Recently, a friend gave me a red Peavey Predator strat copy that he had condemned as a piece of junk.
I installed used S.D. humbuckers in the bridge and neck positions, and a new stacked S.D. (with a splitter switch) in the middle. The tuning wasn't too bad, but I put on a set of grovers to be safe. A small bit of routering gave the vibrato more room to move (in the pull direction). The ends of the frets overhung the side of the fretboard (probably the most obvious flaw in the original final finishing of the guitar). Some careful filing smoothed out the rough edges. To match the guitar with my Frankenstein baritone guitar, I cut the Peavey headstock in the same shape, and painted it the same red.
It has a great maple neck, and plays as effortlessly as my Fender. It weighs about the same, and remains comfortable to play, even after long sessions.
Tonally, it sounds very good now, and it sustains forever. I can get all of the sustain that a Sustaniac would give, but with less of the predictable harmonic jumps. Harmonic jumps are possible, but you have to work with the guitar/speaker spatial relationship to find them.
Since the work I did (which cost about $200 in total), the guitar has won me over, and, I hate to admit it, but, as much as I love them, my '53 Les Paul Standard and my '73 Fender 5trat (damned 3-bolt pivoting neck!!!) both sit the game out on the bench a fair bit.
The other piece of Peavey gear is a Peavey Ultra 3-channel amp head. At first, I wasn't overly impressed, even through my '70 Marshall 4x12" Greenbacks. Then, some reviews on line gave me a vital hint. With a 1/3 octave equalizer in the effects loop, this amp came to life, and it totally rocks.
The combination of the PV guitar and amp, the eq, and the Marshall cab is god-like. And, as much as I hate to admit it, I have to credit Peavey with making some very good gear.
Mo
