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Author Topic: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?  (Read 16476 times)

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2014, 10:48:03 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.
Yorkville product was pretty well respected by Peavey. IIRC their early business model involved supporting a lot of rental programs and that is where a product's ruggedness really gets tested. If you can survive rentals you can survive weekend warriors who aren't trying to blow you up for fun.

JR
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Richard Turner

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #21 on: August 19, 2014, 12:40:38 AM »

Actually several products come to mind so far as designed to rent and retail sales being a by product so far as Yorkville. And I did push the point with a couple of the sales reps one day at a demo.

The Lighting systems are a key example, most certainly the LPLED-4 . it retails at abot $1500 per bar, and the small pedal board controller was about 350 and it ships in a plain cardboard box with a photo copied instruction sheet.

But those 3 pieces plus a sturdy set of stands (SKS-50T I've never seen a set on offer used, they never come up because they never break) consistantly rent for $75 a day $115 a weekend and the local store cant keep them on hand in the rental dept but the local manager said head office wont put in a 4th system for rent here so I bought a set and its been a profitable piece for me just from their overflow.

Add in the fact 2 year even if someone spills drinks on it or drops it warranty plus loaner gear when its off for repair.... no wonder they freeze out a lot of locals when they ove to town. All I can say is when they moved in I quit rentals the next week. Its their gravy money and they tend to it. 6 years later and I'm just slowly seeing some rentals at their level of gear come back. I'm just glad they rent it as a pile o stuff, nothing goes out ready to go, as opposed to my  rental, everythign wired up and cased. There are some mid level ones who seem to appreciate a rolling rack ready to go

But just like all brands they have had hits and misses.

I had the Peavey HDH244T/118sub HC as well as the HDH3/4 boxes before picking up my EF508/LS808 yorkville and honestly it was a lateral move.

I had the EF500p/LS800p as well and sold them and kept the passive stuff. the 800p was a grand slam home run but the 500p top was a lame dog

I had the crest branded peavey system, forget the model number but the sub was what became the triflex sub unit, 15" lo-rider driver on an amp module that could use half its power to run passive tops, it was ok for pre recorded stuff but wimped out at live bands. I had the crest branded plastic box powered tops, same as impulse line with odd grilles, had them for a very short time

had the yorkie nx55p, was a decent generic box and far easier to service than the eon15 g2 but the 55 was in need of some eq to be useable

What else peavy have I had the "pleasure" of owning

cs800 boat anchor
cs800x
cs1200x
cs800s
pv12c?
pv8.5c
pv2600
gps3500
2000h

118hc
sp2 original wigh big kiss horn
sp2xt
sp2g
sp4 (xt)
sp5xt
sp5g
112tls
forget the model 4505m was a 45degree monitor black widow plus 22 horn sealed box
Project5--------those were a decent box but bi amp required was ok with the aps in a rack using crossover cans well ahead of its time but I was alwas terrified of blowing the special midrange speaker as it was obsolete by the time I owned them
hdh3
hdh4
hdh244T
HDH processor
VRC? 2/3 way crossover
Cosmos subsonic processor/crossover
some reverb thingy

many many of the eq's both with and without FLS

theres likely more I have erased from my mind

It was decent gear for making noise with at the time was inexpensive to buy as mostly when sold used it had a problem and I had a friendly dealer at that time (pre internet proliferation) who knew answering my call was mostly a short conversation ending in selling a couple hundred in parts to someone who called and ordered by part number.

But again I think a number of factors rallied against Peavey at the time. Folding the Canadian  warehouse however it went down, Key staff retirement, bean counters, new blood thinking short term profits makes little difference now after the fact. Internet sales swiftly undercut the mom and pop outfits who saw a PA sale as a direct compete to their rental fleet. I had somewhere a confidential copy of Yamaha's "how to sucessfully rent PA" booklet they used to pass to new stores taking on the line. I vagely recall some cut throat info in there. Other things like basically only appearing to change the grilles on the MI range of stuff every couple years didnt really generate the wow factor.  I get that there were actual improvments but at first blush it just looked like the same old thing wth new sheet metal.

I get that the QW series is more than semi pro grade but its so similar looking to the sp series who would know from 50 feet on looks?
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Mike Hedden

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #22 on: August 19, 2014, 10:20:18 AM »

I personally have never understood the snobbery.  As an example Behringer starts out as an innovative German manufacturer then moves all manufacturing to China and proceeds to make disposable products at ridiculously low prices  including at least a few blatant copies (lots of litigation which is a fact not an opinion) and the market laps them up like crazy.  At least in the US their customer service is almost nonexistent yet  regardless whether its pro Behringer Midas apologist posts or just folks buying their product, they seem to get a free pass.  Same thing can be said of Mackie, a company founded on innovative US based manufacturing yet post acquisition the corporate suits move off shore and its not the same company. Remember the SR48/56 debacle!
There's a long list of similar companies and I know its not just in audio, some of it is just a sad reality of once the pioneer is gone the soul tends to leave the company as well.   I'm not saying Peavey is perfect at all but there's no doubt they are measured with a different set of scales.

Mike Hedden
Danley Sound Labs, Inc.
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #23 on: August 19, 2014, 10:38:24 AM »

There's a long list of similar companies and I know its not just in audio, some of it is just a sad reality of once the pioneer is gone the soul tends to leave the company as well.   I'm not saying Peavey is perfect at all but there's no doubt they are measured with a different set of scales.

Mike Hedden
Danley Sound Labs, Inc.

Peavey only has to answer to Hartley, for the most part.  He's 73 or thereabouts so probably has a few more years being the boss, the open question is what happens when he retires (which will probably happen only when he passes away).

For all the reported crankiness, Hartley pretty much did something nobody thought could be done:  create an international musical instrument (and related stuff like PA) manufacturer in the deep south that built products that typically represented great value for the money spent.  Some products were better than others, but on the whole Peavey showed a willingness to stick the company neck out, both in public release and in private R&D.

Based on what I know these days, if I were going back to being a "guy with a van full of PA" that PA would probably have a fair amount of Peavey product and zero Mackie content.
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #24 on: August 19, 2014, 12:12:06 PM »

I personally have never understood the snobbery.  As an example Behringer starts out as an innovative German manufacturer then moves all manufacturing to China and proceeds to make disposable products at ridiculously low prices  including at least a few blatant copies (lots of litigation which is a fact not an opinion) and the market laps them up like crazy.  At least in the US their customer service is almost nonexistent yet  regardless whether its pro Behringer Midas apologist posts or just folks buying their product, they seem to get a free pass. 
Behringer has not exactly gotten a free pass from older experienced industry professionals but for most customers it is all about what have you done for me lately, and lately Behringer has been well behaved. Uli has personally participated in a charm offensive to reposition the brand, and the X-32 is a remarkable achievement that changes how even us old timers look at the company. 
Quote

Same thing can be said of Mackie, a company founded on innovative US based manufacturing yet post acquisition the corporate suits move off shore and its not the same company. Remember the SR48/56 debacle!
I'm afraid I see that history a little differently. Mackie moved manufacturing offshore because their only other choice was to suffer significantly lower sales as most customers did not care where the products were built. While they did care a lot about what they cost. Mackie's remarkable initial growth was fueled by an outsized one SKU ad budget that when spread across multiple SKUs had less impact. 
Quote

There's a long list of similar companies and I know its not just in audio, some of it is just a sad reality of once the pioneer is gone the soul tends to leave the company as well.   I'm not saying Peavey is perfect at all but there's no doubt they are measured with a different set of scales.

Mike Hedden
Danley Sound Labs, Inc.
Since I have been outside the walls for over a decade I have little more than speculation about today's Peavey. I'd rather not speculate too much about things I do not know.

JR
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lindsay Dean

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #25 on: August 19, 2014, 01:42:16 PM »

Behringer has not exactly gotten a free pass from older experienced industry professionals but for most customers it is all about what have you done for me lately, and lately Behringer has been well behaved. Uli has personally participated in a charm offensive to reposition the brand, and the X-32 is a remarkable achievement that changes how even us old timers look at the company.  I'm afraid I see that history a little differently. Mackie moved manufacturing offshore because their only other choice was to suffer significantly lower sales as most customers did not care where the products were built. While they did care a lot about what they cost. Mackie's remarkable initial growth was fueled by an outsized one SKU ad budget that when spread across multiple SKUs had less impact.  Since I have been outside the walls for over a decade I have little more than speculation about today's Peavey. I'd rather not speculate too much about things I do not know.

JR

I know this is veering but,
On the x32 console comment, making the brand look better overall is much like saying one steak sandwich on a plate makes all the turd sandwiches taste better.......not
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #26 on: August 19, 2014, 01:58:24 PM »

I know this is veering but,
On the x32 console comment, making the brand look better overall is much like saying one steak sandwich on a plate makes all the turd sandwiches taste better.......not

Well to the folks that weren't around 20 years ago the current "charm offensive" is effective, and for those of us who were, we are watching to see if it's smoke and mirrors or if B has really changed their behavior across all model lines.  It would do them little good, as a brand, to do well with the X32 and continue the previous service levels for other products... OTOH, bringing that level of service to bare for the entire company would be very expensive.

Time will tell.
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #27 on: August 19, 2014, 04:56:59 PM »

I know this is veering but,
On the x32 console comment, making the brand look better overall is much like saying one steak sandwich on a plate makes all the turd sandwiches taste better.......not
I wouldn't know I never tried to eat a turd sandwich. :-(

But yes, that is kind of how it works for brand management, break through products can raise the image for the entire brand. 

JR

PS: Unprofessional comments about Behringer or any brand makes me inclined to defend them. I really dislike defending Behringer so please give me a break.
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Re Post: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #28 on: August 19, 2014, 05:22:22 PM »

PS: Unprofessional comments about Behringer or any brand makes me inclined to defend them. I really dislike defending Behringer so please give me a break.

When the X32 was released, the internet was full of negative comments by people who had never used one, telling us how bad it was based on it having a Behringer logo.  I commented at the time that if it had a Midas logo instead, there would be comments from people who had never used one, telling us how good it was.

Now that there is an M32 version, I hope those people are suitably confused!


Steve.
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Stu McDoniel

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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #29 on: August 19, 2014, 08:31:00 PM »

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.
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.
Sorry about the spelling.   Tim Jauernig is his handle.
« Last Edit: August 19, 2014, 08:33:02 PM by Stu McDoniel »
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Re: Whatever happened to the Peavey name?
« Reply #29 on: August 19, 2014, 08:31:00 PM »


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