Peavey Preamp Pedal Peavey Decade

A Preamp Inspired by a Cult Amp: The Decade Spirit Serving Your Pedalboard

Peavey is one of the brands that built the history of modern amplification: founded in 1965 by Hartley Peavey, the company established itself with a simple philosophy-offering robust, effective, and musical gear designed for the stage. The Decade takes this approach and translates it into a preamp pedal, with a faithful reproduction of the circuit from the original 1980s Peavey Decade amp. The result: you get the vintage sonic signature and the direct character of the original, while enjoying an ultra-easy-to-integrate format for your effects chain.

Who Is It For? From Home Studio to Live, for Guitarists Who Want a Real "Front-End"

This pedal is aimed both at guitarists looking for a preamp to add punch to a tame amp, and those wanting a consistent tonal foundation from one backline to another. In terms of styles, the Decade excels whenever you need a rock, garage, punk, indie, or stoner sound: present mids, a sharp attack, and saturation capable of ranging from a nervous crunch to a denser drive depending on your settings.
Practically, it naturally sits at the start of the chain (as the "heart" of your tone), or before modulations/delays if you want those effects to remain clear. It also works very well as a sculpting tool: a slight mid boost to cut through the mix, cutting lows to tighten a sound in drop tuning, or a more open high end to let humbucker pickups breathe.

Controls and Design: Preamp Dynamics with Switchable Saturation

The Peavey Decade is designed as a true amp channel under your foot. The Pre Gain and Post Gain controls offer a very "amp-like" approach: Pre Gain controls the amount of gain and texture (from attack to compression), while Post Gain adjusts the output level to balance your volume clean or saturated, or to push the input of an amp behind it harder.
The Low, Mid, and High EQ is ideal for adapting the pedal to your guitar and sound system: boost lows for a thicker sound, scoop/boost mids to change personality, or adjust highs to keep bite without harshness. The Saturation channel switch provides real comfort in real conditions: you switch from a more open sound to a more pronounced saturation without touching your settings, perfect for moving from verse to chorus, or rhythm to lead.
On the playability side, the switching is refined: the mechanical bypass includes an anti-click circuit for silent activation, a crucial point when recording or switching between clean and dynamic parts on stage.

The Sound

The Decade offers a confident vintage color: a present, immediate sound with mids that "speak" and an organic grain feel under the fingers. With more conservative settings, you get a solid clean, slightly thickened, ideal for adding body to a very neutral amp. Engaging the Saturation channel and adjusting the Pre/Post Gain duo, the pedal becomes rougher and more expressive: pick attack stands out, chords stay defined, and sustain naturally appears when you push the gain.
The dynamics are particularly interesting for guitarists who like to control their saturation with the guitar's volume: by slightly rolling down the volume knob, you can return to a cleaner crunch, then instantly regain thicker saturation by turning it back up. It's a pedal that rewards playing and touch, while remaining easy to dial in thanks to its 3-band EQ.

Technical specifications

Category	electric preamp	EQ	3 channels
Format	Pedal	Headphone output	No
Effects loop	No	Color	Black
Number of channels	2

Independent controls	Pre Gain and Post Gain	Power supply (9V adapter or 9V battery)	not included
3-band EQ	Low, Mid, High