Peavey MK III Series Bass Head Reviews 4

I got this from a guy who didn't know what it was. I paid $100.00. I was looking for a friend for my Peavey Mk III bass head. Actually as a Harley rider for 34 years I like an extra of everything to steal parts from and keep it on the road.

First, there is a difference in the Mk III and the Mk III SERIES heads which I was not aware of until I took a suggestion from this site and went to Peavey for a manual. This head will pump 300 watts into 2 ohms or 210 into 4 ohms. My Avatar speaker cabs are both 4 ohm set-ups. This head will blow the doors off. There are 2 channels (A&B) with 2 inputs each. Between the inputs, there is an input for "Automix". No pedal came with this head, but the pedal has 2 buttons - 1 for channel select and 1 for "Automix". The Automix, according to the manual, actually combines the A&B channels and you can adjust the equalization differently on both so it's [supposedly] like getting 3 amps! People harm other people to get these pedals which are not made anymore. "A" is meant for active set-ups while "B" is intended for passive.

This is even heavier than my plain Mk III head. I mean this thing requires some strength to lug around so it's good that it's a killer head. Made in 1980.

Look in the dictionary under "Abrams Tank". It tumbled down 4 steps and still played like nothing was wrong. And made in 1980! The pots were scratchy from age but cleaned up easy. There was this weird "pop" in the "Low" EQ knob on "B" channel. But at playing levels it was more of a "Kaboom". Weird but it disappeared when it got cleaned up. My unit came with all knobs & sliders intact and working. The range of EQ adjustments, with each channel having Pre-gain, low, mid, high and post-gain controls. On the "A" side is a crossover setting and an "EQ Out" switch so you can control at your guitar. The "B" has an added "Compression" switch and an "EQ Out" switch as well. The addition of low range and high range EQ seperately are unreal. There are Pre-amp Out and Line out jacks with Bi-Amp inputs Hi & Lo and an input for another power amp to piggyback this beast.

There's lighter heads and better heads I'm sure. But I would definitely buy another in good shape like this one. It's made for the long & hard hauls - just like my Shovelhead stroker. There's no onboard effects or even an effects loop so I gave it a 4. Otherwise this is a 5 all the way.

Old & In The Way rated this unit 4 on 2004-10-22.

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