to strip a Peavey Mace for parts..

[custom_amp_30]

I am thinking that i want to remove the trans Pre-amp and go to a old fashion hand wired board, a few 12AX7's and still use the Output and power amp with the six 6l6 to create something different. I hate the fact that I bought this years ago only to have it fail, repair and fail shortly afterwards. I want something I can justify using six power tubes. Any suggestion and which circuits I should use would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[Steve Conner]

Well, what sort of tone are you trying to achieve? With all that power, it's going to be very loud and clean, unless you install a high-gain master volume preamp and use that for distortion.

[HTH]

bass amp? - or like Steve said, a high gain monster.

mind, I suppose it'd make a great LOUD and CLEAN guitar amp for country.

[Enzo]

Or sell it as a Mace, and use the money to buy a project amp closer to your needs.

[custom_amp_30]

Or sell it as a Mace, and use the money to buy a project amp closer to your needs.

Funds are not the problem, so thats not it, I have read a few of the fixes that have been done to correct a few of these. My want was to go back to a basic board and use these parts and make a very loud, not so clean amp. I wanted some feedback to see how I can make this a better amp without that transister preamp section. I had a great amp tech in Pensacola florida work this over twice and the fix last for a while then the circuit bias fails and I start seeing glowing tubes and that massive volume slowly crackles and fades....smoldering tube left in its wake.......screw that, gut the beast and start over is my feeling about this amp..

[Enzo]

OK, not thinking about money so much as someone may enjoy having a Mace, and unless you really want this heavy old beast and its 160 watts, building a new preamp into a Traynor Bassmate or some other sturdy roomy amp might be closer to your needs.

The bias supply in all the Mace viarieties is not connected to the preamp, by the way.

[custom_amp_30]

I know that, but the repairman repairs were for the preamp section in which he replaced two 1/4 watt resistors and repaired a loose solder connection in the power amp section, installed an adjustable resistor within the circuit.

2nd problem where the tube sockets attach to the circuit board and had to repair the circuit tracing which was cracked. the tubes sockets would vibrate and the connections after several uses and would fail.

I will send for that diagram and look it over one more time before I do anything drastic. Its been sitting since his last attempt in 2007, so I have time and now the desire to hear it crank back up again. I have found my schematic and remember a 1/4 watt replacement of R31 with the adjustable resistor from V2 was the last repair I remember that much for sure.

Peavey*Schematics

[Enzo]

Oh PLEASE do not pay for PV schematics. Peavey will send you any schematic you want for free. And the newer models will have layouts.

There are two flavors of Mace. For instance, the power supply schematic you posted is for the Mace VT - it has op amp ICs for the preamp section. Input jacks are the tell. That has Normal, automix, and a pair of effects inputs. The older Mace versionshad transistor preamps, no ICs. They had four inputs: effects, normal, series, and parallel.

customerservice@peavey.com

[loudthud]

A friend of mine who worked on these beasts for a touring band told me he had trouble with the solder joints on the power tube PCB. The solder would get soft and intermittent connections would ensue. The cure is to remove as much solder as possible and use leadfree solder which melts at a higher temperature.

[bob p]

Are you saying that the beast would get hot enough to melt it's own solder? Yikes! Sounds like it needs a fan.

Personally, I like the idea of reworking a 6x6L6 amp into a mini-SVT. Don't know if you'd find something like that useful, though.

[loudthud]

I don't think the solder actually melted, but it got hot enough along with vibration to cause some connections to fail. Could be partly a mechanical problem like holes in the PCB being too big.

[olddawg]

For the cost of retubing this pig you could almost buy a pretty decent amp. I can't imagine anyone needing that much raw power, except for clean bass overhead nowadays. My suggestion is to attach it to a boat. It is spring after all.

[custom_amp_30]

For the cost of retubing this pig you could almost buy a pretty decent amp. I can't imagine anyone needing that much raw power, except for clean bass overhead nowadays. My suggestion is to attach it to a boat. It is spring after all.

Not if you have rat-holed a few sets of these matched 6L6 power tubes away for a rainy day or a few amp build projects. Not worried about that for sure. I'm older now and I purchased these several years ago when I first purchased this amp. Its going on thirteen years now. The original request was for suggestions on which tube schematics would be a better fix for and amp this size..suggestions, not opinions....This is a great subject to poke fun at......Boat anchor....Lol...I get it. Now back to being serious, which circuit would fit this application best. I was looking at some old fender diagrams, but as stated, best use for a bass amp application. that's my all and thanks in advance!

[Orgazmo]

HEY ALL, NEWBIE HERE from SUNNY arizona!! awsome forum and MASSIVE legit info here. glad to be a member and to have you all take part in my HISTORIC first post!!


CUSTOM AMP30: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE........

these amps are HOLY GRAIL to the southern rock and classic and outlaw country crowd [like myself]. i buy them up when i can find them at reasonable prices. these are also a secret weopon to classic rock rigs for those who know them.

outside of the ungodly volume, thes are some of the most versitile amps ever made. and even if nothing i have said so far moves you to NOT part this out or change it into something IT IS NOT, its a VINTAGE AMP with REAL history in the guitar world and like vintage cars, DONT CRUSH EM, RESTORE THEM!!!

SEND YOUR CHASIS TO PEAVEY in maridian, miss. i sent them a peavey heritage vtx [the "little" brother succesor to the mace] with about the same history as yours. no one could get that amp right. i just about gave up on it. i had bought a pv classic vtx [poor mans jcm 800.... REALLY!!] with no foot switch. a friend told me they were making them at PV. i called them up, gave the guy my order and we started talking old PV's. told him my heritage problem and he said no sweat! send in the chasis, well check it and let you know. long story short, I AM GIGGING with that amp and that was almost 10 years ago!!

for the money you are going to spend bastardizing this vintage GEM, send it to PV and have a real mace. these WILL be worth bux [not fender/marshall bux] soon. they WILL grow in price. and, you can tell yourself, I SAVED ANOTHER FROM THE WRECKING BALL!!!

the only mod i would do to that amp is take out the PV speakers [save them] and pop in some vintage jbl's [ala skynyrd, 38 special, molly hatchett, me, etc....]. those are SPENDY, but, my fav second choice is the eminence TEXAS HEAT! voiced like those jbl's and work PERFECT in these old vtx series PV's. and they will handle the mace's MANLY juice!!!

yes, i own many other amps besides PV. but these have a legit place in music and when they work and one knows how to dial these in, they are AWSOME amps and deserving of a restoration. skynyrds gary rossington STILL uses his on EVERY RECORDING since 1976 and still gigs occasionally with it. its tucked behind his pv obligation back line when he takes it out. its still running strong with FEW changes and its only the threat of theft that keeps it at home.

[custom_amp_30]

Oh sorry, I have moved on to a better project, that Mace is safe....for now....lol

I just returned from Oh so Hot Phoenix not more than five hours ago after a expensive visit to Antique Radio Electronics for a restock of some badly needed parts to build one a few Bassman style chassis that I purchased from Gomez Amplifiers, in Irvine California.

I was in Chandler for a week on Business and only seven miles from the "Will call desk". Placed my order before leaving town, very fast service and exactly what I required. Transformers, switches, etc....

So no need to pull the soul out of that beast....lol