I have owned a few fender tube amps over the years and always used pedals for distortion. The last few years I played a modeling amp. What I wanted was at least 100 watts, all tube and a 4x12 cab. I bought the Valve king and the matching cabinet. I researched the heck out of this amp, I talked to Marshall owners, Boogie owners, boutique amp owners etc and played their amps. What I wanted was a straight forward, no frills, no gadget amp with settings and features I could understand and utilize and I wanted great tone. I am 47 and play a lot of classic rock with the older guys but I also play metal, punk , grunge, pop country or any thing else with a cover band. This amp fit the bill. It will not stand out in a specific genre; rather it does a very respectable and more than adequate job on them all. With a few pedals I got every sound I wanted and it only cost 900.00! The lead channel sounds warm and classic ?Marshall like? (not the sizzle distortion like in the peavey 5150?s though I liked those too), the clean channel sounded great , plus it has the texture control on the back which most people will like because you can really fine tune the amp. By the way I did kinda feel like was trying to get off cheap by not springing for a Marshall or boogie, but when I got it home I was really satisfied, my homies that play those amps were surprised and impressed as well. This amp deserves respect. P.S. I bought a 2yr warranty on the head for 80.00 in case I?m wrong!!!

Reviewed by Thrifty Man on 4/2/2007 who plays all types of rock.

Best bang for the buck!

I am currently in a band that tours the west and while at home on break putting together a new album, our house was broken into and my mesa stack was stolen among other things as well. With very little cash I had to find a new setup. I played the valveking at G.C. and was impressed so I bought it. We have played many live gigs since," usually in front of 400-500 people", and it performs solidly without any problems. I can honestly say that the tone from this combo is as good as the mesa's, and with all the options to fine tune, I would definately suggest this combo to anyone!

Reviewed by Allen J. on 6/22/2007 who plays Rock.

BAD A**!!!

iam very very happy with this amp. i tryed it out at guitar center and am now scaming to buy one. i usually play old randalls but this amp is hands down the best amp iv ever played on and iv been playing for a long time. i consider my self a bit of a tone freak an i found that tone iv been looking for in this amp in minutes. so no more tweeking amps and eq's for me for hours just to find a good tone this amp is one bad mo fo! the tones are amazing i get all the harmonics the chunk squilz and every thing eles wioth out sacraficing a damn thing. if i could give this amp a 10 i would but tghey only let u rate as high as 5. this amp blows every amp out of the water so look out marshall peaveys kickn a**!

Reviewed by Randy on 8/1/2009 who plays power metal, metal chunk.

A "King" of All Trades

I was down at my local Guitar Center checking out just about any guitar and amp i could, and i stumbled upon this amp. I plugged every type of guitar i could find into it, and it never ceased to amaze me. I finally settled down with an Epiphone Les Paul and this and played with every feature on it, and was totally blown away. I got literally every tone possible out of this amp. The cleans are amazing, and thanks to the texture knob, Damping controls, and gain boost i could go from a Fender low-gain to a Krank high-gain tone and everywhere in between. ANYONE could add this amp to their aresenal as their main amp. The only thing i couldn't get this amp to sound like is a Piano. It truly is a Valve King!

Reviewed by Blktiger0 on 8/21/2009 who plays Hard/Heavy Rock.

What an awesome Amp!!!!

I started looking for a new amp when my line 6 Spider II 2x12 started failing on me about three months ago. The effect/volume pods would move by them selves when the volume was turned up. Then more serious problems came. For example the amp would’nt turn on before gigs (that was stressful and scary). This was my chance for a new amp and I wanted a tube amp. Since my buddy/2nd guitar player in my band had a 3000 Marshall half stack I new the way it sounded and I LOVED IT!!! But I didn’t want to spend 3000 dollars. So started looking for a combo amp but then I stumbled on to a Valve King half stack. I did my research on the amp and returned a couple days later with my fender strat guitar which has Mud rod pickups and a LR Baggs X-Bridge. I played it for a while and I was sold. The Amp is a great buy. At first I wasn’t sure, just because it was a peavey. You all know that when we think about peavey we think “beginners amp”. Let me tell you, Peavy stepped it up 100 times. The sound and quality of this amp is unbelievable. They have this new patent feature called “texture”. This allows you to go from Class A amp, in between amp, and to Class A/B amp. The tonal possibilities are endless. Since I keep the texture in a class A settings the tube sound is so creamy and warm. Personally since I play a lot of blues, Funk and Classic rock, style guitar I like to scoop the mids, and bass to a get a great creamy and warm sound. The Distortion is great also, it’s not metal qualities but there are pedals to fix that problem. The speaker Cab can take lows and highs of the amp head with out a problem. The one thing I kinda don’t like about the amp is the power tubes. The Valve King has 6L6 power tubes, this tubes make the sound kinda muddy when its in the clean channel, so I’m planning to change the tubes to some Mesa Boogie power tubes. That should change the sound dramatically. Since I’ve been gigging with the Valve King for the past two months I’ve been impressed and happy with this investment. The other guitar player is also impressed with the amp (since he helped me research it). He knows more about amps then I do, he was blown away by how it can keep up with his Marshall. On top of all of this it’s under 1000 dollars, which is great on the wallet. If your looking for a, reliable and awesome tone half stack this is it. Buy It!!!!

Reviewed by Erick on 8/12/2009 who plays Blues, Classic Rock, Funk.