Peavey Firenza AX

I'm not sure what year my guitar was made but it has the gold sparkle finish and locking Schaller tuners and a Powerbend Trem on it. Guitar is solid Swamp Ash which is awesome in my opinion. Guitar has great sustain. I will be putting a tremsetter on it though. Has a 5 way pickup switch which a lot of people already explained. Also has the Tusq nut. Mine has the zebra pickups on it, I'm considering changing out the bride for a zebra Seymour Custom Custom. Stop looking for the brown sound in the Seymour 78 cause Eddies playing a Custom Custom. And he also plays Gibson pickups. The neck on this guitar plays as well as the Wolfgang neck. Seriously! If you get a chance to play side by side you will be floored. It also has better tuners, "Schaller Locks" than the Wolfgang Special and the Standard. I just wish it wasnt gold sparkle. But it plays too nice to toss aside for that.

I like to play and listen to all music on the guitar as long as it sounds good. I like the standard humbuckers on this guitar, they do sound really good. And I'm the type of guy who almost always switches out pickups. I'm chomping at the bit to do it to this one to, but I'm having a hard time doing it. Sounds damn good. Just wish the bridge was a little more like the Custom Custom or a 500T on a Les Paul Classic. I owned a 60's reissue Les Paul Classic but sold it due to hard times. I've regreted it ever since. Best guitar I have ever played in my whole 43 years of life! So the bottom line here is that it sounds very good, not great but very good.

My guitar is probably late 90's or early 2000ish. So I have no idea about the factory set-up except that Peavey takes massive pride in their instruments!!!! The necks and body wood, tuners, bridge, pickups are all FIRST CLASS!!! Dont get me wrong, if all famous musicians played what worked the best and not the guitar a million dollar company pays them to play, you would see a lot more Peaveys. There's a little Peavey though out there like Satch's amps and Eddie Van Halen loves Peaveys. Hell he named his kid after one!

I dont know why you ask if it will withstand live playing, have you ever heard a corpse do Eruption?? Yes this guitar would kick *** all day in a live situation. And the hardware is too good compared to all the "licensed" crap on all the LTD's and Ibanez's, Schecters, Epi's and all the other Famous brands. Every manufacterer not only could but should learn a thing or two about putting pride first in your guitar and not some picture of some overpaid primodonna on the cover of guitar magazine. For all you guys out there who put down Peaveys before you ever pick one up, Thanks I'm almost done buying up all I can of them. And cheap too!

BEST IN THE BUSINESS, Next Question.

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years. My biggest problem is that I'm terrible with money and when the goings good I always have a hell of a collection. But when it's bad I sell them off too quick. And right now times suck! As far as it being stolen, God help you if you come in uninvited. What I love and Hate about my guitar are basically the same thing, I hate people who bash Peavey's especially the ones who have never played one. But in the same light I love them because I can buy Peaveys all day on Evil-Bay or guitar shops cause not enough famous people play them, so they just must suck. And they give them away. I cant wait to have at least one of every Peavey American guitar made.

I have what appears to be a firenza ax from the mid ninties. made in the USA. 22 frets, rosewood fretboard, 15" radius and a c shaped neck. the body is double cut away swamp ash with a gold finish. it has a 5-way selector which i'm not sure of how it works because i know it doesn't split the coils. 2 kick ass humbuckers. 1 volume 1 tone. some kind of tremelo, it's better that my strats trem but don't know what it is. passive electronics. maple bolt on neck. locking tuners. and a 25 inch neck, perfect compromise.

suits my style perfectly (rock shred and blues.)and could suit any style easily. the pickups do anything. bright,sweet, hollow,fattttt! really catch all the right tones. i don't know if this is because i took them apart or what, but they kick my friends LP's ass. they make my shitty berhinger sound sweet. never gets muddy no matter how much distortion you use.

action was perfect, no flaws anywhere. everything was perfect.

this would totally stand live playing. i wouldplay without backup. hardware is invincible. so is the guitar. couldn't smash it if i wanted. strap buttons are solid.

been playing a while. i own a strat, tele, epi fat 210, washburn custom shop wms, marshall and fender amps. if it were stolen i'd buy another but probably the purple and kill the thief with it. best guitar ever.

This was a recent issue USA made Peavey Firenza AX. It has two high quality, quiet great sounding humbuckers with a five position switch. The finish and the wood on this was awesome. Very high end guitar and first class all the way. It had high quality tremelo with locking tuners. The scale seemed to be slightly shorter than a strat but that may be due to the small headstock. Came with beautiful peavey hard case.

Well, I got this guitar based on the reviews here and it taught me something that I hope others hear: One field test is worth a thousand expert opinions. I think this guitar was very over rated here and this is a pretty expensive instrument. I say read what's hear and then play it first. Either that or buy with a return period. This is very much a contemporary style guitar with a modern sound. The pickups are VERY high quality and the guitar is very quiet in operation. You can just listen to the tone of this guitar and know it's expensive. This is something a non-musician could pickup on even. I felt that there were only two positions I liked out of the five. The first and the last. If I kept this guitar I would probably used the first position 95% of the time. The "single coil" settings do not sound single coil or like a fender. They sound good but not recognizable as anything. Just a nice, clean flat sound. Neither humbucker or single coil. I think this guitar is best suited for contemporary music-specifically lead/metallica type playing. It would be my last choice as a rhythm guitar.

Hey, the craftsmanship on this guitar is as good or better than anything out there including a $3000 les paul. This guitar is more "les paulish" than strat dispite cosmetics. It's very heavy. The heaviest guitar I've ever owned except maybe a Washburn Falcon. It's a few pounds heavier than a les paul studio. The studio sounds better than this guitar. The setup was perfect. I mean literally perfect. The construction and workmanship on this guitar was as good as it gets and could rival anything out there. Not a cheap guitar. I thought the wood and finish were exceptional quality. I think vintage snobs are starting to realize peavey are pretty great instruments. I expect there prices to rise in the next few years like the MIJ fenders did. I think there is a connotation to catergorize Peavey as a student or country western guitar. This is a very professional instrument I played. The things I did not like about this guitar was the neck. Way to chunky and big for me. Was like a log or early 70s les paul customs. I didn't like it as much as I was impressed with the workmanship and the quality of this guitar. The weight of the guitar is unreal. I am so used to 5-7 lb guitars like gibson semi hollows and fender strats. This thing probably tipped the scales around 19 pounds or more. I did not care for it. Dispite being locking tuners and a high quality tremelo I didn't see the guitar keeping tune any better than my used $60 ebay USA Peavey predator I use as a throw around guitar. The neck on the predator plays like a dream compared to this. I thought about just keeping this one as a warm up instruments. Going from the Firenza to the predator was like warming up in the bullpen with 3 bats. If you like heavey 1970s les paul customs with fat chunky necks your going to love this guitar. You will also love this guitar if you've never played other guitars. If you've been playing forever like me and owned vintage Gibson, Fender and Rickenbackers. Japan made Tokai and Fender. I think your going to appreciate it for what it is. A high end contemporary guitar best suited for like metal stuff. It's a beautiful looking I will say that

I would never play this guitar live. It weighs a ton and it's a job to play. If I playout I want the lightest, most easiest to play instrument so it's one less thing for me to worry about. This thing would add to the job not make it easier. It's just beautiful to look at. I'd love to keep it around just to have on display and impress my friends. I would not want to play out with this or even sit and play it. It's just heavy and the neck is chunky. Like anything peavey it is indestructible. Especially peavey USA. It will outlast you and does not require a backup

Peavey is great no more needs to be said

What have I owned? 1958 Gibson es-125tdc (still own) Gibson les paul studio, Tokai MIJ reissue strats, 1980s MIJ fender strats/teles, vintage and reisuse Ric, list goes on. The closest thing I could compare this guitar to would be a cross between a les paul studio and a washburn falcon. I'd say the les paul studio is a better quality guitar and does what this should do. This is somewhere between a falcon and a les paul studio. People who says this "twangs" or gets a fender sound must be crazy. It doesn't quack. This is a contemporary style guitar for contemporary music not a "do all" guitar. I love the workmanship and the high quality materials. I hate the weight of the guitar, chunky neck and not very versatile/lack of character pickups in that order. I was hoping for a les paul kind of thing here that would do a passable fender sound. I got neither just something with no real identity in the end. This is a very forgetable guitar and I do not see it being a future classic. This is a guitar would be for someone with more money than taste. It's just a high end guitar among many other high end guitars out there. It sounds great but nothing memorable. I am giving this an 8 for the quality of the workmanship and the materials. I hated the weight and the neck on this guitar. Maybe I just like fender style necks now? I don't know. My advice to anyone shopping for this guitar is to go by a Les paul studio and put coil taps on it and you will have what this guitar should be and it will be lighter.

Don't know when it was made.
22 frets.
Solid body.
Five way strat like switch, volume, tone.
H/H (zebras).
Passive electronics. So what's the five way switch for? In the following order: neck humbucker, neck coil tap, both humbuckers, neck and bridge coil tap, bridge humbucker. So you basically get all the Les Paul pickup settings, plus a Strat like neck sound and a Strat like in between sound. These are probably the most practical choice of pickup combinations from a five way switch, but it does not include bridge single coil, so forget Roy Buchananesque twang. When you take off the back panel, that's some rats nest coming off one big switch.
Swamp ash body, rock maple neck.
Transparent blue gloss finish.
Body style is unusual. Kind of looks like a scaled down bass body, like some Steinberger has done with an elongated upper horn and shortened lower, but it's cut thick and square like a Tele.
Tremolo bridge is kind of unusual too. It's something called a Powerbend III, and it's basically a two fulcrum tilting tremolo ala Strat, except the sides and back are surrounded by about 1/4" wide and deep cast metal. Reminds me of a chrome soapdish if one side was missing. (The term ashtray has already been taken by Tele bridges, which are a more nitty gritty construct.) This "soapdish" takes standard Strat bridgepieces, and in this case they've put Graphtechs in there. It looks like it would be comfortable and solid under the heel of your hand, and it is. Also, a "swimming pool" is closely routed under this bridge, this is very precisely done so you have to look closely to see it. Apparently Petrucci must like this bridge, because his new OLP model's bridge looks alot like this one. For that matter, I assume that the Petrucci has the same switching. (How many ways might you hook up two humbuckers to one five way switch?)
The tuners are locking. On mine the lock wheel screws all the way off on one, but it remains usable.
It also appears to have a well formed Graphtech Tusq nut. The proportions of the neck are similar to a well made steel string near the nut. It seems good for fingerstyle. The frets are medium size.
Even the case is nice vacuum formed stuff, somehow the still large embossed Peavey logo has been subtly tweaked so it looks retro cool, not tacky.

I just noodle alot. This guitar is much better than I deserve, but guitars overall these days are much better than almost all of us deserve.
So far I've only used it with my Pro Jr around the house.
It's pretty much got the kind of noise you expect: less when humbucking, more when not. Actually there's only one non humbucking setting (since the two single coil setting is hum cancelling). These pickups are hotter than vintage but not real hot and have warm sounds. Given that they are good pickups, zebras, and given the extensive wiring, you will not want to replace these.
There is a lot of variety in the sounds, I've wired up guitars w/ more variety but you can change sounds on this one very quickly.
I'm surprised this category doesn't address the mechanical tone of the instrument. This is a warm yet clear sounding instrument. Maybe that's because of all the rear routing. The control cavity, like all Peavey's I've ever seen, is, in my book, larger than it needs to be by quite a bit, that is to say, too large, but maybe that adds some warmth. It also adds some weakness I'm sure so despite its appearance it won't be able to take the abuse a Tele can. That is, treat it nice or you could smash in your top.

Bought used. The volume knob has some noise to it now when turned. The overall quality of materials and construction seems on the high end, although it goes for a simple appearance and the woods are nice but not spectacular. The body is of two or three pieces, no bookmatching attempted. There seems to be some debate as to whether the quality of these approach Wolfgangs, I'll defer to the Wolfgang fans in that regard since I haven't made a study of Wolfgangs but: 1) I don't like locking nuts 2) without ever owning a Floyd Rose it looks ridiculously complicated and I suspect pressing one w/ the heel of your hand is not a good idea 3) a flashy instrument isn't necessarily a better instrument.

Is live playing that tough? How would I know. Like before, don't be fooled by its tough Tele appearance, the top is thin in a large area around the controls, so be nice to it.
The hardware seems like it is well made.
The finish is pretty tough, but has taken a ding or scratch here and there, nothing major, and on an ash tele style instrument a pop through the finish is almost a badge of honor.
Strap buttons are basic, if I played live maybe I'd replace them.
It seems dependable.
I don't do gigs, but if it didn't work I don't know what the backup would be other than another one of these (which I don't have), this guitar is not your usual guitar.

They answer their email pretty quickly. Haven't pushed it beyond that.

Been playing about 34 years. I wish I'd had this guitar way back when. May the best playing guitar of any kind I ever played (except w/ 9s I'm still trying to coax more bend/relief in the neck), and sounds good. If it were lost or stolen, I would try and replace it. Why I'm advertising my good thing here is kind of a mystery from a replacement point of view, but I thought people should know about this outstanding, innovative and well made instrument from Peavey. To throw more fuel on this fire: gee, except for the body shape, this appears to be the poor man's Petrucci.
I don't think the body shape looks great, but it's not bad, it's practical, and the wood, finish and hardware helps the looks considerably. I put it below Les Paul or Strat type bodies, but above things like Firebirds or Jazzmasters. My very traditional wife says she likes it.

This is an American made guitar with 22 frets. The guitar is made with a solid swamp ash body, a hard rock maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard.

There are two controls, volume and tone and a 5 way selector allowing for the following positions neck to bridge: 1) Neck Pickup dual-coil humbucking; 2) Neck Pickup single coil hum reducing; 3) Both pickups, humbucking; 4) Both pickups hum cancelling; 5) Bridge pickup - dual coil humbucking;

The pick up configuration is dual humbuckers with Peavey passive pickups. The finish is black pearl coar and the body is almost strat like, just a little smaller.

There's a Power Bend III tremelo, Graph Tech String Saver saddles and Schaller locking tuners.

I like the versatility of this guitar. It has the single coil neck for playing jazz leads, the bridge humbucker for raw distortion. It can quack like a tele, dual humbuck like a Paul.

I use this primarily with a Tech21 Trademark 60 and the guitar is failry quiet especially with the hum reducing technology in the pickups.

To some degree it quacks a little to much (like a tele) but that can be tweeked with the tone and the amp.

This previously loved guitar was owned by a guitar tech friend of mine and was set up perfectly.

Rock solid... 'nuff said.

N/A

There has been a lot of confusion on this forum as to exactly what a standard Firenza is, as opposed to the Firenza AX and the Firenza JX - each one has a different pickup/selector configuration.

I've been playing for 3 years and also own Peavey T-60, Fender Strat, Gibson L6 as electric guitars. If this guitar were stolen, I would replace it in a heart beat.

I bought this on November 30, 2000 new. It is made here in our good old USA, body is swamp ash with double cut-a-way design and is transparent blue. Pickup design is S/S/H thru a 5 way switch, plenty of sound options. Neck is rock maple with 22 medium jumbo frets on a 25" scale and 15" radius. Tuners are locking Shallers that hold the Power Bend lll tremolo in tune with reasonable use. Neck has the wheel adjustment for it's torsion rod and this is a nice and much improved way to adjust things. Also 4 bolt neck has a tilt design for lowering action when needed. Peavey done their homework well on this guitar. No problems at all so far. No more 3 bolt necks for me, think Fender and G&L.

I play country, early rock-n-roll and rock-a-billy and this guitar suits my style of music fine, playing thru my Peavey Ranger 212 tube amp with reverb and trem on it. The 5 way switch between the S/S/H adds plenty of variance in sounds, all strat-ish. All selections are quiet and full toned, not bright or brittle. Turning the tone knob down a few clicks gives an almost hollowbody sound, add reverb and think Duane Eddy. Plenty of sound options and good ones.

Guitar was bought as these models were being phased out and was not set-up. I emailed Peavey in Mississippi and they said send it down and they'd take care of everything. They set it up beautifully for sound, action and trem tension plus they returned (postage paid) to me. I cannot say enough about the people at Peavey in Meridian. They will always work with you on any problem, bar none. They are just excellent to deal with. Peavey discontinued the Firenza line to concentrate of the Cropper, Wolfgang and LE models. This was my gain meaning I bought a new $900 guitar for $295 plus shipping and case.

This guitar is built like a tank, rugged and ready for action. Everything is rock solid, dependable and it will get any reasonable player thru a gig or two with no problems at all. This is a Peavey and they are as dependable as all of their equipment is. It may have a snafu in it when you buy it, but work with them and they'll get it right, they'll see to it that it's right at their cost. You cannot ask for anything more than this.

I've had Peavey guitars and amps since the 80's and Peavey always will see to it that you are happy and satisfied. I just cannot over emphasize their dedication to their customers. To those who doubt me, BELIEVE IT AS IT IS TRUE.

I've been playing for 50 years on guitars of all kinds, brands, prices and designs thru the years starting out with a Danelectro guitar and a Sears amp. This led to Gretsches, Gibsons, Fenders, Carvins, G&L, Ibanez, Heritage and Peavey. Right now, I own a Heritage, a Carvin and 6 Peaveys. I consider these 8 guitars to be the best ever. A Peavey AX and JX, 2 early Peavey Predators with maple necks/fretboards, a Peavey Generation S1 and a Peavey Destiny Custom round out my favorite Peaveys. Peavey sticks by me and I'll do the same. You cannot beat Peavey prices and their products.

I like the features on this guitar. It has a bridge that allows you to bend the strings up or down with the tremello bar. I also like the 5 way switch that controls the double humbucking pickups.

Great sound from a solid ash body.

The guitar was put together properly at the factory. The strings weren't wound very well though.

The guitar is durable. I would use it without a backup. The strap buttons weren't screwed in all the way and allowed movement.

The factory put out a great guitar at a great price. The warrenty was two years plus an additional three years if you register the guitar on the peavey website.

I recomend this guitar to anyone who knows how to play the guitar. It is comfortable and affordable.