Peavey MiniMEGA 1000-watt Lightweight Bass Head Reviews

This amplifier was a real reach for me. I did a lot a research and sorted through a BUNCH of brand bias before I decided to give Peavey an opportunity again. I am pleasantly surprised by this thing. It is not a plug-and-play amp (although running it "flat" allows you and amp that will work in ANY venue) but it IS fairly intuitive IF you understand how to eq your rig. It is incredibly powerful! I has that THUMP that so many amps of this ilk lack. VERY high quality build...another pleasant surprise. I would say with confidence after many years of playing in clubs, this is a "pro-level" amp that can handle ANY room.

Peavey outdid themselves with this one. 9lbs Of BEAST!!! I"m running it to a 15 and a 2x10 and it"s all I need. The clarity is there. The bottom is there! The direct our works very well and it cuts the the house nicely.

Love the versatility and the power. With the way the midrange can be dialed in is almost infinitely variable. Getting the midrange growl is no problem and claiming your place in the mix is totally assured.
Only two small complaints, the compression feature is weak and the power on switch in the back is a little weak. I would prefer if it was a hard click instead of a non committal sensation when activated. It almost make me think that it might be one of the first things to fail but not until the distant future.
All in all I am thrilled I made the decision to purchase the Peavey MINIMEGA and look forward to a long and enjoyable relationship.
Thanks Sweetwater and thanks to my sales rep Mr. Kenny Stratton. I'm very very happy.

I have had My MiniMega for well over a year of Practices and outdoor shows and it has functioned flawlessly. The compressor works just fine if you know how to use one and what it does. The preamp section is very versatile and has plenty of different settings to get the sound you are looking for. It has more power than 2 Peavey PVH 212's can handle so just use some common sense. I have the amp set up in p my practice space and have run it through many speaker cabs and it has yet to meet a cab it did not get along with. And as far as footswitches go there is a MiDI switch available for this head and it also works great.

Incredible power, kick and clarity. the 1000 watts is there for a reason- you get yuuuge headroom, massive volume if you need it, wall-shaking bottom, chordal clarity, slinky mids, all held in place by a beautiful, rich bottom end that's a step above all others in this price category. My Markbass and TC are both excellent, but i wanted something with a real horse-like kick in the lows, tight and deep, so i scoured all the forums, youtube etc, till this started to pop up a lot. It's hitting the road with me next week for a 2-week tour, and i fully expect it will fill the theaters & clubs with waves of sound. I'm leaving "Punch" on all the time, and tweaking the mids a bit. I wanted to love the sub-bass section, but the jury's still out- i get it, but i don't think it's needed for most gig applications. the light-color option is also a nice cool touch. Good ol' Peavey- a long-standing pro manufacturer of great, tank-like gear.

Hands down the best bass head I've ever owned.

It has pretty lights, what more do you need?

I'm not new to class D bass amps. I've played Mark Bass and GK class D amps, they're both OK it seems in the hands of other players, but they don't suit me personally. I have owned an Ampeg PF-500 (by far the worst bass product by Ampeg I have ever heard, sorry Ampeg, you need to step up your game to what it was a couple decades ago), an Aguilar Tonehammer 500 (great amp, was sorry I let it go until I got the Mini-Mega), and an Ashdown Rootmaster 800 (just OK). I still own a Genz-Benz Shuttle 9.2, which has been my favorite class D head so far. The Mini-Mega was purchased to be a backup to Genz, but now the Genz is the backup!

First the cons to this amp (so far, not expecting any more though)

No available footswitch - it is MIDI, so you could buy a MIDI foot controller and program the functions, but that's really not cost effective considering the price of those controllers. I would like the ability to enable/disable Crunch, Compressor and Kosmos remotely, as well as remote mute. Peavey may release a footswitch, or again it can be done via MIDI. This is not a dealbreaker for me in any way because even if I had the footswitch, it probably would only be used about 20% of the time.

Second "con" is it's twice the weight of my Genz-Benz, but who's complaining at under 10 pounds? lol

The PROS are everything else the amp has to offer. The tonal variations are that you should be able to dial it in for any style - I've played hard rock, country and blues with it so far, just tiny bits of EQ tweaking to find the right sound. The semi-parametric mids along with the narrow Q options allow amazing tone shaping. Kosmos is cool, but be careful with it, and I actually like the built in crunch, however I rarely use any kind of distortion. I can't really find anything not to like!

recently purchased this amp through Sweetwater. The main purpose for the purchase was to use as a backup to two other amp heads that have been my main heads. Both are in need of repairs and I needed something to use in the meantime. Well that was the plan. This thing is WAY better than I thought it could be. I have been playing in some professional manner for over 50 years now. I have owned and used many peaveys over the years especially in the 80s. They were always ok. Then technology advanced and some really nice hybrid class D amps came to my attention and that's were I have been for the last 15 years. Out of the box strait up on all the tones it was great. I mean really my thought was Damn? My main bass is a G&L 2500 and if yo know anything about those basses you need an amp with good tunable tone. This Peavey does that. The Kosmos feature is great. I have used a BBE sonic stomp in line on my p board for many years to help with that full low end and tweaking the highs especially on gigs with provided back line ( you all know that nightmare) Kosmos does that and probably better than BBE. The Psyco feature I will never use doesn't apply to what I'm hired for. The compressor is weak but it is there but I have good compressors if I need them. The bright switch is an interesting add to the highs adjustment knob I like the idea haven't used it much yet. Now the power of this thing is nuts (in a good way) no lacking there. I have used this on a couple major gigs and no complaints. I like the ever so slight breakup I get from my Hybrid amps especially on my blues gigs. This thing has a crunch feature that does provide a version of that if I use it a little the major use of the crunch I will never use because I dont do that. I want to say its not as good as the two hybrids I use but really it is its own animal so really I think it just may be. I have used this amp with my 1580 cabinet and my tw twelve inch cabs that hace a 6 and a horn. found a sweet spot with both. Sound guys on recent gigs had no issues and said they got good sound and signal from it. So if your looking for a #2 or #3 as a backup this is it i think. But be aware it may become a #1. It does come with a gig bag for the amp and it is a total piece of crap. just about all of the small amp company's come with or have available a nice bag for the amp. Not his one it is good for nothing important. That's the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5. Oh also the fan is a bit loud but doesn't bother me. Don't be afraid of this amp especially if your gigs require clean tone with a lot of presence. That is what I can testify to. It will do that

I've waited 6 months to write this review to be sure I don't overlook anything, and after 6 months of gigging, recording, and touring, I can say with confidance that this is one of the best amps out there for the money. It hasn't let me down yet, it's incredably light-weight, and if anything it's too powerful. The compression provides all the squeeze I'd ever need, and the semi-parametric EQ is awesome for tone shaping. Super versitile too. With my fretless bass I can get that perfect growly "mwah", and I can dial in plenty of punch and overdrive when I play metal. That said, I've re-named the "KOSMOS" feature the "make the sound guy mad at you" feature. It's pretty much useless unless you're playing a house show or something. Don't get me wrong, it does exactly what is says it does and will shake your practice space to the ground. But if you're at a gig and running a 1000 watt bass amp through the PA and your bass cab, why would you need that? There's plenty of presence and power already. It will also add unnecessary dissonance if you play chords at all.
All in all it's an excellent bass amp, and if she holds out, I won't be getting another.

This thing is just a pig. It kicks out more power than any amp in this class. Used it live for the first time two weeks ago and got some raised eyebrows. You will be heard with this amp. Only downside, no built in tuner..no biggie. Decent tone just straight up. Very versatile. Bought a new cabinet to handle this thing a little better. We will see in two weeks..lol. Comes with a carry bag that won't last long. Hey, at least Peavey gives you one. Can't beat this amp for the price..

three stars because i have yet to find the sweet spot with this amp - only had it for 5 days but I'm not familiar with the eq settings . its driving me up a wall --

The first one I ordered didn't work right out of the box. It powered up and the lights came on, but no sound.
I sent it back and got a new one.
The second one arrived and has amazing amount of power. You will get all the volume you need out of this baby. It should be all anyone needs in a bar/club setting.
For me, I have yet to dial in a tone I like. IT has sweepable hi and low mid. I think that is over kill. I like simple. Less is more.
The compressor seems to be useless.
Over all, I think its a great amp with lots of power. For me, I just cant seem to et it dialed in the way I like so
I am thinking of going back to my old rack system again. I use a Peavey Headliner 1000 in my rack and absolutely love the tone. It has the same power as this amp as well. For me, I just like the tone better.
This amp also has some pretty cool lights.

Had the amp about 5 weeks. Worked fine for 2 long band rehearsals. I also practice almost every day and was very happy with it. The tone is awesome. BUT last night was the 1st gig with it and it died 30 minutes into the 1st set! Just went dark. It came back on about 5 minuets later, but I couldn't get any sound out of it. Checked it this morning, and it worked. I have lost all confidence in it. I will contact Sweetwater and see what they say. The buying experience was very good with them. Now I will get to see how they handle a problem. Even if I send it back and they "repair" it, I'll never use it live ever again. Really a bummer.

Fist time playing out with the head it worked o.k. , but the second time I played out with this amp head it started out working o.k. , but when I turned it off to go on a break. When I went back from break the amp would not turn back on.I do carry a backup amp with me if did not do this it would not ben good.

I bought the MiniMega 09/22 and it has been a problem. Intermittent screaming noise. Just deafening. I put it in local shop and paid $ and was without amp for 3 weeks only to be told that no problem duplicated but service told me Peavey has really fallen off since being sold to overseas company. I bought what I thought was best for reliability and I am so disappointed. The amp started doing the screaming noise
constantly. It has been a month now since I sent it off and I have no idea what is up. Peavey has not answered my emails. They do not care anymore. I love the amp when it worked but here I am a year and a half owning and it has been in the shop 2 months and I hate the thing for the unreliability.