peavey valveking ?

They have really good reviews. I've never tried one though.

The other, similar one that's interesting is the Epiphone SoCal.

Rocker

Yeah, the ValveKing gets impressive reviews. Peavey makes very good amps. Go for it. :D

wes,

its a done deal, just bought it this afternoon, i figured why wait for income tax, just replace it when i get it, plus marcie was cool with it, the amp is very good, the clean is good
but not "hot rod good", but the lead channel is outstanding, its loud but not like my hot rod
(i don't think there is a combo amp in the world as loud as the hot rod) all in all, i'm happy with it, i can definatley gig with this amp, and it definatly will replace my solid state crate as my back up, i got it new for 395 bucks tax and all, but will it replace my hot rod deville
as my main gig amp, NOT , BUT ITS A GREAT BANG FOR THE BUCK, i think this amp is a great buy 8)

Rocker

Congrats on the new amp. Not too many amps under 100 watts can compete with the Hot Rod series of amps for clean volume. They are almost too loud. :shock:

But Peavey does have a much better overdrive. :D

did u buy a half stack or combo?

how do you guys think the transtube series amps compare to the valveking series? of course the valvekings will sound much better but do you think the transtube do an accurate job of recreating the feel and sound of tubes with transistors?

With any of those hybrid amps you'll get proper preamp tube overdrive distortion, because a tube is what's doing it. You'll never get the sound of an overdriven tube power stage, because there's not one. They're fine amps, but whether you'll like it depends on what you want. Some people would be a lot happier with a transistorized preamp and tube power amp on the output. AFAIK nobody builds one that way.

The old MusicMan amps were similar; had a tube power section and an FET (?) preamp stage, though I think the FET part was used as what they termed "Limiter" which fuzzed up the signal but wasn't an actual overdrive/gain type thing. I've still got the 1x10 50 watt combo and I don't really like the lead sound of it. GREAT clean sound though, and it's really loud for a little 35 pound combo.

In the '60s when transistors were replacing tubes, a lot of gear used transistors for most of the low power applications and tubes for the higher power stages. Lots of TVs worked that way, and I have a 1967 H-182 Hammond organ with a mix of transistorized and tube preamp sections with a tube power amp. (In a later modification that model went to all solid state preamps with the tube power amp.) I don't think it was common with guitar amps for some reason. But for folks who like a clean amp cranked up into power stage distortion, it'd work as well as anything. The reason for the transistors in the low power stages and tubes in the high power sections in the '60s was that it was the cheapest way to build them. The reason for using a tube in the preamp stage and a transistorized power stage now is the same, if you're going to have a tube in there at all. They just do it to sell us on having a tube in there for "the real tube sound." It's easier, cheaper and probably works about as well to just build a solid state amp and not fool with grafting a single preamp tube in it.

with the valve king you can switch it from class A to A/B , but the sound of a class A tube amp at full saturation uh oh,
im starting to get turned on :oops: hehehehe

What is the dirty channel like. I have really been looking into this amp, but all the demos I find of it are from 80's/90's metalheads. I like metal, but more along the lines of Tool and ISIS.

So I have seen that the Valve King can get the shreiking, squealing, magnetic metal sound; but can it get saturated overdrive?

Something along the lines of modern high gain bite mixed with warm overdrive.

I played one of the VK 112s at GC yesterday, with a gorgeous Ibanez S-series "Prestige" guitar. Both the clean channel and lead channel were very nice. On the lead channel, there's a gain boost button which is probably what you're hearing on the more aggressive sound clips. With the boost off, I got a nice full overdrive sound. But even with the gain boost on it seemed very smooth, though I did not have the volume up too high. If I hadn't just gotten a 1x12 cab for my Classic 20, I'd be totally gassing for one of these!