Bass player since 1974

Rock..country.. Anything really

The sound is big and clean, with a subdued high end and very full lower midrange. More of a vintage voiced amp rather than a modern sound like Eden and the like. The low end is huge but not round like a tube amp or Ampeg. It plays astonishingly well with dirt pedals in front of it, which I think is due to Peavey's preamp design which is more like a guitar preamp than a bass preamp. See more about the OD in the next section.

The overdrive starts subtle but gets into distortion territory, leaving you plenty of room to find a good "spot" despite lack of a blend. Peavey has done overdriven bass better than most any other since the 70s, and it shows here. It's never fizzy and is midrange focused. The low and high boosts are musical and not overbearing like a lot of amps- turning them on still sounds good. The mid shift is ok- 250 and 600 are your choices, but I would have preferred more choices like on an Ampeg or even a parametric mid. It's better than some that only give you choices higher up in the freq spectrum (like ashdown). As a heavy player, 250 is where I want to suck most of the time, and I can see why cleaner jazz/funk guys would want to play around at 600. The psycho acoustic feature is neat but is more for small cabs. I didn't find it necessary for my purposes but I can see it working for others, especially stand-up guys.

Passes my first test- hard to make sound bad. Test #2- all knobs at noon sounds great and will work in literally any band. It's quite loud- I never take it past 5 in the loud bands I play in and fills up a thirsty 2x15 and still sounds good with a 1x10 at home. Output is two 1/4" | Speakon combo jacks so it can plug into literally anything with any cable. The tuner is actually a great idea (I hate having pedals and rarely need to tune) and the 1/8" jacks are great for at home. I bought this to use at home, the practice space, and at gigs while fitting into a bag with my bass. It does all three while never being too quiet or too loud.

Very well built, especially for an amp in this price range. The jacks have a plastic component which is worrisome but the ring and washer are metal so they will probably last longer than the 100% plastic jacks on a lot of budget amps.

I was thinking about the Portaflex PF500 for only $50 more, since it has extra features (mostly the more choices of mid-frequency) but it is a bit larger and I don't think it would fit into my bass bag. My experience with trying that amp out was good- it had a rounder low end but seemed to lack headroom compared to the MiniMax. I'd say both amps are pretty comparable though. Really the only reason I didn't get the Ampeg is because it was out of stock when I needed this amp. I did read about those amps having issues and dying (within their warranty periods though) when they first came out and have heard of no such issues with these Peaveys. This is a good option vs that Ampeg and the full-size Peavey headliner.

If you weren't aware- Peavey is one of the best. They stock parts for anything they've ever made (for the most part) all the way back to the founding of the company it seems. Easy to get on the phone and whoever picks up knows what they are talking about.

It's small and versatile and works great as a portable and "B" amp compared to the monstrosity that is my "A" amp. Incredibly loud- filled up my 2x15 big enough for most doom bands at 6 on the master volume. It's voiced intelligently and you can hear what kind of bass you are playing and your own personal style with it without sounding clinical. And it fits into my bass bag! I'll never have to rely on whatever backline when I'm going straight from work to my gig ever again.

25 yrs

rock and jazz

Have played bass in and out of several different bands for the last 19 years

Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Grunge, Doom

Been playing bass for 6 1/2 years

Christian

10+ years, trabens and schecters, jam at home and in a band

Heavy metal, blues.

I play with a fender jazz loaded with Seymour Duncan quarter pounders and Rotosound strings. I play with a Warwick $$ buck bass.

I play a wide variety of music rock, Classic rock Jazz or what ever my mood is.