Peavey Reactor

I got this one at a pawn shop. Basic telecaster look. Pretty beat up the body. The maple neck and fretboard were in awesome condition.
3 way selector with 2 knobs. Non locking stock tuners. Hold tune very well. For what I play this little baby had all the features I need.

This guitar fits my style of blues/classic rock perfectly. It can get a bright trebly sound or a low growling sound and everything in between. I play it through a crate 65w combo and it sounds awesome.
No hum - crystal clear. It can fit right into rythym or great in leads.

The action on this guitar totally captured me. The maple neck and the set up on this guitar feels as smooth as butter. I played it once in the pawn shop and bought it. This thing actually has made me a much better guitar player just because of the neck action.

This thing is built like a tank. Well made and durable.

No need.

I have been playing and gigging off and on for 30 years. This guitar was made way back in the 80's I think. It has held together like a tank. I played a new fender MIM telecaster yesterday at Guitar Center and this Peavey Reactor has a much smoother action that the Fender Tele. You find one in decent shape - BUY IT!

Telecaster copy that was unknown to me until I came across one at a yardsale. He was asking $75 and I offered $50. He took my offer. I didn't even know if it worked. It was in immaculate condition. I took it to a friends house to have him set it up for me. He offered to buy it on the spot. Mine's white with white pickguard. Standard neck and bridge pick-ups. Hardshell SKB case I would assume comes seperate. I basically bought just the guitar, without strings..strap...or anything. Passive pick-upss and a 3 way selector.

I play dirty punkish rock and roll. This works great. I like a hot nasty distortion. Always wanted a tele. Figured this would get me through until I bought a Fender. But this actually has me not wanting anything else. I play it through a cheap Fender practice amp. But have cranked it up loud through a Fender Hot Rod Deville. Sounds bright and hot. I like playing through the far more trebly bridge pick-up. A slight buzz when I crank the tone all the way up. But that doesn't really matter for the type of music I play. On the middle pick-postion OR the neck pick-up postion, with the tone about half way back, this makes a great Sabbath stoner rock sound.

I got this at a yardsale. But you could barely tell he played it. Not a scratch or ding.

Everything seems fine. I usually play bass. But when I do start my side project and play live...this will be my main guitar. I would have a back-up. Not because this is unreliable, but I just think it's retarded to NOT play with a back-up incase strings start breaking. It seems to stay in tune very well and I've had no electronic problems with it.

I haven't dealt with them for this particular model. But I did for my T-40 bass and they were very accomodating!

I mainly have played bass but have owned a few guitars. I scour yardsale for old beaters that I can smash on stage. I originally was going to buy this for that reason, but fell in love with it before I got it home. I'd own this now before an actual Fender and yes..I'd replace it. This sounds great. Even though it doesn't sound EXACTLY like a Tele, it has it's own sound that I've never heard before. Can't wait to record with it.

Plain Jane Telecaster... With a wicked neck. My model is a 1995. Black with the standard telecaster pickups. Nothing fancy. But beautiful. Maple Neck. Poplar body. 22 frets. Nice string thru body design. MADE IN USA 3 way selector switch with a big tip. ITs your standard tele in the working mans price range. Would have gotten a ten cept i really dont like the big white pickguard. oh well

Guitar playes excellent. I love the sounds that i pull from this guitar. I play through just a little practice amp that just has a volumn control. Turn that up to 5. Turn up my volumn on my guitar. Turn the tone down. And i can play any sort of blues on that neck pickup. So mellow. I love it. Switch it up to the bridge. Turn on some distortion. Whoo hoo it rocks. Then il pull a mark knopfler trick and put it in the number 4 positon like on a strat. I get just a beautiful tone. Hard to explain. This suits all the styles i play. I go from stevie ray to doobie brothers and even throw in some country and bang, its all on the same guitar.

Bought this used. It had been 12 years since this thing has seen the factory. The action was nice. Only a little bit of buzzing up high on the neck. Need to get that adjusted. But other than that it sounds great. The tuners are actually very good. I never go out of tune. They happen to be the nice sealed ones. Sorry everybody else that you got those crappy ones. I like the saddles on the bridge too. 6 individual ones. So a lot more control. String thru body is so much better than those MIM teles. OVer all very nice

This guitar has been dropped. It has had stuff thrown at it. And yet it plays and looks beautiful. It has some wear and tear but i like that. That means it has been used and abused. So it has a history. Fancy shiny things dont interest me. All in all SOLID

I contacted peavey about its history and anything they could tell me. Ten minutes later they were back to me. Amazing response time. I dont think il ever have to deal with them other than that.

All in all ever since i started playing guitar (ten years ago when i was ten) i have dreamed of owning a telecaster. I use to go in and play and play the fender americans and just dream that it would be mine one day. Well i never had the money. So i came across the beauty and i said id take it without even playing it. Course then i went and played it and fell even more in love with it. The guy at the store even said that if he hadnt purchased his brand new custom shop tele he would have picked this up instead. This is my third peavey (american made mide you) and they continue to surprise me. A lot of bang for 135 dollars. If you find one. Pick it up. You will not be disappointed

finiture semplici ma ben fatte, tastiera molto scorrevole e di buona fattura , legno in acero stagionato perfettamente e laccatura perfetta,il body ?? di ontano un po pesante pero offre un ottima risonanza, meccaniche decenti ed elettronica soddisfacente

Using VOX ac-30...GRAT sound wery similar at telecaster style... I've modified circuit because is not similar as tele circuit... now the sound improove . I like this bright sound , perfect for blues and country, but also rock rif, Fabulous SOUND!!!

Very easy to play this nek... easy to make setup and tuning offer long durability ...

very solid guitar... weight is heavy but it is possible live playing.

solid guitar, not too heavy not too light. fit and finish excellent. basic tele style with vintage style tuners (may replace..they are ok but locking would be better) wide-ish neck, 12" radius, very fast but not too thin....an EXCELLENT NECK..looks like two pieces of maple joined vertically! so almost like a solid slab and probably really helps with any warpage, alder body MADE IN USA and shows it, something about USA guitars seem more durable or ??? hard to put finger on what it is but it's seemingly tangible made in '96? frets last forever 3 way selector switch. If you get over that its a tele which has no features really, the rest of it is really amazing I never new peavey had this kind of quality in lower priced guitars, they should be selling them like doughnuts! at least more than fender's under 500 dollar guitars. string through body and nickel bridge....great features, minus one point for tuners.

authentic tele sound. i know, i owned 2 "real" teles. played this one and bought it, then sold the fenders. really. and one was a $700 model. oh well, you just gotta play one to realize what it has. I really like the orig. pickups, especially the bridge, but never really cared for ANY tele neck pickup so put in a strat p'up and now its all i ever wanted. tele bridge spank and strat nuance, perfect.

very well set up, one quibble that turned out to be nothing...the neck pocket wasn't perfectly mated to the neck...but after a year it doesn't bother me...it did at first but nothing came of it sound or durability wise...the fenders i owned had a better fit, but this one is a real players axe. The finish is thick! I don't care for thick finishes but after banging this one around it hasn't chipped yet which really amazed me...i mean dropping it repeatedly on stage and whatnot

the most durable guitar i ever owned (have owned at lest over 40)

peavey is a great co. i found out with this guitar. emailed them about buying another neck for backup and they got back within a day! unbelievable. try that with any other guitar company (rondo maybe but their guitars are definitely not in this ones league)

gotta give it a 10 overall especially considering the price. the only guitar that is equal or better that i owned was a tokai, valley arts and maybe an electric guild. but for value, i gotta laugh, its sooooooo above any imports and anything else in its range....especially fender squire stuff...what a joke compared to the reactor, even the mexi-mades aren't as good in my humble opinion.

Typical Tele layout. I purchased my '94 Reactor used from eBay in 2006. A little banged up but in a good way. The neck is two-piece maple. Very similar to a modern Fender profile. Unsure of the type of wood.

I never tried the stock pickups. I purchased it for the sole reason of customizing. I removed all the electronics and lined the bridge pickup cavity with copper tape to shield the single coil. I had the neck pickup routed to accomodate a full-sized humbucker. I ended up with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck and a Jerry Donahue in the bridge. They sound GREAT. I have four other guitars ranging in price from $800 to $2700 and believe it or not, this is the one I go for first now. $150 from eBay and $350 in parts and service.

The bridge saddles from the factory looked terrible. They were corroded, but I have a feeling this guitar spent a lot of time out of the case. The string tee looked bad too. The stock Peavey tuners were cheap. I put on Gotoh tuners, a graph-tec string tee and Tele replacement saddles from Stewart Macdonald. Replaced the input jack with a electrosocket. Replaced the pots and switch when I had the pickups done. And just because I like they way they are knurled, replaced the knobs with '52 Tele copies from Fender. Had to have a pickguard cut to accomodate the humbucker in the neck. (By the way, Fender pickguards don't fit Peaveys.) Replaced the strap buttons with Schaller straplock buttons (standard on Fenders).

Built like a tank. A solid body that can take a beating and stay in tune as well as any Fender. I know I replaced a lot of parts, but I only had $150 in the guitar to begin with. It is a solid player and a great project guitar.

Emailed the factory with the serial number to check the born-on date. Got a response less than 24 hours later.

Been playing 12 years. Own 5 guitars. 2001 American Strat, 1994 American Tele, 1998 Gibson ES-135, 2003 Martin HD-28. And this Peavey. Love it. If you have it mind to do a custom job and want to tinker a bit...and if you are looking for tone not a piece of art...try a Peavey Reactor. They pop up on eBay ALL the time.

Finish is very basilar, but efficent and solid.

sounds of this guitar is very greath! Blues, rock , nice CRUNCH
like a real telecaster...
GREATH bridge pickup!!

Good manuality... easy to setup it...

long durability sensation... my is of '95 and it's like a new guitar...
very SOLID!!

Compare reactor with a Squier Affinity series telecaster....

Squier is a toys!!!!

Everything you'd want in a Telecaster, but mad ein the USA and at a better price.

This guitar sounds good. I have a 1986 G&L ASAT and it is close to replicating it.

It had a two spare drill holes showing, but a little paint did the trick. The body has a thick black poly coating which when polished shines really nice. The maple neck is fit nicely and is almost a birdseye maple. Everything else feels great.

This guitar is bullet-proof. I have knocked it over a dozen times, banged it into things, dropped it and it still works with no problems.

I downloaded the manual from the website no problem. Other wise I haven't had to deal with Peavey.

I have three guitars, and this is the one I practice with and play for recordings. It beats out my Fender Squire Stratocaster, though the Strat is much louder, in many ways. My Peavy is a close second to my G&L ASAT, but is a much better value, since I only paid $100 for the Peavey Reactor. Can't beat that. I was just visiting a used music store for effects pedals for my G&L, and they handed me the Peavey Reactor to try out the effects pedals, and as soon as I started playing, a smile came across my face and I bought it there and then.

Just basic Tele features

This guitar sounds great in any style. I play a lot of Nirvana and Mudhoney, but the sound is so great I can go from that to Pink Floyd and Modest Mouse. Just amazing!

It sounded good stock

This guitar is as reliable as they come. It withstands all kinds of torture and still plays perfectly. The hardware will last. I would gig with this guitar without a backup. Only one complaint: the strap buttons aren't that great.

Never needed it

I love this guitar! I will play till one of us dies.

I bought this guitar as a project after reading here that the Reactor is a well built tele copy with cheap hardware. And now that I have one, I agree - that's exactly what it is. I bought it second hand, as a project, for NZ$290 (US$180), including hard case, and I put another NZ$220 (US$140) worth of parts into it (not including labor costs - I did the work).


Features when I bought it:
Mine was fire engine red, has a 2-piece solid poplar body, has 1 replacement tuner, and had a malfunctioning pickup selector switch (easy fix). Everything else was stock, as described by others, below.

I really like the 2-piece maple neck, which seems a bit wider and flatter than a MIM Fender standard tele neck. It also has nice medium jumbo frets with clean fretwork and a nice light gloss finish. The maple has aged to a nice, honey colour.

Other features I was after for my project tele included through-body stringing, six saddle bridge, solid wood body, and a headstock that looked OK (there are some strange headstocks out there on some tele copies!). The Reactor headstock looks OK - like a tastefully modernised tele headstock design. I'll agree with a reviewer below - it looks sportier than the trad tele headstock.

I didn't like the cheesy red body colour (probably why I got it so cheap!). I also didn't like the stock overwound pickups - hot and lacking in character and musicality.

I had read here that Reactors have cheap tuners. The high E tuner had been replaced when I bought it. I haven't had any problems with it staying in tune.


My upgrades:
1. I installed a 2nd-hand pair of Fender samarium cobalt noiseless (SCN) pickups (designed by Bill Lawrence). These pickups are so much better sounding and more versatile than the stock pickups, which were only suitable for twangy, agressive, or overdriven playing. The SCNs really opened up the sound of the guitar.

2. I installed a 5-way pickup selector switch and wired it like this: 1. neck, 2. both, 3. bridge, 4. both half out of phase, 5. both off.

3. I stripped off the red paint and sanded off the wood sealer. Then I stained the body dark walnut brown (transparent) and finished it with Danish oil, buffing it out with a 50-50 mix of oil and beeswax. The white pickguard now looks great on the walnut stain. The gat now smells real nice, too!

4. I cleaned up the neck pocket. The woodwork and finishing in there was very rough. I sanded it down to bare wood to improve the transfer of string vibrations at the neck joint.

5. I slightly bevelled the heel of the neck to change the angle of the neck joint. I did this because, in the guitar's original condition, the saddles needed to be set quite high for the strings to clear the frets. I didn't like that, so when refinishing the body I sanded a slight bevel at the base of the neck. Now the neck joint is bare maple onto bare poplar, and the saddles can be set to a normal height for the action that I like.

My upgraded Reactor gets a 10 for tele features.

The Reactor has a definite tele vibe. However, when a/b-ed against a MIM standard tele, the stock Reactor has a more open, brighter tone. The MIM tele sounds mellower with a very characteristic alder, fenderesque tone. Along with a greater apparent frequency response, the Reactor also has more sustain than the MIM tele. I think that, except for the MIM neck pup, the stock pups in both of these guitars are not great.

Stock, the Reactor sounds a bit better than a cheap tele. It has a typical tele tendency to be muddy on the neck and harsh and brittle on the bridge. IMO the stock Reactor tone is hotter than a standard tele, lacking in character and OK only for twangy, agressive, or overdriven playing. It does not do nice glassy, chimey or jazzy tones.

With the mods I have done, the Reactor really shines. The SCN pups make this gat sound like a professional instrument. They provide great tones for many different applications from classic rock to blues, from jazz to country, and I can even get some metal-esque tones on the bridge. Somehow these pups can produce both modern and vintage tele tones - convincingly! No wonder Fender are supplying their top-of-the-line AmDx teles with these pups!

Somewhat surprisingly to me, the refinishing of the body and neck pocket opened the tone of this guitar up even further. I am astonished at the sounds that this guitar now makes. The typical single-coil attack is still there but underneath it is some serious depth, clarity, power, and sustain. The guitar now responds really well to a variety of different EQ settings, picking styles and picking dynamics.

I suggest that, after swapping the stock pickups for something better, cleaning up the neck pocket and removing the thick enamel finish will deliver noticable improvements to the tone of your Reactor!

After my modifications, the sound and verstility of this guitar are amazing. I couldn't ask for more out of any tele.

I bought this guitar 2nd-hand so I can't comment on the factory set up. However I can make a few comments about the guitar's construction.

The neck on this guitar is the best thing about it. Very nicely designed and finished and fully adjustable, with a truss rod that does its job and a micro-tilt neck angle adjuster. You can set this baby up any way you like.

The paint is thick and durable. It was sloppily applied around the string ferrules on the back of the guitar. The worst aspect of the fit and finish was the woodwork and finishing inside the neck pocket. I had to redo the pocket with some agressive paint stripping and sanding.

Note: my Reactor was not routed for a neck humbucker.

Note: if you plan to refinish your Reactor, plan on using a dark stain as the two, or three, pieces of poplar wood that make up the body of your guitar can be quite variable in colour.

With the single replaced tuner (high E string), I have no problems keeping the guitar in tune.

Otherwise, it is a solid tele copy. It should put up with lots of (ab)use.

I've never dealth with Peavey.

As others here have said, the Reactor is a solidly built tele copy fitted with some cheap hardware. As such, Reactors are great value for the prices that most people pay for them.

As many here have also complained, Fenders are over priced. Lets face it, a tele is a couple of slabs of wood bolted together with some old style hardware attached. They were being produced 50 years ago. Building these things is not rocket science. The genius of the Telecaster is in Leo Fender's design, which allowed a great sounding instrument to be mass produced cheaply and reliably. So kudos to Peavey for bringing telecaster ownership back down to earth with the Reactor.

I have been playing for around 25 years and I have a few nice electric guitars including a Yamaha SG2000, a Steinberger GM5T, and a Gibson L6-S. My modified Reactor is up with the likes of these guitars in terms of playability, versatility, tone, and looks - at a freaction of the price of those instruments.

As a stock guitar, the Reactor is very good value. With a bit of imagination and elbow grease, it can be upgraded into a great player at a fraction of the price of big name telecaster guitars.