Peavey Classic 30, turning it into a turret board HW

Hey guys,

Is there any interest in requiring the guts of a peavey into an older fender style turret board? I don't enjoy the green circuit boards. If they crack it's either game over or $$ for a new one, if they are available. Plus it would be easier to mod tone stacks and service in the future. I know it's a big job, but once somebody does it, it's pretty easy to follow the layout. It also wouldn't cost much it seems. Turret boards are dirt cheap and resistors and capacitors could be reused or replaced on the cheap also. I know people already do it with their fender reissues, I'm a little surprised somebody hasn't done it yet. I know they are reliable, but those green boards are going to crumble sooner or later. Plus the tube sockets and potentiometers are mounted on the board. I've already seen numerous blues juniors and other amps that have pots mounted on the pcb and are relatively unsupported with cracks developing. Not so good.

Doable? Worthwhile? I'm an engineer but not an EE, I have a EE friend who's in grad school who I may enlist to speed up the process.

Your thoughts?

I just repaired a Classic 30 for a friend, I'm the third guy to be inside. The little bare wires connecting the two adjacent circuit boards seem to get hot and unsolder themselves! I think the amp while it sounds good will never be a collectable. If you gut it and build a eyelet or turret board circuit you can't go wrong Except it's a lot of work.

Hey guys,

Is there any interest in requiring the guts of a peavey into an older fender style turret board? I don't enjoy the green circuit boards. If they crack it's either game over or $$ for a new one, if they are available. Plus it would be easier to mod tone stacks and service in the future. I know it's a big job, but once somebody does it, it's pretty easy to follow the layout. It also wouldn't cost much it seems. Turret boards are dirt cheap and resistors and capacitors could be reused or replaced on the cheap also. I know people already do it with their fender reissues, I'm a little surprised somebody hasn't done it yet. I know they are reliable, but those green boards are going to crumble sooner or later. Plus the tube sockets and potentiometers are mounted on the board. I've already seen numerous blues juniors and other amps that have pots mounted on the pcb and are relatively unsupported with cracks developing. Not so good.

Doable? Worthwhile? I'm an engineer but not an EE, I have a EE friend who's in grad school who I may enlist to speed up the process.

Your thoughts?

Are those boards that bad? I haven't heard of them crumbling. :shock:

They will eventually, the turret boards do too, but it's easier to fix. They crack all the time. They're unreliable after that, with patches and stuff. Like I said I don't really like applying the force of turning or pushing a pot or tube that goes onto the circuit board.

I wonder if there will be ample room.

I'd sell it and build a kit. Financially it makes more sense and you'd have a nicer cab.

I once took a C30 apart and put it back together 13 x in 2 days before I found which annoying jumper leads weren't working. The C30 chassis wouldn't be the easiest thing to convert to eyelet/turret board. Might even be easier to do PTP. But I can see how the overhang of the faceplate part would make in dang awkward to solder up the pots etc.

Maybe ditch the C30 chassis and stick in a tweed fender style U-shape chassis?

+1 what TNO said about the cabs - they're made from particle board, so maybe ditch that too. There you go.