Peavey Destiny Custom Neck Thru

This is a quilted maple strat-style from the early 90s. It was handmade in the US with a mahogany body and carved maple top. The neck is (obviously) neck through. It has a Floyd-licensed double locking Kahler tremolo that is very heavy and solid. It has 24 jumbo nickel frets with oval inlays on (I think) an ebony neck.
It's your standard hot-rod strat setup of the time: 2 single coils and a humbucker with a 5-way and coil tap, with volume and tone knobs. They're not active, and I'm guessing they're Peavey made, but they're pretty hot with a warm sound.
Mine came with a very nice molded plastic case with a nice liner. I've had everything from mint Fenders to custom cases, and this is one of the nicest.
There are a lot more options out there, these days, but this was pretty fancy, back then.

I've played in a variety of bands, over the years, but I started playing blues and metal in the 80s, later getting into jazz. I've played this thing through a lot of gear, from Fender to Mesa Boogie (which seem to go particularly well together). My recent setup (I don't play live much, these days) is a MusicMan with some high end Roland rackmount effects.

This guitar has a really warm, balanced sound, with each note clearly discernible. It sounds almost like a mid-powered active setup. It has a fairly hot output. I really like the humbucker through a high-gain circuit. It can produce an extremely heavy, pounding rhythm sound, and the coil tap circuit has nearly the same output as the humbucker (a lot of guitars don't, so that's an interesting trick). I use the mid and neck together a lot for Hendrix style rock and harder blues, and they produce a full, rich sound with a bit of twang. I use the bridge and mid together for heavier, ZZTop-type tones.

In all settings, it is very quiet, so I suspect it is very well shielded, and the electronics were matched up well.

This is a fast, great-feeling neck. It is kind of like a skinny C-shape (the classic Fender profile). I always liked the skinny feel of the Vandenberg series guitars, but this is a bit thicker in the center, while still retaining that smooth, fast feel. No rough edges, the frets feel very smooth for as large as they are.
There were some minor dents in the body that were in the finish, so for all I know they were there from the factory. Otherwise the finish is gorgeous, and the hardware was installed with an eye for the details.
I really like the Kahler tremolo. All the parts on top are smooth or slightly rounded, so it's very comfortable to rest your hand on the trem, as opposed to a lot of Floyds, which would ear your hand up, if you had the action set low (from protruding hex screws).

Other than some discoloration of the gold hardware (it took on a kind of rainbow sheen) and tremolo (looks a bit scratched), this guitar has held up extremely well. I've played this guitar a lot over the years, and I don't even see any small scratches on top. There are a couple of scratches from a belt or something.
I used to gig heavily, and although I always had another guitar, it was for a super-bright, cutting sound, not necessarily as a backup.
I've always had good luck with Peavey gear. It's designed for working musicians on a budget, and this guitar really delivers. I was lusting for a PRS when I found this guitar. I couldn't afford a neck-through model, and the CE models just weren't doing it for me, so it was a real surprise when I saw and tried this. It was a bit less than a CE model and felt as good as a neck-through when I played it.

I thought about swapping pickups for something with a super high output for a while, but I think that would have made it more of a one trick axe, and it's quite versatile.

I've dealt with them before, and they're good, but I never needed anything for this guitar.

The only thing I'm not wild about is the high profile locking nut. I like a lower profile nut and locking bolts. I still think the guitar looks great, and it turns heads. A lot of guitar players come up to me and ask what it is (the headstock is a carved, straight-6 fan shape, and the Peavey logo is small and gold, so it blends into the amber finish). As mentioned above, I thought about swapping out pickups, but I think it would make the guitar less versatile, and I really like it's darker, full-range tone.
I think it would be tough to replace this guitar, because they are quite rare. I don't think many were made, and I rarely see or hear anything about them. It was a high end, $1,000+ guitar from a company that was known more for journeyman working axes in the $350-500 range, so I don't think it got the publicity it deserved. Too bad, this is a real player's guitar.

Made in our USA in the early 90's, this Peavey Destiny Custom sports a quilted maple top with a mahogany bottom. It has s/s/h pickups with a 5 way switch plus the humbucker can be split. Pickups are passive and stock, mounted on a beautiful orange-ish finish strat shaped guitar. Stock tuners hold well, Kahler Spyder double locking tremolo and all hardware is gold plated. It has a chunky 15 inch radius neck with oval dots on an ebony fingerboard. The pickups are high outputs yet sound good and clean. I re-set the action and intonnation using 10-38's strings from webstrings.com at $2.75 set. It was used but well taken care of with original hardshell Peavey case. There are 24 frets on a 24 3/4" scale. Only one tone and volumn control. This was quite the guitar in it's day rivaling a PRS or Pensa Suhr in all details and quality. It still is a beautiful axe that can belt out some good tones, especially those tones with both single coils engaged or the single/humbucker engaged. By itself, the lone singles or humbucker is so/so.

I play this thru a Peavey Ranger 212 using it's reverb and tremolo to play country, early rock-n-roll and rock-a-billy. My fav pickup setting is using the mid single coil/split humbucker that belts out a fat strat sound. All settings are quiet with no feedback at all. Think Les Paul on a lot of it's tones, not much for variety other than that. It fingers like a dream now even using 10's.

It needed a complete reset job starting with straightening the neck to .011" at the 7th fret. This brought the action closer to the neck, then lowered the Kahler to make it finger buttery easy. It re-intonnated really easy. Everything on this guitar is top quality including choice woods and gold hardware so it still looks great today. I cannot find a flaw anywhere even today. I would have loved to play this when it came out new.

Playing live with a tremolo rigged axe is risky at best but this Destiny Custom holds it tune and doesn't break strings. All hardware looks good today, the finish is choice that should withstand lots of playing. Usual good care is essential to all music equipment in my books, take care of it and it'll pay big dividends in looks, tone and dependability. Would I gig with no back-up? Yep, I've got faith in this model and in all Peavey gear. Peavey is tops as far as I'm concerned.

Peavey is always great to deal with. This Destiny is long out of warranty and it appears all original. I really feel no problem here, it should be playing for a long time.

I've been playing 50 plus years and this is one of the nicest guitars I've seen, unless you're willing to spend $3500 +. I would have to look for a long time to find another Destiny Custom in this condition. If stolen, I'd look for another Peavey Generation S-1 as they are still tops in my books, but this one is a close second. I really like it's quilted top, it is well done by the Peavey factory. Tones are decent, not too heavy and well balanced. I am not a tremolo lover, give me a fixed bridge any time but I wanted this one bad enough to overlook the trem.