Peavey HP EX

The HP EX guitar is made in China, and has a 24-fret neck, not 22 as the product info says. Two Peavey humbuckers, and the thru-the-body tailpiece. The finish is a glossy black.

I play this guitar in a church band with plenty of distortion (through a SansAmp GT-2). It sounds fine like that. I never play it clean, with the exception of rolling back the volume to where it's barely on.

I bought this guitar from a local store (Shenandoah Music), and I think they did some setup work on it before I bought it. It played perfectly. The action is nice and low, with no buzzing anywhere. The only complaint I have here is that the third string hangs up on the nut after you bend it.

The finish seems pretty durable. I'm currently using it without a backup.

NOTE: When I first brought this guitar home from the store, I noticed a humming when it was plugged in. At first I thought it was the lights, or perhaps a bad cable. Neither - I took the back cover off the guitar and discovered that they forgot to connect a ground wire to the hardware! How did this ever get out of the factory like this? It was a simple fix - I soldered one in myself. But you shouldn't have to do that after spending $300 for a guitar. Granted, it's a pretty good price for a guitar, but the quality control could have been better.

Never had to contact them. Let's hope I don't, because I see that others have waited months for a reply.

I've been playing since 1986. I bought this because I sold my Les Paul Standard on e-bay a few years ago, because I thought my gig days were over. Then I was asked to play in our church's worship band, so I had to buy another guitar. I wanted something inexpensive, solid, and simple. The Peavey HP EX is exactly that. I'm happy with it. It's a good $300 guitar. It's NOT a good $400 guitar (the suggested list price). Overall, even with the manufacturing defects, I still like it.

I have a 2008 model which is a change from previous models in that it is a goth style instrument, not the gold hardware equipped model like other HP Signature EX's. There are no accessories included outside of the hex wrech to adjust the neck. The guitar is all black, no fretboard inlays, has two passive humbuckers with black covers, two volume and one tone control and three way pickup switch. There is gold lettering on the headstock (HPEX) and Peavey on the truss rod cover. It has a tone-pros style bridge and string through body. Smooth operating tuners which may be Grovers but there are no markings on them. The body is agathis not basswood as in the previous models. This model is made in China. It comes with a manual on guitar care and adjustment.

The sound is what you would expect from humbuckers, good deep tones and pleasant to scorching highs. With the string through body configuration has loads of sustain. Stays in tune very well and has a comfortable neck, a wide thin type with a good neck joint. It sounds good whether you play it dirty or clean. If you have an aggressive pick attack the humbuckers perform quite well and clean tones are pleasing. I played rock, blues and jazz on it and was pleased with the sound in all pickup modes. I am using it as a slide guitar in open G tuning and the sounds are impressive.

This is one of the worst examples of guitar making and it shows a total of lack of quality control. The jack plate screws were stripped and the plate was loose. The fretboard had machining marks at the edges, were not sanded smooth and the top of the neck binding looked as though it was shaped with a chisel by a novice guitar maker. The hardware was black finished and worn, there were chips in the paint on the back of the body around the covers and on the string through ferules on both sides of the body. The nut was either chipped or painted and the black paint had chipped on the headstock side. The serial number was illegible due to the tape it is printed on being folded over onto itself. The guitar would not intonate with factory strings, so I changed them to D'Addario's and had to max out the bridge adjustments to get a decent intonation. There is a small dent in the headstock and white glue residue on the headstock at the tuners.
The guitar has a good neck to body joint and a comfortable and smooth playing neck. The action was quite high when it arrived and can be adjusted at the bridge. The frets are well finished and medium jumbo in size.

Once I corrected the defects I found the guitar is playable and should have the durability to be a competent instrument. I am using it as a slide guitar so the high action worked for me. The fretboard is another matter, though. I would not choose this guitar as my lead axe as there are better guitars with properly finished fretboards out there.

This guitar has a five warranty if you register it with Peavey. I decided to fix the problems my self rather than send it back to them for service. I sent an email to Peavey customer service over the condition of the guitar and instructions on how to register it without being able to read the serial number. I have not received a reply. I later found the serial number on the Peavey store tag that came with the guitar so I was able to register it and renumber the guitar.

I have been playing guitars for 40 years and have a dozen electric guitars. I wish this guitar had matched the picture on the website where I purchased it, which was the black with gold hardware model that has the block inlays and better looking headstock. I would not buy a Peavey guitar again if this one was lost. It compares very poorly to any other guitar I own or have tried. Terrible workmanship will turn people off to this brand.

Nice Les Paul Style features. Tune-o-matic bridge, 3-way selector, twin hunbuckers, Grover tuners, etc....

Pretty good stock, to my surprise as this is not a high end Peavey guitar. I swapped in a couple of extra DiMarzio pickups I had laying around, an Evolution for the bridge and Breed for the neck. This thing is a real screamer now, I use it for allot of my harder edge sounds.

My only real complaint, this guitar was setup very poorly when I received it. However, I probably would have tweaked it anyways, so hard to seriously complain. The truss rod was cranked as hard as could be when I received it, huge bow in the neck. It was so bad that I could not tune the guitar, let alone intonate it. After adjusting it properly, she plays like a dream now, very fun to play. I like my action very low, she doesn't buzz at all.

I think if well maintained, one could play out with it regularly. I own 5 guitars now, so a backup will always be present.

Peavey is great, they have responded very quickly every time I have inquired.

For the money, this is a decent guitar that is allot of fun to play. Once setup properly, you really don't need to make any changes unless you really want to. I would recommend to anyone for just a fun little guitar, but probably not a main guitar.

I think the previous reviews sum up the features pretty well. I would like to add that these ARE Grover tuners and they work very well. Basswood body with a thin flamed maple top and gold hardware, full body, neck, and headstock binding. Block inlays...etc..

Excellant Blues charactaristics, very Les Paul sounding. It has a character all it's own. I originally expected to change the pick-ups, but finally realized that these pick-ups have a very unique sound that I'm going to stick with. I give it a "7" because I would have liked a little more heat out of these pick-ups, but they really do sound great in their own understated way.

I have the sunburst model. It is BEAUTIFUL! I'va had it for about 6 Months now and I still lust after it daily! The finish is amazing for a $300 guitar. The neck and frets are really great. I think the neck alone justifies the cost on this one. Peavey has come a long way folks. This is an amazing value. I had to make some minor set-up adjustments, but nothing I wouldn't do on any new guitar. No raised frets, no sharp edges, no imperfections in the finish..just an amazing value for the money.

This is my 2nd Peavey guitar. Back in the day i quickly dismissed Peavey for who knows what reason. But now I have discovered that they truly make some incredible guitars. I have a Wolfgang and wouldn't trade it for anything. The Wolf has been my main axe for about 4 years now. I had to replace the valume pot on it and thats it. I would expect this EX to last a long, long time. No issues with Reliability.

Best I've ever dealt with. They have taken care of me in the past and they are easy to get ahold of and very quick to respond. I'm impressed.

I've been playing around 30 years or so. I've gone through alot of guitars. I have an American Strat and love it, but Peavey is my primary weapon of choice these days. This Chinese made guitar in particular is one heck of a value. It's the 1st guitar I've ever purchased on-line without ever having played it. I'm very impressed with the value. I'd put it up against most $500 guitars. Try it, you'll like it.

You can get the details from the other posts, but this guitar has the basics I was looking for: carved top, pearl inlay neck , wide frets and tune-o-matic bridge, and no more.

My guitar has a gold finish. I think all the colors come with gold-plated hardware, which I like, especially when it ages and rubs off. It gets that nice vintage look.

It only has one tone control, but to me that's is a plus, since I get most of my tone by changing the two volume knobs.

I actually wrote down the features I wanted before I looked and rather than spend the big bucks on a Gibson SG or ESP Viper, I chose the Peavey. Sure, it's not a Gibson or a Fender, but it's not an Epiphone or Squier either.

I prefer the Telecaster sound, but I wanted a solid body with the aforementioned features because I've been playing more jazz lately, and it's a lot easier to play those four-finger chords on a Gibson-like neck than a Fender -like neck.

I actually plug in to a Crate bass amp (Heresy, I know, but if if's good enough for old bluesmen, it's good enough for me) and run it clean except for a little reverb.

I'm not a big fan of humbuckers in general and if they ever die on me, I may get P-90s installed, but if you twist the volume knobs the right way, you can get piano-like bass tones and harp-like treble tones.

The action was high so I lowered it about an eighth but with the tune-o-matic bridge that was no problem. I haven't set the intonation yet, but it sounds pretty good right now.

There were a few flaws in the finish, but you would have to know where they are to notice them. I intend to play this guitar a long time and add my own customized dings so it's not a big deal.

I'm through gigging, so mostly I'll be playing it in my living room and my friends' living rooms.

I'm not worried about its durability. I have a 1995 Peavey Reactor AX, a Telecaster copy, that has taken a lot of beatings and I'm sure this one can too.

N/A

I've done this before, when I did a review for my Danelectro, and I'll do it again here. This is not a top of the line guitar, but it's got everything I want and sells for a great price. To me, that's a 10.

One other thing, when most companies have guitars made in Asia, they cut back on the quality of the materials as well as the price of the labor. So you get a cheap guitar that looks, sounds and plays cheap.

That's not the case with this guitar. I'm sure the people who made my guitar in China weren't well paid or very experienced, but they used good materials and did good work. They saved me $300 and I'm grateful.

It's got a Basswood body, Veneer maple top, Rosewood fretboard, Stop tailpiece bridge, Patented, dual-wound, hum-canceling pickups
3-way, toggle-style pickup selector, Grover tuners, 2 volume knobs, and one tone knob. I bought the one with the Metallic Gold finish, looks so great with the matching gold hardware.

This guitar looks very nice and plays very nice, I couldn't believe that Peavey made a pretty good guitar. I also have a Les Paul and an old beat-up Fender Strat, it's literally like a combination of the two. The feel of the neck is very similar to my Strat, the body has a Strat-ish shape, but bulky like a Les Paul. The pickups are very quiet, they give the guitar a warmer sound than my Les Paul which also has 2 humbuckers, but not the same kind. It definitly has a nice, rich, full sound to it, it's more on the bassy side with more low end than high. You can get it to be bright, but won't get as bright as a Strat. For the price, it's well worth it, I can't believe the guitar sells so cheap, it's such a great buy. Don't just think this guitar looks nice, it sounds and plays very nice also. Check one out if you can't decide whether to buy a Strat or Les Paul, this guitar captures both of their qualities, combines them, and comes out sounding better than I expected.

The guitar was set up really good, it's got low action, which is nice, the pickups are well adjusted, but may need some adjustments if you need to, I only had to adjust the pickups slightly. The one thing I hated about my Strat and Les Paul, the both had at least 2 or more dead spots, which is very annoying. Once I saw this Peavey guitar and liked the looks and features of it, I tested it right away for any dead spots, I needed something with no dead spots, and amazingly, this guitar was perfect! The neck has a great finish on it, it's nice an quick. Need to play a solo that runs up and down the neck, this guitar will give you no problem with it.

I haven't used this guitar at a show yet, but it seems like it will last me for a while. I've never owned a Peavey guitar before, but I have a few Peavey amps and one Peavey head, they have been lasting me years, I hope this guitar will too, it should.

I had to email them a few times before about parts for my amps or questions about one of my amps. they responded very fast, either within a few hours, or by the next day.

I did want to buy either another Strat, one with the Floyd Rose tremolo, or another LEs Paul, but I came across this guitar. The only thing I wish it had was 2 tone knobs, there are two volumes and only 1 tone knob, the could have added in a 2nd tone knob. I like having separate tone knobs, I can adjust the tone for each pickup position then and leave it. But, I can deal with it when I use it, it's not that big of a problem.

This is a double-cutaway, set-neck, 24-3/4" scale guitar made in Korea. I had originally bought the HP Signature EXP (a more expensive version), and my wife liked it so much she went out and bought the HP Signature EX. For the money, the EX is a super guitar, but the hardware is noticably less solid than the EXP. Also, the EX body consists of a maple veneer over basswood, whereas the EXP is maple over Mahogony, and the fretboard is rosewood instead of ebony. Still, it's an incredible guitar for $300.00. Personally, I like the sunburst on the EX better than the figured top on the EXP -- just personal taste, those really fancy tops look fake to me even when they're real. Feature wise, this is pretty straightforward -- 2 volumes, one tone, 2 humbucker pickups. I consider the set neck a real nice feature on an instrument of this price, and the workmanship is as good as any I've seen.

I would replace the pickups on this one, though I'm not doing so on my EXP. They're pretty quiet, but not quite as fat as the ones on the EXP

The workmanship is flawless, and the setup was excellent right out of the box. How well the gold plating will stand up remains to be seen, but that's true even of the more expensive instruments.

The guitar has a nice sturdy feel to it & seems like it should stand up well.

Well, I haven't had to deal with Peavey for this instrument, but have dealt with them in the past for other gear, and they're definitely among the best. Very helpful, even when querying about gear bought used.

I've been playing for about 40 years, and have owned lots of guitars. I'm really impressed with the instruments that have been coming out of the Pacific Rim, and this one is no exception. Other than some specific vintage instruments, I wouldn't spend money on an American built guitar any more.

It's basic but pretty damn good made, when I saw this guitar, I thought, man that looks nice. Two volumes and one tone, 3-way selector. Not done in the USA, but I can tell ya, you wont feel the difference.

This thing just sounds great, period! I've been playing guitar for 4 years now, every year Id buy a new guitar, the first one was an original US made strat, and to this day I think they aren't good guitars. My second guitar was en epi Les Paul special 2, pretty crappy guitar but it sounded pretty good for the price. I've dealt with original Gibson Les Pauls, and let me tell ya, this baby sounds almost as great, not as great, but ALMOST, for like how much the difference? More than $1400?! I loved the sound, its just great.

Pretty decently done, I found no flaws when I got it, simply incredible.

I've already dropped it, giged with it, this guitar has suffered in the few months I've been with it, but not a single visible scratch. This thing will endure a lot.

Haven't dealt with them, but you wont nead them, pretty sure.

This guitar is just amazing. Low price, well done, incredible sound. If this guitar was $300 bucks more, I'd but it, it's just a great value. If you have the money and see one, try it for yourself, im pretty sure you'll buy it.

The above review described the features well except that the Peavey web site states the tuners are grover die cast. They do work well. Mine is the sunburst finish with the flamed maple top. Looks real nice and warm with a good deal of flame. The neck feels similar to my PRS's wide/thin. It could be slightly wider near the body but since I've recently sold the PRS, I'm not 100% sure. Medium Jumbo frets finished nicely.
No manual as to what the 3 way switch does as far as hum /split / hum or hum / both / hum?
Lots of binding around the body/neck/head but does look very synthetic. I give it an 8 because I hate gold plating. I'm thinking of buffing it all off.

I play worship music at my church. Everything from corny la la la stuff to more modern sounding rock. A little jazz and blues once in awhile. I just took the guitar out of the box today and was VERY suprised at the sound. Nice, warm, quiet, smooth, with tone pots that do what tone pots are supposed to do. They roll off very nicely. My amp of choice for now is a Crate DX212 modeling amp of which I've spent countless hours getting some settings that sound good. With the Peavey plugged in to the settings that I made for my PRS it worked very well. Some tweaking in order but otherwise it made me wonder why I spent $3,000 for a PRS Custom 22. (I suppose it was the bird inlays)
The only shortcoming is the lack of tonal variance between the pickups. I may chance the neck pickup?

The guitar was almost in tune from the box. The tuners work real well and are very smooth and predictable not notchy or grabby like my daughters Squire bullet.
The finish was superb except for one spot on the neck binding where the buffer got carried away and buffed the finish down to the binding material. Oops. The gold plating on the hardware is sub-par even for a cheap guitar. I may polish or buff this stuff off. I'm sure it won't take long as the tuners are already oxidizing. For a $300 guitar the overall finish was fantastic though. You do get what you pay for although I believe this is a fantastic value.
The pickups seem to be adjusted well as there is no volume difference between either one. Variance in volume between the top and bottom strings is nill.
The action out of the box was VERY low and buzzez a little around the upper frets. The neck may have a slight bow in it so I will try to adjust this myself and see if it takes care of the buzzing as I like the action as low as possible. I don't see any high frets.
I opened up the electronics cavity and found what looked like chisel marks after the guitar was finished in order to fit the tone and volume pots. The bare wood was exposed from the chisel marks but being inside the cavity and out of sight I won't subtract too many points. In a massed produced guitar, those custom little touches just aren't going to happen.
Everything else looked good. Nothing was loose and all the dials and switch feels solid.
I'm giving an 8 because the price is unbelievable for a guitar that will surely get some attention. It just looks more expensive than it is. I love it.

I don't have a backup that I would use on stage so I'll be gigging with this one every Sunday morning. I don't feel the conditions on a church stage are quite the same as playing out though so I would have two of these if I were jamming in club.
Otherwise, the finish seems thick, the hardware will tarnish (who cares, it's gold) and having been shipped from China to here and be as close to in tune as it was has me sold on its durability. I can't be certain it was set up in China but it sure looks like it's been in the box since it hit the boat for the trip over on the big pond.
Time will tell.

No Idea. Too new to comment.

I've been playin for 14 years and am self taught so I'm no virtuoso but I know what great sound is even if it's not my taste of music.
I like to keep my gear simple and don't use any stomp boxes except for the few effects in the DX212 amp.
I'm also very particular about quality and I won't buy junk and this guitar is not junk. It's not an American made custom guitar and shouldn't be thought of as that. I bought it for the style of playing that I do and this fits the bill perfectly for what I budgeted.
It does nearly everything my PRS did and I saved $2700. The feel and shape is similar to a PRS so that's what I'm comparing it too. I don't use whammy bars and like the set neck/tune o matic tail. 24 3/4 scale makes it easy to bend strings.
The only thing I wish this guitar had was less. Less binding, gold, and black paint. I'm not into the flashy stuff but hey, this thing sounds great and it's all about the sound.
My favorite sounds: Blues like SRV, the guitar work in the first two of Boston's albums (that solo work is amazing in "Hitch a Ride" not complicated just cool.) I also like the new Jazz/Fusion stuff for backround music while I work. This guitar can do ALL of that except for the blues single coil sound. I can get the BB King sound out of if pretty well though.

2004 ,made in China, (like everything else). I bought a sunburst model that I must say looks great. Peavey says it's a veneer maple top, multi basswood body and it looks to be that, but very nice. It has a la LP type set up: tune-o-matic, a nice arch top, set neck and 2 humbuckers that I believe are alinco. If not, then they are the best sounding ceramic pickups I've ever heard!

Surprise! I own an Epi LP and a Gibson LP special. This guitar sounds better! Like I said before, these may be the cheapest damn pickups ever made, I don't know and don't care, but they sure sound good. The sound is thick, warm and heavy. Just the way I like it!

Action was perfect! I don't know who set it up, but there is no buzz and the action is set very low for easy, fast solo's. Now keeping in mind that this is a $300, made in China guitar, I was impressed with overall quality. The frets are not perfectly filed, but there are no rough edges, (unlike my $700 LP Special!), the buff job could have been a little better but the finish was put on well. There is even a nice finish around the set neck. Nice glue job too. Everything was nice and tight. Hardware seemed fine. Toggle switch seemed as good as my Epi's. I don't know who makes the tuners, but they sure have a nice feel when tuning. Better than my Grovers.

I can't see anything really going wrong with it. Srap buttons appear sturdy. The only thing that scares me, as with any set neck, is the glue job. I always wonder if they used qualtiy wood glue and how much did they use. Even on Gibson's. I've seen those start to crack! Yikes!

Never had to use Peavey's CS. And I don't think I will ever have to.

I've played for about 13 years and also own a great 9 year old Peavey Transtube amp. I thought I'd give this guitar a try since it appears to be the first guitar to actually combine a Stat style with LP features. I've owned and sold way to many guitars for any normal person to understand and I can say that this is a good guitar for the money. It's not perfect, but let's just say I wouldn't hesitate to use this in front of one person or 20,000...if I were so lucky!