Feature:
Not much by way of features. My old amp had over a dozen built-in digital effects, but honestly I don't really miss them. This amp has an effects loop and a spring reverb and that's about it. It can use a foot pedal to control channel selection and the gain and volume boosts, but it didn't come with one.
Quality:
So far so good. It's heavy and the switches and dials feel quite solid. I already have a severely microphonic power tube (replacements are in the mail), but that's not Peavey's fault, it's the tube manufacturer's fault. I'm sure it was a tube defect since my amp never moves or gets handled or anything. I wanted an exact make/model tube match to maintain my sound and avoid a re-bias and these were a little hard to find (Ruby 6L6GCM-STR power tubes, had to buy a matched quad since I couldn't find a pair :( )
Value:
Awesome. This amp has that wonderful 70's/80's hard rock tone with plenty of gigging volume at a ridiculously affordable price. It sounds great, it's built tough, it has a wide variety of tonal ability, and it doesn't break the bank.
Desirability:
Well, it looks like a black box. Doesn't look great, but I never cared about amps' looks, I go by sound! If I lost it I would definitely replace it.
Sound:
The sound is phenomenal, especially given the price of this amp. I replaced my old Crate solid-state half-stack with one of these a little over a month ago and the sound still amazes me. My Crate's clean channel was extremely clean to the point of sounding bland and sterile. This amp's clean is just a little dirty. It doesn't sound distorted, but it sounds slightly compressed, warm, and bluesy. A tremendous improvement.
The lead/distortion channel is nearly exactly what I was looking for. It can go from a smooth bluesy compressed sound all the way up to some screaming rock/metal distortion, without sounding excessively buzzy, thin, cheap, or nasty like my old Crate did. If I throw a Boss Super Overdrive in front with low drive but maxed level (clean boost), it pushes the distortion right up into the thrash metal/Metallica area. The only reason I rated sound a 9 instead of 10 is that I liked the sound of the 5150/6505's good Van Halen/brown-sound distortion better. But this amp is quite a bit cheaper, and nearly as good.
The low distortion area is awesome compared to my old amp. Being a solid-state amp, my old Crate's distortion was basically either on/off. If you fiddled with the drive you could get some low-distortion tones out of it, but they sounded nasty. This Peavey has it down just right, smooth, creamy, bluesy, and natural sounding.
Ease of Use:
On/off switch, standby switch, two channels worth of tone and volume controls. It doesn't get any easier. Also, in my opinion this amp sounds good on nearly any setting, so I don't have too much trouble getting a sound I like out of it.
Support:
Blah. Never dealt directly with Peavey, but I did purchase this amp from a local Peavey dealer. He didn't have any foot pedals in stock and I wanted one. He told me he'd look them up and call me in a couple days so I could order one. He never called me back. I'll just get one elsewhere sometime.
Overall:
I'm very satisfied with this amplifier. I don't plan to ever replace it, unless I decide to get the 212 version (no stack for me, too big and bulky...combos are actually plenty loud). Eventually I want to get a Peavey 5150/6505 but only as a supplement so I can more easily get some strong metal tones. This amp is perfect for bluesy hard rock, which is what I mainly play.
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