Peavey Special 130 Owners Club

Just bought one of these an am quickly loving it. I'd like to hear thoughts and opinions from other owners about theirs, and how they are using them to arrive at the tone they seek. Thanks in advance!!

I had one of them that I picked up on a whim . . . because I saw it listed on Craigslist, the seller was about 1/2 mile from me, and the price was ridiculously low. It's the best peavey amp I have heard (admittedly small sample), and the best solid state amp I have heard (larger sample). I ended up selling it after a year because I just needed to make room. I wish I still had it. It sounds best loud which played into my decision to sell it since I play strictly in my home. It sounds fantastic turned up!

I agree on it being at or near the top of the heap for good cleans with lot of headroom. The sweepable mids and the high volume to size added to this at a good price made it a logical choice for me since I use it for country cleans with a tele and electric mandolin. As a side note, peavey still offers some support for it in the way of replacement parts....who knew!?!

I have a Special 130 and gig with it regularly. However, I put an EV 12L speaker in it a few years back. I also play Country with a Tele thru her and it delivers huge cleans with lots of headroom, night after night. It's one of three amps I use for gigging, but my main go-to amp. It's been an exceptionally reliable amp and has never let me down.

I have a Special 130 and gig with it regularly. However, I put an EV 12L speaker in it a few years back. I also play Country with a Tele thru her and it delivers huge cleans with lots of headroom, night after night. It's one of three amps I use for gigging, but my main go-to amp. It's been an exceptionally reliable amp and has never let me down.

Boy, you took the words right out of my mouth! My main Country gigging amp for 25 yrs. Still looks and sounds new. I bought a Victoria Bassman last year and still use the Peavey for half of my gigs. Just a great sounding reliable amp.

I use one as my main (and only) amp. It may not have the "best" tone, but it sounds good enough to me, and goes louder than I'll ever need it to, so I'm happy with it and it should be the only amp I'll ever need. I love the reverb and the lead channel is decent as well.

I have a Special 130 and gig with it regularly. However, I put an EV 12L speaker in it a few years back. I also play Country with a Tele thru her and it delivers huge cleans with lots of headroom, night after night. It's one of three amps I use for gigging, but my main go-to amp. It's been an exceptionally reliable amp and has never let me down.

Very cool with the EV! Sonically, what did it change for you over the stock scorpion?

I have the EV 12l in my 130 also. I use the clean channel only with good pedals in the front plugged into the low gain jack, it just sounds better than the high gain jack with the pedals. Delay and mod pedals are in the loop. I can get any sound I want out of this amp and never turn up past 2 on the clean channel.Be sure to pull the treble boost out and then e.q. Super work horse for me and can be had for very little money. One on Craigslist now for 100.00 bucks but I already have 2. You cant kill'em, they just keep working year after year and I gig for a living four nights a week for 16 yrs with this amp!

Yup- I've got one. Love it. It's a fairly heavy chunk for a relatively small amp.
Wife got it for me years ago, for Xmas. She'd found a used acoustic/elec guitar that she thought I'd like, and the seller wanted to "bundle" the purchase with the amp. I always said the amp was the best part of the deal.
I have lots of practice and gig recordings with a little garage band that I played with, and they reflect a variety of 112 amps that I used. Some of the best sounding were with that amp. LOTS of clean volume for outdoor or larger gigs, and still easy to manage for smaller venues.
I love me some Peaveys!

Very cool with the EV! Sonically, what did it change for you over the stock scorpion?

It really brought out the best of this amp and let it breath. The low end grunt it is capable of finally comes thru. For me, playing totally clean, this was just simply a no-brainer and well worth it. I just set it and forget it.

I could see where getting rid of the mid hump would help. I do it now with the semi parametric eq, but that pulls a little of the tone shaping functionality out of the equation, but it's not a deal breaker since I have a Nashville tele with 7 way switching and a grease bucket tone circuit. I get my different sounds from there and use the channel switching (saturation control on 0 btw) and lead channel gain controls to get a solo boost.

Hello, new guy here at the forum. I just picked up a used '84 Special 130 a couple weeks ago for $60. I never played one before and I was amazed once I got it home and plugged in my tele. Serious little tone machine. I had to de-ox the pots and snug up the low input jack, but that was it. Loving this little beast!

Count me in! Got it nice and cheap; even had the manual, cover AND "Peavey Powered" bumper sticker! Our steel player has had one for years. Saturday will be my first gig with the amp...here we go!

I had one when I was playing steady on the road years ago, and loved it! I ended up trading it for a Peavey Heritage (another GREAT Peavey amp), but always wished I would have hung on to it. About two or three years ago, I acquired another Special 130 and I had an extra Black Widow 12 inch speaker hanging on the wall, so I dropped it in the amp - it's almost as heavy as my Twin Reverbs, but it is a great grab and go amp! We've even utilized it for the steel guitar player.

Are you guys with the EV12L using a 4 0hm speaker?

I can't speak to the guys putting in the EV speakers, but I put a 4 ohm Black Widow in mine.

Gigged with the 130 last night! Nice and loud and snappy! I really wanted to hate it, but it sounded real good, clean and full for most of the old '60s and '70 country songs we did! Our steel player has an old Peavey MX and we both laughed that our ears were ringing and neither one of us had the clean channel volume over 1 1/2! The little bugger did the job!

My EV12L is 8 ohms plenty loud! Here's another cool trick, if you can find a 400 series with the 15 Black Widow 4 ohm, the Special 130 chassis will slide right into the cabinet perfect. Got mine from a burned up Jazz Classic 400 and transplanted the Special into that cab.WOW! It's my secret weapon for outdoor gigs. You don't need an extension cab 'cause the 15 gives a huge sound and you can't use one anyway because you can't drop below 4 ohms with the Special. Got two Special 130s, one with the 12L and the other with the 15 BW 4ohm. The 12 sounds boxy next to the 15, smaller cabinet and the 12 is front mounted. On its own it sounds great, and I gig small rooms with it. The 130 and the BlackWidow 15 are a great match up, super warm with lots of highs, and makes the distortion channel way more useful for good blues tones if you keep the saturation down and crank the pre. The saturation seems to add mud past 3 on both my amps.The clean channel is absolutely beautiful with the 15.

just not the tone im after ..very clean /footswitch..might trade

does anyone out there have a footswitch for the special 130 that I can buy from them? mines kaput. I'm in Manchester, UK.
if not, anyone know if the one GAK are selling would work? looks the same but I can't be sure:

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/peavey-footswitch-03564640/41834

I picked up a Special 130 after looking long and hard for something to take out besides my Nash 400. I play pedal steel and one over 70lb piece of gear is enough! Granted Sp130 is still heavy it is not as heavey as Nash 400. Got mine with original paper manual from 1982. Great cond but need recap and new speaker. Cant tell you how much I dig this amp. Has similar tone of Nash 400 plus para mid eq. Great for unmiked gigs. Will keep up with anything. Clean channel really nice. In one group I plug a tele and a vintage D-8 Gibson steel guitar into it and it handles both very well. I use an eq pedal or slave my Frenzel into it to have control over both inst. Steel really benefits from the tubes in front. The tele sounds great just straight in with delay. Steel guitar can be really picky. Esp pedal steel. The Peavey Special 130 holds its own with or without the tube slave amp in front. I just like to slave it to get the 6v6 sound for steel. Sure beats dragging around a twin or Nash 400. I like it because it is not digital. Has beefy transf. and great clean tone with lots of headroom for steel guitar. If my tube head goes down I can still do gig. Lots of reasons to like this amp. Footswitch somewhat archaic but no big deal. I kinda get a kick out of showing off this amp for the cork sniff crowd. I took logo off plus alum bars and it looks kinda stealthy all black! Love my 130!

My '84 Special 120 has been all over the US and Canada and has never let me down...it always works and sounds great.

I have been wanting to get back to a tube amp but I just can't stand the thought of my Special not being with me on stage. I love this amp...why do I want a tube amp? replacing tubes, rattles, weird noises...none of that with my Special!

I went to GC this weekend and test drove a fender blues delux, hot rod delux, peavey valveking 112 and a fender blues jr. They all seemed to go from 0-10 by just barely turning the volume knob...and they all distorted way to soon. Will I have to get a Twin in order to get the headroom? I like the tube sound but I want clean tones more...I don't play metal... I do beach, Ventures and old R&R...

My EV12L is an 8ohm. It sounds absolutely phenomenal in this amp. A perfect match for what I do. I toured a little this Summer and my 130 was the only amp I brought with. Never let me down. The amp is an '83 and has never been touched other than the speaker change a few years back. It's probably getting a little tired after all these years of playing, as I've noticed the bass response is a little bit lacking lately. I suppose it probably should get a Cap job. Anyone know if Peavey offers a packaged Cap Kit for for this amp? This is a great amp and I really hope to get another 20 more years out of her!

My other Special 130 is beginning to get weak on the bass side of things. I suspect a dried out Cap in the bass section. Can anyone tell me which Cap(s) I might need to look for and replace? Any help would sure be appreciated.