Amps manufactured by Peavey are known for their great tone. While considered to be more affordable and offer better value for money. What genre you prefer to play will depend on whether Peavey is the best choice for you. Sometimes choosing an amp brand like Peavey can be a better buy than choosing a well-known and much more expensive Fender or Marshall amp.
| Features: | Peavey Delta Blues | Peavey Classic 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Cost: | £770 ($910) | £800 ($947) |
| Max Wattage: | 30 Watts | 30 Watts |
| Weight: | 21 kg | 17.92 kg |
Peavey Delta Blues 15″ Combo
Peavey’s Delta Blues shares a lot of its insides with the Peavey Classic 30. Some differences that the Delta Blues has are a tremolo circuit, which is one of the nicest you’ll hear. If you’re looking for an amp that’s able to go slower, faster, and deeper than other amps, then this could be a great amp for you.
Design
Peavey’s Delta Blues retains its very vintage ‘TV’ front. its twill covering has been very neatly applied and sits nicely with the brown speaker grille cloth and chrome steel chassis – more than likely influenced by Fender’s tweed amps of the ‘50s, which are often quoted as the genesis of the modern guitar amplifier.
Peavey’s famous Blue Marvel loudspeakers have been replaced by a 15in Celestion Fullback.
Inside the chassis, the Delta sports a typically clean and neat printed circuit board, which holds most of the electronics; there’s also a slightly redesigned layout which should help to improve long-term reliability.
It has volume control for the clean ‘normal’ channel and old-style Peavey ‘Pre’ and ‘Post’ volume and gains for the drive channel, with bass, a reverb level control, and mid and treble knobs.
In comparison to the Classic, the Delta Blues has two extra knobs that control the speed and intensity of the tremolo effect, otherwise, a lot of its functions are identical to the Classic 30.
The overall vibe of the amp is still typical Peavey: being built to handle the kind of use that a hectic musician typically needs to dish out, while looking clean and refined. The Delta Blues includes a two-button footswitch for changing channels and operating the boost function; an extra footswitch is needed for controlling the reverb and tremolo effects.
Sound Quality
Peavey’s Delta Blues is well behaved electrically, with practically inaudible low hissing, humming, and pop-free switching.
Peavey has an often-overlooked clean channel that has great all-purpose voicing that’s equally flattering for single coils and humbuckers, which sits perfectly in the mix for many musical genres. You can hear some subtle overdrive as you turn it up, adding some subtle edge to chords and single notes. Using the Delta Blues with a Strat or Tele is a great combination for country picking.
The Delta Blues’ 15in Celestion adds extra lows giving more punch. Adding a decent archtop, select the bridge pickup and you’re ready.
The Delta Blues’ tonal range makes a big impact when playing chords and licks, and works really well with lap steel and slide. Its tremolo is excellent and perfect for adding character and colour to any classic genre.
Overall
The Peavey Delta Blues provides a powerful tone from its 15-inch driver; giving a nice reverb and excellent tremolo. It’s very loud, expensive and quite heavy.
Peavey Classic 30
Released in the early ‘90s, Peavey’s Classic 30 has been one of the industry’s safest buys ever since. But does it still punch above its weight?
Perfect for smaller stages or at home, the Peavey Classic 30 was, and still is, a very popular option with a wealth of features, making up a surprisingly versatile amplifier. More recently, Peavey decided to update the design with a couple of changes, the most notable change being the introduction of a standby switch, which replaces the single power switch that was on the original.
Made in the United States, the Classic 30 is an amalgamation of classic clean tones with more modern higher gain drive sounds. The Classic 30s pre-amp section is fed by three 12AX7 tubes, giving a wealth of gain and dynamic cleans, and the power section sports four smaller EL84 tubes providing the 30 Watts RMS of output.
Design
The all-tube Classic 30 watts are generated via the heat of seven tubes—three 12AX7s and four EL84s—that are protected by a steel cage. Two of the 12AX7s push the preamp while the third compliments the EL84s in the power section. The amp has two channels—in the Peavey Classic tradition—and an op-amp with driven spring reverb. A footswitch for switching channels and boost is included, although it can’t be used for the reverb.
The control panel is mounted on the top and features a single volume control for the normal channel and pre and post controls for the second channel. There’s a button between the pre-sections and normal that switches between channels, which are remarkably different. There’s a reverb level control along with an EQ section with bass, mid, and treble knobs. Each knob goes up to 12.
Sound Quality
The amp does exactly what it’s designed to do: it ruled a small, packed, noisy, reflection-prone room without the help of a PA. If you like dirt, you’ll be eager to experiment with the crunchy channel.
Echo of the past the reverb from the Classic 30 sounds sweet. The amp has ambience at low levels and lingers deliciously when cranked, making it a natural for surf licks. The control is effective and smooth—changing the reverb without any sudden surges.
Overall
Overall, the latest Classic 30 is a ruggedly built and adaptable creature—dependable and sweet sounding on stage in the studio as well.
Conclusion
Peavey is considered to be a great amp for beginners, considering they don’t compromise on production quality at all.
If you go with either the Delta Blues or Classic 30, either one will sound amazing and you won’t be wasting your time or money.
With that being said, if I had to pick an amp, the Peavey Delta Blues has a slight edge over the Classic 30 due to Tremolo on the amp.