[Emohawk]

Just curious. Under $600 CAD for a 100w all tube head is kind of suspicious...

 

[taken]

That is. Hmm... It looks pretty neat though.

 

[stratasaurus]

Not really suspicious at all - its Made in China. Like the new Epiphone valve amps - they are put tohether cheaply overseas with lesser quality parts. Not necessarily a bad thing as long as the sum of the parts equals good tone, value and reliability. The Ibanez Artcore Guitars are a good example of this.

The Peaveys have been getting mixed reviews. I haven't played one myself but from Harmony Central and some of the other message boards the genral opinion is that the Valve King has decent if not sterile cleans, an unispiring OD/edge of breakup sound but a pretty good saturated/metal sound. If you are into metal it might be your thing.

 

[Tarl]

I,ve never tried one but hear they are passable. Apparently the footswitch is not included but is a $US 50 option. The biggest complaint I hear about them is a signifigant (long) volume dropout when channel switching.

Tarl

 

[Emohawk]

Yeah - I've heard about the channel switching issue also, but I've also heard it's not an issue with the factory footswitch, but is an issue with others.

 

[CocoTone]

I`ll leave the PV stuff to the country players thanks.

CT.

 

[Emohawk]

I guess we'd better tell Satch & a whole lot of angry metal bands then!

I guess is depends on what you're looking for. Personally, I do like the Classic series. I'm not a huge fan of the 5150/6505, but they have grown on me lately. I tried a Triple XXX there a while ago & didn't think much of it, but I hear it's a much better amp with a tube swap. And the JSX interests me but I haven't heard one yet.

My first amp (well, in this go around at the guitar thing anyway) was a Peavey Transtube Studio Pro 112. I'm actually wearing the free t-shirt they threw in with the deal right now...pretty ratty, but fine for shovelling snow!

 

[Welladjusted]

i tried one and found it to be a rather vintage-y sounding amp, and it was VERY noisy. i liked the JSX a lot more

 

[goesto11]

it's way more money but a xxx with a few at7's dropped in is a great sounding amp... i can go from country to death metal with a tap of my foot...which oddly enough i actually do...you can cover a lot of ground pretty convincingly...anyway my .02

 

[SCREEM]

haven't tried the valve king, but I like my Classic 30 for rock and blues...I did have to mod it a bit to refine the sound tho. defenatly not a country amp

now for metal...remember the Peavy Butcher? that thing was brutal :2guns:

 

[noobcake]

Having tried the Valve King I can say that I wasn't impressed. The cleans are just dry and boomy. It's neither deep and mellow like a jazz sound nor is it bright and jangly a la fender, the clean channel was basically very crappy. And the drive was extremely buzzy, it did the Judas Priest sound decently though, it generally pulled off a passable old metal tone think Sabbath, Maiden, Judas Priest and company. But I don't really see this amp doing anything else, it doesn't sound quite smooth enough for blues or classic rock. All in all it kinda just pulls off a generic old metal or hard rock sound.

 

[Zeegler]

I tried out the Valve King at Thorold Music. I'd say that for metal especially, you simply can't get more amp for the money. It has a good range of tones, and a lot of cool features. I can't vouch for how well made it is, or the quality of the components used, but it certainly looked well put together. One weird thing about it, is that the effects loop sockets are on the front. Kinda odd methinks. I believe Thorold are selling them for a tad over $500. When I consider I paid almost $500 for my crappy solid state Peavey Bandit 112 back in 1987, versus what is available now, I want to cry!!

 

[Zeegler]

haven't tried the valve king, but I like my Classic 30 for rock and blues...I did have to mod it a bit to refine the sound tho. defenatly not a country amp

now for metal...remember the Peavy Butcher? that thing was brutal :2guns:

I had a Butcher!! It was my first tube amp, and it was a monstrous beast of epic proportions. Damn it was loud. I still have the cab actually. I got rid of the head though because the tubes started to go, and I was young and stupid, and didn't know a thing about tube amps.

 

[Emohawk]

I tried out the Valve King at Thorold Music. I'd say that for metal especially, you simply can't get more amp for the money. It has a good range of tones, and a lot of cool features. I can't vouch for how well made it is, or the quality of the components used, but it certainly looked well put together. One weird thing about it, is that the effects loop sockets are on the front. Kinda odd methinks. I believe Thorold are selling them for a tad over $500. When I consider I paid almost $500 for my crappy solid state Peavey Bandit 112 back in 1987, versus what is available now, I want to cry!!

I was talking to the guys at the local Peavey dealership just the other day - well, actually I overheard them talking to another customer - about the Valve King and they said almost exactly the same thing. He even said it had a bit of a Mesa vibe to the dirt. Interesting...

The salesman (buddy of mine) also said it took nearly 4 months to get one in for a customer. I don't know if that's a common situation or what.

And I hear you about the price. My old transtube was over $400 also.

 

[hfisher3380]

I've never been crazy about Peavey - including an old Bandit 65 I had in the 80's. As for their current inexpensive tube amps - I remember preferring the Classic 30 to the Valve Head I tried - and I liked the Crate V better than either. However, the Traynor YCV50Blue I ended up with sounded much better than any of those, albeit for a few extra bills.