[Drache713]

Okay so I'm lookin to possible be upgrading from my current Marshall VS102R that powers my Ampeg 4x12 to possibly a real head and not a combo powering the cab. I was looking and really considering the Peavey XXL, but I was just curious if you guys had any suggestions/opinions about this or any other amps.

[Digital Black]

I own the XXL. I can't say enough good things about it. There are a lot of people who will slam it beacuse it's peavey and it's soilid state. But that's all baloney. I've owned marshalls in the past and have demoed mesa's many times. While those provide some good sounds, none are versitile or as cheap. Plus that fact that there is no tubes makes matenence simple.
The cleans are as good as my Fender hot rod and the reverb is to die for. Just remember to run the midrange pretty high on the xxl and never run the gian higher than 12 o' clock-trust me ,you won't need any more. You can run it 25 , 50 , 100 watts. And it has options to run as a power amp only ( bypass preamp) or run it direct ( bypass power amp). It has three vocings for each channel (3)! You cna get just about any sound.

I run mine through a mashall cab at home but this amp sounds best through a cab with sheffields. So try to pick a XXX cab or a 5150 cab. You won't be disappointed.

If money is no issue though-look into a XXX or a JSX they are just as good and better..

[Chris]

I've always had great luck w/Peavey, and prefer solid state to tube, honestly. The fact that you can play a solid state amp at low levels and still maintain tone is a huge plus as well.

I played that exact setup the other day actually, and liked it a ton.

[No Soul]

sorry, I demo'd one of those for 45 minutes straight almost and couldnt really find anything great about it. Sure the clean is alright, but its a solid, so thats somewhat a given.

If you are on a budget, then yes its not a bad deal. If you are serious about your sound, and have serious plans to use it live, I say save up some more cash and buy something a little better. Sorry, but high gain tube amps arent just all hype and you DO get what you pay for.

As far as maintaining a tube amp goes, if you treat it well you really dont have that much to worry about. My mesa recto gets at least 10 hours of high gain / high volume play a week, plus shows and my tubes are really only starting to die on me now, after well over 2 years. And as far as actually changing tubes, if you can play with leggos then you change tubes.