TotallyRadGuitars
Well-known member
I played one, liked it a lot. Got to compare it with a Chinese 6505+ through the same cab in the amp room at GC a few years ago, and I did get it pretty loud but not my guitar or speaker cab so keep that in mind. Still kinda wanted to take it home and compare with my own gear but couldn't justify the price at the time, figured I'd wait for a used one.
I have a USA 6505 and a Chinese 6505. I've also briefly had a USA 6505+ and returned it after about a month, not because it was bad, but just that I preferred both standard 6505's better.
My initial impressions were that the Invective had better features, but sounded slightly worse than the 6505+ I compared it with in the store. By extension, I felt that the store's 6505+ sounded worse than the USA 6505+, which in turn both were slightly worse than the regular 6505, of which my USA one is slightly better than my Chinese one.
To be clear, they are all wonderful amps, and I really don't give a crap about where the amp is made when it comes to sound. However, if the USA 6505 was a 100/100, the other amps went 99-98-97-96, then the Invective was like a 95/100. It's close, still a damn good amp, but at double or triple the price, it's hard to justify. They also weren't popular enough for my usual method of "wait 5 years for the hype to die down then buy it," so even used ones are still relatively expensive, especially considering my USA 6505 was a mere $600 (last year too, not like "back in the day"). If I were gigging or very specifically wanted one of the features of the Invective, I'd be much more likely to get one, but for jamming at home, I already have a noise gate and boosts etc I'd rather keep my money and my old 6505.
(and if I had $1k to drop a high end Peavey, I'd be getting an OG 5150 to compare to my 6505, and then sell whichever loses that battle)
Side note, if the Invective had separate EQ's for crunch and lead instead of shared EQ, I'd be much more interested. Some of my favorite 6505 tones with the crunch mode on involve the bright switch and/or different EQ settings from the way I set the lead channel. If I could footswitch between them on the same amp, I'd be... moved to say the least. Instead, the clean has a separate EQ, and both crunch/lead share the same EQ, which I understand is "normal" for many other 3 channel amps, but I guess I'm just spoiled by amps like the EVH 5150 100w or Marshall TSL where I can adjust all 3 channels separately. I'd rather the extra knobs for the built-in boosts on the invective went away to make room for 3 separate EQ's, but I guess then it'd be too similar to the EVH, so they probably hoped that the boost would be the feature that differentiated the amp.
I have a USA 6505 and a Chinese 6505. I've also briefly had a USA 6505+ and returned it after about a month, not because it was bad, but just that I preferred both standard 6505's better.
My initial impressions were that the Invective had better features, but sounded slightly worse than the 6505+ I compared it with in the store. By extension, I felt that the store's 6505+ sounded worse than the USA 6505+, which in turn both were slightly worse than the regular 6505, of which my USA one is slightly better than my Chinese one.
To be clear, they are all wonderful amps, and I really don't give a crap about where the amp is made when it comes to sound. However, if the USA 6505 was a 100/100, the other amps went 99-98-97-96, then the Invective was like a 95/100. It's close, still a damn good amp, but at double or triple the price, it's hard to justify. They also weren't popular enough for my usual method of "wait 5 years for the hype to die down then buy it," so even used ones are still relatively expensive, especially considering my USA 6505 was a mere $600 (last year too, not like "back in the day"). If I were gigging or very specifically wanted one of the features of the Invective, I'd be much more likely to get one, but for jamming at home, I already have a noise gate and boosts etc I'd rather keep my money and my old 6505.
(and if I had $1k to drop a high end Peavey, I'd be getting an OG 5150 to compare to my 6505, and then sell whichever loses that battle)
Side note, if the Invective had separate EQ's for crunch and lead instead of shared EQ, I'd be much more interested. Some of my favorite 6505 tones with the crunch mode on involve the bright switch and/or different EQ settings from the way I set the lead channel. If I could footswitch between them on the same amp, I'd be... moved to say the least. Instead, the clean has a separate EQ, and both crunch/lead share the same EQ, which I understand is "normal" for many other 3 channel amps, but I guess I'm just spoiled by amps like the EVH 5150 100w or Marshall TSL where I can adjust all 3 channels separately. I'd rather the extra knobs for the built-in boosts on the invective went away to make room for 3 separate EQ's, but I guess then it'd be too similar to the EVH, so they probably hoped that the boost would be the feature that differentiated the amp.
