software

Does your distortion sound thin and rough ? I don't seem to be able to get any good distorted sounds from mine. Issit time to replace the tubes or something?

The distortion on mine kicks ass....but I gutted mine rather severely. Check out for sweet mods for that amp. It went from a decent, cheap tube amp, to a thing of beauty. Just upgrading the caps opened up the sound and smoothed out the distortion. Upgrading tubes and the speaker does a lot too. I pretty much did everything on that site and a couple of other things and it is pretty freakin awesome now.

Mike

I have an older Classic 30 and my tubes need changing... I have some minor issues with my Reverb unit on this one... It is extremely sensitive! I used my Classic 30 at a small jam on Saturday and i was getting some pretty good gain out of it... It was pretty cool. I'd like it to be a little better then what it is and i have been thinking of some mods. But for now it's just a lovely little cheap tube amp... Cheap as i bought it used for a steal!

One point is i hate the sound of my Classic 30 at low volume but once i get it turned up past 3 on the dial i really like it! But i want more gain and more lows so i may ask a tech i know to mod it.

The mods will definitely increase the lows. The simple capacitor upgrades really increase the low end. A speaker upgrade will as well. Make sure to put some weatherstripping around the chassis. The box is kind of cheap and once you get some bass coming out of that thing the whole box will vibrate like mad. They build these things pretty cheap, and that is super apparent with the speaker they chose and the box. (The tranny is about as cheap as they come, thus the 16ohm problem).

Mike

Mine really varied on the level it was being played at.

For bedroom/house/rehearsal playing the second channel throttled down gave a very big warm, almost Marshall-y sound.

But when I would crank it up at a gig it really got very high and mid-rangey. The lower volume was in no way representative of how it sounded at gig volume. I ended up selling mine mostly for that specific reason.


Originally Posted by msawitzkeThe mods will definitely increase the lows. The simple capacitor upgrades really increase the low end. A speaker upgrade will as well. Make sure to put some weatherstripping around the chassis. The box is kind of cheap and once you get some bass coming out of that thing the whole box will vibrate like mad. They build these things pretty cheap, and that is super apparent with the speaker they chose and the box. (The tranny is about as cheap as they come, thus the 16ohm problem).

Mike

Thanks... i do sometimes get some buzzy from low notes inside the amp.... something rattles... It was not happening last weekend for some reason... It disappeared but i know it will be back.... I also think my Reverb springs make a little noise as well.... Any mods to help the low notes i'm sure will add to these buzzes. But i'm game.

I was amazed at how cheap Peavey was on the construction of the Classic 30... My Classic 50 head seems much better made.... There is almost nothing on the inside of the 30.. and they are a pain to take apart and put back together!

One question.. with the C shape circuitboards in the Classic 30 is it hard to do home modding?

It isn't too hard, but you need to be a little careful when unfolding the board. I took a bunch of pictures of mine when I modded it...I can post them on a webservr if you want to see some of the action.

Mike

I've been doing a bit of reading about tubes of late, and goodness, it's a minefield of variables and quality and biasing etc. From what I understand, the very very best thing you can do for your tube amp is bless it will very good tubes, from a source that's known for testing, testing and testing (watford in UK...and such) Pay more and get a nice set of paired, tested, well sourced tubes. Then have them put in by someone who takes pride and care in their work. This is probably more important in biasing amps (which i think the Peavey is Fixed/auto) Get this right first, then start tinkering with mods and such.

If interested, do some reading at (extensive and technical, but good if you want to know how/why/when/what. And is great for deflecting sale-talk)

I'm kinda stuck in a location where I'm going to have to learn to replace and bias my own. (no loving gurus for 100's of kilometers)

Your amp is sweet, you just have to fuel it and tune it right. And your music is surely worth it, right? Strength...
from : localhost/www.watfordvalves.com
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The adjustable bias mod is one of the best mods for the C30. I have mine running quite a bit hotter than it came stock and the amp really came alive. . . Any tech could do this to your amp pretty easily and it would be worth it, IMO.

Mike