Peavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest audio equipment manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi in the United States.
History
Hartley Peavey founded Peavey Electronics in 1965 after building his first amplifier in 1957. Since its foundation, Peavey Electronics has been privately owned, and has grown massively from their humble beginnings in Hartley's basement in 1950s.
The company maintains a museum featuring memorabilia related to Peavey Electronics and its notable users, which is open to the public.
Company information
Peavey currently owns 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m²) of manufacturing/assembly area over 33 facilities across North America, Europe and Asia, 18 of which are located in their home state of Mississippi. Products are manufactured mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Far East, and are distributed to 136 different countries across the globe. They also hold 130 patents, and have a product range of around 2000 designs, with between 80 to 100 being added each year.
Peavey Electronics also owns 4 major electronics brands, namely MediaMatrix, Architectural Acoustics, PVDJ and Crest Audio, whilst working with a number of famous musicians on signature instruments, amplifiers and other equipment.
Noteworthy products
Although Peavey Electronics produces a wide variety of equipment, a few notable designs stand out through their popularity and/or use by major professional musicians.
5150/6505 guitar amplifier series
These amplifiers and speaker cabinets were the result of a collaboration with Eddie Van Halen. Originally designed as specialist amplifier for Eddie, the 5150 has gained massive popularity with modern hard rock, hardcore punk and metal bands and guitarists - notably Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains (who, after touring with Van Halen and commenting on the quality of Eddie's signature amplifiers and "Wolfgang" signature Peavey guitars asked "if I could maybe buy one off him. When I came back home after the tour, there were three stacks waiting for me in the garage... he gave me a couple of his guitars, too"). [1], Ted Nugent, Bal-Sagoth, Devin Townsend, Machine Head, Atreyu, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Drowning Pool. The 5150 has become one of the main rivals of the Marshall JCM 800/900/2000 amplifier heads, as well as the Mesa/Boogie Dual/Triple Rectifier amps. In 2004 Peavey and Eddie Van Halen parted ways, with Eddie taking the 5150 brand name with him. This resulted in the renaming of the amplifier as the 'Peavey 6505', with slightly updated styling but original circuitry.
Wolfgang series electric guitars
Again, these were a result of a cooperation with Eddie Van Halen to produce his 'ideal' guitar. The design has been relatively successful, but has not gained the reputation or popularity of similarly priced guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster or the Gibson Les Paul. The peavey Wolfgang is now discontinued. (See also: Peavey Guitars)
CS series power amplifiers
The CS series amplifiers (mainly the CS800) are some of the most used amplifiers in the world, and among Peavey's best selling products.
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JSX guitar amplifier series
Like the 5150/6505 series, the JSX series was designed for a major recording artist: Joe Satriani. Satriani was looking for an amplifier that was custom to him, that had every feature he could possibly want, and would work in both live and studio applications. The JSX is also beginning to gain popularity with the general guitar playing public as well.
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Notable users of Peavey equipment
- Joe Satriani - (Soloist)
- Steve Cropper - (Booker T & the MG's, The Blues Brothers, signature endorser)
- Gary Rossington - (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
- Michael Amott - (Arch Enemy)
- Bobby Burns - (Soulfly)
- David Ellefson - (Megadeth)
- Seth Fenton - (Seven Deadly Sins)
- Rachel Flotard - (Visqueen)
- Robb Flynn - (Machine Head)
- Björn Gelotte - (In Flames)
- Greg Ginn - (Black Flag)
- Stuart Hamm - (Soloist)
- Terrance Hobbs - (Suffocation)
- Vince Hornsby - (Sevendust)
- Dan Jacobs - (Atreyu)
- Jason Jones - (Drowning Pool)
- Kipper - (Sting)
- Mike Kroeger - (Nickelback)
- Dan Loader - (Soloist)
- Guy Marchais - (Suffocation)
- Chris Maudling - (Bal-Sagoth)
- Travis Miguel - (Atreyu)
- Paul Mirkovich - (Cher)
- Ted Nugent - (Soloist)
- Matt Roberts - (3 Doors Down)
- Jordan Rudess - (Dream Theater/Liquid Tension Experiment/David Bowie)
- Matt Shamblin - (Soloist)
- Jesper Strömblad - (In Flames)
- Andy Taylor - (Duran Duran)
- John Taylor - (Duran Duran)
- Devin Townsend - (The Devin Townsend Band, *Strapping Young Lad)
- The Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- Adrian Vandenberg - (Vandenberg, former Whitesnake, former signature endorser)
- Eddie Van Halen - (Van Halen, former signature endorser)
- Vern Zaborowski - (CKY)
- Verdine White-(Earth, Wind, & Fire,former signature endorser)
- Rudy Sarzo-(Whitesnake)
- Jeff Berlin - (Soloist; former signature endorser)
- Varg Vikernes -Sole member of the Norwegian black metal band Burzum
Sources
References
Originally published on Wikipedia
Linear Mode
