Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

A forum for discussing the Vypyr series amplifiers, Sanpera footswitches and share settings
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Arpeggio5150
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Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by Arpeggio5150 » Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:08 am

Hello all, been a long-time lurker but this is my first post to the forum. Please excuse the length of this post.

I've always been a Marshall Plexi guy (I know, not the greatest way to start my first post at the Peavey forum, but hear me out :lol: ).

I have a Plexi at home that I attenuate and play through once every week or so. The tone is perfect and it never ceases to put a smile on my face. Nevertheless given the maintenance involved with tube amps and the sheer volume, the rest of the week, I generally always played unplugged. That is, until three years ago when I discovered the Peavey Vypyr.

I was doing some research for a smaller practice amp and was blown away by all that the Peavey Vypyr had to offer. The Line 6's, Fender's and Roland modeling amps of the like paled in comparison. So after much research, I bought the Peavey Vypyr VIP 2.

Three years later, it still gets played through multiple times a week at home in short spurts when I have time and I've had no issues -- love the amp. The tones are hard to find (IMHO) but once you find them, they're sublime (and consistent -- ah the beauty of technology).

The Vypyr is also the only non-tube amp where I feel like the knobs on my guitar actually work. I love it. I've always used the 6534 on the orange setting (I am an EL34 guy, after all) with nothing but a sprinkle of reverb over the top but have recently discovered the Classic 30 with a Tubescreamer used as a clean boost over the top to be another hidden killer tone in this amp. And the volume and tone knobs work even better with this setup, getting me a nice, "driven" clean all the way up to a dirty screaming Maiden-esque sound. Bravo Peavey.

Anyways, as of late, I've started doing a few gigs here and there -- and by gigs, I mean open-mics once or twice a week at the local bars. It's a great experience...for the most part.

Due to the fact that my Plexi is very heavy, cumbersome to travel with and pretty much overkill for any place we would play at, I play on the house amps when we play out. Sometimes that's fine. But, given the fact that we play a lot of Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, and other heavier 80's hair metal, if the house amp is a Fender Blues Junior or Vox AC30, unfortunately that doesn't cut it and we tend to skip out on that show.

So recently, I've been debating taking my Peavey Vypyr out on the road now for, not only for the sake of consistency in sound but also to avoid the issue of having to dial up a different amp on the fly every time we play.

My questions:

1a) For those of you who take your Vypyr out to gigs, can your amp keep up with a heavy handed drummer at a small to medium sized bar? If so, how does the VIP handle volume in your opinion? Most solid-state amps in my experience have tended to sound great at low volume but once the volume gets cranked up a bit, they seem to thin out and become thin and brash sounding. Is the VIP any better in this regard?

1b)Follow up - If a PA is available, are you more likely to mic the amp or run it straight to the PA via the output jack? And if you run it through the PA, what adjustments do you make to your presets? in my experience, the few times I've used headphones with my amp it sounds as though the gain and the bass drop a bit when compared to the tone through the 1x12. I'm just curious about what to expect because there isn't much time to make adjustments when you're on stage.

2) I'm considering the Peavey Sanpera II. However, doing my research, it seems that this pedal tends to have quite a few reliability issues. To be fair though, it seems most of the articles I am finding are from 2011-2014. Is reliability still an issue with these pedals? Seems that most issues are software related. Have there been updates to rectify these issues?

3) In the three years I have owned my Vypyr, I have never once updated the software. I know I probably have the disk somewhere...but I also have a Mac which doesn't have a disk drive. Is the software available online anywhere? And is it compatible with Mac? It seems the software could be potentially useful should I get the Sanpera so that I can reorder my tones in the bank depending on the gig we're playing that day as well as incorporating a nice lead boost with some reverb at will.

A huge thanks in advance for everyone's help and my apologies again for the long post!

Arpeggio5150
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Re: Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by Arpeggio5150 » Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:09 am

Bonus: Here's some juicy 6534 tone straight from the amp (this was not recorded direct):

https://youtu.be/lG7DkZp-8ew

ScottMarlowe
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Re: Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by ScottMarlowe » Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:09 am

There's a vypyr/vip subforum where there are likely more people who can answer your questions than up here in the analog amp area.

I think Vypyrs get the best over driven tones of any digital modeller. Pick responsiveness isn't quite as good as a Fender Mustang but it's still quite good.

Arpeggio5150
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Re: Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by Arpeggio5150 » Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:12 am

ScottMarlowe wrote:There's a vypyr/vip subforum where there are likely more people who can answer your questions than up here in the analog amp area.

I think Vypyrs get the best over driven tones of any digital modeller. Pick responsiveness isn't quite as good as a Fender Mustang but it's still quite good.
Ah yes I just noticed.

Mod, is it possible to move this post to the Vypyr subforum?

Thank you

Arpeggio5150
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Re: Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by Arpeggio5150 » Mon May 01, 2017 3:07 pm

Anyone?

Fastwind
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Re: Introduction, some Vypyr VIP praise and a few questions (Lengthy)

Post by Fastwind » Mon May 01, 2017 5:20 pm

Hi Arpeggio5150,

I've been using my Vypyr VIP3 & Sanpera II gear extensively for about 3 years now.
Playing live has been no problem whatsoever, and I never had any problems with the Sanpera II. (There used to be some issues with the first-generation Vypyrs, but for the VIP-series there have been no real problems.

To answer your questions:

1a) Yes it can. Of Course, I have the 100W VIP3, so I'm not sure the 40W VIP2 will keep up as well... I know it'll be loud enough, but as you said, the VIP gets a little 'Broke-up' at very loud volumes. This should not be a problem when miking-up your gear to the house PA. I usually put the VIP3 in front of me on a tilted stand (like a monitor). That way, I don't have to turn the volume up too much. The PA takes the sound via mike, and can turn up the volume without any change of sound.

1b) If you want the best sound, use a mike to get your sound to the PA. The VIP sounds amazing through its 12" speaker. Just try to keep the volume on the amp managable...

2) I've had zero problems with my Sanpera II. It's been working flawlessly for over 3 years now, and you get the added bonus of a tuner in front of your feet (along with a volume pedal, a WahWah pedal, access to 400 presets, turning the effects on/off individually,... ).

3) My Firmware version number is 1.6.2, but you only have to upgrade if you want to use the Windows librarian software (to create and store sounds with your Windows computer). I must say, I never really used the editor, because you can edit everything easily on the Vypyr VIP itself. With the Sanpera II, you can access 400 presets on the amp, so there really is no need to store the sounds on your computer. The sanpera II works just fine with the older Firmware version 1.6.1.

If you really want to upgrade your amp, you can download the installer & editor here: https://peavey.com/support/software/ (make sure you download the VIP version !!!)

See this video to see how the update is performed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnjRWMkhEL8 .

I think you can safely try out your VIP2 on one of your next gigs, you will not be dissapointed...

I like your 'jungle'-tone on the video! (nice playing too...)

Good luck!

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