peavey bravo tube amp

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
Anybody have one?
It's a 25 watt all tube amp from the late 80s. I have read a lot of rave reviews about them but I have never played through one. It's a 60 mile hike to where the amp is located. They are asking $200 for it which, from what I gather, is a good price. I stumbled across this amp looking for a peavey triumph. It's also a all tube amp from the late 80s... but I am familiar with the triumph and know first hand they are killer. The Triumph is 60 watts and the bravo is 25 watts. 25 would probably work better for recording if the tone is as good as the triumph.
 
well, let me rephrase that. Not necessarily "work better" but achieve desirable results at lower volume levels. Triumphs are hard to find...I found a 120 watt at a great price but I want a 60 watt. I was thinking a 25 watt bravo (out of the same line of tube amps as the triumph) may be a good option....especially at the $200 range. You can't really get a decent marshall, fender, vox, or messa for that.
 
A 25w amp is not appreciably quieter than a 60w amp. At most, you're talking like maybe 3db of difference. A 25w tube amp is still quite loud.
 
I would say go for it! I don't have any experience with the bravo but my bandmate has a Peavey Classic 30. That amp is 30 watts and can cut through fine live and it also sounds great in the studio. It's loaded with a celestion vintage 30.
 
A friend of mine used to have a triumph 60. I had a 100 watt Marshall and a super reverb back then. The triumph didn't sound exactly like my Marshall but it could hang with it pretty good and the pre gain on the triumph was REALLY good. I liked it better than the pre gain on my marshall. That triumph had a really smooth distortion that would sustain for days....not the gritty grainy distinction crunch that a lot of the cheaper peavey and crate amps (at the time). The clean on the triumph was very good too. Not quite as glassy as the super reverb of mine but close. It's the best all around amp I know of.
I'm amazed at how low these amps sell for. They are built like tanks
 
Just give it a go, mate. Its only 200, would be interested to hear what it sounds like.

Peavey amps are rock solid, mine's been left out in the rain before - still works fine.
 
I'm tempted to pull the trigger on a triumph 120....but I don't need that kind of power. It would be overkill for sure. I see 120s for sale all the time but 60s are few and far between.
 
I called the dude that has the bravo for sale to see if he still has it. He does. He said it has the foot switch that came with it and he is also including a wha wha pedal and a microphone.
It seems like $235 to $300 is the normal price range on these. $200 is on the low side. I'm not going to try and talk him down. (which is against my nature). It's worth what he is asking if everything checks out.
 
I bought the bravo...it's in the backseat and I'm heading to guitar center to pick up some new toobs.
 
Yeah I like it a lot.
The only tubes guitar center had was groove tubes. They want almost $90 for a for a $20 pair of el84s...just because a groove tube logo is painted on them. I passed. I ordered a pair off eBay for $20.

I don't really think the amp needs tubes because it really sounds good tone wise and screams volume wise. I was amazed at how loud this 25 watt amp gets. The tolex is in fantastic shape. It's black with little gray specks. The face doesn't have a scratch on it and the knobs don't really show any wear. Cosmetically I would have to say it dosent really show its age...hard to believe its 30 years old.
Everything on the amp works perfectly. I was going to pull the chassis and spray contact cleaner in the pots, but none of them are scratchy at all. I have a fender reverb tank I was ready to put in there but the one that's in there doesn't sound bad at all.

Shit, if it ain't broke I sure as hell ain't gonna fix it!

I knew the dirty sound was going to be good but I figured the clean would be so-so. Wrong...the clean is VERY good. If it had just a hair more shimmer it would be in fender deluxe territory.

I can't believe 200 bucks bought an amp this good.
I love this little amp.
 
One more thing....
You're lucky if you get 3 years out of a fender hot rod deluxe amp. This amp is 30 years old and going strong.
Meridian Mississippi amps are built like tanks!

Go Peavey!!!
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
Pics and tone clips Jimi. Let's go, man - we don't have all night. :mad:

lol
Click to expand...

patience brother.....I'm still fiddling and tinkering with it.
You can't expect a kid to stop playing with a new toy long enough to record clips and take pics!
Are you crazy?
lol
 
Thanks greg. I took some pics but they will probably take an hour to load up to drop box with the poor signal out here in the sticks.

I have been experimenting with dialing in different tones. Then I tried some speakers. I have a Altec 12" Speaker mounted in a small homemade enclosed plywood cabinet. It has the closed back stack sound with that cab.
I took the amp guts out of the hot rod Deville amp that went south on me. I have a wire with a 1/4" jack coming off each speaker....for my stereo modeling amp. Man, I plugged them into the 2 speaker inputs on the bravo and it was magic!
 
That's pretty familiar looking. Didn't realised the second channel was called ultra gain!
 
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