, dropped it countless times and pretty much beat the snot out of it. This thing is still going strong. I have had it almost a year and I havent had a single problem.

Amazing as always, Peavey has the best support around.

This is the best tube amp I have owned. I have been searching for this tone for 15 years and I have finally found it. Its got a very Marshall type sound and the amount of gain available is incredible.

You would be hard pressed to find an amp that sounds better in ANY price range.

This is an intitial pre-gig review. I give points for the Texture control, independent EQ's, reverb, effects loop (although I havent used it yet at all) and bright switch. I take off points mainly on the lack of a line-out and because the footswitch was not provided as part of the amp. For now I am indifferent with the 2 inputs or the resonance switch at the back.

I bought it for a pop-rock gig with songs ranging from Beatles to Evanescence, but we've only done practice sessions with it so far. The amp will have to be miced on the gig because it's 700 seat venue. I will make a follow up review after the gig. It's noisy only if the gain and volume levels are set to >12 o'clock and the gain boost is on and the guitar volume is maxed too, of course the amp will go into uncontrolled feedback. This is my first all tube amp. Clean sounds are excellent: loudest on class AB on the clean channel. The 2nd channel channel's high gain sounds are not bad but not to rave about when on class AB but get better as you move the texture knob to A - but this causes loss of headroom on both channels. I HAVEN'T done much tweaking yet but I am happy that every now and then I discover a new sound that provide new ideas just by fiddling around with the EQ's, gain and reverb. The reverb is adequate for pop/rock. For a 1st ever tube amp I am happy with the sounds but I know there are many other reasonably priced 50 watt amps with better high-gain sounds at loud class AB volumes. The amp appears suitable for all musical styles except really heavy guitar music like thrash/death metal.

Not sure but am being very careful with it. I bought this just before Christmas 2007. I bought a tiny desk fan to use with the amp on the gig. I cant afford a real backup - the only other amp I have is a small Vox Cambridge!

N/A. This will be serviced by the retailer. 3 year warranty.

I've been a hobby player for years but it was only last November when I got busy. Lost or stolen, I might try something else, but not because I dont like it, but because now I know it's limitations.
I compared it with a 50 watt Nomad which sounded too focused on midrange. I didn't bother testing other tube amps as they were out of my budget. The Valve King is heavy.
I chose the Valve King because it was the most affordable 2 channel tube amp with adequate clean headroom I could buy in Auckland, New Zealand. My bandmates wish it had a line out so that we didnt have to mic it onstage. I wish the AB high gain sounds were a bit more focused.
For a first all tube/valve amp, it's excellent value for money. I wrote this review so that people thinking about buying their 1st ever tube amp will try this amp - but please test it first before buying!

It's a 50 watt Peavey Valveking, made in 2004.
2 channels with a shared Reverb, Bright Switch and Volume Boost on the Clean and Distortion channel respectively.
A seperate 3-band EQ for each channel, and a extra input with reduced gain for high gain pickups.

Overall, great features for the money and my god it is loud for its size.

I use a 2004 ESP NT-II Horizon with SD Jazz/JB pickups with a GT-8 in the loop for effects only. I guess it suits me alright but the distortion isn't tight enough for me. I want something along the lines of ENGL type of distortion but the Valveking has a kind of loose Megadeth's The World Needs a Hero distortion. Sounds fine but doesnt have the character i want.

The dirty channel is good though, EQ works good for molding the sound to your needs. Has a slight hum on that channel(Hum, not any buzzing or annoying noise), but nothing serious.

The clean channel is amazing. With a little tweaking I can get everything from Danzig's How the Gods Kill to Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell(with the Bright switch on and a little effects). The Reverb works really well with the clean channel.

I give it an 8 because of the quality for the price, although i'm not completely satisfied with the Distortion channel.

I used alot for the first year but then put it in storage for a while.
When I dusted it off and cleaned the pots about 6 months later there wasnt even a hint of noise or scratching from it.

It has been bumped and dropped slightly without any problems and it feels quite sturdy, i'm pretty sure it could take some rough gigging.

Never had to service it in any way since 2004. That is pretty damn good for an amp that cheap.

I've been playing for 6 years and I would recommend this amp for anyone that is moving up from their first practice amp. Not too complicated, great reliability, good sounds and it wont bite your wallet too hard for a 50 watt tube amp.

This is a 50 watt,1x12 combo with 2 channels,a reverb,a buffered FX loop and a Peavey designed "Texture" control. The speaker is a Peavey and the tubes are unknown. For $360 out the door,this amplifier is insane.

One word,Awesome! I cannot belive Peavey can still make such amazing guitars and amplifiers at the price point that they do. The clean is great with a dash of stereo chorus and reverb. The dirt channel is my only concern. It is voiced heavily in the midrange and not enough in the treble. I use a W.A.R modded BOSS SD-1 and a W.A.R Lead Booster and that gives me the tone I desire. I use a Parker Fly Deluxe and a selfbuilt KickAx Strat. Overall,with the stock components,6 out of 10 and with the pedals [and hopefully a Vintage 30 soon] I give it a 10/10.

This amplifier seems to be reliable.I have gigged with it a few times. Knowing Peavey,I feel confident in the amplifier's construction. Kudos to Hartley Peavey for building such an insane amplifer. NOTE: I find the knobs rather cheap and insufficent. I feel they should be replaced with higher end ones.

Peavey is known for their awesome customer support and standing behind their product. I feel confident that they will continue to do so.

I am 13 years old and have been playing for 10 years. I use a Parker Fly Deluxe,a selfbuilt KickAx Strat and a modded 1990 Yamaha RGX 112. I bought this amp to replace my old one,a Yamaha DG-60. While the Yamaha was good,it lacked that tube crunch. When I found the ValveKing 112,I sold my 1979 Hondo II Longhorn and the next week,I went and picked it up. I got it home,plugged my dirt pedals into it and BAM,there it was. 10/10 for this insane amplifier!

This amp was a great Idea...it just sounded so bad that no amount of features (though it it does have several) could compensate.

This amp sounds like total Crap!!
I even put some hot tubes and a killer speaker in it and it still sucked!
I can not express how bad it sounded!
I owned it for a year, but only played it for the first couple of months...that was all I could stand!
I would pull it out now and again thinking I would give it another shot, put it always went right back into the closet.

Of course it will last forever...the crappy junk always does!

Total Crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do Not Buy!!!!!

Amp was made in 2007. Amp is quite flexible for any type of music besides really heavy metal, in that case you would need a dist pedal. I play mostley hard rock like AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Black Sabbath and other bands along those lines.

It's a 2 channel amp with EQ's for each channel. It does have footswitch so you may switch channels but it is no included. Has effects loop but no headphone jack.

It has Reverb but I seldom ever use it. I wish it had some effect like on my Crate VTX I traded in for it (auto wah, slapback delay and ect ect) I have a wah so that fixes one of my problems, but at the momment I'am looking for some type of effects unit for a auto wah and delay effects.

I use it in my bedroom at the momment for person play and practice. 50 watts of power for a person in my situation has more than he or she needs. I was rocking out on new years with this thing with the "texture" knob turn so I only had about 5 watts. I had it half cranks and I hurt my ear accidently.

50 watt tube with switchable wattage from A class 5 watts to A/B class 50 watts. Great all around amp!

Can get many sounds out of it, from a Fender clean sound with the "bright" switch pushed in. Can get a very accurate AC/DC sound with the Bass at 5 1/2, Mids at 6 and Treble at 5 with gain boost pushed in and the distortion at about 4/5. Just the sound I was looking for. Pretty good amount of head room I'd say.

The distortion is deffinatly not brutal enough for real metal heads. The most extreme metal you could get out of it would be Pantera, no more then that. Can get very nice old Metallica out of it.!

I have a Epiphone sg 65 reissue with a maestro tremolo and a Dean ML Phantom. I use the SG for hard type rockin, while with the ML I use mostley for harder rock and metal.

If you have the TV off and you dont stand or sit close to it, you should have no feedback problems unless you have a dist pedal on.

I would depend on it if I were in a band and playing a gig. I wouldnt trust it for gigging everynight 5 days in a row. I just have a hunch it might crap out on me if that were the situation. Maybe I'm just being cautious since this is my first tube amp...

The only thing that has broke on it (which was my fault) I took my guitar chord outta my guitar and threw it onto the amp accicently and it broke the "gain boost" knob off. It was totally my fault, no fault in the amp at all. It is gonna be getting fix in a month or so.

Never delt with Peavey yet but I suspect they are good people. 5 year warrenty on the amp. 90 days only on the tubes though.

I have been playing 2 and a half years now. I own a Epiphone SG 1965 reissue with a maestro tremolo and a Dean ML. Effect I own are a Boss DS-1, Marshall Guv'nor plus and a DID YJM308 sigbature pedal.

If it were lost or stolen I would probley not buy it again. Not cause it's not a good amp, cause my first amp was a Peavey and I would liek to try out some other amps like a Mesa Nomad 45

I bought this amp because it offered three channels and thought it would cover all my musical tastes(hendrix, sabbath, maiden, and a little blues). It has an effects loop, which is nice to keep tuners etc. from degrading your tone. I like the A/B texture knob. However, I will be honest... it sounds better on full power. If you want a class A amp, buy a class A amp. The A/B knob only really cuts the power to one tube. Sounds good though.

Here is where this amp falls short. If you are looking just for a clean amp... then this is a great amp.

The clean channel does have a nice hendrix clean sound through my SG on the neck pickup. Not the best, but a really nice tone. However, on the bridge pickup, the clean channel just sounds harsh and thin, and that is with a humbucker.

The distortion side of this amp is just "strange". If you crank the gain past 6 it sounds like a bad solid state amp( I actually like SS amps, not bashing any good amps out there). The only usable part of the distortion channel... is the gain around 4, crank the mids to 7/8 and turn the treble down and roll off your guitar vol. and crank the volume to 5 and you have a nice meaty zz top to AC/DC tone, but that is it.

If you hit the OD for the 3rd channel... forget it... it just sucks. This has led me to a recent and non stop hunt for the perfect pedal chain. I have tried a Wasabi OD pedal(not the best, but decent) and it is good on the clean channel, but sucks on the distortion side. I have purchased a zoom g7 and in the loop as the preamp it sounds good for what it is. However, into the front and using the ts808 models etc. ( and the ts808 on the zoom is almost dead accurate when tweaked right) it just sounds bad and like I will keep saying... the distortion side just hates any pedals so far.

The fx loop on this amp is really nice though. I use the zoom g7 in the loop for delay and chorus and it sounds really nice. The zoom has the best analog modeling for delay and their flanger is up their with the best of them.

Anyways... I am going to re-tube this sucker and hope for the best... or it going on ebay. My recent gear purchases... an ibanez shark distortion from the early 90's, volume pedal by dunlop as a gate or master vol. in the loop, Yamaha distortion 10m II and Yamaha Flanger 10m II. I have a wasabi ax-1 distortion pedal on the way... and so far none of them sound great or even that different from one another. Which has led to the fact it is the amp.

My suggestions. If you are looking for a clean amp for a gig setting and play blues, jazz, or clean toned hendrix- this amp is great. Anything else you will spend more time and money trying to find what pedals sound good etc. The time and money that is spent you will not only go crazy... you will realize that this is why peavey tubefex to new line6 pod pros are and were so popular with the beginner to pros. Midi offers a lot crystal cleans and a ton of gain options.

I am going to say it is not built to well. It rattles a lot past 4 on the gain channel. Everything is plastic, which I can not stand. If a B-52 can offer a tube amp with porcelain sockets in the same price range etc. Get my drift... made in China and mostly plastic. I think Peavey should just build American amps. Nothing against stuff out of China. I am typing this from my APPLE MAC that was put together in China. Besides, Chinese build one hell of a hot women.

Never dealt with them. Heard they were pretty good though.

Overall a 6.

Innovative. Two channel, Class A/B and A amp simulation in rear. Loose and Tight setting. I prefer loose.

I have to say that I am picky about my sound and absolutely insist and using a sonic maximizer dx-100 in the effects loop of any amp I buy to squeeze the absolute most tone out of the amp. Without the sonic maximizer, the tone is average. But with the sonic maximizer, clean is sparkly, full and has plenty of bass and the distortion sound is responsive, defined textured and musical. Distortion can get to that cascading, wall of shimmering distortion chunk thunk sweet lead at high register distortion.

new owner

I give it a 10 for portability, 10 for usability, 10 for simplicity, 10 for innovation, and 10 because it fits my budget and style. 10 for ULTIMATE VIBE!

I don't buy anything unless I fall in love with it.

Lot's of features which is one of the reason's I bought this amp over an old school plain tube amp. Most of the features aren't really usable though.

The clean channel is good, but not great. Sort of Fenderish in the Class A-B mode but I'm not hearing much Vox chime in Class A mode. The overdrive channel is more or less useless, it's too over the edge. A little overdrive to some distortion would be better. It needs to be tamed down as it is very harsh sounding and it doesn't have any low end. The reverb in any channel is absolutely horrible. Also, I can't seem to dial a mid range that I like.

Seems built OK, I don't see any quality issues either. The line cord might be too thin (too small of guage wire). The knobs and nameplate are cheap but that's reflected in the lower cost. As long as they work.

Not happy with a the last 2 phone calls I've made and did not get resolution to the issues but I've always had vey positive responses in the past.

This is the first Peavey product I've given low scores to. Been playing for a long, long time; both live and studio(have had some air play). When you play this amp in a live situation, you realize it's shortcomings (horrible reverb, poor mid frequency adjusts, and lousy overdrive channel).It sounds good with most pedals and has some nice snap in the Class A-B mode. I like the volume control, it's smooth and doesn't have any volume notches or jumps. I really wanted a Fender Deluxe Reverb (but I didn't want to mess with all the tubes) or Fender Blues Deluxe (couldn't keep the volume under control). I also like the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe but it has that notch / jump in the volume. I tried the Classic 30 and Delta Blues too. Both beatiful amps but I thought some low end was missing. I would not buy the Valveking 112 again.

Lot's of nice features, but not all useful or toneful. See below.

Until you play this amp in a live situation with a band, you won't realize where it falls short. The spring reverb is horrible, almost the worst I've heard in a tube amp. It sounds even worse if you put an overdrive pedal in the effects loop. The distortion channel is too much over the top and unusable in many applications. It would be better to see that channel with some overdrive crunch and lighter distortion. Seems weak for 50 watts, I have a 15 watt Blues Jr that's almost as loud. The Class AB setting in the clean channel has some nice Fenderish snap but I'm not hearing any Class A Vox like chime at all in the Class A setting. There is something missing in the mid frequency EQ as well. The placement of the line cord is in the wrong spot; you can't lean the amp against a wall to get an angle so you can hear it.

Seems built OK, I have other Peavey products and haven't had any issues. For a 50 watt tube amp, the line cord is too skinny (too small of guage wire); it can't carry enough current and it heats up a little (it's also too short).

Very dissapointed. I bought this amp brand new when I heard they upgraded the spring reverb. They wouldn't send me the upgraded reverb tank. I could see the reason if I owned the amp for a while and played it, but it was brand new. Then they wanted $50 for the reverb tank which is about 2X what it should be. I will say, I've contacted them in the past about other products and have been completely satisfied.

Been playing for 35 plus years and have had some air play. I bought this amp because it had a lot of features; which turned out to be more or less useless for live applications. They don't even include the footswitch. The one thing they did right was make the volume control linear, there are no notches or jumps in volume. I would have bought the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe but I wasn't able to keep the volume low enough for smaller venues and I didn't want to deal with all the tubes in the Fender Deluxe Reverb. A re-tube would be expensive. I read Guitar Players review of this amp and I thought they got everything right. They mentioned the reverb and the EQ as well. I wonder if it's just the reverb tank that is undersized or the whole drive circuitry that feeds it. I like Peavey products but I would not buy this amp again.

I've owned this amp for about a year and a half now, so I thought it was time to write another review.

The amp was probably made in 2005/2006, I'm not sure really.

This is a very versatile amp with loads of buttons, switches, knobs etc. Separate EQ for the 2 channels, gain boost, the SUPER COOL texture pot etc. You can read all the specs in other reviews and Peavey's pages.

As far as features go, there's really nothing more you could wish for.

The amp can make a variety of sounds, which is cool, but for my taste, when I take a look at each of those sounds on their own, they're not really great. OK, but not great.

The clean channel is decent, has a nice character and is very EQable, especially with the bright switch, but I believe it distorts easily as soon as you crank it up (don't remember exactly at what setting, it's been a long time since I've did it).

The distortion channel, for my taste, is where the bad part comes... the gain level can get pretty darn brutal, more than I think anyone would need. Suitable for any kind of rock or metal. That's the OK part. Now for the bad part. In my opinion, the distortion is just too darn muddy!!! No treble what-so-ever. This has been bugging me ever since I got the amp. It's like the treble knob controls the 'grainyness' of the tone, not the treble level. It's not that the sound is dark, it's muddy and loose. If you're playing on high-gain levels, you might not find the treble that much of a problem, but if you have the gain boost switched off and played more lower-gain stuff, it's terrible. Imagine the sound when you're playing with the tone knob all the way down. It's kinda like that, except the treble is all the way up everywhere. So, I've tried putting an EQ pedal infront, that didn't work too well, then I put the EQ in the FX loop. It cleaned and brightened up pretty nicely, though it sounded a tad bit too harsh. I've tried the amp with various distortion pedals and none of them sound remotely as muddy as the amp distortion.

Having said that, I'm currently in the market for a distortion pedal to use as my main, or maybe just an EQ.

However, I compared this amp to other more expensive amps and I must admit that the sound itself isn't much worse at all. I don't even dare say 'worse'. Great for the price! If only it weren't for the treble problem...

I play an American HSS Stratocaster (with a maple board - even brighter!). The amp is by no means bad, I just did a bad decision choosing this one. My style changed and it doesn't suit me anymore.

Oh, and, the amp is NOT noisy.

Never had anything die on me. Everything seems to work well with no problems.

Never dealt with 'em.

I've been playing for almost 5 years. If it got stolen, I'd probably check into other amps, especially the Classic 30 or Classic 50. I like the amp overall, just really don't like the tone on the distortion channel. I've compared it to several amps in different price ranges, and I dare say it's definetly as good as most of them. I wish it had more treble and maybe a knob for the gain boost level.

I bought this amp new fron a store. It has two channels, effect loop and a few other features.
The best feature is the A/B and A class switching. This is a very useful feature. It can make your guitar sound really funky and skanky and it can make it sound very clean and jazzy (depending on your fingers ofcourse).
I use this amp with a band at medium volume. It definitely has enough power to catch up with the rest of the band (at the moment we play disco / funk / soul).

This tube amp really has alla the features you need. The built in reverb is not so great, but it has one (spring reverb). I'll give this a 9 on features.

You can get really wonderful clean sounds from this amp! With the class A/B and A switching you can get a REALLY clean sound even at high volume, or you can get a more "dirty" clean sound which breaks up VERY nicely when you git hard on the strings (very useful if you want a good funk sound).
I really have no opinion on the overdrive channel. It works for me, but I don't use it all that much. It is not the best overdrive, but with the gain set to really low, I can get a nice "mustang sally" sort of overdrive that will really let you hear the GUITAR and not just som e fuzzing fuzz sound.

Now comes the bad part: This is a really cheap amp, and it shows. Like all peaveys this one too has a huge problem with vibration. When you play at medium volume and hit some middle or bass notes, there are some parts in this amp construction that will vibrate and produce a terrible rattling noise. I tried tightening some screws on the front and back, and it helped a little, but still, I would not use this amp in a recording session. It works great however in a band or live setting, since the guitar still will be a lot louder that the vibrating noise.

It ALSO makes a "hummmmm" noise in idle mode with no instrument cables connected (and with). All these noises makes this amp very irritating to use if you play by yourself. In a band setting -however- this amp works great and is really a bang for the buck!

This amp really sounds awesome and producese a VERY good guitar sounds... too bad about the poor construction of this unit (I have tried several, all with the same problem).

I would give this a 9 in sound quality (10 for clean, 8 for dist = 9), but the noises are just horrible.

Since this is a tube combo that produces a lot of vibrations, I feel like the tubes might wear out pretty soon. I would however, gig without a backup because it has a wonderful sound.

No opinion

I have been playing for about 12+ years. If it were stolen, I would by a more expensive amp to replace this one. You can really notice that it is cheap. I you're looking for a cheap tube amp to use in a band or live setting, this is the one to get! If you're looking for a dead quiet amp to use in a recording session, look elsewhere.

I will give this amp a grade of 8.
10 for the price (bang for the buck), 9 for the sound, and 6 for the construction of this unit.

Basic 50 watt, 1x12 all tube combo. 2 channels, seperate EQ for each, bright switch on the clean, gain boost and volume boost on the lead channel. No master volume, but does have master reverb. Peavey has a few of their own little finishing touches on the amp too in the form of a bass resonance switch, and a texture control. Footswitch controls channel switching and gain boost on lead channel. These features suit me just fine, the only thing, I might like would be a master volume, and some way to control just how much boosting the gain boost does. Oh yeah, and I'd rather have a way to switch the reverb on and off than the gain boost, but oh well.

This amp is great as a working musician's tube combo, which is exactly what I bought it for. I use it with a strat loaded with EMGs, or with a Hamer Les Paul copy loaded with duncans. Not much into effects, I occasionally use a wah, or maybe some delay. The clean channel is great, plenty of punch and definition, though I have to keep the bright switch on to get it to sound the way I want. I haven't played much with the texture controls, I just leave it all the way to the "Class a/b" side. Either way, the clean is very clean, but can get a little dirt playing harder and at higher volumes. The dirty channel is awesome! Seems like it's somewhere in between a mesa and a marshal to me. Without the boost, I can get a good low distortion, OD type sound, perfect for quieter parts, it almost gives the same effect as rolling the volume knob back a bit. With the boost on, I can get greatloads of distortion, perfect for heavy crunchy parts, or solos. Overall, the sounds on the amp are great. Sure, the clean isn't quite up to Fender level, and the Dirty isn't quite a marshal, but it's a huge improvement over my old solid state Trace Elliot. Basically, this thing sounds good.

Been great so far. Granted, I've only used it in my apartment, or a garage so far, but it hasn't given me any problems. The footswitch is kind of flimsy plastic, but it works so far.

Never dealt with PEavey.

Basically, like I said, I bought this thing for a decent tube combo. I lover fender clean, and Boogie distortion, but both those amps are a little too expensive for me. Also, I'm not to into boogie cleans, and fenders never seem to give me the distortion I like. Anyway, the fact that this thing has a speaker out jack and can drive a cab is especially nice, though so far, it's had plenty of volume.

I did a review on this amp when I first got it. So this is an update.
First off on the Texture Control... This effects the clean channel.
For those that don't hear a difference try it again and do this test.
Turn the amp up to about 12 o'clock on full power. Play your strings lightly and then play them hard. Single coils will stay clean and Hums will break up only slightly hitting hard. Now turn the control full to the other direction. Still clean when strummed lightly with a little less roundness in sound. Now hit it hard, hear that nice Blues Break up? NO? Then you've played too much loud RnR, LOL. This works best in my opinion with speaker setting on loose.

Just A/B'd this against my 65 Twin Reverb.... You can definatley hear the similarity in the use of 6L6's in the Power Section. The Twin has a little more definition but this is mostly due to the use of 2 speakers and the difference in sound of the speakers. For a 3rd of the price if you want a nice light package with a Fender BlackFace Twin Reverb sound, the ValveKing is an excellent way to go.
I'll be putting in an Eminence Texas Heat Speaker and will get back to you all on the difference in sound if any. The Peavey Speaker will be going into a Tweed Cabinet to be used with my Classic 20.
She gets a 9 only because it doesn't sound EXACTLY like a Twin.

I still have a 22 year old Peavey KB100 Keyboard amp and a 15 year old Peavey PA head that work great.
They Have the usual problems with solder joints but my guess is this made in China Tube amp has tighter quality control than the old Peaveys did.

Always helpful in answering questions when calling Techs. Have never needed service from Peavey and have had a PA Head, KB100, Bandit, TKO bass amp and an old 4 track cassette recorder. Still own a 1983 T-60 Guitar I bought new.