Vintage Peavey Classic Chorus 212- I’m sayin it.

[Luthier Vandros]

Storage fees are skyrocketing and i recently decided to slowly withdraw and close it down. On a recent adventure there I made my way alllll the way to the back, where I rediscovered a long forgotten treasure trove - old tube radios, car care products that have solidified, and two Peavey Classic Chorus amps from the early 90’s lol. One is a 210 and the other is the Twin killer with 2 scorpion drivers. I set my mind to sell these, so I hauled them home.

Now, years ago I completely restored the big one with new pots and caps all the way across. I also replaced the transistors with upgraded parts and redid the heat sink and all that jazz. It’s mint.

Once I arrived home, I decided to plug in my strat and HOLY HELL MAN. This amp is not going anywhere. It does the twin thing with beautiful reverb and so much more. The drive channel is chewy and liquid with a beautiful present sparkle on top of the pick attack, much reminiscent of my old MP1. With the chorus rate on .5 and the depth off, it’s a huge spread of texture and sound. Super deep sub bass and beautiful mids and treble in just the right places. No 80’s chorus cheese with this setting, but if you want it, it’s there lurking.

Of all the amps to come across my bench, this is my fav of all time. No shame here.

 

[Tele-beeb]

I dig those… no wonder you like it.
Three amps ago (two years?) I had a big Silver Stripe 212 Special.
I so wish I still had it. So quiet, so good.

 

[Luthier Vandros]

Your username lol! Please tell me you’re from Israel!

 

[Tele-beeb]

Sorry to disappoint… I wanted a name with Tele in it and beeb is my garage-band nickname from the 70’s. The association struck me too, but it’s no more than coincidence

 

[Luthier Vandros]

I still got a chuckle out of it. i have a friend from Mumbai that pronounces Tel Aviv that way lol.

 

[Les H]

I dig those… no wonder you like it.
Three amps ago (two years?) I had a big Silver Stripe 212 Special.
I so wish I still had it. So quiet, so good.

I miss the one I had too.

Bought it new in '96 and sold it in '03 and spent the money on a Hot Rod Deluxe. That was a mistake. The silver stripe Special 212s don't come up for sale very often either.

No need for overdrive or distortion pedals the whole time I had it.

 

[Jakedog]

I’ve had a couple of the teal stripe “Stereo Chorus 212” models. 260 watts RMS. 130 per side in stereo. Two Scorpions. Twin Killer is definitely the word I’d use for those. I’d love to have one to use all the time, but the weight is a deal breaker. They’re about 20 lbs heavier than the average Twin. You ain’t lyin’, though. What a sound!!

 

[Luthier Vandros]

Woah I thought this one was 75x 2. Lol 260w makes much more sense. The volume is way more than linear taper pot trickery. A true meridian monster. It’s unreal how they managed to get so much gain out of the preamp while keeping it dynamic and transparent for all the different pickup positions. My bridge single coil sounds so fat and juicy and the neck single still sounds like a strat!

I have some wine Taurus tolex and wheat grill cloth lying around I might recover this sucker. Though the Tolex on it now is likely nuclear grade.

 

[brindlepicker]

A shop down the street from me had one when I was in town around 93. I really liked it and was going through a Jerry Reed listening stage and think he had one.It was way more amp than I needed.

 

[Jakedog]

Woah I thought this one was 75x 2. Lol 260w makes much more sense. The volume is way more than linear taper pot trickery. A true meridian monster. It’s unreal how they managed to get so much gain out of the preamp while keeping it dynamic and transparent for all the different pickup positions. my bridge is for coils sounds so fat and juicy and the neck still sounds like a strat!

I have some wine Taurus tolex and wheat grill cloth lying around I might recover this sucker. Though the Tolex on it now is likely nuclear grade.

I’m not sure what the wattage on the “ Classic Chorus” model is. Mine were the “Stereo Chorus” models. I was never sure why they made them at the same time. Maybe the power output levels are the difference?

 

[Luthier Vandros]

I’m not sure what the wattage on the “ Classic Chorus” model is. Mine were the “Stereo Chorus” models. I was never sure why they made them at the same time. Maybe the power output levels are the difference?

Could be, could be. I think yours had digital effects? Mine has an old USA accutronics tank. Its almost comical how powerful it is. I turned it up a bit and it’s got artillery type concussive force haha. I think this is a great solution if I start playing out again. All of my tube amps I toured or gigged with were increasingly being turned lower and lower. This thing sounds massive and just as good at low volumes.

 

[superjam144]

Storage fees are skyrocketing and i recently decided to slowly withdraw and close it down. On a recent adventure there I made my way alllll the way to the back, where I rediscovered a long forgotten treasure trove - old tube radios, car care products that have solidified, and two Peavey Classic Chorus amps from the early 90’s lol. One is a 210 and the other is the Twin killer with 2 scorpion drivers. I set my mind to sell these, so I hauled them home.

Now, years ago I completely restored the big one with new pots and caps all the way across. I also replaced the transistors with upgraded parts and redid the heat sink and all that jazz. It’s mint.

Once I arrived home, I decided to plug in my strat and HOLY HELL MAN. This amp is not going anywhere. It does the twin thing with beautiful reverb and so much more. The drive channel is chewy and liquid with a beautiful present sparkle on top of the pick attack, much reminiscent of my old MP1. With the chorus rate on .5 and the depth off, it’s a huge spread of texture and sound. Super deep sub bass and beautiful mids and treble in just the right places. No 80’s chorus cheese with this setting, but if you want it, it’s there lurking.

Of all the amps to come across my bench, this is my fav of all time. No shame here.

I played at a church one time and plugged into one of those. I was floored at the sound. Thanks for posting I'll be doing some research. I thought it was a bandit but this makes more sense.

 

[Les H]

Could be, could be. I think yours had digital effects? Mine has an old USA accutronics tank. Its almost comical how powerful it is. I turned it up a bit and it’s got artillery type concussive force haha. I think this is a great solution if I start playing out again. All of my tube amps I toured or gigged with were increasingly being turned lower and lower. This thing sounds massive and just as good at low volumes.

I was thinking about this just a few days ago actually.

In the old days (everything up to about 10 years ago) when I would use a SS amp my biggest complaint of them was there was always something that seemed shrill about them in the top end at gig volumes despite sounding equally as good if not somewhat better than my tube amps at home volumes.

Fast forward to today (and the last several years) where gig volume has become a hot topic and the increasingly improved, affordable PA systems now it seems you need to mic everything through the PA so there is a "master volume" for the entire band. Stage volumes are down and now amps on stage are considered a "monitor". This leads me back to SS amps again. If I keep the volume of a SS amp down and let the PA carry all my volume this might make a SS amp very competitive to my tube amps at that same volume.

I haven't succumbed to the small, low watt tube amp fad yet. I am still a 212 guy at heart and just not ready for a 5 watt shoe box tube amp. So bring on that 212 Classic Chorus!

 

[Luthier Vandros]

There’s no more disheartening feeling than just barely cracking the volume on the amp and seeing the sound guy spastically flail his limbs.

 

[mexicanyella]

A guy I know who repaired tube amps for a living and could have gotten his hands on whatever he wanted used to use one of those Peavey 2 x 12s When he actually played in his band. I had a pair of little Valco tweed combos at the time and he was working on them once, and when I went to pick them up he fired them up and ripped some Tele licks through them. I was pretty excited at how they sounded. I asked him what the deal was with the Peavey 2 x 12 and he was all, “Oh, this old thing?” And plugged into it and proceeded to sound every bit as good, but with added solar plexus concussion. It was pretty impressive. That was probably an early step in my coming around to questioning whether I need tubes to do what I do.

 

[Red Ryder]

Had a Classic Chorus 2x12 years ago, wish I still had it.

 

[Willie Johnson]

I dig the 2x10. I got a hankerin' for an old school, analog, clean, solid state joint like that.

 

[Luthier Vandros]

The 2x10 doesn’t have the frequency response of the big one, but it’s got really nice mids. Fun amp, too!