low-friction satin finish make the whole
guitar feel effortless to handle whether
you’re standing or sitting
Roll On, Red Rocket
Acoustically, the Session is loud and
vibrant. The 25. 5" scale gives the strings
a metallic zing and impressive snap, the
sustain is excellent along the entire length
convincing Jimmy Herring-like lead
tones. Not surprisingly, the Session cap-
tured the flavor of a humbucker-equipped
Stratocaster—smooth, but less cutting than
what you’d hear from single-coils. Tapping
the outer coil of the bridge humbucker
yielded twangier, glassier tones, though
with less bite and clarity than, say, a Strat or
Tele pickup. The orientation of the push/
Nolen-styled funk licks. Multi-string slides
felt natural on the medium tall, but rather
wide frets. Bass notes were tight and dynam-
ic as I thumbed around the guitar’s lower
registers, and there was a nice emphasis in
the mids and highs with an open-sounding
quality that’s nice to hear from a neck
humbucker.
The Session is a breathy and
bright-sounding guitar that can
easily cut through the mix in a
variety of musical settings.
of the fretboard, and string-to-string balance is quite good as well. The chambered
body is resonant to the point of percepitble
reverberation when it’s unamplified, which
suggests well-chosen tonewoods as well as
sturdy and smart construction.
Plugged into a Carvin V3M amp with
a 2x12 cabinet, I selected the bridge humbucker and chugged away at some power
chords with a high-gain setting. In this
setting, the Session was open-sounding,
texture-rich, and fat with low end. And
it was perfect for some Paul Gilbert-style
shred—or at least my best attempt at it.
Dialing back the gain to a more moder-
ate level, it was easy to conjure up some
pull pot is a little counterintuitive, with
the aft-most knob (Tone) controling the
neck pickup and the front knob (Volume)
controling the bridge. Though it takes get-
ting used to, Peavey says that orientation
is based on players using the bridge pickup
more frequently.
The Verdict
The Peavey Session has a big, musical soul
that belies its $449 street price. It’s refreshing
to experience such fine tone and playability
from a value-priced instrument. Though it’s
unlikely the Session will put an end to the
quest for the perfect do-it-all guitar—
particularly for those with upmarket tastes— it
nevertheless exhibits an adaptable nature and
a varied identity that can range from muscular to open and full of harmonic content.
If you’re trying to get more out of a single
guitar that looks and sounds pricier than it is,
it would be worth spending some time with
the Peavy Session.
Rating:
Canadian maple neck and rosewood fretboard
Buy If...
you need tone balance in an
afordable electric
Skip If...
you’re in need of a more
specific sounding guitar, or you
can’t look past a few superficial,
quality-control issues.
Peavey Electronics
Corporation
Street $449
peavey.com
or use a mobile device to hear
audio clips of the guitar at
CLICKHere…
