NRW

[dropanchor812]

New Rig Week!  I'm a bit of a lurker, but there are few people in my life who get excited about this sorta thing.  Welcome.



1983 Peavey Roadmaster - Power section is SIX(!!!) 6L6gc's (original peavey-branded sylvanias), with a 12ax7/12at7 combo driver.  The preamp is two 12ax7's, and then it has a 12ax7/12at7 combo for the reverb.  Yep guys, that equals TWELVE bottles of sweet tubey goodness.

I've only had it a week, but I've been impressed tonally with everything it can do.  The "pump" knob, which just overdrives the preamp, leaves a little to be desired but at least it's a very natural sounding overdrive.  From what I'm reading there's no solid state anything on this thing.  The cleans are nice and full, but then again I've only played it through this 215 cab.  The reverb pan is gigantic but the delay time on it is super short.  I think I'll disconnect it because it introduces some noise when I use it too.  I've got ThomasH's reverb on my board anyways to satisfy that need.   

Got the whole rig by trading a few things I had lying around that I wasn't using, so the fact that it was "free" was quite a bonus.  As a family man with 2 kids, living in a residential area, I have no business owning a 160 watt tube amp with a 2x15" cab.  But who cares, right?!  I had been looking for a rig that was usable for both bass and guitar, and I found it in this guy.  I'm really jazzed about the cabinet as I've always really liked the aesthetics of Traynor's TS series.  It's got some dings and scrapes, but its not a collector's piece anyways.  It's only an 80 watt cabinet so I can't completely crank the head, but the speakers break up real nice when I push them.  The internet chatter is that the speakers are old square magnet eminences, but I may swap them out for some EVM's or something if I need to push them with a band (haha, that's hilarious... as if I'll ever play in a band that would necessitate such playing).

Here's the best part- I am the first owner of the head.  Yep, 32 years old, and its just been sitting in this music store all this time.  A couple of the 12ax7's have been replaced, but everything else is completely original.  I don't want to molest anything in case I want to make it original again, but I really dislike the aesthetics of the head.  I've removed the front panel and I stained/poly'd a piece of poplar that I'll use in it's place, but that's just a temporary fix (going for the Verellen thing).  The plan is to eventually wrap a grillcloth over it, change some knobs, doll her up a bit.  If you have any scraps of grillcloth you're trying to move then let me know!     

[chordball]

Nice score! 6 6L6's would blow you away! That makes me want to get on the Ampeg V4 project I have. Loud and clean as I'm sure yours is.

[diablochris6]

Looks pretty sweet...and loud. Very loud.

If you need any grillcloth, I have an old pair of briefs I can give you. I heard it would give you more of a "brown sound."

[PhiloB]

LOL Diablochris!!! Never thought of repurposing old drawers in that way.
Sweet score on the rig.  I bet that thing blows your hair back a bit.  That's a lot of tube power😈


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[dropanchor812]

I heard it would give you more of a "brown sound."

I thought about repurposing some old JNCO's to enhance some of its tube "sag".

And, I need to give props to Diablochris for encouraging me to pull the trigger on this monster.  When no one believed I needed such a thing, Chris did.  And for that I'm greatful.  Single tear.