Peavey Predator Plus EXP Limited

Um, lets see...... I got this guitar for Christmas in 2007. I think it is either a 2005 or 2006 model, made in Indonesia. Its a solid top, candle apple red with a black binding. Has bridge and neck high output humbuckers. It is a strat style body, but with a bit more meat to it, like an ESP or Charvel type strat body, with a cutaway in the body for easy access to upper frets. . Also is a basswood body. Master volume and tone control, three way selector switch. Licenced Floyd Rose, recessed into the body (floating bridge). 22 medium jumbo frets, maple neck with rosewood fretboard. Meaty neck like a les paul, but its no problem getting up and down the neck. (sort of like a EVH wolfgang). Included truss rods for the floyd and the truss rod and an extra spring for the floyd.

I play 80s rock and also just rock (van halen, paramore). This guitar sounds beautiful. I am a big Van Halen fan, and I can honestly say that if you want an EVH wolfgang but dont want to burn a hole in your pocket, this is the best alternative. The pinch harmonics on this guitar are awesome, and the intonation is also awesome. The pickups are high output, and they definatley suit people who are looking to play 80s rock styles and current styles too. They have a lot of high end and mids to them, but I must say the bridge pickup is lacking low end, but its not that big of a problem if you change the bass settings on your amp. My only concern with the pickups is on the clean channel. They lack the kind of jangle and glassyness of other pickups ive heard, but if you put a light chorusing on it and turn up the treble on the amp, it isint too bad0. This guitar is very quiet through an amp and even if you put it through a pedalboard it is suprisingly quiet.

The guitar had a pretty good setup right out of the box. The fret action was pretty low, and I didnt really have to bother messing around with it. Suprisingly, the floyd rose is really good on this guitar. I have never been a fan of licenced floyd roses, but this one is the best ive used yet. The fine tuners are very easy to use, and it can take a lot of wammy bar abuse. The only problem i had with the floyd was the screw for the wammy bar coming loose. But i easily fixed it by using some gorrila glue to keep it in place.The only other problem i had was the jack. One of the screws on it fell out while i was playing. I dont think it was because of the guitar though, i think its mostly bc i dont really put it on the stand so it takes a lot of abuse. Again, it wasnt anything serious, just gorrila glue and done. Oh i almost forgot, one thing I should really point out is the finish. I have candy apple red, and it is amazing. You cant see it in pictures of the guitar but the finish sparkles in the light and just looks plain amazing.

I would definatley take this guitar out on a gig with me. It was basically gig ready out of the box. I havent had any major problems with this guitar, and I trust that it would hold up in a gig. I use this guitar heavily in the first place, and ive never had any big problems with it other than a string breaking once in a while.

Ive never had to get customer support for this guitar because ive never had any big problems with it

I have been playing 9 years. I also own a Kramer Focus, a EVH charvel replica guitar, a Charvel Charvette guitar, a BC Rich Mockingbird, and a Ibanez Talman Inner City Acoustic. This guitar is defintley one of my favorites out of my guitars other than my EVH charvel. If this guitar was stolen or lost I'd definatley want another one, and it is worth every penny spent. Before buying this, I considered buying a new generation Kramer before this, and I thought that this would be a better choice, which it definatley was.

I bought this in the summer of 06, so probably made in late 05 to early 06 in Indonesia. It's a Strat style body with a bit longer cutaways that's made of basswood. The body candy apple red with black binding. Has two Peavey designed high output pickups with a master tone and master volume control and a 3 way Gibson style switch. The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard and 24 jumbo frets and a 25 1/2" scale length. It's pretty thick, comparable to a Gibson 50's style. It also has a licensed Floyd Rose tremolo based off the Floyd Rose II. It had what I was looking for.

Came with the allen wrenches for the truss rod and 2 others for the locking nut and for the bridge and a cheap instrument cable.

I'm basically a classic rock/old school metal player. The stock bridge humbucker was decent distorted. The tone really seemed to lack definition though throughout the tonal spectrum. Treble and mids seemed to stand out a bit, but the bass response wasn't that great. Seemed far too fluid and mushed, but I really think that in part the basswood helped. You need to have a pretty good humbucker in there than can help deal with that low end mud. After I replaced the stock bridge with a GFS Power Rails, the tone improved greatly, it was more balanced, each note stood out, and the mud was taken out of the tone. I got that nice growl basswood is known for. Clean, the stock bridge sucked. It was pretty sterile and flat. No sparkle or chime there.

The neck does not like distortion. It gets very compressed and lifeless sounding. Individual note clarity was ok, but chords seemed to mush together. Clean however, it was an improvement to the bridge. You could use it and get an alright clean that seemed to breathe more and have a bit of sparkle on the treble strings. I'm eventually going to replace it with a matching Power Rails in the neck.

With the new bridge pickup, this easily gets a 9. However, I'm going to rate officially a 6 since I'm rating this based off of stock components.

Here is where I differ from other reviewers. I don't really care much about factory setup. I always have to adjust it to where I like it. What's perfect for someone isn't for another, so everyone has to set their guitar up.

There were no major flaws with the guitar. Around the binding there are little bubbles near the red body paint, but that's really all cosmetically. Build wise, nothing really. There was some foam near the bridge that was hindering the bridge movement when doing dives, but that was easy to cut away. Otherwise, the hardware was fine and the electronics had no issues.

Stock, you could play live for sure. It just wouldn't sound the greatest. The bridge is made of pretty soft metal, so I wouldn't abuse it too much. I'm eventually going to replace it with a better unit. The tuners aren't great. You really only use them when restringing, but they make it a pain to do it. Even though you have a locking nut, some better tuners will enable you to get it in tune after a restring much quicker. Even though I'd replace those items, they've given no indication of failure and haven't rusted or cracked or anything.

The finish is pretty solid. I've got a few scratches on mine, but nothing major and it's been through quite a bit with me. It doesn't chip off like some other guitars. Strap buttons seem to be solid enough. I don't have straplocks on any guitars of mine (something I really should) so I'd use these straplocks without a second thought. I really think I can depend on this, whether stock or upgraded. Definately a solid instrument.

I send them an email once, about if the tremolo system really was a Schaller manufactured unit because I saw it here (look further down) and got a response within 2 days. I think that's pretty good in todays world.

And no, that trem isn't manufactured by Schaller. I don't know where that person got their info.

I really don't remember how long I've been playing. I don't have a life otherwise, so it's been a while. I really am very pleased with this guitar. Sure, it needs some fixing up. But I think that it actually is worth fixing up. Stock, it's just a bit above average. But you could fix this up and at a price that would still be less than some other alternatives. GFS pickups are great and don't cost a lot, there has to be somewhere to get an original Floyd Rose for a half decent price (or even a Schaller, those are good too), and some nicer tuners. Do that and you would really have an instrument that could challenge anything double what it costs.

The only thing I'd like to see is a separate volume control for each pickup. But in terms of build quality, it's a tank. I am really impressed with that. For a $200 guitar, that's what you need. Parts can be upgraded, but you need a solid base to start on first. I'd definately recommend this if you could find one. I'm not sure where though, they don't seem to be as available nowdays.

Gloss Black finish. Strat style. Licensed Floyd-Rose double locking tuning system. Bolt on neck. 25.5 inch scale. Made in Indonesia, 2005. 22 Frets. Volume, tone, 3 way switch. Two Peavey humbuckers. Passive Electronics. Probably Basswood.

I play metal and classic punk. I use this guitar with a Crate MX120r, boss mt-2 distortion, danelectro 7-band eq, and a rocktron hush. No noisier than any other guitars I own. Full bodied tone that can be taylored to be bright or muddy depending on the effect settings. Good enough sustain for pinch harmonics. Had to pad the trem springs to dampen the ringing. The spring vibration was picked up by the pickups and boy was it loud. Not nice at all. After spring dampening that was completely gotten rid of. Slight fret buzzing can be heard when played clean without any effects. Very slight.

Had to set the floyd rose claw spring tension. It was very loose, but that's normal since each person has to set up their floyd-rose to their liking and for their string size. Intonation was set nicely. Action heigh was set well for when the bridge is floating and parallel to the face of the guitar. Neck plays fast like an Ibanez. Locking nut travels and creates a creaking sound during dive-bombs. Nice tight, smooth controls. Two small blemishes either in or below the paint. Only noticable in the right light conditions. Seems to stay in tune well enough after stretching the living bejesus out of strings. Not perfect though. Was expecting it to be a little better, but it works. Takes lots of patience to get into tune.

Without modifications and lots of trials, I wouldn't trust one of these live. The locking screws for holding the strings in the saddle are cheap and weak. I've broken and replaced one already and plan on replacing them all eventually with schaller parts. The whammy bar unscrews from beneath the face of the bridge and falls off easily, all on its own. I discovered that when the bar is secured, the threaded shaft it seats in busts easily. I snapped it in half without any effort. It is very thin and fragile. I replaced the whammy bar and the assembly that connects it to the bridge with Schaller parts. Much more solid now.

Bought it new. Peavey customer support and the technician I spoke with were both very friendly and helpful. Had replacement parts sent to me via mail without any hassle (I'll eventually replace the parts with a different brand but that's beside the point). All covered under warranty. Entire phone call lasted 5 minutes. This was by far the most pleasant customer support call I've ever made. The people at Peavey are awesome!

I've been playing on and off for 14 years. Seriously and regularly for five years. I also play an Ibanez RX. It's a good solid guitar. No floyd-rose though. I purchased this inexpensive little Peavey so I could introduce myself to a double locking tremolo/tuning system. It's a good cheap guitar if like me, you like to get inside your guitar and set everything up yourself. It's good for learning about the floyd-rose. Good for jamming on a budget. I'm sure a pro could do well by getting a higher quality guitar. If it were lost or stolen, I'd get something nicer like an Ibanez or Dean, but the new one would have a floyd-rose on it, and that was the whole point of trying this thing out. I'll jam with it and beat on it until it's dead. That could take a few years. Then I'll use it for parts.

It's got a basswood body in a dark metallic red finish. The body style is kind of a cross between a Strat and an Ibanez RG series body. The upper cutaway is longer though. It has a licensed Floyd Rose tremolo system. Machine heads are I guess of Peavey design (not so great). The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets on a 25.5" scale. It came with the allen wrenches for the Floyd and truss rod and an instrument cable. It was made in 2006 in Indonesia. It has a master tone and volume control and a 3 way switch. H/H pickup configuration. Peavey high output pickups, passive.

I play 70's and 80's rock and metal, Kiss, AC/DC, Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Ozzy stuff, etc. This guitar suits that style very well. The pickups sound pretty well for the cost. They provide a nice rich tone. The pickups are at their best distorted. The clean isn't really that bad though. You can get by with the clean tones. You could play anything you wanted with this guitar. I tend to use this more for the rock and metal and my Strat for the blues, jazz, classical, country, etc, but I wouldn't hesitate to use this for those styles as well. The only part of the sound that I don't like is the muddiness of the lower end, but that's not all the fault of the pickups. The basswood body has a good bit to do with that.

When I got the guitar, it was all out of tune and the Floyd was sunk into the body. As soon as I got it, I replaced the 9's it had with 11's. The action was fine with the 9's and once the bridge was adjusted the action with the 11's was where I wanted it. I don't like terribly low action, middle of the road height for me. The pickups were low, but that's nothing to adjust. Of course, it depends on the person as well as to where one likes the pickups. The routing for the Floyd was well done. The frets were perfect, none stuck out or were raised. The licensed Floyd Rose is actually pretty well made. The only issues with mine were what looked to be stripped fine tuning screws. The black coating had actually just come off and it didn't effect the use of the fine tuners. Second, the block in the saddles of the B and E string wouldn't move back when I unlocked them. All I had to do was just push them back and just screw them back onto the screws. That was an easy fix. The licensed Floyd works just as it should. It's made much better than your usual licensed Floyd. I did e-mail Peavey as to it's make because I saw here it was supposedly a Schaller designed unit. I was told it wasn't a Schaller made unit. But even still, I was quite suprised with it. The machine heads suck. But you only use them when you are changing strings. Then you lock the nut and they're no worry anymore.

You could most certainly use this live. Most cheaper guitars you wouldn't want to use live without replacing items, but this guitar really needs no modifications. The Floyd is made well and will last so long as you take care of it (oil it and keep tabs on the knife edge). The machine heads aren't good. They hold long enough to stretch out the strings, which is all you need. The finish is very nice and I think it will last. I already scratched it though. The strap buttons are pretty big and seem solid enough, but I'm still going to put straplocks on there. I do depend on this guitar. It really seems to be very well made. Just watch out with the body. Basswood isn't as hard as alder or mahogany, so it'll dent a bit easier. I would not use this without a backup because of the Floyd. I leave my bridges floating, so if I were to break a string I'd probably lose more strings due to the increase of tension on the remaining strings and then the Floyd will be unbalanced and out of tune. I never gig without a backup though, but it's more of a risk not to do so when you have a guitar equipped with a Floyd Rose.

I'm honestly not sure on the warranty. I bought it through Music 123 and I think I read there it has a one year warranty, but don't hold me to it. They gave me the option of wanting an extended warranty, so it probably does have the one year warranty after all. That's Music 123, not Peavey thought.

I have dealt with Peavey through e-mail about some specifications on the guitar. I was answered promptly and fully.

I've been playing for about 3 years or so. Other than this guitar, I have a broken SX SST-62 Strat copy (electronics suck on those), a First Act MG-412, and a Vox Pathfinder 15R. I had all my questions answered before I got it. If it were stolen, I would buy it again. It is well made and sounds good for it's price. I got what I was expecting. I just don't like those machine heads. I really was suprised by the Floyd Rose. It really works well. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be good. Most cheaper Floyd just aren't of quality make, but this one really was. I compared this to an ESP M-100FM (didn't like the agathis body), an Agile AL-2000, a Dean VX and MLXL, and an ML '79. Of course, the ML '79 was better, but it was $550. I chose this guitar due to what I had heard of Peavey and it's price. I am not dissapointed with my choice. I wish it came with some Grovers or Gotoh machine heads. My only complaint is that it didn't come in the topaz blue finish in the left handed model. The metallic candy apple red is quite nice though. Really, it is more of a metallic maroon. The pictures make it seem a brighter red than it is. One last thing, the neck is very nice. Nice and thick.

basswood body
rosewood fret board
Floyd Rose tremolo double locking
feraking AMAZING pickups! 17kohms neck, 15k ohms bridge
nice weight
action is low
again the Pickups!

OMFG, absulotely a Suprise!!!....this "el Cheapo" actually is very versatile!...granted you can play ;), telling you the sound that comes out from this pickups you can play almost anything any style - heavy metal to progresive rock-....with a little fine tuning from your amp .the Bridge Pickup is very Harmonic, i can make it scream at almost anywhere across the FretBoard!..UN BELEIVABLE....the Neck Pickup is Nice and Warm, great for Neck Solos...bassy Punchy, plus it can do clear/clean harmonics too.. this pickups sounds like more expensive dimarzios or duncans.i was simply blown away how these pickups sound over this guitar...i have owned Dimarzio Evolutions , Seymour Duncan JBs, etc...for the money i paid...this is just Amazing!

neck is suberb, fast and comftable.action that i set up is nice and low the floyd does it magic!

no problems , besides paint chips from me , hehe

n/a

15 yrs playing. rock,jazz ,metal.. anything i find interesting

Made in Indonesia

Nothing too out of the ordinary

Bolt on neck, floyd rose-licenced bridge, 22 frets, two humbuckers

mine's in this nice blue colour

volume and tone knob

really REALLY good neck. the closest I could find to an epiphone neck (which is why i bought the guitar - i wanted an epiphone feel with a floyd rose, i hate the feel of the Ibanez RG wizard necks)

Humbuckers are okay. Not too cheap sounding which given what I paid for it new was a small miracle. Could be higher output but hey. Bridge gives good pinch harmonics and handles Dimebag-style harmonic dive bombs and reverse bombs with consumate ease. Neck does a reasonable Steve Morse. Clean, both pickups sound pretty terrible without effects. But the kind of player that buys this guitar's "clean" sound generally has compression, chorus and delay sucking any of the guitar's personality out of the mix. If you play jazz (which I do) you can survive on this guitar. But only just.

Tone knob gives nice bandwidth. Volume knob very VERY static-y - dust or paint or something must have got into the circuit. You need a volume pedal for violin stuff.

I play pretty much anything but centre around heavy jazz fusion and progressive stuff. I wanted a guitar with a floyd rose and humbuckers. I didn't have much money to spend. With a Korg AX1500G and a Behringer GX212, this guitar sounds...reasonable. With a great drummer and a great bassist and this setup, it sounds good enough.

This guitar's neck is AWESOME. MUCH more fun than Gibson necks (which I always find feel too much like Mustang necks - thin and designed for the power chorder). Sure, the action came to me higher than Cheech and Chong. But all relevant allan keys also came with the guitar, and a bit of screwing at the springs on the back and lowering of the bridge made this guitar an absolute delight to play.

The paint is quite nice. All tuning pegs are fine. Nut and brige lock and stay in tune. The volume knob sucks - see above. Pickups I had to raise to get my sound, but if you're playing rock sounds rather than metally ones they're okay stock. Frets are wired fine.

I know it withstands live playing.
The floyd rose is a brilliant dramatic tool live - flutters and dives combined with inventive choreography and facial expressions mean that people think that you're a good guitarist without even playing anything particularly musical.
I made a pickgard out of Gaffa, though it's barely necessarily. It's more for appearance.
Strap buttons are very solid.
I have an epiphone les paul, but it's less a backup than a fixed bridge guitar. I don't usually plan gigs, so yeah, i guess i'd use this without a backup. The only problem would be that because the bridge floats, if you snapped a string the guitar goes out of tune so you couldn't keep playing unless you used aforementioned floyd rose technique.

It's under warranty (I think)
As much as the volume knob irritates me, I live with it, so I haven't called these guys yet. But I live in Australia, so they may not even have reps here.

I've told all my guitar gear. I own a cheap bass, a few 80s keyboards. I've been playing for ages. I can't remember my life without guitar.

There's not enough space to install GK, which sucks. The volume knob sucks. The pickups are good without being great. Aside from those niggles, this guitar is pretty awesome.

If it got stolen, hmmm. I wouldn't mind checking out Brian Moores cause the thought of built in 13 pin is quite appealing. But for me the defining factor in a guitar is the neck, and this is a pretty tough baby to beat. Bugger it, I WOULD buy this guitar again, the neck is too good to resist. But I might get another one as well. But for the price this guitar is a gift from the heavens. It says that a rating of 10 is fantastic value. Well that about sums up this guitar.

* Basswood Body ( I contacted Peavey tech support )
* Two Peavey humbuckers
* Schaller-made Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system
* Finish - Blue/Teal metallic
* C-shape neck with what appeared to be jumbo frets. Maple/Rosewood
* 22 frets
* 5-bolt neck attachment
* Straight string pull
* 1 volume, 1 tone control
* 3-way pickup switch
* Made in Indonesia, 2005
* Came with Amp Cord and Floyd wrenches

This is a solid guitar and GREAT for the price. I haven't seen any QUALITY guitars with a DECENT Floyd Rose for less than this. The only thing that is less than stellar are the headstock tuners - they pretty much suck. However, you only use them once in a great while, like when you change strings, so it's not a huge deal. You could always buy a decent set fairly cheap on eBay. Or just live with them, it's really not a big deal.

As I said elsewhere, I bought this guitar 'cause it was the most inexpensive way I could check out a real Floyd Rose. The more I play it though, the more I like it!

I am really surprised at the wonderful sound of this guitar. After consulting some online web sources, I read that Basswood will give pronounced mids, smooth highs and a tendency for muddy bottoms. Well, it's very true. I think you could be very happy with the stock pickups. Lots of sustain and bite. I immediately threw in a Screamin' Demon in the bridge however, and a GFS FAT PAF in the neck. The Demon sounds incredible. It is my best sounding guitar. It seems to almost have a 3D effect with the mids. And finally, I have found a guitar that doesn't have those razor-sharp annoying high notes! In the bridge position, one has to turn down the bass to about 9 o'clock or so, and then you're fine. In the neck position, I am trying a ceramic magnet humbucker, which is a little clearer, but still muddy on the low strings. I met Seymour Duncan the other day at a promotional event, and he said with this guitar he would put a SD Jazz pickup in the neck position for a Joe Satriani type-tone. ( Alnico 5 magnet with low resistance .) I'm using a POD 2.0 Amp Modeler and headphones or my Behringer GMX-212 amp, and if you like 80's metal ( Lynch Mob, Dokken, Winger, etc. ) this is the guitar for you. I find myself reaching for this instead of my prize Blue Strat all the time. In fact, sometimes I feel a little guilty about cheating on my "Number One" guitar! Haha.

The tech at the guitar store set the ation lower for me. It came fairly high, but not unplayable. I'm not a good judge though, my nickname is "Buzz" because I like my action so low! Haha. Everything fits properly, and the guitar was very ready to play out of the showroom.

I'm in a backyard cover band ( Bon Scott tunes ) but I'm thinking because of it's great sound and the reliable whammy bar, that this will be the guitar I use when we occassionally play live.

The Floyd Rose seems to work really well. That's really why I bought this guitar - I wanted something inexpensive, but good enough that I could check out a Floyd Rose and see if I liked it. I do! I am diving all over the place, and it comes right back in tune. I am very picky about staying in tune, and I abuse the &*%@#!! out of this bar, and I fine-tune maybe once every day or so - practicing an hour a day.

You'd need to be careful with this on the road. The guitar seems very solid, although basswood is a "soft" wood, and supposedly bruises and dents fairly easy.

Haven't had to deal with the company, but I know a couple guys who know Mr. Peavey personally - and have worked for him, so I expect it would be good.

I've been playing - oh crap, is it that long already? - about 30 years. I am amazed at the quality of guitars that we can get for such a cheap price these days. If this were assembled in America, I'm sure it would go for $600 - $800 easy.

i have just bought it today and so far so good, i was using an encore 'strat' copy with a really bright tone but this knocks socks off it for looks, style, tone, build everything in fact, im using a small 10 watt shine practice amp but the sound is still amazing, bad points, well to restring it is a bit difficult due to the tremolo sytem but its still fun to do and also if you really pull the tremolo back the strings touch the fret and causes buzz but seeing as you wouldnt normally yank it back it should cause no probs, i dony know what its made of but the fret is rosewood and its got peaveys locking tuners, peavy humbuckers which are excellent really

i mostly play metal or punk and it suits it perfectly, you can really make the guitar wail if you want it to but i mostly do rythym and some lead and it suits it nicely, its got a flat fast neck and is over all, really good

the guitar was setup efficiently to use the second you got it home, the tuners are abit od to use first off but its still great, there was not a single blemish or anything corroded or damaged on the guitar at all but because i got the black shiny one it smudges with finger prints quite bad

i would trust my life with this guitar, the strap buttons, umm yeh,there BIG thats all im gonna say, BIG BIG BIG buttons!

doesnt need to yet

this guitar is great, if you have to buy a guitar in this price range then buy it, if you have achoice, get an ibanez, but the guitar is great, the sound, the tone and weight is all good

it was mwde this year(2004), it has 22 frets, its solid top, there are 1 tone and 1 volume controls, it's config. is: S/S/H, the pickups are peavey, rosewood fretboard, mahogany body, it has quilted grey finish, the body style is differnt from all the others, somethng like a strat and a little piece of a thinline, the bridge is string thru body, the tuners are peavey special locking tuners, the neck scale is medium.

well, i play mostly metal, on all kinds, and this guitar rocks on all music style, i use a behringer x v-amp, which is a multi-effects, and you can play anything from blues to black metal, and something i love from this axe is it's hum-cancelling positions, no noise at all!!!, it has a rich fat sound!!

you all know peavey is well recognized for well made instruments.

i would use with no backup!!!

don't have to deal with'em!!!