Peavey Undercover Boss CNBC - WOW 😲

Did anybody catch the Peavey Undercover Boss episode? I saw it when it originally aired a couple of years ago - but caught it again yesterday. WOW - I know decisions needed to be made to save the business - but that was AWFUL. :dang

I usually see those when they are on. Boss puts on a wig and moustache does the grunt work for a day.

I didn't see that one. Maybe they stream it somewhere

Ace139 said:

Did anybody catch the Peavey Undercover Boss episode? I saw it when it originally aired a couple of years ago - but caught it again yesterday. WOW - I know decisions needed to be made to save the business - but that was AWFUL. :dang

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didn’t see it but curious about the decisions they made ..what were they ?

If you are familiar with the show - the Undercover guy works with employees gets their backstory then gives them some cash to make things happen for them.

The first scene has Undercover guy go to the Peavey store in LA for a concert showcase. The goal is to get existing bands to give Peavey gear a shot. The gig goes horrible and the equipment fails - band is not thrilled. Undercover guy asks the employee what he thinks is wrong and the guy replies “It’s Peavey Gear”.

There are a couple of other scenes - but the capper is - guy works at Peavey seems like a really good guy wants to do the right thing .... tells the Undercover guy that he put in his 2 week notice for a way better job more pay ... etc. At the end of the show where they reveal the Undercover guy and what’s up they ask him to stay and it will all be good.

Then at the end of the show they spring “we are shutting down the factory and y’all are losing your jobs.

Both Hartley and the Undercover guys IMO come off as not real likable. They could be great guys as TV has a way of making people fit the role the producer wants them to play. Unfortunately I think Peavey did what they had to do to sustain the company. It was just bad timing to deliver the news on the show.

Just WOW ��

good lord :dang

It's on YouTube if anyone is interested in watching. It's called Undercover Boss S6E12.

"Peavey" now is just an office in Meridian Miss that handles orders from China to big box stores. Since Hartley's son took over the son fired its entire US work force and moved everything to "Jina".

It doesn't break my heart as PV was never the cutting edge of music technology.

On a brighter note MESA Boogie is a great American success story with the best customer service on the planet.
Stick with the "winners".

Is your amplifier "half-full" or "half empty" ?

FWIW "reality" shows are fake & all its content & outcomes staged for TV.

Blackjack 30 - FACTS. :dude:

Nice Rig :salude

Sad what has become of Peavey USA.

I had a old early 5150 half stack that absolutely killed. I retubed it with =C= tubes, installed the adjustable bias mod, and it sounded as good as any amp I've every heard for harder rock (including old Marshalls). Not to mention it was perfectly reliable. Unfortunately had to sell it as it was just too loud for home use (or really any use besides a good sized venue).

I attended a week long training session in Meridian in 1985, kind of entering "Peak Peavey", if you will. It was the Marty McCann live sound training they had then. Back then, it was impressive. Multiple plants, CNC manufacturing, a finger in almost every pie. You had the impression that Hartley wanted to head the American Yamaha.

But in my dealings with the company it was quickly apparent that Melia was the power behind the throne, Hartley was there to look good and lead design. When she passed on the new wife and her son filled those roles somewhat less successfully. I remember being surprised that by the late 90s the All American Manufacturer of the previous decade was now twisting arms to sell container loads of Chinese gear.

The sales environment changed at the same time as the regime change at Peavey, so it's gard to say which of thise two events had the most deleterious effect.

Right out of college, in the late 70's, I worked for a large building products manufacturer/wholesaler near Jackson, MS. Peavey was one of our biggest accounts.

We built a "cut to size" department just for Peavey, and sold them truckload after truckload of basically two products.

The first was a really interesting application for "mobile home underlayment" -- thick, light, moisture resistant particleboard. It was actually a very good material.

But the other was amazing -- "Baltic Birch" plywood. We imported it from Russia by multiple containerloads. Interestingly, their LACK of technology actually made the product better. It was all in metric sizes, but apparently the Russian standard seemed to be on approximately a 5-foot basis rather than the 4-foot we use in the USA. But the coolest thing was they didn't have the ability to make those football-shaped patches USA mills use to take out small knots and voids. So when you got a sheet of 12mm Baltic Birch, it was about 60 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, and the veneers were about 1/2 the thickness of American ones (so there were many more of them) and EVERY veneer in the sheet was PERFECT -- no voids at all. Literally, a perfect sheet of plywood...

Hartley really liked both of those products, and I'll bet the electronics, etc. in that equipment died well before the "bones" of his cabinets ever had any problems.

Triburst said:

But the other was amazing -- "Baltic Birch" plywood. We imported it from Russia by multiple containerloads. Interestingly, their LACK of technology actually made the product better. It was all in metric sizes, but apparently the Russian standard seemed to be on approximately a 5-foot basis rather than the 4-foot we use in the USA. But the coolest thing was they didn't have the ability to make those football-shaped patches USA mills use to take out small knots and voids. So when you got a sheet of 12mm Baltic Birch, it was about 60 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, and the veneers were about 1/2 the thickness of American ones (so there were many more of them) and EVERY veneer in the sheet was PERFECT -- no voids at all. Literally, a perfect sheet of plywood...

Hartley really liked both of those products, and I'll bet the electronics, etc. in that equipment died well before the "bones" of his cabinets ever had any problems.

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Guessing that's at least partially why those old Peaveys are so beastly heavy.
I used to work in a guitar shop, we got a couple older Peavey 4x12's in. Man, those things made Boogie standard (the bigger ones) seem light...