Tagged As: Www Peavey
Question:
I had read on a previous thread that some guy though that Peavey has a bad reputation, unlike JBL or Yamaha. I have to get this off of my chest. The reason I believe Peavey takes a beating, is that it is a working mans product, that has been often used outside of its intended market. Early on, you either bought Peavey or everyone else, at a much higher price. Today, just about everyone uses the same parts and same designs in each price points market. So, does Peavey make entry level, non-professional stuff? Yep. So does Yamaha, so does JBL, so does everyone. It's funny. The number of engineers that drive our industry is small. Most companies higher engineers for a specific product range. Those engineers work for everyone else. Mackies amp guys worked for Ramsa, Peavey has guys from Crest, JBL, Alesis, Line6, etc. The guys rotate companies. So check your predjudice at the door. If you don't, your competition will be working more profitably than you. And trust me. At the end of the night, I don't care what it was as long as I got it to sound great, and as long as we got points.
Answer:
Part of it has to do with the fact that Peavey started out making entry level equipment of rather doubtful quality. Peavey's reputation is so dreadful that when they _do_ make excellent products (like the VMP-2), people are reluctant to buy them just because of the name, and when people do buy them they cover the name up. Peavey made a great line of high end mixers, that were a total failure because of the Peavey logo on them. If they had sold them under a seperate arm with a different name, they would have been very popular. But they were not. I've got customers with those prejudices as well and the fact remains that, although it may not be deserved, Peavey has a really dreadful reputation. This is a serious marketing problem on their part, and it's not the result of technical issues, it's the result of their marketing and Hartley's refusal to sell anything without blazoning his name prominently on it. Peavey Architectural Acoustics makes some _great_ installed sound stuff. A lot of contractors won't touch it because of the P word on the front. If they had called the new line PAA or something, without the prominent Peavey logo, they'd be selling better.
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Comment #1 (Posted by Todd Ague
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You're right about the ultimate goal being sound quality. Peavey has, and probably will always have, a brand name-driven bad reputation. Years ago, when I first started playing, I noticed that Peavey was real popular with all of the dumbasses -- the loser musician wannabes that you just knew were never going to go anywhere in the business. Basically, if you were a stupid idiot who didn't bother to research anything, you bought a Peavey guitar amp, PA system, whatever. Back in the late '70s, 80s and early 90s, anybody who was raving about Peavey basically didn't know what they were talking about, and I (correctly) dismissed them. I have (reluctantly) purchased two Peavey products during my whole 25 year music career - a 7 channel line mixer that made so much noise I had to dump it, and two mic clips that scratched the hell out of my Shure Beta 57As. Peavey may have been improving lately, but I will never be able to shake my image of them, and my bad experiences with their products (seriously, who screws up a mic clip?!). I will therefore never be seen on stage with any Peavey gear -- no Peavey will be in my rig, my fellow players' rigs, in the monitor system or in the front of house system. If you think you've found a good Peavey product, I can guarantee you there's a better non-Peavey option out there, and you should keep looking until you find it. Great players are as concerned about their image as they are their ability, and you don't need people pre-judging you as a dumbass just because you are playing through Peavey crap. If you need further proof, just look at any major tour setup. You will find absolutely zero Peavey gear anywhere in sight -- on or offstage.