NAD, Peavey Classic 20 MH

Picked this up used at the local Guitar Center.

Nice form factor and esthetics.

Clean channel sounds nice. I tried it with my ASAT Special and PRS Baritone.

Drive channel is hmmm.... OK I guess. I think I'd be OK if the highest gain was the "5" setting, or maybe the "3" setting. I don't normally use that much gain. You can get a little grrr on the clean channel by cranking it.

Built in reverb, I have to say, I did not really like. Really overdone boing in the spring simulation. Below 4, OK. Much above that, distracting.

I like the idea of the built in cab sim/DI. Haven't tried those yet. Haven't tried it with an actual cabinet either. Just used headphones as it's the only thing that doesn't require some additional effort. Maybe over the weekend.

I had this side by side with my Eleven Rack modeler and to be honest, there is some "tone" that the tube amp makes very easily that seems elusive with the modeler. I don't even want to get into trying to describe it with words. That said, the modeler has a pretty rad stereo dynamic delay built in, with stereo outs to XLR for recording.

So, I'm not 100% convinced how much I'd use it. I'd need to get another looper as I am coming up with riffs based on the same 5 chords all day long. I do like some effects and some of the options like a line6 HX effects or TC Plethora X5 as I only have a boost and tremolo and reverb pedal at the moment. I'd like to use compression and mod like chorus/phase on occasion.

I'd compared this spec wise to the Laney L5 Studio, Revv D20 and Mesa Boogie Express 5:25. I'm not super ecstatic about this one yet which is probably a bad sign.

 

I played it a bit more last night. Ah it's not so bad. With a cab it will be a 2nd amp for someone to play when they come over - not that this is going to happen for awhile but I do want to be ready for it! My sailing instructor over at Sweet Potatoe is offering me a whopping $20 off on a matching PV 1x12 cabinet and I may just jump on that. I don't know what makes a dang extension cab worth $600 but some of them are (not this one)!

I like spring reverb from time to time. I have studied what spring reverbs really do and I think I'm going to run this one into Audacity's spectrogram function because I think I understand what they did (wrong) here. There's also the possibility that Peavey used the Spin FV-1 here, and if they did, and if they used an external EEPROM for it (which is likely because the FV-1 internal programs don't include a spring) then there's a good possibility I can replace that program with a smoother sounding program. That would be quite the hack!

One thing that using a REAL AMP vs. the modeler does is gives me a better idea of my guitars' (plural) true voice and output level. With the modeler I build up guitar-specific patches that compensate for everything to get a more consistent level.

 

Does this mean you're willing to sell it to me? Hey I have a friend in Port Angeles and in laws on Lopez Island. But it's going to be awhile till I head up that way again.

 

I plugged it in today to my old Ampro 16mm projector cabinet, e.g. https://tinyurl.com/y5fkfk3a

Actually sounds pretty nice! I was playing at 1 watt fully attenuated, and still really couldn't get it over 4 on the clean channel volume without blowing my ears out. Pretty bright. It might be brighter than your typical guitar speaker as it was intended for hi-fi use.

Tried it with the PRS Baritone, ASAT Special, Peavey Tele copy with Cavalier pickups, Italia Maranello (semi hollow 2 pickups)...

I find I can dial in nice sounds regardless. The EQ seems nicely thought out.

I also tried the cab sim XLR into my Behringer mixer to Ableton Live. That works too, but as you might imagine, the EQ is totally different (quite a bit darker) so you have to work around whatever you're trying to do instead of thinking the speaker sound is going to magically match the recorded sound. There's no noticeable noise or hum.

I also took it apart to find the reverb chip. Serviceability seems really good.

It is not an FV-1, It's this:

NemFX SC Reverb, Delay, & Chorus

https://www.profusionplc.com/images/data-sheets/nemfxsc_rdc1.pdf

It has 16 preset fx patches, including hall, room and 2 spring reverbs.

I'm guessing it would be possible to try to wire something up to let you choose those other 3 reverb sounds. There are only 2 pins on the chip that control this, HOWEVER the little sub module PCB is mounted leaning backwards so it would be really hard to work on it without unsoldering 6 pins to remove it completely from the main PCB. That is major surgery and likely to cause problems if not done very carefully. So I really doubt I'm going to try it!

 

Well let me double check first, thanks. No idea if he's that dedicated to me. How much if you had to box it up and ship it? You can DM me if you'd rather take it offline. Thanks.

PS, I am looking for a 16 ohm driver.