How Bad Is It? Peavey Windsor

[@Polentaccio]

This guy reminds me of the Tone King... except he can play! I think the low input cranked is what is supposed to do the JMP thing and it sounds like it more or less does that but maybe missing a tad gain. I think it sounds great for what it does and what they used to go for used. Also a really nice collection of guitars there.

[@MrLA75]

Lmao, The Tone King. I stopped watching his channel. Got to cringy.

[@michaelwhite7876]

Every time I see a Peavey video, it always is "is it a bad amp?" vibe. The conclusion is that they are good. Maybe not a 3K boutique but still legit. I am now seeing videos that praise mid eighties trans tube and they were pooped on for years because young guys were trying to make them sound like Marshalls. I also find it funny that the Decade which is truly a lame practice amp is now priced to the moon because QOTSA supposedly used it.

[@SonicSoundofDoom]

That drop c riff sounded so good, sounded like a really good amp with the ts9.

[@low_e_music]

Have gone back and forth on picking up one of these many times over the years but always ended up passing on it. Sounds pretty good here, great demo! Might need to grab one now.

[@MrLauwersJelle]

Had this amp for years. What a gem. Like the headroom this baby has too. Very accessible compared to the very middy tone my AC30 has. This amp is a no brainer. PS, you are a sick metal player, dude! Impeccable playing style.

[@kevinvezina6535]

Hm...i had one and it had very little headroom...it would start breaking up immediately...very little clean..

[@ilikepotatoes1345]

This amp has less headroom than any all tube 100 watter I've ever played, once you start to push the volume to band setting levels it just starts shitting itself.

[@leonthompson8988]

Sounds like a souped up jam 800. I still have mine. You really want to put a lower gain tube in v1 such as a 12ay7 or 5751 in order to create some headroom. If changing the v1 didn't give you enough headroom then change out v2 as well with the same tube you have in v1. Personally I like to set it to a light crunch then use an overdrive to saturate the front end.

[@VnMJack]

Sounds pretty good over all!

[@NoOne-sn2si]

These used to go for $200, maybe they still do. For that price, they are great to pick up and gut the internal electronics in order to use the chassis, cab, and transformers for some other type tube amp. I've picked up three over the years and turned one into a blond Showman with harmonic tremolo and another one into an SLO. They sound great and are so much cheaper than the original amps...

[@soundgardener75]

I've owned two at a great price with no issues. Only sold them because I moved twice and had no space for it. I'll score a third one, hopefully three time's a charm. Your videos of this and the Valveking are killer, thank you for these reviews!

[@williambrown1451]

man, great info - thanks for the video

[@lucyfuir6386]

A friend of mine bought the PV Windsor half stack from Guitar Center on sale for $400 brand new several years back. He then traded the head in and got $500 in trade for it a couple years later. Then right before the big explosion he bought another Windsor head for a $100. So he literally got the half stack for free.

[@TheJimbeam247]

Great video! I really like your guitars. Amp sounds great to me!

[@lucascollier8728]

I had one of these Paired with a sonic maximizer run through a 5150 cab. playing mostly drop C/ drop B metal and hardcore and it was perfect. Very crunchy and very LOUD.

[@johnsguitarmusicanddemos]

*That guitar tone at **12:22** is so good! I just saw this amp at a pawn shop for $600 with a cab and I’m considering picking it up. 🌞🎵For the price…. I’d rather spend less. Great full out demo!*

[@sacredxgeometry]

LOL you can get these for like $200 WTF

[@countzero5150]

The windsors are great, often overlooked amps. When they came out they were peaveys budget budget tube amp, a step below the valvekings (in price). I'd honestly probably take one over a valveking though, and a lot of other budget tube amps.

[@Netriderceo]

The Windsor has better clarity than the Valveking.

[@SwedishMeattball]

It was peaveys attempt at a british style amp hence the name and styling its a solid amp for the money sounds better than a lot of modern more expensive amps

[@SwedishMeattball]

​@@Netriderceovalveking royal 8 sounds better to me but both are good

[@nelliejones1]

So I had one of these. Did you have any issues with what most guys call "swell"? I called it "late". The tones coming out of it are def usable bordering on amazing, but for some reason it seemed no matter how I set it up there was latency between what I was playing and what was coming out of the speakers in a band setting. Drove me crazy.

[@danielkelley7769]

I had briefly, didn't care for it. Mine was muddy with even tube rolling for tone and to lower the gain. Then on top of that when out on me at a gig. Fix🎉it and sold it the next day.

[@animatedarliss]

oh no, I had a distortion pedal that did the fizzing when sustaining a note. That really killed the pedal for me.

[@Danilo8208SS]

These things are really not bad at all. I’ve owned almost every kind of super expensive, vintage tube amp you could want. I saw one of these is a pawn shop recently, head and 412 cab for $250 so I sat and played it for a bit. These are an absolute steal. Nice clean and good high gain. Worth more than 250 in parts

[@HammarHeart]

I love the Windsor to death. It's a total workhorse. I ran a 2011 Les Paul Studio (the 60s tribute, I think? The one with the P90s), no pedal, straight into the Windsor with a 4x12 Peavey cabinet for years. I tuned down to C, B, and even A at various points, and got a great tone playing in a local sludge metal band. The P90s and the Windsor itself are both hot enough to make a TS/dirt pedal redundant when the gain is maxed out. The fact that you can get this kind of quality and gig ability out of something that costs 400$ or less is insane.

[@lunchroomdad]

I can get one used for $200. Think they might lower to 160?

[@mexicanmaggot666]

This amp is so killer! Noob question: Can you use an A/B pedal to switch between high and low gain input on an amp like this?

[@IronSwan-ll5ju]

Can get one in a local pawn shop for $300 bottom dollar. I mean.. I own a plexi and this master volume is very appealing. I also wanted to nearly trade the 1987x for a JVM 410, but I think I’ll just buy an attenuator and collect gear rather trade around. Something like this is way more practical and probably more fun for my pedals as a high headroom clean, I assume. I’ve never owned a jcm 800 or one of these.

[@rochanatan5083]

I'm from Brazil and we have a great concept about Peavey. Peavey amps are expensive here, but that doesn't seem to be the case there and in the USA. Here we would pay around 8 salaries to have one.

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Location will always play a factor in pricing, unfortunately. In Canada these are DIRT CHEAP… but understandable in different areas of the world for them to be more expensive. It still sucks! Cheers -Ryan

[@spankymcnugget3166]

sell me that Traditional. Lol. love the classic and traditional back to back one of those are gonna be my next purchase. This maybe a silly question but I'm still a rookie, I got a JCM 900 amp and a Mesa 4x12 OS Slant, the older 280 watts versions, my question is I have an impedance switch on the amp that says (4)16 8 can I run my amp at 16 ohms through my mesa cab when it only has an 8 ohm plug in or do I switch the impedance on the amp to 8 ohms? oh and what brands of cables do you prefer to run? instrumental and speaker cable?

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

You would want to Match it to 8 ohms in this instance, otherwise your amp would be looking for an 16ohm return signal... Not good for the amp! I always run my amps at 8ohms specifically because of the Mesa Cab that I use. I also have a Marshall 1960A, which is 16ohm, but I still run my Tube Heads at 8ohms through that cabinet. You can go 8ohm from the Head to the Cabinet because the Cabinet can handle it, not the other way around. I'm always paranoid that I'm going to make that mistake of going from 16ohm to an 8ohm cab, so I run them all at 8ohms. Cheers -Ryan

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

As for Cables I use Planet Waves cables. I can’t remember the name of them. Thicker cables with quite thick connectors. Probably like 3rd tier pricing of planet waves cables. I really like amphenol connectors but I’m not much for building cables and such so I just go with Planet Waves. Cheers -Ryan

[@spankymcnugget3166]

@@Crypticmaskguitar Perfect. Thanks bud, your a tube saver. haha!

[@TheJimburke]

I am a 40 year Peavey amp player mostly Classic 30s, 50s, and 100s a few 5150s. I appreciate the video but I feel it is only giving me the perspective of a studio situation. I would rather hear the amp through a cabinet and a live mic in a room. I want to hear what my ears are gonna hear when I plug it in at the gig. What ever happens between the cab sim, digital interface and PC is way different than the amp actually sounds live. But I still like the video.

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

I love Peavey Classic 50s. I don't use Cabinet Simulators or Impule Responses. What you are hearing (Signal Chain is always listed in the Description) is The Amp Head Played through a Mesa Boogie Oversized Rectifier Slant 4x12 Cabinet (Celestion Black Shadow Custom 90 Speakers) and the Microphone used is a Neumann TLM 107. This is all being recorded in a Treated Room (to save my hearing). It IS in a Studio Setting and is double tracked... but it is with real speakers and real microphones... and real volume. I can't get along with the simulated stuff... I grew up playing loud and feeling what I play through volume. My Amp Room is a little crazy these days, though. 7 4x12 Cabinets and 41 Amp Heads gets a little tough to navigate through... you don't have to move around 4x12s and set up microphones with the simulated stuff. Cheers -Ryan

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

As a side note here... I use the Neumann TLM 107 instead of a Shure SM57, Audix i5, or Sennheiser e609 (The typical microphones) because it actually captures what I hear from the cabinet... I find that Dynamic Microphones capture Mids and Highs and lose out on some of the Low end due to their smaller capsules. In a full band mix they tend to work well as the kick and the bass fill those spaces... but it's nice to capture what you actually hear, rather than sacrificing some frequencies. Cheers -Ryan

[@jeffgerek6180]

I have one for 14yrs already no problems reliable quality sound does not break up at high volume has a nice creamy sound instead of a harsh metal sound my boss ds 1 distortion makes it stellar sounds like early van halen the only problem with this amp is its not expensive enough for the over spending spree metal head.

[@nickf2000ss]

Could you tell us what the EQ settings were for the moderate gain and high gain sound clips? I have this amp for a few years and I wish i could get the sounds you are getting out of this amp

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

I never write down my settings. I always go with what sounds good at the time and I’m constantly changing things. Cheers -Ryan

[@nickf2000ss]

ok thx, maybe next time if you ever do another vid with this amp to have the front panel visible in the video

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Not likely. It A. Takes longer to shoot and edit a video that way, and B. I end up getting people asking why theirs doesn’t sound like mine with the same EQ and gain settings… when they have the amp at bedroom levels. The secret to any amp is always volume. Once you raise the volume the EQ rises along with it. So you don’t have to over exaggerate the EQ and you can leave it basically flat or around noon. Cheers -Ryan

[@sinisterfame622]

I wonder if you put an EQ pedal front of the internal boozt if that would even out the tone

[@BillHesse]

A man who knows his 80s and 90s

[@Mike-ol7xp]

I've played many a shows and recorded many songs with that amp.

[@tomflynn2912]

Question: if you bought the best tubes on the market and replaced all the tubes in the Windsor head, would it perform better? Possibly clean up better?

[@yamahargxtt]

People mod these and they sound insane. The transformer is big enough. People just put in a boost and effect loop.

[@aronhallam6449]

I doubt it. I think if you change from working valves to new valves it's pretty minimal. You could change the preamps to ecc82 that would be more profound but it might sound shit

[@riffsnoleads]

the two biggest problems with the Windsor is the complete lack of dynamics in the gain staging and it is pretty damn quiet for a 100w head. which is weird since most Peavey amps are rated rather conservatively on output power. I have other gripes about this amp but overall it is certainly usable but not Peavey's best effort, IMO.

[@NoOne-sn2si]

There's no way the Windsor's power transformer could power a 100 watt amp, it would probably be ok for a 50 watt amp. Peavey did this because they are cheap and they wanted a cheap way to get voltage sag for the amp when driven hard. This amp doesn't get anywhere close to 100 watts output, stock.

[@simmonphoenix3206]

Idk Mines pretty loud. More then enough volume, but yea it’s not a clean amp by any means.

[@sacredxgeometry]

Nah man this amp ROCKS!

[@cyrilst-m9890]

Class A/B and boost for me, please !

[@tomflynn2912]

Does anyone know what a Windsor head & half stack retailed for new, back in the day? I met a guy that has a music store and he has these new, never been sold but he wants $750 for them. He said he paid a grand for them. I dont know..

[@LCPuppyCat]

I think I remember Musicians Friend having them for $599.

[@tomflynn2912]

@@LCPuppyCat thanks very much!

[@bassproable]

Not quite JCM 800 tone,but none the less a good sounding head.

[@roncarter2188]

Yeah not even close to any Marshall for that matter...

[@DeadKoby]

Peavey has had some very good sounding amps from time to time......... modern stuff has the durability in question though........

[@bizbizley]

In modern parlance I’m sure it’ll be ‘bad in a sick kind of way’. 😀🎸

[@SwedishMeattball]

People hate on this amp who never tried it cause people are stupid its just like a jcm 900 hardly junk people think im good and be proud to gig on 1 of these it i wasnt a vox ac guy lotta amp for the money good build qualitt

[@jeremyalexander9845]

Slap a pro co rat and an octave in front of it and it's a doom machine.

[@samizdat113]

It gets more hate than it deserves for sure.

[@ericcaisse791]

There garbage paid 520 and my peavy bandit 300 watt destroys it don't do it

[@kevinvezina6535]

This amp is a one trick pony...It has very little clean ...It has a very cold biased tone...I think the secret to getting good tone is to just have a bias pot installed and warm it up....I got rid of mine and bought a ultra 120 which kicks the snot out of this amp....

[@Turbo-D]

very bad in my experience, worst amp peavey put out ever beside the new iconic😂 ....there is a reason why there are a bazillions mods out there for the windsor by the way, great for modding!

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Fender/EVH makes the Iconic, not Peavey. Cheers -Ryan

[@Turbo-D]

@@Crypticmaskguitar thats worthless to me they have all the same origin! cheers

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Yes… Soldano SLO clones… like Dual Rectifiers and plenty of other amps… one would hope you don’t have the same feelings towards Soldano. Cheers -Ryan

[@Turbo-D]

@@Crypticmaskguitar love soldano, have all the synergy stuff incl slo module 👍

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Was never impressed with the Synergy stuff. They used to stock them at the store that I buy from and they were trying to convince me that the Pittbull Ultra Lead module would sound "Just Like" my VHT Pittbull Ultra Lead... not even close. But it's cool that you can get "Licensed Designs" from the actual manufacturers and it doesn't hurt that they usually run for $300-400. Cheers -Ryan

[@Krunchyjclown]

The Windsor has a great power section. i run a processor in the return, and i love it. idc what any thinks about that. I LOVE MY SOUND!

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

That's all that matters man! As long as you like the sound you are getting... that's all that matters! Cheers -Ryan