software

Talk about timing! I'm taking the next 3 nights off work and earlier today the amp tech calls me saying my amp was ready! I had him do the basic mods from blueguitar.org to my Peavey Classic 30 and all I can say is WHY did'nt I have this done sooner? What a huge all around improvement these mods have made. The amp still sounds like a C30, but a greatly improved version.

Clean Channel: To me the stock clean channel seemed to have this underlying darkness to it, like an overall presence was missing. The bass was decent but not very direct, and the mids (when you turned them up to get some push) had a very annoying upper bark that actually bothered my ears. With the mods that overall darkness is gone and there is a definate overall clear presence to the sound but without being biting. Every frequency comes thru clear and strong. There is a lot more bass on tap now but its a lot tighter and more direct, and when you turn up the mids it pushes it all out without being barkey. The clean channel is also a LOT louder too. I use to start getting a bit of breakup with the volume at about 3 and now I can turn it up to about 6 before it starts breaking up. My Tele sounds fantastic thru the clean channel now. I'm not saying that the clean channel sounds like its Fender clean, but in my very humble opinion I'd say it's a very, very close 2nd.

OD Channel: Oh yeah! Now we're talking! Again, it still sounds like a C30 but a much, much more usable version. The OD can bite and grind but that annoying harshness, that quot;spikeyquot; distortion has been cut drastically. I can now get a lot more power tube distortion going than I could before, and like the clean channel everything now sounds more precise. I can get a good grind going and can now hear the notes within a chord. With my Tele in the OD channel I can get a great approximation of an AC/DC rhythm tone going. I've also got a Strat with a CC in the bridge position and this is where things really start to rock. I don't try to copy a tone, but now when I play something by Van Halen for example, the OD is now of the type that is much better suited for that type of thing. No, I did'nt say it sounds like a Marshall. It does'nt. It's just much more usable now for something like that. Like the clean channel, the OD channel is overall much stronger sounding than before and a LOT louder than before. I know that 30 watts is loud but man, this thing just screams now if you want it to like it never did before.

These were the basic mods that I had done to my amp. There's a lot more mod's available at the blueguitar site for the C30 but I did'nt want to get too carried away. These mods did not make my amp sound like another amp, they just made a huge overall improvement to the C30's overall sound. I still can't believe how much cleaner, better, louder, fuller and clearer this amp now sounds to me, and it did'nt cost that much. It took the tech 3 hours to do and it cost me a total of $167.31! If anyone's looking to get that extra something out of their C30 I would highly recommend checking these mods out. For me I think it's going to get me a lot closer to learning how to play like I've always wanted to, which is just guitar, cord and amp. Well okay, with a bit of delay too

Glad it worked out for you Mike. I agree, the mods really bring out the best in the Classic series amps.

Ryan