1983 Peavey Rockmaster

This amp is a bit of an oddball and pretty rare despite being made by such a huge company like Peavey. In the 1980’s Peavey was still making amps in the USA and was splitting their efforts between all analog solid-state designs like the Bandit and their other major line of amps, the “Vintage Tube Series”. This line had models like the Butcher, VTM, and Roadmaster. All of these amps were takes on the Marshall JCM 800 type circuit, but made with 6L6GC output sections and generally cheaper PCB construction and parts. The Rockmaster sports three 12AX7 preamp tubes and four 6L6GC power tubes, with a solid-state rectifier and claims 120 watts RMS of power. It’s a single channel amp with fairly conventional controls that sounds like a darker JCM 800 and has maybe a bit more saturation or distortion on tap. The printed circuit boards in these amps are better made than the 1990’s Peavey amps and are less prone to warping or burning compared to the Classic series or 5150 type models with their paper thin PCB’s and bargain-basement construction. They stopped making these amps by 1990 but re-used the name for an all tube preamp later on. I couldn’t find any info on famous players that used this model, so anyone looking for a unique but great sounding tube amp that specializes in hard rock and is currently undervalued, this one is for you.

This amp came in to my shop having never been worked on before. The amp had been kept in storage for many years and had been in a flood and exposed to water. The water damage was mostly to the tolex which had peeled away in spots but there were also some parts inside that were corroded as well. This one needed a full restoration including a cap job for all electrolytics, new power/plate/misc. resistors, cleaning, tolex repair, and new tubes.

The amp was given a full restoration. All the axial lead electrolytic capacitors were replaced with upgraded voltage and temperature rated Vishay/MOD/IC brand electrolytic’s. The power dropping resistors were upgraded to 2 Watt Metal Oxide type units. The main summing Screen Grid resistor was replaced with a 5 Watt Wire-Wound type unit. This was done for better noise floor and reliability, but also because of corrosion on some of these parts wire leads which was caused by exposure to moisture. The plate resistors in the Phase Inverter were replaced with 2 Watt Reduced Mass Metal Film type units due to heat damage. All of the 3AG Fuses were replaced with new units as the ones present were corroded and oxidized beyond working condition. One of the PCB mounted 3AG fuse clip holders was broken beyond repair and was replaced with a suitable but hard to find substitution part.

The original tubes did not all test good and some were replaced. This was the final tube compliment: V1 = NOS TUNGSRAM ECC83, V2-V3 = EHX 12AX7, V4-V7 = NOS SYLVANIA 6L6GC Matched Quad. The non-adjustable Fixed Bias was set to Factory Spec. The tube sockets were all treated with De-Oxit to remove/prevent corrosion. The tolex in the front of the amp head had peeled away from the cab and was glued down with specialty tolex glue to fix the aesthetic appearance. All pots were cleaned and hardware tightened.