Valve King Royal 8 Review

Peavey proudly introduces the Valve King Royal 8, a true class A guitar amplifier designed to give players the punchy dynamics and tones that inspired rock 'n' roll's greatest riffs.

Features:	8
Sound:	10
Reliability:	9
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	9
Users rating:	7.7
Comments:	21

overall: 9

Reviewed by: HeliuM, on june 04, 2007

Price paid: $ 224.28

Features: This is one of the newest Peavey amps, they began producing these in 2006, so I guess that's when mine was made. It's a small 5watt class A tube amp with an 8" speaker, it has one EL84 poweramp tube and one 12AX7 preamp tube. It has two inputs one is for instruments with low outputs (gets a 10dB boost) such as electric guitars. And a low gain input for instruments that already have high outputs (keyboards, etc) to prevent them from overdriving.It also has a gain knob (to control amount of OD), a tone know (no equalizer), a volume knob and a headphone jack, something you don't often see with tube amps. So it's not exactly packed with features. With the gain on max you get a nice tube OD but definately no metal levels. If it's on 4-6 you get a half-overdriven sound (perfect for bluesy stuff). Anything lower then that just gives you nice clean tones. I use it as a practice amp (it replaced my Cube 15). // 8

Sound: I use it together with a Squier Strat and my electro acoustic mandolin from phoenix no clue what model. I use it for blues and classic rock (zeppelin) and the occasional metal (with my Boss hyper metal HM3) the amp itself doesn't have enough gain for that. The amp itself doesn't produce to much noise, sadly the same thing can't be said from my guitar. If you keep the gain down you can max out your volume and still play almost distortion free. The distortion isn't very brutal but just your classic tube OD sound. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I guess this thing is quite reliable, but I've only had it for about a month. I don't think this is really suitable for gigs because it isn't powerfull enough, maybe for really small ones (like in our school cafetaria) where there'd only be like 100 people. I wouldn't bother with a backup since this thing doesn't look like it'll break down anytime soon. // 9

Impression: I've been playing for 1.5 years and I'm glad I made the Switch to tube from SS even though I sacrificed some features. I bought this over the Epiphone valve jr, this just had a bit more features and simply sounded better. If it were stolen I'd probably hang the thief and buy a new one. // 9

Comments

[k1ng_pooh]

sweet first comment

[Ibzman]

It looks killer, I need that kind of practice amp.

[CustomCustom]

Try a Boss DS-1 Distortion thru it.

[last_biscuit]

CustomCustom wrote:

Try a Boss DS-1 Distortion thru it.

Why? Lol that would sound worse than the natural distortion by far, surely.

[munkyboy99]

last_biscuit wrote:

CustomCustom wrote:

Try a Boss DS-1 Distortion thru it.

Why? Lol that would sound worse than the natural distortion by far, surely.

Actually, buying this amp is completely pointless, its an overpriced practice amp, with a nice distortion, so what, its still only a practice amp, you are way better off just getting a solid state, and a distortion pedal.

[Weybl Himself]

munkyboy99 :
last_biscuit wrote:

CustomCustom wrote:

Try a Boss DS-1 Distortion thru it.

Why? Lol that would sound worse than the natural distortion by far, surely.



Actually, buying this amp is completely pointless, its an overpriced practice amp, with a nice distortion, so what, its still only a practice amp, you are way better off just getting a solid state, and a distortion pedal.

Not true, I've used one of these recording a local indie band just recently (think, Libetines kind of sound) and this little thing was great for a really cool fuzz sound thanks to the little speaker not delivering an overhwelming bottom end. In my opinion Solid State and distortion pedals should never mix, SS are good for cleans and cleans only.

[sherwood123]

Actually, buying this amp is completely pointless, its an overpriced practice amp, with a nice distortion, so what, its still only a practice amp, you are way better off just getting a solid state, and a distortion pedal.

you could do that if you wanted sterile, horrible solid state distortion, or you could get a nice tube overdrive without blowing your ears out.

[Draconey]

Weybl Himself wrote:

munkyboy99 :
last_biscuit wrote:

CustomCustom wrote:

Try a Boss DS-1 Distortion thru it.

Why? Lol that would sound worse than the natural distortion by far, surely.



Actually, buying this amp is completely pointless, its an overpriced practice amp, with a nice distortion, so what, its still only a practice amp, you are way better off just getting a solid state, and a distortion pedal.


Not true, I've used one of these recording a local indie band just recently (think, Libetines kind of sound) and this little thing was great for a really cool fuzz sound thanks to the little speaker not delivering an overhwelming bottom end. In my opinion Solid State and distortion pedals should never mix, SS are good for cleans and cleans only.

Well pedals are good if you want to be like Cannibal Corpse, SlipKnoT, and other death metal bands. All the pedals are digital which is prodution and too much production is shitty if you no what I mean.

But natural sounds are the best sound if you can just get a solid state without a distortion pedal it better.

[Bling Dogg]

I got this amp and it's great. Nice warm clean tones, especially for blues. And with full gain it's perfect for a classic rock tone. For a heavier sound, using OD pedals work well too.

You couldn't get a better, more versatile practice amp for this price. 9/10 for me.

[solo_freak]

im gona get this amp soon, i tried it today in a shop an it sounded really good. The distortion on it isnt that bad, even at low volumes its ok for meatal

[blackreign]

I use this amp with a DOD 250 reissue. Great tones out of this little gem.

[Deagle-Eyes]

Why does it have such bad ratings?

[Bling Dogg]

This amp deserves better ratings than the ones it has. I've noticed that many people would rate it unreasonably low for no reason. Don't trust anyone, try the amp yourself and see if you like it. I think most people will, if they try.

[squierkid71]

i'm thinking about buying this amp, and i just want to know, can i blast out metallica and pantera with this thing? (with the right settings and pedals ofcourse)

[HeliuM]

By itself there is no way it can do metal all to well. If you have a pedal like a metal muff or something similar it works very well.

[squierkid71]

thanx for the reply HeliuM. but how about if i hooked it up with a muti-Fx unit?(Digitech or zoom) and can it compete with drums? cos i really need it for band rehearsals rather than just home practice.

[HeliuM]

I just tried it out with drums a few days ago, it works if your drummer keeps it down, but otherwise you can barely hear yourself. If your gonna be playing with a band get the Valveking 112 or 212. Mine works great with my zoom G1X, so yeah you can get metal tones from there as well.

[Deagle-Eyes]

This amp is very good. I've had it for almost two months, and it does have a very warm sound, which gets crispy with high tone and gain. Love it.

[RHCP_Nirvana_FF]

would this amp work well with a Boss OS-2? or Zoom G1X? im thinkin of buying this amp and the boss or Zoom.

[bignick99]

i have one of these as my practice amp, and i used to use a ds-1 but wasnt the best pedal to use so i got a digitech hot head and it works really REALLY well with the amp.

[pudsli]

hi all. would it sound o.k put through a boss me50 effects unit.
thanks.
all the best steve.