My babies
The orange does the orange thing. Can’t sing its praises enough, loves a fuzz, loves an overdrive, and it’s the priciest piece of gear I’ve ever owned.
I got the beta lead for free. Now HANG ON, a little explaining first. Somewhere around 2013, thereabouts, I got the itch. I REALLY love the Melvins, so I had made up my mind. Found this sucker as a 2x12 combo for about $350 on eBay.
WELL, I don’t remember who shipped it but the packing job wasn’t awesome and it was for sure dropped HARD, probably from a height (like off the back of the truck).
It had two serious cracks in the chassis that went right through, just below the amp itself on the sides. My heart sank, and I didn’t even have a guitar/cables with me at the time to test it out. I figured I was the not so proud new owner of a paperweight. It turned on, but that’s all I knew.
Turns out my step-mother’s ex lives right up the road and plays, so a phone call and a 10 minute drive later I’m plugging in. IT WORKS! HUZZAH! But also, it’s fucked up. Long story short, eBay gave me a full refund for the thing.
We attached some brackets and handles to the sides so I could safely transport it and this thing went everywhere with me for years. I lived in NYC at the time and I am certain I had several neighbors who wished death upon me.
Life goes on and I don’t play that much for a while. I move again, and notice some crumbly black crap falling out of the bottom of the amp. Huh? Oh, that’s weird, the speakers are just completely falling apart…
What can I say, I got my money’s worth and the amp itself still works. I know because I plugged it into an old peavey 2x15 that looked straight out of mad max with a hunk of plywood across it covering the ports that I got from some junkie for $50. That setup was glorious. Just the bare amp yoinked out of its enclosure sitting on top of a massive cab of thud.
The years go by and I think to myself “these aren’t as cheap as they used to be. I should probably take care of it.” Well I waited a bit (way) too long, and only channel A by itself really functions properly, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t still do the damn thing.
Wound up getting this custom headshell from Moon Custom Cabinetry. Waited too long, and the quality was not really all that for the $300+ I paid for the thing. But hey, it looks nice and has a handle now so…
I’m debating getting a mini so I can preserve what’s left of this beast as best as I can, but zero chance I’d pay what they’re asking and without plugging it into my own 4x12 to do a side by side.
I know, that’s a lot of words for not a very interesting story, but hey, I love the thing. It’s been through hell and back with me. The headshell was kind of a gift related to my sobriety, so that carries a bit of weight as well, so to speak. Three years off booze as of August 15th. I’m thinkin’ real hard about a Peavey XXX for that one. Seems appropriate, if only for the pun.
Happy to answer any questions y’all may have but what else is there to say but that IT DOOMS.