Peavey XXX Combo User Reviews... See what others have to say about the Peavey XXX Combo - 60 watt All Tube Guitar Amplifier.
Getting right down to it, the Triple X is a three channel amp: Clean, Mid-Gain, High-Gain (or something like that). The clean channel offers no gain control. It provides headroom galore with no distortion at all. It's ideal for jazz players and, if you're so inclined, funking it up with a wah pedal. Country players will love this channel, too. Actually, everybody will love this channel. It produces big, fat chiming chords with an enveloping low end that blooms and developes while the notes sustain. The "crunch" channel, for me anyway, is where the magic happens with the Triple X. I believe any guitar amp should be able to be played in nearly any genre with only the volume knob on your guitar. Turn it up for your solos, turn it down for a cleaner, less ferocious rhythm thang. In the real world; however, most amp companies are so hung up on gain that this subtle "magic place" is lost completly. These "high gain" amp produce well... high gain. Great if you're 15 years old and have no concept that guitars actually produce NOTES! But, there's a channel for these guys too. Peavey calls it the "Ultra" channel.
The Ultra channel is mostly about gain. But, it is switch selectable to produce something more like the mid-gain tones of the crunch channel. This is very cool. Now, you can have the same sweet overdrive but louder for solos. I used it as a sort of fail safe mode. In sound checks, the house guys like to control everything. I don't blame them but, it sucks when you do a sound check in an empty house then, later you can't hear a note you are playing because the room is now full of people. So, with the tap of your toe... bammo! louder! Same great tone, just more of it. I figure if the sound guys couldn't predict the difference in sound from an empty house to a full one, they can turn me down in the house mix when they notice I'm too loud in it. Either way, I can hear myself again and that's very important to playing your best.
The bottom line is that this is a great feeling guitar amplifier to play through. The sound is awsome and the speaker is CHROME!!! How cool is THAT?? For all of you who think Peavey couldn't possibly create a professional guitar amplifier, just check it out. You can still play through your Bogners and VHTs and Matchless' but, really this amp is sweet. Tweek it. Work the gain setting. You'll find the magic in there for a fraction of what you'll pay for these boutique amps.
Likes:
- I love the styling and all the chrome. I know that really doesn't matter when it comes to sound, but hey, it's showbiz.
- There are bias test terminals on the back panel so you don't have to take the amp chasis out to check the bias voltage. Very hip.
- Damping factor control: This 3 position switch controls the speaker damping factor from tight to loose and has a dramatic effect over the behavior of the amp. It's also effective as a room size control. Tight for big rooms, loose for small. Buy one, you'll see what I mean.
- TONE. TONE. TONE. Every sound from squeaky clean to over the top rage works. Mostly, I like the subtle dynamics in the mid-gain range. That's the boutique amp mantra and Peavey has just knocked them down a few pegs.
- This amp is pretty heavy. But, there's no way to lighten it without skimping on transformers, wood or speakers and that would ruin the sound. So, buy a cart.
- I'd prefer that they label the tone controls on the gain channels with Bass, Mid, Treble or Low, Mid, High rather than Push, Edge or whatever they call 'em. C'mon, we're grownups here. I think we all get the concept of EQ knobs rather than ambiguous, subjective terms that don't exactly tell you what the knob really does.
I really have to say, for a versatile amp, all of the tones are great. I think the "crunch" channel has a little bit more gain built into it than is necessary but, that's just me. But, then again, if you need two very high gain channels, you'd be stuck if I had my way. And, the gain knob actually turns both directions.
If you've entertained the idea of changing guitar amps, or even if you haven't, take the Peavey Triple X Combo electric guitar amplifier for a test drive. It's great amd costs about a quarter of what many of those snob amps cost.
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