Hommes secret weapon is the fact he can get tones out of amps most people don’t want. It’s brilliant, I take inspiration from that and the particular amps he used
@@amremorse Yes and no. His riffs and scales are very traditional (polka, hungarian, gregorian), however they are included in a genre of music where they aren't typically heard. What makes it extremely unique is the tone. If you want a clear example of this, watch QotSA songs performed electric versus acoustic. The riffs and scales change as they are dependent on the amp, guitar, tone, pedals, etc., to work. Homme talks about this.
@@Goldmanvision believe me, it's incredibly complimentary. I don't wanna watch non-hippie, non-nerdy, braggadocious UA-camrs with perfectly clean state of the art studios which are unobtainable and NOT covered in all of the things that show the person's passion (the "messy" workbenches that aren't even that messy). Ideal 💕
This was a clear attempt on Homme’s part to keep prices of the Gorilla GG-25 with “Tube Stack” from skyrocketing. Way to throw them nerds off the scent, Josh!
That’s what I always heard him say. I saw one article that mentioned the peavey. He said gorillas all have the sweet terrible, as he called it. An amp on the verge of explosion
Funnily enough, that tape recorder trick you said you used back in the day is the key to the sound of early argentinian blues rock records, with the oval speaker and everything! They used Geloso and National recorders, among others. Great examples of this sound are "Pappo's Blues 3" by Pappo's Blues and "Manal" by Manal. Greetings from Argentina!!
My eldest brother was a ham radio operator who liked to work the low AM bands. He discovered that his LF preamp and power amp also worked fairly well for audio once you matched the output impedance.
Also Linear line signal amplifiers were used on citizen band (CB) radios in the "side band" frequencies for a similar purpose of skip radio signals across the earths atmosphere and talking to other people a great distance away. I actually talked to people in Canada, Mexico, Scotland, and even Australia from a single location at about 8,000ft elevation depending on weather conditions.
I never knew exactly how or why (not as well versed with electronics in this way) but one of my old amps, when i would play on it and truckers were nearby they could both hear me and i could hear them. I know they could hear me because they'd start talking about how they were hearing someone playing (insert song here) on guitar over their radio. Does anyone know why that is, because i always found it fascinating
Check the 1 minute 57 second mark of their "Head Like a Haunted House" music video. I believe this is that amp you show with the speaker through the top. I still have no clue of the brand but it is as clear of a picture you're gonna get of the front panel of this thing. It does appear to be a mag recorder of some kind as well. I've been trying to find one for years after I noticed it in the music video. Josh has always tried to keep people off the trail of his gear since at least the Desert Sessions, even when his "secret weapon" could be as simple as a Boss EQ pedal into a DS-1.
As a lifelong fan of QOTSA and music production, it’s always very exciting to learn a new thing about Homme’s process. Thanks for sharing this info and I agree wholeheartedly as soon as I saw the decade on Mark Ronson I knew it was a red herring.
During the TCV-era Josh mentioned that a lot of guitars from that record was plated through old radios converted to amplifiers and said that he would put up Alain Johannes (TCV touring guitarist and frequent collaborator) against any other guitarist and any other anplifier. Needless to say Homme is always experimenting with his live setup in general and his studio setup in particular. I really doubt there is a secret weapon, more likely there is a dozen secret weapons...
Josh has used a lot of amps over the years and has a lot of different "sounds"... Tubeworks Mosvalve, Peavey Musician, old tube hifis, old Gibsons, all sorts of pedals... Livingroom Gear Demos goes a lot of sound alike videos for QOTSA and Kyuss. The photos from SFTD sessions with Eric Valentine show tons of amps, cabs and mics all being used at the same time.
And let's not forget Blackmore, who ran his guitar through an Akai tape deck's preamp before sending it to the Marshall head. He did this in the studio as well as when playing live.
I have an I belive an 80s teak 1/2 inch reel to reel at this point only 2 out 8 tracks only record . Ihave thought about using it as an inbrween the source for instrument to another recorder to see if I could capture the tape vibe at all... or something to manipulate the sound in any wau Positive .. Thanks
@@thomasbushnell884 On some older decks, you have to use the tape or head alignment switch/toggle/adjuster to switch to the other tracks in pairs. ....Then use a studio deck to play them all back together at once.
Hommes secret is he is a great guitarist. He could sound amazing playing anything (which was set up correctly) We like to delude ourselves that we suck because we dont have this amp or that guitar.
I have the Peavey Special 130 and it's so absurdly delightful. I bought it for a Pixies cover band because it's what Joey used live for the early stuff. I've hung onto it because of the onboard reverb, sheer volume, and amazing gain channel EQ.
Whatever his secret weapon may be, it is only a small part of his magic. Queens of the Stone Age & Eagles of Death Metal are my favorites! Fran, you're damn awesome as well.
I have a Peavey Backstage Plus (35 watts with 10" speaker) that I bought new in 1986. It has the same pre-amp and the sounds you can get out of it are great. I take it down and clean all the pots every couple of years. It's my favorite amp to use when I'm playing at a friends house or quietly in my house.
Paul Weller used a Peavey Backstage 30 a lot. If you watch UA-cam videos of them live, you’ll see it stage right next to him, mic’ed up. He also had an AC-30, and sometimes a Marshall stack behind him, but I think they were more about art direction/promo requirements.
I have a Peavey Studio Chorus 210. Its the most versatile amp I've ever owned. Its so over engineered. Over the years this amp has encouraged me to shed all my pedals and simply plug straight into the amp. I get endless varieties of sounds and its really liberating to have such a simplified rig.
I had a Bandit 65 for years. Was my first real amp. A friend of mine was more of a tube amp purist and would hate on solid state amps to no end, including mine. I always really really loved the clean tone of it, though. Super clear and present. The overdrive was also cool. Sounds like razor blades or broken glass when cranked all the way, which has a certain appeal
Hi Fran. Thanks for the great video. Was the reel to reel you had a Wollensak, by any chance? I ask only because I recently found one on the street in Philly and discovered the joy of playing my electric through it
Hi Fran. Are those Peaveys of yours solid-state? I have a 90s Bandit Solo Series 112 (teal stripe, US made) and although it's getting too heavy for me to lug around these days I love the sound of it. Best wishes!
I have all vintage peavey bass gear, but I love it! Picked up a bandit 65 for 30 bucks Aud a few years back. A flush ou of the pots and its been brilliant.
I would if its local! They are a great amp, built like a brick outhouse so great for gigging. One of my regrets is my old bandmate had one and he upgraded to an Orange amp and sold the Peavey, I had first dibs on it and was tempted but I already had a Marshall Valvestate (still got it) as my gig amp that was doing everything I needed from it.
The early run of the Studio Pro 40's had a weird glitch in the preamp where you could max the saturation and back it off just barely for a little extra boost. I might have been just cheap pots, idk, but it seemed like it was a little fuller when it was on that setting. Got a celestion for my backstage and it was a world of difference. It was my first amp that had distortion and reverb! The Studio Pro was my older brother's. We made a lot of noise in those days! Great video Fran!
also had the Studio Pro 40, thing was a tank, had the awesome "Saturation" circuit & a real nice spring reverb & the pull-thick on the high tone control. Used it for gigs & recording for many years. Wish I still had it...
Thank you for a walk down memory lane, my first amp was a Bogen that my father pulled out of a dumpster for me. I used a Radio Shack speaker tower with it and snap that was a loud amp! I had a baby Peavey that I gave away when I emptied my storage unit. Good times!
First of all, Josh didn't use the Decade until Songs for The Deaf. And it's only for recording. It has to do with speaker size and how that particular combo records. Not just the preamp. Much like a Fender champ. What you're suggesting is to just get a Deluxe or a Princeton instead of a Champ. It's not his secret weapon as much as a layer to his sound mixed with other amps. It was mainly used as a bass amp as well. On Rated R he used a Gorilla amp. I know because he borrowed my roommate's. Also they used the same Gorilla amp for all the guitars on EODM records. Josh has never used the Decade on stage. But he does use some higher watt SS Peavey heads mixed in with his Ampegs and even AC 30s. Yes it's true that the other 80s Peaveys have similar gain stages but they are not exactly the same. I know because I talked to the builder of those Peaveys. He said the closest was the Audition. But again it's the speaker size and how it records. Def did not use it in the Kyuss days. That was a Tube Works head and Ampegs used for live purposes. They were all about low tunings and loud bass live. Buying a Bandit is a better deal but only if you're trying to use it as a main amp and it's not going to sound exactly like josh. More important is the tuning. Any loud clean high headroom amp with the pedals he uses is going to get you there. Most important too is he always used the neck pickup. Always. So a medium output clear neck pickup and tuning is gonna get you there. My friend makes a Decade preamp pedal if someone wants that. His name is Chris Duggan and his company is N.O.C. Pedals on Facebook or instagram. Very reasonable and you dont have to carry around or buy an old Peavey amp. I have one and it nails it. My first amp was a Decade so I have intimate knowledge of how they sound. It's not a great sound but records well. But again its just a layer mixed with many other amps.
Over two decades ago we used a similar Peavy amp for gigs. This was because one of our amps was stolen and the studio where it was stored felt bad they loaned us one of these amps. I used to have my guitar hooked up to it as I basically always played with overdrive. The venue would mic it up to the PA and it really did sound fantastic. So much so we always begged to use that amp at gigs. Pretty sure it was one of the same amps as I remember the blue pot. People used to laugh at us bringing this little amp on stage until they heard it in context!
I used a bandit 65 for a while and loved it then went to an bandit 80 watt and liked it too. I'm 77 and saw a B/65 and could barely pick it up, apparently it had gained weight over the years;0)
If you saw Eric Valentines (now taken down video) about the recording of Songs for the Deaf, he only mentions the Decade for the Nick's bass tone. Its blended with a DI and an SVT. Eric claimed that the decade was most used out of those three in the final mix.
I have a hard time walking away from a good deal on a sound. Years ago I picked up a Peavey Backstage (I'm guessing from the 90's) and it instantly became MY amp, my go-to, my sound. I don't know how it compares to the earlier 'blue knobs', but I do know that some of those little Peaveys pack some real magic.
Had a Rage 158 for my first amp. Buzzy by itself but the pre out into my second, a Roland JC-77, was surprisingly mean. Never sell your gear, kids. Hoarding is the answer.
LOVED the Decade ! Sounded awesome with a TS-9 and a Crybaby. Played Maiden, old Scorpions, and Priest . Then Came the Marshall Lead 12. I was going to buy another Decade but the prices are crazy.
I remember back in high school, a band mate had a Bandit but I remember not liking the sound at all. I had a Fender Yale Reverb and preferred it over the Bandit by far, at least for the clean tones. It would be interesting to check both those amps out again now that I am all growns up.
My first amp was the Audition 20 that I bought off my friends brother back in '88. Played my Mu-Tron III through with the gain up, and all the pull-knobs engaged. I got some seriously wicked sounds with that simple set up
@@joebleaux2321 I still have one too, but it wasn't my original one. That one took a dump on me. I didn't have the know-how to fix it, and my friend's brother Tim, who was studying to be an engineer, couldn't figure out what was wrong with it either. The one I have now I got somewhere around '93. It's suffering from dirty pots which I don't know how to fix. ...i suppose I cpuld look it up on youtube.
@@Mockingbird650 Deoxit will clean those pots. I got mine in the 90's cuz it didn't work. Took it apart & the input jack fell out, so I put it back & reflowed the soilder. I couldn't believe I fixed it
I used to have a Peavey like that in the trunk of my first car, plugged it into a cigarette lighter power inverter! That and a walkman cd player was my sound system! Not a recommended setup because both the car and the amp didn't live for long, but the sound that came out of that thing was powerful! (I think Songs for the Deaf played more than a few times on that system too!)
A similar thing happened twenty or so years ago, when it was decided that the "Josh Homme" secret weapon was that ugly Ovation Les Paul type guitar, and the prices went from $400 to $2400. However, that era of Peavey amps are really underrated.
That's probably why Homme was attempting to throw people off the scent of what he really has used for amps in the past. A lot of people have been enquiring for years. Plus, that's really only one thing for a specific distorted sound in his arsenal. There has been a lot of talk in the past about other sounds, especially what he was doing during the Songs for the Deaf sessions. I remember it involving Ampeg bass heads and a few other things. Eric Valentine has talked a bit about this in the past as he worked on that record for a bit before Homme fired him.
Fran, I want to let you know about an issue with your audio on this video. If you wear headphones, you will hear it oscillating from left to right channel. Have you changed your mic or mixer or codec or something? It is very distracting. PS: Happy new year.
I wish I'd started reading the comments after listening! Not sure it's oscillating... to me it sounds like the right hand channel has a different expander and compressor on it. (perhaps a camera mic?) If the talking is consistent for a while it's fine.
@@MyChannel-rf8ic It's temporal... and phase inversion usually feels funny. I'm pretty sure the attack or release time on the dynamics processing (hedging my bet there) for each channel is different. It feels like if there's a loud bit, the following words are lower in volume in the right channel as if that channel (perhaps with an attack overshoot) doesn't release it's compression as quickly as the left... but I'm guessing a bit.
I had a blue knob Peavey Bass amp for a long time before I moved up to an amp loud enough to really play shows. That little Peavey was indestructible though. I've blown a lot of amps, but that guy could tolerate volume cranked to 10 with gain anywhere you like. The DDT compression kicked in and kept you from frying it. The sound was great in the bedroom, but it mushed out next to a drummer. It was really good for recording though. Almost all the knobs pulled out for thick, shift, bright etc. Later on I tripped over the real cool Peaveys. The old Century, Musician and similar 70s amps from them have some amazing sounds in them. I think it's the Musician that had a preamp you could overdrive AND separate fuzz and distortion circuits in parallel. All solid state so a lot of people will turn up their nose. But I have never gotten a heavier bass sound with my Mesa, Aguilar or Acoustic rigs. Maybe with my old Traynor YBA1a (why did I ever sell that tube eating demon). The downside from older Peaveys is that early on Hartley Peavey would buy huge lots of parts at a discount then design to take advantage of whatever cheapo transitors he got. Seems a lot of those old ones have output mosfet failure. And the way they fail makes it easy for them to fry speakers.
9:03 Could that photo image be flipped, and the indicator actually be on the right side? Not pushing the "that's a Bogen" idea, just wondering. It's clearly cropped from a much larger photo, if the original had some text or some other clearly identifiable equipment where you're sure the photo is not (or IS) flipped, that could help rule it out.
Its from a video Lynch recorded were Homme plays a church organ guitar (yes, really!) through that little thing. Just search for it, its here on UA-cam...
Wow, just saw this video in my feed. What a blast from the past. My dad owns a peavey TnT combo bass amp with a 15" speaker in it. Also have a peavey Powered mixer that has to be from the 70s. It's a 7 channel with the wooden handles on the side. That thing still works somehow. Lol. I can't imagine anyone using those peavey solid state amps for Studio Recordings. At least not for high gain Rock or Metal guitars. I think they were made to use for practice amps or live shows. Of course I could be wrong but the only peavey I would put a mic in front of for riff recording would be a 5150.
That reminds me of Randy Bachman's "Herzog". It's basically a Fender Champ with a 10 ohm resistor for a speaker and a voltage divider to drop the level to an amp input friendly level. He used it on "No time" and "American woman".
Josh has lots of sounds. I've heard him talk about the Matchless Hot Box and the Tube Works RT-2100 being part of the signature Kyuss sound at one point. Back in the day, I tried to achieve a similar sound with a ProCo Turbo Rat and a Sovtek MIG 50.
The secret to Josh Homme's sound is a great producer/mixer. A lot of recorded guitars are DI so to attribute the magic sound to Soviet-made tube amps run through a variac at 96.2 volts, low-oxygen patch cables, reverse wound DeArmond pickups and all the rest are in the minds of the players.
An old Hitachi reel to reel was my first amp. You could just engage the record button then plug into the mic input. The speaker was an old oval type ripped from an abandoned b&w tv that I housed in a diy pine box and plugged into the headphone socket. Awesome sound though my dad didn't think so bless him. 😁 I have a Peavey Backstage 30 plus with reverb for home and a Special 130 I used to gig with. Great amps. 🖖
For years I used a hifi separates power amp as my guitar amp, it was crunchy and any pedals I used seemed to be exaggerated by it. I used a 2nd hand Russian Big Muff as my first dedicated distortion (later I modded it to have germanium transistors), later I got the Boss ODB3 and with a downtuned guitar I got comments that it was like the QotSA guitar sound. Personally I believe the amp is only part of the puzzle, other factors are that solidbody ovation guitar, the strings, tuning and how Josh Hommes fingers play.
One of the best distortion sounds I ever got was a little 15w Radio Shack Realistic PA I would turn all the way up through my Sunn 4-10 cab after I blew my Beta-lead head.... it distorted nice, and wasn't too loud
Wow! That's super cool and a testament to what can be achieved without a huge budget or amps that were worth thousands of dollars (or even Peavey Decades haha). I'm going to go scour my local thrift stores now.
Those 80s Peavey amps with the blue Saturation control are kind of interesting creatures. Yeah, the same preamp was used all across their SS lineup with modest alterations. My old Backstage Plus has pull thick (which seems to mostly bypass the tone stack) and a pull bright (which bypasses some rc to ground on the first stage op amp). The Saturation control is a convoluted clipping feedback network. The circuit gives two flavors of drive using the pre/post and/or the saturation knobs. I was never a fan of cranking the saturation up , but used sparingly, it gives its own unique voice. Despite a couple eternally scratchy pots, it's been a trooper for almost 40 years.
The first guitar I ever owned was a present from my parents and it was a brand new '83 Peavey Mystic and a used Backstage Plus.I honestly forget how it sounded but I guess not too good because they sell cheap today and I might get one to remember.
That secret weapon blurry picture looks suspishiouly like an early solid state Shure product. Maybe someone was modifying them for mag recorder use? it has obviously been modified due to the closed fan hole on top.
Just so happens, I have a Peavey Backstage Plus that a great friend gave me for nothing, it needed a replacement speaker so I ordered a new Jensen C10Q online, it definitely sounds good with a Jensen C10Q, but i made some extra mods to my Backstage Plus amp so that it also had a footswitch that plugged into a socket on the back panel, and also included led indicators.
Great video/discussion Fran! Also, the Strymon Deco has a fantastic "tape saturation" super light overdrive tonal range on tap as well, for those wanting that vibe; I LOVE IT
Great video i think your absolutely spot on. on a side note do you think you could sum the vocal mic to mono? the very slight stereo panning as you move was driving me crazy haha
I grew up by Peavey HQ, and remember when their gear was dirt cheap. I have a 5150 tube combo, and found a 100W bass amp for $30 in Goodwill. US made, and solid. Very rare now!
The peavey bandit is a great amp. I own a peavey bandit 112 with scorpion speaker version. Bought it from a friend, wasn't working for more than 2 hour's, and started to cut in and out. Replaced all the caps in the PSU circuit. And Changed all caps in the toon circuit. And it still have the same sound. But it sparkle more. It sounded before the mod quite dull. Great Video.
When I was in my teen band in the 60s our guitarist was obsessed with Brit guitarists and that overdriven valve sound ... His little locally made Jansen amp wouldn't do it , he called me up in the middle of the night to play me something and babbled about pre-amps and the like , I was the drummer and had no idea what he was on about but it did sound great . The following day at his parents place he showed us how he plugged into the 1/4 inch mic input his father's valve powered Grundig tape recorder and taken a line out of the back and into his little combo amp ... huge sound and the Clapton ' Beano ' Bluesbreakers tone just like that . A few years later , Paul Crowther ( the inventor of the Hot Cake pedal ) would build him New Zealand's first 200 watt valve amp and build the great granddaddy of the hot cake into my mate's guitar . Paul just converted a 40s valve radio into a 10 watt amp for the same guy , sounds great of course .
My first really decent amp was a Roland JC-120. All of us starting out in the 80s had Peaveys. They were really reliable and tough solid state amps. Still have a PA head from over 30 years ago and still functions
I just had a Series 130 drop in my lap. These 80s solid state amps are freaking cool! It has fantastic sound and I’m blown away by how well the reverb works on it
This brings back memories. As a teen I had a tiny Peavey audition 20 that plugged into my vans 12 volt cigarette lighter. This was great, because I literally lived in that van in the 1980s. I would work at a day labor a couple days a week, or work under the table tax free, swim in the Ft. Lauderdale or Daytona beach for a shower, and party with the people I’d met the rest of the time. That little amp was a screamer ! Lol. Later I got a Bandit 65. I liked them mainly because Peaveys were cheap & loud. These days I use Vox MV 50s. with the matching cab.
It's called a " film -o-sound"or something similar and sometimes sound amazing.There seems to be a trend of turning old electric devices into amps, int er esting idea,by the way I had one of those Peavys for a spare, extremely unremarkable sound, always worked.
Fran, Greg Valentine who produced QOTSA clarified that the Peavey Decade was used for BASS only on the record. Not guitar. He said Josh used a lot of Peavey in general, but the Decade was only used for bass on the sessions. Hope that helps.
Yeah Eric Valentine. The video is not online anymore (which speaks for it's autenticity) but I think every musician in the QOTSA fandom has a copy saved of it. Here's the short version for you guys that have not: Boost the mids, boost the mids, boost the mids.
I love my backstage plus. I just bought a 2nd one. I've owned a ton of amps and there is just something about it and it's real ... REAL tank reverb! Nuts. I'm going to hoard them and love them forever. Thanks for the video!
I have had a peavey rage for years and years. I’m not so much into that distortion sound anymore, but the clean channel is great. The boss katana is a great amp . I’m also using Marshall these days. I would love to find a way to fake the dumble amp sound
I've got the next generation Bandit 65 up from that, had it for almost 30 years, and its still going strong and is a great sounding amp. The clean tone is brilliant.
I live in Mobile ,Al and we always used Peaveys because they were made in Meridian, MS a few hours away so you could get a wholesale price at the factory vs retail at a store....besides their amazing quality. Great video Fran!!!!
I'm currently living in Meridian, MS. Got to meet Hartley Peavey when I worked as a photo developer technician at the Eckerd's across from their home office on 493 just North of North Hills Street!!! Another one of my jobs in Meridian was working for Hooper Electronics at the 6th. St electronic parts store. Learned from old man Hooper that Peavey wouldn't have been if it weren't for Hooper Electronics as Hartley Peavey initially sourced quite a few of his parts from there when he was just starting out!!!😁👍🏻 Sadly, Hooper's is no longer in business!!!😔
thank you Fran my first amp was a tube Silverstone. then i ran a Peavey like that one with the blue knob and pull out knob for studio recording. then i got a vox max 3w for busking. ive must a replaced and rebuilt the 3w like ten times. now i run a backup 150w mackie tump for the pier.
I grew up in the high desert such memories. I had a friend that lived out there and still does When I was learning to play guitar he built me an amplifier out of a small home speaker and parts from a AM/FM stereo I would plug that thing in crank it up, let face down on the bed, and it had the most awesome sound to this day, I still search for that sound on every amp I own every now and then
I bought a peavy bandit in 86 and used it for a couple years and honestly I thought the time was crap. Understand back in the eighties if you lived in a small town or away from big cities the variety of gear available was extremely limited. Where I lived there was no chance of finding a Marshall within a 100 miles the choices were Crate or peavey and at that time the crate tone was thin and just not very good at high volume the peavey was better and it took pedals well but the tone from the amp itself was just odd when I started playing around the area and with musicians that came from areas with a bigger variety available I sadly realized my amp tone was trash. Of course by then I had the money to start looking at higher priced gear and travel a bit to find it and I really can’t recall what I went to after I do remember getting a small gorilla amp while I still had the bandit which did have pretty decent tone but was under powered for gigging and I at some point had a peavey chorus 212 but honestly the late eighties are mostly a blur to me as being in a band in an era of excess tended to mean I would wake up with very little recollection of the night before. I guess if people are into the “unique” tone of the bandit then its a solid platform loud for its wattage and dependable I just remember being really unhappy with it.
There was this guy in Houston TX ( missouri city TX) named George Chahin. His company was called GKC Research. He made a bunch of film speaker gismoz and film mag readers.
I own three Peavey amps, love them, but I wouldn't say any one of them was a holy grail and even if you did get the fabled josh homme one there's no saying you'll play like him or sound like him live/recorded. I love cranking the Katana mini practice amp. It's the cranking what does it.
I'm glad UA-cam showed me this channel...Maybe cause I'm a big "Failure" band fan.Hence Troy van leeuween being associated with Josh Homme.But in any case, awesome content.Thanks Fran!🤘😎👍
I have the backstage 26 watt, circa ~1982. haven't plugged it in in years, but always loved it when a friend that really knew how to play would plug in with me on that little beast so I could play a 4 chord progression while he wailed my neighbors to death! he had some customized fender with old school tubes at home and was impressed by the cheap backstage.
Yes indeed. Peavey guitar amps are fantastic. Not an amp, but my secret weapon for years has a Peavey Rockmaster 4 tube guitar preamp. It's got 3 settings: Clean, Dirty and Stupid loud. It has a 10+ decibel boost, which is waaaay overkill, but wow. Just Wow!
When I was 15 I used to play my guitar through a Sony tube-driven open-reel tape deck. The mic input had a hot preamp and the speaker out could send a very good fuzz tone to my guitar amp, a MusicMan 112 Sixty-Five with reverb and tremolo. I could get Fripp-like tones this way. We also used to use little solid-state ‘flashlight’ amps with 6” and 8” speakers. Cranked they sounded great and we could use several of them for multi-instrument fuzz jams at moderate volume. They all broke down eventually and of course we didn’t think of fixing them.
Star tax, plain and simple. I think the basic idea is that you get a small amp with a crappy speaker and play it with the volume cranked. You could probably just get a pathfinder and get similar results, or any small practice amp. It’s actually pretty cool to have a secondary sound source running, especially if you can switch it on or off for leads.
Bought a Peavey Backstage II in ‘82 dropped my Les Paul on the headstock.., heartbroken & quit playing for years.., much later ‘94 I think, got gifted a really great Kramer copy of a Strat.., figured out how to use the “secret weapon” on my home stereo system & now I only buy used gear. Currently I play an Ibanez strat w/ an acoustic 15w practice amp (as a preamp) & run that to a Peavey 115 combo( the chorus mode gives great depth & even at very low settings it totally works great. Took a while but Wow! What a sound!
Hommes secret weapon is the fact he can get tones out of amps most people don’t want. It’s brilliant, I take inspiration from that and the particular amps he used
Well said. Altough I think we would get those sounds out the amps but then we‘d say: ‚that‘s crap let‘s sound like Hendrix, Page or Hetfield. 🙈🙈🙈
He's just a guy. You can get those tones. too.
And bass amps back in Kyuss days.
@@Goldmanvision yeah she didn’t even talk about it
@@amremorse Yes and no. His riffs and scales are very traditional (polka, hungarian, gregorian), however they are included in a genre of music where they aren't typically heard. What makes it extremely unique is the tone. If you want a clear example of this, watch QotSA songs performed electric versus acoustic. The riffs and scales change as they are dependent on the amp, guitar, tone, pedals, etc., to work. Homme talks about this.
A lava lamp, trashy amps, messy workbench, weirdo tech-nerd-talk and a Humble person... Okay I'm home. Just found your channel. Great!
Fran’s a treasure. Check out her Frantone pedals, they’re legendary bits of kit.
Yeah😎
Not sure that's entirely complimentary lol
@@Goldmanvision believe me, it's incredibly complimentary. I don't wanna watch non-hippie, non-nerdy, braggadocious UA-camrs with perfectly clean state of the art studios which are unobtainable and NOT covered in all of the things that show the person's passion (the "messy" workbenches that aren't even that messy). Ideal 💕
@@outbakjak words from my soul!
This was a clear attempt on Homme’s part to keep prices of the Gorilla GG-25 with “Tube Stack” from skyrocketing. Way to throw them nerds off the scent, Josh!
Haha my first amp was the smallest gorilla made. Brings back serious memories.
That’s what I always heard him say. I saw one article that mentioned the peavey. He said gorillas all have the sweet terrible, as he called it. An amp on the verge of explosion
😂. Still got mine!
whoaaaa gorilla gg25 was my first amp ever. its sucked 25 yrs ago too!
Hah! Had one of those in the 80s I used to record with, always got the job done!
Back in the day, my "secret weapon" was a Pignose amp and playing in a dormitory stairwell.
Ooh, now you're talking 1970's. Dial it in right and it sounded like a mini Marshall amp.
the pignose was also part of frank zappas secret arsenal!
We used to do a “piggy in the box” putting the pig nose in a footlocker.
Did Clapton use a Pignose or a Champ on Layla?
Throw it in a tiled bathroom, toilet and hook a Boss Super Overdrive and can close to the early Van Halen sound..
Billy Gibbons is the past master of setting false trails for secret sauce ingredients 😂
How so?
And they have worked together
Lmao right
Yep. Like his 7 gauge string ruse. And peso for a pick. Chronic liar.
@j.d.leslie8458 no, he actually does use 7 Guage strings.
Funnily enough, that tape recorder trick you said you used back in the day is the key to the sound of early argentinian blues rock records, with the oval speaker and everything! They used Geloso and National recorders, among others. Great examples of this sound are "Pappo's Blues 3" by Pappo's Blues and "Manal" by Manal. Greetings from Argentina!!
I have to find this! Blues de Argentina? I'm in! Saludos de Puerto Rico!!!
My eldest brother was a ham radio operator who liked to work the low AM bands. He discovered that his LF preamp and power amp also worked fairly well for audio once you matched the output impedance.
How interesting thankyou.
Also Linear line signal amplifiers were used on citizen band (CB) radios in the "side band" frequencies for a similar purpose of skip radio signals across the earths atmosphere and talking to other people a great distance away. I actually talked to people in Canada, Mexico, Scotland, and even Australia from a single location at about 8,000ft elevation depending on weather conditions.
I used to get AM stations on my tube amp if I put the potentiometer in just the right spot!
I never knew exactly how or why (not as well versed with electronics in this way) but one of my old amps, when i would play on it and truckers were nearby they could both hear me and i could hear them. I know they could hear me because they'd start talking about how they were hearing someone playing (insert song here) on guitar over their radio. Does anyone know why that is, because i always found it fascinating
Check the 1 minute 57 second mark of their "Head Like a Haunted House" music video. I believe this is that amp you show with the speaker through the top. I still have no clue of the brand but it is as clear of a picture you're gonna get of the front panel of this thing. It does appear to be a mag recorder of some kind as well. I've been trying to find one for years after I noticed it in the music video. Josh has always tried to keep people off the trail of his gear since at least the Desert Sessions, even when his "secret weapon" could be as simple as a Boss EQ pedal into a DS-1.
No shit... that is it....
As a lifelong fan of QOTSA and music production, it’s always very exciting to learn a new thing about Homme’s process. Thanks for sharing this info and I agree wholeheartedly as soon as I saw the decade on Mark Ronson I knew it was a red herring.
During the TCV-era Josh mentioned that a lot of guitars from that record was plated through old radios converted to amplifiers and said that he would put up Alain Johannes (TCV touring guitarist and frequent collaborator) against any other guitarist and any other anplifier. Needless to say Homme is always experimenting with his live setup in general and his studio setup in particular. I really doubt there is a secret weapon, more likely there is a dozen secret weapons...
….just saw your name….so gotta say also always loved your foam cowboy hat you slick, sharp dressed Turd you….
Alain Johannes is a bad man!!
Hmm... I'm thing Keith Richards mentioned using old radio amps back in the '60s to get his sound.... Anybody remember that?
Josh has used a lot of amps over the years and has a lot of different "sounds"... Tubeworks Mosvalve, Peavey Musician, old tube hifis, old Gibsons, all sorts of pedals... Livingroom Gear Demos goes a lot of sound alike videos for QOTSA and Kyuss. The photos from SFTD sessions with Eric Valentine show tons of amps, cabs and mics all being used at the same time.
And let's not forget Blackmore, who ran his guitar through an Akai tape deck's preamp before sending it to the Marshall head. He did this in the studio as well as when playing live.
I have an I belive an 80s teak 1/2 inch reel to reel at this point only 2 out 8 tracks only record . Ihave thought about using it as an inbrween the source for instrument to another recorder to see if I could capture the tape vibe at all... or something to manipulate the sound in any wau Positive
.. Thanks
who?
@@boimesa8190 hopefully you are joking. If not it is Richie Blackmore.
Blackmore’s tone was awful.
@@thomasbushnell884 On some older decks, you have to use the tape or head alignment switch/toggle/adjuster to switch to the other tracks in pairs. ....Then use a studio deck to play them all back together at once.
Hommes secret is he is a great guitarist. He could sound amazing playing anything (which was set up correctly) We like to delude ourselves that we suck because we dont have this amp or that guitar.
Nailed it. Stop chasing gear - practice more
I have the Peavey Special 130 and it's so absurdly delightful. I bought it for a Pixies cover band because it's what Joey used live for the early stuff. I've hung onto it because of the onboard reverb, sheer volume, and amazing gain channel EQ.
Seeing best girl out in da wild kajsakjhsa
@@terminalglimmer Hmm.. what?
The parametric mid makes the Special 130, special. Love mine
Whatever his secret weapon may be, it is only a small part of his magic. Queens of the Stone Age & Eagles of Death Metal are my favorites! Fran, you're damn awesome as well.
It's a shame that eagles of death metal's singer is a real nutjob. I really liked that band.
I have a Peavey Backstage Plus (35 watts with 10" speaker) that I bought new in 1986. It has the same pre-amp and the sounds you can get out of it are great. I take it down and clean all the pots every couple of years. It's my favorite amp to use when I'm playing at a friends house or quietly in my house.
Paul Weller used a Peavey Backstage 30 a lot. If you watch UA-cam videos of them live, you’ll see it stage right next to him, mic’ed up. He also had an AC-30, and sometimes a Marshall stack behind him, but I think they were more about art direction/promo requirements.
I have a Peavey Studio Chorus 210. Its the most versatile amp I've ever owned. Its so over engineered. Over the years this amp has encouraged me to shed all my pedals and simply plug straight into the amp. I get endless varieties of sounds and its really liberating to have such a simplified rig.
Same here. Backstage Chorus 208. I've had it for years and it's only gotten better as I bring on newer guitars, and a couple of pedals. It's a gem
I had a Bandit 65 for years. Was my first real amp. A friend of mine was more of a tube amp purist and would hate on solid state amps to no end, including mine. I always really really loved the clean tone of it, though. Super clear and present. The overdrive was also cool. Sounds like razor blades or broken glass when cranked all the way, which has a certain appeal
Yeah--and is also very off-putting. 😄
Best metal tone I ever had was my blue stripe Bandit (RIP). 1st runner up is my Randall 100w. Analog solid state 4 life.
Hi Fran. Thanks for the great video. Was the reel to reel you had a Wollensak, by any chance? I ask only because I recently found one on the street in Philly and discovered the joy of playing my electric through it
Hi Fran. Are those Peaveys of yours solid-state? I have a 90s Bandit Solo Series 112 (teal stripe, US made) and although it's getting too heavy for me to lug around these days I love the sound of it. Best wishes!
100% agree! I also enjoy the Peavey Special 130. Twice the power of a Bandit 65. Awesome amps! Cheers!
Got one in the closet here. Just needs a little cleanup in the pots but love the tone. It’s too loud ( and heavy) for most of what I do now
I have all vintage peavey bass gear, but I love it!
Picked up a bandit 65 for 30 bucks Aud a few years back. A flush ou of the pots and its been brilliant.
So you're saying I should pick up the Bandit 65 that just popped up on my local Marketplace for $100?
I would if its local! They are a great amp, built like a brick outhouse so great for gigging. One of my regrets is my old bandmate had one and he upgraded to an Orange amp and sold the Peavey, I had first dibs on it and was tempted but I already had a Marshall Valvestate (still got it) as my gig amp that was doing everything I needed from it.
hell yea bag it!
YES
The early run of the Studio Pro 40's had a weird glitch in the preamp where you could max the saturation and back it off just barely for a little extra boost. I might have been just cheap pots, idk, but it seemed like it was a little fuller when it was on that setting.
Got a celestion for my backstage and it was a world of difference. It was my first amp that had distortion and reverb! The Studio Pro was my older brother's. We made a lot of noise in those days!
Great video Fran!
also had the Studio Pro 40, thing was a tank, had the awesome "Saturation" circuit & a real nice spring reverb & the pull-thick on the high tone control. Used it for gigs & recording for many years. Wish I still had it...
Yep. Sounds like the radio rock sounds. Don't need no pedals if you dial it in. It's all in the saturation backed off like you say.
Thank you for a walk down memory lane, my first amp was a Bogen that my father pulled out of a dumpster for me. I used a Radio Shack speaker tower with it and snap that was a loud amp! I had a baby Peavey that I gave away when I emptied my storage unit. Good times!
First of all, Josh didn't use the Decade until Songs for The Deaf. And it's only for recording. It has to do with speaker size and how that particular combo records. Not just the preamp. Much like a Fender champ. What you're suggesting is to just get a Deluxe or a Princeton instead of a Champ. It's not his secret weapon as much as a layer to his sound mixed with other amps. It was mainly used as a bass amp as well. On Rated R he used a Gorilla amp. I know because he borrowed my roommate's. Also they used the same Gorilla amp for all the guitars on EODM records. Josh has never used the Decade on stage. But he does use some higher watt SS Peavey heads mixed in with his Ampegs and even AC 30s. Yes it's true that the other 80s Peaveys have similar gain stages but they are not exactly the same. I know because I talked to the builder of those Peaveys. He said the closest was the Audition. But again it's the speaker size and how it records. Def did not use it in the Kyuss days. That was a Tube Works head and Ampegs used for live purposes. They were all about low tunings and loud bass live. Buying a Bandit is a better deal but only if you're trying to use it as a main amp and it's not going to sound exactly like josh. More important is the tuning. Any loud clean high headroom amp with the pedals he uses is going to get you there. Most important too is he always used the neck pickup. Always. So a medium output clear neck pickup and tuning is gonna get you there. My friend makes a Decade preamp pedal if someone wants that. His name is Chris Duggan and his company is N.O.C. Pedals on Facebook or instagram. Very reasonable and you dont have to carry around or buy an old Peavey amp. I have one and it nails it. My first amp was a Decade so I have intimate knowledge of how they sound. It's not a great sound but records well. But again its just a layer mixed with many other amps.
Over two decades ago we used a similar Peavy amp for gigs. This was because one of our amps was stolen and the studio where it was stored felt bad they loaned us one of these amps. I used to have my guitar hooked up to it as I basically always played with overdrive. The venue would mic it up to the PA and it really did sound fantastic. So much so we always begged to use that amp at gigs. Pretty sure it was one of the same amps as I remember the blue pot. People used to laugh at us bringing this little amp on stage until they heard it in context!
I used a bandit 65 for a while and loved it then went to an bandit 80 watt and liked it too. I'm 77 and saw a B/65 and could barely pick it up, apparently it had gained weight over the years;0)
If you saw Eric Valentines (now taken down video) about the recording of Songs for the Deaf, he only mentions the Decade for the Nick's bass tone. Its blended with a DI and an SVT. Eric claimed that the decade was most used out of those three in the final mix.
I had to borrow a Friends Bandit 65 in the 80’s while My Marshall JCM800 was being worked on. I was never so glad to see that Marshall come back.
I have a hard time walking away from a good deal on a sound. Years ago I picked up a Peavey Backstage (I'm guessing from the 90's) and it instantly became MY amp, my go-to, my sound. I don't know how it compares to the earlier 'blue knobs', but I do know that some of those little Peaveys pack some real magic.
Lou and Quine used Bandits on record and live. Paul Weller used the Bandit as a DI amp for live gigs of The Jam. Good stuff.
Had a Rage 158 for my first amp. Buzzy by itself but the pre out into my second, a Roland JC-77, was surprisingly mean. Never sell your gear, kids. Hoarding is the answer.
Ain't that the truth
I prefer to call it an ever evolving unorganized chaotic but specific collection.
LOVED the Decade ! Sounded awesome with a TS-9 and a Crybaby. Played Maiden, old Scorpions, and Priest .
Then Came the Marshall Lead 12. I was going to buy another
Decade but the prices are crazy.
I remember back in high school, a band mate had a Bandit but I remember not liking the sound at all. I had a Fender Yale Reverb and preferred it over the Bandit by far, at least for the clean tones. It would be interesting to check both those amps out again now that I am all growns up.
I think the gap would be even wider now! ;)
@@stratolestele7611 That's my bet.
That was a bad a** little riff at the end there Fran ! (Liked & Subscribed)
My first amp was the Audition 20 that I bought off my friends brother back in '88.
Played my Mu-Tron III through with the gain up, and all the pull-knobs engaged. I got some seriously wicked sounds with that simple set up
Still got mine
@@joebleaux2321 I still have one too, but it wasn't my original one. That one took a dump on me. I didn't have the know-how to fix it, and my friend's brother Tim, who was studying to be an engineer, couldn't figure out what was wrong with it either.
The one I have now I got somewhere around '93. It's suffering from dirty pots which I don't know how to fix.
...i suppose I cpuld look it up on youtube.
@@Mockingbird650 Deoxit will clean those pots. I got mine in the 90's cuz it didn't work. Took it apart & the input jack fell out, so I put it back & reflowed the soilder. I couldn't believe I fixed it
I used to have a Peavey like that in the trunk of my first car, plugged it into a cigarette lighter power inverter! That and a walkman cd player was my sound system! Not a recommended setup because both the car and the amp didn't live for long, but the sound that came out of that thing was powerful! (I think Songs for the Deaf played more than a few times on that system too!)
A similar thing happened twenty or so years ago, when it was decided that the "Josh Homme" secret weapon was that ugly Ovation Les Paul type guitar, and the prices went from $400 to $2400.
However, that era of Peavey amps are really underrated.
That's probably why Homme was attempting to throw people off the scent of what he really has used for amps in the past. A lot of people have been enquiring for years. Plus, that's really only one thing for a specific distorted sound in his arsenal. There has been a lot of talk in the past about other sounds, especially what he was doing during the Songs for the Deaf sessions. I remember it involving Ampeg bass heads and a few other things. Eric Valentine has talked a bit about this in the past as he worked on that record for a bit before Homme fired him.
Fran, I want to let you know about an issue with your audio on this video. If you wear headphones, you will hear it oscillating from left to right channel. Have you changed your mic or mixer or codec or something? It is very distracting. PS: Happy new year.
I wish I'd started reading the comments after listening! Not sure it's oscillating... to me it sounds like the right hand channel has a different expander and compressor on it. (perhaps a camera mic?) If the talking is consistent for a while it's fine.
@@har234908234 Yes like it's out of phase or something.
Just a hot mic because the audio settings on the camera were set up for livestream by mistake.
@@MyChannel-rf8ic It's temporal... and phase inversion usually feels funny. I'm pretty sure the attack or release time on the dynamics processing (hedging my bet there) for each channel is different. It feels like if there's a loud bit, the following words are lower in volume in the right channel as if that channel (perhaps with an attack overshoot) doesn't release it's compression as quickly as the left... but I'm guessing a bit.
For me the audio was doing the exact same thing you're describing.
I had a blue knob Peavey Bass amp for a long time before I moved up to an amp loud enough to really play shows.
That little Peavey was indestructible though. I've blown a lot of amps, but that guy could tolerate volume cranked to 10 with gain anywhere you like.
The DDT compression kicked in and kept you from frying it. The sound was great in the bedroom, but it mushed out next to a drummer.
It was really good for recording though. Almost all the knobs pulled out for thick, shift, bright etc.
Later on I tripped over the real cool Peaveys.
The old Century, Musician and similar 70s amps from them have some amazing sounds in them.
I think it's the Musician that had a preamp you could overdrive AND separate fuzz and distortion circuits in parallel.
All solid state so a lot of people will turn up their nose. But I have never gotten a heavier bass sound with my Mesa, Aguilar or Acoustic rigs.
Maybe with my old Traynor YBA1a (why did I ever sell that tube eating demon).
The downside from older Peaveys is that early on Hartley Peavey would buy huge lots of parts at a discount then design to take advantage of whatever cheapo transitors he got.
Seems a lot of those old ones have output mosfet failure. And the way they fail makes it easy for them to fry speakers.
I'm a fan of solid state distortion on bass, also modeling. I'm also a bass di guy. I come from being a bit of a tube amp snob for guitar.
9:03 Could that photo image be flipped, and the indicator actually be on the right side? Not pushing the "that's a Bogen" idea, just wondering. It's clearly cropped from a much larger photo, if the original had some text or some other clearly identifiable equipment where you're sure the photo is not (or IS) flipped, that could help rule it out.
Its from a video Lynch recorded were Homme plays a church organ guitar (yes, really!) through that little thing. Just search for it, its here on UA-cam...
Yep, back in the day, I had a lot of fun running my LP through a tiny mono tape recorder. Overdriving that tiny preamp made some glorious sounds.
I think the real secret is using a 6” or 8” speaker in parallel with the main sound. The specific gear doesn’t matter much.
I really love that outro song! Subtle banger that tiny tune!
Wow, just saw this video in my feed. What a blast from the past. My dad owns a peavey TnT combo bass amp with a 15" speaker in it. Also have a peavey Powered mixer that has to be from the 70s. It's a 7 channel with the wooden handles on the side. That thing still works somehow. Lol. I can't imagine anyone using those peavey solid state amps for Studio Recordings. At least not for high gain Rock or Metal guitars. I think they were made to use for practice amps or live shows. Of course I could be wrong but the only peavey I would put a mic in front of for riff recording would be a 5150.
I really enjoyed this. Once you find that magic little amp hang onto it and never let it go. For me it’s the Vox VT 30.
That reminds me of Randy Bachman's "Herzog".
It's basically a Fender Champ with a 10 ohm resistor for a speaker and a voltage divider to drop the level to an amp input friendly level.
He used it on "No time" and "American woman".
Josh has lots of sounds. I've heard him talk about the Matchless Hot Box and the Tube Works RT-2100 being part of the signature Kyuss sound at one point. Back in the day, I tried to achieve a similar sound with a ProCo Turbo Rat and a Sovtek MIG 50.
The secret to Josh Homme's sound is a great producer/mixer. A lot of recorded guitars are DI so to attribute the magic sound to Soviet-made tube amps run through a variac at 96.2 volts, low-oxygen patch cables, reverse wound DeArmond pickups and all the rest are in the minds of the players.
The Backstage was my first amp. Saved up my allowance and grass mowing money and purchased it in 1982 I believe.
Whaaaat, Fran doing a video on Josh Homme and Peavey amps? What a treat!
An old Hitachi reel to reel was my first amp. You could just engage the record button then plug into the mic input. The speaker was an old oval type ripped from an abandoned b&w tv that I housed in a diy pine box and plugged into the headphone socket. Awesome sound though my dad didn't think so bless him. 😁
I have a Peavey Backstage 30 plus with reverb for home and a Special 130 I used to gig with. Great amps. 🖖
yeah i've had 130 special since '83. have a little 'rage' since '91; been said a speaker swap out transforms the rage.
Glad to see you’re back!
For years I used a hifi separates power amp as my guitar amp, it was crunchy and any pedals I used seemed to be exaggerated by it. I used a 2nd hand Russian Big Muff as my first dedicated distortion (later I modded it to have germanium transistors), later I got the Boss ODB3 and with a downtuned guitar I got comments that it was like the QotSA guitar sound.
Personally I believe the amp is only part of the puzzle, other factors are that solidbody ovation guitar, the strings, tuning and how Josh Hommes fingers play.
One of the best distortion sounds I ever got was a little 15w Radio Shack Realistic PA I would turn all the way up through my Sunn 4-10 cab after I blew my Beta-lead head.... it distorted nice, and wasn't too loud
Wow! That's super cool and a testament to what can be achieved without a huge budget or amps that were worth thousands of dollars (or even Peavey Decades haha). I'm going to go scour my local thrift stores now.
Tone is in the hands.
lol
Those 80s Peavey amps with the blue Saturation control are kind of interesting creatures. Yeah, the same preamp was used all across their SS lineup with modest alterations. My old Backstage Plus has pull thick (which seems to mostly bypass the tone stack) and a pull bright (which bypasses some rc to ground on the first stage op amp). The Saturation control is a convoluted clipping feedback network. The circuit gives two flavors of drive using the pre/post and/or the saturation knobs. I was never a fan of cranking the saturation up , but used sparingly, it gives its own unique voice. Despite a couple eternally scratchy pots, it's been a trooper for almost 40 years.
The first guitar I ever owned was a present from my parents and it was a brand new '83 Peavey Mystic and a used Backstage Plus.I honestly forget how it sounded but I guess not too good because they sell cheap today and I might get one to remember.
I think there is a video of Lou Reed playing live in the early 80's maybe at the bottom line - both he and Robert Quine were using Peavey Bandits.
That secret weapon blurry picture looks suspishiouly like an early solid state Shure product. Maybe someone was modifying them for mag recorder use? it has obviously been modified due to the closed fan hole on top.
Was going to say just that, looks like little Shure mixer I had
Just so happens, I have a Peavey Backstage Plus that a great friend gave me for nothing, it needed a replacement speaker so I ordered a new Jensen C10Q online, it definitely sounds good with a Jensen C10Q, but i made some extra mods to my Backstage Plus amp so that it also had a footswitch that plugged into a socket on the back panel, and also included led indicators.
Great video/discussion Fran! Also, the Strymon Deco has a fantastic "tape saturation" super light overdrive tonal range on tap as well, for those wanting that vibe; I LOVE IT
Great video i think your absolutely spot on. on a side note do you think you could sum the vocal mic to mono? the very slight stereo panning as you move was driving me crazy haha
I grew up by Peavey HQ, and remember when their gear was dirt cheap. I have a 5150 tube combo, and found a 100W bass amp for $30 in Goodwill. US made, and solid. Very rare now!
Meridian, MS?! Currently living here myself!!!🤗
I have a Peavey Heritage. Bit of a weird one because it's a transistor pre amp and full valve power stage
The peavey bandit is a great amp.
I own a peavey bandit 112 with scorpion speaker version. Bought it from a friend, wasn't working for more than 2 hour's, and started to cut in and out. Replaced all the caps in the PSU circuit. And Changed all caps in the toon circuit. And it still have the same sound. But it sparkle more. It sounded before the mod quite dull.
Great Video.
When I was in my teen band in the 60s our guitarist was obsessed with Brit guitarists and that overdriven valve sound ... His little locally made Jansen amp wouldn't do it , he called me up in the middle of the night to play me something and babbled about pre-amps and the like , I was the drummer and had no idea what he was on about but it did sound great . The following day at his parents place he showed us how he plugged into the 1/4 inch mic input his father's valve powered Grundig tape recorder and taken a line out of the back and into his little combo amp ... huge sound and the Clapton ' Beano ' Bluesbreakers tone just like that . A few years later , Paul Crowther ( the inventor of the Hot Cake pedal ) would build him New Zealand's first 200 watt valve amp and build the great granddaddy of the hot cake into my mate's guitar . Paul just converted a 40s valve radio into a 10 watt amp for the same guy , sounds great of course .
My first really decent amp was a Roland JC-120. All of us starting out in the 80s had Peaveys. They were really reliable and tough solid state amps. Still have a PA head from over 30 years ago and still functions
JC-120s are classics. Probably the best solid-state guitar amp ever made.
Think it may be a kit-bashed Harmon Kardon Prelude? Looks like it.
I just had a Series 130 drop in my lap. These 80s solid state amps are freaking cool! It has fantastic sound and I’m blown away by how well the reverb works on it
This brings back memories. As a teen I had a tiny Peavey audition 20 that plugged into my vans 12 volt cigarette lighter. This was great, because I literally lived in that van in the 1980s. I would work at a day labor a couple days a week, or work under the table tax free, swim in the Ft. Lauderdale or Daytona beach for a shower, and party with the people I’d met the rest of the time. That little amp was a screamer ! Lol. Later I got a Bandit 65. I liked them mainly because Peaveys were cheap & loud. These days I use Vox MV 50s. with the matching cab.
It's called a " film -o-sound"or something similar and sometimes sound amazing.There seems to be a trend of turning old electric devices into amps, int er esting idea,by the way I had one of those Peavys for a spare, extremely unremarkable sound, always worked.
Fran, Greg Valentine who produced QOTSA clarified that the Peavey Decade was used for BASS only on the record. Not guitar. He said Josh used a lot of Peavey in general, but the Decade was only used for bass on the sessions. Hope that helps.
You mean Eric Valentine? Lol, who's Greg?
Yeah Eric Valentine. The video is not online anymore (which speaks for it's autenticity) but I think every musician in the QOTSA fandom has a copy saved of it. Here's the short version for you guys that have not: Boost the mids, boost the mids, boost the mids.
@@R3TR0R4V3 Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
@@SkronkJappleson 😂
I love my backstage plus. I just bought a 2nd one. I've owned a ton of amps and there is just something about it and it's real ... REAL tank reverb! Nuts. I'm going to hoard them and love them forever. Thanks for the video!
I have had a peavey rage for years and years. I’m not so much into that distortion sound anymore, but the clean channel is great. The boss katana is a great amp . I’m also using Marshall these days. I would love to find a way to fake the dumble amp sound
Peavey Renown 212 lacked a chorus but at 140w rms very popular for pedal steel
I've got the next generation Bandit 65 up from that, had it for almost 30 years, and its still going strong and is a great sounding amp. The clean tone is brilliant.
I live in Mobile ,Al and we always used Peaveys because they were made in Meridian, MS a few hours away so you could get a wholesale price at the factory vs retail at a store....besides their amazing quality. Great video Fran!!!!
I'm currently living in Meridian, MS. Got to meet Hartley Peavey when I worked as a photo developer technician at the Eckerd's across from their home office on 493 just North of North Hills Street!!! Another one of my jobs in Meridian was working for Hooper Electronics at the 6th. St electronic parts store. Learned from old man Hooper that Peavey wouldn't have been if it weren't for Hooper Electronics as Hartley Peavey initially sourced quite a few of his parts from there when he was just starting out!!!😁👍🏻 Sadly, Hooper's is no longer in business!!!😔
I agree, AND Bogen was/is an East Coast brand. I think something you'd find in the Southwest is more likely to be made in that region in that era.
Nah. I'm in Dallas, and I have a Bogen tube hifi amp that my dad bought in the '50s.
thank you Fran
my first amp was a tube Silverstone. then i ran a Peavey like that one with the blue knob and pull out knob for studio recording. then i got a vox max 3w for busking. ive must a replaced and rebuilt the 3w like ten times. now i run a backup 150w mackie tump for the pier.
I grew up in the high desert such memories. I had a friend that lived out there and still does When I was learning to play guitar he built me an amplifier out of a small home speaker and parts from a AM/FM stereo I would plug that thing in crank it up, let face down on the bed, and it had the most awesome sound to this day, I still search for that sound on every amp I own every now and then
Just gonna drop "had a conversation with Liam Lynch" like it's nbd. You're a legend, Fran.
I bought a peavy bandit in 86 and used it for a couple years and honestly I thought the time was crap. Understand back in the eighties if you lived in a small town or away from big cities the variety of gear available was extremely limited. Where I lived there was no chance of finding a Marshall within a 100 miles the choices were Crate or peavey and at that time the crate tone was thin and just not very good at high volume the peavey was better and it took pedals well but the tone from the amp itself was just odd when I started playing around the area and with musicians that came from areas with a bigger variety available I sadly realized my amp tone was trash. Of course by then I had the money to start looking at higher priced gear and travel a bit to find it and I really can’t recall what I went to after I do remember getting a small gorilla amp while I still had the bandit which did have pretty decent tone but was under powered for gigging and I at some point had a peavey chorus 212 but honestly the late eighties are mostly a blur to me as being in a band in an era of excess tended to mean I would wake up with very little recollection of the night before. I guess if people are into the “unique” tone of the bandit then its a solid platform loud for its wattage and dependable I just remember being really unhappy with it.
There was this guy in Houston TX ( missouri city TX) named George Chahin. His company was called GKC Research. He made a bunch of film speaker gismoz and film mag readers.
I met Scott Puteski, original Marylin Manson guitarist. He told me the guitars on the entire first album were recorded through a Peavey Bandit.
I had a teal stripe Envoy 110, complete with spring reverb. I was awfully fond of that thing.
Yes Fran, wicked. Good to hear from you.
Thank you for an informative and entertaining video. I’d love to see you and Rick Beato have a conversation...
I own three Peavey amps, love them, but I wouldn't say any one of them was a holy grail and even if you did get the fabled josh homme one there's no saying you'll play like him or sound like him live/recorded. I love cranking the Katana mini practice amp. It's the cranking what does it.
Katanas are light-years ahead of any of those '80s Peavey amps.
I have a Decade. Funny how some amps become the Holy Grail. I unplugged the speaker and ran the amp into a horn driver. It made an awesome talkbox
I'm glad UA-cam showed me this channel...Maybe cause I'm a big "Failure" band fan.Hence Troy van leeuween being associated with Josh Homme.But in any case, awesome content.Thanks Fran!🤘😎👍
I have the backstage 26 watt, circa ~1982. haven't plugged it in in years, but always loved it when a friend that really knew how to play would plug in with me on that little beast so I could play a 4 chord progression while he wailed my neighbors to death! he had some customized fender with old school tubes at home and was impressed by the cheap backstage.
Tim Kerr of the Big Boys played through an old reel-to-reel and it was a big part of their sound! Great minds think alike.
Yes indeed. Peavey guitar amps are fantastic. Not an amp, but my secret weapon for years has a Peavey Rockmaster 4 tube guitar preamp. It's got 3 settings: Clean, Dirty and Stupid loud. It has a 10+ decibel boost, which is waaaay overkill, but wow. Just Wow!
When I was 15 I used to play my guitar through a Sony tube-driven open-reel tape deck. The mic input had a hot preamp and the speaker out could send a very good fuzz tone to my guitar amp, a MusicMan 112 Sixty-Five with reverb and tremolo. I could get Fripp-like tones this way.
We also used to use little solid-state ‘flashlight’ amps with 6” and 8” speakers. Cranked they sounded great and we could use several of them for multi-instrument fuzz jams at moderate volume. They all broke down eventually and of course we didn’t think of fixing them.
Star tax, plain and simple. I think the basic idea is that you get a small amp with a crappy speaker and play it with the volume cranked. You could probably just get a pathfinder and get similar results, or any small practice amp.
It’s actually pretty cool to have a secondary sound source running, especially if you can switch it on or off for leads.
Bought a Peavey Backstage II in ‘82 dropped my Les Paul on the headstock.., heartbroken & quit playing for years.., much later ‘94 I think, got gifted a really great Kramer copy of a Strat.., figured out how to use the “secret weapon” on my home stereo system & now I only buy used gear. Currently I play an Ibanez strat w/ an acoustic 15w practice amp (as a preamp) & run that to a Peavey 115 combo( the chorus mode gives great depth & even at very low settings it totally works great. Took a while but Wow! What a sound!