In the first of his Stateside reviews for us, Jerry Wasley visits the Peavey factory and brings us an EXCLUSIVE review of a brand new Peavey amp. Jerry, a working musician who has played with many top 'names', is going to be regularly contributing to MUSIC UK, bringing readers over here a musician's-eye view of what's going on in the USA.

Recently, while performing in Meridian, Mississippi, I had the opportunity to visit the Peavey Manufacturing facilities and headquarters. The Peavey success story sounds as though it was written by the Brothers Grimm. At this point one would think that Hartley Peavey would be content to live happily ever after. But, at 41, fame and fortune are not enough. He continues to build success on success.

This may all sound too good to be true, but when other companies are almost out of business, up for sale or worrying how to move their present inventories, Peavey's biggest worry is how to fill $19 million in back orders! While other companies are laying workers off, Peavey is hiring. While other companies are singing the blues of recession, these people in the land of the Blues' are too busy developing, producing and selling equipment to sing anything.

In the early days Peavey produced some equipment which left a lot to be desired, and I have to say that I would have been the last person to recommend their gear. But today, with 17 years of experience, the assembly of some of the finest minds in the industry and the most amazing production techniques, Peavey is building roadworthy, innovative products. I have a four year old Peavey Mk III bass head that has seen most of the fifty states, has been dropped severely twice (with no roadcase to protect it) and yet has never failed to perform.

Anyway, enough of all this. While down at the Peavey plant I was shown the newly developed 'MAX' bass head which is soon to be introduced by them. This is, possibly, the first self-contained bi-amp system.

In one package it contains: a pre-amp, a stereo power amp (with built-in compression), an electronic crossover, and patching facilities galore, including a line-out that eliminates the need for a direct box.

I spent an afternoon playing with this amp and then used it for five sets that night. (And we reckon British players work hard? Ed.) I'll cover the specifics of the amp and give you my overall impressions of it.

"...EQUIPMENT WHICH LEFT A LOT TO BE DESIRED..."

The pre-amp section, from left to right, consists of two inputs; high level (normal) and low level (-6dB pad). Next are two rotary knobs. One is pre Eq gain control, the other post Eq gain control. These two rotary knobs are also tone boost controls via a push-pull operation. The pre Eq gain knob pulls to boost the 'bright' (2K centre frequency) 6dB, and the post Eq gain knob pulls to boost the 'punch' (120 Hz centre frequency) also 6dB. The Eq section itself is a bit unusual for bass, but actual use proved it to be surprisingly simple and useful. There are eight rotary knobs that work like an active graphic equaliser in that they take a certain bandwidth (in this case 60Hz to 8kHz) and divide that into pieces (eight) and then boost or cut those portions of the bandwidth (+ or -15dB) as you choose.

The unusual part of the Eq seemed to me to be the extreme bandwidth covered. Had I been designing a bass Eq section I wouldn't have thought of putting much Eq over 1K — but this unit goes right up to 8kHz!

The theory behind this wide band Eq, as - Peavey told me, is that "Our research has indicated that the modern electric bass with roundwound strings is very much what we call a 'harmonic animal'. Even though the fundamental of the electric bass (312 Hz) is very low, what really makes the modern electric bass sound as it does are the harmonics. Therefore, we decided to devise an equalisation system that would allow excellent equalisation without undue complexity."

The actual labelling of the knobs runs Bottom, (60 Hz), Punch (120), Body (250), Timbre (500), Clarity (1kHz), Bright (2kHz), Presence (4kHz), Edge (8kHz). The numbers refer to the centre frequencies at which cut or boost takes place, and the words are Peavey's own descriptions of the effects.

The eight bands of Eq can be divided in half and are marked 'low equalisation' (lower 4) and high equalisation (upper 4) and then sent to separate amplifiers. The divided signal, high and low, can be equalised independently.

"THE EASY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION 'WHY BI-AMP?' IS THAT IT SOUNDS GOOD..."

This raises the question 'how do we divide the signal' - funny you should ask that as the next knob controls the Electronic Crossover. This allows the point at which the signal will be divided. The choice is from 50Hz to 500 Hz and will be made on the basis of speaker systems used, and your own personal taste (or lack of it!)

You might well ask 'Why Bi-amp?' or say something like 'I've never Bi-amped before' or even 'I've never even met a Bi-amp!' I may have assumed (wrongly perhaps) that every 'cool guy' bass player (and I think of myself as one!) wanted to Bi-amp but just didn't know how to, whether or not he should, or might even become addicted to it (believe me - you will!)

The easy answer to the question 'why Bi-amp' is that it sounds good. The reason it sounds good is because, by splitting the signal into low and high parts and sending those two parts to separate amplifiers and speaker systems, we increase the efficiency of those amps and speakers. Efficiency is increased because the amplifier has a narrower bandwidth to deal with, and specific speaker systems can be employed to deal with frequencies they are best suited to handle.

Anyway, on to the power amp section of the Max. This is based on Peavey's field-proven CS800 stereo power amp. It delivers nearly 500 watts per channel (with a claimed 0.5% THD) with both channels driven into 4 ohms. When I say that this amp has headroom to spare, I'm not kidding. I kept looking for a label that said 'Warning - will kill small children and pets'. But, seriously, volume is not the reason we bass players need this many watts - headroom is.

The clarity and response this amp delivers for bass is thrilling. My low E had never sounded so tight, solid and punchy!

"JUDGING BY PRICES OVER HERE, IT ISN'T GOING TO BE CHEAP..."

Furthermore, the amp is fan cooled and utilises Peavey's DDT compression circuit. This circuit acts as a limiter, designed to prevent clipping - I never got anywhere near clipping levels!

The back panel of the Max contains patching facilities and speaker connections. The range covers Pre-Eq send and return (for effects) Post Eq send and return effects loop (pre-electronic crossover). There is also a line out and two outputs, one a high impedance phone plug, the other a transformer balanced XLR low impedance output. Next you have a Bi-amp/Full range switch. Each section of the amp has its own effects loop facilities (one for low frequencies, the other for highs).

Using this system, for example, you could flange the upper frequencies whilst leaving the bass tones un-flanged.

Further, there is the ability to re-balance the send levels of the Bi-amping system to take account of differing efficiencies of various speaker systems.

What have I left out? Well, the package is heavy and, certainly judging by prices over here, it isn't going to be a cheap piece of equipment. However, if you're in the market for an ultimate high power package it's in the price range with many other, more orthodox items. Certainly, I don't know of any other Bi-amping bass rigs all in one package like this new Peavey. You could, of course, go the separates route, but the final tab would almost certainly exceed the price of the Max. Obviously this isn't going to be someone's first bass head - but it could very well be your last!

PEAVEY 'Max' - target price approx. £800