I’m convinced Peavey was run by a bunch of lumberjacks in the 80’s. Those cabinets are hacked from whole logs with an axe, they are always heavier than the amp itself.
I gigged a vtm 60 for 7 years. That amp went through hell and back and WOULD NOT DIE. Sold it to my buddy and he still uses it. Maybe the best 200 bucks I'd ever spent.
Just stumbled upon this channel...I really dig the information-dense, no-frills delivery. Subscribed. And, for what it's worth, I've heard that those old Peavey Butchers can move a LOT of air.
Currently my favorite channel on YT. Great to see a Peavey show up on the bench too! 35 years old notwithstanding, Peavey deserves some recognition for all of the other great high-gain amps that pre-date the 5150 - Butcher, Triumph, VTM, Bravo, ULTRA, etc. Sometimes the service procedure can be a little annoying on these, but I've not seen a single major failure that wasn't due to sheer neglect.
James Brown designed the 5150, Triple XXX (and closely related JSX) Classic 50 and 30 amps, and many, many solid state amps like the TransTube Bandit line. Butcher and VTM lines were about 5 years before he arrived at PV in 1986. When he started he reports "tweaking" the existing Ultra/Triumph/Rockmaster/Bravo tube amps, but his full on designing began with a close collaboration with the worlds top electric guitarist (and a few notes on the SLO!)
These amps are so cool. Its the only marshall style circuit ive played that absolutely loves fuzzboxes. It almost acted like an Orange with its own attitude? Absolutely rumbled the rehearsal room and blew my TH30 out of the water. I wish I bought it from that friend.
I still have mine! When i play....the entire neighborhood knows it ! If you look in the owners manual it says " this amplifier is for musicians who wish to produce truly overwhelming sound pressure levels"....that aint no bullshit jack!
I haven't had the pleasure of trying one of these, but I've played (& owned) more than my share of Hartley's creations over the decades. From various iterations of the Classic, to the Deuce, to the always enjoyable Delta Blues - which I still own, and love. You know me, I have a handful of serious amplifiers in my small collection. Reputable amps, arguably, including one of the rarest amps Leo ever shipped. My Delta Blues holds its own. I've owned it for almost 20 years and I've never even had to change a speaker. It stood up to a couple of seasons of rigorous gigging on Beale St - which is definitely no small feat. Hats off to Peavey!!
You are indeed correct. I believe there is no gen with a mesh front. Recently missed out on one of these cheap off ebay. Got bid sniped in the last few seconds.
I know this video is over a year old but recently in an interview Bill Kelliher mentioned that he used to use a Butcher and said that his band used to call it a "Heavey" for how Heavy it was lol.
i have had quite a few butchers and vtms at the shop. great amps for what they are. the vtm is basically a butcher with dip switches for different mods that people was doing on the butcher back in the day
Years ago I used a VTM 60 as a pedal platform for rehearsal. It sounded great but was a bear to move. The cab looks almost identical and I will say that Peavey made em for the long haul. Good tones and very tankish in the build aspect. For all the Boogie/Bogner I am , these are oft overlooked gain monsters.
Butcher and VTM were similar in concept and design. I worked as a tech in a Mom and Pop shop through the 80's and 90's and we sold a ton of them. Tonally it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but not one ever came back, not even later as a trade-in.
The matching cabs are also arguably the most durably built cabs ever. Drop em out of the back of the van going 80mph and you just hop out and toss it back in lol. The g12k-85s they came with also sounded great, and you can get the cabs for like $100-$200 all day.
I have a late 80s Peavey Bravo 112 and you cannot overstate the sheer weight of old peaveys. You could put a hole in your floor if you dropped it from More than an inch up.
James Brown took the Butcher amp and created the VTM from it. I owned a VTM 120, I hated to sell but it was so loud my neighbors still talk about it, the threshold was insane! The Butcher and VTM cabs are awesome! They sound as good as the Marshall 1960 cab, if you don’t believe me try one out.
Hey Lyle, I picked up a new soldering iron that I have to recommend to you and your viewers. The Hakko FX-600 is a fantastic addition to anyones tool box. It’s inexpensive, the preset temperatures (200-230-250-270-320-370-420-450-470-500C)are accurate, it heats up very fast (72 watts)and it uses the T-18 tips that the more expensive Hakko irons use. For~$40, I don’t think this can be beat. Even if it was $100 I would buy it again. All you need is a stand, sponge and solder to get going.
I have a GK250 RL that needs gone over, new caps, etc. These are fairly rare and the rackmount version of the famous 250 ML. I will drop you all a line to see if you are up to tackling it.
I own two of these new as with a Triumph 60 while in the military ! My main prize is a Marshall Super Lead 100 for $300 and a 10 watt Yamaha amp in trade ! I wanted the matching cab with it, but no room in barracks room I was living at ! Bummer ! The previous owner wanted to be a George Lynch, but gave up playing guitar 🎸
Old Hartley and family made some tanks didn’t they? Lol! Had the market cornered for many years in my opinion. Hope owner spends the money on it. If not, sell it and let someone else. It deserves it. Keep rockin!!🤘”NO TONE FOR YOU!!” Lol! Hiiilarious!
If you get a chance to talk about the potential similarities and differences between this amp and a 2203 it would be greatly appreciated. That’s what these are most often compared to.
I looked up the schematic. No, no Jose mods. Mostly straight 2203, 6.8K V2a Rk, some different values in the PI, easily-corrected mistakes in the output section.
@@danpfeifer7618 Youre right!. There's a great long interview Dave Friedman with James Brown from Peavey. he talks about how these amps came about. Talks about stacking the PCB's and the 5150 as well. His process with evh
@@PsionicAudio as a butcher owner from across the country I’d love to hear what the mistakes are. I’ve always found that as long as you don’t let the post volume exceed the pre it sounds great but if you turn the post up too high it gets exceedingly ly brittle.
These are basically a JCM800 copy but Peavey screwed up and didn't isolate the input jacks from the chassis which totally nulls the cascade circuit. With about 30 minutes of work on the inputs, you can have a very inexpensive JCM800 clone. Then the thing really rocks.
Look at the JCM 800 2203 schematic and how the switching on the input jacks are configured... IIRC, it's the switching on the sleeve terminal. On the Butcher that I worked on, both input jacks had the sleeve switching connected to ground. It may have been an early version of the Butcher and Peavey may have corrected it in later revisions of that amp. But on the Butcher I worked on, both inputs basically had the same input sensitivity, it wasn't like a JCM800 where the two inputs have very different gains. My solution was to use Cliffs jacks that are isolated, and wire the two inputs according to the 2203 schematic
Butcher absolutely worth it to repair. Cult classic. I think its before James Brown though. Someone can correct me. Marshall esque for sure though the power section feels a bit stiffer and colder. Ill be interested to see how you end up biasing this amp. Thanks .
The preamp is nearly part for part a jcm800. The power section is 6l6, and mine gets super brittle if you let the post volume get louder than the pre. If you pair it with a boost pedal you can get slash tones all day, but it can also just be a super loud clean amp as well.
If this were my amp and it had more than a few issues I'd probably rebuild it with turret boards. They have improved in recent years, though, at least from what I have heard.
“They should call it the chiropractor” 🤣
I’m convinced Peavey was run by a bunch of lumberjacks in the 80’s. Those cabinets are hacked from whole logs with an axe, they are always heavier than the amp itself.
I gigged a vtm 60 for 7 years. That amp went through hell and back and WOULD NOT DIE. Sold it to my buddy and he still uses it. Maybe the best 200 bucks I'd ever spent.
People love these. The Mississippi Marshall! Poor mans JCM 800. Cheers!
Just stumbled upon this channel...I really dig the information-dense, no-frills delivery. Subscribed.
And, for what it's worth, I've heard that those old Peavey Butchers can move a LOT of air.
Currently my favorite channel on YT. Great to see a Peavey show up on the bench too! 35 years old notwithstanding, Peavey deserves some recognition for all of the other great high-gain amps that pre-date the 5150 - Butcher, Triumph, VTM, Bravo, ULTRA, etc. Sometimes the service procedure can be a little annoying on these, but I've not seen a single major failure that wasn't due to sheer neglect.
Vtm is not high-gain... Hot rodded marshall at best (basically a more crunchy crunch)
Another great video. And I appreciated your Tom Tom Club "Genius of Love" reference.
James Brown designed the 5150, Triple XXX (and closely related JSX) Classic 50 and 30 amps, and many, many solid state amps like the TransTube Bandit line. Butcher and VTM lines were about 5 years before he arrived at PV in 1986. When he started he reports "tweaking" the existing Ultra/Triumph/Rockmaster/Bravo tube amps, but his full on designing began with a close collaboration with the worlds top electric guitarist (and a few notes on the SLO!)
This amp gained some traction in the Doom and Stoner sub-genres several years back.
Name some users please
Butcher: A true meat-and-potatoes rock ‘ n roll amplifier.
I would think the Butcher would be more meat, less potato.
These amps are so cool. Its the only marshall style circuit ive played that absolutely loves fuzzboxes. It almost acted like an Orange with its own attitude? Absolutely rumbled the rehearsal room and blew my TH30 out of the water. I wish I bought it from that friend.
I still have mine!
When i play....the entire neighborhood knows it !
If you look in the owners manual it says " this amplifier is for musicians who wish to produce truly overwhelming sound pressure levels"....that aint no bullshit jack!
I haven't had the pleasure of trying one of these, but I've played (& owned) more than my share of Hartley's creations over the decades. From various iterations of the Classic, to the Deuce, to the always enjoyable Delta Blues - which I still own, and love. You know me, I have a handful of serious amplifiers in my small collection. Reputable amps, arguably, including one of the rarest amps Leo ever shipped. My Delta Blues holds its own. I've owned it for almost 20 years and I've never even had to change a speaker. It stood up to a couple of seasons of rigorous gigging on Beale St - which is definitely no small feat. Hats off to Peavey!!
I’ve had one of these since the early 90’s. The wire mesh is not stock, someone did that to it.
You are indeed correct. I believe there is no gen with a mesh front. Recently missed out on one of these cheap off ebay. Got bid sniped in the last few seconds.
Thanks for the knowledge
We have had one of these Butchers in the studio since the early 90's never had an issue with it. Great crunch tones.
Charlie Foxtrot. Took me a second. Very good sir.
I know this video is over a year old but recently in an interview Bill Kelliher mentioned that he used to use a Butcher and said that his band used to call it a "Heavey" for how Heavy it was lol.
Mississippi Marshall...had one, not bad for the $.....Great Vids!
“No Tone For You”!
i have had quite a few butchers and vtms at the shop. great amps for what they are. the vtm is basically a butcher with dip switches for different mods that people was doing on the butcher back in the day
The Triumph 60 or 120 combo would put your car on overload shocks! Haven't had for years but the indention in the carpet is still there!
You should call it the chiropractor 👨⚕️ lol 😂
Amazing amps! I want one so bad. JCM800 with 6L6s.
Years ago I used a VTM 60 as a pedal platform for rehearsal. It sounded great but was a bear to move. The cab looks almost identical and I will say that Peavey made em for the long haul. Good tones and very tankish in the build aspect. For all the Boogie/Bogner I am , these are oft overlooked gain monsters.
Butcher and VTM were similar in concept and design. I worked as a tech in a Mom and Pop shop through the 80's and 90's and we sold a ton of them. Tonally it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but not one ever came back, not even later as a trade-in.
The matching cabs are also arguably the most durably built cabs ever. Drop em out of the back of the van going 80mph and you just hop out and toss it back in lol. The g12k-85s they came with also sounded great, and you can get the cabs for like $100-$200 all day.
I have a late 80s Peavey Bravo 112 and you cannot overstate the sheer weight of old peaveys. You could put a hole in your floor if you dropped it from
More than an inch up.
James Brown took the Butcher amp and created the VTM from it. I owned a VTM 120, I hated to sell but it was so loud my neighbors still talk about it, the threshold was insane! The Butcher and VTM cabs are awesome! They sound as good as the Marshall 1960 cab, if you don’t believe me try one out.
I have the Butcher and VTM 120 with 1960s cabs and the peavey cabs.
Hey Lyle, I picked up a new soldering iron that I have to recommend to you and your viewers. The Hakko FX-600 is a fantastic addition to anyones tool box. It’s inexpensive, the preset temperatures (200-230-250-270-320-370-420-450-470-500C)are accurate, it heats up very fast (72 watts)and it uses the T-18 tips that the more expensive Hakko irons use.
For~$40, I don’t think this can be beat. Even if it was $100 I would buy it again. All you need is a stand, sponge and solder to get going.
£100 in the UK. Oh dear god import charges.....
Tom Tom Club reference. Nice.
Good philosophy. Fix it right or don't fix it at all. Partial fixes only brings future misery to the owner and the technician who last touched it...
I have a GK250 RL that needs gone over, new caps, etc. These are fairly rare and the rackmount version of the famous 250 ML. I will drop you all a line to see if you are up to tackling it.
It will be interesting to see if it even needs tubes, or if the cap problems was the real source of the owner's complaint.
Yeah, this thing would sound like hell as the caps are now.
I have that and VTM the amp cuts out at low volumes I have to crank it up for it to work.
They should call it the Chiropractor......He He...Classic!!
Part 2?
I own two of these new as with a Triumph 60 while in the military ! My main prize is a Marshall Super Lead 100 for $300 and a 10 watt Yamaha amp in trade ! I wanted the matching cab with it, but no room in barracks room I was living at ! Bummer ! The previous owner wanted to be a George Lynch, but gave up playing guitar 🎸
Old Hartley and family made some tanks didn’t they? Lol! Had the market cornered for many years in my opinion. Hope owner spends the money on it. If not, sell it and let someone else. It deserves it. Keep rockin!!🤘”NO TONE FOR YOU!!” Lol! Hiiilarious!
You have to be strong to be an amp tech. These things are indeed heavy. But the big iron is one of the reasons why tube amps sound so good.
I'm still young enough to pick up SVTs pretty easily but old enough to know how to fix them.
If you get a chance to talk about the potential similarities and differences between this amp and a 2203 it would be greatly appreciated. That’s what these are most often compared to.
I'll know more once it's safe to power on.
No tone for you ! Ha,ha .
this amp is a hidden gem believe me . It essentially is a jcm800 with the jose mods
I looked up the schematic.
No, no Jose mods. Mostly straight 2203, 6.8K V2a Rk, some different values in the PI, easily-corrected mistakes in the output section.
VTM is the Peavey “Jose”
@@danpfeifer7618 Youre right!. There's a great long interview Dave Friedman with James Brown from Peavey. he talks about how these amps came about. Talks about stacking the PCB's and the 5150 as well. His process with evh
@@PsionicAudio as a butcher owner from across the country I’d love to hear what the mistakes are. I’ve always found that as long as you don’t let the post volume exceed the pre it sounds great but if you turn the post up too high it gets exceedingly ly brittle.
These are basically a JCM800 copy but Peavey screwed up and didn't isolate the input jacks from the chassis which totally nulls the cascade circuit. With about 30 minutes of work on the inputs, you can have a very inexpensive JCM800 clone. Then the thing really rocks.
Can you elaborate on how it nulls it?
Look at the JCM 800 2203 schematic and how the switching on the input jacks are configured... IIRC, it's the switching on the sleeve terminal.
On the Butcher that I worked on, both input jacks had the sleeve switching connected to ground. It may have been an early version of the Butcher and Peavey may have corrected it in later revisions of that amp. But on the Butcher I worked on, both inputs basically had the same input sensitivity, it wasn't like a JCM800 where the two inputs have very different gains.
My solution was to use Cliffs jacks that are isolated, and wire the two inputs according to the 2203 schematic
Butcher absolutely worth it to repair. Cult classic. I think its before James Brown though. Someone can correct me. Marshall esque for sure though the power section feels a bit stiffer and colder. Ill be interested to see how you end up biasing this amp. Thanks .
I have heard these are surprisingl similar to a JCM800
The preamp is nearly part for part a jcm800. The power section is 6l6, and mine gets super brittle if you let the post volume get louder than the pre. If you pair it with a boost pedal you can get slash tones all day, but it can also just be a super loud clean amp as well.
If this were my amp and it had more than a few issues I'd probably rebuild it with turret boards. They have improved in recent years, though, at least from what I have heard.
Is there a follow up? I got to know if it got fixed.
Waiting for parts to arrive
So no one has butchered that amp yet? :)
I wouldn't pass up a deal on one of these.
The ugliest logo in Rock.