{"id":1101,"date":"2014-01-20T17:05:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T17:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleyjsaunders.com\/wp-blog\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2022-09-14T09:03:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T09:03:24","slug":"the-peavey-rockingham-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/the-peavey-rockingham-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peavey Rockingham Story!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently did a \u201crig run down<\/a>\u201d of my gigging set up. It\u2019s worth a read (even if it\u2019s nearly 2000 words!). A new purchase for 2013 was a Peavey Rockingham guitar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like most of my gear, it has an interesting story behind it. So, today I\u2019d like to tell you the story of how I ended up owning a Peavey Rockingham, how I intend to use it, and why having a hollow body guitar was on my list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Student With The Extra Guitar Case<\/h2>\n

It all started back in November when a student of mine arrived with an extra guitar case. I was intrigued from the get-go!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This student travels a lot with his job and is his own boss. One of his hobbies is going to auctions and trying to profit by re-selling the items on eBay, and as a side income, he does quite well (I\u2019ve been with him to a few auctions, so can verify this).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anyway, he got the guitar out and asked me what I knew about it and how much I would recommend him selling it for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luckily for him, I knew quite a bit about the Peavey Rockingham guitar, having read an interview with Darrel Higham<\/a> (Imelda May<\/a>) to promote the launch of the guitar back in 2007!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yep, if I\u2019m that interested, I\u2019ll remember it! Darrel was the brains behind the guitar and is a great rockabilly guitarist too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Peavey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Inspired By Classic Rockabilly Guitars<\/h2>\n

The Peavey Rockingham is based on a Gretsch G6120<\/a>. However, a difference is the Rockingham has two humbuckers instead of a P90 in the neck and a single coil in the bridge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They seem to only have been released in the UK. But weirdly, I have seen some on eBay in the US. Plus it doesn\u2019t seem to have been sold for that long or produced in vast quantities. Other than that, I knew nothing!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anyway, since getting more and more into jazz, I\u2019ve been looking for a semi-hollow body guitar, and this seems to fit the bill. That said, the Rockingham is fantastic for country, classic rock<\/a>, jazz, and acoustic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My student let me keep the guitar for a week to really \u201ctry\u201d it out! I knew, he knew, everyone within earshot knew I loved this guitar from the first moment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Big Body vs Small Body Guitars<\/h2>\n

My student didn\u2019t like it as he\u2019s a Strat player and likes small-bodied guitars he can get around easily on. Since he\u2019s just starting to learn guitar, a Stratocaster<\/a> is probably the easiest option.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that even after a week of playing it most days, I\u2019d fallen in love with it and just had to have it. But there was one small problem. Oh no!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re changing your set up fairly often, especially seen as I\u2019m playing for a range of different artists, each with their own style and sound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t often change the guitars in my collection. For example, I\u2019ve had the Epiphone Les Paul Gold top for about 10 years and the Gretsch Duo Jet for about 6.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I get called to play electric on a gig, I\u2019ll grab one of those and not from the others in my small collection!\u00a0 Like yours, my pedalboard<\/a> is constantly changing and evolving.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"peavey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Fender Mexican Stratocaster For Your Rockingham<\/h2>\n

The other thing I\u2019ve realized is there\u2019s no point having a guitar sitting around waiting to be used. My Strat was a lot like that. I haven\u2019t used it for a while as people book me for my sound and what I bring to the table.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And for me, I just can\u2019t get a Strat to sound how I want it to, whereas the other two guitars always sound killer. It\u2019s not that the Strat is a bad guitar, it’s just that it doesn\u2019t sound how I hear guitar sounds in my head.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So I decided to trade my Fender Strat for the Peavey Rockingham!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did my student get a great deal? Yes, he got a proper Fender Mexican Stratocaster guitar for very little money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did I do just as nicely? Of course! I got a guitar I love and want to play!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a win-win situation!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What I Love About The Peavey Rockingham<\/h2>\n

I like the low-output humbuckers. As the other two main guitars, I\u2019m using are also low output, this guitar fits in well. Plus I don\u2019t have to change amp settings (which I\u2019m likely to forget to change back!) or need to click in a boost pedal to level out the guitars. So in that respect, it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I also like darker sound guitars. It has a fairly dark and mellow sound. It still bites on the bridge pick-up. However, it\u2019s a musical sound and not too bright! Also, I can use the guitar to play several different styles with ease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whether that’s jazz, blues, or country, the guitar allows the personality of the style to shine while maintaining its own sound. Assuming you can only use this guitar for rockabilly limits how great this guitar sounds in general.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I like the neck. The neck isn\u2019t that fat, I would expect it to be fatter and more like an acoustic, but it\u2019s nice and allows me to play pretty quick. As I have fairly small hands, I like necks that are easy to move around and fit comfortably in my hands. Nice!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It also looks dam cool, and that counts for something, right?!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Peavey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What I dislike about the Rockingham<\/h2>\n

What I don\u2019t like about the Peavey Rockingham is the wiring! It makes no sense to me to have a volume control for each pickup as well as an overall volume control and tone control. Maybe it\u2019s just me! I generally turn everything to 10, then use a volume pedal for the overall level.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, I change my picking attack or hand position to get a range of different guitar tones and volumes. So having lots of controls doesn’t make much sense to me!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t get the Bigsby. When I picked up the guitar at first, it had really heavy strings (I think 12s or 13s), and therefore the Bigsby was at best subtle. Now, I have restrung with 10s, so the Bigsby should have more life in it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bigsby will probably end up being changed for a hardtail bridge as I\u2019ll keep using the Gretsch with the Bigsby for when I want that option.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The small negatives to one side, I really love this Peavey Rockingham and plan to use it a lot this year! What was your best purchase of 2013?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Peavey Rockingham guitar is new for 2013 and has a really interesting story behind how it fell into my hands. It’s a great all round guitar. Try one!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guitar-gear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleyjsaunders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}