Peavey Triple XXX Head

I was at American Music in Bellevue,Wa having the guitar tech set up my PRS. While I was waiting he handed me another Axe and said go plug into this new amp they had from Peavey called a XXX, I heard about it, but never heard one or played through one. I turned it on and hit the crunch channel and I was sold, it was that good, I paid $750.00(US). I've been playing for over 17 years and have had numerous amps, effects, trying to find a good crunch, boomy smooth bottom and crystal clear highs. This one has it all.

3 channels are clean,crunch and ultra and VOLUME knob for each channel and a seperate master for all 3.
A nice wide 3 way foot switch.
Power amp runs 12AX7's but can be easily switched to EL34's.
Its has a great effects loop with in and out volumes.
settings for 4,8,and 16 ohm cabinets.
also a nice feature is a speaker dampning switch for duration the amp controls speaker cone motion (loose,mid and tight).
Great quality and it looks great on stage with the diamond plate grille.

Only that its wider than my previous head, it spans the width of my speaker cabinet and I cant set my drink down on my speaker cab anymore.

Constuction and quality A+

Nice sturdy corner protection, heavy duty handle, very solid.

I play many styles and this amp has got it covered, even through the heaviest of metal I had my gain no higher than 6. I used to run all kinds of effects pumping up my gain and drive, but now all I run is one delay box and nothing more. A great Road/Live and Studio/practice amp. Lotsa bang for the buck.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Peavey Triple XXX is a 120 watt all tube head powered by 6L6 power tubes. It's a three channel head that was designed as a modern high gain amp to compliment the more stripped down 5150 line. It features Clean, Crunch and Ultra channels, each with its own gain and EQ controls as well as a master EQ section. It also has an effects loop available as well. It's designed for higher gain applications and has been commonly used for hard rock and metal music throughout the last decade.

UTILIZATION

Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty simple. It has a slightly harder to dial in EQ than the 5150 but it's still very responsive and sounds wonderful when dialed in to taste. It allows the user to really go in and get a sharp sound that will cut through the mix with ease yet still retain definition and clarity. I didn't really have any issues getting it to sound good. It can be a little bit buzzy sounding at lower volumes, but that could be said of many high wattage high gain tube amps too.

SOUNDS

This amp excels when being used with more modern guitars such as Ibanez, ESP or Jackson. The active or higher output passive pickups really respond well to the gain structure that this amp possesses and it makes for some great metal tones. The clean channel has a nice sharp attack that, though it lacks the warmth and forgiveness of a nice Fender or VOX, it has a nice tone that works well for modern music. The crunch channel is nice and provides a slightly more modern attack that works well for classic rock through to modern crunch. The ultra channel is the one to go to for the highest gain tones. People that want to play tight chugging metal riffs or shred solos will love the high gain nature and tight attack of this channel, especially if it's tightened up with a boost.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think the Peavey XXX is a decent high gain amp for modern rock or metal applications. The 120 watts might be overkill for some musicians and its voicing might be too modern for some players, but if you're looking for a well priced (around $500 used) head to do modern tones with tightness and aggression, give the Peavey XXX a whirl.

* 120W tube power
* 3 footswitchable channels
* Clean channel: volume, passive 3-band EQ
* Crunch channel: gain, volume, active 3-band EQ
* Ultra channel: gain, volume, active 3-band EQ
* Master volume
* Footswitchable effects loop
* Damping switch: tight, medium, loose
* Line out with level control
* Footswitch included


UTILIZATION

Peavey's classic XXX model, one of if not, the most important staple amp models from peavey. I believe, based off the older model named the ultra. All of these have the basic setup, 3 channels, seperate EQ for clean and dirty.

The knobs are active, meaning they are very sensitive and tweak the tone a LOT with very minor tweaks. So don't expect to go too your standard settings, they'll probably be a bit too extreme. Otherwise, I'd say this is very very easy to use, just a regular 3 channel head.

SOUNDS

here we go with the in-depth reviews

clean: Lots of headroom, not too bright like a fender but very very usable. Peavey amps haven't been known for clean but this is definitely a usable one. Adding effects like reverb or delay would make this a very usable clean.

Crunch: The main rhythm channel that one would use, very high gain if you want it to be, also very noisy depending on where you set the gain. It's very modern sounding, not scooped perse but definitely not very vintagey either. The distortion is pretty flexible in terms of the sound it can get high gain hard rock or super shreddy, death metal etc if you want.

Ultra gain: the tone is essentially the same I'd say but just more of a mid range boost with loads of gain. Things can get very muddy here if you don't EQ it properly. Again, very modern sounding. I rarely ever use this channel, mainly for crazy high gain-like solos or maybe some crazy harmonics and noises but the main sound is the crunch channel, I think most players would do the same.

Overall the sounds are very decent, and modern for high gain modern rock and metal but I wouldn't say it's very versatile in every sense. Only very versatile for the modern peavey-like sounds. Which is mainly high gain.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall it's a good metal amp. Very tweakable of the peavey sound, but it is still generally just one sound with different variations to tweaking it, gain or mids, harmonics etc. So it's versatile in the sense that the one sound is tweakable, but it's not versatile in the sense that it can do vintage and modern sounds etc.
The clean sounds are also good but not reminiscent of any signature fenders or older boogie cleans.

But definitely a great amp for metal! Plenty of gain!