Peavey Bandit 112

This amp was made in 1996. It is the OLD one with the cheap shiny vinyl on it. It is rated at 80 watts and is plenty loud. Typical peavey, it is VERY directional. It has two channels, one clean one overdrive. The overdrive is really good for solidstate. For all the tube amps I have, I don't mind the overdrive in this Bandit. Plenty of tone shaping as listed below in the other reviews. It is SOLID STATE, Transistors.
I use it with my pedalboard. I play Country Rock. If you want that Lynyrd Skynyrd sound, this will deliver.

I use a Fender Custom Shop FMT Telecaster with hums. A DiMarzio X2N in the front. The amp only gets noisy when the OD gets turned up high. As you would expect. This amp does well on a number of levels. The clean stays clean and bright until you really crank it, then the clean channel goes a little dirty. The OD is nice for a solid state amp. That is why I bought it. It sounds really good. The crap Sheffield speaker is only good at bedroom levels (as are so many of Peavey's a speakers). As the volume goes up, the sound goes muddy. I solved that with an Eminence Patriot Screamin' Eagle. It will handle the volume and stay clean and deliver the sound of the amp. The reverb is a little weak, but OK for guitar work.

It's a Peavey, for cripes sake. Epoxy glass boards, mil spec components and all the caps and heavy components are glued down.

Beats me, never dealt with them.

I have been playing 41 years. I have owned just about every type amp made. I currently have 5 amps and 6 guitars. If this one were lost I would probably get another. I always take it as a backup as I never play without a backup. This amp has NEVER given me one seconds of trouble. It is the perfect backup amp. I swapped the red LED out to blue, just because I like blue. I have no idea what other amps to compare it to as most solid state amps sound like crap.
It is kind of big and heavy for only a single 12" speaker. Looks like a 2-12.
Had to buy the cover from another manufacturer as Peavey did not have one for this amp. That was odd.
If you can only afford ONE amp, make it a Peavey Bandit. Not the crappy "S" model or the new cheap ones. Get the old, big, heavy Sheffield equipped one with the cheap, shiny vinyl. Swap the speaker out if you play above 30 watts and you will have an amp you will REALLY like and will last you until you croak. It should get a 10 in this rating, but the Sheffield speaker can't keep up with the amp.

Mine has to be atleast 8 years old or older. im not sure, i bought it used. the features have been discussed plenty so ill leave it at that.

The clean channel is ok. The distortions are heavy. I dont use the preamp anymore though. i use a vamp as a preamp and use the power amp and cab on the amp. It sounds great.. Very nice amp.

This is where peavey $%^& stands out to me. i bought this amp from a friend who had it in his house when it burned down.. the fire got most of the house and got to the next room from the amp.. it still worked fine. i have had about 6 years since then and have used it almost everyday and works like te day he ot it..

very good company. i live in ms so getting thing done from them is pretty fast.

i have a lot of stuff and have been playing for about 10 years. if i lost it i would prob get something else but that really doesnt have anything to do with the amp, i just like trying new stuff. it is a wonderful amp with very good sound (for ss). the distortion is very good for heavy music in my opinion but use clean and lightly overdriven sounds mostly. It is also very very loud. i dont see how these people rate all these amps as having low volume.. 80 watts is really loud... period.. if your thinking about buying it i woul recomend it.. built like a mother*&^%$#@ tank... feel free to email me w/ any questions

I bought this amp in 2001 and I feel that it is the most versitile amp I have ever tried... so I bought it. It has 2 channels, lead and clean and it comes with a foot switch. In the clean channel there are 2 settings, modern and vintage. In the lead channel there are 3 settings, high gain, modern, and vintage. It also features a master section which has Reverb, Presence (the tube simulator), a resonance switch (tight and loose), and T.Dynamics (I have no idea what that knob is for).

I uses a Fender Stratocaster with a trio of Seymour Duncan single coil pickups. these pickups are no ordinary single coil pickups, they sound sound soooo beefy that sometimes I think that there's blood comming out of them.

If you just bought this amp or you are looking for new sounds, then I know exactly what you want.

This setting will give you a very Eric Clapton type tone. The tone the early Marshalls made:

CLEAN LEAD MASTER
Vlo Switch Low Mid High Pre Switch Low Mid High Post Rev Pres Res T.D
N/A (Vint) 6 4.5 5.5 3 HiGain 3.5 5.5 6.5 N/A 6 + 8 L 80%

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This setting will give you a very Dream Theater raunchy distortion tone: (This is my favotite tone.) Amazing Distortion tone. The reverb is optional, (I put it on Zero. If you want to put it up go ahead, never pass 5 though, you loose tone quality in the distortion)

CLEAN LEAD MASTER
Vlo Switch Low Mid High Pre Switch Low Mid High Post Rev Pres Res T.D
N/A (Vint) 6 4.5 5.5 5 HiGain 3.5 5.5 6.5 N/A 0 10 T 80%

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This will give you a very Steve Vai/Eddie Van Halen tone, that kinda raw 80's rock tone. Good for tapping (though I don't tap)This setting will give you some sweet sounds.

CLEAN LEAD MASTER
Vlo Switch Low Mid High Pre Switch Low Mid High Post Rev Pres Res T.D
N/A (Vint) 6 4.5 5.5 5 Modern 6 5.5 6.5 N/A 0-8 10 L 80%

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That's about it. Enjoy your new settings. E-mail me and tell me if it helped. :)

This amp goes beyond expectations when it comes to reliability and durability. I dropped it down a flight of stairs and I started crying not because I thought that the amp was not going to work anymore, but because I thought my dad was going to hit me. I plugged it in and started playing. It sounded better than ever before. (I don't suggest that you drop this amp down a flight of stairs to see what happens) but accidents do happen, it will triumphantly stay in tact (I hope). This is the only amp I need.

I never had a problem with this amp and I probably never will.

I don't know how long the warranty is.

It's 2006 and I've been playing guitar for 6 years now. this amp has lased me for 5 and hopefully for 105 years more. I'm hoping to switch to Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier but it's really really really expensive, this is a great substitute, it's not as powerful or as famous, but it has the voice of an angel.

I used to like this girl that lived in Mississippi, and when I moved back to Canada we started calling each other a lot and one day I told her that I play a Peavey Bandit amp and she started laughing I asked he what she was laughing about and she said that her dad used to design amps for them and one of the models he worked was the Bandit. Ever since then I gave more love to that amp.

Please E-mail me if you have any suggestions for the amp settings.

Remember that 90% of your tone comes not from your guitar or your amp, but from the passion behind your fingertips.

Not sure of the year but it's an older one not the transtube.80 watts. Two chanels, high and low. Effects loop, preamp, etc., but no extension speaker! Rats! Very loud! Can't turn up to loud in fear of a police visit or just an angry neighbor! Find settings on the various knobs don't just crank them all up you can get good sounds. If there's a awful Humm it's just because of what I feed it! Giving an 8 for lack of extra speaker.

Using Fender Fat Strat with various effect pedals. I prefer individual pedals over those new effects boards. So what. More batteries and extention cords what's the problem?! Play Stoner rock, Sunno, Boris, yea yea low gain power cords endless sustain.Seattle OK!
This amp suits me just fine for in home use. The search for monster tube amps begins. I don't use the amps distorted controls at all. I leave that up to my pedal selection using the loop for echo and delays. Overdrive and distortion inserted just after guitar. It sounds pretty good on the clean channel. Bright and Punchy.
I punish when I can and it's still alive. Feedback is OK more would be better I like to body form sound waves. Scorpion speaker built tough. 10 cuz it sounds good via my choice of added effects.
By itself stock sound at least an 8.

For me not big enough to gig with. Just a small Loud practice amp.
Kept clean and warm. I neglect no instrument physically just circuitly. Haven't fried anything. A 9. I have a baby Peavey that's still breathing also. Built in USA. Boycot China!

Never had to call Peavey and wouldn't need to. Service is available but haven't needed.

I've been playing music for 30 years. Drums,Bass, and Guitar. Currently have all sorts of stuff. Fender Fat Strat <sweet sunburst> Les Paul copy <old black & creepy modified pu's> , A Westone Bass <it functions>. Synare S3X,
<noise,who's flying the spaceship?> Alesis HR-16,<little Grey drummer Boy, think Thrones>.Yamaha DX27S <keys> Wee small amp Dean Markley K-20 <yellow honey box> Trace Elliott Boxer 65 <good portable mini Bass=good bedroom amp> Peavey Blazer 158 < another old mini ok for home use> Peavey Bandit 112,< see above>
I've ran these amps in series through various effects and have a wonderful time.
I chose the Bandit because it was cheap. Wishing for old Sunn and Ampeg amps & Roland Space Echo. If it were stolen I would probably buy another one and stick with the older version. Trans-tube and British speaker is too rockdom superstar for my taste. What's that like New And Improved? I'm giving it's value for me a 10.

I believe I have a 95 or 96 model, purchased brand new 9 or 10 years ago. It was the first year of the 100 watt sheffield speaker anyway. Versatility is acceptable. I won't bore you with the features, you've seen them by now. This amp is used for noodling around in the house, and it does everything I need it to do. Most of the time.

I have a Epi Zakk LP with EMG hz's, an Epi Goth Explorer with EMG 81/85, and a 92 American Strat with a Seymour Hotrail in the bridge.

On it's own the distortion is somewhat lacking and there isn't enough bottom end for my taste. I am driving an external 15" bass cab though, and an MXR overdrive peddle to fatten it up. It sounds quite decent. I will say that the Transtube circuit doesn't seem to make much difference in tone. The clean channel is also pretty fair. With the neck pickup on the strat, the blues tone is quite impressive. The overall sound quality of this amp is respectable. When it actually works...

Let me put it this way, I'd depend on finding love in a Turkish prison more than I depend on this amp.

Firstly, this amp has not been abused, it sits in my house is played at low to moderate volume. Over time this amp has developed a tendency to cut out, or fade out gradually. By operating the resonance switch repeatedly, one can make it produce sound again. This happens every 5-10 minutes. After several trips to the local "authorized Peavey service center" the problem persists. I've finally given up on it and purchased another amp. I don't see many people with this issue, so it may just be a quirk with MY Bandit, but it's enough to drive me into a rage.

I've not dealt directly with Peavey, but the people they authorize to fix their gear obviously don't require any training. At least it didn't cost me anything for them to not fix it.

I've been playing 16 years. Would I buy this again? If I was 22 and living in abject poverty again, yes, I probably would. I wouldn't buy it again NOW though. I've always owned Peavey amps of some description, and have recently purchased a Triple XXX head and cab, so one bum amp hasn't soured me on the company. This amp does sound decent, and the price is fair for what you get. Just not in my case.

Transtube Bandit with Shefield speaker. This is a "large - small amp," meaning it is not exactly small, but not that big either. Perhaps it is just right? It definately sounds big, if desired. When I think of a small amp, I'm thinking Fender Champ or Princeton. This amp is bigger than either and much, much louder and more versitile. It has two channels (clean/distortion) with separate tone controls for each and an foot switchable effects loop. Other doodads are bright/normal, "thrash" (midrange boost) and "resonance" (output amp damping factor), reverb, "T dynamics (output power and compression) and "presence." No headphone jack.

I use this amp for backup and for certain types of music such as clean jazz and country.

I have a G&L S-500 Deluxe with magnetic field design single coils and a Peavey T-60 with stock seymour duncan humbuckers. The amp doesn't seem to have a preference for either. I usually play with conservative distortion or "tube clean." Like most Guitarists, I don't care for straight up solid state amps.

I think this amp sounds great for clean country tones. The clean channel is very nice indeed. You can get this amp to be loud AND clean. The amp is capable of great, piano-like bass. You have to look down on it sometimes to check if it's still just a single 12" speaker cabinet. The cabinet is fairly large for a single 12", however I think this is for accoustical reasons.

In clean mode, riffs are very detailed and precise. The resonance switch lets the speaker "ring" more in an attempt to sound tube-like; I like it. The tone controls have lots of range. In all, the clean is very versitile. However, it really doesn't sound like a tube amp in my opinion. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It has much stouter bass than your average 50 watt 6L6 combo. It doesn't have that creaminess and warmth. It's definately not completely cold, but not as warm as a tube amp. Again, that's not always a bad thing. Telecasters really twang and strats really quack with the bandit, hence my recomendation for Country work. For a solid state amp, it sounds fantastic.

The distortion channel is pretty extreme. At the lower settings it is crunchy but as more drive is added it goes into a very compressed and noisey tyrade which is not very useable in my opinion. Even at conservative settings, there's a lot of hiss. The distortion sounds alot like Danelectro Fab overdrive. In other words, like crap - like smashing glass or whatever. Not the rounded, singing, sustaining Snarling Dogs Blue Doo which is nice for blues solos. The Bandit distortion is to much compression and not enough sustain if you can image that contradiction. However you can compensate with the tone controls somewhat.

To sum up, very nice for country, clean jazz, fusion. Ok for blues, metal, etc, with a good pedal.

I've had Peavey's in the past and they have generally been reliable. I haven't had this long enough to make a determination.

Never used it.

Probably one of the best in the "all around" category. It's a jack of all trades, master of none.

I have owned a transtube bandit for almost five years. I originally bought it when they first came out. Prior to this amp, the transtube series was rather lackluster and confusing. What a difference. The bandit 112 has 2 channels and only the eq that is truly useable. Did I mention reverb? It rocks! What a versatile amp. Clean tones are always clean no matter the volume, and the OD channel has 3 seperate modes of gain personalities for any playing style. The OD is fantastic in that it is truly touch-sensitive. When set low, it only overdrives when you attack the strings, and you can sample different overdrive tones simply by altering your playing technique and attack. At 80 watts with external speaker, this thing is loud and clear enough for any gig that I ever did, which includes indoor arena, club, outdoor festival, party, etc. The ONLY weakness of this amp is the footswitch. Works well for a few years, but then the plastic construction begins to fail if you gig with it for every weekend like I did for four years. Not bad for $500.

I use a Jeff Beck 2000 Stratocaster, a 50th anniversary Stratocaster and a SRV signature stratocaster. I also use a Martin Jc16RGTE (oustanding acoustic) and the bandit even does a decent job of amplifying that. I also have a bunch of vintage effects that I run through the loop on the bandit. It ould'nt have done a better job. You can crank almost any sound out of this thing, and the OD can be brutally crushing (A sound I never use) or round, fat and vintage with everything imbetween. The bandit is in fact quite midrange-heavy when compared with other amps - not too heavy, but enough to give a great sonic "cut" in a live band situation. After a show, people would come up onstage a want to see the gear that I used because they said I had a killer tone. Immediately they would walk over to the 1974 Marshall stack that my rhythm guitarist used and start saying "Killer stack man!" "that's why your sound is so deep!". I would then have to point them across the stage to the bandit 112 that was miked and show them what an amplifier can do for $500.

Here's where this thing really pulls it weight. By the end of 5 years my bandit had been abused. It had beer spilled in the back of it, several large gashes in the tolex and had even fallen off a seven-foot high tractor-trailer stage. After my whole stack went crashing off the back, I picked it back up, plugged it in and kept on playing. This is the kind of amp you can throw in the back of your truck, drive to the gig, plug in and you know it will work and sound great every time. That kind of reliability you can't find in an expensive tube amp. This thing only sounds like its got tubes, but you never have to worry about having to change them, perhaps in the middle of a set. Most durable amp ever.

Never had to deal with customer support. My brother also has a bandit and his input jack went after four years of gigging. He hads it replaced for free at the local peavey dealer.

I have been playing for 10 years and six semi-professionally. I am currently in college as a jazz guitarist. I just sold my bandit and bought a mesa boogie nomad 55, and I could not be more dissappointed. The bandit sounds better than the mesa and has about 10 times the reliability and flexibility. I am now selling the mesa nomad 55 to but another bandit. If you think I'm crazy, then you havn't owned a bandit. If it where lost I would just go to the store and buy another one second hand because they are so cheap and easy to find. You can't say that about any mesa, marshall, fender, or any other big name hype. The only problem with this amp is the footswitch. It does not match the durability of the amp. So I am having a steel one made for it. In conclusion, this is the best sounding and performing amp you can buy for $500 bucks. Period. It may not have true tube tone, but it gets you 90% of the way there. Is that extra 10% worth dealing with broken tubes, a bigger price tag and 20 pounds more weight? That's up to you.

alright this amp has 2 channels one for clean, other for distortion. each channel has different settings of tone, in the clean theres a vintage tone then a mordern tone. the distortion channel there are another 2 of vintage and again modern. its pretty cool but there both weak tones. i use this amp for band practices and at high volumes i have to turn down my tone all the way on my guitar to get feedback on my strings and i still get this big buzz in the amp when not playing

i play a ibanez 320 SZ with a pod 2.0 effects pedal i used to play with a strat and it sounded horrible, but when i used my ibanez it sounded way better alot better, but at high volumes it starts to buzz alot when im not playing. I bought this amp for the volume not the tone, i was an idiot for doing that. This amp is good for light distortions, you can make some heavy sounds from it but not decent ones

this thing is awesome on reliablity, its built like a tank omg you can throw this thing around and it wouldnt fall apart, i bought it used and it was like 5 years old or something liek that and i have it for a year now and it owns!

didnt have to deal with the company

this amp is very good for the volume, bad for the distortion so i suggest you getting a nice pedal to get some better distortion sounds

This one is a solid state amp with tube simulation build in 2005. It was wired in the usa but fitted in China. It is very easy to get great sounds in a turn of the knob. 12 inch speaker. It features two channels lead and clean. the lead section has three settings that can be adjusted using the tone, pre and post gain controllers. Effect loop is switched on/of using the footswitch that came with the package. I wish I could switch between the three sections in the lead channel, now I have to go to my amp to choose the right lead sound for the next song. The vintage buttons are really helpfull and the tubedynamics switch allows you to obtain various sounds. it is extremely loud but stays clean when clean is used. Realy great to use with the grunge and brit pop we play

I use it with a Marina strat with single coils fender picups and a Squire Telecaster custom with p90's. It sounds great with both. Like I said it works great with brit pop and grunge. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a nice bluessound. You are able to beat the best tube amps for distortion it is brutal.

It is a Peavey need I say more. Don't think that Chineese can't put in some screws to mount it. Us cars never match asian standards in build so you needed worry. It will last forever.

Never needed them teh website is very user friendly

Only for the switch wich is not available in a four way version it is a killer amp with great value for your money. Blow the tube amps away and never run hot during gigs. A Peavey won't let you down. I play over 30 years (10 years as a pro) owned several amps, Fender studiomaster, Davoli, London City, Marshall atv 50, Kitty Hawk 50 tube. This one blows them away.

2004, made in china
Basic power amp, sounds great (as desired).

Guitar choice:
Ibanez 2671 Randy Scruggs Professional 1979 (awesome)
Fender Strat 1989

Suits well various styles, powerfull enough for small bar gigs.
Haven't tested the output over 5 so far. Sounds great with the Ibanez, creamy and warm, great overdrive. Lacks gradual increase of distortion, the middle section. The clean preset sounds great on the low gain channel.

Dependable, well constructed and protected.
Definitely no backup for this amp.

/

Experienced musician, 12 years in the business.
Came as winner against Vox Valvetronix AD50 and Line 6 Spider II at the local store.
The Vox basically sounded soulless, so digital, consequently same story with the modelling and effects built in. The Spider was somewhat better, still not reaching the Bandit level. I also tried 40W tube Marhsall. Seriously, did not notice that big of a difference, considering the 500$ differential.
I have also tried various tube fenders, decided that this is the best deal for the price.