Peavey is expanding its USA-based, award-winning Peavey 19th Street Custom Shop to include custom-built amplifiers. This series of amps are built to spec, based on point-to-point, handwired models, and they range from a single watt to a 50-watt, in a head or combo configuration. The first three to be unveiled are the Masterpiece, the Sensation and the one I just received— the Studio Special.
Small Package
Download Example 1 British Rock tone - Charvel neck pickup. Setting on Amp: Bass – 10, Middle – 5, Treble – 7, Master Volume – 10, Amp Switch set to Normal |
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Download Example 2 Bluesy Rock Tone - Charvel neck pickup. Setting on Amp : Bass – 10, Middle – 4, Treble – 7, Master Volume – 5, Amp Switch set to Normal |
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Download Example 3 Funk Tone - Charvel neck pickup. Setting on Amp : Bass – 6, Middle – 10, Treble – 3, Master Volume – 3, Amp Switch set to Fat |
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Download Example 4 Funky Blues tone with Single Coil pickup - Single Coil neck pickup on Fender VG Strat. Setting on Amp : Bass – 5, Middle – 5, Treble – 5, Master Volume – 5, Amp Switch set to Fat |
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Download Example 5 Alternative Rock Tone - Charvel bridge pickup. Setting on Amp : Bass – 10, Middle – 2, Treble – 6, Master Volume – 10, Amp Switch set to Fat |
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Unless otherwise noted, all clips were recorded with a Charvel So-Cal guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups into the Peavey Studio Special into a Peavey Windsor cab and mic’d with a Shure SM57. The mic signal went directly into Digidesign Pro Tools. |
It’s a fairly small amp, measuring only 8”x16”x8”. With an amp as straight-forward as this one, you definitely don’t need a bigger box. Besides the controls, there is one input, one speaker output and a power switch—it can’t get any more basic that that. Since this is from the Custom Shop, you can choose from a variety of Tolex covers to really personalize your amp.
Good Stuff
This little amp has been referred to as “Billy Gibbons in a box,” so I was looking forward to plugging it in and firing it up. I naturally hooked it up to a Peavey Windsor speaker cabinet first and was quickly surrounded by warm, smooth tube distortion and plenty of gain with my Charvel So-Cal guitar. You won’t find clean headroom on this amp, but you’ll definitely want to crank this amp up to 10 and rock out with it! It’s easy to achieve a variety of rock tones with only the three parameters you have to work with—everything from that warm British tube tone to fizzy, gritty fuzz. The distorted tones stay nice and tight when you crank up the power section. There is plenty of gain to please every player, except for maybe the extreme metal guitarist, who will definitely want to add an extra distortion pedal to the mix to achieve that high-gain tone they’re looking for.
I then plugged in my Strat, put the pickup in the neck position and dialed all the knobs to 12 o’clock. It was a thick, warm tone and great for bringing out those bluesy, single-coil sounds. When switching from Normal to Fat on the amp, it kicked in extra gain that was great for soloing.
The Final Mojo
It’s definitely a great amp for recording, and I found it to be really responsive and dynamic. In a live situation, the amp may be hard to hear over a loud drummer and would probably need to be mic’d to be heard properly. But it is called a Studio Special after all, so that’s where this amp will really shine. With Peavey’s 44 years of amplifier design and building experience, it seems only natural that they would now offer amps through their Custom Shop that buyers can design themselves. Different components and cosmetics can be custom designed from preselected options, or they can be specified on a per-project basis. Take a small amp that can be customized, add in Peavey’s reputation for producing reliable, great-sounding amps, and you have a winning combination with the Studio Special.
Buy if...
you'd like a USA-made handwired custom amp that won't take up a lot of space.
Skip if...
you prefer a combo amp with more than one channel for recording and practicing.
Rating...
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Street $1000 - Peavey Custom Shop - peaveycustomshop.com
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