Our Rock Star friend Mike, who let us work on his Gibson Goldtop last month, brought a groovy Peavy T-60 in for a set-up. Peavey electric guitars were a brilliant failure that are a bit of a collector’s item. The company built American-made instruments during the 1970s and ’80s, rock solid guitars and basses that never quite caught on with a bigger audience of guitar players.
Swiss Army Knife Axe
The T-60 was Peavey’s top-of-the-line instrument, and it’s a Swiss Army knife of a guitar, combining the best features of a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul. The funky humbucking pickups are single coils until you roll the tone knob down to around the 7 spot; then the dual coil humbuckers kick in. There are also switches for coil tapping and putting the pickups out of phase with each other.
Tone Machine
The Peavey T-60 is a true tone machine. The neck is maple with a thin profile, like a modern Strat, while the body is three-piece ash. The Peavey T-60 is heavy, like a Les Paul, but with an oddly thin neck, like a Stratocaster. The satin finish on natural ash makes the Peavey T-60 look like a piece of grandma’s furniture.