Four Gig Peavey MiniMax Review

Jon Jaffe · From: Austin, Texas

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to play the MiniMax in four different venues. There were two clubs, Ginny's and The White Horse, and two outdoor events, one mostly covered air-conditioned tent and one outdoor wedding. The wedding and The White Horse were miked Ginny's and the tent were stage mixes.

I used a 20x20 Rick Johnson cab on tilt-back legs with a 15" Eminence neo speaker. I used a Hilton VP into a Hall of Fame reverb on Hall. The guitar was a U12 Kline.
How was the sound? Great.

The amp is light and small. The amp in its bag fits in the back of the speaker; and with an extension cord, power cord and speaker for all thrown in the back as well. It weighs less than 30 lbs including the speaker cover.

I have four other amps to compare it with. A Fox Vintage, Quilter, Milkman Half/Half and a MB200 built in with a 12" neo speaker. This amp has a superb performance/price ratio.

The settings were:

Low Gain Active Input
Bass 10:15
Punch: ON
Middle 10:30
Mid Shift: Out 600Hz
Treble: 2:00
Bright: OFF
Gain: 1:00
Volume:1:00
Psycho Acoustics: ON

It was also completely acceptable with everything straight up.

In a quiet room the fan is very noticeable, however I did not notice it at any of the venues.

In sum, easy to get a good sound, lightweight, power to spare, inexpensive.

I will post pictures if anyone is interested.

Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

I have one of these too Jon, as well as some other class D amps and this one sounds as good as any of them. The fan is a little noisy for studio or practice room use, but of course you can't hear it when you're playing. I've used mine with both 12" and 15" Neo speakers and it sounds good with either. Like you said, it's a great sounding, lightweight amp that won't break the bank. As Jon said, it has an acceptable sound with the controls pretty much straight up, but I have tweaked it a little since this picture was taken right after I got it.

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Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

Before someone asks:

It has an effects loop.
Power: 500 w RMS into 4 ohms.
Pricing: Do a search.
It is under Bass Amps on the Peavey site.

FYI: They also make a MiniMEGA which is 1000 w RMS.

https://peavey.com/products/index.cfm/item/659/118756

Josh Braun · From: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Hi Jon,

You mentioned you had 4 amps to compare this too, including a Quilter and a Milkman Half & Half.

How would you compare it to both of those? Strengths/weaknesses. What do you prefer at the end of the day? In what situations would you use the others vs the bass head - or vice versa?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

While they are all great, I would guess that the Fox Vintage is the slighly better tone monster. I have several amps, but still like the Fox best.
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To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

Jon Jaffe · From: Austin, Texas

They all have good tone. Tone is very subjective. The Peavey MiniMax is the easiest to plug and play. However, it does not have built in reverb. The fan is noisy as well.

All of the amps sound good at the first fret. Pushing them hard at the 15th or 17th fret brings out subtle differences. I prefer the Fox and Milkman for that. At high stage volumes, they are the same. I prefer the built in reverb of the Quilter to that of the Milkman, but again at stage volume there is little difference.

I have used all of them in a quiet bar where the drummer has only a snare and brushes. I like the MB 200 for that because it fits under the piano that is a permanent fixture on the stage.

For recording I have only used the Fox, and would likely use it again.

No one ever mentions looks, but I like the vertical shape of the Milkman, but I always preferred the shape of the Nashville over the Session.

Herb Steiner swears by his Telonics,(as well as many others), but I have no experience with it. Sometimes he plays after me at the Longhorn, and I trust one day he will come in early to let me try it out. (Hint, Hint)

Josh, I hope this answers your question. These are expensive items to juggle, but I enjoy swapping them out. I forget what each sounds like, and it's like having a new amp each time I change.

Glenn Demichele · From: (20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA

I pulled the trigger an bought a Peavey MiniMax from Musician's Friend for $300. I've played 2 steel gigs and one (jazz) bass gig so far. I liked it fine for the bass gig, but my Carvin parametric EQ is is handy for tuning out room resonances, and the graphic could be useful too. I'll keep using it for bass for the time being to get some more experience with it.
For steel, I like it a lot better than the Carvin. First it seems louder, "smoother" and more present, maybe because of the simplicity of the circuits behind the tone controls. Also, you are less likely to screw up your sound by fiddling with knobs in the heat of performance, and you can remember your best settings with those fewer controls. The Peavey midrange only has two center frequency settings, but I think the bandwidth is wider than the Carvin parametrics, making it a more general mid control rather than a notch over a narrow band, which screws up my sound in a way I can't easily identify.

The peavey also has a tuner/mute switch, and three inputs (including a 1/8" aux in) which are good for my fretted/fretless bass and playing along with the iPhone.
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...

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