Beginner or advanced guitarist smaller combos are either all you can afford or useful extras for recording or practise. IT sampled two popular models from the PEAVEY range - the 12 watt AUDITION and the 35 watt BACKSTAGE.

PEAVEY AUDITION

RRP £93.15 INC. VAT

THE DETAILS

Right at the smallest end of the Peavey range, the Audition is pitched directly at the beginner whose cash is limited, or the more experienced guitarist who needs a small amp for recording, practise at home and so on.

For all that it might be a low-cost product (and an unusually inexpensive one for a U.S.-made amp) the Audition is a sturdily made item. It shares the usual Peavey hallmarks of tough black vinyl covering, a thick framework, metal corner protectors and the sort of controls, carrying strap and physical features which Peavey use on their biggest amps. There's been no skimping on constructional quality here. The Audition delivers its 12 watt output straight into an 8" speaker and, usefully, will run either from mains power or from a 12v supply from a caps cigarette lighter socket - this latter feature being especially attractive with Summer almost upon us! Control gear on the Peavey is quite straightforward. You have a single jack input, followed by two gain controls, the second one (master volume) having a 'pull for Saturation' feature, which allows you to switch in the Peavey's distortion effect. A three section tone facility comes next with controls for low, mid and high (an impressive selection for such a small amp). The treble pot usefully, also features a 'pull' setting - this time for what the makers call a 'thick' sound. Two extra jack sockets are provided on the Audition, one for a headphone output the other for preamp output, this latter being very useful for feeding home recording mixers and so on.

THE SOUND

Versatility is the best word to describe the sound quality from the Audition. Essentially (not surprisingly considering the 8" speaker), the sound is quite toppy - getting a lot of healthy 'screech' out of our Tokai S???t. In fact used clean, the sound was impressively penetrating and worked well on Country-like finger-picked chords. Juggling together the two gain controls, especially when pulling out the 'Saturation' pot, gave a hefty kick up the backside to the sound and, even if it isn't either the sweetest or smoothest distortion that our testers have ever heard, the distortion is fiery and fierce - again, particularly nice with single coil pickupped guitars like the Tokai.

The versatility of the Audition's sound is best demonstrated when you pull the 'Thick' control which really does work most effectively. This fattened-up the basically thin Strat sound very rewardingly.

CONCLUSION

A versatile and highly transportable combo, the Peavey Audition will suit a lot of guitarists very well. Both run clean and used with the 'Thick' and 'Saturation' controls it has a ability to make the best of a lot of different guitars. We tested it with both single coil pickupped Jap. copies and a higher power Gibson SG, and it worked impressively with both. It doesn't have the best distortion effect we've heard from a practice amp, but it does have an extremely wide tonal range and offers a lot of potential for the money. If you're in the market for a small amp, then it's certainly in the top five that we've tried, and deserves serious consideration.

PEAVEY BACKSTAGE PLUS

RRP £144.32 INC. VAT.

THE DETAILS

Rated at 35 watts output the Peavey Backstage Plus is another lightweight unit but still very much conforming to the traditional Peavey image in its looks Again, it's very well made. The facilities are considerably better than on the Audition (which is fair enough, considering the higher price), beginning with a single jack input then progressing to a three stage gain control system, comprising Pre-Amp gain, Saturation level and Post gain. To add an extra (again, very useful) facility, the pre-gain has a 'pull' facility which enables you to switch in a Bright effect.

The Backstage's tone controls are the same as those on the Audition; a Low/Mid/High arrangement, with a 'pull for Thick' setting on the High pot. Being fitted with a spring-line reverb, there's also a control for this, followed by twin outlet jacks. The first of these is a very useful one as it comprises a stereo socket enabling you to loop your effects back and forth from the optimum point in the Peavey's circuitry to reduce noise.

THE SOUND

Again, especially used clean, this is another very versatile sounding amp. The tone range enabled us to get some very impressive sounds from both our Tokai S???t and Gibson SG test guitars, and on that count we reckon that it would suit a player who wanted a small amp for a wide range of musical styles very well.

Switch in the 'Saturation' effect and the little Peavey has a really meaty take-off with a gain potential equally at home with heavy metal sounds. Even better, for a mere 35 watt rated combo, the Backstage Plus is loud too, which says a lot for Peavey's own-manufactured speaker.

A useful facility on this model is that both the reverb (a nice 'deep' one, by the way) and the Saturation (distortion) effects can be controlled by an optional footswitch, so that you can run from clean rhythm sounds straight to overload, just by stamping on your footswitch. This isn't, of course, an unusual feature, but it's well worth having - pretty much essential these days, in fact.

CONCLUSIONS

Again, this Peavey is a nicely versatile unit. Even if you never wanted to make use of the Distortion/Saturation effects, it would have a lot of appeal to the clean player as its sounds can be particularly wide-ranging if you take the time to explore the potential of the tone controls. If you do want distortion, however, the Backstage Plus is equally useful here, because you have the choice of setting both the pre and post gains against each other (to get distortion at lower output levels) as well as using the Saturation pot. You do (as Peavey's fine handbook points out) have to take some care here, because a guitar with a high output can run it into overkill if your pickups are strong enough. You really have to take your time to explore the best way of setting-up the Backstage Plus's three gain controls to the best advantage, so if you're trying this model in a shop make sure that you're left alone with it to explore the full range of possible settings.

In terms of the absolute best distortion/overload sounds, our reviewers felt that the Saturation effect, although much better than the average transistorised distortion circuit, didn't produce the best overload that we've found in a small tranny combo - although it rates much higher than the average in this respect. As with the vast majority of transistorised combos, the way in which the circuitry betrays its type is when you're trying to slur a distorted three note chord, or whack out a fat and full rhythm chord, where the virtually unavoidable harshness of transistors fractures the notes too much to enable you to hear each string clearly. This, however, is pretty much the universal rule with tranny amps, and you have to be fair and bear in mind the low retail price of this product if you're going to start getting that fussy.

For all-round use as a small rehearsal, recording or practice amp, for smaller gigs (especially where tonal versatility is at a premium), the Peavey Backstage Plus is a very sensible buy, and we'd rate it very highly for where players need a lot of high quality sounds for their money. Perhaps for the purist distortion user it isn't the ultimate - but it still sounds a heck of a lot better in this area than much of the average competition. Would we recommend it? Definitely!

More details from Peavey Electronics (U.K.) Ltd., (Contact Details).