Sorry to rant, but why does all equipment need modifications? Except for the Nashville 400 "mod" that actually changed the EQ circuitry that's the only "mod". There have been other Peavey options that change the Op-Amps to a lower noise version but as a former amp tech I don't see these as "mods".

I've played through an original model Nashville 400 (with the 1502 speaker), the later models with the 1501 speaker and no "mod" and I owned a later 400 that had the factory tone mod installed. The original Nashville 400 and the later ones with the tone mod are about equal. The later model without the tone mod is all highs and no lows or "body". I spent about two hours at Scotty's trying out a demo Nashville 400 with a 1501 speaker (it had been used as a stage amp at the ISGC) and no tone mod and nothing I could do to the amp would tame the highs or get enough lows.

However, I would NOT recommend this cap upgrade as I would for the older Peaveys. These new amps like the NV1000 and NV112 (they use the same preamp board) have extremely small and delicate circuit board traces that are easily damaged by removing and replacing components. I'd say leave the amp alone. It sounds good enough out of the box.

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...I can tell you that we rolled off the low end frequencies purposely so that speaker failure would be less likely.

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Plainly, it had nothing to do with "speaker voicing", and everything to do with cutting the lows (and a lot of the sound quality) to prevent speaker (warrantry) problems. Peavey amps were known for years to be "honky" and "nasal". If it were just the speaker involved, everyone would have just changed the speaker!

With the Lemay mod components there is a much greater potential of speaker damage due to low frequencies - and not that it will happen just that the potential is there.

Peavey may not want to publicly acknowledge they dropped the ball when they went to the 1501 speaker and didn't change the amp's EQ.

Brad

[This message was edited by Brad Sarno on 02 April 2006 at 12:37 PM.]

On the other hand, my Peavey Nashville 112 has started to sound warmer every day and the EQ allows for pretty decent bass. Not as full range or warm as some of my tube amps, buy very smooth and not too boomy.

Whether or not a "mod" is needed is a matter of personal preference. Developing and trying out mods is a lot of fun and few people will deny that some aspect of their amp can be improved. For example I would like to see a Nashville 112 reverb mod that will give that lush Fender reverb sound similar to the Nashville 400 reverb mod. Then I could eliminate my RV-5 and run direct from my pedal to the amp.

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Dave Wren
'95Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Twin Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box www.ameechapman.com

[This message was edited by David Wren on 03 April 2006 at 04:18 PM.]

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Dave Wren
'95Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Twin Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box
www.ameechapman.com

Leo Fender has always been my idol. When he started his company in 1946, he started out building damn good products that weren't fancy but represented great performance and great value. I figured if it was good enough for Leo, it was good enough for me. I decided then and there that I would build the best musical equipment possible at fair and reasonable prices, even though I knew it would have to be done a different, and hopefully better, way".

This is still the Peavey motto even today. When a third party(who didn't assist in the design of the original Nashville 400 amplifier) decides that they want to "hot rod" or replace parts on an existing circuit, that is not a large task and can be accomplished easily. As a matter of fact, I wonder if the Hot Rod Deluxe amp was simply an old circuit design with new parts.................hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The objective was to offer our kits at reasonable prices to our customers who had purchased our products. That's what we did.

Also, what we "purposely" included in our kit was a higher rolloff point so that speakers were protected from too much low end frequency when using an open back cabinet design. After all, Peavey Electronics was the company that warranteed the speaker, not the third party company.

Also in our mod kit, we used what is considered as a highly respected integrated circuit called the Burr Brown OPA 2604. Occasionally, we receive a Peavey model with another mod kit installed, and all of the IC's are masked with fingernail polish. Are these the same factory IC's to begin with? Hmmmmmm............................