What a great video !! It reminded me of the nightmare of coping with a Vox Cambridge (?) amp several years ago, which required about 9 hours of disassembly just to reach the circuit. Then your PCB circuit tracing at the midpoint of the video reminded me why I shun this style of construction like a leper who wants to hug. The trio you have assembled for the audio demos was splendid.....Ollie & Jack need to take some notes.....climaxing another fine video from my favorite amp guy. Thanks !!!
Thanks Doug. Good to see you, my friend. It's just a real shame they felt they couldn't sell a true hand wired version of this same amp without all the parts deletions and weird design choices, like IC reverb. Some things they got right, like the 12V per tube (36V total) DC supply for the preamp tubes. I think that's a stroke of genius that lowers hum considerably I'd imagine. But then they doom the design with all the other choices. Shame. This could have been an all-time classic amp if not for the cheapness.
This is one of the most used amps in Nashville by session players. I have an original American made first run Classic 30 and it has made it on a ton of records. I dig it.
I gigged a classic 50 to death, bought another one and gigged it to death, too. They were great sounding disposable amps. Then I got a ‘67 Super Reverb…
I owned a Classic 30 and later a Delta Blues 210. I found the distortion channel in each basically unusable. They had very “woofy” overtones with some overdrive, like the design was somehow defective. I’m not an amp snob, and I really wanted to like these amps. The clean channels were fine, and probably sounded alright turned up with some natural breakup. But something was off with those drive channels.
This is what makes a platform like UA-cam so strong. Videos and channels like this. I just woke up and now an hour later I have so much more knowledge than when I swung my feet out of bed. And watching/hearing you play is just pure entertainment. To you it's just random noodling. To us mere mortals it's what we're striving to achieve as our goal for the instrument. Fuckin' magic man.
I bought this from a guy on classifieds in Utah he had rehoused it before me. I installed the speaker jack in the rear and gigged with this amp a few times actually! This is crazy to see it on your channel lol
I gigged a Classic 30 for years with no issues in Maine, freezing cold van drives to still smokey bars and nothing but tube changes, i still have it and it works awesome I will never sell it haha literally my favorite all around amp ever haha! I'ts got a two button switch that does reverb and channel and the boost is not footswitchable. Fun amp for small change RIP Peavey USA.
@@johnsmith-bk4ps I think it came with sovtec tubes its got electroharmonix tubes in it now, I had mesa boogie tubes in my previous classic 30 ( I have had an original tweed and a USA black tweed which I still have), those tubes became microphonic after a few years of hard use too but they did last a while...I have been playing these since '96 for reference I got the black one in 2000, I am not a tech so maybe I didn't always need to change them, but I did. What brand of USA tube would you recommend I may need to switch em out again someday haha cheers 🤘🏻🎸🔨
@@GerhardGeficky-jg4ok 27 years and counting I think I paid 500 bucks for it so if it dies it was more than worth it, but ya that will suck nothing lasts forever GG cheers!
@@PolishHammer then you are lucky because I heard these Amos always break down. I own 3 Peavey Amps and like them . No music store will take any as a trade in Canada. ( I've already tried)
Excellent Brad, the Classic 30 was my first tube amp back on the 90s and I enjoyed watching you recap the amp. The sound check at the end was outstanding and loved it brother man.
James Brown was the godfather of soulful Amp designs. He managed to squeeze a lot of tone out of the budget that H Peavey gave him -- and those amps sound killer with the proper speakers and set up! Nice work!
Man, that old Classic 30 sounded great! As most folks know, the classic tweed series was a sleeper. Hope the owner is happy and it lasts a good long time.
Most of the time these amps are usually built to a manufacturing budget to maximize the profit-margin, so manufacturers like Peavey will try to find all sorts of ways to cut manufacturing costs where they can, Leo Fender did that a lot.
Those RC4558 ICs have the same pinout as some other Dual Op Amp ICs such as the JRC4558D, TLO72CP, LF353, all three of those ICs can be used as drop-in substitutes.
Yes, the 4558 is an upgrade for certain. It's a chip that doesn't get taken seriously often, and was used all over mackie consoles etc. Pedals, budget converters etc. I can say I've put them in fader buffer stages of old British mixers a few times, and man does it open them up. Makes them sound way more open and transparent. Cheap chip to. Also the 2068d is maybe even better. Super hi end guys tend to look down on them, and like stuff like THAT and LME49740 etc., but the jrc stuff is great sounding stuff.
@@Intrinsic.Recording The TLO72CP has the same pinouts as the RC4558 and JRC4558D, except that the TLO72CP uses two JFETS for the inputs on Pin 2, Pin 3, Pin 5 and Pin 6, instead of Bipolar Transistors, the benefit of that is a lower noise-floor than the RC4558 or JRC4558D, as well as much higher input impedances (about 10M for the TLO72CP).
Great video Brad. Just back from a gig. This was a cool Sunday treat. Really enjoyed it. The way they have those boards reminds me of a Fender Bassbreaker I opened up recently. Except they built the chassis around the boards. When you take chassis out the case it looks like a square metal tube. Take care Brad.
Apart from the fact that you have one of the most serious, informative and acourate channels on YT, you sir are a great player! If the music in the end of the video is yours, I totally respect you as a composer too. Greetings from Greece!
I own a Classic 20 Amp with it's onboard 10' Speaker and two EL84. Had to recap that thing and bias it down, 'cause it really ran hot. It was a pain in the butt but this amp sounds awesome for a little 15 Watt combo. I also changed the baffle to a 7mm pine board, which was imho a big win. You want this cabinet to resonate more.
I don’t know crap about what you did but could not stop watching until the end…love your videos like this …wish I had your skills…just amazing…nice picking at the end. Cheers!!!
Wow the demo at the end was incredible. One heck of a good bass player,drums, and the guitar player is awesome. I had a C 30. back in the day and I loved it until it broke, then got it fixed, broke again and trashed it after that I think.Enjoyed the video very much thanks man. oh yes I had to watch the demo twice.
What a killer video Guitologist, you’re definitely one hell of an amp tech !! What a killer Jam session Guitologist your musician ship blows me away !!!
Peavey made some hand wired amps at one point, one was called a sensation and one was called a masterpiece, would be cheaper to find one of them than to convert a classic 30. Great video, I enjoy watching your work
I don't work on amps for a living, but have diagnosed quite a few with IC related issues, in which the IC sockets were actually bad from vibration. mostly dual or quad op-amps, where the ic would blow, lose output or worse yet, drive the final amp stage to full + or - rail voltage, melting voice coils, transistors, tubes and whatever else is in the circuit. my solution was to get rid of the sockets and directly solder the IC's in, the problem was often missed by other shops because it was fairly intermittent, where handling or heat cycling the would fix it temporarily, so I don't blame them for missing it. it's not just amps that are well known to have socket issues.
Got two of these in the basement now needing help - one newer tolex style that likely just needs a socket re-flowed but I've been dreading dealing with the ridiculous pcb taco to the point I just move on to the next project. The second is an older tweed one that's in pieces - that'll likely end up getting re-wired into something else. This video gave me some ideas though, and maybe the courage to get it over with. Thanks!
Great video!!! Watching it brought back shades of terror when I opened up my late 90s DB 210 to replace all the caps as some were leaking after 20 years plus of gigging. Nobody wanted to work on it. I will spare you the gory details, but, in short, when it was complete days later and ready to test, I set the amp out on the back patio, power switch on, and connected it to an extension cord. I then plugged it in from a distance. If it burnt to the ground well then so be it. But it worked! To my amazement and brought new life to an old amp. I replaced the blue marvels with greenbacks and still use the amp to this day. But to your point, I would have preferred the concrete shoes river crossing method. Rock on!
The odd screen resistor arrangement *could* make each half of the paralleled tube pairs break up at different drive levels so giving you a greater amount of that overdrive sound or give *some* overdrive at moderate volume levels.
I had considered that too, that they might be going for some kind of asymmetrical output thing also, but I don't think the tradeoff of tube life due to no screen protection is worth it. if they wanted something like that, they should have at least done something like a 470R for the entire screen supply, then give each tube a different screen value above that.
@@TheGuitologist Seems like you didn't follow the SCREEN label with its down arrow over to the corresponding SCREEN up arrow label, which shows a resistor before the screens.
To be honest Brad, I took about a year or 2 away. I came back to see what you had going and THIS is what I remember you for. Straight amp repair/mods with no BS. Great video.
Yup! I had a Peavey Classic 30 combo about 25 years ago that I bought new. It sounded great...until it stopped working about 2 months later. I had it repaired under warranty. The tech who worked on it agreed with you on every point you made, especially those regarding the crazy flexy board layout which was the source of the problem I had. I picked it up, took it to a music store and traded in toward a Fender Blues deluxe. A much better amp that I wish I still had.
I used to do a mod to these amps so that they were a part-for-part AC-30 clone, and after the mod they sounded fantastic but that strange PCB was a nightmare and I was concerned that the disassembly required to access the circuit would lead to reliability issues down the line. Glad to see it wasn't just me who thought so...!
Peavey Classic 30 is a great combo amp. It's indestructible. Never knew how difficult it is to work on because I never had any issues, until I sold it. I had one from the the last "made in the USA" batch. Now they're all Chinese. Haven't had the need to use one of this since I went digital.
I took my 78 Silverface Deluxe Reverb chassis out and put it in a homemade case. Used it as a head for years in the clubs. Single 12 mated up with a 4x10 to let it roar. Great amp The backup was my Peavy Special 130
@@TheGuitologist I bought 6 x159's after watching your vid and gave 4 to friends as christmas presents. The days of leaky ol messy pens is long gone and writing with a fountain pen makes your penmanship improve (for most folks) immensely. Happy New year brother, here's to a good one 👍✌😎
I don't have any experience with Peavey tube amps outside the 5150. But I have a collection of transtube & teal stripe products. Most of them have audible line noise on the reverb circuit that drives me crazy. However it disappears when playing etc.
You may be able to swap the opamp for a better one. Check your specific chip, and do some googling. Many newer and cleaner more accurate ones exist for almost all applications.
I've seen a number of these after they've aged a bit. My memory is what you encountered. The first time getting it apart is a pain. Peavey like Fender seem to run the EL-84s too hot and it causes issues with the board. Like a Fender Blues Junior. Also the filaments might be in series.The Classic also has them running DC for hum reduction, but that might be the Classic 50 Which also sounds great! And the filaments are fused...A "low budget " amp where the value of the amp is maybe less than the repair cost. I fix them anyway. Good job chasing down the odd screen resistor configuration. When these were designed, EL-84s must have been cheap enough to not worry about short tube life.
I seem to remember doing some servicing work on an amp similar to one of these Peavey Classic 30s, if I remember rightly, the amp I serviced needed a new replacement power transformer, very similar to the power transformer in this amp.
Have one of these waiting to go on my bench right now. Thanks for this! Great video, great chops on the music bit at the end. Like song clip #2. Got a fusion feel to it. Love it! Oh...and the dreaded IC caps...hate em! Everybody is using the still. Cheap stuff. I see guys saying they never have had any more issues with IC than other brands. NOT my experience at all. Thanks again man!
Almost forgot to mention. 90% of opamp chips like that tend to have higher quality replacements now, but just like tubes you have to make sure the spec is close enough.
I would really appreciate some help. I hae a Classic 30 II combo (chinese version). There´s a clean signal filtering through the gain channel, even whith the volume all the way down. It´s driving me crazy, cause you can really hear the clean signal along with the distorted tone. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for demo-ing the amp so that`we could here what it sounds like. It helps that the guitar playing was superb, and the tones from this amp are wonderful.
Curious why the owner asked for a more saturated reverb when the wire was severed and inoperative? Also how Peavey designed the board omitting screen resistors. I'm definitely going to double check my newer boards and hopefully not find anything that weird. As always; Nice job Brad
I am a tech at Clawsons music they sold these about 26 years ago I have worked on just a few I think the reason the ic capacitors hold up better is because the tubes are el84 the voltages are lower maybe 325 but on fender blues deluxe and pro jr they are notorious for leaking causing an audible ripple the fender amps they are lined up like 47 22 22 22 at 450 500 volts they all go bad I like jj electronics and f&t and a new one from tube depot MOD capacitors.
How is the weather there? It's 3 degrees and 5 inches of snow here in Chicago but wow Nashville is 14 degrees and snow still coming down! The kids must love it! I don't have to go back to work until Thursday, yay! Drunks are not excluded from designing amps! Thankfully you have a great schematic to work with. Sober and worthwhile repair job I must say. It works great Brad! I see you cloned yourself. I found a machine that can do half of my work so I bought two of them. LOL
Hey Brad, great video!, After reviving several of these C30 Peavey amps, I think that the customer wanted to be able to switch the output transformer from 16 ohm to 8 ohm. The wire is there. We all just need some one like you to verify the wiring.
The engineer that designed the Peavey Classic series left Peavey and went to Kustom. The Kustom Defender series and the Kustom Coupe series amps were designed by the same person. Great sounding amps that are no longer made abd can be found very reasonable on the used maket
@@shredenvain7 That name sounds familiar but it's been too long for me to be certain. I love the sound of the Peavey Classic series as well as the Kustom Defender 112 & the Coupe amps. The way that the Classic series is built is a pain to work on but for the most part, they seem to hold up well even though the circuit boards are pieced together as they are
Yes it's James Brown ! He also designed the peavey Bravo and the Rockmaster tube pre amp ! Both awesome ! He owns his own company now called "Amp Tweaker" and he's got some killer pedals !
I have a Classic 50 head and am finally getting it back after….25yrs in storage. Here’s to hoping its still good. I loved that amp through a old Lee Jackson 4x12 cab
Its got 3 12ax7a tubes, so right away you can figure the reverb is solid state, but I mean that shouldnt preclude anyone from altering the wet/dry mix.
Good job mate! Did ya replace those microphonic tubes? Crazy how an op-amp chip can blow up so often; maybe from back emf from the reverb? Possibly back-to-back 1N914/1N4148 diodes between ground & the reverb i/p pin on the op-amp may help, depending on the voltage on that pin. Diodes won't switch on till there's 0.6V across them. Hey, you're a one man band then huh? Fricken awesome Mr. Music you can do it all can't ya! Music demo was spot-on & thanks for the video! 😃👍!
Hey Brad thanks as always for your videos it's good to see you on my feet again LOL when I was cited I was pretty handy used to work on my car as my motorcycles 30 years ago when I bought a house I did my electrical plumbing all that stuff I've always been handy and it would have been a real asset if I had access to your videos back in the day but it's still really interesting I'm still learning all the time doesn't matter whether I could see or not you kind of trick me though I'm sure that wasn't your intention at about 28 minutes when the I could tell you know there was a cut in your and it went to this music and I automatically reached out to find the skip ad button and couldn't find it so I found the the elapsed time and saw that it was still going and realized that will just just different music LOL hope everything is well with you bro thanks again for your videos sincerely Bob the blind bedroom
Hey there, I had two issues and wonder if you can chime in on the unsolved one. Scratchy pots and 1minute of noise on startup perfect after ( after 11 years of owning Peavey Delta Blues). I had to go in to clean the pots, so I swapped caps as well, I saw how tricky its to work on it. I cleaned the pots. Result: no scratchy pots, but the warmup noise (some storm sounds for 30-1m) remained. I wonder having just worked on C30 which is very similar if you have any hints.
Have done a few amp repairs,but had motorboating on a Black Star mini bass amp,the only way I could eleviate that was turn the gain up,to get rid of the putt,putt,how do transients get in the line,is it a ground issue,or a design flaw,peculier to say the least Thanks amp guru
Hey Brad awesome video as always! I have a question or two regarding one of the cabs I saw in this video. ( 4:28 ) I recently just picked up a Fender HM A 4x12 cab and for the life of me can't find much info about the model of the cab other then that it was made in the 80's and was made I believe at the Usa fender plant, do you know anything else about it? Like was there a matching head for it? Does the HM stand for heavy metal? Just wanting to know some more info on it if there is any. Thanks!
I'd check the solder joints. The one randall i worked on had tons of cold solder joints (appear matte and not shiny smooth) and I touched them all with fresh solder. After that, replace any large/high-voltage can caps, and look for scorched resistors.
I LOVE the original tweed Peavey Classic 30 112 combo. One of the best guitar amps I've ever heard, and like Peavey it's super reliable even if it falls out of a truck, or down a flight of stairs.
Another great video brother! I wanted to mention, over the years I've had a number of Peavey amplifiers, and invariably they all have had solder issues, especially their XR600 PA mixers. Not sure why, but many of the solder points will, what I call "volcano", where there's a cracked ring around the component wire. A few minutes with an iron and it's a fix. I will concur that some of the boards are a mf'er to get to, but in general, the Peavey stuff is pretty rugged. Anyways...thanks for the vids...keep 'em coming!
6:53 Case in point why real amps are the real deal. Great jam at the end with yourself cleverly spliced together, lol I thought it might be your twin brother. Good Stuff!!!
It’s a great sounding amp. It feeds back well. I dig that. I also dig your signature guitar. That thing looks cool and sounds good. Love that nasa shirt too lol.
I appreciate what you do brother. They want YOU out of business. They want to faze real amp techs outta business. I applaud you for defeating them once again. And damn man, I've watched a lot of your videos but never completely. This is the first time (I think) I've heard you play to any extent and that was phenomenal picking !
@30:15 when you went into output issue, is that really a major flaw or just something that you're not used to seeing in a circuit? I'm just a guitar player used to to dealing with five watt amps and am looking for something bigger, so I'm genuinely curious if this is a fatal flaw of the amp that needs to be fixed.
It's a highly unusual design which does not seem to make logical sense. Every amp tech I've showed it to has agreed. Most techs will correct this and treat it as a flaw.
Does that 83W dissipation on tubes mean the amp consumes 83W from the wall socket? What is general power usage of typical amp? I know it varies but like an average wiuld be useful to know
Nice episode Brad, been thinking of getting the original version of this amp. Good playing too, thr basist seems very shy and the drummer looks... dunno, he remind me of someone 😊😊
Luckily, my local music store is an authorized Peavey dealer, so i was able to get the parts to fix my bass amp. An inductor went bad on me, and while replacing it, the shims that go between the chassis and the transistors were blown out, so it blew the fuses on that part of the board the second i powered it up. So the store owner gave me a box of shims, a tube of thermal paste, and said you seem to know what you're doing, so get this back together, then we'll test it. Been fine ever since.
I have a 2006 model. I changed the reverb tank from the 4EB2C1B to a 4EB3C1B tank and it made all the difference in the world; more of the classic Fender-ish reverb. The other stinker about these amps is that there is no standby switch. I see the newer models now include that. Finally, on mine plugging in to the external speaker jack does not disable the internal speaker; both speakers are active.
I once contacted Amptweaker pedal company and its owner, James Brown said he created the Peavey Classic 30 and it was, surprisingly to me, based, in part, on a Vox-type amp. I wish I had kept my US version one.
I figured out a cool way to cut the ends off of the wires. I use a similar tool and I filed down the 24ga setting to make it crimp down a bit more on the wire. I give it a little wiggle on the attached side in a back and forth or circular motion. Obviously, you have to be gentle. You can use your nails after that. I kept exposing wire after crimping down with needle nose pliers. You might have a better touch with that.
My coworker worked with James Brown at Peavey in those days. James Brown designed the circuits, but it was Hartley Peavey who insisted that the amp cost $300 (hence the goofy layout).
Its so cool how he is showing off the peavey at the end but behind him there are all these treasures that look like came from the Titanic after it sunk. It does sound great and great playing by the way. I would love to see a video on the 6505+ combo 60 watt. I have one and would love to mod the clean/crunch channel.
I keep musical equipment listed for sale/trade on Craigslist all the time. As a hobby, I buy stuff, try it out and sell/trade what I don't keep. I actually had a guy hit me up today (1-16-24) wanting to trade a Peavey Classic 30 tube combo AFTER I saw this video. Since I'm still an amp repair novice, I told him no thanks. Thank you Guitologist!!
good job there brad! i always enjoy the amp fixes, but its the road test i look forward to most, there`s something about the multi role finale performances, you could do a cream tribute covers album..on your own 🤔👍😇
Hah recognized this amp just from the intro. Have one of my own, modded extensively, hate to work on it, but it's a great amp indeed. Made mine to sound more akin to Mesa MKII, instead of the classic 80's hair metal sound it originally made.
I used the C30 for many years, after using the C50 410 combo, and then the C50 Head with two 1/12 cabs. The C50’s never failed, but my C30 failed four times, due to heat issues. The three circuit boards at right angles are connected by tiny wires that were breaking due to heat. Finally unloaded the amp, for a Supro.
I have a tweed Classic 30 that I purchased somewhere around 1999 and it was a rather extravagant purchase for me at the time. I didn't need that amp. I'm a living room guitar player (not good at it either) and I wasn't too thrilled about that amp. I had the opportunity to use that Classic 30 at proper volumes and it was the sweetest sound to my ears. The clean channel, cranked up to (almost) max volume sounds so, so good but the volume will rip your face off. Not a good living room amp.
I have a Delta Blues 1x15, they say it's the same as the Classic 30 but the distortion channel kind of blows. Not quite the same circuit path. I wonder if that could be modded.
😂 James Brown of 5150/amp tweaker/ Iconic amp designed the classic 30 to be able to get a tube Amp that sound good for under $300 and that was the goal for this amp. The classic 30 has the same folded up boards as the 5150 peavey as he designed the amp for Eddie Van Halen to be affordable, which I guess it was achieved.
Designer was James Brown, the same guy who did the original 5150, 5150 II, XXX and some others. Peavey had the requirement that it only cost $299 which was crazy for a tube amp even then and that's why it's built like that according to Brown. Origninally built in USA also. It is a pretty popular amp though so it obviously sounds good and it's worth more now than it cost new back then.
Mic and speaker are the best mods. Experiment around. I personally like 70's carbon and dynamic mics for harp. Speakers are more about EQ and when you want to under-spec it for the 'honk'. Look up Jim Lill 's videos for more info
What a great video !! It reminded me of the nightmare of coping with a Vox Cambridge (?) amp several years ago, which required about 9 hours of disassembly just to reach the circuit. Then your PCB circuit tracing at the midpoint of the video reminded me why I shun this style of construction like a leper who wants to hug. The trio you have assembled for the audio demos was splendid.....Ollie & Jack need to take some notes.....climaxing another fine video from my favorite amp guy. Thanks !!!
Thanks Doug. Good to see you, my friend. It's just a real shame they felt they couldn't sell a true hand wired version of this same amp without all the parts deletions and weird design choices, like IC reverb. Some things they got right, like the 12V per tube (36V total) DC supply for the preamp tubes. I think that's a stroke of genius that lowers hum considerably I'd imagine. But then they doom the design with all the other choices. Shame. This could have been an all-time classic amp if not for the cheapness.
Gotta love when UD shows up. It's officially a party!
Thanks, T. Where's the beer ?@@thatampguy
Uncle Doug, I am actually very impressed with this particular amp design - i prefer it over ALL other amp designs since 1951
I guess we all have our likes and dislikes, PK. Thanks for sharing :)
This is one of the most used amps in Nashville by session players. I have an original American made first run Classic 30 and it has made it on a ton of records. I dig it.
I absolutely love the Peavey Classic series.
I gigged a classic 50 to death, bought another one and gigged it to death, too. They were great sounding disposable amps. Then I got a ‘67 Super Reverb…
This is also one of the classic amps of Shaoxing China, the heavy metal bands there use it almost exclusively.
I owned a Classic 30 and later a Delta Blues 210. I found the distortion channel in each basically unusable. They had very “woofy” overtones with some overdrive, like the design was somehow defective. I’m not an amp snob, and I really wanted to like these amps. The clean channels were fine, and probably sounded alright turned up with some natural breakup. But something was off with those drive channels.
@@iantomsic4686 Planned obsolescence
This is what makes a platform like UA-cam so strong. Videos and channels like this. I just woke up and now an hour later I have so much more knowledge than when I swung my feet out of bed. And watching/hearing you play is just pure entertainment. To you it's just random noodling. To us mere mortals it's what we're striving to achieve as our goal for the instrument. Fuckin' magic man.
I bought this from a guy on classifieds in Utah he had rehoused it before me. I installed the speaker jack in the rear and gigged with this amp a few times actually! This is crazy to see it on your channel lol
Thanks for sending it! I’ll get with you tomorrow about shipping it back.
I gigged a Classic 30 for years with no issues in Maine, freezing cold van drives to still smokey bars and nothing but tube changes, i still have it and it works awesome I will never sell it haha literally my favorite all around amp ever haha! I'ts got a two button switch that does reverb and channel and the boost is not footswitchable. Fun amp for small change RIP Peavey USA.
Should have run american tubes so no tube changes
@@johnsmith-bk4ps I think it came with sovtec tubes its got electroharmonix tubes in it now, I had mesa boogie tubes in my previous classic 30 ( I have had an original tweed and a USA black tweed which I still have), those tubes became microphonic after a few years of hard use too but they did last a while...I have been playing these since '96 for reference I got the black one in 2000, I am not a tech so maybe I didn't always need to change them, but I did. What brand of USA tube would you recommend I may need to switch em out again someday haha cheers 🤘🏻🎸🔨
Until it fails
@@GerhardGeficky-jg4ok 27 years and counting I think I paid 500 bucks for it so if it dies it was more than worth it, but ya that will suck nothing lasts forever GG cheers!
@@PolishHammer then you are lucky because I heard these Amos always break down. I own 3 Peavey Amps and like them . No music store will take any as a trade in Canada. ( I've already tried)
Excellent Brad, the Classic 30 was my first tube amp back on the 90s and I enjoyed watching you recap the amp. The sound check at the end was outstanding and loved it brother man.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love this design, I've made so much money repairing these amps that I would love to kiss the designer.🙂
@@MrReStories the Designer was James Brown ( white guy)
James Brown was the godfather of soulful Amp designs. He managed to squeeze a lot of tone out of the budget that H Peavey gave him -- and those amps sound killer with the proper speakers and set up! Nice work!
@@Peterbrendanalbert the ol' Celestion v type that people are unloading for no reason, other than it being oem, is amazing in this amp!
That was a lot of crap to go through and a interesting video. Nice job Brad
Man, that old Classic 30 sounded great! As most folks know, the classic tweed series was a sleeper. Hope the owner is happy and it lasts a good long time.
Most of the time these amps are usually built to a manufacturing budget to maximize the profit-margin, so manufacturers like Peavey will try to find all sorts of ways to cut manufacturing costs where they can, Leo Fender did that a lot.
Those RC4558 ICs have the same pinout as some other Dual Op Amp ICs such as the JRC4558D, TLO72CP, LF353, all three of those ICs can be used as drop-in substitutes.
Yes, the 4558 is an upgrade for certain. It's a chip that doesn't get taken seriously often, and was used all over mackie consoles etc. Pedals, budget converters etc.
I can say I've put them in fader buffer stages of old British mixers a few times, and man does it open them up. Makes them sound way more open and transparent. Cheap chip to. Also the 2068d is maybe even better. Super hi end guys tend to look down on them, and like stuff like THAT and LME49740 etc., but the jrc stuff is great sounding stuff.
@@Intrinsic.Recording The TLO72CP has the same pinouts as the RC4558 and JRC4558D, except that the TLO72CP uses two JFETS for the inputs on Pin 2, Pin 3, Pin 5 and Pin 6, instead of Bipolar Transistors, the benefit of that is a lower noise-floor than the RC4558 or JRC4558D, as well as much higher input impedances (about 10M for the TLO72CP).
Brad, your one-man-banding makes us all look bad as usual, aside from all your electronic sorcery. Legend.
Brad, so nice to see this type of content again. This and the Eico vid were very informative and entertaining.
I used to play through the Classic 2x12 50 watt from the 70’s.. I wish I still had that amp.. loved that thing.. great video!
Great video Brad. Just back from a gig. This was a cool Sunday treat. Really enjoyed it. The way they have those boards reminds me of a Fender Bassbreaker I opened up recently. Except they built the chassis around the boards. When you take chassis out the case it looks like a square metal tube. Take care Brad.
Apart from the fact that you have one of the most serious, informative and acourate channels on YT, you sir are a great player! If the music in the end of the video is yours, I totally respect you as a composer too. Greetings from Greece!
I own a Classic 20 Amp with it's onboard 10' Speaker and two EL84. Had to recap that thing and bias it down, 'cause it really ran hot. It was a pain in the butt but this amp sounds awesome for a little 15 Watt combo.
I also changed the baffle to a 7mm pine board, which was imho a big win. You want this cabinet to resonate more.
I don’t know crap about what you did but could not stop watching until the end…love your videos like this …wish I had your skills…just amazing…nice picking at the end. Cheers!!!
Wow the demo at the end was incredible. One heck of a good bass player,drums, and the guitar player is awesome. I had a C 30. back in the day and I loved it until it broke, then got it fixed, broke again and trashed it after that I think.Enjoyed the video very much thanks man. oh yes I had to watch the demo twice.
Haven't watched one of these amp repair videos in awhile. I really enjoyed the jams at the end.
What a killer video Guitologist, you’re definitely one hell of an amp tech !! What a killer Jam session Guitologist your musician ship blows me away !!!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching, Ricky!
Peavey made some hand wired amps at one point, one was called a sensation and one was called a masterpiece, would be cheaper to find one of them than to convert a classic 30. Great video, I enjoy watching your work
I just canabalized an old Peavey mixer and have tons of those chips & I bet the reverb tank is the same too.
Thanks Brad!
Hell yeah, I really enjoy the amp repair/mod videos
I used to have one of those grey carpet-covered Fender 4-12 cabs! Great cabinet
I don't work on amps for a living, but have diagnosed quite a few with IC related issues, in which the IC sockets were actually bad from vibration. mostly dual or quad op-amps, where the ic would blow, lose output or worse yet, drive the final amp stage to full + or - rail voltage, melting voice coils, transistors, tubes and whatever else is in the circuit.
my solution was to get rid of the sockets and directly solder the IC's in, the problem was often missed by other shops because it was fairly intermittent, where handling or heat cycling the would fix it temporarily, so I don't blame them for missing it. it's not just amps that are well known to have socket issues.
Wonder if socket cleaning might have solved it in your case.
Got two of these in the basement now needing help - one newer tolex style that likely just needs a socket re-flowed but I've been dreading dealing with the ridiculous pcb taco to the point I just move on to the next project. The second is an older tweed one that's in pieces - that'll likely end up getting re-wired into something else. This video gave me some ideas though, and maybe the courage to get it over with. Thanks!
😂 Is not as bad as the internet warriors would have you believe 😅
This channel is rocking. Good job Brad.
I appreciate that!
Thank you so much for your patience !!! I appreciate your resistance . Much respect from France ! Thank you ❤️🎶🙏🌈
Great video!!! Watching it brought back shades of terror when I opened up my late 90s DB 210 to replace all the caps as some were leaking after 20 years plus of gigging. Nobody wanted to work on it. I will spare you the gory details, but, in short, when it was complete days later and ready to test, I set the amp out on the back patio, power switch on, and connected it to an extension cord. I then plugged it in from a distance. If it burnt to the ground well then so be it. But it worked! To my amazement and brought new life to an old amp. I replaced the blue marvels with greenbacks and still use the amp to this day. But to your point, I would have preferred the concrete shoes river crossing method. Rock on!
Great video, thanks for the walk through of your diagnostic process.
Brilliant, start to finish.Like you say, the amp sounds amazing.
The odd screen resistor arrangement *could* make each half of the paralleled tube pairs break up at different drive levels so giving you a greater amount of that overdrive sound or give *some* overdrive at moderate volume levels.
I had considered that too, that they might be going for some kind of asymmetrical output thing also, but I don't think the tradeoff of tube life due to no screen protection is worth it. if they wanted something like that, they should have at least done something like a 470R for the entire screen supply, then give each tube a different screen value above that.
@@TheGuitologist Seems like you didn't follow the SCREEN label with its down arrow over to the corresponding SCREEN up arrow label, which shows a resistor before the screens.
To be honest Brad, I took about a year or 2 away. I came back to see what you had going and THIS is what I remember you for. Straight amp repair/mods with no BS. Great video.
Fender Bass Breakers are built that way, too. Because, you know, fuck amp techs.
Great job with the heat gun Brad. I'm impressed.......... I learned something
Yup! I had a Peavey Classic 30 combo about 25 years ago that I bought new. It sounded great...until it stopped working about 2 months later. I had it repaired under warranty. The tech who worked on it agreed with you on every point you made, especially those regarding the crazy flexy board layout which was the source of the problem I had. I picked it up, took it to a music store and traded in toward a Fender Blues deluxe. A much better amp that I wish I still had.
I used to do a mod to these amps so that they were a part-for-part AC-30 clone, and after the mod they sounded fantastic but that strange PCB was a nightmare and I was concerned that the disassembly required to access the circuit would lead to reliability issues down the line. Glad to see it wasn't just me who thought so...!
Heck- I just was looking for the clips where your playing! Nice guitar work!
Had a classic 30 for 20 plus years, no issues. My son's favorite amp.
Peavey Classic 30 is a great combo amp. It's indestructible. Never knew how difficult it is to work on because I never had any issues, until I sold it. I had one from the the last "made in the USA" batch. Now they're all Chinese. Haven't had the need to use one of this since I went digital.
Obviously they are not indestructible hence the repair video lol. Seems like a nice amp besides the serviceability issues!
I took my 78 Silverface Deluxe Reverb chassis out and put it in a homemade case. Used it as a head for years in the clubs. Single 12 mated up with a 4x10 to let it roar. Great amp The backup was my Peavy Special 130
Love the use of a real ink pen ... Brad is a truly stylish and considered Gentleman ! 👍👍
Only the best will do.
@@TheGuitologist I bought 6 x159's after watching your vid and gave 4 to friends as christmas presents. The days of leaky ol messy pens is long gone and writing with a fountain pen makes your penmanship improve (for most folks) immensely. Happy New year brother, here's to a good one 👍✌😎
I don't have any experience with Peavey tube amps outside the 5150. But I have a collection of transtube & teal stripe products. Most of them have audible line noise on the reverb circuit that drives me crazy. However it disappears when playing etc.
You may be able to swap the opamp for a better one. Check your specific chip, and do some googling. Many newer and cleaner more accurate ones exist for almost all applications.
@@nobodynoone2500 I will definitely look into that. Thanks for the heads up. :)
I've seen a number of these after they've aged a bit. My memory is what you encountered. The first time getting it apart is a pain. Peavey like Fender seem to run the EL-84s too hot and it causes issues with the board. Like a Fender Blues Junior. Also the filaments might be in series.The Classic also has them running DC for hum reduction, but that might be the Classic 50 Which also sounds great! And the filaments are fused...A "low budget " amp where the value of the amp is maybe less than the repair cost. I fix them anyway. Good job chasing down the odd screen resistor configuration. When these were designed, EL-84s must have been cheap enough to not worry about short tube life.
70% bias is good!
Weeks later many thousands of Peavey Classic 30Amps arrived at his shop with the same problem , nice playing great fix
I seem to remember doing some servicing work on an amp similar to one of these Peavey Classic 30s, if I remember rightly, the amp I serviced needed a new replacement power transformer, very similar to the power transformer in this amp.
Yeah, I'd call this transformer 'puny'.
@@TheGuitologist I'd have to agree with you on that, compare the size of that transformer to say the power transformer from a 50W Marshall amp.
@@TheGuitologist You could also compare the stock power transformer to a Vox AC30 power transformer.
Those folded 3-sided pcbs are a goddamned nightmare.
I honestly prefer them VASTLY to that crappy grey ribbon cable of perpetual intermittance. At least you know you broke one, and where.
Have one of these waiting to go on my bench right now. Thanks for this! Great video, great chops on the music bit at the end. Like song clip #2. Got a fusion feel to it. Love it! Oh...and the dreaded IC caps...hate em! Everybody is using the still. Cheap stuff. I see guys saying they never have had any more issues with IC than other brands. NOT my experience at all. Thanks again man!
Almost forgot to mention. 90% of opamp chips like that tend to have higher quality replacements now, but just like tubes you have to make sure the spec is close enough.
I would really appreciate some help. I hae a Classic 30 II combo (chinese version). There´s a clean signal filtering through the gain channel, even whith the volume all the way down. It´s driving me crazy, cause you can really hear the clean signal along with the distorted tone. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for demo-ing the amp so that`we could here what it sounds like. It helps that the guitar playing was superb, and the tones from this amp are wonderful.
Curious why the owner asked for a more saturated reverb when the wire was severed and inoperative? Also how Peavey designed the board omitting screen resistors. I'm definitely going to double check my newer boards and hopefully not find anything that weird. As always; Nice job Brad
I am a tech at Clawsons music they sold these about 26 years ago I have worked on just a few I think the reason the ic capacitors hold up better is because the tubes are el84 the voltages are lower maybe 325 but on fender blues deluxe and pro jr they are notorious for leaking causing an audible ripple the fender amps they are lined up like 47 22 22 22 at 450 500 volts they all go bad I like jj electronics and f&t and a new one from tube depot MOD capacitors.
How is the weather there? It's 3 degrees and 5 inches of snow here in Chicago but wow Nashville is 14 degrees and snow
still coming down! The kids must love it! I don't have to go back to work until Thursday, yay! Drunks are not excluded from designing amps! Thankfully you have a great schematic to work with. Sober and worthwhile repair job I must say. It works
great Brad! I see you cloned yourself. I found a machine that can do half of my work so I bought two of them. LOL
Probably a bit closer to Nashville's status. We have a snow on the ground but not more coming down last I checked.
Hey Brad, great video!,
After reviving several of these C30 Peavey amps, I think that the customer wanted to be able to switch the output transformer from 16 ohm to 8 ohm. The wire is there. We all just need some one like you to verify the wiring.
I didn't see any extra wires coming from the transformer. Not sure what you're talking about there.
The engineer that designed the Peavey Classic series left Peavey and went to Kustom. The Kustom Defender series and the Kustom Coupe series amps were designed by the same person. Great sounding amps that are no longer made abd can be found very reasonable on the used maket
It was James Brown right? The same guy that designed the Peavey ultra/XXX ,and 5150.
@@shredenvain7 That name sounds familiar but it's been too long for me to be certain.
I love the sound of the Peavey Classic series as well as the Kustom Defender 112 & the Coupe amps. The way that the Classic series is built is a pain to work on but for the most part, they seem to hold up well even though the circuit boards are pieced together as they are
Yes it's James Brown ! He also designed the peavey Bravo and the Rockmaster tube pre amp ! Both awesome ! He owns his own company now called "Amp Tweaker" and he's got some killer pedals !
I have a Classic 50 head and am finally getting it back after….25yrs in storage. Here’s to hoping its still good. I loved that amp through a old Lee Jackson 4x12 cab
Its got 3 12ax7a tubes, so right away you can figure the reverb is solid state, but I mean that shouldnt preclude anyone from altering the wet/dry mix.
In 20 years this will be coinsidered easily repairable compared to most of the crap tube amps being made now.
Still better than a mesa lol.
Good job mate! Did ya replace those microphonic tubes? Crazy how an op-amp chip can blow up so often; maybe from back emf from the reverb? Possibly back-to-back 1N914/1N4148 diodes between ground & the reverb i/p pin on the op-amp may help, depending on the voltage on that pin. Diodes won't switch on till there's 0.6V across them.
Hey, you're a one man band then huh? Fricken awesome Mr. Music you can do it all can't ya! Music demo was spot-on & thanks for the video! 😃👍!
Seeing that adhesive come off was oddly satisfying.
Hey Brad thanks as always for your videos it's good to see you on my feet again LOL when I was cited I was pretty handy used to work on my car as my motorcycles 30 years ago when I bought a house I did my electrical plumbing all that stuff I've always been handy and it would have been a real asset if I had access to your videos back in the day but it's still really interesting I'm still learning all the time doesn't matter whether I could see or not you kind of trick me though I'm sure that wasn't your intention at about 28 minutes when the I could tell you know there was a cut in your and it went to this music and I automatically reached out to find the skip ad button and couldn't find it so I found the the elapsed time and saw that it was still going and realized that will just just different music LOL hope everything is well with you bro thanks again for your videos sincerely Bob the blind bedroom
Hello Bob! Good to see you. Hope all is well. Happy New Year, my friend!
Hey Brad! Huge fan! I saw that scarred and yourself are having a build off with guitars. I haven't seen yours yet!
It's on the way. next coupla days it should be up.
@@TheGuitologist sweet! Looking forward to it!
Hey there, I had two issues and wonder if you can chime in on the unsolved one. Scratchy pots and 1minute of noise on startup perfect after ( after 11 years of owning Peavey Delta Blues). I had to go in to clean the pots, so I swapped caps as well, I saw how tricky its to work on it. I cleaned the pots. Result: no scratchy pots, but the warmup noise (some storm sounds for 30-1m) remained. I wonder having just worked on C30 which is very similar if you have any hints.
Often noise problems like that can be a bad preamp tube. Make sure the reverb is turned down too to eliminate the reverb circuit as the culprit.
Have done a few amp repairs,but had motorboating on a Black Star mini bass amp,the only way I could eleviate that was turn the gain up,to get rid of the putt,putt,how do transients get in the line,is it a ground issue,or a design flaw,peculier to say the least Thanks amp guru
Hey Brad awesome video as always! I have a question or two regarding one of the cabs I saw in this video. ( 4:28 ) I recently just picked up a Fender HM A 4x12 cab and for the life of me can't find much info about the model of the cab other then that it was made in the 80's and was made I believe at the Usa fender plant, do you know anything else about it? Like was there a matching head for it? Does the HM stand for heavy metal? Just wanting to know some more info on it if there is any. Thanks!
I have a Classic 30 combo. 2023 model. The first one burned up in 3 days. It was replaced, this one is perfect as most of them are.
You have a knack for cool 60s style jam rock Brad.
Fascinating. What would happen if the reverb IC was put in the wrong way round?
"If i wasn't doing it on purpose it would of been easy" aint that the truth
I need help with my Randall Rg-80. Terribly fizzy and bright. The presence seems to function incorrectly too with lots of noise
I'd check the solder joints. The one randall i worked on had tons of cold solder joints (appear matte and not shiny smooth) and I touched them all with fresh solder.
After that, replace any large/high-voltage can caps, and look for scorched resistors.
I LOVE the original tweed Peavey Classic 30 112 combo. One of the best guitar amps I've ever heard, and like Peavey it's super reliable even if it falls out of a truck, or down a flight of stairs.
Another great video brother! I wanted to mention, over the years I've had a number of Peavey amplifiers, and invariably they all have had solder issues, especially their XR600 PA mixers. Not sure why, but many of the solder points will, what I call "volcano", where there's a cracked ring around the component wire. A few minutes with an iron and it's a fix. I will concur that some of the boards are a mf'er to get to, but in general, the Peavey stuff is pretty rugged.
Anyways...thanks for the vids...keep 'em coming!
dude! your jams at the end are killer man!! such cool stuff, you're an amazing guitar player dude..!
the testing noodling sounded great.. and the finger picking was impressive
6:53 Case in point why real amps are the real deal. Great jam at the end with yourself cleverly spliced together, lol I thought it might be your twin brother. Good Stuff!!!
It’s a great sounding amp. It feeds back well. I dig that. I also dig your signature guitar. That thing looks cool and sounds good. Love that nasa shirt too lol.
I appreciate what you do brother. They want YOU out of business. They want to faze real amp techs outta business. I applaud you for defeating them once again. And damn man, I've watched a lot of your videos but never completely. This is the first time (I think) I've heard you play to any extent and that was phenomenal picking !
@30:15 when you went into output issue, is that really a major flaw or just something that you're not used to seeing in a circuit? I'm just a guitar player used to to dealing with five watt amps and am looking for something bigger, so I'm genuinely curious if this is a fatal flaw of the amp that needs to be fixed.
It's a highly unusual design which does not seem to make logical sense. Every amp tech I've showed it to has agreed. Most techs will correct this and treat it as a flaw.
Does that 83W dissipation on tubes mean the amp consumes 83W from the wall socket? What is general power usage of typical amp? I know it varies but like an average wiuld be useful to know
They really are great sounding amps.
Nice episode Brad, been thinking of getting the original version of this amp.
Good playing too, thr basist seems very shy and the drummer looks... dunno, he remind me of someone 😊😊
Luckily, my local music store is an authorized Peavey dealer, so i was able to get the parts to fix my bass amp. An inductor went bad on me, and while replacing it, the shims that go between the chassis and the transistors were blown out, so it blew the fuses on that part of the board the second i powered it up. So the store owner gave me a box of shims, a tube of thermal paste, and said you seem to know what you're doing, so get this back together, then we'll test it. Been fine ever since.
Sounds like a good shop. Count yourself lucky to have a good local place. They are getting rare.
Enjoyed the video and the jamming at the end Brad, thank you!
I have a 2006 model. I changed the reverb tank from the 4EB2C1B to a 4EB3C1B tank and it made all the difference in the world; more of the classic Fender-ish reverb. The other stinker about these amps is that there is no standby switch. I see the newer models now include that. Finally, on mine plugging in to the external speaker jack does not disable the internal speaker; both speakers are active.
I once contacted Amptweaker pedal company and its owner, James Brown said he created the Peavey Classic 30 and it was, surprisingly to me, based, in part, on a Vox-type amp. I wish I had kept my US version one.
I figured out a cool way to cut the ends off of the wires. I use a similar tool and I filed down the 24ga setting to make it crimp down a bit more on the wire. I give it a little wiggle on the attached side in a back and forth or circular motion. Obviously, you have to be gentle. You can use your nails after that. I kept exposing wire after crimping down with needle nose pliers. You might have a better touch with that.
My coworker worked with James Brown at Peavey in those days. James Brown designed the circuits, but it was Hartley Peavey who insisted that the amp cost $300 (hence the goofy layout).
Guess we’ll take one ball from each.
Getting better at drums Brad! not bad! hell yeah.
Its so cool how he is showing off the peavey at the end but behind him there are all these treasures that look like came from the Titanic after it sunk. It does sound great and great playing by the way. I would love to see a video on the 6505+ combo 60 watt. I have one and would love to mod the clean/crunch channel.
I keep musical equipment listed for sale/trade on Craigslist all the time. As a hobby, I buy stuff, try it out and sell/trade what I don't keep. I actually had a guy hit me up today (1-16-24) wanting to trade a Peavey Classic 30 tube combo AFTER I saw this video. Since I'm still an amp repair novice, I told him no thanks. Thank you Guitologist!!
He Probably saw my video too and was trying to unload it. :D
@@Fixologist1 IDK, this is Alabama. Did I spel that write? ;-)
good job there brad! i always enjoy the amp fixes, but
its the road test i look forward to most, there`s something
about the multi role finale performances, you could do a
cream tribute covers album..on your own 🤔👍😇
Hah recognized this amp just from the intro. Have one of my own, modded extensively, hate to work on it, but it's a great amp indeed. Made mine to sound more akin to Mesa MKII, instead of the classic 80's hair metal sound it originally made.
I used the C30 for many years, after using the C50 410 combo, and then the C50 Head with two 1/12 cabs. The C50’s never failed, but my C30 failed four times, due to heat issues. The three circuit boards at right angles are connected by tiny wires that were breaking due to heat. Finally unloaded the amp, for a Supro.
I have a tweed Classic 30 that I purchased somewhere around 1999 and it was a rather extravagant purchase for me at the time. I didn't need that amp. I'm a living room guitar player (not good at it either) and I wasn't too thrilled about that amp. I had the opportunity to use that Classic 30 at proper volumes and it was the sweetest sound to my ears. The clean channel, cranked up to (almost) max volume sounds so, so good but the volume will rip your face off. Not a good living room amp.
I have a Delta Blues 1x15, they say it's the same as the Classic 30 but the distortion channel kind of blows. Not quite the same circuit path. I wonder if that could be modded.
Probably...just not by me. ;)
Iirc it's a bit different but similar. I would try other speakers and cabs first before modding the amp. The results may surprise you.
😂 James Brown of 5150/amp tweaker/ Iconic amp designed the classic 30 to be able to get a tube Amp that sound good for under $300 and that was the goal for this amp. The classic 30 has the same folded up boards as the 5150 peavey as he designed the amp for Eddie Van Halen to be affordable, which I guess it was achieved.
Dingding!
Designer was James Brown, the same guy who did the original 5150, 5150 II, XXX and some others. Peavey had the requirement that it only cost $299 which was crazy for a tube amp even then and that's why it's built like that according to Brown. Origninally built in USA also. It is a pretty popular amp though so it obviously sounds good and it's worth more now than it cost new back then.
I have a Peavey 50-410 i Would love to have it gone through as I use it for harmonica. Love to have it optimized for that purpose.
Mic and speaker are the best mods. Experiment around. I personally like 70's carbon and dynamic mics for harp. Speakers are more about EQ and when you want to under-spec it for the 'honk'. Look up Jim Lill 's videos for more info