Anyone Have A Peavey T-60?

[L Nutter]

Looks pretty cool - what do you guys think?

[mudshark]

Great guitar, but very heavy and a really thin neck. The painted ones are lighter than the naturals because the naturals are northern ash and the painted ones are a lighter wood..

Edit to add: I had a '79 and liked it except for the neck. I'm looking for an '83 or later because they are countoured instead of the slab body, have the blade pups instead of the toasters, and a bit thicker neck

[kanegon]

I had one a long time ago. Really cool pickups and wiring, the pups would become full on HB with the tone turned up, more SC in reverse. Something like that. It also had a phase switch I think. But the neck cramped my hand, so gave her up...

[crunchee]

I've had a couple, I didn't mind the thin neck, but the metal nuts suck because the strings tend to stick in the slots and throw off tuning, especially after 30 years of being strung and of playing, so you either have to lubricate them or replace them.

The circuit is innovative, but I thought that the circuit worked much better on a T-40 bass rather than a T-60 guitar, especially the phase switch which works much better for bass...on these guitars, I found that the 'out of phase' sound had limited usefulness.

I still have a couple of T-60s, I like to stick a 'standard' two volume/two tone/one three-way switch circuit in them, and put 'normal' HB PUs in them (no extra routing or drilling needed). I'm still on a tone search as that ash body is plenty bright sounding, and I find that I have to turn down the bridge PU tone control...but I also find that playing with either neck or both pickups on sound really good. The workmanship isn't bad, either; but the original pickguards tend to get wavy and warpy with age. Which might explain why they were designed with a crapload of screws to hold them to the body!

One thing to beware, on the original 'blade' pickups (introduced around 1980, along with the extra 'belly cut' contour), is that they have plastic bodies/housings and are epoxy filled. For some unknown reason, they sometimes go dead for no obvious reason, apparently because something expands or contracts around the windings, and the wire breaks, ending up with a shorted PU. It doesn't happen with all of the 'blade' pickups, but it DOES happen. Since they're potted in epoxy, you might as well look on FeeBay for a replacement used PU, rather than trying to rewind them. The older metal housed 'toaster top' pickups don't seem to have that problem, AFAIK.

Peavey has a forum section especially for T-60s and T-40s (I think), but the last time I checked, they weren't very active, as far as members posting regularly and such. Still, that and the 'T-60 Mafia' website has great info about them!

Edited to add: Painted bodies were usually poplar wood, though early on ash was sometimes used, like on the 'natural' finished bodies. Peavey also had T-60's in a couple of versions of sunburst (first ones were kind of a 'siennaburst', later ones were more of a standard TSB) in ash. Sometimes they also had bodies later on in a dark transparent cherry finish, and I think these were done in either maple or poplar.

BTW, Chet Atkins had a mongrel 'Peaver' guitar assembled by Paul Yandell, which became the basis for Gibson's short lived Chet Atkins 'Phasor' guitar:

http://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/06/chet-atkins-peaver-and-gibson-cgp.html

Jerry Reed played them too:

Also, the neck pocket on the body was supposedly designed to be the same size as a Fender Telecaster (hint, hint), but I dunno if that's true anymore after 30 years and dozens of different Fender Tele models. I dunno how they got a Strat neck on the 'Peaver' because the neck base is a bit different than on a Tele neck.

[Biz Prof]

Functionally, I learned to appreciate Peavey T models. Aesthetically, they rate incredibly high on the dork meter. The Gibson Corvus, S-III, Fender Coronado, Ovation Breadwinner, Gretsch Astro Jet, TK 300, and Broadcaster give the Peaveys a run for their money, as they're all quite homely. The T-60 beats them all hands down on functionality and tone.

[sirDaniel]

had...

and a peavey deuce....

a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away

[Boomerang~Junkie]

I've owned three of the Ash naturals in various model years, the pickups toasters and blades do sound slightly different - not a huge amount but subtlety. I finally narrowed the three down to the best one which is a Sienna Burst with the belly cut (forgot the year) that is nearly mint and sounds great. The necks are on the smaller and narrow side of the spectrum.

I've said this before and it bears repeating, the Peavey T-60's are easily in the top ten list of most underrated guitar ever made.

Just my two cents worth.

[stonge]

I always wanted one, and got a nice one from an HFC'Er. It was natural finish, and somewhat hefty. Odd thing is that it's actually a pretty large body (ok on a fat guy like me lol) - reminds me of my Ibanez artist hollow body. The neck is skinny, but the electronics are really versatile. Sounds great good rhythm tones on the single coil setting, and roll it into humbucking mode for the solos. You'll never confuse the quality for a hamer, but it's good enough for country and damn near bulletproof. I'd take it along as a back-up for my Tele, but what goes wrong on a Tele that you can't fix in 30 seconds lol. About as attractive as a stone axe, but pretty much about that dependable. Reminds me of the peavey bandit in the corner downstairs; it might never sound incredible, but it will at least be usable. Nothing wrong with that imho.

[Boomerang~Junkie]

Stonge - I think I sold you "Dwayne". Yes, they are very solid and could quickly double as a weapon in a bar fight.

[mudshark]

The late Phil Baugh, a country session ace in the '70s and '80s, used a PeaveyT-27 for his No. 1

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX6J0mgX4bc

Peavey T-25, T-26, and T-27 are great alternatives. They have a 24.75 scale compared to the 25.5 of the T-60, and the contoured bodies are the same dimension as the T-60, but they're thinner and lighter and still sport the coil splitting electronics for the humbucking pups. They came both natural ash and painted.

T-25= h-h.....T-26= s-s-s.....T-27=h-s-s.

I own a T-25, and it's a dandy.

I started taking the T-60 seriously when I saw George Tomsco of the Fireballs wear one plumb out at Buddy Holly Day in Clovis, N.M., many years ago.

[mudshark]

Stonge - I think I sold you "Dwayne". Yes, they are very solid and could quickly double as a weapon in a bar fight.

Yes, if two steel walls were slowiy closing in and you could only use a guitar to stop them from crushing you, a T-60 would be the ticket.

[kanegon]

The first guitar I bought that came with a "road case". It was probably Tom Wheeler's Guitar Book that sold me on the T60. How Hartley Peavey was trying to compete with imports by using one of the first CNC production lines in the US for guitars. The book has pictures of the guitar being made at their new factory.

[mudshark]

http://www.t60mafia.com/

[crunchee]

Stonge - I think I sold you "Dwayne". Yes, they are very solid and could quickly double as a weapon in a bar fight.

Yes, if two steel walls were slowiy closing in and you could only use a guitar to stop them from crushing you, a T-60 would be the ticket.

+1! I read a description somewhere, that someone described playing a ash-bodied T-60 as being akin to playing a granite countertop! To a certain extent, I gotta agree, those ash bodies Peavey used were heavy and SOLID...think of it as the polar opposite to basswood. You do NOT want to use zinc screws in wood like this, they'll stick and the heads will snap off!

[L Nutter]

Thanks for all the input! Think I might pick one up if the price is right...

L

[tmsfo]

IMHO those things were complete junk. Just sayin'

[Jack C]

Playing a T-60 is like riding a bicycle or fuckin a fat chick. It's fun but you wouldn't want your friends to see you doing it.

[mark_tampa]

I've owned a few in my youth (none recently). Spotted this picture awhile back and saved it, talk about a "lightened T-60"...

[tomteriffic]

I *might* be able to hang that off my shoulder for a whole set.

[Jakeboy]

I love the necks on them. Just made for flying!

[Crimsontider]

My 1st jamming mate's parents bought him a natural wood T-60, it was around 1979-80, still have the tapes. His father wanted his Gretsch back. It was versatile and had a mean personality, ted nugent sounding..

Peavey amps kind of got a redneck stigma back then here in the deep south, but the guitars were always highly respected. I think the flood of bandits (one state over) might have effected the sale of the guitars because they were a hell of lot more solidly built than other guitars of the same price. I have never played a bad Peavey guitar. But the amps started out muddy.

[DEMENTED]

Here ya go

http://newlondon.craigslist.org/msg/4422619531.html

[Willie G. Moseley]

Here's to assertiveness: I've talked and communicated at length with Hartley Peavey about guitar-building since the early '90s, and (condensed down) and while he admits that the aesthetics of the T-60 and T-40 bass may have looked "kinda clunky", a T-60 "...makes a (Fender) Broadcaster look crude and cheap." (those are direct quotes)

FWMOW, Peavey guitars do indeed offer "quality equipment to working musicians at fair prices" (Hartley's mantra), and the fact is, the name on the headstock is irrelevant, unless you're trying to impress other musicians...and why would I want to do that, especially since other musicians wouldn't be paying my bills?

Stereotypically, it's audience members and venue managers who will be contributing to my income. And the average audience member in average venues where average musicians (like me) perform doesn't know the difference in a D'Angelico and a Danelectro.

[Boomerang~Junkie]

W.G.M. - nails it here and the last two paragraphs are GOLD. This is one of the most articulate posts I've read in a while +100.