confused by solid state amp

nate_dennis

Well-known member
As I am new-ish to electric guitars and to understanding the nuances of tubes vs. SS amps I am going to ask what may be a very dumb question.

I was given an old Peavey Studio Chorus 70 amp. It's solid state with two channels. Anyway, I was mucking around with the "lead" channel and I stumbled on a setting that seemed to be somewhat touch sensitive. I mean, it behaved almost like a tube amp. If I played harder it crunched more, if I backed off it cleaned up. My question is ...... is this normal or am I losing my mind? Thanks for the info.



Nate
 
Yeah that's normal.

That's basically the point that I try to find on every guitar amplifier/guitar/pedal combo. For lack of a better term I call it envelope distortion, where you can control the grit by how hard you strike/pluck the notes.
 
That Studio Chorus 70 is a nice little amp, for a solid state. Thing can make some nice screaming leads.

It is actually two 35 watt channels coming out, two speaker jacks, so if you wanna hear what it really sounds like, mod it slightly witha couple of speaker jacks and plug it in to a pair of 2x12 cabs! WOW! The chorus on that amp is really quite sweet. One of Peavey's better (ss) offerings over the years!
 
What's your opinion of it's big brother, the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212?

I assume you mean the Classic Chorus 212?

More tone control, more settings, heavy as an ox, same nice chorus, but seems like overkill for basically the same sound only louder and bigger? Not sure, I've never played one. The two 12's would make a nice difference, but it's still an oversize solid state Peavey. If I wanted an amp that big, I'd shop all tube. It would make a great speaker cab if you gutted it......
 
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