Peavey VTM60. What was I thinking?

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War_in_D

War_in_D

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About two months ago, I bought a Peavey VTM60 at one of the local pawn shops. I wish I had taken pictures of it, it literally looked like it had been rolled through a mud pit it was so dirty and nasty. There was so much dust and dirt on the inside, that I couldn't read any of the screen printed writing on the chassis and the power cord looked like it was going to fall out at any moment. But it was cheap enough, so I just took it home untested. Turned out it needed a cap job, which I did (a first for me) and fixed the power cord and all is good now. Played it a bit after the recap, and then put it on the amp shelf.

I've been on a "downsizing" kick here lately and decided to put it up for sale locally along with a few other amps that I hadn't really been giving much love to lately on FB Marketplace. With things the way they are with the economy right now, nobody was biting and everything is just sitting there. Crickets.

I had some alone time today while the wife was gone, so I decided to run a few amps today at volume. This included the "new to me" Dual Rec Multi-Watt I picked up the other day. All amps were run dry, no effects, etc. into the closest cab I had which was my Splawn straight cab loaded with UK Greenbacks. The guitar was my Warmoth build, chambered alder body/quilt maple top, mahogany neck with SS frets and a Dimarzio Super 3 in the bridge (IIRC). The Dual Rec sounded decent, but I don't think the GB's are what it needs/likes. Especially given that the Mesa cabs are usually running a quad of V30's. I'll have to run that one again with my other Splawn slant cab with V30's and Creambacks to maybe get a representation of what that amp can do. Next, I threw my 22 watt, fully loaded Splawn QR on the cab next and it sounded pretty darn good. With the Splawn being somewhat of a Marshall derivative, that was to be expected though with the GB cab. Then.... I decided to throw the VTM60 on there.

.....and I immediately took it off the Marketplace! Holy Cow, what was I thinking when I put that up for sale? It just goes to show that there are amps out there that absolutely kill, that are a fraction of the cost of some of these newer offerings. I almost hate to say it, but listening to the VTM back to back with the Mesa and the Splawn on that particular cabinet, it blew both of them away. At least to my ears (today).

Now I'm going to have to drag out my other two cabs, and start running all these heads through them to see what's up before I start trying to sell stuff all willy-nilly! :ROFLMAO:
 
I’d love to have a vtm in the stable, just one of those amps I never saw for the right price at the right time
 
easstudios said:
killer amps and sort of ahead of their time as it’s the kind of modded marshall circuit that everyone is going nuts for now
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Some friends of mine that had a local music store that were Peavey dealers forever told me a story about how the VTM came to be. I don't know for certain that this is fact, but they wouldn't have had any reason to be blowing smoke. They said that back in the 80's when all the big time Marshall mod guys were around doing their thing (Jose, Rivera, etc.), Peavey bought five Marshall JCM800's and had them sent to all these guys under employee names to have them modded. When they got them back, they reverse engineered a bunch of the mods and that's what became the VTM line of amps. The difference was that they made all the mods switchable from the front panel.

Again, I've never seen anything anywhere else that backed up this claim but if true, it makes for a really cool story.
 
War_in_D said:
Some friends of mine that had a local music store that were Peavey dealers forever told me a story about how the VTM came to be. I don't know for certain that this is fact, but they wouldn't have had any reason to be blowing smoke. They said that back in the 80's when all the big time Marshall mod guys were around doing their thing (Jose, Rivera, etc.), Peavey bought five Marshall JCM800's and had them sent to all these guys under employee names to have them modded. When they got them back, they reverse engineered a bunch of the mods and that's what became the VTM line of amps. The difference was that they made all the mods switchable from the front panel.

Again, I've never seen anything anywhere else that backed up this claim but if true, it makes for a really cool story.
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I like your story better, theres also some rumours online about a band called Keel having a Jose modded amp and sending that to Peavey as the basis for the VTM.

Hard to know for sure but there’s more than a small bit of Jose/Marshall influence on the circuit.

Joe Barresi seems to be a big fan, he posts it a lot and I’m pretty sure it may have made some Tool recordings (they mention some old Peavey head),

Cool website here showing what each of the dipswitches do: https://www.ampbooks.com/mobile/classic-circuits/peavey/
 
easstudios said:
I like your story better, theres also some rumours online about a band called Keel having a Jose modded amp and sending that to Peavey as the basis for the VTM.

Hard to know for sure but there’s more than a small bit of Jose/Marshall influence on the circuit.

Joe Barresi seems to be a big fan, he posts it a lot and I’m pretty sure it may have made some Tool recordings (they mention some old Peavey head),

Cool website here showing what each of the dipswitches do: https://www.ampbooks.com/mobile/classic-circuits/peavey/
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This is true; the Keel story. Chubtone posted this here long ago; like a decade or something. They are very cool amps. Compared to a 2204 they don’t quite get there…but for a third of the price….who cares.
I eventually had someone do a Rockstah mod 5 to it, and sold it soon after.
But for 700 bucks, they are a great deal and sound killer.
 
Racerxrated said:
This is true; the Keel story. Chubtone posted this here long ago; like a decade or something. They are very cool amps. Compared to a 2204 they don’t quite get there…but for a third of the price….who cares.
I eventually had someone do a Rockstah mod 5 to it, and sold it soon after.
But for 700 bucks, they are a great deal and sound killer.
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They’re definitely a bit thicker and less aggressive than a 2204 but with the dipswitches and options they’re way more versatile. I’ve got a couple of 2204’s, a 2203, and a JEL style amp in the studio. Been meaning to do a quick comparison video of them
 
A lot of those old Peaveys are killers. I've got a Triumph, which gets a lot from crap from many players. I effin' love them. I run mine through an Egnater 4x12 Armageddon cab with 2 T75's and 2 K100's. Sounds amazing. My 5150 sounded killer through that cab, too. James Brown, the guy who designed the Triumph and the 5150 amps said the Truimph can get very cool early EVH type tones when run through Greenbacks.
 
I've owned a few VTM's over the years and have always kicked myself in the nuts for selling one of them. It's my Go-To amp. It's Home Base for me. Over the past 16 years there was only two years that I didn't have at least one VTM. And during that period I didn't even own a tube amp. I have two VTM60's currently.
 
I had a Roclmaster Preamp that was good. Sold it with all Ei Preamp Tubes like a jackass.. Some of them were microphonic but you can install them down the line.. Shoulda sent it with Sovteks.. LOL

I also had both Classic 120/120 and 50/50 Power Amps..

PV makes good stuff.
 
midnightlaundry said:
I had a Roclmaster Preamp that was good. Sold it with all Ei Preamp Tubes like a jackass.. Some of them were microphonic but you can install them down the line.. Shoulda sent it with Sovteks.. LOL

I also had both Classic 120/120 and 50/50 Power Amps..

PV makes good stuff.
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I keep an eye out for those Peavey Rock Master preamps from time to time, but the prices on them have gone through the roof. I think the last one I saw for sale was listed at around $600 but I don't know if it actually sold. Those used to be $150 all day long. I never had one, but the way it's set up it looks like the preamp section of a Peavey Ultra Plus which is one of my favorite Peavey amps so I've always been curious about them.

I used to run a Peavey 50/50 with my JMP-1. Great setup! Those power amps used to be cheap too, but not anymore.
 
I picked up a VTM120 from a church sale last year for $400 loaded with original 415s. I played it in the band and it was actually really good. Better than most of my Mesas. Then I sold it because (let's face it) I'm a high end snob.

That was dumb.

A month or so ago I saw a touring band on a 5 band bill and they had killer live tone, best of the night. One guy with a VTM120 & the other guy with a 5150. Only band I can remember with better tone was a group that had a pair of vertical input JCM800s.
 
War_in_D said:
I keep an eye out for those Peavey Rock Master preamps from time to time, but the prices on them have gone through the roof. I think the last one I saw for sale was listed at around $600 but I don't know if it actually sold. Those used to be $150 all day long. I never had one, but the way it's set up it looks like the preamp section of a Peavey Ultra Plus which is one of my favorite Peavey amps so I've always been curious about them.

I used to run a Peavey 50/50 with my JMP-1. Great setup! Those power amps used to be cheap too, but not anymore.
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I've got a Classic 60/60 on the way this week. Got a preamp I want to run with it; my HH is great for a WDW but not the best with the pre.
 
War_in_D said:
I keep an eye out for those Peavey Rock Master preamps from time to time, but the prices on them have gone through the roof. I think the last one I saw for sale was listed at around $600 but I don't know if it actually sold. Those used to be $150 all day long. I never had one, but the way it's set up it looks like the preamp section of a Peavey Ultra Plus which is one of my favorite Peavey amps so I've always been curious about them.

I used to run a Peavey 50/50 with my JMP-1. Great setup! Those power amps used to be cheap too, but not anymore.
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Those RockMaster preamps are killers. If you get one, there's a good chance that the jacks will need maintenance. The jacks are an issue on a lot of the RockMasters.

Here's thread on that issue: https://www.marshallforum.com/threa...ks-fixed-the-rock-master-preamp-again.128273/

I had a chance to buy one for $70 years ago and I passed on it. Stupid move on my part.
 
Nothing good ever pops up on Craigslist around me but a bunch of over priced crap. I don't check it often because of this. A few months ago I checked it and a guy has a 60 and 120 VTM for sale for $400 and $500. I email him and he tells me they both sold quickly. He was the original owner and they were in perfect shape. I sure missed that one.
 


threw that together real quick. VTM is on stock mode, all dipswitches down. Didn’t dial them in to sound the same, just sort of ballpark to get a feel for tones. Obviously the JEL have way more tones available and can go much higher gain with the mods. Kind of why I lent on lower gain style riffs so apologies for anyone expecting heavy stuff ha
 
easstudios said:


threw that together real quick. VTM is on stock mode, all dipswitches down. Didn’t dial them in to sound the same, just sort of ballpark to get a feel for tones. Obviously the JEL have way more tones available and can go much higher gain with the mods. Kind of why I lent on lower gain style riffs so apologies for anyone expecting heavy stuff ha
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Was that a hole song…..?

The vtm sounds cool.

There are definitely sleeper amps out there like the backstage plus.
 
mooncobra said:
Was that a hole song…..?

The vtm sounds cool.

There are definitely sleeper amps out there like the backstage plus.
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ha yeah, one of the riffs was hole. I prefer the VTM with some of the dipswitches engaged, but for this I thought I’d keep it a bit more “Marshall”. The gain boosts and high end switches are my favourite on that amp (the low end and diode clipping ones are cool too).
 
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