Peavey Bandit III

This is the new 2006/07 Solid State 'Transtube' Bandit, updated cosmetics with two silver stripes on the speaker grill like older Peaveys had, and a 'logo bar' on the front under the knobs (like the Valve King series). Made in China (as are all Transtube amps now).

Similar specs to the previous generation Bandit, with a few updates:
Clean channel now has three presets:
Vintage (like Fender blackface),
Classic (PV Classic Series),
Warm (Classic with more low end)
Three way T-Dynamics power switch: 100% 50% 25%
Three way Resonance switch: Tight Medium Loose
Adjustable, footswitchable Boost (knob on front of amp, next to Reverb)
Speaker Simulated Line Out with volume knob
New design Blue Marvel 12" speaker

For the price, you have to give the new Bandit a 10 for features.

I play 60's/70's Rock, Blues, some country and contemporary worship stuff, so keep that in mind when reading below...

The Clean Channel:

For me this is where this amp shines! There are now three modes on the clean channel: Vintage (think blackface Fender); Classic (yes, Peavey Classic Series); and Warm (like Classic with more low end; perhaps shooting for a JSX 412 clean in a 112 package).

With a little tweaking of the tone knobs on each setting, I found great clean tones - warm, nice highs, good punch (with the amp set to 100% on the back T-Dynamics switch). It does Fender cleans really well on the Vintage setting, and the Classic setting does sound like the Classic series, EL84 tube amps. Warm fattens up nicely, and this new Blue Marvel speaker handles the lows just fine.

Change the T-Dynamics to 50% or 25% and the tone stays nice, it just loses some punch, but you can turn it up more, and it dirties up a little. With humbuckers, you can get a little more hair on it in the 25% mode, like a tube amp.

One of the most noticeable qualities of the clean channel was the incredible low end...this new speaker sounds very good. Full, round, punchy, not mushy on the Strat's neck pickup...I was playing the amp part of the time turned up to 12 noon, and it held together well.

Another place where this thing is very versatile: the Resonance switch on the back, which has three settings; Tight, Medium and Loose. The best way to describe the change here is Tight feels like your home, 'bedroom' setting, switch over to Loose for a wide open, on stage sound (on the overdrive channel, the change between these two settings is enormous; like the old "taking a blanket off the cab" cliche)...it's a very useable feature.

The Lead Channel:

Again, there are three settings like before (Vintage, Modern (scooped mids), and High Gain,). Each is a unique voice, my favorites are Vintage and High Gain. It takes me a lot more tweaking on the lead channel to dial in sounds I'm happy with, but they're there...this think really shines with humbuckers, though (I played an American Series Strat with stock single coils and my Warmoth "Fat Strat" with JB and Jazz pups in it).

With single coils, I had the most trouble dialing in the right amount of highs (not ending up with a buzzy high end on the gain settings), which often requires a little tweak of the tone knob on the guitar, too.

Turn the lead channel up (I did this more with the humbucker loaded guitar) and the sound gets richer, unlike some SS amps where it starts to get harsh...it stayed thick, punchy and dynamic, throwing the resonance switch over to Loose seemed like it doubled the power...not the volume, but it just felt so much bigger! Much bigger than a 112 amp (and this thing has a much bigger cab than Peavey's Classic 30, which I think makes a huge difference in the sound it puts out).

But for high gain players, there's LOTS of tones in this amp to mess with, and the speaker really holds onto the low end; I suspect this amp would sound really good with a 7-string or a guitar tuned down.

I don't know about reliability...past Peavey's have been much better than average compared to other companies' amps. Since these are made in China, we'll have to wait and see if that trend continues...

I haven't bought the amp yet, just played it in the store for a couple hours. In the past Peavey's customer support has been top notch.

I'm 49 and I've been playing since I was thirteen...

...I haven't bought this amp yet, but it's at the top of my want list; I'm thinking of replacing my Valve King with it so I dont' have to mess with tubes for our regular Sunday worship band...and also because of the speaker simulated line out; that feature is very smart in this day of miking or going direct into a P.A. system. I have had more than half a dozen tube amps (Peaveys, Fenders, Gibson, also tried Reverend and Traynor) and this amp holds up pretty well to most of them (still have and use a Delta Blues 210, Vibro King 112 and old Vibro Champ, the only other ones I wish I still had are a Peavey Ultra 410, Classic 50 head, and a Gibson GA15-RV which I stupidly traded in on something I no longer have!).