Would this be enough volume?

[ggunn]

Rated at 60 watts.

I'm still considering new options, but for some reason I'm stubborn about that peavey head, it just seems like it'd work for me. But I'm still looking like I said, I'm not getting anything until this summer at the earliest.

Hey, man, it's your money. Whatever floats yer boat.

 

[amarach]

buy a 40 watt fender tube amp and mic it up

 

[marshall409]

i believe you could pull a pair of power tubes from the windsor and cut it to 60 watts. still pretty loud though.

thats if its a quad of tubes, which im pretty sure it is.

Adam

 

[Farview]

The volume difference between 50 and 100 watts is 3db.


Most of this thread is relatively good advice. Except for the speaker wattage questions and answers, the rest is really dependant on the sound you are looking for.

For example, amarach gave some pretty sound advice, unless you are looking for a Marshall type sound. Fender amps are pretty useless when you want them to sound like marshalls (or mesa, bogner, pignose, etc...)

All of the advice about having to turn the amp up doesn't mean much when the type of distortion you are looking for comes from the preamp section (or a pedal for that matter) If your sound requires having some headroom in the power section, you will be horribly disappointed with a lower wattage amp.

For every different style of music there is a different set of parameters. Until you know what your sound is supposed to be, you can't know what equipment you need.

 

[donkeystyle]

Rated at 60 watts.

I'm still considering new options, but for some reason I'm stubborn about that peavey head, it just seems like it'd work for me. But I'm still looking like I said, I'm not getting anything until this summer at the earliest.

as far as I've heard, the peavey's from the last few years have all been pretty decent and some have been really good. The real problem is supposed to be with their reliability.

apparently, (this is is based on what Ive heard on this site and a few others, so take it with a grain of salt) peavey's used to sound like crap and be built like tanks. Now they sound a ton better, but aren't well built at all.

I believe there either is, or was an amp tech on this site that said peavey is using really cheap plastic tube sockets that break very often and in the last couple years the number of peavey's he has seen come through with problems has increased very much. The increase could be due to poor build quality, or due to the larger number of units they're probably moving now. more amps being sold means more amps are going to end up needing repair.

what kind of punk are you playing? like rockabilly or zeke type stuff, or pop type punk, I can't believe I'm saying this...emo, screamo, what? if you're going for more of a rockabilly, or gutterpunk, or 70's or 80's punk, or some of the bands that are considered emo, sound, you'll need a lower wattage amp (probably 30 at the most). If you're going for pop punk, most bands that are considered emo these days, or screamo you're going to want at least a 50 watt amp, maybe even 100.

I've used this amp http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-JCM200...ryZ38075QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem , and it's super cool and I don't remember it having the delay cause by the switch being true bypass that the marshall TSL has. If you ever want to add a cab, it has an external speaker output

 

[elenore19]

as far as I've heard, the peavey's from the last few years have all been pretty decent and some have been really good. The real problem is supposed to be with their reliability.

apparently, (this is is based on what Ive heard on this site and a few others, so take it with a grain of salt) peavey's used to sound like crap and be built like tanks. Now they sound a ton better, but aren't well built at all.

I believe there either is, or was an amp tech on this site that said peavey is using really cheap plastic tube sockets that break very often and in the last couple years the number of peavey's he has seen come through with problems has increased very much. The increase could be due to poor build quality, or due to the larger number of units they're probably moving now. more amps being sold means more amps are going to end up needing repair.

Yeah, so if they are built sort of poorly, would that mean that they would break easily? OR would it just mean I'd have to be more careful?

Thanks for the help

 

[donkeystyle]

also, the delay that hungovermorning described isn't quite as bad as he made it sound.

the other guitar player in my old band has a TSL and no-one really noticed the delay live. on recordings we eventually had to start recording distortion and clean parts on seperate tracks.

 

[Farview]

Yeah, so if they are built sort of poorly, would that mean that they would break easily? OR would it just mean I'd have to be more careful?

Thanks for the help

It's not a matter of being careful, it just won't last as long. The 5150's, for example, have the tube sockets mounted directly on the circuit board. Between the heat of the tubes and the stress of changing the tubes every once in a while, it's going to fail. I seem to remember something about the preamp tubes being mounted underneath
a circuit board....another bad idea if you want something to last. (assuming I'm remembering that right)

 

[elenore19]

It's not a matter of being careful, it just won't last as long. The 5150's, for example, have the tube sockets mounted directly on the circuit board. Between the heat of the tubes and the stress of changing the tubes every once in a while, it's going to fail. I seem to remember something about the preamp tubes being mounted underneath
a circuit board....another bad idea if you want something to last. (assuming I'm remembering that right)

Hmm...alright.

Two more questions then haha..

So roughly how much time until it would fail? 1 year? 2 years? 3 years?

And when it fails...how much will it cost to repair?


Thanks

 

[jonnyc]

Hmm...alright.

Two more questions then haha..

So roughly how much time until it would fail? 1 year? 2 years? 3 years?

And when it fails...how much will it cost to repair?


Thanks

I'm not really sure Farview can see the future. If you're really gentle with it, it could last a long time.

 

[Farview]

How long it lasts will depend on use. If it's on 24/7 it will fail faster than if it's on for an hour a month. If it gets tossed around in a truck all the time, it won't last as long as if it sits in your bedroom.

Heat is the first problem (assuming it's a tube amp) It will take a couple years to warp or delaminate the pc board.

The second problem is stress. Changing tubes while the board is hot, or even tossing it on a truck too many times while it's hot can speed the decline of the amp.

These problems are amplified by the fact that all the circuitry is on one circuit board. If it starts to warp or delam, it will cost less to replace than to fix.

Either way, you should get a couple years out of it. I'm not trying to scare you out of getting a peavey, it is just not going to last 20 years like a Marshall, Mesa, etc... Think about it, do you really see that many Peavey amps from the 80's any more? There is a reason for that.

(I just looked on ebay, there are only 17 5150's on there. I've seem more than a few just stop working)

 

[elenore19]

How long it lasts will depend on use. If it's on 24/7 it will fail faster than if it's on for an hour a month. If it gets tossed around in a truck all the time, it won't last as long as if it sits in your bedroom.

Heat is the first problem (assuming it's a tube amp) It will take a couple years to warp or delaminate the pc board.

The second problem is stress. Changing tubes while the board is hot, or even tossing it on a truck too many times while it's hot can speed the decline of the amp.

These problems are amplified by the fact that all the circuitry is on one circuit board. If it starts to warp or delam, it will cost less to replace than to fix.

Either way, you should get a couple years out of it. I'm not trying to scare you out of getting a peavey, it is just not going to last 20 years like a Marshall, Mesa, etc... Think about it, do you really see that many Peavey amps from the 80's any more? There is a reason for that.

(I just looked on ebay, there are only 17 5150's on there. I've seem more than a few just stop working)

Alright, yeah, thanks for the input. In about three years I'll probably be ready for another upgrade so yeah.

One last thing. I doubt this is possible...

But is it possible to make the amp stronger by customly making it more sturdy or something?

 

[Outlaws]

Alright, yeah, thanks for the input. In about three years I'll probably be ready for another upgrade so yeah.

One last thing. I doubt this is possible...

But is it possible to make the amp stronger by customly making it more sturdy or something?

Not to be rude but your last two or three posts suggest that you really need to buy a shitty amp just so you can experience flushing money down the toilet. You are asking the wrong questions and hoping for answers that won't come.

If you have to ask if an amp will last 3 years until your next upgrade, you are don't want that amp.

I don't know how old you are or what your financial income is like, but when I bought my first "real" amp, it was the first big amp I could afford...not what I thought was good. I saved up two pay checks while in high school, and then bought an over priced Crate solidstate 130 watt stereo chorus amp. It was 130! watts. It had to be awseome. 2 twelve inch speakers. Bigger than anything any of my friends had. And it was FUCKING loud. Ya, I got raped when I paid like $450+tax...and it was used, but it was soooo cool. It was like, more wattage than a Marshall, and cheaper. If I had waited another check I could have had a used Marshall combo. But man, that was at least two weeks for another couple hundred bucks. Thats a long time when you are a sophmore in HS.

Needless to say I took the amp to Guitar Center a couple years later and got $75 in trade.

Sure it was loud. But who cares.

 

[Farview]

But is it possible to make the amp stronger by customly making it more sturdy or something?

Not unless you take all the electronics off of the circuit board and hand wire them back together. If you were going to go through that hassle, you may as well build yourself a good amp.

I'm with outlaws, buy cheap, buy twice. Get a good amp, a used one won't be that much more. (if at all)

 

[ggunn]

Not unless you take all the electronics off of the circuit board and hand wire them back together. If you were going to go through that hassle, you may as well build yourself a good amp.

I'm with outlaws, buy cheap, buy twice. Get a good amp, a used one won't be that much more. (if at all)

Second that. My primary amp is very well built, and it is over 40 years old.

 

[Flangerhans]

Well, here's my two cents worth, coming from someone who's played through tube amplifiers of all sorts over 30 years, in a few punk bands over the years.

You want point-to-point wiring. Not because it makes any difference in the sound, not because it looks cool when you take the amp apart, but because you can repair it if it breaks. This may not seem important now, but you may someday be getting ready to play and find that your amp is not working. If you have a circuit board in it, it's difficult to repair quickly, sometimes impossible to repair at all, but point-to-point will be pretty straightforward for anyone who has electronic chops to work with.

You want tubes, not because they sound "warm" or "analog", but because they can be replaced, overdrive better and don't burn up doing so, and build up your arms from carrying your amp around so you can someday look like Henry Rollins.

You want an amp with less than 50 watts, and probably less than 25 unless you plan on playing the Superbowl without miking up. If all of your distortion comes from boxes, and you play death metal, you may disregard this advice, but if you want a good sounding distortion out of a tube amp, turn the thing up past halfway and overdrive your power tubes. You'll like what happens.

Finally, if you really want to sound good, consider the whole system. Humbuckers in your guitar or single-coils? Distortion box or overdrive, or nothing at all? Do you use delay? Chorus? Each of these choices make certain amps better than others, although a great amp will sound good with just about anything run into it. Closed back cabinets will make you have a midrange "knock", open back combos will sound more natural, but no advice can take the place of your ears. Take what stuff you use, all of it, and try the amp out on a variety of settings. Annoy the salesmen at Guitar Center, and fiddle about with everything they have in the shop, even stuff you can't afford, to get an idea of what works for you. You might find that you like little steel guitar amps from the 50s, or you might find that only a Gibson is good enough...or you may discover that a triple rec is the only way you'll be happy.

Hope this is useful to you, guy. Have fun playing!

 

[Outlaws]

You want point-to-point wiring. Not because it makes any difference in the sound, not because it looks cool when you take the amp apart, but because you can repair it if it breaks. This may not seem important now, but you may someday be getting ready to play and find that your amp is not working. If you have a circuit board in it, it's difficult to repair quickly, sometimes impossible to repair at all, but point-to-point will be pretty straightforward for anyone who has electronic chops to work with.

I am sorry, but that it total BS. If you have any sort of "electronic chops" you will realize that you are not going to be fucking with a turret board or a point to point amp right before a gig anymore than you would a circuit board. "oh let me just get out my handy soldering iron, multimeter, and spend an hour testing all this stuff in the dark corner of a smoke filled bar." Not to mention it is no more difficult to remove stuff from a circuit board than it is from a turret board. If you know what you are doing then its all the same. If you don't, you don't belong in there to start with.

The reason people hate messing with circuit boards is because it actual involves soldering skills. But then, since when has skill ever been punk.

 

[Flangerhans]

Sorry right back atcha. Yes, I can remove and replace components on a circuit board, but it ain't no fun under stage lights. I can, however, fix point-to-point in low light, in seconds, when one wire has come loose and is right next to it's connect point.

Have you ever had a circuit board break in half? How do you fix that quickly?

Now go and call B.S on someone who hasn't traveled across the country in a truck with bad shocks to play for 22 people who only want to hear "Sweet Home, Alabama".

 

[Outlaws]

Sorry right back atcha. Yes, I can remove and replace components on a circuit board, but it ain't no fun under stage lights. I can, however, fix point-to-point in low light, in seconds, when one wire has come loose and is right next to it's connect point.

Wow. Sounds like your tool kit needs a flash light.

That is on the skill level of this...

 

[Flangerhans]

Well, you obviously don't really care about the info, you're just spoiling for a fight. Not going to get it here. You are right, have fun being so. Now run off and find someone else who hasn't gotten laid in the past year and play nice with them.