After much hoopla Peavey has finally released the Vypyr series of amps. It seems that Peavey is aiming at the Line 6 Spider and Marshall MG series users as their target audience. The amp comes in 15w, 30, 75w and 100w versions. Later on Peavey plans to release 60w and 120w versions that feature tube power sections.

These amps are affordable. The 75w with a 12 inch speaker is $299. Best Buy had them listed at $209 on their web site and people were able to get Guitar Center to price match. Talk about a deal. Best Buy has since removed the amp from their site. I wonder if the $209 was the wholesale cost?

What makes the Vypyr unique is that it uses analog modeling using Peavey’s transtube technology. I think Peavey has done a nice job in the past with their transtube based amps.

In addition to the amp models there are 11 classic stomp box effects that you can kick in before the amp models just like a real guitar rig.

There are 11 post-amp effects as well. There is some kind of crazy SHARC processors on board to handle the digital effects.

Early reviews are favorable. It’s reported the Vypyr does a nice job of emulating the Peavey amps like the 6505 and XXX. The Vypyr has 12 different amp models. Each model has a clean and distorted version for a total of 24 models. I find it a bit odd there is only one Marshall model yet they model crap like the Krankenstein.

So what’s not too like? Well there doesn’t seem to be a way to model different cabinets or to turn it on/off for the USB recording out. There is an external speaker jack but the built in speaker stays on too. I don’t think there are any stereo capabilities. There is a serious lack of connection options. Peavey should have looked to the Behringer V-ampire to learn a thing or two about configuration options. The Behinger has 15 rear panel connectors that allows you to connect and configure the amp for just about any possible application from studio to live. The Behringer has midi in/out, 125 patch locations, a windows based editor to tweak the hell out of settings, pre and post stereo effects loops, S/PDIF output. All of these features would have been sweet on the Vypyr.

Overall this seems to be the most promising modeling amp since the original Vox Valvetronix series.

Ah..the 80’s. Big hair, spandex and the ADA MP-1 ! Here’s a quick list off the top of my head for what I consider to be the top ten hair metal guitarists. The list is in no particular order.

Van Halen
The guy who single-handedly changed rock by taking the California hot rod approach to rock guitar. One of the first to popularize the use of the Floyd Rose and two handed tapping.

Reb Beach
Thanks to Beavis and Butthead Winger has been singled out as the reason for the death of hair metal. The fact is all members of Winger were pretty damn good musicians. Check out this video of the band performing Seventeen live. Reb Beach once endorsed a brand of amps called Kitty Hawk which were supposed to be the cats ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXU0gAnvfzk&feature=related

Warren DeMartini
Guitarist for Ratt. Created some of the best riffs ever like “Lay It Down”. Seemed like he used Laney amps a lot back in the day. Had a very liquid style of lead playing similar to…

George Lynch
The one word that I have heard most people use to describe George Lynch’s playing style is “slippery”. In his early days I seem to remember George using Aria Pro guitars but later switched to ESP’s. Lynch used a certain purple Marshall Plexi that he would borrow Aspen Pittman of Groove Tubes.

Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno displayed a complete mastery of shred guitar and a knack for arranging and producing. Unlike other bands of the era Extreme’s album Pornografitti featured in your face production with minimal reverb. Pornografitti is a great album that I consider across breed between Van Halen and Kansas. And please don’t think it’s all about “More Than Words”. I liked “3 sides” but was really disappointed with “Waiting for the Punchline “. It seemed like they were jumping on the low tech grunge bandwagon.

Brad Gillis
Guitarist for the band Night Ranger. Previously he had played with Ozzy. Check out the video for Sister Christain and tell me Brad doesn’t make the best faces ever for the solo.

Yngwie Malmsteen
I’m not sure if Yngwie is known much outside of guitar circles. Yngwie combined crazy speed picking in a neo-classical style. I have to admire the guy for sticking with a strat for so many years instead of a typical shred axe like an Ibanez.

Vito Bratta
I don’t think Vito has ever played a bad note in his life. You can sing along to most of his solos. They were mini compositions within the song. Vito was another ADA MP-1 user.

Steve Vai
Vai is one of those rare breads that have complete mastery of technique and theory. A graduate of Berklee Steve Vai had several solo albums and also played with more commercial acts like Whitesnake and David Lee Roth. Vai has a very vocal style on guitar and sliding down into notes are one of his many signature techniques.

Paul Gilbert
There were a crap load of guitarist that put out records with Shrapnel Records. Paul did play for a few years with Billy Shehan in Mr. Big and had one wimpy ass radio hit with “To Be With You”. A real monster player of the era. I like Gilbert because he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

I saw Poison a few weeks ago. They are starting to turn into an annual guilty pleasure for me. I can think of a crap load of reasons why I shouldn’t like their concerts but honestly they are pretty damn good. Poison has a lot of energy live and there are plenty of babes in attendance. Musically the band is pretty tight. Brett Michaels really seems sincere to the fans and they tend to keep prices reasonable for their shows.

For the past few shows I’ve noticed CC Deville seems to have an amp off to his side. I think it’s only purpose is a stage monitor.

I got a pretty good look at the setup this time and it’s a Crate Shockwave. That’s right 350W of solid state goodness.

I’m not going to bash Crate because they have put out some nice amps as of late in spite of their reputation.

What’s the deal with CC removing the logos ? I mean if your going to play a crate at least leave the logos on.

The Behringer LX112 comes from the factory in L1 mode which means the cabinet modeling is on. Since you’re playing through a cabinet you don’t want modeling on. I have no idea why Behringer did this.

Here is how to set the Behringer LX-112 V-ampire amp to L2 mode and adjust the “Live” EQ settings. When you set the amp to L2 mode another set of EQ’s is available independent of the regular EQ.

• Press the two config keys at the same time to enter config mode. It is the “D” and “E” above the tone controls
• Push the up/dpwn buttons until the display says “L2″
• Adjust the tone controls and set the
  bass=2 o’clock mid=10 o’clock and treble=2 o’clock
• press the exit button