When I first read the title of this thread I thought you were joking. Both Peavy and Crate sound like shit. SHIT. Didn't quite get that? SHIT. This stuff shouldn't even exist! Don't be fooled by, "well, THIS model is different, it's their good amp." They say that about all their crappy amps. If you go into a music store looking for a guitar, and you don't know what you're talking about, the first thing the salesman tries to pass off is a Fender Squire. They will never recommend that you save up for an american strat. Likewise, go into your music store and say something like "I need an amp...just something for myself...I'm not really sure what to get"...will they take you to a Fender or Marshall? No, they'll sit you in front of some clunky Peavy and you'll spend $400 on a shitty amp that will depreciate so fucking fast you'll end up paying somebody to take it out of your house within a year. Peavy and Crate are like the Hewlit Packard or Compaq of the amplifier world. They offer rock bottom prices and they're able to pump out so much fucking gear with their name on it, that it almost makes you think "well, if everyone is using this stuff, it must not be that bad." You know what? Almost everyone is an idiot.
But you don't have to be. A little 30W fender combo amplifer will blow the tits off your chest and sound 100X better than a Peavy. Plus it probably won't cost too much more. Add some pedals and you're rockin. A smaller marshall amp will be pretty expensive, but will likewise slap your balls up against your ass and sound 100X better than a Crate. Fender and Marshall have very different sounds though, and tone varies from model to model...etc...go play some
Oh Peavy and Crate make me soooo mad. You know why so many people think the POD sounds so great? Peavy and Crate amps. Do you know what's causing all this global warming? Peavy and Crate amps. You know what every single one of your super guitar heros plays through? Not a fucking Peavy or Crate amp I'll tell you that much. Do you know who gives out the best prices and the most free crap to music stores? Peavy and Crate. Do you know who's responsible for turmoil in the middle east? Peavy and Crate. Want to know what kind of amp to get if you're looking for that Poison guitar sound? Peavy or crate. Want to know what the landfills would be filled with if Fender lowered its amp prices by about half? Peavy and Crate amps. Do you want to know when you'll begin to wish you had bought a Fender amplifier? Right after buying a Peavy or Crate amp.
Did you know that if take the words Peavy and Crate, and rearrange the letters, you can spell "eat very crap" or "cary pee vat." I just figured that out.
So anyway, I guess I'm not recommending Peavy or Crate. But I worry about you ya know. I have a feeling that right now you're looking at some big giagantic peavy head on ebay. You're looking at all the knobs, and oh how sweet they all look. Imagine the total control over your tone with all those knobs! And then you notice that their distortion is patented. Oh man, it must be pretty awesome to be patented. Then the numbers will start popping up. You'll notice that for a simliar price, you can get 20 extra watts if go with Peavy over Fender. Oh, and look, 1.2dfk over 7500MKS. Man, that sounds important. Then you'll notice the price. Oh my, it's $300 cheaper than the cheapest Fender amplifier. Just think of all the extra gear you could by with that $300! Maybe you could buy a $300 POD and use it to make your crappy Peavy amplifer sound better! Great plan!
Ok ok I kid. The reason I kid is that it makes me feel better about myself. You see, when I was 14 I bought myself a Peavy amplifer. At the time it sounded so huge, because anything sounds huge compared to total silence. As the years went by though I started to realize its sad limitations, but alas, I had no money to buy anything else. I've sat down at the music store and played through various other Peavy amps, thinking I could "upgrade" cheaply. UCK. They all sounded like crap. Their vintage models sounded like vintage crap. More and more years went by. I started drinking, and I blame it all on that stupid Peavy amp. More years went by, and my life finally settled down and I started acting a little more financially responsible. So what did I do? I went out and bought a POD. What a fucking retard I turned out to be. Ok, so the POD has it's uses, but I still ain't got no stinkin tone. Sure it sounded great compared to the stupid Peavy I was used to. Damnit...everytime I would play out at a friend's place and plug into a Fender I was always sooo impressed....but you forget what that sounds like and when you suddenly hear something that resembles it coming from this ass shaped red box, you have no choice but to buy it. Idiot! So anyway, it's now 14 years later and I'm still stuck with this Peavy amp. It won't go away. It's like having a retarded dog locked in the closet who I'm too embarrased to get rid of, yet I know that I can't afford two dogs. Every now and then he gets out and embarrasses me in front of my friends. I leave him in there in the closet for months on end...just hoping and praying that he'll die...but when I open the door, the ugly dufas is standing there wagging its tail like a fucking idiot. So I feel bad and play with him for a while until I just can't tolerate it any longer, and back into the closet he goes. I try to buy it a fancy collar and drug it up, but people can still tell the difference and they whisper things like "who's the guy walking the drugged up retarded dog with the shiney red collar?"
So anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, wanna buy a Peavy Studio Pro? I'll give it to your for $100.
Slackmaster 2000
Actually, I'm not a fan of any amp in particular...I do have a buget as the only constraint. Havin a Marshall would give me a hard-on every time I looked at it, but I gotta go with the cash flow. That's pretty much why I'm asking about these "odd-balls".
) and don't know what I'm gonna do for some effects (can't afford a boat-load of seperates so I'm looking at Digitech's RP2000 ). Sometimes ya gotta make some sacrifices.
D ), but I do think he's pretty solid.