Remember The 90's: The Peavey Rage 

I think I may speak for a lot of people when I say we wanna see a video of you actually running 6 of these now like you did as a kid 😂😂

"I could always rely on my Rage." - aka, it's solid state, so I didn't worry about a tube breaking, or having to wait for it to warm up, or some other random unknown about tubes. I just plugged in, and knew it would going to sound the same every time. I had, and toured with a Peavey Bandit 112, and never once had an issue with it.

A Peavey Rage? Luxury! In the 80s we had Gorilla Amps.

Peavey’s transtube technolghy was pretty cool. The early amp modeler.

You forgot the proper EQ: bass on 10, mids on 0, treble on 10.

Nice! I had the slightly bigger brother, the Peavey Blazer (added reverb) and was Red Stripe. Flipping the bird at 2:35 was a cool easter egg. 😛👍

Peavey rage series > any line 6 spider series.

I just went out and found a Peavey Rage 158 (second version. No red stripe) because it was my very first amp. I was shocked how good it sounded still. I just assumed my teenage ears didn't know any better but it does sound respectable and is really damn loud

I still have my Peavy Rage. Love that amp. It was my 1st and favorite.

Peavey solid state combos are great amplifiers, and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise. I really, really want a Bandit 65 from this era.

Man. That brings back some memories of the mid 90s. Those were some good times.

Great review,,I bought one today for $80,,AU,,,,,,TO BE HONEST MY FIRST USA made amp,,gotta start somewhere,I'm not a young man 50,,,,did I do ok,,I know this is a old thread,,,but look forward to hearing from you!

I have pevey back stage it is 30 years old and still rocks to this day matey older it even had reverb, it was my first amp

Call me nuts, but it doesn't sound terrible at all. I had a Peavey Ultra Plus tube combo and I loved it. I eventually sold it and got the Ultra Plus head and I still own it. They haven't been in production for many years so I've been itching to get it tone matched and use it digitally.

My guitar tech had a shop where under his guitar work bench he had a ten watt Peavey Decade. He used it to check how guitars sounded after he worked on them. One day I was his last customer and it was closing time. He shut off the lights and as we were walking out I noticed the little red power light on his Decade amp was still on. I told him " hey you left your amp on..To my amazement he said he always left it on and had NEVER turned it off once. That shop has been open 30+ years and that Decade is STILL on. !!! And works perfectly.

Dude..thanks for doing this series. I bought this amp in 1997 when I was a young Airman living in the dorms on base in NC. I ran the old Grunge pedal through it and had a blast. 🤘🏻

That sounded way better than I thought it would. I dig it

Yes, that is what the Rage in my motley collection of amps does, too. However, it is worth mentioning its other brother, not the big Bandit stage amp, but the Companion busking/studio amp. Everything that is good about the Rage, except three stage gain control so you can get creamy overdrive to make tube snobs weep in envy.

The character is surprisingly solid. Obviously it doesn’t have a lot of thump to it, and it’s not a particularly unique sound, but the fact that it sounds even semi competently made is actually really impressive.

I was using an original Bandit 112 recently. It’s an excellent amp with a pre-amp valve. Beautiful cleans too.

Nice Everytime I Die riff! Very underrated band.

i’ve got an og peavey backstage 110 made in meridian, ms. it still rocks out and a real spring reverb tank.

Fluff....u bastard....almost cried!!!that was my first amp my old man bought it out of someones closet

My very first amp was a red stripe Rage 158 back in '96. Fell in love with that specific Peavey Transtube tone. Still use some of the red stripe transtube amps every now and then.

I got mine today for 25 dollars in relatively wonderful condition, all it's knobs. I love the little bastard. I guess it was my ignorance, my guitar's pups or the amp, but my first one when i was a kid, was muddy as hell and no matter what i did it was just muddy, so I traded as fast as i could for a Randall. This one i got today sounds awesome, I can't wait to throw some gain in front of it and see how it sounds boosted.

I'm trying to forget all the cheap shitty gear I played on in the 90s, but you keep reminding me! Remeber the DOD death metal pedal?

Awesome video, I used one in the military in 91’ and took it over seas with me . Great amp

I love that you made this video!!!! It's good to know that cheaper doesn't always mean worse :D

My first amp right there. Ran a Kaman GTX with an x2n power plus in the bridge. Upgraded to the bandit a couple years later.

I think this is the same amp I learned on way back in the day lol

My free 1989 Peavey Rage is now clean and I've painted the tolex seafoam green over a thick filler primer that was brush painted then rolled the brush strokes flat and tickled with sandpaper . Played on it taken apart, no cab housing anything, and it still sounded great. Pots scratch sound is sorted with a single dose of contact cleaner and knob turning. I will save my pennies and eventually put a nice Mellotone grill cloth on it. Cheap black for now will have to do. Tempted to spray the Peavey logo plate but I decided to keep it original. The stamped metal hardware will get sprayed with a gold metallic I think. Re-assembly in 48 hours after the hardware paint cures. Looking forward to playing my wee hotrod amp.

Well, 1990 was thirty years ago, that's like ages ago for me

i had the peavey audition plus! the thing was a little beast, it had a push pull knob for distortion. only one 12" speaker, and cranked could jam over a kit

Nice..I had one of these myself back in the day

SOOOOO MANY MEMORIES!!!!

As a kid i was lucky enough to cut my teeth on, in this order: Rage 158 Bandit 112 Transtube 212 The transtube still has a spot in my jam room. That old geezer still sounds fantastic.

The guitarist in my first serious band had a Peavey Stereo Chrous and we toured the UK, did plenty of professional recording and it sounded great.

Loved hearing some ETID!

Oh the memories. My buddy had a Peavey Rage to go with his HSS Yamaha Pacifica in the 90's. I had my Ibanez RG along with my Crate GX-30 - another classic 90's starter amp.

Overdrive on this little guy sounds pretty amazing

I still have my Rage 158 from the 90s. As a kid I loved the over the top gain you could squeeze out of these, and how just how loud they could get.

that cheeky every time i die riff, nice

I still have my old Peavey Bandit 112 and Express 112. I bought them back in 1993. My son just started playing guitar and now he's using those old amps that I've kept for all these years. They still kick ass after all these years.

Smashed like for the ETID riffage

I have a Addition Chorus from 1988. Still a good self jam practice amp. Paired that with a DigiTech RP1. My big rig is a DigiTech 2112 pre amp, Alesis 3630 compressor/noise gate, Samson 500 servo power amp and Marshall cabs

Sounds better than my Bugera 333XL lmao, jk, but this amp with preamp valve would be a beast, awesome video man! Like to see this old things coming back

I'm using the redstripe as my first amp and I LOOOVE IT!!! Paired with a decent multi effects pedal it gives you all the creative fun for years to come!

Gotta wire a plug on the end of the speaker wires and run a 4x12 with it!

Rage 158 was the first amp I got, I remember being so excited to finally have it. In fact I still have it and it works - useful for living room rehearsals etc.

Do a Crate GX-15 I remember those when i was a broke student. Lmfaoooooo they sucked.

Man that's what I learned in back in 92. The memories are flooding back! I remember I started getting bored with learning then I learned how to palm mute. Game over. Shit, remember learning by guitar one and other magazines? Now youtube can teach you to shred in 5 freaking minutes

Peavey Bandit red stripe is the king of SS.

I still have a Peavey Rage 158 TransTube and is it works perfect. Also a Peavey ValveKing 100 watt half stack for getting crazy! I have had lots of Peavey amps and you are right, They are work horses that will not let you down!

Pepers pedals makes a pedal version of the preamp of the Rage... Might wanna review it!

And until a few months ago, I was using 3 amps through a Y box (and one stereo output on a pedal). the rage was one of them. It provided all of the mids. Literally all the mids came from that, the lows came out of the roland cube, and a little traynor amp provided the mid/hi range.

I had an old 80s or 90s peavey backstage, i feel like if someone never had one of those era peaveys then they shouldnt be trusted as a guitarist haha

My dad gave me his Peavy Rage he bought in the late 80s when I was just starting on guitar, and I loved it. I remember that when I would switch to the lead channel, sometimes I would pick up radio through the amp! haha

30 years fluff that amp came out 30 years ago....

I just got mine. Rage 158 (1994 built), in mint condish. very heavy I must say for the size and built like a tank. I will collect more of these. Next target Blaze!

+10 for ETID riffing

My first amp! Still own it and love it! Got it hand-me-down from my brother, sometime 2006-2007. Amazing little practice amp! I always did wish it had a little reverb though, but not a huge deal. I remember the headphone jack being a life saver for an aspiring guitarist in a small quiet home. I stumbled upon this video while looking at Peavey Classic 30s. My current amp is a Studio Pro 112, but I may sell that one... ironically enough, to the same brother.

I had a rage 158. Sounded worse than a Frontman 15.

Used a Peavey Envoy 110 recently for a gig playing 50s and 60s stuff. Very high gain for that stuff so it took a good day tweaking the dials to get a good clean sound. I put chrome guitar strings on just so I could get a softer sound. It worked out okay in the end. I bought the amp as a back up for £99 and a fine back up it is.

I had that one Worst distortion on planet Earth.

My first ever amp i got in my early 20's was the peavey rage 158 and i still have it now im my 40's. It has served me well so far.

wall of rage is good name for a band....

Peavey killed it. I had a VT Classic 212 50 watt combo. They were weird because although a hybrid amp, the solid state side to it was actually the preamp rather than the power amp which was powered by 2 6l6s. I threw a boss power driver in front of a multi fx and ran it into the pre-in on the back of the amp and it was killer. They also have built in reverb and depending on the year, a phaser or tremolo. Very good heavy cheap amps

I have a 1985 Audition 20, I replaced all the capacitors and Deoxit'ed all the pots, and it works perfectly.

i've had a few peavey amps/guitars/basses over the years and i'm always reminded of something steve albini said about peavey stuff. "it always works, it always sounds like a peavey but it always works"

I used the bandit and studio in the early/mid 90s... I still use them as well as the envoy. just for the house, great cleans and pedals..

Still rock out with my Rage 158 ✊ jacked it from my brother ~15 years ago when I started playing and still love it today

I like Peavey, I have an old Peavey PA system that I just took out of storage in my basement , cleaned the pots and it still works great.

Thanks for a review of this classic beast

Awesome. Had a Rage 158 as my first amp back in the early 90s. Only issue I ever had was a popping instrument jack outlet.

Sweet video Fluff! had one of these in my house for a bit, mom was using it for a church organ at one point, i got is and used it for a couple years gave it and an old ibanez guitar to an 8 year old kid who wanted to learn to play, hopefully he can have the fun we did with these......... they were and are pretty good little amps and they certainly last!

I bought one in the late 90s along with a Samick strat copy. They sounded terrible together but that was probably due to the cheap pickups. My nephew still had the amp but the guitar got away. No loss! Thanks for the memories!

My first amp was a Peavey Blazer 158. It is the exact same amp as a Rage. The only difference is that the Blazer had reverb. I had a vintage Thomas Organ era Vox wah pedal and Tube Works Blue Tube Overdrive pedal. Back then I thought it was all I needed. The amount of tones out that setup was surprising. I think I got a Line 6 combo amp after the reverb finally died on the Peavey. The Peavey killed the Line 6 tone wise. Today I wonder what the Peavey would have sounded like with a better speaker. The guitar was an early '80's Peavey T-15. The USA Peavey stuff was made extremely well.

We must be around the same age, cause I bought one of these from a pawnshop, as a kid, and loved it. It had enough gain to make my South Of Heaven sound respectable.

Bought my 1st gen rage in a pawn shop for $20 in 2015, the receipt is still in the back of it. :-) These old Peaveys are buleltproof and fall out of the back of trucks and still work fine. If there's any criticism that can be said about this amp, it's that it has absolutely ZERO low end and sounds like your playing through your cell phone speaker. It's the #1 reason why I never use it. Makes a good paperweight though.

Yup, my first amp from 20 years ago...Peavey Rage 158 and I still have it! Tried giving it away a couple times over the years and it always found its way back to me. True about its reliability, she's built like a bank vault!

I have an earlier but slightly larger relative of the Rage, a Backstage Plus (The plus was for spring reverb.) It has lived a hard life, including being forlorn in a screen room by a family member through all of the elements and splash/wind rain for about 15 years. The MDF is shot, and I did respeaker it because the paper, while not ripped, was so soft it was flubbing. Despite that, it still doesn't skip a beat. The electronics in those things just don't die. It does seem to like the mids run high, but it may be due to new speakers' voicing.

Still have my Rage 158! It was my very first amp and it came with a peavey raptor plus, which I also still have. Fun little inexpensive combo to play around on 🤘

I member that...I had a Rage 158 I got for Christmas at 14, it smelled good. Good times, thanks for the memories.

There's a small-time pedal builder called Peper's Pedals who builds a pedal version of the Rage preamp. I was shocked to hear how good the pedal sounded, but hearing the actual amp makes it much less surprising.

Found an 89' Rage tonight that is an absolute museum piece.. picking it up tomorrow for $50.. I collect old peavey amps & this one will be my best one..

i used to have the peavey audition 20 when i was a kid and have. had a few sence even made one into a head anyhow as a kid in a band my and the lead guitarist had the same amp and we more then kept up with the band and even out drummer could not drown us out on his acoustic kit fantasic amps

I had a bandit 112 run to a cab for a LONG time for live shows. It never let me down and was a great sounding amp. I never had money for a tube amp back then and it really did great

I always liked to crank the overdrive and the bass, cut the mid and high all the way down, turn the volume up just enough before the bass breaks up, then slowly introduce mid then high just barely until they begin to sparkle and close mic it with an sm58, huge sound!

My grandparents bought me my first guitar and amp for my 15th birthday back in 2000. Squier Affinity Strat with the Peavey Rage 158. My first effects were the DOD Death Metal distortion and the Digitech RP100. It was the best a teenager could do who lived in a rural town, didn't play sports, and didn't know anyone else who played guitar.

I had a Peavey Studio Pro 50 but it really delivered 57 watts through its 12" speaker and that was too powerful for practice. The Saturation was great, though. I sold it to a friend to be sure it would be well cared for, because it was too loud. Now I have another Peavey, the Envoy 1x10 with two channels and more distortion sounds. It's just at the middle ground for everything, multi-purpose but not complex, not too big, not too loud, not too heavy. The older Studio Pro is almost 30 years old but still works and never had a problem.

Got a Bandit. I use it as a spare/ extra amp. Pretty pleased with it for the money.

This was my first "real" amp. My dad bought it for me for Christmas in 1989--I still have it and still use it on occasion. 30+ years, 20 of which were spent moving around the country and I've had nary a problem with it. Peavey's old solid state amps were as close to bombproof as you can get.

I have a Rage 158 that I got in 95, and I pulled it out today for the first time in ten years, and it’s a killer amp still.

Still got mine. Ran the out into a tube Yamaha 2x12. Loved it!

I've used a bandit for rehearsals for years. Wasn't too fond of the drive sound so I used the clean channel with stomp boxes in the front or a line6 pod into the effects return.

Peavey Blazer 158 has real spring reverb.Upgraded speaker in 2016 to perfectly good sounds.Use it regularly in my tiny apartment.

This is the exact amp I inherited from god knows who in my family around 5 years ago and I still keep it next to my fender amp and jam with it once in a while. It’s the best small combo amp I’ve ever played on and is still dependable even tho that thing is like a 1987 model. I even used to play it on the carpet in my living room middle of the winter when it was so dry the humidifier didn’t even work and this thing never got any buzz from static buildup. I’d recommend this amp to any beginner

My very first amp in the 80's was a Peavey Bandit 65 with the 12" speaker. Still have it too.

I got a 158 rage but the connection port is messed up and it’s not grabbing the plug. I love the dirty sound on these.

This was my first amp, along with the first amp of so many of my friends.