School me on the less popular Peavey amps (Windsor/XXX/Ultra)

You’re missing Ultra Plus= Mesa Mark

 

XXX is one of the only amps I played that has so much gain you don't need a boost with it. You just plug in and there is a level of insane gain. Even the Crunch channel is brutal.
I had an XXL combo before I got an XXX head, and the XXX is much better I think than the XXL. One reason being the XXL has more modes but some are not that useful IMO.

 

VTM 120 > *

 

VTM 120= Toxic Holocaust \m/

 

I’ve owned the XXX and 3120, which are essentially the same amp with different power tubes. I preferred the 3120, but you can change the power tubes on a XXX anyways. They are among the gainiest amps I’ve played, you definitely don’t need a boost with them.

I’ve also owned the Windsor. It’s a very cool Marshall clone for very cheap. The main drawback being that it’s insanely huge.

 

I get annoyed everytime I hear the phrase "so much gain you don't need a boost". I know not everyone uses them this way, but I feel like there is a whole group of metal guitarist that have no idea that people use overdrives as a clean boost and not for more distortion. I use overdrives with basically every amp I use, but 99% of the time the gain is at 0. 5150/6505s have an insane amount of gain, but I still use an overdrive cause it has nothing to do with the gain and its to tighten up an amps feel. So when people say it doesn't need a boost it is so misleading to me because I assume they mean the amp is already tight.

 

Yeah I don't use boosts for gain either, and when it comes to modern metal amps like 5150s and rectos and such things that's generally not the point. I'm no amp expert but I think if I want a boost or not depends on how the amp filters low frequencies. With a 5150 using a ts or eq in front works great to cut some lows but with an Engl it doesn't seem to work as well.

On topic, I used to play an XXL in an old rehearsal space years ago but I don't remember much else than it was solid state and didn't sound great. The only way to get it to sound ok was to scoop it but then it didn't cut sufficiently.

 

I owned a 3120 for a short while and thought overall it was a good amp (I think there may have been somethign wrong with mine as it would not get that 'loud'), but I ended up trading it in for a mint 5150.

 

-Vtm120 was based on a modded jcm800. Im currently selling my vtm120 just because it doesnt get used. Awesome amp though. Boosted and with an eq can get super brutal but not too modernly tight.
-butcher like the vtm but without the mod dip switches and ive heard a bit less gain.
-XXL is the end all be all of the transtube bandit line. Ive wanted one forever. Love the transtube stuff.
-stereo chorus 2x12 is peaveys answer to roland jazz chorus but with that oldschool classic peavy gain ch. Loud and a perfect pedal platform. Def would have kept mine if i had more room.
-musician400 is a 70s doom machine with built in graphic eq and phaser. Super fat and raunchy. Regret selling mine.
-its too late i have to go to bed lol
PEAVEEEEYYYY !!!

 

Circuit-wise I’m not really sure what these amps compare to. I believe they were designed either in full, or at least in part by James Brown who now does the amptweaker pedals.

Just going based off memory as i remember looking into them at one point. I think they started as the old Ultra and Ultra+ amps. I can’t rememver specifics now, but I think the + models were the ones to get, and the non + models were lower gain, or at least less modern metal? I forget. The Rockmaster preamp was like the preamp from Ultra +, can’t remember if there were any differences.

After the Ultras came the XXX, then the JSX which was tweaked for joe satriani. One of my friends back in college had a JSX and I always wished I could get a channel between the Crunch and Ultra channel. Ultra felt too compressed and scooped and smooth for me, while the Crunch channel felt like it was a bit too vintage voiced for what I wanted (and also lacked gain). I think I read the Crunch channel on the JSX was meant to sound kinda like a Peavey classic 50, so maybe I would have preferred a XXX or Ultra.

The JSX did give adjustable presence and depth where the xxx and ultras just had a 3-position switch for depth and presence (called damping). Also adjusable noise gate, where the noise gate / coring circuit in the ultra and XXX were fixed and not adjustable.

The ultra line of amps predates the 5150, if I remember right, so I wouldn’t expect a xxx or whatever to be that much like a 5150 (which was tweaked from the SLO for Evh). Though James Brown also did the 5150 so I don’t know how much ultra flavour he also carried on into the 5150.

All the amps had tweaks and changes along the way. The active eq really makes them super tweakable. I’ve kinda wanted to pick up a xxx or ultra, I’m still waiting for a cheap enough used one to come along. They were more common in the USA when I lived there.

 

+1.

I've said before, the term "boost" is a misnomer, and is misleading to people just getting into using them in a high-gain amp situation. Most of us that boost high-gain tube amps know that it's not about getting more gain, but we still use the term 'boost' anyway. It's about the EQing that takes place before the preamp, and I suppose some extra compression and focusing.

My 6505+ and especially my 6505 head always felt and sounded a little "spread out" and not precise without an OD boosting them, at least at low volumes. With an OD boosting them, they sound a lot more focused, punchy, and accurate. I then dial-in quite a bit of bass and resonance through the amps' controls, but they still retain that tight, focused sound. The actual gain on the amp, I set to around "3" and it's enough for gnarly death metal tone. In a live setting, I've dropped the gain down even to "2" and it's enough (when boosted).

My EVH 5153 doesn't need a "boost" and in fact I prefer it without. Again, it has nothing to do with gain -- they just tweaked the tone stack just right to where it sounds very similar to my 6505s when boosted by an OD. It has everything to do with the amp's EQ filtering in the preamp.

 

No love for the roadmaster? Loud and clean and 6550 loaded iirc.

I have rarely heard a xxx sound good so i never suggest them.

 

I deeply dislike the XXX. It’s almost like a bad solid-state amp in the way it has zero dynamic range and absurd gain. To me the XXX always sounded like it wanted to be a Recto but totally failed at it. The JSX was a lot better but still not an amp I would want.

 

i have owned a xxx for around 6 years now. It has been a really great amp for me. I rarely use the ultra channel as the amber crunch channel has more than enough gain. The active EQ is great and most of the time i am around 12 on the eq. I changed out the tubes to run an integrated quad of kt66s in the outer sockets and 6l6s in the inner . This gives it more depth imo. The damping switch on the back really does quite a bit for the dynamics of the amp. I was told the xxx was suppose to be signature amp for George Lynch and he pulled out before it was released. Not sure how true that is though.

I have owned a couple of different 5150s over the years. They are brutal amps, and great at what they do but ultimately lacking in versatility to me. That said I'll probably end up with another one sooner or later. If i could find a deal on an invective i'd go that route for sure.

I owned an xxl head for a bit. It is the most tube sounding solid state head I have ever played, and has a ton of tone options. For a guitar player on a budget you can find them super cheap. I got it not too long after they came out and I had only be playing a few years at that point but I have played a few since then and still feel pretty much the same way about them. It is hard to beat the dynamics and sensitivity of a tube amp but these are exceptional SS amps for the price.

I owned a JSX for a while too. The JSX came out after the xxx, but I owned the JSX before getting the xxx I have now. I really liked the xxx's crunch channel and though the jsx might give me that and more. I was disappointed in the jsx. It didn't have as much gain and even the red channel was voiced different from the xxx amber channel. The jsx amber channel didn't have enough gain on tap for me as it was suppose to be based on the peavey classic series. It sounded thin too, which at the time I had a mesa mark 3 too so by comparison it was thin sounding. I just didn't get along with it. I only had it for a few months and sold it.

 

@NateFalcon knew some stuff about these IIRC. But he's MIA.

 

Maybe iv?
I had one years ago & loved it. At that time there was a video of a dude with a iv & ultra+ back to back comparing....it was damn close
Regardless, it is a phat & thick tone for cheap cheap

Also, one of the few amps that are un-profile-able; CKemper confirmed this to me via pm when I was struggling with it.

 

ITT: No one knows what the term "gain" means.

Hint: it's not distortion.