Vintage Peavey rig. Anyone have any experience with these?

Max Lawrence

Max Lawrence

Apr 27, 2019
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#1
Hey, I recently picked up this old peavey rig that somone was selling for cheap. It's a peavey Mk III bass 400 head with a 500 by 210 powerd crossover and a 215 cab. Anyone know anything about these? Are they reliable, how powerful are they, etc.?

Thanks
 
#2
That head is from around 1980. It still works so that answers the reliability question.
I have the same model that I got in 2012, and it's only now showing signs of needing service--a few capacitors in the preamp are bulging and the pots need cleaning but the power amp section is going strong. Many parts for these are still available from Peavey, and you can download the owner's manual from their website.

It's generally agreed that the MKIV was a big improvement and is one of those amps where everything was perfect, but the MKIII still holds up and has a ton of features. It's the kind of amp that's probably been dropped off the back of a truck a couple of times in it's life, but you'd never know it. Peavey's reputation for reliability and durability was built on these amps and especially the 400 series power amp section, which has been used in PA heads as well for decades.
The "Comp" in/out switch doesn't actually activate a compressor as we usually think of them. It's Peavey's legendary DDT speaker protection limiter. I recommend using it. If the light is on more than it's off, you should probably back off on the volume or the bass a bit. But it's hard to get that to happen on today's quieter stages--with the 215 this is a loud rig.

There were 2 main versions of the 215 cab back in the day. One wasn't as deep as the other but it's still a good cab.
The deep one is a monster that OWNED the late '70s and most of the '80s. LOUD and punchy as hell, and very hard to blow up.
This combination is actually what I borrowed to play my first ever gig on bass.
Enjoy!
 
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#4
Max Lawrence said:
Thanks. Are these very powerful cause it says that it's only 210 watts at 4ohms on the back. That dosnt seem very powerful.
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Volume was achieved in these older rigs not by amplifier power but by lots of cone area, and to a lesser extent by efficient speakers. The newer designs give up efficiency for size, weight, and fidelity, so the amplifier has to produce more power for equivalent volume. For a long time, I got by with an old 50-watt Fender Bassman head and a 2-15" Peavey cabinet. Now, I go with a single 12" neo in a nice cabinet, but I need 250+ watts to drive it to similar volumes. The good news is that high-power amps are much lighter than they used to be!
 
#5
Max Lawrence said:
Thanks. Are these very powerful cause it says that it's only 210 watts at 4ohms on the back. That dosnt seem very powerful.
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No they're not. I also used one of these 210w Bass 400 Peaveys with BW equipped 215 cabinet, and it was a fart machine. Most times I had to add another BW loaded cab on the gig just to get any sort of volume from it. Proabably a good rig way back in the day...easily squashed keeping up with modern drummers and guitarists.
 
#7
Their heavy and their tone is lacking by today standard. But I bet a killer pre-amp pedal would breath life into em. We didn't have killer pre-amp pedals in the 1980." I toured with one back in the 1980"s. It's all we had back then. They are tough and road ready. Spilling a whole beer into one has no effect on em. I know from experience. They can handle rough abuse, and big drops and falls. Seen it many times. Don't know if their bullet proof cause I never seen on shot, but the can take a few hits with a baseball bat. Knobs will suffer thought. Seen that too.
 
#9
Max Lawrence said:
Thank you all for you're help. If I we're to sell it how much could I get for it?
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I'm thinking $125 - maybe $200 with the speaker. It's tough to get money for old iron these days, especially big old solid-state gear. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not vintage, rare, or otherwise-highly-desirable gear; it's just old. As a tool for your own use, it's worth however much you like it.
 
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