Amp Quandry

skullfunkerry

I can't contribute to the HRD discussion, but I'm personally very happy with my Katana.

Regarding your original question: it's not beyond the realms of possibility that you'll spend a lot of money chasing 'the sound', only to realise that you were just as well off with the Katana...

monquixote

What are peoples opinions of the Peavey Classic 30?

They have a SH one in my local shop and I thought it might be an interesting home amp.

markslade07

monquixote said:

What are peoples opinions of the Peavey Classic 30?

They have a SH one in my local shop and I thought it might be an interesting home amp.

I’ve not owned one, but played through one. Sounded good but noisey. Then it blew up (or something expensive went wrong with it anyway) so the owner spent a lot getting it fixed. From what I’ve heard, there are common issues and they are a pig to work on....@icbm will know more.

ICBM

monquixote said:

What are peoples opinions of the Peavey Classic 30?

The worst Peavey amp, with the possible exception of some of the new Valve Kings.

Rattles, overheats, eats valves and occasionally transformers... and yes, a total pig to work on if it's anything that needs getting at the inside of the ridiculous folded three-side PCB.

monquixote

That's a shame I'm only really familiar with the Classic 50 which I really like.

vasselmeyer

Increasingly, I'm going direct with a BOSS GT-1000 these days, depending on the venue and the state of my back. However, when space and assistance with load in/out permits, I'll still take my stupidly large pedalboard and a loud clean amp which is a very small, but powerful solid state DV Mark head. When you're going into a pedal platform, I'm really not sold on the whole SS v valve debate. At pub volume, they sound very similar and really, any valve amp over 20W, you'll never be able to get a valve amp cooking without an attenuator anyway. So, personally, I'd stick with the Katana, if you have a clean sound you like and invest in your pedals.

If you're looking at valves again, how about the Egnater Tweaker 15 as an outside bet? They're a single channel amp but with an insanely flexible EQ section. If I recall, there were a bunch of toggles with vintage/modern, us/ac/british/, hot/clean, normal/bright and tight/deep options and any combination thereof, as well as normal gain, bass, mid, treble. I bloody loved my Egnater but the 2x12 combo got too heavy for me.

ICBM

monquixote said:

That's a shame I'm only really familiar with the Classic 50 which I really like.

It's a completely different amp - far better engineered, and reliable.