Peavey Rage 158 Modification | Huge Solid State Amp Sound !

[@akalashnikov1]

Great modification

[@Aeon_Electronics]

It makes the amp way more usable! :)

[@vondragonnoggin]

Useful mod. Don’t need 15 watts at home anyway. I actually love the sounds of the Rage 158. So much I bought a Pepers’ Pedals PV Fury 158 preamp pedal. Different story using the preamp pedal though since I run it into a quiet Mosfet power amp and put an Axiom Effects PAE-1 Power Amp Emulator after the Fury 158 preamp. The PAE-1 gives it a better tube feel and the preamp is fairly quiet on its own. Kind of a great sounding setup using those two pedals into a 150 watt Mosfet power amp pushing 410 and 212 cabs. As a little practice amp it sounds great too, but definitely an improvement with your mod!

[@Abaddon231]

I decided to try this out tonight . It's definitely much quieter and there is a noticeable warmth throughout the high end which is nice.. The only part that didn't work for me was the 2.2nF capacitor , when engaged the amp squealed like a banshee. Not sure why, So I took that section out, didn't feel I needed it , and I think it sounds a lot better than it did stock. Thanks for this tutorial man!

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Thank you for the feedback! I'm not sure why you get squealing with the 2.2nF, but I guess you grounded one side of the cap too far away. But you are right, I designed it to be switchable anyways. It's always subjetive, if you're happy with the first filtering stage (1nF) it's fine. Most of the time I also only using this stage. But I thought it would be nice to have some more options. :)

[@juana1483]

WOW WOW WOW. What a difference!! Excellent work, and awesome vid bra!!!!

[@TheJstewart2010]

I am really surprised that this kind of sound is hidden away in these amps. Your modifications really make it sound good. Rage 158's are all over Marketplace here for dirt cheap. I had always skipped over them because I thought they sounded terrible; I've got to start looking for one.

[@mikethebloodthirsty]

Unmoved rages don't sound terrible, loads of people like the amp.

[@DerpRulesAll]

​....And many people didn't.

[@sergi_lou]

Interesting!! I might get one of these for my father, he has retired and wants to learn guitar (and I want to get more into electronics!!!). Thanks for the video.

[@DerScheisse]

I'm getting the same modded tone with a Metal Zone pedal. Woooo!

[@frankstetka7206]

I loved your video, good pace, humor, design ideas, approach with electronics and your playing is very well. Keep it up and post more results.

[@hartlee1160]

I have the 258efx redstripe rage and i think they fixed alittle of the problems you had with this amp. I unplug it everytime i use it because of the tranformer. You are getting good metal tones but i find this amps has amazing cleans, blues, and classic rock. The mid pokey thing you fixed in this amp is the "tweed" part for me. I fixed this myself with a 10inch eminence alnico speaker. 😂 wish i could do what you do

[@juleslacrapule]

very impressive. great work

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Thank you a lot! :)

[@Scooby743]

Thanks for Sharing!

[@Plytones]

Just subscribed. Need more modding stuff !!!!

[@lonewolf8464]

Those mods sound good. I have an OLD Blazer 158. First amp I bought for myself. Id love to do this mod but I'm not an electrician. I kinda wish you'd have shown the mods as you made them. I could follow along then.

[@joehazeofficial2]

My first amp!! ❤

[@stefan5177]

Great video! I was wondering if you considered adding an fx loop to the Rage 158. That would be a cool modification too!

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Since I am only using it with overdrive / distortion pedals, there is no need for an FX-loop. Set the amp clean and put them between my distortion pedals.

[@estebansuarezmarenzi1135]

Nicely done! There is another video here about changing the opamp in a Blazer 158. Stock opamp upgrade to 5532. Have you seen it?

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Thank you, there is absolutley no reason to change the Opamp to an 5532, in fact the signal to noise ratio depends also on the source impedance. Ugly truth is: a lot of "modders" don't understand and don't look at the datasheet. They just see "ah there is less noise 'as stated in the datasheet' .. " for exampe they see "1 nV/√Hz" and decide this MUST BE a better opamp. But this may not be the whole truth, since opamp voltage noise may be lower than 1 nV/√Hz for some types, however voltage noise is the noise specification that is more usually emphasized, but, if impedance levels are high, current noise is often _the_ limiting factor when it comes to noise performance. But to somehow answer your question: the NE5532 is a really good opamp for many audio applications, but is there a reason to change it for this amp in this case? Nope. Additional fact: The Opamp in the Blazer schematic is just a buffer stage for the reverb. So there is no "tone shaping at all".

[@estebansuarezmarenzi1135]

​@@Aeon_Electronics thank you for iluminating me with so much knowledge. It seems there is a peavey 158 blazer/rage with opamp in the preamp... maybe it is a pre transtube. Another question, is it possible to make and fx loop in a Rage/Blazer? Keep up the good work in tour channel! Greetings from Argentina

[@Aeon_Electronics]

@@estebansuarezmarenzi1135 You're welcome. It is possible that the "pre-transtube" era has an op-amp IC as preamp. Actually I am pretty sure I saw such a schematic, too. But even there, in most cases, a substitute with an NE5532 wouldn't change a lot, especially not the tone. Yes it is possible to design an fx loop to the Rage/Blazer, that wouldn't be that hard. According to the latest Rage/Blazer schematic I am showing in my video I would implement it either after R15 or after R22. It should consists of a buffer stage on the "send" and a driver stage in the "return" path. Personally, I would first try it with adjustable volume levels at _both_ (additional ICs) so you can compensate possible volume drops. All in all there isn't much to it, though you must try and fiddle a bit with the component values.

[@aristideau5072]

I cant read circuit diagrams, any chance you could do a video of the actual soldering of the resistors and switches?, tx

[@javierlandaeta891]

Hi Aeon, great video, I'm considering doing the modification on my amp myself. I heard you talk about loss of power, I'm not that interested in power but anyway, can you tell me approximately how many watts the amp has left after the modification? Greetings, Javier

[@Aeon_Electronics]

It depends: on the clean channel it's maybe about 500mW and on the overdrive it's round about 1-2W. Don't get fooled by "oh just 1w" it's louder than you would expect. However you can exactly set the volume that you really need / want if you try different values of the feedback resistor. You can even think of it as an "master volume". I made it switchable, that way I have even the "stock option" :)

[@javierlandaeta891]

Ok, thanks for your answer, I only use the clean channel because I play with distortion pedals so maybe 0.5Watts is not so serious, thanks for sharing. Excellent video!@@Aeon_Electronics

[@PedroOliveira-bf1fy]

Awesome video. Do you know if I can do a mod to a Peavey Rage/Blazer to add a footswitch to change its channels? I always wanted to do it but I don't know how. I saw a video on KZbin where a old Rage Blue Stripe was modded, but this series uses a push/push buttom to change his channels instead of the Red Stripe up and down switch.

[@musicjuly3415]

Got nostalgic hearing that horrible noise. Unfortunately, it was a main reason for turning me off continuing learning the guitar as a teenager as I thought that was the normal sounds.

[@Aeon_Electronics]

I've been through the same process! :D

[@kvg198x6]

Would this mod work on the Peavey Studio Pro (red stripe, transtube model) - impressive work btw!

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Yes and no, let me explain: I've looked at the schematic and this is obviously a very different preamp section as well as a different power amp section. They both share the same "Transtube Technology", this is just an approach to emulate tube amp behavior. Peavey does this via darlington circuits the "discrete" way and also altering the damping factor of the power amp to emulate the output transofrmer (this is it in short). My mods would of course be possible for any of those amps, BUT due to the fact, that the circuit is different, there would be other places and other values of capacitors or resistors. In general you can mod those amps in the same way, but you cannot simply "copy" my rage mod. A good starting point, if the amplifier is to harsh or trebly, would be altering the tone stack and therefore the filtering. I always take care of the preamp AND poweramp stage, this is important, otherwise things can get very muddy. Maybe I will take a look at those amps in another video at some point in time, since I really like them!

[@wckoek]

Does this modification works with older Rage or only newer ones? What mic you are using for this recording anyway? Thanks

[@Aeon_Electronics]

It should work on older and newer Rage amps (you may have to doublecheck the schematics) I am using a "the t.bone SC 440 USB" Mic. It's really good even though it is cheap!

[@wckoek]

@@Aeon_Electronics Thanks. I'll check them out

[@blasher4]

Hey man this is awesome. I have a Peavey Valve King 100w tube amp. I'd like to use it for a tight modern metal tone? Any suggestions on mods to achieve this type of sound? Its kind of an ice-picky sizzle amp.

[@Instramark]

Wow!!!!! May I ask what Ibanez model guitar you are using?

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Thank you! Ibanez Genesis RG565

[@Seefood73]

Sounds like an interesting project to try. I was just about to get a 2nd hand practice amp for my daughter, and I think this mod would be a nice bonus add-on project, and that beats buying a "boring" Marshal MG15... Or does it? humm.

[@Seefood73]

btw, are your schematics posted somewhere or should I pause at 04:33 and take a screenshot?

[@Aeon_Electronics]

@@Seefood73 Thank you a lot for your feedback! The Marshall MG15 is okay, but I think the Peavey Rage has a way better distortion built in by "default". Sadly I have no seperate schematic, but if you set the video on highest resolution it is all good readable! If there are any questions, just feel free to ask!

[@getrekt9899]

Trying to get similar mods my blazer.... its a mission. Wish i understood the process more

[@Aeon_Electronics]

The Blazer shares the same schematic as the Rage, one exception is the reverb circuit. But all my mods shown in the video should work on the Blazer, too.

[@AviatorFred]

You said the resistor needs to be wired in parallel. Is it originally wired in series? Apologies I’m not good at reading schematics. It’s not just replacing the resistor with a 6.8k correct?

[@ryanjameshardy8370]

I also made some mods to peavey 158, but your noise mod looks good. Does lowering the feedbaack resistor also lower the output volume though? Do you think C15 should be increased, as it looks very small to me for a coupling cap?

[@Aeon_Electronics]

Hi, C15 isn't _only_ a coupling cap, it forms a filter in series with VR2 (pre gain). So there is no simple answer, just try it if you put caps with various capacitance parallel, this way you don't need to desolder it :) A larger feedback resistor results in more gain and a lower value results in less gain.

[@ryanjameshardy8370]

@@Aeon_Electronics the best mod I did to mine was put a 10 inch greenback in it. I now prefer this amp over my Plexi 1987

[@ryanjameshardy8370]

@@Aeon_Electronics but isn't a small coupling cap just a high pass filter? This 470p value seems extremely small

[@teechui2401]

There's nothing wrong with empirical experimentation to find a sonic result you like, but this video is presenting incomplete technical information. I encourage everyone to understand why Peavey used the values shown. This circuit uses something called "mixed-mode" feedback. The intention is to increase the effective output impedance, with the intention of allowing the speaker to be less dampened by the output stage. This is an attempt to emulate a tube output stage which may not have a high a damping factor as a typical solid state output stage. The information presented here completely glosses over this, and makes it seem like Peavey engineers didn't know what they were doing or had no good reason for using the values they used. In fact this is not the case. When you mod a feedback network to include some current feedback, you *may* need to decrease the voltage portion of the total feedback, to keep the total feedback from both sources (voltage + current) from making the output stage unstable. While it is possible they were a bit high in the resistor values chosen, there also may have been a solid engineering reason for them. Yes, increasing the voltage feedback will reduce the gain and noise of the power amp stage. Whether you like the results of a mod or not is entirely subjective, but the technical aspects need to be kept to objective facts. For further reading, I suggest: www.sound-au.com/articles/current-drive.htm

[@Aeon_Electronics]

You are right about the technical information you supplied, you wrote: " This is an attempt to emulate a tube output stage which may not have a high a damping factor as a typical solid state output stage. " The point is that even the darlington stages try to emulate a tube behavior, in short: Peavey has a lot of patents to emulate "tube sound" although I like the ideas, they fail when it comes to this. For me all those attempts are non-sense. It just doesn't sound tube-like, no matter if they try to alter the damping factor or put darlington configurations in the preamp. But you are right, I SHOULD have mentioned, that they indeed had a good reason for this. My point was just to show how to get rid of all those poweramp noise, because they are squeezing every drop water out of it to meet their wattage requirement in the first place, like almost _every_ manufacture does. With my modification of the power amp feedback resistor you get a whole lot of less noise and it even sounds better - not just to me. At the end of the day it also comes to pesonal taste and preference. But yes I get your point and you ae right, I should have mentioned it. Maybe I didn't because the whole Peavey approach in which they try to emulate tube-sound is bullshit to me when it comes to a convincing tube sound at least. Don't get me wrong, the ideas of peaveys pattents (trans-tube and othes, since it isn't only one) is great, but it doesn't deliver what it promises. Yes "sound" is always something you can argue about. Thanks for your comment and clarification! EDIT: And even if one likes the sound, the noise of the power amp is horrible.

[@briggsmech7038]

love this video. Is there any way you could email me a copy of the updated schematic? it is very hard for me to read on screen. thanks

[@MrJabinho]

How much would new speker affect ?

[@Aeon_Electronics]

In general a speaker can change the sound a lot, I tested this also and built a celestion 8" (eight 15) into it but the effect was _really_ not existent for that specific speaker. So this one sounds like the stock speaker, but you can try different! A speaker is filter.

[@johnspina318]

Today I tried the 2.2 switch 2 mod inside my Peavey EFX 258. Overall the schematic looks quite a bit familiar compared to the Rage/Blazer schematic. Got it all wired in and nothing? Absolutely no difference I heard. If anyone gets to read the EFX 258 schematic, can you see if that switch 2 mod needs to install in a different place? Both schematics show the 2.2 nf making it's way to the TDA 2040/ LM 1875. Wonder why it didn't work? I used a .0015 since I lacked the .002 value.

[@Aeon_Electronics]

If you could share the link to the schematics I will look and compare them to figure out a solution :)

[@johnspina318]

@@Aeon_Electronics drive.google.com/file/d/1tWnSLWpE-Apf-sM-TnO2OC7_v6dsGdSw/view?usp=sharing

[@johnspina318]

KZbin refuses to allow any kind of link and it keeps getting deleted. I can e mail you a schematic if you're interested further? @@Aeon_Electronics

[@Unglued98]

Can you mod a fender frontman 15g please?!!

[@frankstetka7206]

I am of the opinion that the best mod for a Fender Frontman is to gut it and start over 😂 - alright it’s just a terrible opinion but yeah I have thought to mod that one myself because it’s noise floor is atrocious. The preamp in the Peavey is nicer for sure but the Fender has that classic look. What I may do with mine is yes, gut it and stuff an OCD overdrive pedal circuit in its place and a completely different amplifier circuit or a small el84 tube amp ??? If only time permits right?

[@heggy_69]

Make it a head lol, the speaker is what ruins it

[@michelbrault1690]

Nice video but they so much gain because of transtube circuit analogue distortion but can have alot of gain !

[@daviddelossantos6075]

NASTY!!!!!!!

[@jcalzada74]

The pick is more expensive than the amp 😂😂😂

[@micpep]

NOT WORTH IT! I just tried it. Put a switch to alternate between the original and 15k. Max output dropped by 30%. Adjusted at equivalent level, its slightly less noisy... Around 20%

[@DerpRulesAll]

So, to give you 15 watts, they make you listen to garbage. But everyone has on 'rose-colored glasses' about Peveys. Maybe they should've tried to make a solid state amp that sounded as good as it possibly could, rather than 'ultra-tube,' or whatever their technology was called.

[@Aeon_Electronics]

You are right, but sadly other manufacturers do the same...

[@DerpRulesAll]

@@Aeon_Electronics I don't see nearly as much 'hype' about them, though; except maybe Orange.