Peavey Bandit 112S

This amp is awesome. Has 2 channels. It is 80 watts and loud. It has gain and thrash for the 90s sound, a presence control which enhances the overall sound and a unique T-Dynamics control that you can adjust the power output of amp. The only negative about this amp is not having any channel light indicators.

I bought this based on the reviews of this amp. I played this amp next to my old peavey mace tube amp from the 70s and could not believe how close the bandit actually sounds like the tube amp. The clean channel sounds great and the distortion is great and the gain adds some more sustain and more mid. The thrash gives the 90s crunch sound. I use the effects loop to pull in my rockman 12 band eq and my peavey profex ii effects with the ability to bypass with the footswitch. I also use my rockman sustainor on the clean channel with an awesome sound.

Peavey amps are just built great. If this amp holds like my old mace then it will go on forever. It is heavy but from what I read in an old peavey article it is because of how they made the cabinet and the speaker used.

Never have had to contact peavey myslef but have heard from other players and they have had nothing but great things to say about peaveys support.

I would recommend this amp very highly. If you are looking for a tube amp sound check this one out before paying alot more for a tube. I have been playing for over twenty years with my old mace tube amp but now I am only playing this one because it can do more than my old tube with the sound and features.

This is a great amp!! This is nothing like the garbage Bandits that Peavey produced in the 1980's! This Peavey Bandit was built sometime in the 90's. Has 2 channels (surprise, surprise). It is rated at 80 watts RMS. In addition to the usual buttons and knobs it has distortion options of gain or thrash, a unique T-Dynamics control (to give it a more tube like response), and a resonnace switch (which I guess adds a little bit of bass and sort of compresses the sound a little (I think ???). The only negative about this amp is that it is HEAVY...I assume that it's heavy because of the Sheffield speaker (Peavey's version of a Celestion), and the fact that the amp is solidly built...In short..real heavy... no problem...it's worth it!

The sound of the clean channel is incredibly warm (unlike the old Bandits). It really does sound very tube like. The T Dynamics knob does an okay job of making it respond like a tube amp...but as far as resposiveness it still is not the real thing. This amp has a ton of tonal flexibility. The options of gain or thrash for distortion give one the ability to dial in anything from a fender/mesa-boogie buttery distortion to a Marshall crunch. While it is not a perfect match to a tube amp I'm giving it a 10 because of the tonal flexibility and ease of use.

I got this amp used in 2007. Haven't had any problems with them. My experience has been that most peavey stuff is very reliable.

I've only had to deal with Peavey one time (for one of my guitars). The customer support and guitar tech folks helped me to order the part I needed from them with no problems.

This is not your father's Peavey Bandit!! This amp is incredible. The warmth of the clean channel blows me away, and the tube like tones of the distortion channel are awesome. This amp is extremely user friendly and it takes very little effort to get great sounds out of it. I've owned Fenders, Marshalls, Acoustics, Yamaha's and I got to admit that for overall tone, functionality, and flexibility this is my favorite amp (Okay well my early 1970's Plexi kicks the Bandit's butt sonically...but do you think you can get an original Plexi for $200...not to mention a Plexi that also produces clean tones(?!?!?). For 200 bucks used these amps are a steal. In all fairness it doesn't sound exactly like a tube amp, but then again there's no EL34's or 6L6's to blow, so the less than exact tube tone is more than worth the trade off. I highly recommend that you get your hands on one of these little beasts before sellers get smart and start jacking up the price of these amps.

Made in 97 or 98. Very versatile amp for solid state.
Great clean channel and a nice wet sounding reverb.
The lead channel is nice as well with 3 options.
Good modern thrash tone. I use an eq pedal with the effects loop.
Resonance, presence and T Dynamics controls rounds it out nicely.

Great clean and crunch from this little beast. This transtube amp sounds better than the "one tube pre amp " amps that I've tried. Seriously impressed with the tone from this amp and the price I paid.
The resonance button engaged and the T Dynamics knob at 100% give it a nice thick low end punch.
Plugged it in a 412(vintage 30s)and it was truly beautiful!

Peavey has never failed me and great customer support as well.
I bought this amp from the classifieds and it was crackling bad. I told the guy it would need repair and would he take $60 for it? He said yes and I took it home and shot contact cleaner through all the pots and viola!
Great sounding and LOUD amp for $60!!!

Always helpful and very friendly to you.

I just have a Les Paul Standard('88) and that's all I play at the moment. I would track down another to run in stereo. They are very cheap to begin with. I have an Ultra tube Peavey head as well and have owned the Classic 50 and 5150 heads. The Bandit 112 is a great little amp especially these late '90s transtube versions. Glad I discovered upon it.

From 1995-1999. Very versatile, I prefer it for rock & blues.
Two channels, but on the overdriven one you can have more versalitily because you can choose gain or trash or both. T-Dynamics is great.
I play on a Rock band, from Clapton tones to ACDC. It suits well on it.

I use two guitars: a Fender Squier (with DiMarzio class of 55' on the neck and a Lace Sensor Hot Gold on the bridge) and an Ibanez RG550.
With the normal chanel you can find the cleanest sound with the Fender, is it excellent, the same "woman tone" of Eric Clapton.
On the overdriven chanel, with the Fender, without Gain, with trash, with a 7 on Pre Gain, and low frecuency, you get a greeeeat, fantastic overdrive. If you want more power, with the Ibanez push the gain and more high and you get a good distortion.
The best: the clean channel sounds FANTASTIC even with too much volume. That's why I will give a 10.

I will give a 7, it is weighty but is durable.

I have never had to need it.

I have been playing for 8 years, I have this amp since 2003...just now I found the sound I was looking for. It is a cheap amp for the sound it has, I prefer to pay $400 on this more than spending more than $1000 on a valvular one

This is the black & chrome first run transtube. You must know the options already.

Carvin SC90 with M22SD in the bridge, C22N in the neck. This post is for all you kids looking, playing, and searching for that kiler tube sound. I've been playing plenty long enough to know what sound I'm after. I never realised just how good the Bandit was until I bought a new JSX. Sure the JSX is better but for $1200 you'd be better off getting a 112 cab for the Bandit and cranking that for a while. Thrash and gain out, pre at 7-8 ,AC/DC or some cool blues tones, guitar at 10 or rolled back. For some heavy tone Thrash and gain both in, but DON'T run pre more than 7, plenty of gain less noise.

There is none better than Peavey. This really would be my desert island amp.

I've been using Peavey for 15 years now. Not one of my Peavey amps have been in for service. But Peavey tech is more than willing to help. Very easy to find old manuals or schmatics.

If lost? that don't happen. If stolen? I would try to find another one, keep your old one's (transtube BLACK $ CHROME) new ones are made by dirty chinamen, I'd rather spend my money on another American's diner than some bastard counrty that might nuke me!

I believe it was made in 1997/98. Over the years, it has satisfied the styles of punk, rock, melodic. I feel it lacks the drive needed for hard/heavy rock. It has 2 channels, and as noted previously, the slight delay when switching is a problem. I wish that it had 2 O.D. channels.

I use an Ibanez AX320h, this is a double cutaway, twin humbucker, set-neck style of guitar, which was supposedly the top of the AX line in 1999, but korean made says it all. This guitar plays rock, and clean with ease. The amp can make whatever sort of sounds you put through it, thats the point...

All other things aside, I believe this is a very reliable amp. After 5 years, the clean high eq dial, creates distortion when altered. Not quite the 3rd channel I was after...

Never have dealt with peavey, most probably never will.

I have been playing since 1998. I also own a curbow bass and a Hartke HA3500 Head and XL410 Cabinet. I would not purchase this amp again, basically due to the fact I think that peavey is dead, and there are alot of better combo amps available.

80 Watts RMS into 8 Ohms
100 Watts RMS into 4 Ohms
12 inch Sheffield? 1230 speaker
Two footswitchable channels
T.Dynamics? and presence
Three-band EQ each channel
Reverb
Modern/vintage voicing switch on Clean channel
External speaker jack
Footswitchable effects loop
High gain/modern/vintage voicing switch on Lead channel
Resonance switch
Footswitch included
The T Dynamics feature is killer. Hard to explain but it gives you 'more' when you need it, 'less' when you don't. Between the presence, resonance and T Dynamics switches, you really have a ton of control. Plus it will run a 4 x 12 cab! Who can ask for more?

I pay a Strat, PRS, and Ibanez through this amp and each guitar sounds beautiful. Transtube is THE CLOSEST thing you can to tubes in a solid state amp PERIOD. Both the clean channel and gain channel sound great, plus with the 'Modern', 'Vintage', and eq, you can really dial in YOUR sound. The sound only gets better as you turn the amp up.
Now the downside is the footswitch...When switching from clean to gain there's a slight delay. Playing at home it's no bother, but if you're playing gigs with this you'd better get a good distortion pedal.

I'm going to leave this as 'No opinion'. My least Peavey, an old Special 112 had issues no doubt, but it was quite old. I chalk that up to me abusing it when I was younger.

Never had to deal with Customer Support

Overall...The best amp under a grand, EASY. Honestly I don't think I'd own anything else for what I do. I gets loud, sounds great for what I play (anything from Pink Floyd/Rush to Slayer/Satriani) and would run a 4x12 cabinet if I ever needed it to. All for 349? You can't beat that with a stick...

Two channel, 80 watts. Independant EQ. Resosance switch, reverb and T-Dynamics control. Gain with boost. Sheffield speaker. Late 90s ('97 0r '98) No digital effects.

I use two very different strats and a Les Paul with this amp and most everything sounds good. I play a variety of styles,(60s rock and blues to hybrid rock and metal)It's a very quiet amp. Lots of gain and not a lot of fuzz and works great with distortion or fuzz boxes or wah-wahs. Clean channel is awesome as well. The EQ on this amp actually changes the sounds a lot. The resonance switch makes it sound like a cabinet. The T-Dynamics control is interesting and hard to describe. It can add that extra little something or back things off a bit if needed. As close to tube gain as you will find in a solid state amp. Could use a touch more gain on the pre gain as the gain boost is a touch hissy. The bass response is very heavy. If you are tired of thin sounding combos, this amp is for you.

Indestructable within reason.

Never needed.

I bought this amp used in '98. It had been owned for two days after which the father of the kid who bought it brought it back. Too loud! (For him maybe.) I payed $160 for it and traded in a Fender Princeton 112 for it. What a bargain! This amp is a monster. Louder than loud, durable and with a sweet sound. One negative; lift with care, it's really heavy for a single 12 combo. Turn it up and close your eyes and you don't know how big this amp is. This is the amp Marshall snobs should hear and fear. Needs some of the built in effects that so many amps have these days, but with the effects loops it has, you can remedy this. The Sheffield speaker is very big sounding for a single 12 and this '98 model looks real classy in silver and black the old Peavey logo. Good for almost any style of music save metal. This amp is a far cry from the old Bandits of the 80's and even the early 90's. I take real good care of this one as I want it to last.

Mine I think it's the older (or the first) version of the Transtube line, which IMO it's beautiful than the new line (I don't know, but mbaybe it's because I really like the black/silver combination.
Well, features it's all said and done down there, go check it. I particularly don't need the headphone jack, so, for me, it's complete.

I play in a cover band that go from Blues to Hard Rock, don't play metal (but I DO LIKE Metal!!), in the likes of outfield, Police, Bar?o Vermelho, eho it's a Hard Rock Band here in Brasil, a sort of a lighter AC/DC), Frampton, Purple and so on.

Playing now trough a late 80 Ibanez RG 750 with Duncan pickups (Distortion on the Bridge, 59 ond the neck and a Custom Custom single coil on the middle), a Fender Strato American Standar, a Jackson JDR Plus with EMG 81s and a Gibson LP Custom Wine (my baby!!!)
My signal is:

Cry Baby GCB 95 - Marshall Drive Master - Boss Blues Driver (what a GREAT pedal, try it!!!) - SansAmp TRI-AC - Boss Volume.
On the effects loop goes a DOD Flanger - DOD Chorus - BOSS DD3 Digital Delay.

Man, let me tell you, this baby has it all!!! With that gear i can sound like anyone. It can goes softer, cleaner, warmer, jazzier, heavier, insane, crazier, you name it!!! I'm absolutely nuts with the transtube tech, I mean, hey, that's sound very very very like a tube, ok, the growl isn't the same, but it really cool, and, in a live situation, your audience will NOT see the difference. I know how tubes like, I do have some tube gear (Triaxis Preamp with a 50/50 and 4 1x12' Boogie cabinets, 2 with EVM 200w and 2 with Celestions 80w). Hey, i'm NOT trying to say here that the Peavey sound better thant my Boogies, I'm trying to say here that the Bandit has its guts!! I like the clean channel a lot, it's warmer, not mettalic one and the lead channel goes from SRV to Purple to Brit Rock to Metallica in a breeze!!!.

But One thing I have to say: Plug in another cabinet, with the extension this thing really grow. I mean, this baby is really ok alone, but with the cab it SHINES!!!!

Its a Peavey'and mine it-s made in the USA, some guy down there said that's the new series is being made in China, I m not shure about it.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playin for 15 years, have several other combos (Roland Cube 100, Marshall VS 80 (what a crap!!!), Crates, Fender Princeton (the new ones, unfortunately did not play on the olders, what a shame!!) and so on. By far the best solid state or hybrid combo that I played (and some tube combos!!!). For the money it costs and features and sounds that delivers, it deserves a 10!!!

This is a late 90s amp from the first transtube line. Two channels with bright pushbutton on the clean and a thrash and gain boost on the distortion. Sheffield speaker. Effects loop. Channel switch. Reverb. Nothing fancy but theres a lot of control over the sound. *80 watts.

Jay Turser Les Paul (don't laugh. For 200 bucks it's decent) and a mexican Fender strat. Hard rock and classic rock. It 's quiet except when the distortion is way up with the gain boost on. The clean channel sounds just like a Fender. Very nice with the bright switch on. The distortion channel sounds great. The thrash button is almost like having a third channel. Good EQ on both channels. Good sounding speaker. Plenty of volume.

Peavey is the best.

Peavey is the best.

I bought it for rehearsals. My main amp is a Peavey Revolution with a single 12" Sheffield. It looks just like the Bandit. I tried to find another one but I couldn't so I bought the Bandit cuz it's the same amp (almost) with just two channels and not as many features. The Revolution sounds better to me but this amp is a good substitute for rehearsals. I never gigged with it. I'd buy another one of these transtube Bandits. Transtube comes close to real tube sound.