Any Love for the Peavey XXX?

Bad.Seed

Bad.Seed

Well-known member
Plugged into the old tried and true tonight. I've had a Peavey XXX in my stable since 2012. It's been the only constant in my lineup other than the Peavey 5150.

It certainly isn't much good for anything classic rock or yesteryear oriented, but man does it do some great modern metal and thrash tones. I swapped in a JJ 5751 to the v2 tube years back to tame the gain and fizz, and I forgot how well it works in this amp.

Always thought this amp caught a bad rap do to the corny name/faceplate/ general cosmetics, but it sounds really.mean, and yet it has a more focused sound than a 5150. They pair really well together.

Anybody else use or dig this amp?
 
I had one for years and it’s a great amp. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another in the future.
 
Love it! A lot of the bad rap comes from not having the effects loop set to unity gain and setting the damping switch to anything but loose.
 
I had one back in the day. I had the resistors upgraded & installed JJ E34L tubes. Completely change the amp for the better.
 
Peavey XXX & JSX, are very solid and with a few tweaks, tubes, minor mods, etc
Each be made to have a very modern, classic sounding distortion for a reasonable amount of money
Just my two cents, I have both amps and have made tweaks to the JSX to remove the cocked wah sound which can make it difficult to dial in a good tone.
On the XXX similar mods made to warm up the crunch and ultra channels, tweak clean channel closer to fender specs for a warmer clean tone
 
type_o_neg":3ddps5ls said:
Peavey XXX & JSX, are very solid and with a few tweaks, tubes, minor mods, etc
Each be made to have a very modern, classic sounding distortion for a reasonable amount of money
Just my two cents, I have both amps and have made tweaks to the JSX to remove the cocked wah sound which can make it difficult to dial in a good tone.
On the XXX similar mods made to warm up the crunch and ultra channels, tweak clean channel closer to fender specs for a warmer clean tone
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I've had a couple JSX heads in the past and they were always nice on their own, but seemed to disappear in a band mix next to my other guitarist who always used a 5150.

The XXX seems to be voiced just a little more upper mid heavy, enough so that it has no problem fitting in the 5150. In fact, when we would play out, we always got a lot of compliments on our tone together with those 2 heads. The last 2 years, we've both been experimenting a lot with new amps and cabs, and not been playing as many shows, so I feel even though we have amps we like better, we haven't had a chance to dial them to fit eachother like the old 5150 and XXX combo.

My latest XXX sounds great, but I've thought about getting it bias modded and thowing in an EL34 type tube, and maybe letting in a little more resonance on the tight switch for the loose setting, as I'd rather have the resonance be a bit more apparent without having to dial the bass up on the EQ and throw the active eq settings out of wack.
 
I've always wanted to try a XXX. I owned a triple XXXII for three years and hated that amp like no other. Tried all kinds of tube swaps, but it always had this ear grating ice pick high end/upper mids thing I couldn't stand.
 
MetalHeadMike":g7hdkann said:
I've always wanted to try a XXX. I owned a triple XXXII for three years and hated that amp like no other. Tried all kinds of tube swaps, but it always had this ear grating ice pick high end/upper mids thing I couldn't stand.
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Yeah I get that, I felt the XXX II had an upper mid shift done to it that made it hard to play alone. I sold mine recently, still have the XXX.
 
Always loved the JSX. Played one for a few years back in the day. I had played the 5150 religiously from the moment they came out for about 10 years, moved to the XXX and then onto the JSX. My first gig with the JSX, was lost in the mix. Retubed with 6L6's and that was the trick for me on that amp. I got along with the XXX as well but preferred the JSX. I always felt my guitars, pups and the way I played fit well with those Peavey amps as the sole guitarist during that time.

Peavey pigeonholed themselves with the XXX in terms of it's looks but that was going to be Lynch's amp at the time. I remember the NAMM show when they were fixing to release them, they had posters with George and the amp. Obviously that didn't last.
 
They look embarassing but sound great. I have seen some good cosmetic mods people have done. A great no frills hard rock/metal amp.
 
sutepaj":2ezgz7x1 said:
They look embarassing but sound great. I have seen some good cosmetic mods people have done. A great no frills hard rock/metal amp.
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Yeah, not so great. I saw one where someone had put on black diamond grate and the old "flat" Peavey logo. Looked good. Always like that flat Peavey logo.
 
I used to have one. Solid amp. Both the Ultra and Crunch channels were very useable for high-gain rhtyms, thoug I feel both had a tad too much gain and were hard to control with high-output pickups.

Good amp nonetheless.
 
I thought that channel two was killer. Such great 80's hair metal tones and liquid. I would take a XXX over a 5150 every day of the week.
 
shredhead7":3jx70wpf said:
I thought that channel two was killer. Such great 80's hair metal tones and liquid. I would take a XXX over a 5150 every day of the week.
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This. :thumbsup:
Had a 5150 at the time I got the XXX.
It sent the 5150 packing within a week. :LOL: :LOL:
It was like the XXX did the 5150 and more.
Really liked that amp.
 
shredhead7":bc5h5h0j said:
I thought that channel two was killer. Such great 80's hair metal tones and liquid. I would take a XXX over a 5150 every day of the week.
Click to expand...
This! Never played a 5150 or variant that made me want to get my wallet out. LOVE the Triple XXX. You just have to learn how to dial it in. They can be had for a song used.
 
I wouldn't mind having a XXX, but I also had a Peavey Ultra Plus I liked. Satchel used to at least have one in some of their videos I think it was, and when I saw Kansas come through Chattanooga years ago, their guitar players had XXXs on stage.
 


This album is a XXX so it gets only love from me. In a world where most great tube amps are at least $1200, many of them $2k+, I kind of appreciate being able to throw down $300 to $400 and get a solid amp like the XXX. It's a quirky amp, but dialed in right it gets a mean metal tone. I'd recommend anyone at least give it a try.
 
Awesome to see! I have gotten shit on by many for loving this amp (exclusively on the internet) and I just always thought that it was funny. I own much more expensive stuff now, and I still plug into this amp it puts a smile on my face. Used to get a lot of compliments on how it sounds.

My Diezel steals the show for said band these days, but we're playing a show in Binghamton this weekend and I'm very tempted to break out the XXX and my beat to shit LP studio for old time's sake.
 
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