Peavey Generation EXP

This is the triple pick-up model, kinda like a strat/tele hybrid
Made in China - but don't stop reading !
T type body, but shorter and rounder than a Fender
25.5 inch scale
Alder Body - mine has a great butterscotch transparent finish
3ply pick guard
3 x Vintage wound single coil pick ups
Bolt on Maple neck and fingerboard
Vintage frets (21) and tuners (non locking)
Ash tray bridge
No accessories, or at least I didn't get any.

All my ratings are based on what I paid for this guitar. If I was comparing it to my other guitars my ratings might be lower, but for the price this guitar is great.

I'm still learning, aren't we all ? So I play a bit of everything but mainly rock, funk, and blues, no real metal. I'm using it through a Marshall JCM2000 DSL 401, no effects. Clean it ranges from a really bright twang through to some pretty full gutsy grunt (not quite in humbucker territory obviously). Kick on the distortion and the range expands considerably, I reckon this guitar would cope with pretty much anything except the really heavy stuff.

The finish to this guitar is outstanding for the price I paid. The body is a sweet transparent butterscotch which really shows off the grain of the wood underneath. If you look really hard you can just make out where the 3 parts of the body have been joined, but you have to be up real close. I'm almost afraid to admit that the finish on this guitar (cosmetically at least) is almost as good as my ??900 2008 Fender USA Tele in Crimson transparent. There were a couple of small black marks on the body when I bought it, but they came off easily with a bit of elbow grease.
The 3ply black scratch plate could have done with a little better finishing on the lower horn. Although I have the maple fingerboard version the f/board has been stuck onto the maple neck, it isn't just one piece of wood, not that this really matters as the join is very hard to see.
The fret job is better than I have seen on many a more expensive guitar (a certian US maker beginning with G springs to mind). The neck fits well into the pocket and the hardware is well secured and in 'new and shiny' condition.
The controls work well and feel solid, pickups were fine and the action though ok was a little high for me, but no biggy there.
One minor fault on my guitar is that at the end of the neck (by the pick-up) the fretboard has been slighly over rounded on one side, but again you have to look close to spot it, and it dosn't affect the playability.

Everything feels really solid. I bought this guitar to travel with so that I could afford to bang it around a bit and not worry about the resale value. I wouldn't gig with it but only because I don't need to, I think it would be fine.

No dealings with Peavey. The shop gave me a 1 year guarantee.

I've been playing just over a year. I own a Fender 2008 USA Standard Tele, a Blade Texas Standard Pro, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus and a Crafter slim arch. I put them through a Marshall JCM2000 DSL401 in my music room and a Roland Micro Cube RX when I'm elsewhere in the house or out and about.
If this guitar where stolen I'd buy it again in a heartbeat if I could find one.
As I said I bought this guitar as a cheap guitar to take on business trips and trips to visit family. I didn't expect much, but it's really surprised me. It hasn't got the depth of my Fender, or the VSC of my Blade, but it looks like it cost three times what I paid and it plays darn well. Pound for pound it's the best value guitar I've EVER bought. It's so good that I'm worried now about using it for the very purpose I bought it in case it got damaged ........... I know, I need to get over it!
I don't know if they are all this good, but if you see one hanging on a guitar shop wall give it a go, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Features way beyond a Fender. GREAT finish (glossy whitewash over clean solid wood) three pups (two strat like, and the bridge is tele) a high gloss slick nitro neck. Nice tuners hold fine, laminated pickguard, I can't fault it at all.

REALLY surprising here. It's one fault IMO) is that the bridge pup sounded too much like a Fender tele, so I swapped it for a Duncan hotrail. Get out of the way!!! I "could" have left the bridge pup, but since the other two were so "different" sounding for a tele, I thought tradition be damned! Tradition great is for people who like air cooled motorcycles :-)

Anyway, I like the way Telecasters play and feel in my hands, especially my right hand, but I really don't like the way standard tele bridge and the "lipstick" pups sound. That said, this one starts where all the others leave off. The only other Tele I have that I like as much is a Traditions Jerry Reid, but it sounds a LOT different than the Peavey, so now I play both. I STILL haven't paid equal the price on a American Fender standard tele :-)

Setup REAL nice, no fault here. Finish was flawless.

It's a hunk of wood with some wires... old tech, I suspect it'll last.

Peavey has been GREAT every time I called them. The rest of the guitar makers could learn a LOT from Peavey.

Ordinarily I'd give a bit of leeway for a $218 guitar. I could buy a Turser and get a less than wonderful guitar, but take into account that it's cheap. Not so with the Peavey. This guitar stands shoulder to shoulder with ANY tele made in looks, fit, finish, playability and sound. At the price it's being sold at, it's incredible.

Telecaster based body built of Basswood, H/S/S with high-output ceramic pickups, 5-Way selector switch, Maple (I think) neck with rosewood fretboard. Non-locking unbranded tuners, chrome hardware.

Sunburst finish, built in 00's I Imagine

This gutar can produce an honestly flattering array of tones for its price.

I play the guitar with a selection of decent pedals, overdrive, chorus, phaser Etc. through either a Roland Cube 30 or Vox AD50VT and the sound combinations are massive with this guitars pickups.

In terms of sound, I think this guitar would suit jazz/blues/classic rock players,with the single coils putting out some very smooth and wholly different sounds from each pickup combination. The sound is bright and full of tone but falls down when it comes to kicking out extreme 'oomph' from the bridge humbucking pickup meaning its probably unsuitable for hardcore heavy metal.

This guitar was professionally set-up at the where I bought it and the action is very good for a guitar of this price, the hum-bucking pickup needed a little adjusting as it was set too low at the factory, though this is probably nit-picking.
The neck is fantastic and really worthy of mention,and everything has been shaped and fitted perfectly. The guitar's very thin neck makes playing a breeze (it's playability isn't far off my epiphone les paul custom). I've played fender telecasters with a higher action and poorer finish at 4 times the price.
Like a few other reviews here, the sunburst finish looks a little odd on close inspection, though nothing worthy of docking marks for.

I've had this guitar for 2 years now and its seen plenty of travel, had drinks spilled on it and even been dropped a few times and no problems have come up as of yet.

The only problems are the jack socket occasionally getting loose and the selector switch knob being a little easy to pull off, however these are common problems on many guitars and easily solveable with a screwdriver/glue.

Never had to deal with customer support as of yet.

I've been playing for several years now at a decent level and music plays a big part in my life. I'd definitely recommend this guitar to beginners without a doubt. For more experienced players, i'd recommend it for those who are looking for a telecaster alternative, a beater/backup or a guitar for laying down some different sounds or recording with.

If it were lost or stolen i'd probably not buy another but instead go for the ACM or custom version (for even more options) however I would miss the guitar a lot as it has character!

This is a review of the standard Peavey Generation EXP guitar i.e. I'm reviewing the NON Piezo version unlike most people in this thread. How difficult is it to read and take note of the titles in the Peavey list guys? You've got your own thread for the Piezo version!

The features are really great if you can find one of these for a decent price. You've got great tonal flexibility from the pickups and the 5 way switch and the sort of solid hardware that Peavey is rightfully known for.

This guitars strong point is it's flexible sound. You've got a couple of guitars in one what with the gutsy rasping humbucker and the Strat type single coils and obviously the 5 way switch allows you to blend in between for even more variety. I love the crunch of the Humbucker and it has great clarity. Love the warmth of the neck pick-up and particularly like positions 2 and 4 where you can get interesting mixes of tone. No doubt the above average weight of the body and the solid build helps here. Get one and one thing you ARE going to love is the sound, for sure.

The hardware is more than up to the job. The tuners are unbranded but seem to increase by the same factor as the 16:1 Grovers that are on my Washburn. The body is heavy, the laquer and detailing great. I can agree with a previous comment about the burst finish looking slightly fake, maybe like those printed finishes you used to see stuck on some guitars. Colour-wise it's very bright, so perhaps that's why. Overall though, I think it's a very handsome guitar. Love the frets too, I'd describe them as medium-jumbo and think they're just right- some of the jumbo frets you see on guitars these days are so fat it[s difficult to fret a note and get it in tune ffs.

The neck is absolutely fabulous. I've gone for Wizard2 style necks in the past because, for my height, my fingers aren't too long. I never felt too comfortable though with them. I've had fatter Les Paul style necks too but then I struggled with the harder chords. This neck is the best yet. It has more depth than I thought I'd be able to use and yet is very useable AND comfortable because of the lovely C shaped profile. Absolutely love it.

The reason the guitar doesn't score higher is because it had slightly high 13th and 19th frets that prevented me from getting the action as low as I would like. I ended up doing a light fret level (not as hard as the guitar techs would have you believe- read up on it and save yourself the money). Now I'm happy with the action. I'm not naive enough to think that most guitars in this price bracket won't have the occasional problem here and there, they will. The reality is that companies probably don't spend the money on testing each and every model that leaves the factory that they might do with the guitars in the higher price brackets. I just got unlucky with this one. If you can, spend some time playing before you buy.

I'd drop this thing off the top of a high-rise and still expect it to be gig worthy, with a light re-tune of course ;)

Seriously, I've had a couple of Peaveys over the years and they have always been particularly well put together with that reassuring "tank" like quality and this is regardless of the different price points. They're the Volvo of the guitar world.

Bought second hand so don't feel I can comment here.

Even with the fret issues, and the fact that it isn't a sexy expensive guitar, I always find it raises a smile when I sit down with it. Whether it's the guitars ability to adapt to several styles of music I may choose to noodle with on the fly, or its great pickups and sex-on-a-stick neck, I always enjoy using it. And I'm really fickle!!

The only reason I can see I might part with it in the future is if I can come across one of the higher spec Piezo models of the same guitar. That slight extra bit of flexibility would be the icing on an already tasty cake.

Sunburst finish
tele style body
fixed bridge
21 fret
1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way selector
s/s/h

as far as the looks, I think it looks great, I play alot of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and other hard rock but wanted something that stood out a little differently. sounds great with the humbucker through distortion.
I have no use for the single coils on it, never use them.
was getting a horible buzz on the open G string so the nut has been replaced with a custom made one.
intonation was horrendous, nothing a screwdriver and digital tuner couldn't fix.
when I first got it, I would give it a 4, but new I could fix it up so sounds good now.

terrible !!! it was NOT setup. If you know how to make truss rod adjustments, intonation adjustments, action etc, then you will be okay and should have no problem fixing that though
got past that though, after doing a bit of work to it it feels great and I love playing it, the one thing I can't complain about is the look of the thing, by no means the look of an old school tele, it's pretty cool looking for a cheaper model guitar.
was going to give it a 5 for that lack of setup at the factory but will give it an 8 just for the looks.

I don't play live, been playing 20 years for a hobby and don't plan on playing in front of anyone else really but friends and family.
as far as durability, I'm really careful with it, don't want to scratch it up
the finish seems pretty thick and not likely to wear.

never dealt with the company directly

I've been playing 20 years, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. I finally got something that doesn't look like a strat copy so I'm really thrilled about that. also wanted a nice subtle looking guitar that could still hammer out hard rock and not sound like crud.
If it were stolen (how do you "lose" a guitar) I would NOT replace it. Don't get me wrong, oh I love this guitar yes !!! but life is too short to not try new things, I'd most likely buy something else but remember the Generation EXP with fond memories, I'd miss it yes but would want to give something else a try. I think my opinion on that would be the same for ANY guitar I owned.
my sights are set on buying an Iommi G400 sig. to play C# standard tuning. will still use my Peavey for playing DP and really early Sabbath.

The best part is the finish.
i have it in trans blue, and it's got sort of a wood effect on it.

21 frets, i do play a solo in a song that uses fret 22, which is a bit gay, but usually when i get to that bit, i'm like "oh yes.." and i have to bend the 21st.

loose, smooth metal machine heads.

2 single coil, 1 humbucker.

5 way selector, volume, 1 tone.

rosewood fretboard, (i prefer maple, but ok)

tele shape, with a much better headstock.

Distortion.
it's quite good. you can get hard heavy sounds, and still the reckless feedback.

Clean.
has warm baritone, but can also reach a twangy sound.
Good for: grunge, jazz, metal

it's all pistine when you get it...

the only thing that i noticed, was that it had saw dust in the part where you change strings.

it's quite shite in this department.

so far, i have:
knocked 2 tuning pegs off, (the whole thing, not just the part you turn).
knocked the black casing off the pick up selector.
made about 1000000 dents in it.
had to unscrew the input, because it got a bit dislodged, i also had to get part of my jack lead out.

it's perfect for smashing, because this is the only part that is bad. only, i can't afford to completely destroy a guitar every night, so i was slightly concerned about what happened to it after i first used it.

i don't know.

quite good. i like it, i don't uses it live too often, for reasons you may have guessed. if i had loads of money, i would want more of them.

PEAVEY GENERATION EXP CUSTOM.

Tele type guitar with ash body with quilted amber finish on top (sweet). Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. Grover machine heads (appreciated). ACM acoustic bridge. HB-SC-HB pickup arrangment with 5 position selector.

Essentially a Nashville Power Tele with more style and much, much cheaper!

Jazz to Country blues via some disturbing sonic territory in between. The twang's the thang. I try to keep it mean, but always clean.

Positives: Great body weight,and this does affect the overall acoustic whatever else you may hear. Electrically (almost) as versatile as you like. The bridge humbucker is chrome top aiming at a PAF type sound. The rear is more DiMarzio, with a real honk. In between a generic strat style single coil. Switching is 5 way. Volume and tone for the magnetic pick ups. PLUS another volume for the acoustic side and a 3 way selector switch to bring in the acoustic sound in addition or by itself. Routes stereo or summed mono. Acoustic sound is great, the blended sounds even better.

Negatives: No coil tap on humbuckers or phase switch on the middle pick up. If this is supposed to be a tone machine why oh why are these options not included? A couple of p-p pots would do it. How difficult would that be to reach perfection? Frustration..

Note: I had a battery die on me and so took it out. I thought it wouldn't affect the magnetic electric sound when used by itself, but it did and the o/p level dropped dramatically when in mono, it also (to my ears) cut the top off the signal as well. On looking inside there is quite a complex wiring loom around a PCB and the overall balance of the sound seems to depend on the pre-amp being powered.

Moral: keep a spare battery handy at all times.

I bought it second hand, condition waise it was 'as new'. Everything was spot on. In my experience Peavey know they have a reputation to keep and stick to the core values that makes them so dependable..

Peavey do a good pro guitar. I also have a Rockingham and a Cropper Classic so I am a fan. They are built for live use, so durability is inherent. Hardware is excellent. It stays in tune thanks to the Grovers, and I see no problem with the strap buttons. Finish is solid back and front.

I would use it without a back up, but only if I had a spare battery in the bag.

Never dealt with them

Playing on and off for yonks. This was my bargain buy of 2005, especially as I got an almost new 30W Marshall amp thrown in! The action is great, the sound wonderful and quality wise is good as anything up to #500. A real pro country guitar, its only rival is the Parker P-36. However, the P-36's 'space age '53 tele' vibe is totally different sonically. The EXP is warmer and able to nail those rich Gibson PAF blues tones that elude the Parker's unashamed bright maple fingerboard single coil tele twang.

I now use both this and the P-36 for country and blues stuff and beyond. At first I thought the P-36 would waste the EXP, and was going to sell it even before the P-36 arrived. I'm now pleased I didn't. Instead they became friends and now make the perfect combination. When using the P-36 and this together, I began to see just how distinctive the EXP Custom is. Sure they both honk and twang, it's just the EXP just has a darker, more complex, personality.

I vow I'll never divorce it, and now feeled ashamed for considering such drastic action; but (like us all) it ain't quite perfect and p-p pots are now on the shopping list if I can tap into those pickups!!

I have the EXP with ACM, which is surprising getting the ACM at the price. The finish is sunburst but I had the further choice of blue or black. The blue model had a slightly more pronounced 'piezo' sound, more bass, treble and level but as the guitar has no tone control fro piezo I opted for the sunburst which had a more balanced tone with the conventional pickups. The neck has an unusual 5 bolt fixing and the top upper bout is more similar in shape to a Yamah Pacifica 311 than a Fender Tele. The neck joins a fret closer than the Fender so the top strap button is level with the 15th rather than the 16th fret and the bridge pieces are 25mm closer to the end button than on a Fender.

In ths shop through a two amp acoustic/electric setup it sounded fine, although I thought the piezo sounded better than the electric, although the 'both' setting was very usable. I'm currently playing mostly all-humbucker guitars so single coils sound a bit odd in comparison. I did plug the EXP into the same amp at home as my CL200 which has Mighty Mites and the EXP pickups were powerful enough to overdrive the amp enough for me at the same settings, although with a much less defined bottom end. OTOH the SRV single-coily 'twangy' sounds were very evident. I'd also played an EXP the previous week in another shop in the same chain through a Vox Valvetronics 2x12 with good results. I'd have probably bought that one but it was at the RSP, so I deferred until I'd re-checked the price my local branch.

All seems reasonable for a mid-priced guitar. The tuner pegs were aren't all set quite parallel and the neck 'feels' slightly dry. I'm comparing here to a Yamaha Pacifica 112 and a Cort CL200 which I bought for similar money but both beat the Peavey, but not by a great deal. OTOH cheap guitars are astonishingly good these days whoever seems to make them. The pickup selector knob was preventing proper selection of the neck pickup. Easing the knob up the shaft slightly corrected this, but it's a fairly basic quality control item. The control cavity is screened with conductive paint and the ACM circuit board has a couple of unused 'tags' marked EQ1 and EQ2. I wonder how/if those could be used? I would have been less pleased if I'd paid closer to the #250 (UKP) RSP.

At the price I paid I don't think I'd get anything close, maybe 3 pickups *or* piezo (unlikely) but not both. It's my only hybrid (piezo/electric) guitar, for which I've had an attraction, so I don't have much to compare it to other than some Parker guitars which are in a different price/quality range. Given the choice of 'types' I'd have probably preferred a Strat or PRS style but a 'Nashville' Tele is the offering, so that's it.

I have now had this 2004 model Generation EXP with ACM for 2 months, playing it weekly at church + a couple of large outdoor summer gigs. Mine is the flame top basswood with beautiful finish and binding. 3 pickups H/S/S, with Piezzo. 5 position switch 3 control knobs and a switch for magnetic, piezzo or combined effect. Perhaps the best neck I have played (including my LP studio). Very straight and fast. Grover tuners.

OK here is where this baby shines. Admittedly this will not produce the smooth-buttery chording sounds like the LP, but this is incredibly versitile. I play soft gospel, hard country, old rock and roll and Tex-Mex rock (Los Lonely Boys) and this does it all. Switch forward for the Strat sound, 2nd position for Tele country, middle for full chording and blues...Add the ACM piezzo for nice acoustic (especially with an acoustic amp) or split the stereo cable into both an acoustic and standard combo or tube amp. WOW what possibilities.

Great set up from factory. I did have to replace the output cable due to popping sounds, now it is great. Replaced strings with Peavy 10's. Minimal intunation adjustment needed.Fretboard and frets finished first class. Perfectly fitted bone nut.

I ahce played this guitar agressivly, no problems to date. I have a Peavy Jazz fusion, a LP studio, Guild acoustic. I always carry this now and use it more than the others because of versatility and wonderfull sounds. I am still experimenting with positions and tone combinations. Great hardware, solid strap buttons (but did order strap locks). I always carry a backup but so far hav not needed one!

I did write Peavy concerning the jack, Got an immediate e-mail. A+ guys to work with.

After 30 years of playing various styles (and still learning) but getting a little slower, I would buy this again in a heart beat, and would replace it if lost or stolen. I do not dislike anything on this axe. It is truly a cross between Strat and Tele with acoustic thrown in. I love it. Get one, I know you will agree.

Made in Chine
paid $179.99
22 frets
1 vol., 1 tone, 5 way switch on metal plate
HSS - stock
Basswood string through body
Tele style
non locking tuners
fast neck
came with 2 allen wrenches

Single coil neck is perfect for blues, mid single coil you can get blues to some really good country out of, and the bridge Humbucker is great for rock to heavy metal. I have read where some have found the nect single coil to be a bit tinny sounding, but I have found this to be the case only with the destortion cranked way up, I play it clean. The sustain on this guitar, like others have said, goes on forever, and depending on your settings, amp, and what gear your using, the 5 way selecter gives you many different options for sound. I use a Silvertone 15 watt amp with a DOD Death Metal Distortion stomp box and a Arion Hot Watt 2 headphone amplifier. My only dislikes was that it didn't have 24 frets - but I knew that before I ordered it. It was also not available in red, which was out of stock, so I ordered the sunburst - which looks stunning.

The guitar played fine out of the box, but the action was a bit too low for my liking, so I raised the saddles two full turns (each saddle has two spots for the tiny allen wrench, simply give each spot for the allen wrench one to two full turns to raise the action of the strings). Once I raised the action, I checked the intonation, and it was dead on. Didn't have to ajest the neck pickup, but did raise the mid pickup a bit more (do this by turning the two tiny screws off to the sides of the pickups) and I also raised the bridge humbucker till it almost touched the strings, the way I like it. I also replaced the stock strings for better ones, boomers, which sound great. Have not unscrewed the pickguard to check inside, but trust everything is fine. The 5 way selecter switch is rock solid, unlike my first guitar which was a silvertone rocket. And all I had to do to the vol. knob was tighten the screw which holds it on, as the knob was very loose (the knobs are heavy metal knobs with a tiny screw in the side - so tightening was easy). And I was very impressed with the output jack where the chord plugs in from the amp, very solid, not cheap like on my silvertone. 5 way selecter is smooth with no noise when switching. The only flaw on the guitar itself was one tiny screw was put in a tad crooked on the pickguard...no big deal.
If you do need to set the intonation, it's the screws to the backside of the bridge.

I don't play live, don't plan to, but it would be no problem with this guitar, as it is build solid and has a solid feel to it. If I have any concerns at all, it would be with the plastic cap on the five way selecter switch - if it had been all metal it would have been a plus...may look into upgrading it later. The sunburst finish is stunning and doesn't appear as if it would wear too easily. The strap buttons seemed solid enough...but i don't leave anything to chance and replaced them with dunlop locking straplocks, which would be a good $20 investment for anyone. I can't see anything that would lead me to believe that I couldn't depend on this guitar, it's rock solid.

Don't know about any warranty and haven't had to deal with the company and if I ever did have a problem I would most likely take it to my local guitar shop. The guitar came with no paper work, which is why I gave some advice on setting the guitar up.

I've been playing for about eight months now, my first guitar being a Silvertone Bullet which was not built well at all. If stolen, I'd lose many nights of sleep while waiting for another one just like it to arrive in the mail. I love the 5 way selecter and the heavy metal vol. and tone knobs as well as all the different sounds you can get out of the pickups. It was my intention to replace one or more of the stock pickups when I ordered it, but now that I've played them, I think I'll keep them as they are. My son likes this guitar so much he's thinking of ordering one - the sunburst is just stunning. I also love the fact that the control knobs are not cheap plastic, but are heavy metal and that it has a rugged output jack. The guitar has a fast neck and just feels good around your neck and against your body. It's not too heavy and it's not too light, and just has a very solid feel to it. I did compare this guitar to two others, an Omen 6 by Schecter and an Rg 321 by Ibanez...both of these guitars cost more, but the Peavey won out hands down. I just wish this had been the first guitar I had bought...it would have saved me from buying a second guitar...