With a tear in my eye...

I bid farewell to a guitar amp. It was a Peavey Classic Chorus 212. I bought it right after I met Rachel. It served me well in many ways. I used it as a guitar amp of course, but I also used it once to power a pair of bass bins, as a stage monitor, as a vocal amp and lots of other uses. It endured a lot of abuse, in particular using for the past 5 years with a missing heat sink. It also spent a lot of time in the rear cargo area of a compact SUV, constantly exposed to extreme cold and heat. I used it once to scratch track guitar for a local band I was recording, and the speakers blew apart violently. once that happened I bought a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 to replace it, which was the amp I really wanted when I bought the Classic. I hung onto it though, left it in the corner of the basement for a while.

Then I started upgrading. I got an Ampeg slant cab (w/ Celestians) and put the Classic Chorus back in service to power the cab. But then I got an Ampeg VH-150 head for the cab and back into the corner it went. Later down the road I got my hands on 4 more Celestians and put them in both the Classic Chorus and the Stereo Chorus and took the 2 Scorpions from the Stereo Chorus and put them on ice, wondering what I would do with them. It had been my intention for a long time to break out the saw and turn the Classic Chorus into a head one day.

A few months ago I decided it was time to get a straight cab and load the extra set of Celestians into it, giving me an Ampeg full stack. Got the cab, loaded the Celestians and finally got around to chopping the Classic Chorus down. So now I had either a full stack with 2 different heads to choose from or 2 half stacks, and of course the Stereo Chorus with the Scorpions returned to where they belonged.

Then about a week or two later I decided to switch the guts between the Classic Head and the Stereo Combo, which I did. The Classic Chorus was finally whole again, and not just whole but improved. It now had casters (which came with the Stereo Chorus), a vented top panel (standard on the 2nd generation Stereo Chorus), a semi-closed back panel made from parts left over from chopping the Classics's original chassis, a modular power cord(which I added) and I also added switchable external speaker jacks. It was an awesome amp, and I really loved it just as much as my half stacks.

Then one fateful day, 5 days ago to be exact, I went to the studio for band practice, powered up and started pulling levels. Something was wrong, I had to turn my distortion channel up way more than I usually did in order to get the same volume, and it sounded like crap. Switched to the clean channel, same story. I was upset, but didn't show it much, I just cranked it up and enjoyed my last few hours with it.

I can't tell if it's the main power transformer or if it's the transistors, I'm leaning towards the latter on account of the missing heat sink, but who knows. I may put some resources into figuring out what the problem is, but I probably won't get it fixed either way. It's a good parts unit to keep around. I will probably get another Stereo or Classic Chorus 212, I need a practice amp. What will I do with the speakers? I don't know, I will keep them on hand for something. I have always wanted to build a Scorpion loaded 4x12 cab, or even a full stack. No, I shouldn't, but I probably will one day.

So the amp is still at the studio, I need to bring it home and put it properly to rest. Let me know if you need any Peavey guitar amp parts.

Neely