Late '70/early '80s Peavey Vintage series amps are usually a bargain when you can find them. I paid $200 for mine in '94 and it looks like on they are about the same range on EBAY and other used markets when they appear.
I have the 212 version and it rocks.
Pete Townsend used the 410 version on Rough Mix and Face Dances
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/guitar/equip-peaveyv intage.html
There was a taller 410 or 610 version in the same series.
It is not the much later "classic" series that look very similar but have totally different designs and prices.
I have an early '80s peavey 2x12 classic which seem fairly rare but cheap when you can find them. Mine was around $200 when I found it.
I blew up the Jensen speakers and replaced them with celestions.
There's no master volume so I've never gotten it loud enough to see what the preamp sounds like over driven. I put a variac on it to hear what it sounded like turned up all the way, and it didn't suck.
The clean tones are really, really sweet. Put a ross or dyna comp on it and it's twang heaven.
Putting fuzz boxes on it sounds pretty good as well. Not as good as an amp with a tube front end, but pretty good.
The clean tones are as good as anything I've used.