Horizon Review

This is a Horizon 1, not a Horizon 2. They were made in the USA between '83 and '86. Mine was made in '83, according to the serial. Maple neck and fretboard (both are 2-piece lam), 23 frets with black Dot inlays and micro-tilt adjustment. Nobody knows what the body is made of; I'm thinking poplar.

Features:	10
Sound:	10
Action:	8
Reliability:	10
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.6
Users rating:	10
Comments:	9

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: Invader Jim, on january 21, 2009

Price paid: $ 150

Purchased from: Hays Music

Features: This is a Horizon 1, not a Horizon 2. They were made in the USA between '83 and '86. Mine was made in '83, according to the serial. Maple neck and fretboard (both are 2-piece lam), 23 frets with black Dot inlays and micro-tilt adjustment. Nobody knows what the body is made of; I'm thinking poplar. Black gloss finish, Strat-style body shape with longer upper wing for improved upper-fret access. "Dual-blade" rail humbuckers, 1 volume, 2 tones, 3-way Switch; I think it auto-splits in the middle position. Peavey PAF bridge (a Tune-O-Matic/hardtail hybrid), metal set-screw knobs with "P" logo on the top, and Peavey "Tru-Lok" tuners on the old "arrow" headstock shape. The jack bolts in from the inside, so no more loose jack nuts to worry about. // 10

Sound: The dual-blade humbuckers sound quite nice. They are really great with harmonics (attn: Dimebag fans). The cleans are also quite nice. They have a pretty high output. They are dead silent until you start cranking the gain really, really high. The way the thing is wired is odd as far as Strat-style wiring schemes go. The tone pots are more effective than your typical tone controls; it has a wider 'range' for lack of a better term. Pretty versatile. The pots are completely silent; no scratchiness or dead spots what'soever. The "treble-bleed mod" is factory Standard. All caps are ceramic disc instead of the typical poly film. The pots are vintagey 24mm instead of the typical 16mm mini pots. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The action is ok. I'm having trouble getting used to the micro-tilt/two-point bridge combo (I'm mainly a Strat man). The finish is good and quite tough, but Orange-peeled, but hey. It's old. // 8

Reliability & Durability: Very reliable and durable. This thing is 26 years old and looks mint. The screws hadn't even been removed, they were almost frozen. She's been very well taken care of. // 10

Impression: I bought it used (of course) for 150 bucks at the local guitar store. I think it's worth every penny. It sounds great, is well-made, is easy to play, looks killer... what more can you ask of a guitar? // 10

Comments

[Lasyk]

Sick man, I've got a Peavey Milestone IV bass, its REALLY well built too, Peaveys are just all around sick guitars in my opinion

[Invader Jim]

Yeah, I absolutely love this guitar. The rails were what sold me. :p

[rancidryan]

what dou you mean by micro tilt adjustment?

[HorizonII]

I've got the Horizon II, I absolutely adore the guitar itself, but I stripped it an rebuilt it with my uncle. I killed one of the pick-ups and installed a hand wound Pickup that my Dad's friend made. He calls'em "PK Rippers." Never got such a grindy, chunky tone.

I think that all-and-all, Peavey makes one hell of an instrument. Simply because of how well built each instrument is.

[Invader Jim]

Ryan: Fender did it in the '70s, but for some reason it never caught on. Basically instead of shimming the neck (which involves de-stringing it, taking the neck off, putting the shim in, putting the neck back on, and restringing), you just loosen the bottom two screws and turn a hex screw to set the neck angle. I have pics on my profile.

HorizonII: Shigsy. I'd like to do some experimenting on mine, but it has never been touched. I wanna keep it that way.

[Invader Jim]

Also, it doesn't auto-split. The split wires are hooked to their respective tone pots while the hot wires are on the switch. The pups are 3+shield. White is hot, red is split, green and bare are ground.

I've spent a good long time playing this guitar now Iand I can't get over how rididculous the treble content is. It has a short scale and 3 250k pots with humbuckers and it STILL has an unbearable ammount of treble. I usually dime the treble knob on my amp, but for this, I gotta roll it back to 3.

[c.pulabowers]

I need your help! I have the pieces of a peavey horizon II that some idiot smashed, but I having a hard time understanding the wiring because of the state of the pieces, also the complexity of the wiring. I am trying to wire one of the humbuckers into a simple 1 p'up 1 volume set up, and cannot figure out how to do this. all schematics seem to have 4 wires and a ground, where as this is three and a ground, and all attempts have resulted in weird phase issues and constant buzzing. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Replied on profile.