Focus On: Peavey Electronics Corporation

The Peavey Electronics Corporation is based in Meridian, Mississippi and was founded by owner Hartley Peavey in 1965 after he built his first amplifier in his basement in 1957. Over the past 40 years, Peavey has become one of the world's largest manufacturers of musical instruments. Peavey employs a large proportion of the population of Meridian and they also own 5 other companies which are MediaMatrix, Architectural Acoustics, PVDJ, Crest Audio, and Trace Elliot.

Peavey Differentiators

Peavey sets itself aside from the rest by the sheer range of diversity of musical instruments manufactured, it can literally equip a whole band with musical instruments utilising Peavey Drums, Bass guitars, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, and PA equipment plus a whole host of backline amplification, microphones and accessories. In fact probably the only instruments missing from the Peavey portfolio are keyboards.

Peavey aim there price point at the entry-to mid-range markets, although they do have several high end products and at least one in each instrument genre.

They are perceived by the public as a credible manufacturer of musical instruments and this image has been recently enhanced by Peavey products being endorsed by several high profile celebrity musicians such as Joe Satriani, Stuart Hamm and Eddie Van Halen.

Some of Peavey's classic products are :-

• 5150/6505 Signature Guitar Amplifier Series - developed in collaboration with Eddie Van Halen.
• Wolfgang Series Electric Guitars - continuing from the success of the 51/50 amp, Peavey and Eddie Van Halen designed this signature range of guitars predominantly suited to rock music.
• CS Series Power Amplifiers - some of the most popular power amplifiers in the world.
• JSX Guitar Amplifier Series - In a similar fashion to the 5150 amps these were made in collaboration with guitar maestro Joe Satriani
• Classic Amplifier Series - A versatile amplifier/combo well suited to blues, jazz and rock with a warm sound courtesy of the EL84 Valves.
• ValveKing Guitar Amplifier Series - these all-valve amps have a higher gain level and are therefore extensively used by rock musicians.
• Radial Pro Drum Kit Series - produced between 1994 and 2002 these were Peavey's high-end drum line.

Peavey Today

Today Peavey are as popular as ever and continue to expand their range of instruments and accessories, recent additions to the Peavey range are the modeling amp range know as the Vyper Series. Accompanying the modeling amps are a couple of software applications specifically aimed at the guitar player which also provide modeling capabilities.

Known as the Peavey Re-Valver software, it offers the capability to emulate the sound of new and vintage amplifiers by connecting your guitar to a laptop, PC or Mac and using the
modeling software to process the exact sound you require. There are
two versions, one with vintage and new Peavey amplifiers and cabinets
and a secondary version featuring these plus
a whole host of other classic amps and cabs.

Expect to hear a whole lot more from Peavey
in the future…