My Peavey TKO 80 Bass Amp

Hi Guys,


Thought I would start yet another new thread, this time it's my old Peavey TKO 80 Bass Guitar Amplifier, a good mate of mine gave it to me a few years ago, and I've been doing some TLC (Tender Loving Care) work on it to get it sounding it's best since it was in a pretty dilapidated state when I first got it, it's original speaker fell to bits so I replaced it with a Response HiFi Bass speaker I bought from my local Jaycar Electronics store, while the Response HiFi speaker works okay enough with the amp, I've gotten to the point where I feel the need to replace it with something more apropriate, I'm going to do some browsing on the amplifiedparts.com website and see if I can find a good replacement speaker for the TKO 80, I'll see if I can take some pics of the amp for you so you can see what it looks like soon so stay tuned.


Here's a pic of the amp so you can see what it looks like:

Attachment 12274


I'm assuming that the amp is rated to put out 80 Watts of audio power, it's a Solid State design with a sealed speaker enclosure just below the chassis, I think the speaker is a 10 inch.

cool amp Doc, should sound great with a new speaker

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

cool amp Doc, should sound great with a new speaker

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For sure, I'm toying with the idea of modding the front panel Preamp Out socket so that I can feed a signal to a D.I. Box and still get signal coming out of the amp at the same time, then I could send the D.I. signal out to the Front Of House Sound Mixer and have the Bass coming through the Front Of House P.A. speakers without having to mic the amp up.


In my first post in this thread, I said that I assumed that the amp is rated to put out 80 watts of audio power, well, I have just found a schematic for the amp and I stand corrected, the amp is actually rated to put out a maximum of 50 Watts audio power into an 8 Ohm speaker load, see what happens when we make wrong assumptions?....*embarassed*.

Here's another place worth checking for speakers Doc http://www.parts-express.com/cat/gui...ar-speakers/37

I'm not sure but I think that amp had a couple of different versions one with 12" and the other 15" speakers if yours has a 10" may mean they do three diff versions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Here's another place worth checking for speakers Doc http://www.parts-express.com/cat/gui...ar-speakers/37

I'm not sure but I think that amp had a couple of different versions one with 12" and the other 15" speakers if yours has a 10" may mean they do three diff versions.

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Cheers mate, I'll have a look on that website and see what they have in stock, I managed to find a schematic for my TKO 80 amp so I'll be able to do service work on it, actually, I need to do some on it because even though it works, I can hear a slight fuzzy distortion whenever I play a note on both my Bass guitars when plugged into the amp.


Funny thing is, the distortion seems to go away if I unplug the Bass guitar from the amp, so, I'm thinking that it could be a grounding issue somewhere.

Update:


This is a bit embarrassing, I have just found out that the current speaker installed in my TKO 80 Amp is not a 10 Inch, it is actually a 12 Inch speaker, I blame that on my memory which is a bit rusty.

easy mistake Doc don't be too hard on yourself, well that's good news as 12 inch speaker will put out a better full sound

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

easy mistake Doc don't be too hard on yourself, well that's good news as 12 inch speaker will put out a better full sound

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Cheers mate, at least I'm a bit more wiser than I was yesterday, there may be a wider range of 12 Inch Bass speakers to choose from, been toying with the idea of going with a 12 Inch Celestion Bass speaker as the replacement, I want to find one that has high efficiency because the amp is only rated at 50 Watts maximum, so a high efficiency speaker will make the amp sound louder.

sounds good Doc, more options is always a bonus and you are motoring toward Overlord status !

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

sounds good Doc, more options is always a bonus and you are motoring toward Overlord status !

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Rightio, well I'd better keep going with gusto..haha.

well Doc with about 5 build diaries you got going ? Hotrod strat, Yammy bass, bass amp upgrade, 2 x 12" guitar cab and headless axe you should get there on no time !

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

well Doc with about 5 build diaries you got going ? Hotrod strat, Yammy bass, bass amp upgrade, 2 x 12" guitar cab and headless axe you should get there on no time !

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You're right mate, I'm going to do some work on the wiring of the Yammy Bass today, maybe I could do some kind of a write-up as I'm doing the work, I'm sure there may be some other forum members who may be interested, I've got a pdf with the wiring schematic, but what I'll do is post a hand-drawn version of it, might be useful to those who are building Bass kits.

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Cheers mate, at least I'm a bit more wiser than I was yesterday, there may be a wider range of 12 Inch Bass speakers to choose from, been toying with the idea of going with a 12 Inch Celestion Bass speaker as the replacement, I want to find one that has high efficiency because the amp is only rated at 50 Watts maximum, so a high efficiency speaker will make the amp sound louder.

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Blast from the past there Doc as these were very popular in the 1980's.

As for speakers, a higher rated wattage will give you a cleaner sound, not exactly what you want in a guitar amp but precisely what is required in any Bass rig. Celestion, Eminence, Jensen are all good options and some of their websites may even have sound clips to help with making a better informed choice. A lot depends on the overall tone you want as some will be more upper mid biased and that tends to be a major characteristic with Celestions that I have previously used and made it easier to hear yourself on stage without blasting the venue away with too much bottom end stage sound.