Peavey Reactor

"Crafted in U.S.A." in the 90's? Basic traditional black string-thru body Tele, medium weight, two piece, satin finish, thin , maple neck, high radius (flat) maple fingerboard, one ply pickguard, POOR tuners but the other Hardware is nice: the two singlecoils (definitely no need to exchange) and the bridge, the "controll panel" is very good and effective. This thing IS a tele, which I bought it for, so it would be a 10, if it wasn't for the poor tuners and the coarse feel of the neck (I like the laquered type much more).

I play everything and I own quite collection of guitars; three nice accoustics, a Tokai LesPaul, two Strats, a Gibson ES-335, Fender Bronco. My next guitar will be a Gibson SG. No need for another tele, because THIS GUITAR IS A TELECASTER!. It sounds great to me, just as it should. Very good attack and rather surprising: LOTS and LOTS of sustain. Punchy, woody, "natural" sound. Agressively trebbly "cutting" on the bridge-PU and wonderfully bluesy ("hollow-woody") sounding on the neck-PU. These two very different sounds + the effective tone controll= Tonns of sounds. If I was allowed only one guitar, I would chose this one for its variety of very nice and useable sounds. For the price (and not only for the price) this has to be a ten!

I got it used from a professional musician, so it was set up very well. Low action, no buzz. Well crafted for a budget-guitar, no obvious flaws. Frets are O.K.. The high-gloss bodyfinish is nice and durable. If you hold it up against the light though, you can see where the solid pieces of wood were put together. Though the guitar has been played a lot, the metal parts look like new! (even those darned tuners, that just won't stay in tune). Ugly black trussrodcover and Peavey-headstock. The finish of the neck appears to be a bit coarse, but that may be a personal dislike. Overall and considering the price it has to be a 9

Just don't know what should break on this Guitar! And a mentioned above this axe IS durable and doesn't wear off that easily. ROCK-SOLID!

I will surely never deal with them.

If it were stolen or lost, I would definitly get another Reactor. No chance I would pay for a "big name" and get a Fender (allready got two). This Guitar is crafted almost as good as any Mexican-built Fender and it SOUNDS just as good (in some aspects even better, more versatile) as the american-Fenders (even the vintage ones), which I know well.
This guitar was an incredible bargain (and there is still lots aroud)! I will get some high-quality tuners and maybe the neck laquered and we will live happily ever after....

Maple neck, 2 single coil pickups, solid wood body. 1 tone, 1 volume control, string through construction

The guy below is right. This is one underrated guitar and very well built. I had to put some work into it to make it what it is now, but it plays way better than any MIM fender I've played and has great action, feel, and tone. Mine is hum-cancelling in middle position, I left the original pickups in(i just don't wanna screw with a good thing right?). Actually in the hum cancelling position I get a believeable strat tone, in neck that bassy tele twang, in bridge a cutting spanky tone. I don't think I've ever ever given a guitar such a high rating in this category but I'm really happy with this piece.

I bought this guitar used, it was pretty beat up. I did a whole new paint job with a nice clear coat. All the hardware was good. I installed new sealed tuners though, I just can't stand that 2 screw vintage style crap, they always go out of tune on heavy bends. I also scrapped the cheap plastic nut and installed a real bone nut, I recommend this for these peaveys, I get more sustain now and smoother tuning. The neck/frets was in good condition, but was sanded down for some reason so I recoated it in clear lacquer. It is faster now. I was able to get the action surprisingly low, lower than any of the teles I have owned. This thing is a dream to play now. The tilt screw on the neck is handy for setting the action. The bridge saddles seem to be higher quality than MIM fenders also. Though I had to put some work into this guitar, I enjoyed it, learned a lot, and the payoff was a quality USA built guitar that plays just like my higher end guitars and sounds better than most of them.

This is a solid guitar. I did install straplocks, since I'm a straplock freak now.

I did email peavey about getting a new pickguard, they responded right away saying they are out of production and not available anymore. I guess they only made these peaveys for a couple years back in the 90's. So I can't get mad about that. The pickguard is not standard fender size, it's a bit smaller, so if you need a replacement or upgrade you'll be paying about $50 or so for a custom cut pickguard(try pickguards.com). I have contacted Peavey on other issues in the past(amps) and they have always been quick to respond.

I put about $100 in parts/materials in this guitar, making my total investment $250, every cent was well worth it. I'm very pleased. I'm thinking of getting another since they are so good, but I've had trouble locating them, which is good, there aren't massive quantities out there(or people just don't wanna sell, hehe). If I find another under $200 I will snatch it right up.

I play this guitar through clean & high gain amps, through open & closed back(marshall) cabs. Of course clean stuff is the bomb with this guitar, it's got that famous twangy sound, but high gain works too for a believeable 70's rock tone, especially in the hum-cancelling position. This guitar is very effects friendly too.

Others have covered most features,noting its tele likeness.However over the years I have owned several and examined others and it appears there were 3 versions:
1.cheap tuners and Gibson style truss rod nut;
2.cheap tuners and modern fender allen head truss rod nut;and
3.decent sealed tuners and truss rod nut as 2 above.
#1 did not feature a reverse wound/polarity front pickup while #s2&3 did[thus making the middle switch position hum cancelling;a real plus]If you own the 1st version simply remove the front pickup;gently pry off the ceramic magnet on the bottom and glue it back on UPSIDE DOWN.Now put the white lead on the switch to ground and remove the black wire from ground and attach it to the switch where you removed the white wire.....you have now achieved a hum cancelling middle switch position with no downside.

I love teles and have owned dozens of 60's teles,a 59 and a 51.I play all styles mostly tru nice blackface fenders,occaisionly using all the usual suspect stomp boxes.I currenly own a 'keeper' light swamp ash 69 tele and a very nice swamp ash ASAT Classic.Both of my Reactors produce sounds that are as cool as ANY of the above but please realize that they ALL sounded "different".....I'm just saying that these inexpensive Reactors can really cut it sound wise.If you back the volume to about 8.5 they sound quite like a 60's tele on 10.....open up the volume and it kicks like a slightly overwound Broadcaster.....I can live with that!

In my experience factory fit is good and the neck is easy to adjust for 1st class playability.....especially for low action lovers.This guitar deserves better tuners[if you don't get one with the sealed
tuners replace them immidiately].Like any electric the sound changes significantly with pickup hieght adjustments so experiment.

Looks very solid to me;except the switch[but I can't seem to break it so the CRL switch I bought is still in the bag].I depend on this guitar.....if you find it hard to trust because of the price, change the switch,output jack and resolder all the connections....

Don't know.....I do however think it was real friendly of Mr.Peavey to release a bunch of these guitars at a price anyone could afford[why did he do it?;why did he stop?......anyone know?]

Playing for over 30 years;had/have most of the cool vintage stuff plus PRS and G&L moderns.One of my Reactors is too heavy,the other acceptable.For the longest while I hated that the body is 1/8 inch thinner than a Fender and that the headstock looked kind of dorky,but now I kind of dig it.But right from the start I loved the sound and the neck.....its erie how good the neck design and execution is and how consistent they are from guitar to guitar.I will buy more of these....not just good 'value' but a great guitar.

Standard Tele type instrument, solid poplar (3 pc laminated body from the looks of the lines through the paint, middle piece is sold w/two "wings" to either side, very evenly cut and assembled into one the body) painted black w/wht one piece pickguard, wonderful maple neck w/a maple fretboard cap, med jumbo frets, 12" radius, stock Peavey standard tele type pickups, graphite type nut, cheap stock tuners, chrome tele style bridge...strung 9-42. Features...everything a tele should have...taking points off for the cheap ass tuners and for slight off centering of the strings...ever so slightly off center alignment of the strings towards the bass e string side.

Suprisingly good. I went to Guitar Center Denver looking for a Maple Neck Floyd Rose type guitar and wound up playing this one for about 30 minutes through a Crate DSP type amp...peaked my interest. Went back the next day and played it for about an hour through a Mesa Blue Angel, Fender Blues Deville and a Marshall DSL 2000 Full Stack...I was impressed enough w/the sound and "tele character" of the stock pickups that they'll stay in the guitar indefinitely. It cuts through everything hard rock and metal wise on the bridge for leads, etc and sounded quite nice for a blues/blues rock tone on the neck pickup. Excellent Tele Tones!!! I'm sure Duncan & Dimarzios would be better but why mess w/something that's perfectly fine to begin with?

Pretty damn nice. I bought it used so I'm referring to the prior owners adjustments. 12" Fretboard Radius w/low action. Only issue at all w/the Fit & Finish would be the ever so mild slightly off centerness of the strings riding towards the bass E side of the fretboard. Other than that, the neck is extremely sweet and playable, satin finish that feels like the raw wood on my B.C. Rich late 80s Gunslinger. Nice and tight in the neck pocket. Tuners are crap and will be the one thing that I replace. Pickguard is warping and rising up in the middle above the bridge. Deduction for tuners, string alignment and pickguard.

It's a tele style guitar, simplicity at it's finest. It'll sure as hell live longer than any Mexican Tele and is quite a bit nicer than a lot of the Fender Teles costing 3-4 times as much. Finish is nice, components are solid, except the tuners. It's tough enough to take a beating w/o missing a lick.

Never...but they've gotten good reviews from the other people here.

Been playing for about 14 years. Own several other electric guitars, one acoustic, one amp (Marshall 1978 JMP 2204 50W 2 x 12 Combo...heavenly tube sounds) and a couple of effects boxes...if something happened to this one, I'd definitely buy another if I could find one, especially at the price this one cost. A hell of a value for an American Made Guitar that needs nothing more than a set of tuners to be a capable and fun WORKHORSE of a guitar. I love the fact that it's simple and sturdy, the neck is the most oustanding part of this guitar...an absolute joy to play. Compares to my USA B.C. Rich Gunslinger for playability. Butter smooth. Pickups were suprisingly good and sounded like...well...a Telecaster. Big bonus there. Based on my scores for the categories...it rates out at an 8.5...therefore I'll leave it at an 8 as it didn't quite add up to a 9. I'd definitely recommend buying one at a good price as I did. Unless you're looking to spend a ton of cash on looks and brand name, this one's worth keeping. This guitar is a joy to play and hard to put down once you start...and to me...that sums it all up.

All of the features have been detailed in previous reviews. As we know a Tele is a basic config, but thats what I expected from this guitar and it fits the bill.

Sounds great, plenty of classic tele spank, and much to my suprise.. sounds quite insane with the gain kicked in. I'm not big on using the neck p/u on a tele by itself, but the middle position sounds excellent for blues. The neck p/u takes the edge off the bridge pick up nicely.

very quiet.

I play rock and blues based music.

I've bought and sold many guitars over the years, so many that my wife would "Lorraina" me if she had any idea. My particular Reactor was put together extremly well with one exception which I'll detail at the end of this section.

The neck pocket is dead on with zero slop. No need to adjust the neck angle at all. A huge plus and rare for a bolt on in this $ range.

The neck is properly aligned with the bridge, so the strings are centered on the frets.

The graphite nut is cut correctly.

The pickgaurd is where it's supposed to be.

I mention these things because I've found that a lot of Fender's MIM and Squier offerings are lacking in these areas.

The bad news...The Bridge.
This was a tough one to get a handle on. I noticed when I got the guitar home that the string saddles didn't fit tightly together. They were tight at the end, but tapered apart towards the back. So I figured that somewhere along the line the American width saddles were replaced with import width saddles. I went out and bought a set of Graftech Vintage saddles and installed them. Sure enough they fit perfectly. I re-strung the guitar only to find the neck too narrow for the wider spacing AAAARRRRGHHHH!!!! I should've just lit $33.00 on fire!

Anyways to make a short story long....
I have a Squire Tele which "donated" it's bridge. I re-dowelled the holes and mounted the bridge the next day. Voila! the correct bridge for this guitar!

I don't know if mine was a freak of nature, or if this is common. You guys might want to take a closer look at your string saddle fit.

Anyways, all is well now. This guitar plays better than any guitar I own. The action is superb and buzz free. I almost said "off to eBay with you!", and didn't bother with the bridge change out, but now I'm glad I did. Something about a guitar you have to put a little TLC into.

It's now my #1.

I'm going with a 7 because the important things are dead nuts on this guitar, the other stuff I can deal with.

we'll see.

This guitar is a great value considering what I paid for it. I stumbled on a real player. This doesn't seem to happen too often in this price range. I would replace it, but I don't know if I'd specificly go out of my way to locate one, there's just too many guitars to be had!

Again I'm going with a 7 because of the bridge, but as far as how much I like this guitar I should go with a 10, but this is a review so I'm trying to be subjective.

solid poplar tele body, maple neck and fretboard. standard tele hardware (kluson tuners,2 single coil pickups, neck pickup w/ chrome cover, flat mount bridge, etc.) . i actually prefer the look of the peavey peghead over the standard fender tele. crafted in the united states. :) i would give it a 10, but the stock tuners that i got were not good. i love the peghead!

incredible soind, to say the least. it's extremely versatile! neck pickup sounds great for blues and jazz, and the bridge pickup is the twangiest damn thing i've ever heard when distorted, and i love it. :) you can go anywhere with this guitar. it's so incredibly clean... a tele player's dream! the stock pickups are wonderful.

construction is perfect. everything fits together perfectly. action is super low, and frets are a great size. all the hardware is smooth and very responsive (if that makes sense). the finish is a very nice solid white.

i could play baseball with this guitar and it would be fine. can't break the damn thing!

peavey was very quick to respond when i had a simple question about fitting schaller tuners in my peghead. never had any trouble with the guitar so i'm going to give an n/a to this. :)

i don't know what else to say besides that this is one hell of a guitar, and especially for the price. it's top quality, and rivals even fender american series teles. i would buy another one if it was stolen without a doubt, if i could find one! it has a true tele sound, and it's worth far more than you'll pay for it.

-Peavey Telecaster Reactor, USA Made believe to be around 1996
-22 Frets
-solid top, maple neck medium thickness
-Three way selector switch, volume and tone, passive electronics
- black lacquer finish with a white pick guard.

The Peavey Reactor Telecaster is a Fender copy. It is also a very competent copy by not just appearing the same, but by being very well made as well.

This is my first guitar after surrendering the rental. I'm using it with a Peavey transtube amp and it's very clean and precise sounding.Put on the reverb and you have a very 50's rockabilly 'in the gym'sound. It's nicely balanced to play while standing or sitting. It doesn't have expansive bandwidth, but in it's range it has excellent tonal quality. You'd have to invest a lot more than I did to improve on the sound of this Telecaster.

It was very well assembled and is constructed 'tightly.' The chrome on the guitar is very nice quality and shows no galvanic or oxidation corrosion problems. The paint is a soli lacquer that reflects nicely, but not pristinely.

I bought this used and it has a couple of 'dings' etc, but the rock solid construction and excellent quality of the electronics give this quitar excellent survivability.It's nicely balanced to play while standing or sitting. The strap buttons are well anchored, but there's no substitute for stap buttons or duct tape to make certain it stays on the strap.

The Peavey folks responded very promptly and effectively to any email question I sent.

I'm a new player and found this Peavey, especially as a first guitar, able to meet my current needs and be something I can grow into. What made the difference for me is that this is a very easy to play guitar, especially compared to what I found in the Fender Squire or Gibson Epiphone series.

This is a USA made Telecopy with the standard tele features we all know and love. This one has a maple fretboard with med/jumbo frets and 6 saddle fully adjustable bridge. It came with a super nice heavy gig bag loaded with cool compartments. Even a loaded tele is pretty basic, so features can't be more than a 7.

I play a lot of different styles, but this guitar is for country, blues and classic rock. I bought it as a backup for my Custom Shop Fender or as a main axe for ugly gigs. That said, the sound is actually better than I expected. I play through either a Roland JC120, a Peavey Classic 100w tube, or the JC120 w/the Peavey as an extension cab. I'll usually choose a preset on a Boss GT-3 and tweak it a little or just use a LITTLE bit of Danelectro Daddy-O. This guitar is virtually noise free (WOW!), and has plenty of punch to cut through with ease. It is not as full as the Fender and takes some skillful amping to satisfy on quieter passages. I would not use it in the studio. For the big noise and country twang, it does a great job of copying a basic tele and kicks a Squier's butt.

I bought this guitar used, but with a micro-tilt neck adjustment, functional truss rod, and six saddle adjudtable bridge, you can set it up any way you like. It came to me with feather touch, buzz free action. I'm a little heavy handed so I took it up a hair. It is very practical mechanically and the neck is dead on (again, way better than a Squier). Intonation is good. The black finish has held up very well to normal use.

This guitar was already a few years old when I got it and has stood tall. Unlike the offshore junk that sullied Peavey's reputation, this USA built model is tough. Other than being a little lighter, it feels as solid as my high end Fender and shows no signs of letting up. When I get around to it, I'll change the tuning machines to sealed, finer tooth units; not that they are needed, just better. I have no reason to doubt the dependability of this guitar, but as stated earlier, I bought it as a backup. Never leave home without one!

No contact with them.

I've been playing a while and a lot and have what some (yeah, her)would call too much gear. (I love her anyway). I spent a lot of time as an anti-Peavey snob. Peavey's were right up there with letting chicks in the band. When I got a Peavey tube amp in a combo purchase I decided it was time to look again. Remember, this Reactor is NOT the offshore junk the garage bands can't keep in tune. This is a made in USA genuine guitar. If it were lost or stolen, I know that it would find another loving home. Good guitars do that. I really pretty much like the whole guitar. My favorite feature is definitely the neck. This is the one place (and the most important place) where this Peavey actually meets my Custom Shop Fender. Playability is EXCELLENT! If you're looking for a tele, unless you're willing to pay for the top end from Fender, a good used Reactor might be your best bet. Overall for the money - a definite 10. Overall - still an 8.

well, It's a Tele...nothing much to say about features except that it'
s deceptively simple...1 tone Knob, 1 volume, 3-way switch, adj. Neck, VERY LOW ACTION, Incredible neck...2 piece bolt-on that plays like a dream, headstock is kinda small, with very gentle curves...nothing too round. tuners look a little cheap, but work great The finish is a little banged up because I got it used, but otherwise seems really durable.

cutting tele sound. this guitar can burn right through the sound of any double coil, but the pickups are passive, and not really loud(this might be a good thing, considering I tend to overpower other members of my band) the neck pickup has a wonderfully sweet sound if used correctly, and can really belt out some fine tele-style blues

well, I know the Whole thing is solid Poplar (except the neck, of course, so there's no worrying about tops, or book-matching because it's enameled red. Nothing at all to complain about, it's kind of hard to criticize this guitar because there is almost nothing wrong with it (except a few dings and the dumb-looking tuners)

This is one tough old bird!! I've played live without a backup, and plan to continue doing so. it has never let me down, and in my opinion, you could beat a man to death with it and not notice any adverse effects (except the possible Jail time). I takes an average amount of re-tuning....usally half way through our set some solo pieces get played, and we all go backstage one at a time to tune.

never had to get it repaired, and I bought it as-is, so I can't really comment on this section

I absolutely love this Guitar. I've been playing for 6 years, and run it through a peavey special 212 Transtube amp, and it really sings and cries. you can get all the articulate Tele sounds from this Axe, and having such a simple Guitar really improved my playing. I've learned to produce the sounds I want without any Technical Mumbo Jumbo. I use only Reverb, Distortion and Fuzz effects, and I'm perfectly happy. This Guitar feels great to play and hold. I've found it comfortable enough to play for 5 hours without discomfort, and the acoustics when unplugged make it perfect for Midnight Practices. I would recommend this guitar to anyone as a learning tool for articulation. If you find yourself relying too heavily on electronic and mechanical devices for your playing, then definately buy one of these Guitars, it will open your eyes to the wonders of simplicity.

This has a poplar body made in the US, black, stock with no mods done to any of the hardware. It's a tele and it just doesn't get any simplier than that. The bridge is thru the body with an uncovered single coil pickup in it. 25.5" scale neck finished satin including the fretboard.

I was trying out the tele style guitars at a guitar shop looking for one that sounded like the '62 model I used to play in the seventies...I just couldn't find it in the Fenders. I finally picked up the Peavey and the more I played it, the more familuar it sounded. I don't usually use Peavey products at all but I had to buy it!! I added one feature in the tone curcuit, I made a mid controll out if it and it works good.
It is quiet enough for recording and sings out onstage with a twin reverb amp. Lots of bass. was going to change the three way to a five way and make series/paralell positions, but why?
I like the way it sounds! It sounds like a good tele sounds and that is what it's designed to do.

Action is alway a compremise but I was surprized at how well it adjusted out. Pick ups adjustment is subjective, they do adjust well and the machine heads work well although a little cheezy looking.
I would say the pickguard could be better but for the price it's pretty good although a little thin. Bridge needed a few adjustments

It's tough! It has survived Dallas Texas for years.

You can go out and spend more money if you want to but for the money, this is a real USA made value.