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Author Topic: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?  (Read 16477 times)

Richard Turner

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #10 on: August 18, 2014, 05:07:16 PM »

First off I will speak to what happened in the frozen North of Canada.

Basically peavey abandoned the territory.  Essientially by shutting down the Peavey Canada stocking warehouse they may as well have said they were closing up shop here. Years ago when it was in operation you could have 3 day or less turn around for a blown driver, fried crossover cap, broken handle, amp transistors etc and at the time many of the mom and pop stores would have a 15 and 18 " basket and a couple 22XT HF kits on hand just because they disintegrated frequently enough and most of them were also warranty depots as well as retailers.

After that warehouse system was gone rumors through the grapevine was Peavey eanted the stores to basically order their years worth of PA in the fall along with their Holiday guitar stuff, eg 2 orders a year, minimum 10K before any talk of freight allowance let alone discounts those would be on deep 6 figure orders, of course all orders were on net 30 account.

Apparently now all orders for Canada are processed on day every 2 weeks and shipped together then skids broken down for courrier shipment once across the border. Or so said the service tech repairing a couple crest amps for me.

At the same time I thing a lot of their downfall came from putting the 1000 watt rating on the SP5 box and letting any idiot loose with them to do sound, they were actually a decent box to a certain volume, about 50 watts rms input

So a lot of mom and pop stores were courted by Yamaha, Carvin agressivly marked their factory direct sales model. A lot of peavey dealers just sold what they could to whoever wanted to buy it, "oh you cant afford what you actually need for the gig? buy the sp5 and lower end sub" rather than actually sell what should have been sold. Stuff blew up, Things got sticky for warranty claims, remember when any discoloration of a voice coil was operator abuse? They tried winning ppl back with the 5 year if powered by peavy amp warranty plan.

What else went on? Oh yeah the Mackie SRM450 and JBL EONG15 showed up, QSC came out with some amps that didnt fail as much... Long and McQuade music stores expanded and with the store owners having a stake in Yorkville any city they moved into had a drastic change in how Band lever MI grade rentals pricing was structured plus they had the TX system on tap......

as for Peavey they certainly have had some things well ahead of the times. The FLS feedback EQ, the HDH system Had one many years ago, with the processor controller you could get a pile of full range sound using small amplifiers  It was big and nasty to move but once set up it was an excellent full range system (not a ton of bass unless you added subs below it) but still would run all day and night without distorting unless you really abused it.


What was the question again . I'm rambling.......


Oh yes there also was the focus on architectural acoustics and the sanctuary series....paint it white charge twice as much
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Rick Scofield

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #11 on: August 18, 2014, 05:08:40 PM »

I can speak to my experience with Peavey.  Always performed very well, and any damage that I caused from missuse was easily repaired for very little money.

All "upgrades" away from Peavey for me were due to weight and size for my smallish set up, essentially:

Years ago I bought a brand new pair of SP2X, biamped them with a PV2600 and PV260, complete with crossover and input/output panel in the rack.  They sounded really good, but they are HUGE and pretty heavy boxes, and the amp rack still makes my back hurt just thinking about it.

I found that I could get very similar performance from a simpler set up of Yamaha SM12IV run passive off a QSC PLX2402.

Shaved off more than half the weight of the Peavey system, so easier on the load in and out, less space in the truck/car/trailer, and less space to store.

Now I've moved away from that system by going with JBL PRX612 mains, and no amp rack.  Yamahas were used as monitors, until I moved to all IEMs.

Could Peavey offer similar packages along my upgrade path?  Sure, but I did most if not all of my research here at PSW, and followed the advice of many of the folks here. 

It's PSW's fault...

-Rick

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Lee Douglas

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #12 on: August 18, 2014, 05:37:27 PM »

From my speculative and first hand experience- In the early eighties, when I first started doing this, Peavey made it possible for a rookie/inexperienced guy like my to get his feet wet and get a taste of what was possible.  They offered gear that was damn near indestructible and easy enough to fix should you manage to do so.  Then it happened as it is so often prone to do on this end of the scale: Somebody lowered the bar.  A plethora of companies whose names we all know and loath started churning out gear through the overseas grinder that was more disposable than repairable, and at a lower price point.  I always thought that Peavey seemed torn at that point.  Not wanting to join the race to the bottom and not really being in a position to join the upper echelon of manufacturers of high end gear.

I started putting the "No Peavey" etc. lines on my riders not out of gear snobbery, but because much of the gear I was seeing was getting extremely long in the tooth and the people that were getting a hold of that gear at this point were generally not very experienced and this was a way of precluding them from providing.  It's not necessarily the gear.  I own eight SP118X subs that have made a great scalable low end part of a mid sized system for years.
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #13 on: August 18, 2014, 06:00:01 PM »

the HDH system Had one many years ago, with the processor controller you could get a pile of full range sound using small amplifiers  It was big and nasty to move but once set up it was an excellent full range system (not a ton of bass unless you added subs below it) but still would run all day and night without distorting unless you really abused it.

I have mentioned this before so apologies for boring people, but all of my sound engineering in the 80s and early 90s was done for our local music shop which, together with the other two shops they owned on the south coast of England, sold more Peavey gear than any other seller in the UK.
Because of this, Peavey let us take a truck up to their Corby (UK) factory and fill it up with HDH system (including subs and the HDH processed monitors) which we then used for a one week yachting regatta's evening entertainment (Cowes Week).

The HDH system was great,  At the time we were using either SP2s on FH1s or a mis-matched pile of JBL 4560s, Martin Ws and other unwanted cabs.

It was a pity when we had to take it back as we could have got a lot of use out of that system.


Steve.
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Stu McDoniel

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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #14 on: August 18, 2014, 08:54:13 PM »

Sorry meant to put this on the lounge. Have reposted it there.
Quite actually...yes of course the newer Peavy boxes for
sound reinforcement are way better sounding "schtuff".
There is an ex Peavy Engineer that lives just north of here that makes
killer guitar pedals and boutique type amps.
Remember Peavy "Earth" amps?
;)
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #15 on: August 18, 2014, 09:03:55 PM »

First off I will speak to what happened in the frozen North of Canada.

Basically peavey abandoned the territory.  Essientially by shutting down the Peavey Canada stocking warehouse they may as well have said they were closing up shop here. Years ago when it was in operation you could have 3 day or less turn around for a blown driver, fried crossover cap, broken handle, amp transistors etc and at the time many of the mom and pop stores would have a 15 and 18 " basket and a couple 22XT HF kits on hand just because they disintegrated frequently enough and most of them were also warranty depots as well as retailers.
Since I appear to still be the Peavey answer man some 15 years after quitting please allow me to share some perspective. How many international companies not based in Canada do you know that have company run stocking warehouses in Canada? It cost money to sit on inventory and I recall the frustration from having inventory in Canada that US customers wanted and vice versa. I remember back when Peavey had factory direct reps in Canada, and even recall the top guy for Canada (Alan S), but international distribution was not my area of responsibility so I do not know the details surrounding the dealings, but it probably went something like this. The top guy was ready to retire, and/or his special deal contract was expiring. The US pencil pushers were well aware of the huge cost to support a warehouse in the great white north, then there were probably distributors with their mouths watering to get the Peavey business. The math was pretty simple for Peavey. Free up a bunch of capital formally sunk in inventory, eliminate the overhead from maintaining distant buildings and personnel in Canada, finally just get paid to sell product to canada in bulk so the distributor can distribute it.

It sounds like a no-brainer from a business perspective. Trying to manage canada from a distance could never be done as well as locally, but apparently it wasn't in your opinion. I suspect the distributor did not stock product as deeply nor support the market as well as Peavey did even from a distance.   
Quote
After that warehouse system was gone rumors through the grapevine was Peavey eanted the stores to basically order their years worth of PA in the fall along with their Holiday guitar stuff, eg 2 orders a year, minimum 10K before any talk of freight allowance let alone discounts those would be on deep 6 figure orders, of course all orders were on net 30 account.
Probably not Peavey but more likely the new improved Canadian distributor who did not have Peavey's deep pockets. Just like they want ice water in hell, distributors want dealers to fund the inventory not them. 
Quote
Apparently now all orders for Canada are processed on day every 2 weeks and shipped together then skids broken down for courrier shipment once across the border. Or so said the service tech repairing a couple crest amps for me.
And how do you think it works? Orders to most intl distributors are aggregated into full container loads to ship efficiently. I guarantee you if the cost for shipping skus individually, then clearing customs with all the paper work handled individually, with that cost added to the price before mark up for retail sale Peavey would not be a value product any more.  Shipping to Canada LTL is an accommodation most distributors don't get (probably). Shipping every two weeks is better than once a month.   
Quote
At the same time I thing a lot of their downfall came from putting the 1000 watt rating on the SP5 box and letting any idiot loose with them to do sound, they were actually a decent box to a certain volume, about 50 watts rms input
?? I'll take you word for that...  8)
Quote
So a lot of mom and pop stores were courted by Yamaha, Carvin agressivly marked their factory direct sales model. A lot of peavey dealers just sold what they could to whoever wanted to buy it, "oh you cant afford what you actually need for the gig? buy the sp5 and lower end sub" rather than actually sell what should have been sold. Stuff blew up, Things got sticky for warranty claims, remember when any discoloration of a voice coil was operator abuse? They tried winning ppl back with the 5 year if powered by peavy amp warranty plan.
The 5 year warranty was done by Peavey US, but if Canada had their own distribution warranty claims were the distributors responsibility. As i recall international distributors pay a cheaper price when they purchase the original product to cover later warranty claims. I was involved in the review when we extended the warranty to 5 years and that decision was pretty easy.
Quote
What else went on? Oh yeah the Mackie SRM450 and JBL EONG15 showed up, QSC came out with some amps that didnt fail as much... Long and McQuade music stores expanded and with the store owners having a stake in Yorkville any city they moved into had a drastic change in how Band lever MI grade rentals pricing was structured plus they had the TX system on tap......
yes it is not a secret that Yorkville started with Long and Mcquade. Their first store was on Yorkville street.  8)
Quote
as for Peavey they certainly have had some things well ahead of the times. The FLS feedback EQ, the HDH system Had one many years ago, with the processor controller you could get a pile of full range sound using small amplifiers  It was big and nasty to move but once set up it was an excellent full range system (not a ton of bass unless you added subs below it) but still would run all day and night without distorting unless you really abused it.


What was the question again . I'm rambling.......


Oh yes there also was the focus on architectural acoustics and the sanctuary series....paint it white charge twice as much
The question was about what has happened to Peavey.

JR
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #16 on: August 18, 2014, 09:05:12 PM »

Quite actually...yes of course the newer Peavy boxes for
sound reinforcement are way better sounding "schtuff".
There is an ex Peavy Engineer that lives just north of here that makes
killer guitar pedals and boutique type amps.
Remember Peavy "Earth" amps?
;)
Peavey never made Earth amps.  Earth was a DIRECT copy of the Peaveys-down to some "errors" in the designs.

Even the catalogs of the time were almost direct copies.  Yes I have some of them.  Even the pencil drawings/style etc.

If you want the schematic of an "Earth" amp-just find the Peavey like it and get a copy-you will have what you need.

That was NOT a happy chapter in the Peavey family album.
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #17 on: August 18, 2014, 09:13:08 PM »

Quite actually...yes of course the newer Peavy boxes for
sound reinforcement are way better sounding "schtuff".
There is an ex Peavy Engineer that lives just north of here that makes
killer guitar pedals and boutique type amps.
Remember Peavy "Earth" amps?
;)

It's spelled Peavey and I got to know James Brown very well... He is a serious guitar amp designer (did the 5150 with EVH) and now has his own guitar pedal company that doesn't suck.  (amptweaker any players lurking here could do a lot worse)

JR

PS: Earth amps were not Peavey, but the inspiration is apparent.
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Russ Davis

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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #18 on: August 18, 2014, 10:01:36 PM »

PS: Earth amps were not Peavey, but the inspiration is apparent.

Decades ago (late '70s), my Peavey dealer told me he'd had a factory tour in Meridian, and along the way he saw a display of a cutaway Peavey amp head with its Earth counterpart beside it.   He said they may have been identical cosmetically, but there were MAJOR differences inside the boxes, with the Peavey obviously being better built.
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Richard Turner

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #19 on: August 18, 2014, 10:09:30 PM »

never take anythign I say on the internet too seriously

But If I knew up front a warranty claim for any brand would be held up for an additional possible 2 weeks before a parts order was picked let alone shipped it would influence the purchase decision. Could mean over a month for even a simple repair if it required a proprietary part, or someone elses unit was ahead of me in line and used up the last in stock part at the service depot.

I forget what ownership stake Jack Long has in Yorkville sound. Rumour had it at 15-25% a few years back.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #19 on: August 18, 2014, 10:09:30 PM »


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