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Guitar World Reports On Hartley Peavey's 'Ubiquitous' 40-Year Legacy
Press Release
2005-11-07

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Writer Alan di Perna bookends his profile of Hartley Peavey with two of the music innovator's most famous maxims: "Life is a test," and "You can't be better unless you're different." The underlying thesis, of course, is that Peavey is different--and "Mississippi King," published in Guitar World magazine's Holiday 2005 issue, reflects on the 40 years of trials and tribulations that have informed Hartley Peavey's unconventional approach to building musical products and how we hear music.

Beginning with his first patent--filed in April 1963, while Hartley was still in college--the article also details how his "southern small-town ideals" of independence and perseverance led to many innovations, including the groundbreaking T-60* guitar, the first ever built using computer-controlled machines; the development of his storied amplifier line, including the 6505*, Triple XXXR, JSX* and Penta* models; and his ability to offer high-quality, USA-made products for fair and reasonable prices.

Di Perna calls Peavey "one of the most ubiquitous and successful brands in the musical-instrument/pro-audio business," and discusses how this "larger-than-life figure that could have stepped out of some Tennessee Williams play" is also an "inveterate tinkerer obsessed with mechanical and electromechanical processes."

During its first 40 years, Peavey grew from a one-man guitar-amp operation into the pioneer behind computerized audio/communications systems in the Sydney Opera House, the Apollo Theater, all major Orlando theme parks, the Las Vegas Strip and 3,000 airports, government facilities, stadiums and concert stages worldwide.

The details of Hartley Peavey's innovations are well documented at the U.S. Patent Office, where he is registered on more than 100 active patents, but the story behind his first 40 years are chronicled in The Peavey Revolution, the new biography published by Backbeat Books and available now at www.peavey.com/revolution.

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary as one of the world's largest manufacturers of musical instruments and professional sound equipment, PeaveyR holds more than 130 patents and produces more than 2,000 products distributed throughout the United States and to 136 other countries. Peavey and its MediaMatrixR, Architectural AcousticsR, PVDJ*, Trace ElliotR and Crest AudioR brands and affiliates can be found on concert stages and in more than 3,000 airports, stadiums, theme parks, government buildings and other venues around the world. To find out more, visit www.peavey.com.