Peavey Rockmaster en route - looking for setup suggestions.

[jgcable]

Rockmasters sold not to long ago for around $100.00 tops. I guess people finally caught on.

[Racerx2k]

Yup. One of the best kept secrets......til now.

[Twisteramps]

Damn you internet! I bought one back in the late 90s for $50 with a footswitch!

Pete

[Inearthed]

It is all the 'net hype, I think... Perhaps I'm giving the internet too much credit.

Rockmasters were dirt cheap, now they go for $200.
5150's went from being $400 to $700.
Mesa Mark III Couple years ago, you'd have trouble selling the Mark III's for $600, now they're pulling down $750-$900.
Mesa Mark IV's went from Barely $1000, to $1200.
Roland JC-120's were $200-$300 locally about a year ago, now they go for $500

[Inazone]

Maybe it's an availability thing. A few years ago, I remember walking into Guitar Center or Music Go Round stores and seeing plenty of used rack gear. Now the only rack stuff I find is studio gear, power conditioners and *sometimes* a POD Pro or V-Amp Pro. They stock none of the Mesa, Marshall or Rocktron preamps, no guitar power amps (only the general purpose Crown and QSC), and the only rack effects are a beat-up Alesis or ART piece every now and then.

We all know that a lot of this gear can be found on eBay, but lack of availability in shops might be driving more and more buyers online. Bidding is a competition for many would-be buyers, so I'm not surprised to see prices being driven higher and higher. It's the same with the Jackson Pro guitars.

[catzodellamarina]

+1
Rack tube gear is getting attention again. People are realizing that tube gear never gets outdated. It can always be modded or enhanced. Low-end digitial gear, with no upgrade options, are dead end units.

My Rockmaster's sound used to fade in & out. I cleaned it but it was never a permanant fix. Jerry Pinelli told me the Rockmasters are prone to loose solders on all those 1/4 jacks. When he did my mod, he also went though the whole preamp and tightened things up. Works great now. Knobs deliver more tone all the way to 10.

[FusionFarmer]

I think a lot of people want to make sure they get some USA made tube gear while they still can. And a lot of people are finding out about some of the decent yet cheap Peavey stuff out there

[Inazone]

OK, the Rockmaster arrived. Sounds great! However, the included footswitch is only two-button instead of three. Is that right? I thought that all three channels had their own button or that there was a button for the global effects loop. If it's supposed to be a three-button switch, will any generic 1/4" plug three-button footswitch work?

[Inearthed]

OK, the Rockmaster arrived. Sounds great! However, the included footswitch is only two-button instead of three. Is that right? I thought that all three channels had their own button or that there was a button for the global effects loop. If it's supposed to be a three-button switch, will any generic 1/4" plug three-button footswitch work?

Pretty sure it is supposed to be a 3 button.. As far as will anything work... I don't know... Maybe drop JerryP an e-mail and see if he can answer the question for you?

Can you do clips or describe the tones?

[catzodellamarina]

It's supposed to be a 2 button. I think 1 button is clean (ch1) green. The other button toggles between Crunch & Ultra red (ch3/ch4). It's been a while since I used the switch so this is all memory. Anytime green light is ON Clean (ch1) it over-rides all. If no lights are on you're in Crunch (ch2). If red light is on Ultra(ch3)

On my first Rockmaster I used a Carvin 2 button switch. It operated the same way but I don't think it had lights. I had to do it by ear... or rear (the seat of my pants)

[Inazone]

Mine doesn't have lights. It's definitely not the original, as one button is marked Channel and the other is Effects...and neither is doing effects. One selects Ultra or Crunch, and the other switches between the selected distortion and clean. The way the effects loops work, that isn't a problem I guess, but I was hoping for a dedicated effects button for the global loop, as I normally use delay for clean and leads but not rhythms.

Once I get all of my rack gear wired up, I will post clips. It'll probably be a few weeks though, as I have a LOT of tweaking to do for everything. I'll be running the Rockmaster through a Peavey Classic 60 mono power amp as my live rig, and an ADA MP-1 and ART DST-4 through a Carvin Tube 100 stereo power amp for recording. I'll probably use the speaker simulator on my Rocktron Multivalve to run each preamp into my sound card with no outside EQ or anything else.

If anyone finds a definite answer on the footswitch question, I'd appreciate it. I'm waiting for a reply from Peavey on it, as the Rockmaster manual PDF doesn't specify.

[Inazone]

Got a response already - it's a two-button switch. I wish it was three, but such is life. Time to go see what this thing is capable of!

[maxboost]

Rockmaster Blaster

Dang, I just saw a rockmaster, with new tubes, locally at kijiji.ca asking $50 CDN but, the guy just sold it. Damn, sold it the day he posted the add, said he had a lot calls bout it too. Oh well can't afford it now, and I already got one for free but, want another one cheap to get modded.

[illumina]

i LOVE my rockmaster. had it for 3 years now... 175 out the door. well worth it. Using with with a Sonic Maximizer 422a for now...

Switch is indeed a 2 button one. I bought a original peavey replacement direct...