Peavey Bandit 65

65W solid state combo, 2 channels that are footswitchable. spring reverb, 3 band eq, thick option, bright option, sounds good to me

The clean is decent, and the reverb sounds excellent, but here's the trick -- use the lead channel and put saturation low and you can get tube-like sounds on a serious budget. I recommend this amp to any gigging guitarist, I'll never sell mine! This amp shines with pedals in front of it.

Never fails

Never had to deal with them, peavey is legit

I have thought about buying another one to do stereo stuff or just be really big sounding. I've owned many peavey amps, musicman, fender, ampeg, crate, ect, and this is the best value of any of them!

In 1982, the features were certainly average. Today, when compared to something like a Spider III, the features are lacking.

An excllent sound for the money.

I've used this amp for 26 years!! In all that time, there hasn't been a single problem. Seriously, what else can you say about that?

I've not had a reason to call them in 26 years.

Love it or hate it, the Peavey Bandit 65 is a solid performer. I decided to try a Spider III 150 recently, but I took it back after it suffered from the Black Block problem (see the Line 6 forum). As always, I'm back to the Peavey which has never let me down....not even for a moment. I may try a new Peavey Vypyr amp, but I'll be keeping the bandit until one of us dies....and it probably won't be the bandit first.

mine is a 83 and i've had it for about a year and a half and it handles
my bass exceptionally well even considering the manual said the amp is for bass and electric it's got all of the controls that i've ever really needed no effects though but it did have a reverb that was removed before i got it

the distortion sounds like s**t when you crank turn but it has a very rich gritty clean that goes well a distortion turned up a bit and a very versatile sound that i can rigg to go well to go my bass

when i got the amp it had a busted speaker but after i replaced that i've never had a problem

i had no problem finding a aurthorized peavey music store place but i had to call 3 time to get a hold of the repair guy and they couldn't even hook me up with manual or tell what was wrong leaving me to look for a manual on the net and find the problem (speaker was busted) myself

i've been playing nearly two years and i'm pluging the amp to a ibanez soundgear series gto and sounds great i've only turned up past 5 once and it shook my house great amp i'd recommend to to anyone who places a variety of stuff

Mine is an '82 with two channels and reverb. It has an effects loop, which I only used once just to verify that it worked. Apparently the two channels and reverb are footswitch-able, but the FS is long gone. I mostly use this amp at home and for rehearsals. Even in extreme cases, I've never had to turn it up passed 5 - the volume goes up FAST!

This is very much an amp in the classic sense - It's meant to give a clean to slightly gritty sound that you can then add effects to the front end of. It reminds me of an old Fender amp in that sense. Yes, the distortion on it sounds terrible - very buzzy and overly compressed - but you're not supposed to run a classic amp like that. It provides a good basic clean tone and allows you to use distortion pedals to custom-tailor the sound. I use an old Fender Duo-Sonic and Mustang with a BOSS phaser and an EH Big Muff. I tend to go for a distorted grind that blooms into a low feedback - the kind of tone that favors melody but allows for noise. I play and have played most every style, but right now I'm focusing on free jazz and avant-garde. It suits those styles well because it is very responsive to different guitars and effects and can provide a wide variety of good tones that sound slightly different then the normal Fender/Marshall stuff.

It's probably one of the most reliable things ever. I haven't put mine through much abuse, but I have a friend who has put his through hell and only have it break down once. He has used his since '81 without any problems, save for one time when the ground wire for the chassis came loose and started picking up the radio. It has even been completely underwater! After letting it dry out, it turned on and worked just fine.

Haven't needed them, although I was able to find the user guide on their website.

I have been playing since Kurt Cobain died at least. I am fortunate enough to own the best sounding amp I have ever heard - an old Fender Bassman. The Peavey doesn't sound as good, but it gets close enough. I bought it because I'm slightly built and can't haul the Bassman all around town and maintain my enthusiasm for playing music. Plus, tubes are expensive and fragile. The PV gives me a good variety of tones and a nice foundation for my sound in a small, durable package. It's the quintessential back-up amp and an ideal rehearsal tool. And, hey!, it's like $100! I have pedals that cost more sitting in a box.

Made in mid 70s,
2 channels, Normal and Lead, Lead has pre and post gain plus saturation, Normal has just gain plus shared bass, mid, treble and presence controls and master reverb.
Pull Bright on pre gain and Normal gain pots plus Pull thick on tone controls. This only works on Lead channel and cuts mids and tops, a nice effect. Would be nice if it had an external speaker output but it can be slaved using the pre amp out on the rear panel.
Plenty of power, at home use on 1-2, gigs 3-4/5. Never had it up to 10!

Guitars, Squier Strat with single coil sized humbuckers at Neck and bridge, S/C in the middle, plus switching to allow 7 pick up selects, neck, neck and middle, middle, middle and bridge,neck and bridge, all three on.
Squier Tele, standard P/us and wiring. Les Paul Copy, standard.
Ovation Celebrity Electro/ Acoustic.
Suits all styles played, Blues, British R&B, Classic Rock.
Use a Marshall Bluesbreaker II for extra drive and Zoom 505 Mk1 for modulation effects, Phase, Flange and echo. Get all the sounds I need, from Clapton to G.Moore etc

Just got the beast back from the repairers. Whwn I took it in he said "Great, a proper Peavey, built like tanks in those days, don't ever sell it!". Simple repair, pre-amp chip blown, only problem in 10 years.Replaced and serviced for #48.
Reverb can pick up hum if placed too close or on top of another combo with transformer at the top.
Never let me down on a gig.
My tech tells me that all the components in this model were to military spec and the output transistors are capable of 300watts! even though the amp is rated at 65 watts

Great on line forum, but have never used Peavey Support.
Really good amp repairers located in Coventry, can recommend, e-mail for details if you need a repair.

I would definitely try to replace this with another Bandit 65 Solo Series, though I'm not sure whether I'd go for a more modern Bandit.
I love this amp for everything it has, can be used for country to heavy stuff if you take the time to set it up for your favourite sounds. At rehearsal studios I use a Marshall 50 watt FET top and 4x12 as they come in the cost of room hire but I don't seem to get the same sound as the Bandit and it can be off putting. This amp has been played against a Fender 80w tranny combo, and a Laney 50watt valve combo in various bands and blows them both away, but fits perfectly with Bass players TE BLX80.
I wouldn't trade this for the world, prices on E-bay are still fetching what I paid 10 years ago.

Don't know what year, looks like a mid 80s amp though. They amp seem versatile, but very hard to tweek, and useless on the fly. Dual channel but this one is missing a foot switch so I can't change the channels. This amp is a friends and he blew my tube amp so i borrowed it while mine was getting fixed. It is a very loud amp, but I wouldn't turn it up.

Right now I have an SG standard and an aluminum neck Kramer. Both humbuckers and the kramer has Super Distortion on it. I play a harder (dare I say) indy /post punk. The amp is very noisy and feeds back at any playable volume. It will not clean up for anything, or at least I can't seem to figure it out. The pull pods add a nasally nastiness to the amp and I never pulled them. I noticed that app did sound better on my strat than a humbucker. The only thing that sounds decent is the reverb. (which surprised me)

This amp has been serviced once and needs more work again in 2 years. I wouldn't trust this amp for a gig or even think about it. it had some loose wires and was pretty cheap to fix up i've had older amps that lasted forever, now the bass pod doesn't work. Probably needs soldered. The amp never left the house expect about twice a year and should hold up better than that.

I'll give it a 5 because these amps are cheap and meant to be that way. It's a great amp for starters and I think I read somewhere it's the most sold amp of all time. Now that I've been playing for 15+ years this amp is not an option.

I picked this amp up about a year ago, as I needed something a little more powerful than my old amp. Obviously, I got the Peavey 2nd hand... The amp was made in '85. Versatility wise, I think there's an infinite number of settings and different tones for this thing. My general style is Metal, so I use 'fair' amounts of distortion... not too much, but a comfy amount, never going past 8 on Saturation or Pull Bright, and sticking to a nice 5 on Presence.

I've only really used this amp in practice sessions, to be honest, I would never EVER gig with this thing (see below)

Features... It'll rate highly here. 9

I use a Fender American Deluxe guitar (chrome silver, if you want to know!, so I'm using a S-S-S set-up. It's got the SCN Noiseless pickups, so it should generally sound wonderfull!

However....

This amp is TERRIBLE in sound quality. Although I said in the previous box that it's pretty damn versatile, no matter what you set it as, it is either WAY too distorted, WAY too weak, or it sounds like it's being sick with the Pull Thick on...

On a plus side, I love it when you pull the Saturation right up, and put the presence onto 0... Using the neck pickup of ANY guitar, you can get a lovely thick sound, which is great for those slow 'Iron Maiden-esque' melodies, or any Ballad solo.

Clean, this thing is great! I love the warmth in the tone, and often I find myself lost in the sound. Great for ballads/blusey songs!

To call the distortion on this thing 'brutal' would automatically qualify you for "Understatement of the Year" award. It's so bad, I can't actually hear what I'm playing. Death metal fans, or crap players will love this thing! 2, only because of the thickness and the clean tones (one for each, see!).

I have to say, as much as this amp weighs, I've hurled it about a fair bit. I've kicked it, hit it, thrown numerous things at it (including a bandmate!) and it STILL hasn't died (not that I'm trying to kill it, of course - just my general frustration at the bad sound). This thing is built like a tank! If i was small enough, I could use this as a bomb shelter.

I could easily use this one amp alone on a world tour (of pubs, most likely) and not have to worry about it breaking down on me!

Gets a 10 in this field!

Not had to worry about this.

Been playing about 5 years, I've a couple of other guitars, other than my Deluxe Strat: a Mexican Strat and a Ibanez RG1570, but I use the Deluxe most. I'm a lefty player, so it's hard for me to get hold of good gear!

I'd obviously be pissed if some tosser stole it, they'd have broken into my damn house!

I'm going to sell this thing on anyway, and save some #600 or so to buy an Engl amp!

Love the reliability, hate just about everything else. I only wish it had a little less distortion, and nicer sound quality...

That's all for me, I guess... I'm feelin' generous, so I'll give it a 4 or so... Enjoy!

Bought this amp in 1983.Extremely versatile for any style including jazz,blues , c & w , you name it this little pal will do it and is good at all levels of volume.It can produce Fender and Marshall sounds on the clean channel and with a little tweaking on the dirty channel you can produce a beautiful bluesy tone or a heavily saturated tone.It is very reliable and has all the volume there if you need it. I will never sell it because it has never let me down.
Easy to carry. Well made.

Use 69 Strat & Tele 72 reissue.Play a lot of styles.
Crank up the clean and you have classic small amp sounds/ break up eg .Fenderdelux reverb/tweed.

completely dependable .

never needed it.

Been playing 35 years.Own a Mesa Lonestar & 73 FenderTwin Reverb
Will not lose it .Steal it at your peril.
The unsung hero of small combo solid state amps.

I bought my Bandit 65 at a yard sell. I count myself extremely luck to have found it much less for the price I got it for. Prior to this one, the only amp I had was a small Crate Amp. I play Rock (mainly Ballets) and country but I also play hard rock too. I find this amp to be very versatile. I play both acoustic and electric and this amp work well with both. I have never used all the power it is capable of because it would have the cops visiting me constantly. It is solid states and other than having to clean the knobs and plugs when they get dirty, I have had no trouble with it. I have FX 7 Processor that I use with it in a loop and it works great.

My electric guiotar is a Gibson Epiphone Special and performs well with this amp. The main guitar I play with this amp is my 1997 Takamine Limited Edition Electric/Acoustic. Although this amp wasnt made to play with acoustic guitars, it performs exceptionally well with it. In conjuntion with my processor, theres not much I can't play and get the effects I desire.

This amp is very dependable. Other than the routine cleaning of the knobs and plugs, I have dont nothing to it for the five years I have owned it and it has worked flawlessly. I have played with friends who have much more expensive amps than me and they often have trouble with thiers but mine just keeps on keepin on.

I have been playing for around 15 years mostly acoustic without an amp. I purchased this amp to broaden my playing and experiment. I don't think I will ever need another amp for what I do. I have never been able to turn it all the way up because of the power. I would definately buy this amp again. I have a friend who has a Marshall Stack and my Peavey has much better range. It can be played lower or high unlike the Marshall that only sounds good turned up high.

i bought a bandit 65 for my first ever amp about 2 years ago it was cheep and sounded like it was good value for money, and it was . i like how it has a very low sounding tone to it and when playing with the controls over time i hav realised the saturation can get some like buzzy wen turned right up, so its best to keep it low. the most important controls on this amp to me are the pull brights on the high eq and pre gains and the reverb as it brings it to life tho i dont like it anywer past 3 or 4 . this amp i used mostly in my bedroom and has a s**t load of power ive never dared turn the post past five just incase i blew the speaker its like it was made for about 2 speakers at least

i just use a peavey preditor with the bandit as it is the only guitar i have and i cudnt play with out it. if you turn the saturation right up it can get noisy at higher volumes and same with the pre gain if your trying to find a more distorted sound. the clean channel is great on this amp it is actually clean some say too clean but can sound gr8 with some effects.

this amp dusnt break the only thing that could give the slightest worry was if the speaker got damaged like punchered but not even thats happened after faling out my car been nocked all over the place and it still looks like new.

never needed it

i have played with a few different amps and this amp could only give the deep powerful sound that no other make could give i have played on friends marshals and a trace elliot trident c100 if i lost the amp or it wer stolen i would be purchasing a peavey 5150 or a the tripple x series as i crave high gain and more variablility anf am saving up for 1 of them anyway but i wud still miss it :)