Peavey 3120 - anybody here use?/opinions

[Terminus]

Got one of these about two months ago and I love it, it has all the attributes that I like about Peavey and more. I was curious if anyone here has played one extensively or even has one since I've not seen them mentioned much. Any thoughts about them? They have an interesting "damping" switch (tight-mid-loose) on the back that supposedly affects speaker dynamics, as in more movement of the cone that results in a looser or tighter tone. I havent had the chance to play around with it that much though. One of these days I shall try my best to make a few clips of it since I do have a sm57 and can do it, just can't crank it where I live unfortunately. Maybe to a software 3120 vs. real one shootout or something, if I can get any decent results. Thoughts?

 

[PhilTheBeard]

The 3120 is a XXX with a new name . And i love my XXX the amp is really touchy thou on the eq because of it being passive. But the damping switch can also be a cool tone shaping switch. I always keep mine on mid for the most part. And i have found if you crank the channel volume to max and then just bring up the master volume to your desired volume that the amp just open's up and sounds super punchy and brutal.

 

[StefTD]

the amp is really touchy thou on the eq because of it being passive.

I thought the EQ was active on the XXX instead of most amps where it's passive.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I been boosting mids with the presonus EQ3b a la Gary Holt/Sneap with my XXX. I have the mid eq on the XXX damn near off. Gives a pretty crushing thrash tone. Sounds magical.

 

[PhilTheBeard]

I thought the EQ was active on the XXX instead of most amps where it's passive.

The EQ is active! that's a my bad on that one I meant active

 

[Rex Rocker]

nwright posted one of the best tones I've heard using his XXX. Damn, that tone was good.

*EDIT* ahh... tried to find the link, but it's down. Useless post is useless.

 

[Trevoire520]

They have an interesting "damping" switch (tight-mid-loose) on the back that supposedly affects speaker dynamics, as in more movement of the cone that results in a looser or tighter tone. I havent had the chance to play around with it that much though.

The damping switch is a combined resonance presence control. I used to have mine on mid/loose all the time as even with it on "loose" it's still a tight as hell amp.

 

[Lozek]

Yep, I've got a 3120 & a XXX, run through a Diezel V412F with G-12K100's & a Bodenhamer TS in front. At first I was using the 3120 a lot more, the XXX sounded slightly thin in comparison, but as time has gone on I've found the slightly more cutting response of the 6L6's sits better in a band situation for me (we play in C, pretty fast stuff so definition is a must). Although the switch on the back is labelled Tight/Loose, I somehow gravitate towards the loose setting, but I definitely wouldn't call them loose by any means.

 

[Wookieslayer]

I had a XXX and ran it on the crunch channel with the gain at 10 o'clock in the loose setting. Sounded tight and killer and just enough saturation for purring palm mutes or pinch harmonics. So much gain on those amps.

 

[Terminus]

So what boosts are you guys using? Any one that works particularly well IYO?


I'm finding myself using the rhythm channel more than the lead for metal...what's your preferred channel for riffing?

 

[PhilTheBeard]

The maxon od808 works well with that amp and if you want it to really smash faces the sd-1 makes it over the top. But i have found that the xxx and jsx don't really like boost's that much. some work but most do not.

 

[Lozek]

Rhythm channel on the XXX for grinding, tight rhythms. The lead channel's not really doing it for me unfortunately, but I only solo a couple of times in our set so I can deal with it. I run a Keeley modded DS on the clean channel for a smaller semi-distortion, Bodenhamer Bloody Murder (Handmade TS) in front on the rhythms, specifically so I can relay switch it on and off as part of my patch settings on the G System. The only pain was tracking down a Jack to 7-pin to control the head from the G-System, tried making one which failed spectacularly, so got a pre-made on in the end.

 

[Terminus]

I got an SD-1 to see how it sounded = holy shitballs. Very cool.

Still trying to figure out how to integrate my GT-3 into the FX loop and not have to take tap dancing classes to switch from rhythm to the clean channel.