PEAVEY CLASSIC 30 MOD

[TIMBO]

Hi guys, A mate gave me his Classic 30 to have a look at. It is working well but just isn't giving him what he wants so i found this http://blueguitar.org/new/articles/blue_gtr/amps/peavey/c30_origmod.pdf which sounds like it just gives the amp a bit of a tone boost by changing some stock parts for some better ones as well making a few value changes. I first suggested that a valve change to start with (although it already has JJ EL84s, JJ ECC83S in V1 & V2 with Sovtek 12AX7 LPS in V3 all look in good condition) and possibility of a few mods.

He's into the ROCK-a-BILLY but i not sure what amp sound (i'm hoping you guys would be able to guide me) is required for this and if the peavey which he has been using for quite awhile has got what it takes.He said an 80s crunchy mid tones.

Has anyone got any ideas. Thanks

Schem in Dougs library

[mageerc]

All I can say is that those Classic 30s are a PITA to work on... those folded boards with the wire jumpers are really fragile... the PCBs also are very easy to damage the solder pads on, so be extremely careful...

[12AX7]

What he said. I did a lot of mods on the 3 i had, but it's a major PITA. You can't just open it and change a part then see how it sounds. To get to a lot of th parts it's a major operation and can take a very tedious 1/2 hour to change one component and see how it sounds. The end result for me was a better sounding amp to MY ear, but certainly didn't take it to a higher level. To really nail it would take a crazy amount of hours of assembly and reassembly, and every time you do you also weaken the probably 100 solid core wire board jumpers which then become weak and break at a gig which happened to me several time. Best bet is to forget it and tell him to get something else if he's not happy with it.

[tubeswell]

What the other two said.  Watch those inter-board jumper wires. If one of them cracks it can cause major troubleshooting stress.

And use a de-soldering wick or something similar to get all the solder off the trace before you swap parts.

I have done heaps of classic 30 mods. The best one by far IMHO is the tone stack mod on Steve Ahola's website.

[plexi50]

I cant live without this stuff. Ive tried the Radio Shack solder wick crap and it is pretty much usless. I went back to the more expensive solder wick. It's the best. But it's 4.95 a roll and sometimes the rolls arent fully wound either. Still it makes working on pc boards and other parts a breeze. The parts virtually just fall off the board

[TIMBO]

Hi guys, I took all your advice and i was able to complete a successful mission.  I found that removing the PCB fairly straight forward as it did not put up much of a fight. The removal of parts was made easy with the solder wick 

I feel that the mods made a difference but i'll will have to wait for the owner to give it a run.
I think for the amount of parts and the time to do these mods (about 2 hours) it was worth it.

Not being an amp tech and having to work on these for a living, Its hats off to you guys  and i can't believe the difference in part size. Thanks 

[alerich]

Sheesh. That pic of the insides makes my Triumph 120 look like a walk in the park. I presently own two Peavey amps (6505 head and Triumph 120 combo) and I've owned a few others over the years. Peavey definitely gets the "best bang for the buck" award with me but they sure are scary looking inside. Now I understand why a Soldano SLO costs so much.