Peavey Valveking II Combo 20 - 20/5/1-watt 1x12" Tube Combo Reviews

This amp does exactly what it advertises. I replaced my Fender Vibro Champ with this and it's a great improvement over a pretty good 5 watt amp. The 1 watt setting is perfect for playing at home in a small room. Better price than the comparable Hughes & Kettner and EVH and has the same features. This was also my first order with Sweetwater and they're service was prompt and courteous.

This amp has the versatility I need for my style of music. It has plenty of power and sounds awesome, great tone and loud. I usually set it on 5 watts and play lined out through the mixer and it still sounds awesome. With all the options this amp offers there's no need for a lot effects, the amp does most of the work for you. I use some reverb and maybe a little chorus now and then. If I need something completely different, I use my tube screamer through the clean channel. I have even played my D-15 through the clean channel and, to my surprise, it sounds pretty good as well-nice and smooth, no crackling! This is a great sounding amp with tons of options. On top of all that it is built solid, tough, and heavy. I would definitely by it again!

I had an old "Crate" Amp from way back in the day and it started to die on me, I use to just try to mic it.

It started to die one function at a time. Good sounding amp. I needed a replacement and decided to go with a tube amp. Boutique amp.

As many do , I searched the internet and especially my friends at Sweetwater. Testimonials and DEMOs only tell what they are intended for.

So I decided on the Peavey Valveking II , For my home recording studio. This was perfect for me. The features are perfect. DI with USB, Cab Simulation, Attenuator down to 1 watt, Speaker defeat.


First the shipping was crazy fast. The packing and delivery notice was way more than my expectation. I am not sure how they do it for free.

I kept the all the shipping supplies after hearing the amp for the first time. It sounded "well" ( flat and soulless), not my expectation for a tube amp., which I thought would be warm and extended.

After the 3rd day of putting it though it's paces, it was a joyful experience. The tender and sound was alive, and articulated the guitar I was playing , whether it was my Les Paul or Fender Strat . I was not aware that the speaker had to be broken in "as it were".

A warning to ALL give your new purchase some time to before sending it back.

I got the boutique features for a great price. It suited all my needs and then some.
lets get on to the specifics for me.

Attenuator, great for hearing loud at 20 watts, 5w and 1w. great for a small home studio. I get to hear
the Lion roar if needed for inspiration.

The MSDI, is impeccable , allows me to use speaker defeat, in order to record silently and still get all the function of the amplifier.

Cab Simulation, allows me to use speaker defeat . Now I can Mic the cab, and use the Cab simulate at the same time to record, allowing me to put changes from one or the other.

How good is that!!! Great to enhance the sound for one track such as reverb


It has a dummy load ( speaker defeat ) that is great when I want to record late at night. No Sound out just head phones.

Good build , great features, perfect for my needs .

Oh by the way the old "Crate" amp " had a pair of Cestrion GL8-35 4 ohm speakers. I gutted the old transistors assembly, and will wire up for an extension speaker to my new Peavey Valveking II Combo 20 .

Turn on the speaker defeat and let it roll over to the extension speaker.

I do like the current speakers 12 inch, but would like the expansion and availability of extension speakers . Tube sound back to my old Transistor speakers.

This has been a great experience.

Con: lots of knobs and switches
Pro: They ALL seem to do something useful.

There was a time many years ago when it seemed Peavey filled up space on their amp panels with controls that had no meaningful purpose. Nowadays the ValveKing looks almost simple compared to some of its competition.
Lots of useful features compared to the competition: Bass/Midrange/treble on BOTH channels; a volume boost as well as a gain boost; adjustable feedback and bias in the power section; 16/8/4 ohm output selection; power attenuator; XLR and USB outputs.
Foot-switchable channel, gain, reverb and effects loop but unfortunately you need to buy two dual footswitches separately.
Reverb is digital and sounds nice at low levels but you can do better with any number of pedals.
Overall a great amp if you are looking for something that can do a decent job for a variety of music.
The price is just icing on the cake.

Returning a Roland Cube GX 80 cause it couldn't cut the mustard...aka sucked at distortion.

I'm using a 2014 les paul traditional with the new '59 tribute pickups.

Tube tone for days...on the clean channel if you want the British grit the turn it to all class A mode. If you're looking for no grit and modern sparkle, turn it to class A/B mode. The power attenuation option is the selling point for me because I can crank the tubes at one watt in the bedroom and then go full 20 at a gig. One watt is definitely not quiet when you turn it up.

OMG the distortion is impeccable with a LP. Harmonics every where and pinch harmonics scream!

The clean is full bodied and highly acceptable but obviously not the fender deluxe reverb w/ rectifier. Although the fender can't come close to this distortion.

Mainly, what sold me is Peavey's #1 world class service center in Meridian MS. I live 45 minutes from them and they are the most courteous company I have EVER dealt with...(PRS is the worst)

I'm telling you you WILL not be disappointed with this amp. The only way to get a better sound is to jump up to your $2,000 Mesa's and so forth.

Equipment we use:
PRS 513
American Strat
Mexican Strat HSH
Gibson LP traditional 1959
Gibson LP studio pro

Peavey classic 50 (4x10)
Peavey valve king (old model)
Marshall JCM 900
VOX lil night train
Peavey valve king II

Hope my review helps

This upgraded version of the Valveking is a huge improvement over the previous model. It has a great lightly overdriven tone on the "Clean" channel (there's not a ton of headroom on this amp...the Clean channel gets slightly dirty above 4). I never play crystal clear cleans anyway, so it suits me perfectly. The Gain channel is classic Peavey, and can be set for good crunchy tones or killer overdrive.

The reverb is digital, but does a good enough room emulation for me. The Damping and Vari Class controls are cool ideas, but they are basically just tone contour controls...I pretty much leave them on "Loose" and "A/B". It can't really get to a "Class A type" of sound to my ears; it's more Mesa / Budda territory. In fact, it sounds very, very similar to a Superdrive 18, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. Kudos to Peavey if they've been able to merge some Budda tech into their products.

Lot's or "Pros" on this amp, but the one (small) con I have is the speaker emulation on the Direct Out. I really wish they would have provided a way to disable it, or modify it. It emulates a mic'ed cab at 8-inches distance on center???... I would say they nailed that mic placement pretty well; the only problem is that I have never mic'ed a cab that way. It sounds kind of muffled, which is a big downer because the way this amp retains note clarity in distortion is great. This is a pretty minor issue though, given that the direct out is sort of "bonus" feature.

All in all this is a fantastic amp, particularly at this price. This is easily Peavey's best effort since the Classic 30.

I decided to buy this amp because I was looking for a good solid amp that I could use for small-to-medium bars and rehearsals. I really appreciate the ability to drop the output wattage from 20w-5w-1w-speaker off (if necessary). The sound is very good through all wattage settings. Part of this is due to the Variclass setting and the Damping setting. I like the Class A setting with damping set to tight, but the class A/B with the damping set to Loose sounds good too. I play in a cover band and this is the versatile amp that I was looking for. And I agree with the ad - "this is no trophy room amp...it is built to be played." It is a great amp, I did pay for the footswitch, and had a local auto upholstery shop make me a cover, pretty much what I need when loading in\out. I would buy this amp again. Just a word about Sweetwater - first since this is NEW to the market I was somewhat hesitant, I told Jake that I was hesitant. He called the next day to tell me that he a few other staff members pulled one out of the warehouse and played over their lunch hour. He also played the other amp considered the H&K Tubemeister 18. He said that both were comparable sound-wise, but that the Peavey (in his opinion) would stand up to gig-abuse, sounded just as good, had the same features, and a better price point. He was right.

So this is an update to my review, I was the first to rate this amp, and I apologize to anyone that read my review and bought one. The first amp developed an issue where no matter what I did the amp sounded like it was stuck in the one watt setting. I was getting ready for a gig! I called Sweetwater support and ended up talking to the VP of service, I was amazed, he apologized for the product, and did not want to even mess with the amp. He had a replacement rushed to me, AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!! Well, now the second one has developed a problem with the reverb circuit, it feeds back on itself, putting itself in a loop with nothing plugged in!!!!! So I have contacted Sweetwater again, I think it will work out, I know that Sweetwater will come through...at least there is no gig schedule for a couple of weeks.