Peavey Review: Envoy II 110 TransTube

History:

Purchase: Gettin' back in the saddle after a long dry spell. Needed a small practice amp that I could use alone for practice or with a group. Needed something that would cut through drums and bass. Tried smaller Peaveys, Marshalls, Fenders. Price was a factor, so I opted for the Envoy II at $156.00 new. That price is why I only deal with my local Mom and Pop music store and not the greedy bastard superstore here in town. You can't build a relationship with a cash register.

What I Like About This Peavey Envoy II 110 TransTube: Well...I'm not Steve Vai, but I know what I like and I like this. It has a VERY clean channel and a lead channel for the distortion stuff. Switches control Vintage/Modern modes on the clean side and Hi-Gain/Modern/Vintage on the lead side. Pretty versatile. Headphone jack keeps the wife happy and it has a pre-amp out. Also, it's footswitchable between channels. Amp has only reverb for effects. Three band EQ on both channels. LOUD!! Sounds like more than 40 watts. Nice styling. My strat-alike sounds very nice on the clean side. This amp seems to like single coils. My Hummer sounds a little flat by comparison. The TransTube technology won't replace true tube sound, but it does warm up the amp compared to straight solid state amps.

What I Do NOT Like About The Peavey Envoy II 110 TransTube: They don't give you the footswitch with the amp. That pisses me off, but most manufacturers do that nowadays. Lead channel is a little muddy for anything other than punk/grunge. If you need the real smooth overdrive/distortion sound, get a pedal. Use the clean channel. Reverb sounds OK. Not great, but OK. Noisy. An effects loop would be nice. Styling is square and the overhang on the top kinda makes the controls hard to see and tweak when the amp's on the floor. I put mine up on an old shelf unit and tipped it back with a 1x2 block of wood. Works! Speaker will rattle if you put a lot of lows through it at volume(e.g. octave/harmonizer effects). It sounds like a lot of negatives, but I'm being nit-picky. Overall, a pretty good amp.

Peavey Envoy II 110 TransTube Quality Rating: Pretty much your typical Peavey tank. Although it's covered MDF, it's solid. No loose hardware. The open back cuts down on weight. Electronics are well laid out and properly bonded.

Review Summary: This is a good amp if you use it for what it was designed for...a practice and small venue amp. If you go live, you'll need to mike it or just get a stage amp. Peavey makes plenty of those, too. All quality products. My sound really opened up when I ran through a Digitech RP 200 into the Peavey. Stay on the clean channel and flatten the EQ if you go this route. This gives you a more faithful cab sim, etc. Since the RP has a noise gate and several good distortions, it takes up the slack where the Peavey falls a little short. The combination makes for a pretty impressive sound from a small package. This setup is perfect for where I'm at now. If I end up playing live again one day...that'll give me the excuse I need to get that 5150. I do love the Peaveys.

Rating of this Peavey product: 4

This Peavey Envoy II 110 TransTube Guitar Amplifiers Review Submitted By: OldRocker

Review Date: 2004-05-19