It’s been more than 25 years since the Peavey Electronics Company introduced its revolutionary T-60 guitar and T-40 bass to a market that was immediately impacted by their quality and value.

Moreover, the way the company built T-60s and T-40s – utilizing computer numerical control (CNC) routing machines and pre-stressed necks (carved with the truss rods in them), and other innovations, forever changed the guitar-manufacturing landscape.

While the T-40 remained in the line for almost a decade, a single-pickup bass known as the T-45 appeared, along with other new T-series instruments, in 1982. Initial reaction may have been that the T-45 was designed to hit a lower price point, but Hartley Peavey considered his products more dependable and a better value.

The less-popular T-45 differed from the T-40 in a number of ways besides having one less pickup. The single humbucker on the T-45 was the same as the two pickups found on the T-40, and it also had the same unique tone circuit, which allowed one coil to be “faded out” (the term used on factory price lists) to affect a single-coil sound. Also different was the location of the T-45’s “harmonically-placed” pickup. The T-40 had a phase-reverse switch, while the T-45 didn’t… but note that the T-45 has three knobs – volume, tone, and a “special mid-frequency rolloff control for maximum tonal flexibility.”

Curiously, one word was altered in price lists after ’82; the third knob was referred to as a “special low-frequency rolloff control.”

As for necks, the T-45 offered a 21-fret version, while the T-40 had 20 frets. On price lists from ’82 through ’85, the scale on the T-40 was referred to as “long;”the T-45’s scale was referred to as “34”.”

By the November ’86 price list (the last for the T-45), the T-40 had also affected the numerical description of its scale length, as well as a trademarked “Graphlon” composite nut. The T-45 spec list did not mention it.

Was the T-45 on the way out?

While some early T-45s may have been made with an oiled natural finish on an ash body (a la the original T-40s), that version didn’t appear on price lists. Instead, the single-pickup basses were first offered in Black, White, Sunburst, Blood Red, and Royal Burgundy finishes with maple fretboards at a list price of $424.50, or with a rosewood fretwood as a $25 upgrade.

And here’s the historical rub: throughout the half-decade or so that T-40s and T-45s were both offered, they (all finishes and options being equal) always carried the same list price! With the exception of the natural-finished T-40s ($399.50 with a maple neck, $424.50 with a rosewood neck in ’82), the prices for similar finishes and fretboards were equal. The T-40 retained Burgundy longer than the T-45, and the T-40 would ultimately acquire a metallic “Frost Blue” finish ($75 upgrade) while the T-45 would not. But both instruments listed for $354.50 in standard finishes. On that list, the T-40 was available in the lower-priced Natural, as well as Red and Black, while the T-45 was available in Black, White, Sunburst, or Red.

Semantics aside, the Peavey T-45 was not just a one-pickup version of the T-40. Rather, it had its own features and capabilities, and any perception that it was simply a cheaper version of the original is an unfortunate stereotype.