Bravo mods fixes tips advise?

[timberghstt]

Hey all, I just picked up a Peavey Bravo. I did a bit of researched, found out it was all tube, the saw a cpl of amazing demoes of the amp on youtube, so I had to have it. I've jammed on it today a good bit and holy smokes! I got it home and saw a toggle switch on the back labeled "on for ultra gain," flipped the switched off and whaddya know, went from classic metal gain to AC/DC gain, very cool! I don't wanted to ask for info if it's covered in other posts, so is there an "ultimate peavey bravo" thread here? mainly for now I just would like a cheap footswitch solution as it didn't come with one, and since the ultra gain switching has been moved to the back, will this make it easier to come up with a way to make foot switching between gain/ultra gain easy? this little guy ROCKS! and the clean is right purty too! why in the world ain't Peavey making and selling an amp in this format right now? it'd sell like crazy!

[tonepoet]

Congrats! They are great little amps. First of all, any two button foot switch, like the ones for Peavey Classic 30's will work. With the Bravo, one button switched between clean/dirty channels and one switch was on/off for reverb. The ultra gain was achieved by pulling out the pre-gain knob and not footswitchable, as stock, (unless it is pulled out and you want it on all the time). Also, the channel switch button under the bright button has to be pushed in for the footswitch to switch channels.

The switch on the back of yours sounds like it was added.

Two easy tone improvements are tube and speaker upgrades.

Tubes: Some folks like to go with all JJ brand, some like to mix brands. Currently, I'm using a mix.

Speaker: If it's the stock Eminence brand, it can be a bit bright and ice-pick-to-the-ears at higher volume, when playing clean. I'm currently trying the Eminence Texas Heat and the Eminence Governor and like them both better than the stock Eminence.

[tonepoet]

Here's the Peavey PDF file for the Bravo manual.

http://www.peavey.com/assets/literature ... 301262.pdf

I may have the footswitch info backwards. The manual says the channel switch on the panel needs to be in the "out" position for the footswitch to work. (My Bravos are at my rehearsal space right now, so they're not handy to verify that.)

[e-merlin]

Just a hunch, here, but I think maybe the pull for Ultra knob went bad and the repairman only had a regular pot, so he added the switch on the back.

I would probably get some power tubes in ASAP because you don't know how old the present ones are. I've got JJs in both of mine, and I like the sound. Others here have their preferences.

Also, you can use different speakers to lean the amp more toward a good clean sound or more toward a good dirty sound. One of mine has a Fender "Gold Label" speaker aiming it more for good cleans. The other has a Sheffield 1230 out of my 5150 combo, which gives it a bit less brightness and a bit more bottom end. Both sound really good.

Other than that, I like 'em the way they are.

[tonepoet]

Just an update on the Peavey Bravo manual. They do have it backwards. The channel switch button needs to be in for the footswitch to work.