Peavey Bandit 65

Simple, no-nonsense Peavey design. Two channels, push-pull pots and an effects loop. Great beginner, intermediate or advanced guitar player amp. Amp versatility comes from the player and the tools they use, not solely from the amp. Reverb is an Accutronics (I believe) which is the same company that builds Fender's reverb tanks.

This amp gives the classic 'flat' Peavey sound. These early to mid '80's amps did little to color the sound of the instrument on the clean channel, which is what made them so great for adding effects in line. Solid state Peavey amps have no real voice of thier own, contrary to your Fender, Marshall, and other amps. This can work for you or against you, depending on how you approach it. If you are playing a guitar that doesn't sound good through pedals that aren't set right, the Peavey isn't going to add anything in the tone that is missing. The end result is that it will sound bad. On the plus side, if you have a really great tone dialed in, the Bandit acts simply as an amplifier, not another tone shaping tool. Once again, it depends greatly on what kind of tools you are using to shape your sound. The gain channel, when set properly, gives a nice, smooth clipping overdrive. The key to this channel is to not get too crazy with the Saturation knob. Overall, it's a 112 budget amp. No Mister "Ive got a 1973 Marshall" it's not going to sound like your amp. But a Matchless isn't going to either, so does that make the Matchless second rate? You're not comparing apples to apples, so don't make the inference that one is better than the other. Also, nobody cares about your 1973 Marshall. My backup amps are worth more, and are more desireable than your equipment. Don't brag unless you own one of everything ever built. Nobody cares.

It's a Peavey. It's solid state. 'Nuff said.

Once again, it's Peavey. They've been around forever, and most any info you will ever need is available 24-7 online at www.peavey.com.

Overall, as a pawn shop amp under $150, this might be the best bang for the buck available. The newer TransTube series don't sound as good to my ears as the older ones, but that's just my taste. Go with what your ears tell you. It's loud enough to be great in most gigging applications, and if you're playing someplace where more watts are necessary, you'll be micing stuff anyway. (and this amp sounds great miced)

i totaly disagree the bandit 65 is a great amp no matter what your playing . i have had mine for years and has never failed me once. the 12inch scorpin is a good speaker. the only draw back is it has no effects loop or ext cab in put otherwise its a good amp, nuthing personal to the guy that has a wharehouse full of guitars going back to the 60s but WHO CARES!! peavy made an affordable amp in the day and it had lasted me a quite a while . infact i have seen some in pawn shops i should have bought an extra one. . besides i know that its no marshall or a fender twin but gddamn guys you realy only need one speaker to get you sound across but to each thir own i guess. i think marshals are to costly and a pain in the ass to haul around like if you playing in a club thats tiney why do you need a half stack or full stack. this bandit is loud enough cranked to play a large hall i know i have done that before.

I forget. I bought mine in 1981 or so brand new. i forget what happened to it. I must of sold it. What a long time ago!

Evidently, i must have liked it enough to buy the damn thing but after a few years of hearing marshalls and Fenders I broke down and bought a 1973 50 watt Marshall stack (only 10 years old then) and the little Peavy Bandit 65 got lost in my closet or something.

I remember the tone to sound like the guitar player who's on the Jay Leno show every night. Evidently, some people like the sound. To me, it's frickin horrible. I have to hit the mute on my remote when the Jay Leno show starts as that dude's tone just rubs me the wrong way. Come to think of it....I was stoned too when I liked that sound!

I would use words like, flat, sterile, dull, over compressed, thin, solid state, 80's and maybe just plain "Horribe" to describe the sound.

Luckily, today Peavey makes some great sounding amps. Even their solid state amps can sound very cool.

I've never seen more reliable stuff than from Peavey. I always joked that it's because Peavey stuff just sits in closets and never gets used. But actually, Peavey stuff has always been very well constructed stuff.

I've been playing since 1969.

I own a music stores worth of guitars and amps going back to the 60's.

I like blues, rock, metal, grunge and some Brian Setzer like stuff.

I would never ever buy want to play thru a Bandit for more than 5 minutes again.

The newer Fender solidstate amps are my preference now. My friend just bought a Fender Deluxe 90 with the DSP effects and now that i believe is a far better sounding amp. I doubt it's any more reliable than a Peavey however.

Also, I liked the Fender Champion 30 (no DSP) and the Marshall Valvestate VS100R combo amp.

It's really wrong to badmouth this amp, because it really was affordable, reliable and sturdy and that's something we can be objective about but just because we find the tone to be not to our liking doesn't mean everyone else won't like it. If you like the tone then it'll be a great amp for you!

But since the amp is totally worthless to me because I don't like the tone I'm gonna give it a 5.

I had three of these amps, originally I was looking for something loud and convenient for playing out on the road. I played pro rock/Psych, Punk/Metal, later experimental.
Used clean to amplify everything from chairs to computers. I liked that it has what I want in a smaller combo. Many don't have pre amp lines, channel selection, etc.
It can go from Soggy Bottom boys to Butthole surfers.
The footswitch is a plus. I know many of them are "out there" without the ft. swt.
No headphone jack, It does have pre-amp out/in. I eventually would loop small home stereos though it and utilize any equalization to help the amp's own Low/Mid/High/Presence, & "thick" features. Deep reverb. The "thick" gain will give you an early punk sound, the sat gain with lowered mid is early 80's metal. Pre amp it with an expander it makes big rock!
It helps to add wheels! It's heavy.
Small and powerful, sturdy also. I have dropped them, smashed them, spilled beer on them, no problem.

I played an Electra Vulcan, with the effects boxes inside. (Flanger, phaser) 11 gauge strings, double humbuckers,hotrod/w magnets.
I eventually would play everything through it. Tapes, Cans, Keyboards, Banjos ... EMFs during sun spots.
It can get some ugly distortion.
I give it a 6 for a Peavey amp.

This is the workhorse for the proletariat musician. Well built and convenient.

I have been playing for 20+years. I've enjoyed this amp.
If your "touring" low budget/DIY punk style, and want small, strong, loud all in one piece of equipment. This is a good amp.
If this was stolen, I wouldn't commit suicide.
They are not that expensive.
Attach wheels to it, you'll be happy you did.

I have two 1982 Bandits (bought new), and one 1983 (bought used). Let me start by saying that I own 8 amps. 6 solid state Peaveys, 1 Peavey Classis 50 (4-10") with the 115 E extension cab, and a Mesa Boogie from HEAVEN. The Bandits started out as my main gig amps. I've used, over-used, and abused the amps like you would'nt believe. I'm a mule. That's a picker in New Orleans who plays 8 to 12 gigs every week. So I kept one Bandit 65, bouncing on it's back, in the back of my vehicle constantly, the other on a late-night house gig. Both are beat to shit by now & still sound good. I do have other amps that I prefer and use on my main gigs. But I advise anyone who is a working picker to pick up one of these as a spare or a main amp.
Now I use a clean setting and let my Digitech RP 10 do the dirty work. The distortion sounds aren't awesome...they're OK to Good... but they will fool the nice looking chick in the forth row. I used to use the channel switching with just a delay & compresser & got 85% of all the tones I needed. So I find the amp somewhat versitile. I do wish it had an external speaker jack and tilt legs. I've also installed the Peavey DBI (direct box interface) on all my amps. (this eliminates a mic & stand) It does NOT affect the sound & provides an XLR output (after the speaker) for easy micing. The Bandit has NEVER not been loud enough or clean enough.

I use sparkle clean sounds mostly. This amp has it. Pulling out the "bright" knob gives it to me. The verb is good. The pots get noisy after a few years in this Louisiana humidity of %100, but a little spit of contact cleaner fixes that right up. The distortion is acceptable for classic rock & R & B. This is NOT a Marshall or a Boogie so if you have nine tattoos and a bone thru your nose, DONT BUY THIS AMP. This is a good sounding and somewhat versitile amp.

No amp in the world has been neglected like my Bandits. Other pickers in this area are amazed at the age, and abuse of my Bandits....and the tones that they give me decade after decade. Yes, the bandits have temporarily failed me. Usually a broked solder joint or a lost ground, but thats from me throwing it in the back of my truck and speeding off to the next gig. I have always been able to open it up, spot the obvious problem, & in 30 minutes.....back on line. And I am not a tech. The Bandit is to simple and it's easy to fix.
Dependable? It IS my backup amp. I would never treat my Classic 50 or my Boogie MK III like this!

Peavey is second only to Mesa Boogie as far as customer support goes.

Been picking for my living for 23 years. I also play pedal steel and use three different Peavey amps for steel. I use an Austin 400 for when I double on guitar & steel.(it has two seperate preamps)
I'll NEVER be without at least one Bandit 65. It's like jumper cables. The Bandit 65 has gotton me out of much more trouble than it's gotton me into. I even loan my Bandits out to other players who's gear failed them. I never have to worry about them coming home damaged.
Compare? Well the Bandit is not a Marshall Stack, Soldano, or a Boogie. I payed $2250 for my Boogie & $225 for each Bandit. Honestly the Boogie only sounds 10 or 15% better! Now that's dollar value. Befoer I bought a Twin, solid state Fender, valvestate Marshall, or a Roland JC 120...all in the 500 to $900 area.. I'd spend $150 on a used Bandit...everytime. You may get %10 less tone at %80 savings......VALUE.

I am not sure what year the amp was made in, but I bought mine new in 87? from a locale Peavey dealer. It is the version that has the 12? celestion speaker, solo series. This amp buy itself works well for playing 70?s early 80?s rock, country, and blues, it needs a little outside help to play today?s sounds. It?s equipped with 2 channels clean and distortion; both the clean and distorted channels have an independent pull bright feature on the volume knobs. Both channels share the 3-band eq, presents and reverb. You are able to change the channels by and only by the foot switch. Pre amp out and Power amp in can be used as an effects loop. There are a couple things that I would have liked to be on this model. Channel change available on the front of the unit not just the foot switch and mixable effects send and return i/o. For its day it had more features then most.
This has been my practice amp. It?s the perfect size to take to band practice night, small enough to through in the back of the car and powerful enough to keep up in volume with the drummer. Though I haven?t tried I would say that it has enough power to play at a small venue.

I didn?t know what I was doing when I bought this amp 16 years ago. I didn?t do any compassion shopping and didn?t know what tone I was looking for. I was a teenage and needed something to pacify this new hobby I had entered. I have only owned a few different guitars and all of my electric guitars have been Ibanez. I have a Road Star II with the 3 single coil config, and GX20 with 2-humbuckler config and a 470 S series with H-S-H config. Each of these guitars gives me a different feel with this amp. The clean channel is awesome; it is reactive and bright. Our band plays covers and we do from 50?s swing to late 90?s punk country to thrash. I have run on the clean channel at ? volume for hours and it doesn?t distort. I couldn?t tell you what it does at full volume I can?t stand it that loud to find out. I must be getting old. Where as the distorted channel is ok, but that is about all I can say about it. The distortion is Flat, lacks body and shape. It doesn?t have the same reactive feel as the clean channel. Anyway that is what effect pedals are for.

Like I had noted above I have had this amp for 16 years, one week after I bought it the reverb stopped working, I call the dealer the dealer gives me an address I can take the amp. next day I have a fully working amp 16 years later that is the only problem I have every had......

I have never had a need to work with Peavey. The locale dealer did me a great service by selling me such a reliable unit when they could have sold me somthing more expencive. I have a local authorized service center that fix my issue under its 1 year warranty and I had the amp the next day.. wow..

I have been playing for 17 years now most of those as a hobby and only the last 2 years professionally. I have a CarvinMTS3200 half-stack and a Boss GT6. If my Peavey was stolen or lost I would be at a loss I love my pratice amp. The best thing about this 65 watt jewel is the power that it has in such a small package. I don't like the distortion and use my pedal unless im only playing the older stuff.

I bought this amp in may 2003. At this this time it was 20 years old and it had to replace stolen Hughes&ettner Tour reverb combo. Combo is rated 65 watt and has two channels.. I play lot of different styles: blues, hard rock, jazz bit of this and bit of that. It sounds really nice though I don't have footswitch. I like bright switch but it tends to brighten the channels to much. It is fine when you play only one pickup guitar.

I play custom build silhouette special, custom strat and superstrat HSH with Floyd Rose. First two guitars are fitted with emg passive single coils and DiMarzio Vintage '54. Superstrat is fitted with Mightymite paf humbuckers and hot single. I never felt that this combo is somehow too noisy or humms, except when you have too many electric devices plugged and running at the same time. It sounds like real tube amp to me, distortion level is fine and isn't fuzzy even when I push saturation knob at max - but it took me quite a lot time to made it sound like I wanted. To me it sounds like tube amp A/B class when I compare it with Laney LC-50 markII. Probably you won't be albe to play heavy metal with it's natural distortion. Plus it has beautiful reverb.

I really can't say how reliable it is because I hadn't chance to try it at concerts yet.. but I think this amp is the BEST small combo, for that price I ever played. Only thing I noticed when I played and I stood on it, it tended to lower the volume.

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I'm playing for 6 years and I played Fender Ultimate chorus, marshall Valvestate head and H&K tour reverb combo. This one has the best sound of them all. If I find another one I will buy it.

i think my bandit was made in 1987, i am not sure because i found it in a pawn shop at a deal i couldnt refuse...a big, loud amp to replace my starter amp(another peavey)...for 200 canadian. I have had it for about a year or so now and play everything through it, but mostly PUNK, metal ska stuff.
i believe it does have a cabinet out plug in the back..but am not positive, got all the bells and whisles everyone else has said. has a low and a high input, great for a guitar and a mic. or two guitars (havnt tried a bass for too long...but it sounded awsome when i did.

as said before...this amp is not too bad for all my sound needs. it is kinda noisy...but only because it needs a good clean...i dont think it has been cleaned since created! i use all of my pickup settings on my ibanez rg560, all sound superb. the distortion is okay, but depending on your pickyness and your styles i would recommend a good pedal. clean sounds fine and even makes my old vantage sing (and thats hard to do!!!) i play it really loud with other guitarists and bassists, up to 4 guitars and 2 basses at a time, all with much more expencive amps and mine plays atop of most of them. I use a pedal for distortion and any other effects so i only use the built in effects when im too lazy to plug in the extra cords or i've borrowed a footswich....the amp sounds great on all levels and i love the pull options. the only real complaints are neibors from the volume and friends who paid more than double for a much worse amp.

like everyone has said, peavey didnt mess around on these heavy duty amps...they knew who would use it and for what purpose...you can beat the hell outta this amp, you can toss it around and you can drop it countless times, or just have a few clumbsy friends knock it over a few times...and it still is kicking!

havn't had to deal with them....this amp just wont die

i have been playing about 5-6 years, my frinds who have been playing longer love the amp too. if stolen i would definatly buy the same model/year if possible.i got it at a definate steal and would have expected to pay 300 american for the exact one (the guy just wanted his money out of it...talked him down from 300)i own the ibanez rg560, a vantage of some sort, two acoustics, a zoom pedal, a peavey 10watt decade amp, some vocals stuff.if i were to pick out the worst thing about it would be the weight...and its not so bad....you develop big muscles from it anyways...and to add anything would be a footswich cause mine didnt have one. if you can, snatch one of these up...you wont regret it.

Made in 83 very heavy 2 channels, clean (the one I use) or saturation it has an effects loop, its rated at 65 watts but it is a 200 watt draw so this amp is loud.

I have many guitars and each of them sound great with this amp. Single coils sound smooth and humbuckers are very creamy. The amp can go from molly hatchet to korn with no problem.

It has been with me since the it was new never had one problem. Guitar players always goof on me when they see it but they shut up when I start playing it.

Never had to deal with them.

I have been playing since I was 6 im 37 now so I know my way around a fret board and I know what sound im looking for and how to get it.If it was stolen I would look long and hard for it.

It was a gift, Christmas of 1986. My first loud amp:-) A big step up from my first amp, A Peavey Audition 20(which is a great starter/bedroom amp). Distortion, reverb, line out, power amp in, foot switch, & 1 12" Scorpion Speaker.

Great country/rock amp. The distortion channel is great for Alabama to 70's Molly Hatchet overdrive tones. The clean channel I like better than most 1/12 combos. Nice and clean with good head room. The reverb is superb. I use the amp with stock teles and strats.

This amp has never failed me. It?s been tossed in and out of busses and vans since I got the thing. I had the thing re-soldered a few years back just as a safety precaution. The thing has been all over Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, and has even flown to Nashville with me.

Peavey is great in this department bet never needed their services for this amp.

One of my all time favorite amps. Better than the average 1/12 combo. It packs a big punch for its size. I sometimes play up to 3 gigs in a day (rehearsals, park functions, prates, weddings, clubs at night, etc..). This is the amp I use when we are on the go or if we have limited have cargo space. Though I usually have my VTX Classic or Stereo Chorus 400 already set up at the clubs or big rooms.