Peavey ProFex discontinued

Michael Breid · Post by **Michael Breid** » 4 Feb 2005 6:46 am

Can someone out there tell me why Peavey discontinued the ProFex units? I borrowed a friend of mine's and thought it was great. It gave my steel sound a 100% boost. Were there bugs in it that just couldn't be worked out, or was it too expensive? I'd like to hear some thoughts on this. Thanks-

Michael Breid
Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 4 Feb 2005 6:57 am

I think Peavey stopped making them once they realized that Mike Weirauch was buying them all...

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 4 Feb 2005 7:00 am

A Bassfex is the same exact unit!

c c johnson · Post by **c c johnson** » 4 Feb 2005 7:11 am

Ken, have you received the pics I sent to you of the Emmons etc. Some have asked me when they will be posted. CC

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 4 Feb 2005 7:29 am

My guess is because they replaced it with a better unit that did all the ProFex did and way more...the TubeFex.
(built in tuner, hardwired AC cord, real tube pre-amp, etc)

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 4 Feb 2005 7:31 am

I would venture to guess that the reason they discontinued it is because the digital technology in that box is pretty outdated by today's standards. It's a 16 bit unit and pretty much everything today uses the far higher resolution 20 or 24 bit technology. Just a guess.

Brad Sarno

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 4 Feb 2005 8:23 am

Even with the 16 bit technology they sound awesome. I have been testing a unit I put a chip in this morning thru my 1964 Super Reverb with a 1983 Tele. That Super never sounded so good!

I put the Peavey upgrade (Burr Brown chips) in this one, new memory chip and threw away the battery! Did this one for Jennings Ward. I am begiining to think I should offer that chip upgrade as well, man it sure makes it quieter thru the amp!

The 24 bit technology is an upgrade for sure, not so sure I can hear much difference in a Tubefex and Profex 2 with Newman settings. After all, the tubes are not used on any Newman settings, just the transistor preamp. I load a lot of Newman and Jeff Peterson combination settings for people. Jeff Peterson used a compressor on most settings (and well done, I must say), but no tube either!

The tuner is not very stable unless you upgrade to version 2.0. I do not care for that version, as it changes the wet/dry mix ratios and everything sounds drier! You have to tweak all your settings after a version 2.0 upgrade.

I like the headphone output of the Transtubefex! Still the Profex 2 is a lot smaller and lighter. It really helps warm up the front end of most any amp! It can drive a regular amp into distortion, so a little care is required in setup.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 4 Feb 2005 9:25 am

Yea Ken, I agree. 16bits doesn't necessarily sound bad, but with today's marketing, it's hard to push a 16bit device. The only obvious place that most people can hear the 16bit factor is in the end of a reverb decay. In 24bits, even the quiet reverb tails are still warm and full. In 16bits, your reverb tails are only being defined by a few bits so they tend to disappear and lose lushness. But really that's not a huge issue for guitar. I've always been impressed by the Profex and Tubefex sounds. And really, we ALL listen to 16bits every day because that's the CD standard.

Brad

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 4 Feb 2005 11:05 am

The first digital reverb I had was the old Alesis Midiverb (Soapdish style, with phono inputs and outputs). I think these were only 12 bit, and I really liked the sound of them. They were used in lots of small to mid sized studios back then too. Not too many people can listen to a device and tell whether its 12, 16 or 24 bit. But like me, they can tell whether it sounds good or bad.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 4 Feb 2005 12:38 pm

Everyone is correct. But, the bottom line is that as technology improves we persue the most recent improvements. That is what we did with the Profex, Profex II, Tubefex and then the Transtube Fex.

I answer this same question at least once a week. It seems that most musicians are not "keen" as to what the latest devices are. Just a bit of trivia, the Profex II was designed prior to 1994.

It was a bit ahead of its time and is basically considered old technology these days.

Mike Brown
Peavey Electronics Corporation

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 6 Feb 2005 2:24 pm

Bits are in powers of 2--2,4,8,16,32,64. 12,20 and 24 are not powers of 2. I assume you are talking about parallel DSP, because serial DSP transmission is only limited by the speed of light. Michael, you need to stop by and see me sometime in Ozark. Do any of the pickers in your area have a Roland GR 30 for sale?[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 06 February 2005 at 02:27 PM.]

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 6 Feb 2005 4:55 pm

Hmm, I sure thought I read somewhere that the Alesis units were 12 bit. I know next to nothing about them 1's and 0's.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 6 Feb 2005 5:38 pm

Bits are in powers of 2--2,4,8,16,32,64. 12,20 and 24 are not powers of 2.

Keith, the numbers quoted are the width of the data path, and have nothing to do with powers of 2.

Jennings Ward · Post by **Jennings Ward** » 6 Feb 2005 6:35 pm

HELLO KEN AND EVERYONE... GOT MY PROFEX BACK YESTERDAY,,,,,SAT. MORNING, 1030 AM....SHIPPED IT WED. 330 PM..... NOW CAN ANYONE ASK FOR BETTER SERVICE THAN THAT??? I DONT THINK SO...KEN THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE FAST TURN ARROUND TIME,,,, I DID NOT EXPECT SERVIC LIKE THAT.....LET ME KNOW WHEN THE NEUMERATION ARRIVES.... AND THANKS A MILLION FOR YOUR PROMPT ATTENTION, AND PROFESSIONALISM...... AND KEN PICK A MEAN TELLY, BOYS......HE IS ALSO A GOOD PERSON TO KNOW, I AM VERY GLAD TO CALL HIM FRIEND.. SEND YOUR WORK HIS WAY.........JENNINGS....

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EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, +

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 6 Feb 2005 6:40 pm

Hello Jim, have you ever heard of the ASCII code? 12 is "C" in hexadecimal, and F is 15.
In binary 12 is 1100, and 15 is 1111. You can have odd numbers on a bus if there is a parity bit. Parity bits check for mistakes. Which do you think operates at a higher speed on your computer, the data bus, or the CPU-Central Processing Unit? Jim, you seem to know a lot about DSP, why don't you tell us some more about 12,20, and 24 bit data paths and how they are connected to the processing unit?

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 6 Feb 2005 7:39 pm

Hello Keith, have you ever heard of Google?

A quick search will find several sites that explain different DSP data-widths. Here is one: http://www.wave-report.com/tutorials/DSP.htm

I have a BSCSE (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering), so yes I have heard of ASCII and hexadecimal once or twice.

I use them in my programming job every day, but haven't had the opportunity to work with DSP's yet.

Steve Hitsman · Post by **Steve Hitsman** » 7 Feb 2005 4:21 am

Easy boys. Why don't we all sit down and have some nice toast (Emily Litella).

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 7 Feb 2005 9:22 am

BTW, you can buy an upgrade kit for the Profex II from Peavey.
Erv

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 7 Feb 2005 11:03 am

In D/A and A/D the more bits, the better fidelity. If you have and "8 bit" word you have 128 bits (128 samples of the waveform) for the digital values of an analog wave form. If you have 10 bits you have 512 bits to represent the waveform. The more bits the more sample points and the more accurate (fidelity) you can digitize a waveform or vice versa converting the digital to analog.

I had to deal with this daily working for NASA as a Telemetry Processor programmer back in the Apollo days.

John Fabian · Post by **John Fabian** » 7 Feb 2005 12:06 pm

Through the years a/d and d/a processors have come in various resolutions. I have seen and used 4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 18 bit data converters.

In simple terms, the higher the resolution (more bits) and faster (higher clock rate) the data converter, the more accurate digital representation you get (also the more costly the converter). Distortion can also be reduced by better sampling and filtering

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 7 Feb 2005 12:38 pm

Jim you won't have to agree with me, I have changed my mind. Jim, glad to see you have a degree, everyone should keep learning all their life. I'm 61 and back in college, but not working on a degree. I have a degree in mathematics. I hope I don't have you mixed up with someone else Jim. I thought you were the fellow who worked for the Dekley Guitar Company that went out of business. If you did work for Dekley, I'd like to know who has the die cast molds for the Dekley pedal? Were they just thown in the trash or does someone have them. Are they for sale? Right now, I am in a computer hardware class at the college. For our term project we have to build a computer. Last semester I took micro-computer interfacing. The semester before that, I took Digital Signal processing.
With all those classes under my belt, I don't claim to know anything--hows that? I'll leave the important questions up to the guys with more brains than me.[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 07 February 2005 at 12:52 PM.]

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 7 Feb 2005 1:59 pm

regardless of all the numerology..

I bought a PRO-FEX at Atomic Music in DC for $65 back in July and use it for Delay and Stereo Delay ( 2 amps). It's a great little unit. I have written a few programs but the one I use ALL the time is Delay/Stereo Delay @ 290 ms, level 38 with no repeats.

I would buy another as a spare in a NY minute..

happy 16 bit afternoon

t

ps, If you are ever in or around DC ( North side of the loop) stop in at Atomic Music, it is a huge building with several rooms full of used stuff..stuff everywhere..Guitars, Basses, amps, effects..whatever..tons of it..and they will deal..you can test it too..

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 07 February 2005 at 02:48 PM.]

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 7 Feb 2005 3:13 pm

Darvin,

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who do not.

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 7 Feb 2005 7:56 pm

Keith, I'm "only" 54 and almost all of my computer work has been in software, not hardware.

I worked at Dekley before moving to Texas and finishing my degree. They went out of business a few years after I left, so I don't know all the details of what happened to the equipment.

We paid for the castings, but never had any of them in our possession. I assume they stayed with the casting company after Dekley went out of business, but don't really know what happened to them.

Sorry, I don't remember the name of the casting company. Sam Gibson did some machining work for us and still owns his own machine shop up there. You might try contacting him at samachine.samg@verizon.net.

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 7 Feb 2005 8:36 pm

Thanks Jim, I will check it out. I think the Dekley pedal is the only steel guitar pedal I have ever seen that was die cast. All the others were sand cast. I may be mistaken, but those pedals sure looked die cast to me. Die cast molds are very expensive.