Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hi - I am LONG TIME lurker who finally registered - I am planning on either modding or custom ordering a new axe a la Garcia tone - of course, I will eventually want SMS, power amp, - but in the meantime, I like the Peavy I have been using - one of the power tubes has blown, so it's more like a Peavy 20 - so I can crank it pretty good - do you think this amp will serve me? Mid boost off?

Those Peavey Classics are pretty decent amps. I've had a Classic 50 and a Classic 30 (with a 15"). While it may not get you to a great Jerry tone, cutting the lows and cranking the highs will get you a reasonable Jerry tone. Do you have the 15" speaker in yours? I'd also replace the power tube as clean headroom is really what you're looking for in a Jerry tone.

Agree with tcsned. You probably will not get great Jerry tone from the Classic 30. I liked my Classic 30 but it broke up on the power side, near as I could tell. I replaced the preamp tubes and got extra headroom at the cost of some of the "grainy gain". I put a 5751 in the V1 position and a balanced 12AT7 in the phase inverter, the V3 position. This seemed to add clarity and some headroom to the preamp section especially on the clean channel but I did lose what I surmised was annoying, lower volume, power tube breakup.

I also hear that upgrading the stock speaker in the Classic 30 is one of the most straightforward mods to make to "improve" the tone of the amp. I never did this but numerous others I have spoken with have done this.

Good luck.

Dave

Since Peavey hasn't made a decent speaker since BWs, I'd agree with the speaker replacement advice. I've owned lots of different Peavey speakers, but none were much good...

I would get those power tubes replaced before you cause a bigger problem in an the amp. If your running a power section with 2 tubes both have to be matched and working. You have the potential to fry the output transformer very expensive fix. Greg....

gpilcher2001 wrote:I would get those power tubes replaced before you cause a bigger problem in an the amp. If your running a power section with 2 tubes both have to be matched and working. You have the potential to fry the output transformer very expensive fix. Greg....

+100

Thanks folks, am taking in the amp tomorrow - will have the 5751 and 12AT7 put in - and have the whole amp rebiased - etc -