MusicRadar

• Review

With great gusto and a reported $10m investment, Peavey introduces Vypyr: a huge, size-11 step into the world of digital modelling guitar amplification.

You might argue that the big P is a bit late to the game, but having partnered with Damage Control in 2007 – a company that was set up by ex-Line 6 personnel – Peavey found it suddenly had access to a mine of modelling know-how. Married with the Meridian giant's considerable experience in the traditional amp market, it was surely the obvious way forward.

The new Vypyr range is comprehensive, and here, our attention is turned to the 1x12 30-watt model, although the range encompasses everything from a 15-watt model right up to the 120 Tube version equipped with a valve power amp.

Construction

The Vypyr 30's cabinet is particle board and almost totally open-backed which, without any valves dangling down and a very space-efficient steel chassis to house the electronics, makes it all feel very sparse. The upside is that carrying it is a doddle – it's very light.

Stylistically, Peavey has gone for shaped a plastic panel on the speaker grille that says 'bat' more than 'snake' to us. In any case, it's distinctive and fits well with Hartley Peavey's spiky logo – probably the most recognised brand in all of the gigging and performing world.

So far so expected for a mass-produced Far Eastern amp, but what's really interesting is on the inside, as Peavey is claiming twice the processing power of its nearest rivals. The 32-bit floating-point SHARC processors take care of the digital side of things, leaving much of the distortion duties to analogue circuitry.

On power up, the LED position markers on every pot dance around like an amp possessed – Peavey is quick to point out this has no practical application other than letting you know it's on and, more importantly, attracting people to the Vypyr's charms in music stores.

As soon as you plug in, it all stops and you can get down to WYSIWYG business. You can disable the light show if it annoys you, but we like it.

Controls

There are 12 digital models of classic and not-so classic amplifiers, each with a 'clean' and 'dirty' setting. The amps modelled range from the expected Fenders, Marshalls, Vox and Boogie Rectifier, through to Krankenstein, Diezel and Peavey's own 6505, JSX and XXX models (download the manual at www.peavey.com if you want a full list and detailed descriptions).

Accessing them is a doddle: simply turn the amp 'encoder' as Peavey calls it (we'll stick with knob, eh?) to the model you require and push it to toggle between clean (green LED) and dirty (red LED) modes.

Pushing and holding the amp knob fires up the onboard chromatic tuner: neat. The amp model LEDs tell you what note you're at, the effects knob LEDs go left and right for flat and sharp respectively, then all light up when you're on the money.