Peavey Classic 30 Questions

[fauxsuper]

One of my band mates recently got his first tube amp: a Peavey Classic 30. (I'd told him to look for either that or a Fender Hot Rod or Blues Deluxe) My first impression of it is that it's a nice little amp. It is loud for 30 watts, but the basic sound it gets at a reasonble stage volume is very nice (especially since he got it for a little over $300) and is real improvement over the line 6 he was using.

I think it sounded better than my old 2 x 12" Classice 50 I had a decade ago. It's got a nice little chime added to chords at the edge-of-distortion point. At any rate, I'm sure some of you have some sage advice concerning these:

I have some questions:

Any problems to watch out for?

Are there speakers that work better than the stock one. (Blue Marvel)?

Tubes? Any that sound particularly nice in this amp?

How does it handle an additional 8 ohm cabinet? (My old DR seemed to be a little strained with a 4 ohm load, and seemed to sound better with only one speaker.)

Can a good tune-up by a good tech do anything for it? (What I guess I mean, is setting the bias on these critical for good sound? I've noticed that a lot of the Fender ptp amps seem to improve a lot with bias adjust right out of the box, or at least they did a few years ago. ) There are no weird noises, crackles, or hums to speak of.

Or anything else that any of you can think of. As far as speakers and tubes are concerned, I'm just looking for anything that might improve his sound in a noticeable way without spending a fortune. It doesn't sound bad, as is, but if it could sound better, whay not? I have a number of different speakers in different cabs, so we will experiment some. But it seems to me that there are a lot of these little amps around in working musicians hands, so why re-invent the wheel.

Thanks!!!!!!!

[Schnauzer]

Fauxsuper:

You steered you band mate in the right direction. The stock Blue Marvel speaker is tough and bullet proof but very sterile. I changed to a G12H30. Huge improvement. Other than that keep a good set of tubes in her (Bob at Eurotube) and learn how to use the tube retainers w/o breaking the tips off tubes. Great amp but even better with a speaker swap.

Good Luck,

Jim

[JohnnyCrash]

I used to gig with a C30 running a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker AND a matching tweed Peavey e112 1x12" extension cab running a Celestion 30watt Anniversary 12".

Peavey Classics are GREAT amps for Rock, Country, or Country Rock.

I didn't really care for JJ/Tesla tubes in my Classics (I owned a C30, C50 2x12", and a C50 4x10"), and I thought the Blue Marvel speakers were surprisingly OK for being stock/OEM speakers.

Other folks love JJ's, so you may want to give em a whirl - at worst you'll have an emergency backup set of tubes :)

V30 speakers are sort of an aquired taste too, so you may or may not like them. They have a loud midrange response that makes them sort of "honk" or "goose-like" in an open-wah, vowel kinda way. They will make the amp sound LOUDER too.

[e-merlin]

Those are the exact questions you will find answers to if you go over to the Peavey Amp Forum. You'll need to sign up, but it's a great resource for all Peavey guitar amps. There are guys over there that play 'em stock and guys over there that have 'em modded in custom cabs. You'll find lots of tube discussion over there as well. It's not as lively a board as this one, but the search function will provide you with hours of reading, just on the C30.

[jspartz]

Are the older C30's different from the new ones? I played a new one in a store and liked it a lot with the tele hanging on the wall. So I bought a C30 off craigslist and it does not give me the same warm feeling. The dirty side does not seem to have as much nice dirt as the one in the store. I do like the clean side.

Last night I dropped a Celestion G12H-30 70th ann. speaker in it and did not like it. Which I was shocked by because I love this speaker with other amps. So it has me questioning the fact that this amp was built in the mid-late 90's (I think). Next I will try a V-30 in it but so far I am liking the original speaker the best (for blues tone, it was not great for rock).

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Chito]

Any problems to watch out for?
Tube rattle seems to be an issue but I've had mine for over 2 years now and I haven't had the issue.

Are there speakers that work better than the stock one. (Blue Marvel)?
I have the Weber Blue Dog Ceramic on mine and it changed the sound quite a bit. With the Blue Marvel, I find the C30 a bit on the trebly side of things.

Tubes? Any that sound particularly nice in this amp?
I have JJ EL84s and Tungsols 12AX7s. It did make the amp sound "warmer" but not as much as I thought it would

How does it handle an additional 8 ohm cabinet? (My old DR seemed to be a little strained with a 4 ohm load, and seemed to sound better with only one speaker.)
The C30 requires a 16ohm cab. I have a Peavey 1X12 cab with the Blue Marvel speaker in it. IMO, that speaker works well in a closed cab.

Can a good tune-up by a good tech do anything for it? (What I guess I mean, is setting the bias on these critical for good sound? I've noticed that a lot of the Fender ptp amps seem to improve a lot with bias adjust right out of the box, or at least they did a few years ago. ) There are no weird noises, crackles, or hums to speak of.
There is no biasing required for the C30.

[DocMac]

He might want to invest in a tube guard as the tubes are exposed and maybe a Tom's Tube Tamer.

[11 Gauge]

I'll just throw in my .02 for tubes -

The amp is very, very sensitive to tube changes, IMO.

You can tweak it in any different direction you like just by playing with the preamp tubes. If you never use the OD channel, that's 1 less tube to mess with (the middle preamp tube).

I found Sovtek 12AX7LPS's to be just the ticket for this amp. There may have been a slight sacrifice of tone, but zero microphonics, no other tube noises whatsoever. If that tube has too much gain for your preferences, Sovtek also makes a 5751 which is also a longplate, but with roughly 70% of the gain that the 12AX7LPS has.

Power tubes will rattle in this amp - it's just a matter of when, and whether or not you can tolerate it. IMO, at gig volume, it's a nonissue.

[jspartz]

An update from my earlier post. I dropped in a CL80 clone from Warehouse Speakers and I have swapped the tubes. Currently I have EH 12AX7 in V1 and V2. V3 is a JJ 12AX7 and I have a matched set of JJ EL-84's for the power tubes.

Now when I bring the normal and post sections up to 5 it opens up and sounds great! The speaker also brings out a lot more bass/fullness to the sound then the previous speakers I have tried. I am liking this setup for the time being.

Jason

[justapasinthru]

In my c30 i put a celestion v30 and was overall happier with the sound...not greatly happier but it worked...at the time i thght that maybe a greenback might have been a better choice..but it DID sound better than the Blue marvel for most situations although I'm not sure it was worth the extra effort to change it.....It IS a loud amp...in retrospect i think i might have tried a tube swap (AY7) etc...and see if I couldv'e gotten a more controlled sweet tone out of the stock speaker before i changed it....I TOO used an extra cab to soak up some sound....and that gave a little more soul to it....at the time I was playing more blues than country....I have given the amp to a friend...If i still had it...I might experiment with again for country....but if i remember right....it's small but not light either....especially with a big magnet on that speaker....and a particle board cab....so many choices...

[Tele The Truth]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

I found Sovtek 12AX7LPS's to be just the ticket for this amp.

My C30 came with one of those Sovteks along with a couple EHs stock. I think the sovtek was in the preamp slot closest to the power tubes, but I may be wrong. Anywho.....just wanted to throw out there that the newer ones might already have one of these in em already.

[stxrus]

in my c-30 this is what i did.

eminence speaker upgrade

a nice closed back 8ohm cab will add a lot of "body"

JJs for power tubes and short plate EHs for the 12ax7s (same tubes in my Reinhardt 18w). nice warmth and less rattle.

overall the C-30 is a great amp. it doesn;t match up with a high end P2P quality build, but it is a very gigable amp. i abused mine for 3 years and it, like a good dog, came back and showed love EVERY TIME.

i have a buyer for mine. he came to me with a cash offer and he now has the amp on loan. don't want to sell but he's offering more than i paid for it.

steve

[xStonr]

I've been experimenting with different tubes and speakers since I got the amp back in June. And now I think I've finally found it's voice. I had all JJ's in it, EL84's and ECC83s.

The amp sounded to dark for me so I tried many different combinations of tubes in the preamp, Tung Sol, GE nos, EH, Sovtek.

What I now have is a set of the new Mullard EL84 reissues which seem to have woken the amp up. It's no longer dark but sparkley and airy.

For preamp tubes I'm now using a NOS Brimar 12AX7 in V1, the Sovtek 12AX7LPS in V2, and a NOS GE JAN 5751 in V3. This setup works just for me.

I changed the stock speaker to a Weber Blue Dog and have a homemade 2x12 cab with Greenbacks. I am quite happy with it's sound now.

YMMV of course.

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by stxrus

a nice closed back 8ohm cab will add a lot of "body"

Be aware that this could harm the amp. The C30 is designed with a 16 Ohm speaker and the extension speaker should also be 16 Ohms. The speaker and the jack are wired in parallel. When you plug into the extension speaker jack it switches the transformer to the 8 Ohm tap. Two 16 Ohm speakers in parallel is 8 Ohms total.

[franchelB]

and from what I've read here, I think I'll get a 12AT7 for my reverb tube, and a Tom's Tube tamer...someday.