Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ or Peavey Classic 30

[jpostma]

Hi,

I can purchase a second hand Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ (1990) or Peavey Classic 30 (old model). Both amps are in good condition and have about the same price. Unfortunately I cannot test the both (the person who is selling the boogie doesn't live in my neighbourhood). I mainly play blues(rock) or classic rock. Which one should i buy? Are there known issues with the amps?

Johannes

[Mr_Mer]

MEsa Boogie are good amps, although I have no experience with the Studio 22, I can say that the Classic 30 is a solid amp, with excellent reliability and you can get a lot of tones out of it. Difference seems to be that the Boogie as a master volume, were the older C30 will not.

[soulman969]

Provided it's clean and in good shape I'd go with the Boogie. Back in the early and mid 90's two different guitarists in our band used them and they absolutely honk. That's one of the ballsiest 22 watt amps you'll ever come across and it's perfect for the music style your playing. Exactly what the band I had in was doing then.

[SamClemons]

I would say the Mesa is worth about double the Peavey. Sound wise it is a toss up. The Mesa will get you into overdrive territory (metal) that the Peavey won't touch without a good pedal in front of it and maybe not then.

[ScottJPatrick]

Boogie, go buy it now!

[Singin' Dave]

Originally Posted by ScottJPatrick

Boogie, go buy it now!

+1

[holgaguy]

I used to have a 22+. Hated it. Thought it might be just a bad one so I found another used in a local store. I didn't like that one either. Both had way too much high-end and not enough of anything else.

I like the Classic 30s much more. I'd buy that one!

[Chris S.]

I've had a couple of Mesa amps and could never get along with them. My Peavey Classic 30, however, has seen dozens of gigs over the last decade or so, playing everything from rock and funk to country and jazz. I'm sticking with that. All IMO, naturally. CS

[ProToneThinline]

Originally Posted by holgaguy

I used to have a 22+. Hated it. Thought it might be just a bad one so I found another used in a local store. I didn't like that one either. Both had way too much high-end and not enough of anything else.

I like the Classic 30s much more. I'd buy that one!

That was my experience also. In fact, I traded the Mesa in on the Peavey!!!

[Tele-phone man]

Play 'em both. You tell us. Whichever one sounds best to you IS the best one. However, I would trust the Boogie more in terms of build quality.

[Wally]

Buy the Boogie. Sell it to seomone else for $100 profit. Then, go buy that other amp....or another one just like becasue they are much more common than the Studio 22+. Tehre is another PV Classic 30 around any corner. The Boogie is better built, more versatile, and all-tube. The Peavey is more cheaply made, less versatile, and the reverb is in the solid stae domain. The only advantage I see in the Peavey is that it is simpler. GRanted, that appeals to some.
The only time bad sounds come out of a healthy Studio 22+ is when the player doesn't grasp the controls and how to manipulate them,ime.

[CAAD8N8]

I have no experience with mesa, but loved my PV classic 50 2x12 and current 30 watt head. Covers all the bases, simple, built like a tank.

[ProToneThinline]

Originally Posted by Wally

The Boogie is better built, more versatile, and all-tube. The Peavey is more cheaply made, less versatile, and the reverb is in the solid stae domain. The only advantage I see in the Peavey is that it is simpler. GRanted, that appeals to some.

The only time bad sounds come out of a healthy Studio 22+ is when the player doesn't grasp the controls and how to manipulate them,ime.

Well, the Boogie is more robustly constructed, in that the circuit board is heaver than the Peavey. That's about it. All other construction techniques are the same between the two amps. Also, the reverb driver circuit really doesn't make that big of a difference. The Boogie is tube driven, but that is a bit of overkill given the small size of the reverb tank. The Peavey's tank is a bit larger (meaning longer springs), and that's where the reverb's heart really is.

[soundchaser59]

Originally Posted by Wally

The only time bad sounds come out of a healthy Studio 22+ is when the player doesn't grasp the controls and how to manipulate them,ime.

I suspect most people don't at first realize that the Mesa tone knobs are active and add gain, while most other amps have passive tone controls. I hope that's an accurate way to describe it. In other words, on many Mesa amps, you can have the tone knobs all the way off (full CCW) and you will not get any sound. Mesa says to turn the treble up a little bit first, then season with the mid and low.

If you assume 12 o'clock is "flat" on the Mesa tone knobs, I guarantee the amp will sound like crap. Remember this when you test drive. I did side by side with a Mesa 5:50 and a Peavey C30 and a Peavey C50, and it was no contest......even the non-musicians listening said "WOW!" as soon I started playing the Mesa.

[gallred]

The tone knobs on the 22 and the Mark series aren't actually active in the true sense but they are much more interactive.

... especially when you actually sit down and start dialing in these amps and realize that they don't respond as a more traditional amp would. The comment about most folks not knowing how to operate the tone knobs was right on. Try running the bass above 2 or 3 on your typical Mark series amp with single coils and a hint of gain....you'll be greeted with a big, flubby, farty mess.

[Wally]

PRothinline wrote: "The Boogie is tube driven, but that is a bit of overkill given the small size of the reverb tank. The Peavey's tank is a bit larger (meaning longer springs), and that's where the reverb's heart really is."

The 'heart' of a reverb circuit ime is whether or not the circuitis in the tube domain. The size of the tank is irrelevant. I have two Super Champs...not XD but the all-tube amps....that have the short tanks. The reverb in these amps is indistinguishable from BF/SF all-tube reverb with the long tank. I have actually run a BF TR's reverb circuit through the short tank, and there is very,, very little difference.
In contrast, I have never heard a solid state reverb circuit that wasn't immediately apparent as solid state...even though most of them run through long tanks.

Soundchaser59 wrote: "I suspect most people don't at first realize that the Mesa tone knobs are active and add gain, while most other amps have passive tone controls."

AS gallred notes, those tone controls are passive. IN fact, they are based directly on the tone circuits that FEnder used in all of their tubes amps from the PRinceton on up through the larger amps since 1961. All these tone controls do is cut gain in the certain frequency bands that are selected by the capacittors associated with 'treble' or 'middle' or 'bass' controls. These controls do not amplify gain, which is what active controls do. These controls can only cut from the 'full singal' of the circuit at the 10 settings.
I have heard toomany players on Boogies who do not get good sonics. I immediately know that either 1)they do not grasp the understanding of those controls and gain and/or they have not read the manual that comes with every Boogie. I have seen the same thing with players of the simpler FEnder amps upon which the basics of all earlier Boogies are based. Even the exotically 'complex' boogies with 4 separate channels of preamp controls are basically the same....and if one doens't understand that, bad and/or unwanted sonics will results. For instance, I Have never met a Boogie that will not yield clean sounds, and yet many people consider them to be 'buzzy'???? Tehy can yield 'buzzy' preamp distortion...or htey can yield high gain in the preamp with overdrive in the power amp or clean pereamp signals with clean power amp or clean preamp signals with power amp overdrive. One has to make the adjustments to get the results.....as with any amp. But...to repeat myself...the little Classic 30---which I actually like quite a bit for an amp that is not all-tube----is simpler than a Studio 22+.

[ProToneThinline]

Originally Posted by Wally

The 'heart' of a reverb circuit ime is whether or not the circuitis in the tube domain. The size of the tank is irrelevant. I have two Super Champs...not XD but the all-tube amps....that have the short tanks. The reverb in these amps is indistinguishable from BF/SF all-tube reverb with the long tank. I have actually run a BF TR's reverb circuit through the short tank, and there is very,, very little difference.
In contrast, I have never heard a solid state reverb circuit that wasn't immediately apparent as solid state...even though most of them run through long tanks.

I don't necessarily agree, but that's okay. IIRC, the old Super Champs had short tanks, but they were three-spring tanks. That will give you just about the same decay time as a two-spring long tank. That's why they sound similar. A lot of people think that tube-driven reverb sounds better, but what they're usually hearing is the longer springs that are usually used in tube 'verb circuits. The tube circuits are just a bit warmer, but you usually won't hear much of that difference uless you run the 'verb up pretty high.

[Paul in Colorado]

My main amp is a Studio .22+. It's never let me down. I never use the drive/gain/Lead Master channel which really isn't a separate "channel." It adds another tube to the circuit for gain. I didn't like the stock speaker in mine so I replaced it with an old Altec 417-8H and I keep the best 12AX7 I can find in the V2 slot.

Now you know what side I'm on!

[nando]

As with all Mesa Boogie Guitar Amps, the controls have a "Sweet Spot" which gives you the characteristic sound of a Boogie. Finding the sweet spot for each guitar using the amp takes some tweaking and granted moving the control(s) either right or left of the "sweet spot " changes the sound characteristics significantly. If not dialed in correctly they can sound "harsh" for "flubby". Having owned four different Boogies, I've never gotten a bad sound out of a Boogie and having played on a Peavey Classic thirty, I haven't gotten a bad sound out of one either.

[3 Chord]

Both are nice amps.

But...

I had my .22 for 1 year, I have hung onto my C30 for 19 and counting!

Also a used C30 is around $250-300, I would think a used .22 is closer to $450.