Peavey Bandit 65

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 :)

made in 1987

has a pre gain, saturation & post gain for the lead channel. normal gain is the clean channel volume. both channels share the eq section. both have a pull bright switch.

this thing rocks man! i play mostly southern rock, country and blues and this amp handles it all very well. the amp distortion tends to get real ugly with the saturation past 5 but i never use it past 3 anyway. so basically, if you are a guitar player who relies on heavy distortion to cover up your bad playing, then the amp distortion on the bandit won`t be what your looking for. go get a boss metal zone for that.

this thing has plenty of power. if you cut back on the saturation, say to 3, and crank the pre gain all the way up you get a real tube like sound. i know because i own 2 early 80s marshall jcm 800 half stacks. i also own 4 other peavey combos and i did a back to back comparison to all of them and the bandit can hang right in there. with the 65 loud watts it has it was easy. the volume never goes past 5. i compared it to my renown 160 watt solo series, my heritage tube 130 watt vtx ,my classic chorus 75 watt x 2, and my old 120 watt tube vtx duece. with the smaller size and lighter weight of the bandit along with its big sound it is perfect for small to medium clubs and cramped stages. it would probably be just fine in bigger gigs because everthing has a mic on it anyway. so really, too loud is too loud any way you look at it. 65 watts is plenty.


to sum it up i am very satisfied with the sound of the bandit 65. i am 40 years old and a professional musician and have been gigging since 1980. i have lugged the same 2 marshall half stacks around for over 15 years. yes, i said TWO half stacks. i have blown power tubes out in the middle of a gig and you have to have a backup ready to go. not so with solid state amps. tubes sound great but so do a lot of solid state amps. the trick is to be not so concerned with the name on the amp and whats inside, but the performance and sound. once you`ve played as long as i have you learn that. it`s time to lighten the load.

what can i say. BUILT LIKE A FRIGGIN TANK MAN!

never needed it.

got to rate it a 10 ya`ll. i probably have well over $3000 total invested in my 2 marshalls and the tube\repair costs combined over the years. wheew, thats a lot of cash for a poor boy.... my peaveys, lets see. i`ve got 5 combos and probably have less than $700 total invested in all of them together with $0 in repairs. DO THE MATH! i found all of them in pawn shops too. like i said earlier, once a guitar player gets past the ooo`s and ahhh`s of his fellow musicians over the marshall,mesa,fender gear he lugs to the gig, he should try out an old peavey. they are in-expensive, reliable and sound just fine. for the price of one marshall you can buy 5 or 6 old peaveys.

I really want to thank the reviewers at Harmony Central for directing me to this amp. I needed a medium sized solid state amp for gigging and rehersals. According to reviews(and more importantly my ears) , I was either looking for an early to mid 80?s USA Peavey Bandit 65 or a late 80's Fender m-80 chorus.

The last two digits of the serial number are the year of the amp. Mine is a 1985.


I have been playing for 20 plus years and use a 91 Fender American Standard Stratocaster with Van Zandt Blues and a Heritage H-535 with Seth Lovers. At this stage in my life I have become known to play directly from guitar to amp but occasionally I will use a Ibanez Tubescreamer or a modded VOX Wah. My other amps include a family heirloom 64 Gubson GA 19RTV(Great tones but delicate and not enough wattage without being miked) and an ACOUSTIC 124, (100 watt monster with 4 tens-too heavy to haul around for rehersal and small jobs). As you can see I needed a medium sized amp to place me in a position where I will never need another amp again(yeah right). I didn?t have much to spend. If money was no object I probably would have bought a vintage blackface twin, a Zinky Blue Velvet or a BonePicker. I love tube tone but the price-tone ratio for this ss amp is hard to beat. I have heard some ss amps that really suck but this one is not one of them.

I waited for 6 months to post this review because I wanted to let the excitement of the purchace wear off. My style includes a variety of Blues, Rockabilly, Classic Rock, Vintage Metal, Classic country, New Mexico Traditional Latino Music and Oldies. This amp fits the bill quite nicely for all styles.

My only complaint about this amp is that the knobs and controls can be somewhat confusing. It takes a while to truly understand the subtleties of the knobs. I think people that do not like the sound of this amp have not truly taken the time to understand the controls.

My amp did not come with the footswitch.

This amp has a wicked variety of sounds. From beautiful clean tone with tons of headroom to slight blues overdrive to vintage classic metal distortion. Here are some helpful hints for tonal variety.

Blues Tone-Pre2 bright in, sat-1, post-4, lo-8 mid-8 hi-2, pull thick,pres-0, rv-4

Versatile-pre-5, bright-pull, sat-3, post-4, bass-7, mid-6 treble-10, pres-10

Leadtone-lo-10, mid-3, hi-10, sat-3 pre and post to taste

Heavy- pre-7, bright ?pull, sat-4, post-3, lo-9 mid-3, thick pull, hi-7, pres-10, rv-5

I am amazed that some people who posted say this amp is not loud enough for gigging. Where are you gigging? MILE HIGH STADIUM? This amp is loud enough for just about anything except for some outdoor gigs. Music should be pleasure to the ears, not torture. In a room, people 20 feet away should be able to have a conversation.(end of rant)

For the value to price ratio, this amp deserves a 12 in this caterory. Just learn the knobs and you will be fine.

I A;B'd this amp with my friends Peavey Transtube studio Pro 112. The bandid kicked its ass. Tone, Volume, Clarity

This amp is a workhorse and a Nashville Standard.

This amp is all original and works wonderfully. I bought it used so I do not know the story. PEAVEY USA IS BUILT TO LAST.

They have a good website but the amp is way past warranty.

I really wanted to share my amazement at this amp with the music community. I am a seasoned musician and have been around the block. Again, I want to thank the posters below me for directing me to this beautiful amp. I will recommend this amp to beginners and old pros alike.

If you find one in good condition, You will not regret buying one.

Peavey USA Bandit 65.

This is one of the only amps that really deserves a 10 in this category. Some amps I have reviewed got a 4 here.

My Bandit was made in 1981. Back in those days, you could tell the ago from the serial number, which began '1-A...etc.' Everyone knows the feature-set. Two inputs, pre-saturation-post controls for lead gain set-up. The amp's personality changes radically with different ratios of these. Clean vol. control (both pre-gains have a pull bright). Bass, mid, treble, and presence tone controls, followed by nice spring reverb. Back panel has preamp out/power amp in loop and footswitch port.

I bought this amp originally to use with a J-Station for a multi-instrument rig (electric, acoustic, mandolin, and steel guitar. It was years before I actually used the amp as a stand-alone. I remembered them as being OK, but not comparable to a 'professional' amp. I had to use this for a wedding reception gig a few weeks ago, having broken and failed to fix my other amps. IT ROCKED! Just the Bandit and a Line 6 Delay Modeler in the loop. Since then I've had great results with this combination with a Roadhouse Strat and with a Peavey Firenza with DiMarzio Virtual P-90s. Here's the trick: don't overuse the saturation control. Try this: Pre gain at 5, bright switch on, saturation at 3, post at 4; bass at 7, mid at 6, treble at 10, presence at 10, reverb at 3. With the aforementioned guitars, you don't even NEED the clean channel. Just turn up or down for cleaner or more distorted tones, just like a tube amp. I probably wouldn't record with this rig, but it's GREAT live. At $200 used, it's the cheapest amp I've ever played out with, and will probably last ANOTHER 23 years!

It's 23 years old! If anything were going to let go, it sure would have by now.

Peavey customer support remains exemplary! I've never needed them for this product, but I've had great luck with the factory people.

Been playing over 40 years, road-dog and semi-pro. I play the occasional gig now, plus the odd recording session. I've had the usual litany of Marshalls, Randalls, Fenders, Tech 21s, Tube Works 2112. Lotsa different guitars, too. I don't play enough to ever wear this amp out, but I've thought about having another one anyway. They're always on eBay.

Just your average 2 channel solid state. the clean is good. the overdrive is really rocky (all low mids), which can be cool if your going for that kinda sound. the reverb is ok too, but nothing special. I've removed mine.

This is the coolest sounding solid state i've ever played. The trick is, get rid of the stock speaker and put in 65w celestion. And the most important thing is USE A TUBESCREAMER. This amp sounds great when you run it clean and use the TS-9 (or 808) as the overdrive. I have recordings of me with just a les paul thru in the TS-9 into the bandit and people have commented on how great my tone is. They usually ask what kind of tube amp I'm using. I mean, put it next to an old Marshall JMP and it will probably sound like shit at high volumes. But for a solid state, it doesn't get better.

I've dropped this thing so many times and it has never given me any problems at all. It has even fallen out of a moving van twice! Head first! Just pull out the chassis and you'll see. Its so built so simply, nothing could possibly good wrong. :0)

never had to call

this amp is a good back up if your use to using tube amps. You never know what can happen with this pesky tubes, so its a good idea to have this work horse with you. As stated earlier, the key to getting good tone is use a tubescreamer for the overdrive.

Bought it back in mid 80s. I was in high school at the time and it took a long time to save up. Has clean and distorted channel, reverb. solid state. Distortion/Saturation is pretty useless. You'll need an effects units to get good rock sounds. I bypass everything on the amp now and run a Rockton Voodu Valve in and just use the poweramp. Used at home for playing/recording - no gigging. Plenty loud for that. Basically, it has features, but I only use the power switch and run effects into poweramp.

Again, saturation/distortion on board is bad. Get an effects unit. The clean is usable. You'll be best off getting an effects unit and bypassing the amps preamp controls. The 12" speaker gives a good full sound though if you do that.

I've had it for nearly 20 years with no problem.. Haven't worked it hard though.

No experience here.

This a solid utility amp. nothing outstanding, but usable clean channel, and/or bypass the preamp and run an effects unit straight into the poweramp. Again, the 12" speaker sounds pretty good with a decent preamp in front.

For the time the features were quite good (i.e. channel switching, good sounding distortion for the time, deep reverb, comprehensive EQ, etc...) for the price (~$200 in 1984) I got mine in 1984 back in HS and still have it albeit in not-so-mint condition. It's heavier than most amps.

Not to beat a dead horse but the 'distortion' channel was actually the best sounding of it's kind for that type of amp. Remember at the time most music stores just had either Peavey or Crate amps for combos; Marshalls, Fenders, etc... did not have their lineups of affordable solid state amps at the time.

The distortion DID sound like a heavily overdriven tube stack if you maxed the 'saturation' and DIDN'T pull out the 'thick' knob; what the thick knob would do would be to boost the low mids but it would also disable the low and mid tone controls so you ended up have somewhat of a low cut as well leading to kind of a nasal sound. It even fed back like a heavy tube stack; I remember being able to mimic Hendrix-y live feedback on this amp.

As far as these days, people may find the distortion unuseable since the gain-saturation just isn't there for most of the nu-metal/heavy metal sounds of this era, and it's just too darn dirty for things best left to a TS overdrive/Fender Tube Amp combo.

As far as the rest of the amp, I'd say it works quite well. The reverb is nice and deep for a spring reverb. The EQ seems to have a lot of sweep making for a lot of sounds and the clean channel doesn't break up a lot.

Footswitch was my only gripe since it basically broke a year after I got it from constant abuse. The amp itself was built like a tank and it's still going strong after 20 years.

N/A

Good amp for recording or small club venues if you can find it in good condition. The distortion circuit has a particular sort of sound so if it's not for you, you may wish to look at another amp or use your favorite pedal with this. Overall for the price used (I've seen it around $100 - 150) it's a good buy, around a 9. New way back when it was a 10.