From one of the world's biggest amp companies comes a valve combo that packs more power into a smaller space than almost anything else. At a shade under £500, it's a snip.

IF THE LAST two decades of amplifier development has taught musicians one thing, it's that size is not important. Twenty years ago, if you wanted power, you needed muscle to provide it - not to mention carry it. Huge 100-watt stacks were very much the order of the day, especially if you wanted liberal lashings of valve-induced distortion to go with all that volume.

Then, one day in the early 1970s, a certain group of engineers built a certain amp for a certain sustain-loving guitarist by the name of Carlos Santana. The amp was intended to provide more natural distortion than any previous design, by including an additional preamp stage between the usual preamp and power amp stages found in all other combos. So distortion was duly amplified and concentrated to an outrageous extent, and the amp was a huge success with Mr Santana. More than that, it was a big hit with Mr Santana's fans, many of whom were themselves sustain-loving guitarists.

That first amp was basically a little Fender Princeton, heavily modified internally and covered in snakeskin. Its chief designer, Randy Smith, had intended it purely as a joke, a one-off. But demand from Santana fans increased as the great man began to use the amp on record, and Smith and a few friends started to build it in small quantities, virtually by hand, and still with the eccentric (and very 1970s) snakeskin covering.

Within a short space of time, the amp had acquired the title MESA Boogie. Not long after that, it began to sell in remarkable quantities for such an expensive item (it cost something like £1,000, which was even more money in 1975 than it is now).

However, the Boogie was hard to track down in this country until the very end of the 70s, and even then you could only get it by special order direct from the States. About five years ago, the Boogie finally got some decent UK distribution through a company called Rocky Road.

In the intervening period, and despite (because of?) its marginal status as a serious production item, the Boogie inspired a whole cluster of imitators. Some of these were genuine valve designs, but none could beat the Boogie for volume, and most were just as costly, if not more so. Others looked like Boogies and were considerably cheaper to buy, but used transistors instead of valves and sounded nothing like as "natural".

So for many years, the dream of a powerful, distortion-ridden amp in a small package remained just that - a dream - for the average guitarist.

Now, however, we have a new amp that stands a better-than-evens chance of giving mortals a shot at pure, overdriven glory. It's called the Peavey Triumph, it uses valves, it's neatly and compactly packaged, and it could cost you as little as £495. Still not Coca-Cola money. I'll grant you, but a lot more accessible than the £1,500-odd now charged for the Boogie and its more pretentious proteges.

At first sight, that amazing price reduction seems to have been achieved without any corners being cut at all. In fact, in some ways the Peavey goes a stage further than the old 70s "superamp" designs. Part of the reason for this is that Peavey's production methods are heavily automated. At the company's Mississippi factory, a robot makes all the solder joints, while another robot tests them. By comparison, Boogies - and most other comparable valve amps - are still made almost totally by hand, hence their enormous cost.

And, since Peavey are now one of the largest amp manufacturers in the world, their immense buying power means they can buy components cheaply without skimping on quality.

The Triumph has been on the blocks for two years - almost, but not quite, ready. The name, as it happens, relates to the engineers' struggle to get the design absolutely right. Obviously, they think they've succeeded.

Do I agree? Well, let's put things into perspective here. Being the owner of one of the aforementioned superamps, I have to admit that because of the amount of money I spent, not to mention the great sound my amp produces, I wasn't about to allow this young upstart to have an easy time of it. I wasn't being sceptical, you understand, just - well, cautious, shall we say.

To get down to the nitty-gritty, I put the Triumph through its paces during rehearsal with the rock band I work with, and with whom I usually use the "other" beast.

The Peavey Triumph is a switchable, three-channel, all-valve guitar combo. Kicking out 120 watts, its most obvious advantage is the volume available. Although Peavey make a 60-watt version, my preference is for the 120 for the extra power when playing clean, and that section is where I gave the Triumph its first test.

A single gain pot, a "bright" switch, and that's it for the clean channel! The Triumph's EQ controls are common to all three channels, and these are simple passive low, mid and high pots, with an active presence control completing the setup. The amount of EQ available isn't vast but proved more than the average, the tones from whichever guitar I used (Strat and Les Paul) being faithfully reproduced, with no false coloration added to the sound. I know I'll be accused of being an old headbanger here, but the tone controls did seem to be most responsive when set really high; set low, the sound was woolly and flat to my ears.

So, with all the EQ set on around 8 and the presence about halfway, I cranked the clean channel up as far as I could... The Triumph didn't even break out into a sweat, which is more than can be said for me! It was loud, make no mistake, but it was also warm, clear and, most important of all, clean. Punching in the bright switch made things shimmer, without losing depth - a characteristic which, incidentally, Peavey seem to carry through most of their range.

The "crunch" and "ultra gain" channels have the same control setup, each with a pair of pots marked "pre" and "post". Crunch lives up to its name, with a grinding, biting sound, and the added advantage of providing a smooth, almost infinite sustain effect with the "pre" pot turned up high. In fact, the amount of overdrive available from this channel is greater than the out-and-out lead channel on one or two other amps I can think of.

"Ultra gain" is a term that doesn't appeal to me very much, but there's no denying the truth of it in this context. Fully variable in intensity, this channel is a monster, creating the kind of lead sounds that make your eyes water. From low bedroom levels to "sign language only" volume, it retains a power that (here comes the cliché, people) simply has to be heard to be believed. This channel is versatile, too. With its adjustable input, you can choose a cleanish, bluesy sound or an overdrive that lasts almost indefinitely... And it's not the kind of sound that breaks up when you need that sustain most. Instead, it's smooth and creamy and reliable - even with a bog-standard Strat.

The designers have got their reverb effect right too, because while there are hardly copious amounts of it, what there is proves to be more than adequate, without being obtrusive.

Peavey have also made the Triumph look special. Because while the aesthetics are still very much in keeping with the rest of the company's line-up, they've finished the normally silver parts of the livery in a subtle gold - including the front panel lettering - so there's an air of exclusivity about it.

There's a pair of inputs: high and low gain, the latter 6dB lower to cater for really high-output pickups, although I found that when using this input with a standard guitar the Triumph took on a warmer, cleaner quality - great for playing blues or old-style rock 'n' roll.

A quick look at the rear panel reveals a hum balance control (essential equipment for any valve amp) and two speaker sockets with the "main" rated at eight ohms and the "aux" at four; this means that if both are used, the amp's impedance changes from eight to four ohms automatically, so two eight-ohm cabinets can be used.

There's also a "preamp out", effects send-and-return, and a DIN socket for the supplied footswitch. The footswitch looks after the reverb and channel selection, with coloured LEDs showing the user what's happening. Actually I'm not too happy about the footswitch's DIN plug idea, because it just doesn't seem robust enough - I'd have preferred to see an XLR-type connector, considering how professionally the rest of the amp has been designed and put together.

Peavey have discreetly fitted a cooling fan with a small intake in the side of the cabinet. This runs quietly and does keep things cool; the fan on my amp sounds like a Ford Cortina with the big ends gone!

Finally, looking into the back of the combo just adds to the overall impression of quality. The output valves are neatly clustered and well-protected from careless handling. The speaker has a removable magnet and is well-suited to its task - although it does give the impression of having a fairly flat response, leaving the amp to do all the work.

I hope I haven't sounded too much like I'm drooling at the mouth over the Triumph. But the truth is that at last somebody has blown away the myth that a versatile, compact valve combo, with loads of power, a great sound and three channels which do exactly what they're claimed to do, must cost an absolute fortune.

Instead, it now costs slightly less than an absolute fortune.

PEAVEY TRIUMPH 120 COMBO £569; TRIUMPH 60 £495; both inc VAT

INFO; Peavey Electronics, (Contact Details)