REVIEWS
PEAVEY
Classic 30
By Ted Drozdowski
M
y first encounter with a Peavey Classic tweed style
combo was in the ’90s, when North Mississippi
hill country blues deacon R.L. Burnside invited me
onstage for the first time. R.L. decided to preach “Mannish
Boy,” so he offered me his amp and stepped to the front with
his Jack and Coke in hand, to stand at the mike. When I hit
a test chord, the floor of the stage shook. I turned to see that
R.L. had every dial on the amp maxed. I rolled back my tone
and volume pots and hit another chord. I was impressed by the
Peavey Classic’s power, color, and presence—even at R.L.’s jukethentic settings.
Over the years, I’ve maintained a favorable impression of Peavey’s
Classic series iterations. They’re dependable working players’ amps:
affordable, big-voiced, with enough clarity and punch to break
through a live mix with or without the help of microphones.
Giddy Up!
The all-tube Classic 30 is the newest steed in this line of
workhorses. Thirty watts are generated via the heat of seven
tubes—three 12AX7s and four EL84s—that are protected
by a steel cage. Two of the 12AX7s push the preamp and the
third complements the EL84s in the power section. The amp
has two channels—in the Peavey Classic tradition—and an op
amp driven spring reverb, which is situated at the bottom of
the cabinet beneath a Celestion Midnight 60-watt speaker. A
footswitch for channel switching and boost is included, though
it can’t be used for the reverb, which is also footswitchable and
requires a second footswitch.
The control panel is top-mounted and features a single
volume control for the normal channel and pre and post
controls for the second channel. There’s a button between the
Celestion Midnight
60 speaker
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