Peavey Delta Blues

[dave robinson]

I happened to come across a Peavey Delta Blues 115 a few weeks ago and I bought it out of curiosity more than anything. I can't believe how good these sound, they have the Vox AC-30 power tubes and three ECC-83 (12AX7) in the preamp, 30 watts output. It has a great spring reverb and tremolo too and with my ESE Echomatic sounds terrific for Shads stuff, every bit as good as my Voxes and a lot lighter. I like it that much that I bought another for my mate to use in the band. They look like the tweed Fender amps of which I've owned several in the past, but they sound so much better for my needs.I did a bit of poking about on the internet and discovered that Darryl Higham uses one and had a look at his demo, well impressed. Recommended !

[RUSSET]

Hi Dave,
If I remember right, 'Guitarist' mag. reviewed them a few years back & reported what a great amp they were. I remember trying one in a B'ham store around ten years ago & finding that it really did have 'The Tone'. There are also Peavey Classic 30 & Classic 60 amps in the same genre, in tweed, with a similar valve structure. They say that the 15" speaker gives even better tone than the 12"s or 10"s. They look similar to the Fender DeVille series, but use EL84s rather than the Fender 6L6s.

Tony.

[dave robinson]

That's right Tony there are others in the series, the Classic 30 and the Classic 50, as wellas a 2 x 10 Delta Blues. The Delta Blues has Tremolo as well as Reverb, but the Classics only have reverb, also the Classic 50 uses two 6L6 s to generate it's 50 watts so I'm led to believe, so it will sound a little different to the 30 watt, which uses EL-84s. There are plenty apf Classic 30s around and slightly less Classic 50s, but the Delta Blues 115s are more rare and the 210 I have yet to see in the UK.
These must have passed me by as I once had a Peavey valve amp that let me down so I swerved them becauase of that, but this Delta Blues is a different animal and certainly does the business. There's one for sale now over in Lowestoft, it's on Ebay for £395 BIN, though it's collection only and is too far for me, Luckily I found my first one at GAK and they delivered it, the second being from Rugby which I collected. I can't re-iterate enough how good they are for the Holy Grail tone though, as well as lots of other great tones. When I first gigged it I was shocked to hear the early Shads singles and first album sounds coming from a 15" speaker on a live gig without any problem at all, every bit as good as my real Vox AC-30 with the EF-86.
I initally wanted the tweed look for our Buddy Holly & American Legends Theatre shows, rather than using the period incorrect Vox or Boogie Amps and with the badges removed you would be pushed to tell that they are not old Fender tweed amps.