Pulling tubes in a Classic 30?

[glocker199]

I have been on the lookout for a small 2 channel tube combo that I can use for practice at home as well as jamming with a band. I recently found a like new late '90s Peavey Classic 30 that I can pick up for around $300. I really like the tones of the C30, but it needs to be cranked to sound it's best. At full volume it's perfect for band practice and small bars but way too loud for home.

I'd really like one of the amps with a switch that goes from full power to half power but I hate to pass up this deal on the Peavey.

I was wondering if it's possible to pull two of the power tubes on this amp to run it at half power.

[tubeswell]

You can't pull any of the EL84s out per se because the heaters are wired in series. But you can carefully clip off the signal grid, screen grid, and plate pins of 2 of the tubes and plug them back in to keep the heaters running. But you also should then disconnect your on-board 16R speaker, and plug it into the 8R extension socket - to double the OT load resistance (I modded mine a few years back by building in a 1/4" phono socket for the on board speaker for added versatility)

[glocker199]

You can't pull any of the EL84s out per se because the heaters are wired in series. But you can carefully clip off the signal grid, screen grid, and plate pins of 2 of the tubes and plug them back in to keep the heaters running. But you also should then disconnect your on-board 16R speaker, and plug it into the 8R extension socket - to double the OT load resistance (I modded mine a few years back by building in a 1/4" phono socket for the on board speaker for added versatility)

Thank for the info but that's more trouble than it's worth as I want to be able to switch back and forth between 15 and 30 fairly easily.

Is it possible to have a half power switch wired into the amp?

[tubeswell]

You could put a triode/pentode switch in with a 4 pole double throw switch. That would lose some power. However that will also involve work cutting the screen traces on the boards etc. 2CW

[Albert Kreuzer]

What about a master volume in the FX loop?
I've built several of these with great success.

[black_labb]

or instead of clipping all the leads as tubeswell says you could always put a switch that disconnects the cathodes of the 2 unwanted tubes (or just engages a really big cathode resistor). the tubes would have all the voltages on them including the heaters, but the current wont flow.

[glocker199]

What about a master volume in the FX loop?
I've built several of these with great success.

Very interesting! Do you sell those?

[hasserl]

FWIW, one of our regulars brought his Peavey Classic 30 to one of our blues jams yesterday for use on the back line. This was at a small club, we had maybe 50 people at the maximum, for much of the time the crowd was a lot smaller than that. With that amp we could only run the Volume on about 2 - 3. At that level it just wasn't turned up enough to get some warmth out of it, it was really hard to play. Yet even at that low volume it was still loud enough to cause discomfort, particularly when the owner of the amp would step on his LPB1 clean boost, it was like switching on a light saber and slicing heads off. It was brutal. I played thru it for one set, no pedals, just a Strat straight into it, and it just was hard to work with. As I rolled the guitar volume down to ~7 for comping it pretty much disappeared, but when I rolled it up to 10 for leads the ice pick was real bad. I spent all three songs of the set trying to dial in a good tone and really didn't get there.

I'd suggest a nice attenuator to start with, to help tame the amp, also to let you turn it up a little higher but keep the overall volume down. But I'd alspo be looking at a speaker change too, to something with a little less ice pick to it, something to warm it up a little. An alnico mag speaker wouldn't be a bad choice, to get a little compression and smooth out that harsh attack.

[Albert Kreuzer]

Very interesting! Do you sell those?

Depends on where you're located. I just started my business, at the moment I can only ship EU-wide.
But you can easily roll your own, it is a simple 250k...1M volume pot (value not critical) and two cheap 1/4" plugs. You can also use a normal volume pedal.

Cheers,
Albert

PS: What hasserl said, a different speaker is a good upgrade. I like a 16 Ohm Greenback in these amps. Or a Warehouse Green Beret.

[Jag]

I agree with Albert and Hasserl, a master volume or attenuator will probably be your best bet. 15 watts is pretty loud for home practice.

[glocker199]

FWIW, one of our regulars brought his Peavey Classic 30 to one of our blues jams yesterday for use on the back line. This was at a small club, we had maybe 50 people at the maximum, for much of the time the crowd was a lot smaller than that. With that amp we could only run the Volume on about 2 - 3. At that level it just wasn't turned up enough to get some warmth out of it, it was really hard to play. Yet even at that low volume it was still loud enough to cause discomfort, particularly when the owner of the amp would step on his LPB1 clean boost, it was like switching on a light saber and slicing heads off. It was brutal. I played thru it for one set, no pedals, just a Strat straight into it, and it just was hard to work with. As I rolled the guitar volume down to ~7 for comping it pretty much disappeared, but when I rolled it up to 10 for leads the ice pick was real bad. I spent all three songs of the set trying to dial in a good tone and really didn't get there.

I'd suggest a nice attenuator to start with, to help tame the amp, also to let you turn it up a little higher but keep the overall volume down. But I'd alspo be looking at a speaker change too, to something with a little less ice pick to it, something to warm it up a little. An alnico mag speaker wouldn't be a bad choice, to get a little compression and smooth out that harsh attack.

For this amp I'm actually wanting a raw, in your face, cutting tone. Something similar to the tone Clutch's Tim Sult has on Robot Hive/Exodous or Jim Martin's tone on Faith No More's Angel Dust.

Most tube combo's are either too warm and fuzzy or have that hi gain scooped sound and I don't care for either.

I've got a couple other amps I use for a sweet overdriven blues tone with my other band; a '65 Super Reverb and the Musicmaster you've been helping me with.

[jim5150]

home playing

I have been on the lookout for a small 2 channel tube combo that I can use for practice at home as well as jamming with a band. I recently found a like new late '90s Peavey Classic 30 that I can pick up for around $300. I really like the tones of the C30, but it needs to be cranked to sound it's best. At full volume it's perfect for band practice and small bars but way too loud for home.

I'd really like one of the amps with a switch that goes from full power to half power but I hate to pass up this deal on the Peavey.

I was wondering if it's possible to pull two of the power tubes on this amp to run it at half power.

Even if you did cut it by half the volume would only be reduced by about 3db.
I recently bought a fulltone fatboost3 and discovered apart from great tone live, the pedal also gives the amp the tone and dynamics of the amp cranked at low volume without changing the tone of the amp except for adding some nice harmonics. at louder volumes the fatboost3 really tames the amp by tightening up the sound and just making it sound "bigger" the pedal serves as a kind of master volume. I highly recommend this pedal to classic 30 owners. boosts in just the right places.

BTW i have a WGS vet 30 in my classic 30 and it sounds great. No ice picky highs

[jim5150]

fulltone fatboost3

here's the pedal description from the fulltone site:

(btw I don't work for fulltone)

The new FatBoost 3 (shipping now) replaces previous versions 1 and 2, marrying everything that people like about both version while improving on them in a few key areas:

*brings back the v1 11- position Gain control giving the ultimate in control over the FET's.

*adds one more stage of FET so that the pedal does not invert your signal

*cures v1's huge Bass increase and dull high-end issues, but allowing those sounds as well should you so desire.

The Fulltone Fat-Boost 3 is a Discrete, Class-A, FET (Field-Effect-Transistor) pedal offering up to 35dB of non-distorted Gain without changing your signature sound ...unless you so desire You can fatten/distort your tone, brighten or mellow up the sound, add or subtract Bass, and add even-order harmonics! The FB-3 has True-Bypass switching (using the finest switch made, the Fulltone 3PDT) and incorporates a super-bright LED without the loud popping sound thanks to our proprietary anti-pop circuitry.
FET’s can behave like Tubes in a properly designed circuit. They can “clip” (distort) in a pleasing way instead of being buzzy or spiky sounding (like a Transistor) and can also add a subtle Limiting to the signal which can even-out the volume making your Live and Recorded tones more pleasing to the ear....that‘s why you’ll see Recording Engineers using my Fat-Boost on everything from
Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, and even Snare drums.

The Fat-Boost 3 works great in front of non-Master-Volume Tube amps to goose them into submission, as well as through Master-Volume amps to drive them much harder than possible with just your guitar alone. It also works very well on Bass, Acoustic Guitars (with Pickups) and is the best thing you could put at the end of a pedal board effects chain to completely eliminate the tone loss caused by long guitar cable runs back to your amp. Doing so will allow the use of 50’ (or longer) cable lengths with no signal degradation whatsoever.

This final version of the Fat-Boost (Model FB-3) incorporates all of the things that people have loved about previous versions of the Fulltone Fat-Boosts without any of the shortcomings, and brings back the 11 step FET Bias “Drive” Knob that was missing from the FB-2. You‘ll notice that the “Drive” knob makes a slight scraping noise when you turn it...not to worry... that is totally normal, and is simply the sound of the Bias changing and settling on the FET MuAmp. The Fat-Boost 3 gives you the feeling that your amp is Cranked at living room volumes so your playing is more dynamic and notes hold on longer without being distorted. It makes up for all the tone loss that (even True-Bypass) pedals impart to your sound, especially if you‘re like me and have a lot of pedals on your pedalboard...
I rarely turn the FB-3 off....you may not either!