Question for Mike Brown ( on L.A. 400)

Curt Langston · Post by **Curt Langston** » 17 Aug 2005 1:50 pm

Hi Mike, (and all who may reply) How is the L.A 400 for steel? I have a chance to get one in real good shape. It does not have the BW in it though. Can I still get a 4 ohm 12 BW for it? With the 4 ohm speaker it is rated at 210 watts. What is the model # for the 4 ohm BW? How do they sound for steel?
Thanks for any responses.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 17 Aug 2005 2:56 pm

I'm not Mike Brown, but I used an LA400 for several years at my church. I played through a direct box to the house system and used the LA for my monitor. Mine has a 12" Black Widow and I think it sounds really good with a steel. I also played guitar quite a bit and it sounded good there too. I also have another one I put in an old Pacer cabinet that I modified to use a 15" speaker. I can't tell a lot of difference in the sound of the 12" versus the 15". Here a picture of my rig at the time. I was also using a Digitech 2112 Preamp/Processer.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Curt Langston · Post by **Curt Langston** » 18 Aug 2005 4:06 am

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 18 Aug 2005 6:03 am

Curt, I personally haven't used the L.A.400 for steel, but the power amp in this "City Series" amplifier is the same as in the Nashville 400 amp. The preamp has a different equalization circuit, and it may sound good to you. It will work fine for your steel application.

The Peavey Black Widow 1203-4(#00021100) is the speaker that would work best for your application.

Contact your nearest authorized Peavey dealer for availability.

Mike Brown
Peavey Electronics Corporation

Curt Langston · Post by **Curt Langston** » 18 Aug 2005 7:42 am

Thanks Mike and Darvin. I think I may buy this little amp. I can have it for 150.00,(tax included) and the only thing it needs is to have the original BW put back in it. It sounds good to me.

Bob Knight · Post by **Bob Knight** » 18 Aug 2005 7:46 am

Curt,
I have a new 1203-4 available.

Bob

Tom Diemer · Post by **Tom Diemer** » 18 Aug 2005 2:30 pm

I've had my LA400 since the early/mid 80's. It's a great amp. Sounds real nice with steel. Doesn't have quite the lows, but better highs and less mid boxiness than the NV. Has a superb reverb in it. Mine is box stock, with the original speaker. Even if you like loud amps, this thing can get painfully loud. Be careful with the presence control in a small club, people will complain about the highs hurting their ears, even if you don't think you're playing that loud. I prefer it to the NV400 (have both) but that's probably just me.

BTW, it's tough. Survived a combined 85 MPH headon car accident with me in '87. Not one problem, and it hit the back of the front seat hard enough to rip the seat mount through the frame. No one could believe that thing worked after that. So now, 18 years later, it's still perfect. Had the knobs cleaned professionally a couple years ago and thats it.

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 19 Aug 2005 5:16 am

Tom, if you were in that car, you must be pretty tough too! Thanks for the comments and support of Peavey products.

Tom Diemer · Post by **Tom Diemer** » 19 Aug 2005 5:13 pm

Mike, believe me, I didn't come out nearly as well as the amp did.

It cost me my 20 year job, ended up being a total career change in time after a forced retirement, had a bad memory loss, finally started to improve after about 3 years. I still have back trouble and lots of other things, and still fight with my memory, but yes, I was very lucky I made it through that alive.

The amp actually hurt me as much as the car did. Luckily it was not right behind me or it would have killed me for sure. Even though I had on a seat belt, I hit the windshield with my head, then the amp hit from behind and threw me forward a second time into the doorframe.

Note of warning to anyone reading this: if you travel with an amp, be sure it's restrained and not able to hit you if something happens.

Mike, at the time I wrote a letter and sent it with pictures of where it hit the seat to Peavey, and they published a little piece about it in the next Monitor magazine. Very cool of them to do that.