Peavey Bandit 112

UPDATE

Figured out what was causing the unwanted overdrive in my Bandit. Know what it was?

The T-Dynamics knob, dummy! (Dummy=me.)

That "subtle" effect this control I mentioned in my previous review is tube-like compression and distortion at stage volume settings. I didn't understand how this worked before, and took the much-espoused 10% T-Dynamics setting at face value. When I heard distortion I thought something was malfuctioning, that I couldn't get rid of it. Why didn't I make the mental leap to realize that this is the essence of what makes a tube amp sound like a tube amp, and if the T-Dynamics is supposed to make the amp sound more like a tube amp at low settings, perhaps--ya think?--turning up would clean it up?

So what I learned is this:

10%=lower overall / maximum volume, non-linear increase in volume=increasing compression and distortion as master volume control goes up. Reasonably authentic tube-crunch tone to boot.

100%=higher overall volume, linear volume increase, quite clean tone all the way up to maximum volume settings.

And of course everything in between.

Jumping over that hurdle has opened up the perceived capabilities of the Bandit 112 considerably. The unwanted distortion was probably the main factor in my giving it a 7 before. I now rate it as a mid-9. Not absolutely perfect, as most amps aren't perfect, but pretty close as cheap 1x12 combos go.

Excellent--I say again, EXCELLENT--value.

If you have money to blow on boutique amps and the Highly Desirable Old Standbys, by all means buy one. For the rest of us--actual working musicians who are often tight on cash--I think the Bandit 112 provides 85% of the sound for 25% of the price.

i have no idea what year this amp was made but i got it used from a local music shop as part trade in for a marshall 30mgdfx it cant be very old as the condition is emaculate and covers hardly faded from light etc. 80 watts into 8 ohms or 100 into 4 ive tryed the extension and even with 4 ohm option its clear and nice! i play mostly metal/hard rock and occasionly an odd bit of emo, has 2 channels clean and lead, footswitchable an effects loop but no headphone jack :( no playing after 11p.m anymore, alot of people call this a practise amp but i will gladly gig it! i never use 100 watts of power, and 50 aint enough so 80 is a nice medium!this is a transtube amp not sure what the means but i think its the equivalent of laney tube fusion? this mean machine comes equiped with a 12" sheffield speaker , never heard of the make before but its built tough took a wee peak at the cone and its tough beast i would say its similar to a celestion u get in most amps nowadays!

i use a modified squier, i ripped the stock pickups out and put in 2 johnson emg single coils for neck and middle and an entwistle red star humbucker at bridge with this fat stat setup there is alot of variety, whoever the person is that gave this amp 1 is deaf , i love this amp's sound its soo versatile! the presence knob helps alot aswell and the t dynamics which makes use of the whole amps power! as i said i play alot of hard rock and metal and this amp is amazing for that 80's thrash sound! with the modern switch on lead channel u can get alot of emo sounds and witht the vintage u can get all that 70's rock sound! i like the " in between setting " for that 80's thrash sound really good for slayer , overkill motorhead metallica etc! the clean channel is cleaner than clean although if u use modern switch setting it can have a slight distortion on it which is handy. as for lead channel it can be as brutal as u want i find that having all setting at 5 then high on 9/10 gives an amazing thrash sound not too brutal with a nice chunkyness!

i havnt had this amp long but it is a tank and has been bashed of a stone gatepost thanks to a clumsy friend and it held up fine i think this amp will be very reliable although havnt had it long enough to rate this section sorry :S

i havnt had to deal with any custome service so far but whatever would need to contact peavey about would be through my local music shop so i will give them a 10 for helpfulness

i have been playing 3 years coming and ive played alot of amps considering the space of time, and this has been the amp that does it for me its so versatile and can suit probably any style of plaing but mostly heavy metal. compared to my old marshall this thing blows the marshall mg's knobs of! if it got stolent i would cry and then buy another one! i compared it to some laneys a fender 65 priceton and a marshall avt 100 watt, the laney and fender had no balls! they are for blues man! the avt was dead nice but outta my budget and i fell in love with the peavet its got grit and not every tom dick and harry in town has a peavet they all got that same marshall sound! i dunno if this amp has one or not but i hope it has a multi footswitch with some effects on it maybe so i can get rid of single pedals,,,, ohhh a chromatic tuner in the footswitch would be damn handy then this would be an even nice amp!

Very versatile amp, it is possible to use it for all kinds of music. I (well, actually my house mates) miss a headphone jack. The effects loop and the foot switch are very handy. Loud enough for the practice room.

I use a strat copy from Richwood, and together with this amp I'm able to produce some nice sounds. My musical styles are funkmetal and grunge, and this amp suits these styles quite well. From the three distortion types I prefer the "modern distortion" for a more metal sound. With this distortion type and a wahwah pedal this amp sounds awsome. But for really heavy music the distortion might be a little bit too thin, and sometimes I miss some lower tones. The clean channel is really clean, also at higher volumes, and this amp is not noisy at all.

Never had any problems with it.

Don't know.

Really like this amp. Very good price/quality ratio.

I got this amp about 4 years ago at christmas when I was playing guitar for about a year at the time.I didn't know much about amps but I liked it that it was loud so I could annoy my parents at the time =).Although the new Bandit II has more features and sounds better overall this one still is a good little amp.Solid state open back 80watt amp with 2 channels,3 band EQ for both channels,bright switch on clean channel,pre and post gain on distortion channel,thrash and gain button(I think thrash is a mid boost and well sounds like the gain gives u more gain =P),reverb,effects send and return,resonance switch,efx level(still dont know what it does)presence knob and power amp T dynamics knob(I believe it makes it so breakup comes earlier at 10% and is louder at 100%),high and low gain inputs,external speaker jack for another 112 if needed and a footswitch jack.So plenty of features for a little amp except for newer amps being built with digital effects

Well I play mostly heavy metal and death metal although I do play softer stuff too.I play a variety of Yamaha and Ibanez guitars with a RP2000 currently,but for quite a while I had a Zoom 505 pedal.This amp for Solid state 80watts is quite loud although for a loud band situation u have to push it to its limit really,and it starts to lose definition as the low end seems to fart out.Although the overall sound is not too bad,I can't really comment on the distortion channel as I rarely use it since I use pedals but its not bad I guess for what it is.I've always used pedals so some people might think its great but for me I like lots and lots of gain and it couldn't do the over-the-top stuff but for hard rock it should be decent.Clean is pretty good for solid state nice and warm sounding lows with plenty of volume which works well with the pedals.I can't see using the bright switch,simply way too much treble for my taste as the peavey u need to set the treble low I find as most of their amps have a treble hiss thats ear piercing if put too high.Although the low end is full,it can get muffled real easy if your not careful and playing at loud volumes.Reverb is not too bad at all on this amp,not great as I find I need to set it low for it gets too 'springy' but a bit better then average really.I use my Rp2000 for reverbs now as I can have it on and off when I want which is not the case with the amp reverb since theres no reverb switch on the footswitch included.

One thing I can't deny is that this amp as seen some serious punishment and never fails very dependable.I've left it outside in overnight a few times(got it out the car and forgot about it when i got in the house),one night it even rained(yikes),dropped it down a flight of stairs,just generally rough on it and always worked with np so very dependable.My friends who has one also abuses is too and it keeps wanting more.As for playing without a backup I've always done so but thats because their was always other amps of other bands that I could use and same for them if they needed mine.I definetely don't condone playing without a backup as this is asking for something bad to happen,especially when it comes to guitars always have a backup.

Never needed it so can't comment on it although the site is in general pretty useful in finding what u need unlike the Ibanez and Yamaha sites which have limited information.

Overall I would probably rate it a 7.5,which isnt bad but not great.It does what it's suppose to do(it's loud,has a decent amount of features,sounds decent and is built like a tank)at a decent price although I believe there is better sounding amps at this price range nowadays especially.For a beginner this one would be plenty power and for what they need at first but you might find yourself needing to replace it sooner then you think once playing in shows and tone becomes an issue which you would of been rather off buying something cheaper to start off with then saving to get somethign really good.It has served me well in the 4 years I owned it and at the time was a pretty good amp,so I can't say I didn't like it so give it a try it might be perfect for anyone looking for a 112 combo with power and dependability.I'm buying a Traynor 212 YCV very soon(awesome sounding amp for the price,also the YCV40) so I will make a review on that also once I own that for a while to evaluate it fully

I'm not sure of the age of this sorry excuse for a tranny amp, it belongs to the singer in my band & he's not bothered about details like the age of his gear. It has two footswitchable channels (the usual clean & dirty), an effects loop & a dial that is supposed to make the amp sound like a valve amp. It also has variuos buttons that scoop this, fatten that, make it sound modern and make it sound vintage. All the other controls are as you'd expect. I suppose you could say peavey have tried & I for one like a trier.

I can't find a single good thing to say about this amp, it's absolutle bum juice, i hate it. Many people on this review page really rave about this insulting noise making machine, I have to ask myself, are they deaf, are they mad or are they on peavey's pay roll. I've been playing the electric guitar for over 15 years, I'm obsessed with the things, but this three legged asthmatic pit ponny would surely put me off playing for life if it was the only amp that was available to me. My main amp is a Peavey Delta Blues (a valve amp with a single 15 inch speaker) and this amp really shines for its #500ish price range, in fact I would recomend it, it does clean and overdriven beautifully. Back to the Bandit, our American cousins would say, the Bandit sucks. Awesome? Aweless, dull, lifeless, listless and absolute bollocks and that's just the clean channel. As for the dirty channel; what a load of rubbish. Let me elaborate. When I first began my quest for musical enlightenment at the tender age of 18 I set out with my trusty squire strat, a HH power baby and a few pedals to boot. Twas far from my perfect set up but it got me through numerous gigs and jamming sessions. I had a Arion Metal Master that tended to my distortion needs. I listened to a tape recording of a gig i did at that time. That set up sounded better than the Bandit's dirty channel sounds with my USA Fender Strat that I have today. My Gibson Les Paul standard (2004 model with 50s neck in honey burst, nice) doesn't make the amp sound any better either. I don't think even God almighty could make this waste of space sound any better. The only good use i have found for it is to rest my can of cherry coke on during break time at band practice, infact it excels at that task. Oh yeah, it makes a good foot rest too.
If I was going to be honest with the readers of these reveiw pages, save your money and buy a valve amp. I know that it is tempting to go out and buy something because it's feature apear good on paper but believe me, valve amps are the electric guitar sound. Shop around too, find what is best for you, and once you do you won't look back.
I do appreciate tha fact that Pat lent me his amp though, I'm not being ungreatful or anything but even he will tell you the Peavy Bandit is a bag of shit.

I actually have a good word to say about the Peavey Bandit here, it's never broken down. I've had absolutley no problems with its machanical reliability at all so far. Good show you chaps at Peavey (credit where credit is due). If you don't mind sacrificing tone for reliability then buy this amp today.

I have no coment here. The last section clears this one up.

I play in an alternative popy kind of new wave thing with a slight hint of early 90's cheesey dance thrown in for the ladies. I wouldn't play live or record with this amp if my balls were on fire and using this amp was the only way of extinguishing the conflagration. As for my own solo material (my influences are U2, Led Zeppelin, The Vevet Underground, Placibo, Jimi Hendrix, The White Stripes, stuff like that), I'd rather call Miss Furguson from Prisoner Cell Block H (a drama about an Australian womens prison from the 1980's, Miss Furguson was the bad guy, or woman as the case my be) a dried up old lesbian with the body odor of a highly decomposed dead tramp (a bum for all those American types out there) who in life had the worst case of body odor ever known in the history of man kind, to her face, than let my family down by making my guitars sound so veritably egregious.
I suppose this kind of amplifier is fine for kids to learn on but if one is serious about ones tone, for gods sake save your hard earned cash and buy an all valve amp. Sorry Peavey but my mother brought me up to be honest. The Peavey Delta Blues on the other hand is a great little peice of retro cool, save your cash & buy one of those instead if that kind of thing floats your boat.

Old style made in '92. Solo Series. Pre Transtube era. 12" Scorpion speaker. 2 channels (switchable). Perfect for the Garage Guitarist.

I use a Cort M200 with dual humbuckers. I really like the clean channel. The distortion channel is ok. You can always use a pedal to get your own sound. I like the saturation knob, you can do a lot of tweaking with it. This amp is very loud!

I have only had it for a short while. Peavey has an excellent reputation for reliability.

Very good CS. I found the manual easily on their website. I posted the Serial # on their bulletin board and got a response in 2 days.

I have only been playing a few years. The guitar is more of a hobby. I looked at a Marshall, a Crate, and a Fender. The Peavey smoked 'em hands down. I looked for a transistor amp. I don't really want the hassle of a tube amp. If I were a professional it would be different.

A good amount of features for a small amp. I use it as a practice amp, works great.

The best sound I have EVER heard out of an S.S. combo. I play Metal, Neo Classical, Prog rock, Blues, Jazz and Classical. Definatly suits my purposes. Distortion channle is a little noisy, but nothing an NS-2 or ISP Decimator cant handle.

Never broken down, and I dont expect it to.

Iv been playing for 12 years, i own an ESP Viper Standard, G&L Legacy Special, an assortment of effect pedals (mostly boss) and use a Crate Blue Voodoo (bv120h) for gigs. This is a wonderful practice amp, when I first played it (2 years ago) i said, Iv GOT to get this amp and bought it right there. If it were stolen id buy another with out hesitation.

I'd say this a late '90s model (black & silver) Transtube Bandit 112, meaning it doesn't have the modern/vintage voicing switches and all that. Basically: 80w 1x12 combo, high and low gain inputs; two channels (clean and dirty, not necessarily in those words); three band EQ on each, bright switch on the clean channel, mid scoop ("thrash") switch on the dirty, resonance switch to supposedly add bottom end/simulate a cabinet; knobs for reverb, presence, and the fabled T-Dynamics. There is a front-mounted effects loop which I haven't had the chance to fool with yet. Plenty of front panel controls to play with, nice.

I've only played live with this amp once so far (last night), so keep that in mind as you read, as well as that I've only had it for about a month.

I use two guitars mainly: a pretty stock Lotus str@t and an Epiphone Les Paul with a Duncan '59 humbucker at the bridge. My standard effects chain is: guitar>Arion stage tuner>DOD Supra Distortion>DOD Stereo Flanger>Dunlop Cry Baby>Danelectro Dan-Echo>amp.

I have always had a major problem getting enough low end out of my amps--my guitar tone has always been shrill and piercing where I want a deep, "hi fi" tone. In fact this is the major reason I sought out an amp to phase out my old Laney HC50. The Peavey comes closer, although it still isn't quite there. The best thing about the Bandit tone-wise is that it does give you more options for shaping the tone--the bright and mid scoop switches and the presence control go beyond the treble control in each channel. So the high end is covered--I usually set the treble to 11:00 or noon and the mids a bit lower. But for the life of me, I'm still not sure if the low end is sufficient. It really depends on the guitar. As before I have better luck with the str@t when it comes to a balanced clean tone--the Paul, is as always, honkingly mid-heavy. But with both the bottom is somewhat light. On to other issues: The clean channel sounds pretty good with the str@t, but breaks up very easily with the Paul--the Bandit may not be able to handle even moderately hot humbuckers, which depending on your style may be good or bad. I'm kind of on the fence that way, but last night it was very hard to play clean even when I wanted to. This may have actually been something else causing it, so this point is provisional. Dirty channel is nice...it offers plenty of overdrive thanks to the "gain" switch, but even the regular gain range will give you a lot. And it's a fairly nice distortion too. The Transtube circuitry is subtle and I don't have a tube amp to compare it to, but I will say that overall it's a more pleasing, more authentic overdrive sound than that on the Laney (which sounds more like a clipping-diode distortion or fuzz in my book). The T-Dynamics control is subtle to say the least...playing with it the closest thing you can solidly put a finger on is that it gets slightly louder overall, but there's something else too that does change the overall vibe. Neat. I've kept it at 10% for a while now, but I recall the 50% setting sounding pretty sweet too. One thing the Peavey wins at hands down: there is no shortage of reverb here...maxed out you'd think you were playing on a Joe Meek record or a Morricone soundtrack. Bottom line: until I discover what the true limits of the Bandit's sounds are, I'm gonna give it a mid-high 7 for sound quality.

Seems like a solidly built amp, as Peaveys have a rep for. Since I bought it used I don't know what kind of abuse it's had in its previous home, but on the other hand so far it seems to be just fine.

Haven't used them yet, other than to download a manual from their website. Based on that (manuals for obsolete gear available online) and what I've heard others say, Peavey's customer support is likely to be first class.

Been playing a long time, as those who have run across my reviews here probably know by now. I've owned craploads of gear, but only a few amps. The Bandit 112 is my latest in the search for an amp that I actually really really like. It's a step in the right direction, no question about it, but only a step. I feel like it has plenty of potential and I just haven't figured out the right combination of guitar and effect and control settings to match perfectly. With all those controls it will probably take a while to find that magic number, but I'd rather have the control than not. But god, not being able to dial in more bass is just maddening...and the way those humbuckers overdrive the clean channel... so yes, I admit the Bandit 112 is just a bit disappointing so far, and right now if some bastard ripped it off I'd *maybe* look for another possibly better-sounding one, but more likely I'd look for one of the newer Peaveys and/ora 2x12 combo of some kind. But remember, I've only begun playing with it, so stay tuned. Again, a high 7 overall.

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Have the amp for 2,5 years now. I play all kinds of music through it, but mostly stuff like Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Rage Against the machine... Simple 2 channel, one set as clean, the other set as crunch with a Marshall Shredmaster for the heavy stuff. This gives me 3 basic tones on it.
Simple EQ for both channels. it's not versatile enough for me.
Simple plastic footswith which I never used. Too childish making.
The two "vintage/modern/gain" switches don't make that much difference. On very low volumes you can hear what the switch does, but at high volumes it just sounds the same.
The reverb control was always set to 0-3, because I have seperate reverb controls. The presence switch, resonance control and dynamics control are just stupid things. I again don't hear much difference at high volumes. If I connect my guitar via the "Preamp out" I can hear what it does. But then bypass the amplifier. You just use the speaker.
I now bought a VG-88 processor and I need a full range system which doesn't color the sound. So I trade this one with a peavey kb/a-100.
The bandit has just enough power to play in our repetition room. At gigs I played it mic'ed and through the PA it sounded much better.
My tip for this: never use it unmic'ed, and keep the volume below 5.

I use a Epiphone LP with humbuckers. This causes the low end to be a bit muddy. Alwys used bass control below 5. It is a very silent amp noise-wise. Not a single hiss. Clean means truly clean. Sometimes a bit too clean as I miss the warmth of the tubes. Tube dynamics really don't do it. I used power at 100% at all times, otherwise the speaker got dull at lower tones.
Nowadays I only use it bypassed (guitar to VG-88 and this output in preamp out). In this mode I get very responsive sound and nice harmonics and feedback. No volume control like this (only via the 88)

In the 2,5 years I played several gigs with it. Never used a backup. Our other guitarist only plays tubes, and in the 2,5 years he changed his amp 3 times and got frustrated. I have this cheapo amp and it never lets me down.
it also serves as a table to put my beer on and it keeps playing even soaked in beer.
It also gets bumped in the back of my car and fell off the seat, but it doesn't do anything to it.
If you play for long on low T.Dynamics power (10%) it does go crazy on the lows, so here it loses a point

Never had to call support

Nice for a beginner guitarist in a band who does a few gigs in a year.
NOT for guitarists with sound processors (VG-8; GT-6; GR-33;...) as it does color the sound too much, even on clean channel.

This baby has got all that it takes: separate EQ sections for the clean and lead channel, 3-way voiceswithing on the lead, 2-way on the clean one, a master section with power-output-control, reverb and an active 6dB presensce booster, and footswitch controllable FX-loop - it's all there!

I mostly play an epiphone les-paul custom with the gibson stock mics put in, and the amp really gives me the les-paul sound that i want. And it's very versatile, it can go all the way from clean jazz-like sound to the most brutal zakk wylde metal sound (without getting very noisy). I play all kinds of music from jazz/blues, ska, reggae, pop, and hard rock, and it always sounds amazingly good. A funny thing about this solid-state amp is that if you turn the power on the master section down to 10% the clean channel will clip the poweramp. It isn't a problem, I actually find it pretty cool, but if you want some loud clean sounds, just turn the power control to 100% again and here we go!
I have used it for rehearsing with both hardrock bands and a big-band and i have managed to make myself heard. The poweramp can though seem to "give up" after giving it more than half of the lead post-gain (volume) control. I haven't tried to put it into a 4x12 cab, which i think could help, though it gives an external speaker 100w instead of the 80 that goes to the internal sheffield 1230 speaker.
It sounds great for a solid-state amp, the best one i've ever tried. But of course some tubeamps sounds better... However, it's very versatile and it's very easy to alter the sound with the EQ-controlls

This amp is made for using. I have never ever had any troubles with it so far (had it for 3? years) and i keep depending on it. I have used it live w/o backup, my friends tube amps broke down, mine didn't.

Never had any problems :)

I've been playing for over 5 years and i listen to and play a lot of different kinds of music. I often use it with just a delay in the FX'loop and it sounds lovely. it also sounds lovely with a nice distortion pedal. since they are so cheap these days i would probably buy a new one if i would drop it from a 10-storey building (i guess that's what it takes to break it down). This sounds better than any other solid-state amp that i've ever heard.