Gutting and Rebuilding a Peavey Bravo: Suggestions

[xpatico]

I have a Peavey Bravo combo I want to re-do. The amp is just to big and heavy. A lot of criticism about it claims the cabinet is too small for 12" speaker and sounds boxey. Also the stock speaker is muddy on the lower end and would benefit from a replacement.
With all this going on, I'd like to take it in the direction of say a Fender Princeton. Approx. same output from 2 EL84's ~15-18 watts, although Peavey claims 25. The Princeton does fine with a 10" speaker, probably helps tighten the lower end. I've shopping speakers and the Eminence Ragin Cajun 10 seems to be a perfect fit. High efficiency and light weight.
The cab redo does present a bit of a problem. The Peavey chassis is 16 3/8" long, while the reverb tank is 16 3/4". Meaning there will have to be some shims at the ends of the chassis.
I want to use some local lumber for the cab construction. I have a slab of local Gmelina arborea, light weight, strong, stable, easy to work. It is used in making musical instruments so could be just the thing for the cab. Either that or some spanish cedar but I've been saving the SC for guitars.

This is where I am at the moment. Please weigh in and offer any comments, suggestions, criticisms, advice etc. Thanks.
Rob
Sorry no pics yet. more later.

 

[fenderpro]

x, I've been playing my Bravo with a extension cabinet with an Eminence Lil Buddy 10". the cabinet is a 2 10" but at the moment I'm just using the one speaker. I'd love to find a head cab for the Bruno, but have hesitated so far due the cost. good luck with yours...

 

[Tone_Terrific]

I would build bigger, but lighter, go to a Neo speaker to save weight.
Small cab single 10's are the weak point of any small amp.
(recording doesn't count, here)

 

[The Revolution]

I changed the speaker baffle from mdf to ply....it started to sound like a real guitar cab, not a great cab but a real one at least. I am looking for an early bandit cab in ply to do a cabinet swap...hard to find

 

[axpro]

The Peavey cabs tend to weigh a lot, and they tend to use heavy ass speakers lol.

If you are rebuilding the cabinet, and rewiring the amp....w hy not start fresh!? I haven't seen a schematic of the Peavey Bravo, but it does seem to have a lot of circuitboard in there... I am wondering how much of the peavey gain is tube based...

 

[TweeDLX]

If it's a particle board cab, no wonder it's heavy. I'd go with Tone Terrific's advice to stay with a 12" neo. A new cab, and a neo speaker would go a long way to lightening the load. This might be a nice direction to take the build.

 

[ironman28]

I use my bravo with external cabs only. It sounds great with a 2-12 or 4-12. I would recommend doing a conversion to a head with a separate speaker cab for 1 single 10 or 12. Split the weight up and lighten the cab construction to fit your needs.
http://peavey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28780

 

[bigtone23]

Those are the common issues with the Bravo: the heavy, boxy sounding cabinet & underwhelming Blue Marvel. If I was to redo my Bravo as a combo, I would house it in a solid or toneful ply cabinet about the size of a Hot Rod Deluxe. That cab size is just right in terms of openess and bass response. I would also stick with a 12". I use a Mesa MC90 in mine, it took away some of the sparkle highs, but gained a tighter and more robust low mid/bass response. The best tone, however, is when I plug it into larger cabs. Closed back 2x12 or 4x12 to be specific. Making it a head is a great idea.
While at it, perform clamp down resistor mod. This shortens the drop out time when channel switching. It's easy: piggy back a 1 meg resistor in parallel with the factory 2.2 meg R302. It's super easy and effective. The other thing is to install a bias pot to warm up the cold biasing of the amp.

 

[vr6pilot]

I did the head / cabinet split. I'm not much into combos and prefer the tone from a closed back cab so it was a no-brainer. With the housing made of 3/4" pine, the amp is light as a feather and I can plug it into anything I wanna. Plus, head on top of cab looks much more...I dunno, serious. Combos (especially old PV combos) look so beginner if you know what I mean.

Needs a little finish work as the front panel isn't actually secured to the box but, you get the idea.