Peavey Joshua Homme Decade Too review: Small amp, big attitude

Can a tiny 10 W amp really roar like a studio beast? The Peavey Josh Homme Decade Too doesn’t just try – it delivers snarling, versatile tones that even rock legends can’t ignore.

I’ve been a Peavey user for pretty much my entire musical life. From solid-state workhorses like the Bandit 112 and Special 112 – amps that share the same unmistakable Peavey aesthetic as the Josh Homme Decade Too, just on a bigger physical scale – through to valve classics like the Classic 30 and Delta Blues 30, Peavey has been a constant presence in my world. I know their tone, their design philosophy, and their strengths.

So when Peavey announced the Josh Homme Decade Too, my interest wasn’t driven by celebrity endorsement; it was driven by familiarity. This felt like Peavey revisiting something deeply rooted in its own history. After spending real time with the amp, it’s clear this isn’t a novelty release: it’s one of the most self-aware, intelligently designed products Peavey has put out in years.

Once Upon A Time…

The story starts with the original Peavey Decade, a humble solid-state 10-watt combo released in the early ‘80s. It wasn’t designed to be iconic. It was affordable, compact, and largely overlooked at the time. But somewhere along the way, it found its way into studios – and into the hands of Josh Homme.

That story surfaced publicly when Homme revealed that one of his favourite studio guitar amps – responsible for a substantial amount of his recorded tone – was an old Peavey Decade. This raised more than a few eyebrows. In a world obsessed with vintage valve circuits and boutique gear, Homme’s secret weapon was a small, forgotten solid-state combo.

Rather than simply reissuing the original, Peavey partnered directly with Homme to rebuild the idea of the Decade for modern players. The brief wasn’t nostalgia; the goal was to preserve the raw, mid-forward, aggressive character that made the original special, while fixing its limitations and making it genuinely useful in contemporary studios and pedal-based setups.

Josh Homme clearly isn’t the only one impressed. When he sent the Decade Too to Jack White, White took to social media to praise the amp publicly, highlighting not just its tone, but its immediacy and personality. When artists known for obsessing over raw, character-driven equipment respond like that, it says a lot about how special this little amp is.

What’s New — And Why It’s Actually Important

On paper, the Decade Too still looks refreshingly simple: 10 watts, solid-state, single 8-inch speaker - and that classic Peavey aesthetic. In practice, however, it’s supercharged – and some.

At the heart of the redesign is a custom-voiced 8-inch speaker, developed specifically for this amp. Peavey has been careful not to oversell this: it’s not a vintage component, but it is voiced to echo the character of the Rola-era speakers found in early-‘80s Peavey combos. The result is a tight low end, assertive mids, and a focused upper response that avoids fizz or brittleness.

The control layout expands significantly on the original Decade. Separate pre- and post-gain controls allow you to shape drive character and output independently, while the familiar three-band EQ is joined by additional Bass and Top enhancement switches. These aren’t gimmicks; they let you push the amp into heavier low-end territory or sharpen the attack without resorting to pedals or extreme EQ settings.

One of the most transformative additions is the Saturation mode, which can be engaged manually or via a foot-switch. This introduces a denser, more compressed gain structure that delivers sustain and harmonic complexity in a way that feels intentional rather than overcooked.

Crucially for modern use, Peavey added a clean, buffered FX loop, along with a transformer-balanced XLR direct output featuring speaker simulation, level control, and ground lift. These two features alone reposition the Decade Too as a legitimate studio tool rather than a characterful curiosity. 

I’ve got a pretty big pedalboard that includes three Eventide reverbs and delays, a Hotone wah, and two big Strymons, and the slight control room interference that has infuriated me at times when trying to track clean was completely eradicated when working with the FX loop. Zero signal degradation or unwanted compression, which increased playability dramatically.

The XLR direct output is the final piece of the puzzle. Being able to record silently, straight into an interface or desk, while still capturing the amp’s character, makes the Decade Too incredibly practical. For home studios, late-night sessions, layering parts quickly, or running direct on stage, it’s a feature that elevates the amp far beyond its modest size and price point.

Tone Breakdown: Clean, Crunch & Saturation

At lower gain settings, the Decade Too delivers surprisingly solid clean tones. They’re not glossy or pristine in a modern hi-fi sense, but they’re articulate, controlled, and extremely usable. 

The mid-forward voicing helps the guitar sit naturally in a mix, and the Celestion speaker keeps the bottom end from blurring out – something many small combos really struggle with.

Push the gain a little further, and the amp enters its crunch zone, which is arguably where it feels most at home. Overdriven rhythm tones are gritty and direct, with excellent note separation. Even when digging in hard, the amp avoids collapsing into low-end mush. 

Power chords stay tight, palm-muted riffs hit with authority, and the additional Bass and Top switches let you tailor the response quickly without fighting the core tone. Whatever the tone you dial in, there is almost zero ‘mud’ to scoop out; it just works. That alone makes it a remarkably useful production tool.

Engage Saturation mode, and the Decade Too reveals its most aggressive side. Sustain increases, harmonics leap forward, and distortion thickens dramatically – yet somehow clarity remains. This is big, confident overdrive and distortion that records exceptionally well. 

Even at the highest gain levels, there’s very little clean-up required at source. The low end holds together, the mids roar, and the highs cut without becoming abrasive. It doesn’t try to behave like a valve amp – and that’s a strength. Instead, it leans into its own character and does so convincingly.

Final Verdict

The Peavey Decade Too Josh Homme 10W Combo succeeds because it knows exactly what it is – and what it isn’t. It doesn’t chase high wattage, boutique prestige, or feature overload. Instead, it offers a compact, character-rich amplifier that delivers real tone, real flexibility, and real usability in studios and small spaces.

It’s super small, far louder than it has any right to be, and capable of everything from solid cleans to snarling crunch and massive distortion — all without the mud that plagues so many small amps. Between the clean FX loop, the excellent direct output, and the intelligently voiced gain structure, it feels purpose-built for recording.

As someone who has lived with Peavey amps for decades, this feels less like a signature novelty and more like a love letter to what Peavey has always done well. Honest, aggressive, mid-focused amps with personality. The Decade Too isn’t trying to be everything. It’s trying to be right – and in that respect, it absolutely nails it.