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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder(s) | Hartley Peavey |
| Headquarters | Meridian, Mississippi, USA |
| Key people | Hartley Peavey (CEO) |
| Industry | Audio equipment |
| Revenue | $271 Million (Est.)[1] |
| Employees | 2400 |
| Subsidiaries | Peavey Electronics Europe, Ltd. |
| Website | www.peavey.com |
Peavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest audio equipment manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi in the United States.
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History
Hartley Peavey founded Peavey Electronics in 1965 after building his first amplifier in 1957. Since its foundation, Peavey Electronics has been privately owned, and has grown massively from their humble beginnings in Hartley's basement in 1950s.
The company maintains a museum featuring memorabilia related to Peavey Electronics and its notable users, which is open to the public.
Company information
Peavey currently owns 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m²) of manufacturing/assembly area over 33 facilities across North America, Europe and Asia, 18 of which are located in their home state of Mississippi. Products are manufactured mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Far East, and are distributed to 136 different countries across the globe. They also hold 130 patents, and have a product range of around 2000 designs, with between 80 to 100 being added each year.
Peavey Electronics also owns 5 major electronics brands, namely MediaMatrix, Architectural Acoustics, PVDJ, Crest Audio, and Trace Elliot. while working with a number of famous musicians on signature instruments, amplifiers and other equipment.
Noteworthy products
Although Peavey Electronics produces a wide variety of equipment, a few notable designs stand out through their popularity and/or use by major professional musicians.
5150/6505 guitar amplifier series
These amplifiers and speaker cabinets were the result of a collaboration with Eddie Van Halen. Originally designed as specialist amplifier for Eddie, the 5150 has gained massive popularity with modern hard rock, hardcore punk and metal bands and guitarists due to its large amount of distortion - notably Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains (who, after touring with Van Halen asked "if I could maybe buy one off him. When I came back home after the tour, there were three stacks waiting for me in the garage... he gave me a couple of his guitars, too".[citation needed]) The 5150 is considered by some to be one of the best amps available for heavier styles of music, rivaling other top brands.[citation needed] In 2004 Peavey and Eddie Van Halen parted ways, with Eddie taking the 5150 brand name with him. This resulted in the renaming of the amplifier as the 'Peavey 6505', with slightly updated styling but original circuitry. The 5150 II, which contains an extra preamp tube for more headroom and gain on the Rhythm channel, is the old equivalent to the new 6505+.
Classic amplifier series
Their line of amps for blues, jazz, and some rock players. These often use EL84 power tubes which is described to have a "Warmer" or "Fuller" tone to them that many guitarists seek
CS series power amplifiers
The CS series amplifiers (mainly the CS800) are some of the most used amplifiers in the world, and among Peavey's best selling products.
JSX guitar amplifier series
Like the 5150/6505 series, the JSX series was designed for a recording artist: Joe Satriani. Satriani was looking for an amplifier that was customised to his style, that had every feature he required, and would work in both live and studio applications. The JSX is also beginning to gain popularity with the general guitar playing public as well.[citation needed]
Radial Pro Series of Drum kits
The Radial Pro Series were Peavey's high end drum line. In production from 1994 until 2002, it consisted of the RBS-1 prototypes, radial pro 1000, 750/751, and 500/501 models. The flagship 1000 model consisted of a radial bridge that took all the mounting stresses, and a 3-ply thin shell to enhance the resonance. The 750/751 series had composite bridges and stained shells. The 500/501 series had composite pvc wrapped shells.
Triple XXX series
The basis on which the JSX series was created, the XXX series provides a tonal range from what can be described as "glassy" cleans to "full body" hi-gain tones using its 3 channel interface.
ValveKing series
All-tube amps for rock musicians. Higher gain than the Classic series. A notable member of this lineup is the Royal 8 5 watt combo, similar to a Fender Champ.
Vypyr Series
Recently introduced Modeling amps. They have 32-bit floating point processors and Transtube analog distortion, so many users consider them some of the most "natural", or tube like, modeling amps made. Was named the 2008 Product of the Year at NAMM 2009. These amps feature 24 amp channel models (12 amp models each with clean and distorted channels), 11 editable pre-amp effects, 11 editable rack effects (some models), on-board looper (some models), MIDI input (some models), and USB 2.0 connectivity (some models). The Vypyr 60 and Vypyr 120 amps as well as the Vypyr 120 head feature 12AX7 and 6L6GC tubes.[1]
Windsor series
Introduced as a low-cost clone of the vaunted Marshall JCM800 2203 Master Volume. The internal design is essentially identical to the vintage Marshall, with the exception of using a plate-fed tone stack instead of the Marshall-trademarked cathode follower. Peavey held several promotional events in which a Windsor 100w head and a JCM800 2203 head were played through the same cab with the same guitar, and the guests were then challenged to try and differentiate the two.
Wolfgang series electric guitars
- See also: List of Peavey guitars
These were a result of a collaboration with Eddie Van Halen to produce his "ideal" guitar. The design was relatively successful, but did not gain the reputation or popularity of similarly priced guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster or the Gibson Les Paul. The Peavey Wolfgang was discontinued in 2004.
Notable users of Peavey equipment
- Jeff Berlin
- Josh Rand - Stone Sour
- Buckethead
- Steve Cropper - Booker T & the MG's, The Blues Brothers, signature endorser
- George Cummings - Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
- Robb Flynn - Machine Head
- Greg Ginn - Black Flag
- Stuart Hamm
- Pepper Keenan - Corrosion of Conformity, Down
- Tom Morello - Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave
- Ted Nugent
- Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon, and Thurston Moore - Sonic Youth
- Gary Rossington - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Jordan Rudess - Dream Theater/Liquid Tension Experiment/David Bowie
- Rudy Sarzo - Whitesnake
- Joe Satriani
- Jesper Strömblad - In Flames
- Andy Taylor - Duran Duran
- John Taylor - Duran Duran
- Kim Thayil - Soundgarden, former user, VTM 120 amplifiers
- Peredur ap Gwynedd - Pendulum, uses HP special guitars.
- Eddie Van Halen - Van Halen, former signature endorser
- Jerry Cantrell - Alice In Chains
- Nickelback
- Ben Wells - Black Stone Cherry
- Devin Townsend - Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend Project
- Neil Zaza former signature endorser
References
- ^ http://www.peavey.com/products/Vypyr/index.cfm, Peavey Vypyr Official Site.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
