Peavey Valve King 212

What I really like about these Peavey amps is the DC power supply feeding the valve heater element circuit. It’s one of the circuit features that can make an amplifier run without any hum. But there is a downside that perhaps Peavey could have done better on. If your valve king has stopped working suddenly i.e. heater light out, then this could be your problem and the solution is a simple repair and modification.

The heater supply circuit contains a fuse F203 to protect the transformer. Some Diodes D206-D209 to recify the AC to DC and smoothing capacitors. Consider what happens when the a valve fails with a short circuit between heater filament and cathode. In this reasonably common situation, the rectifiers are passing a lot of current and will typically blow before the fuse.

Some design improvements I have been thinking of is adding a second heater fuse at terminal point HTR, then the the whole circuit is protected by cheap fuse. The fuse would be rear panel mounted and would be a great addition.

Also the fuses F203 and actually a couple of others are soldered directly to the circuit board and can not be changed very easily. So what I like to do is replace them with PCB mounted fuse holders and standard 20mm fuses. You can see this below where F203 has been replaced. DSCF5620.JPG

This gives the user the ability to easily replace the fuse in the event of failure. However, since fuses ususally blow for a reason such as faulty tube or other component the cause must be identified and remedied. One of the first fault finding tasks any tech will usually do is replace the fuse and see if the fault repeats. If it does, then of course the fault finding trail continues.

All that said, these amps sound absolutely terriffic and are really quiet from a hum point of view. I personally really appreciate the lack of hum so well done Peavey for bringing DC heaters to the masses.

7 thoughts on “Peavey Valve King 212”

  1. Is there any way to measure if there is a short to the heater?
    I have a amp on my bench with just this problem or do I have to change all four 6L6 tubes and the three 12AX7 to be sure?
    The heater-line measures 5.9 ohms from HTR to AGND2
    First time two of the diodes was shorted, this time F203 and the main fuse blew..
    Any suggestions??
    / Uffe

    1. Not uncommon to have a short to the heater filament. Try the amp with all valves removed does it blow fuses? No then add a valve one by one… if it behaves tap the glass of each valve with chopstick until you tease out the short. Be careful.

      1. Ok. Thanks. I will do that.
        Is it most common the 6L6 or can it be the 12AX7 also?
        Is it more safe for the amp to run it on a variac with reduced voltage while tapping on the tubes.

        1. Big valves suffer most. Harder life I suppose. Variac is no help here as heater needs to be on fully. You can expect HT fuse to BLOW as valve shorts so that is only issue and bad tube may “flash over”. Keep hands and tools away from live equipment. Any doubts then get an experienced tech to run an accompanied session on safety with you.

  2. Saludos amigo desde Venezuela, quería preguntarle esperando una respuesta guía satisfactoria a mi inquietud, seria posible aumentar la ganancia del canal LEAD en el valveking 212, que componente se debe cambiar a que valor? podría usted darme algún gráfico o mostrarme foto de la ubicación del componente a ser cambiado? Gracias..

    1. FROM GOOGLE TRANSLATE:
      Greetings friend from Venezuela, I wanted to ask for an answer satisfactory guide to my concerns, it would be possible to increase the channel gain in the Valveking LEAD 212, which component should be changed to that value? could you give me some graphic or picture showing the location of the component to be changed? Thanks ..

      AMPLOFT RESPONSE
      I am afraid that amp design changes are a little out of my ball park as I am a repair specialist however if you post the question on the “music electronics forum” you will get some excellent responses.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Amploft