Peavey Bravo 112

1990s, 1x12, all tube, 25w, 2 channel clean/dirty, reverb, footswitch controlled channel and reverb. Serial effects loop and extension speaker jacks. This is a great recording/practice amp but not enough power for band practice without a mic to a PA.

Using a Gibson Les Paul custom with 498T in the bridge. This amp has the 80s hardrock sound pegged, no contest. The electronics in this amp are very simple and produce very little noise. The reverb is not as good as my Peavey 210 so perhaps a tank change would help. I swapped the stock speaker for a Celestion Vintage 30 and whoa what a difference, its like a mini 112 stack. Super crunchy thick and full of harmonics. EQ is versital enough for a variety of sounds. The clean channel is very similiar to the old Peavey clean tube amps of the 1970s I rate a 9 here with the speaker change, would be a 10 if the reverb were better.

Peavey makes rock solid cabinets. I have 5 Peavey amps and they all work without failure.

They have always been helpful when I sent emails. Never needed anything more.

If you are considering something close like a Marshall DSL401, the Bravo can make the same sound with the Celestion V30 upgrade and for another 100-200 less. But a DSL401 will beat it in power level. Super chunky JCM type sound. Tough as nails Peavey covering. They still make the same footswitch for it at $21. I bought mine because of the reviews listed here and I am glad I did!

1993 super versatile (clean, cruch, overdrive, and out of space boost). Read all of the reviews below. I'm the original owner (1993 to 2004= 11 years). I don't do early reviews for "hot products" as I have almost every Guitar Player magazine back to 1979. Amazing how many "gota have" products you see in those old issues that either don't exist today because they turned out to be overhyped, over advertised crap.

So the point is, I think 11 years is enough time to really give the amp a proper review. Here is the bottom line: this is a workhorse amp (as most Peavy TUBE amps are). As we all know, 80% of all guitar playing is done at the living room level. This is the amp for that. Nothing like it on the market today or in the past. It was one of those genius products that got lost in the marketplace. It was just too good. Think about it, I've used it for 11 years with only very occaisional tube replacements(the EL84's twice and the preamps once). What music store or company wants that out there? How you gonna sell more amps to GAS stricken customers if they are happy and the product holds up.

I've used a Ernie Ball musicman, strat and a 335 copy. All sound like what they are. The EL84 tubes enhance the tone of each, but each sounds like what they are.

Reverb blew years ago and I never fixed it. Don't need it. It was overkill anyway.

The clean is classic Fender deluxe. Put it at 1 o'clock and there you are. The real tube sound that puts the quiver to your thighs. Nothing like it in the digital world.

Read below for the distortion. Infinite tone from barely overdriven to beyond anything you have ever heard. Your choice.

As everyone here has said, this amp has everything you could want. No pedals needed. Amazing.

As most have said, need to deal with the original speaker. I just run it out to a Boogie 1X12 3/4 back with the Black Shadow Celestion. Bang, there it is. The real thing!

11 years. Couple of tube changes. Reverb blew up years ago. I think it simply the wrong reverb for this amp. Otherwise, it is as solid as the day it was born. From Peavy's golden age I guess.

A few inquires on things like what footswitch to use (didn't come with one). They use an online support system that works great. When I first got it, the reverb went out and they fixed it under warranty, no problem.

Only been playing since 1969. Acoustic, electric, plus trained in piano/organ, saxaphone, clarinet, etc. Just play around the house or with friends.

Listen up kids... I know the digital modeling stuff is attractive and, besides, most of you won't stick with playing the guitar after a year or two at most.
But for those of you who are looking to find what the real magic was about that the older generation rambles on about, here is the cheapest, most honest way way to get there. And you can get it at reasonable levels sound wise and $. Get one while you can..Ebay I guess. But I'm not selling mine.

Read on...no point in being redundant...redundant...redu...well, you get the picture...

Great amp on many levels. As a dead stock tube amp it has potential but with upgrades this amp IS the ticket for low-priced combo tube amps. I replaced the speaker, tubes and the stock reverb tank with upgraded replacements so I'll review it with the improvements. It only costs about 100-150 bucks to upgrade these things into killer amps and they sell for 200-250 on ebay all the time. So, for under 400 including upgrades you get a solidly built tube amp that is perfect for practice, jamming and gigging. okay...here goes...
Clean is rich and full...breaks up at 6-7 like a good tube amp should and can be controlled with guitar volume. Sensitive tone controls and a very effective bright switch. Perfect! It is my favorite channel...reminds me of a Plexi Marshall and can do the Jimmy Page thing with a Les Paul or the Jimi Hendrix thing with a Strat.
Lead channel is a perfect hi-gain Marshall tone...plenty loud but not so ear bleeding loud that it breaks the walls down. Perfect JCM 800 crunch tone at reasonable levels, which brings me to the point of why everyone who loves the sound of a driven, flat out Marshall tube amp should get one of these 25 watt bad boys. They absolutely KILL at reasonable volume levels. Tube amps always sound best when cranked. This amp can be cranked without you going deaf! Louder and better sounding (when cranked, that is) than any Fender tube amp with a below 25 watt rating, excepting maybe a Deluxe Reverb @ 22 watts.
The pull boost gain switch on the lead channel takes you into the smooth Boogie kind of distortion. Super compressed and ridiculous harmonics and sustain leap out of this amp with the gain boost activated. Wish it had a seperate switch to activate boost from the pedal.
The reverb unit that came with mine was unuseable, in my opinion. It was way too much for this amp. I bought a smaller accutronics spring reverb as a replacement and completely cured that "...throw Timmy down the well..." overkill reverb. Cheap fix for under 20 bucks. Sounds great and can actually be turned up past 4 without the shrieking feedback. Well worth the money. What the hell was Peavey thinking when they put such a huge tank in this amp?
I'm prejudiced toward Marshalls so I love the sound of the amp. If you love Marshalls but want to keep your hearing then you need this amp, period. Spend a few dollars upgrading the tubes, speaker and reverb tank and you've got a seriously great sounding machine that rocks perfectly, in a small package.

I have three of these so I'm obviously a big fan of them. I recommend it to anyone who loves Marshalls. For the money they are untouchable. No competition in the under 500 categort. Even as a stock amp they are pretty cool. Make the upgrades and see for yourself how good it can get. FANTASTIC VALUE!!!

Well this one has all the basics, a great clean and better drive channel. This thing is IT bar none, I will go into all that in a bit. The Bravo has an effects loop and a great reverb and for pennies people, really you have to try one.

Here is where the rubber meets the road, I have owned alot and I mean alot of gear, Ill list a bit so you know Im not a punk, Marshall TSL 60, Mesa DC-3, Top Hat Club Rolyale, Marshall 3203, Traynor Custom Valve 40, 1964 Fender Pro, Vox Valvetronix, Line 6 Vetta, Peavey Transfomer, Peavey Classic 30, 1965 Silvertone Twin Twelve, and now I currently have a Mesa Rectifier Recoding Preamp, and the Bravo. Now we get on to tone, I spent two hours last night going between the Mesa and the Bravo both into the combo via the effcts return and into a Marshall 1936 cab. I have upgraded the Bravo's speaker to a Celestion Vintage 30 and all JJ's tubes. This thing is the ultimate tone machine, its so close to the Boogie that is very scary!!! It is dead quiet even on high gain, this thing even has a pull pot on the gain channel to activate another gain stage, simply sweet sustaining distorion. This thing goes from the blues to hard raock without breaking a sweat. If the combo is not loud enough then get an extension cab, really people how often do you really need 100 all tube watts, I always mic up through the system, its about the sound, not about busting peoples eardrums, this amp is the ticket, I cant find anything that I like better, period.

Not a probelm, built like a brick!!!!

I havent had to deal with them, no problems, I downloaded the manual from the site.

Ive been playing like 9 years now, I play in a modern christion band and have had the opertunity to play in a lot of places. This thing delivers the tone in spades!!!!

FX loop, 2 channels w/seperate EQ, 2 speaker outs, reverb. Tubes are in the chassis instead of hangung outside like other amps. this leads people to think it's a solid state, and some have gotten them dirt cheap because of this.......even dealers sometimes don't realize it's all tube. 2 EL84's and 3 12AX7's, 25 watts supposedly. i gave it a 10 because IMO it has everything i would ever need, and anything more may rob tone.

I had another peavey that had the same preamp but with a 60 watt 6L6 output section. That amp had the best high gain hard rock/metal tone i'd ever had. much much better than any boogie, and i had a few of those. If you're into hard rock tone, you won't find better than this at 5 times the price, really ! Nothing but high $ boutique amps are gonna come close at this type of tone, and most of those are geared at vintage tone.

There are a few things holding the amp back tho IMO. First, i am not a big fan of metal tones. The hardest i get is Van Halen-ish. So i needed to tame that nasally midrange. What i found is that the baffle board is in big part responsible for that and other undesirable naspects of the tone which also include a thin-ness to the tone that was hard to dial out. I made a birch ply baffle and the tone improved drastically. The nasally pervasive mids went away for the most part, the lows got much better, and the tone in general got much fuller and closer to a vintage sound and now i can dial in a good tone without the thin-ness. Still not vintage, but somewhere between that and a hard rock tone in the boodie rectifier vein. As far as im concerned i wouldn't even bother owning this amp w/o that fix. It's now much fuller and not boxy at all anymore. The amp's basic tonal character all comes from the preamp, but it is a hell of a preamp. Squawky, rich and harmonically complex to a degree i have not heard in any amp other than a couple very expensive boutique units. For this reason i hate the tone when the power amp starts to distort and cover up the preamp's character, which happens way to early to get the volume needed to gig with. More on that in a minute. Oh, and by the way, there is a pull boost switch on the dirt channel's pre pot. It increases the harmonic content, but it als thins out the tone and get rather buzzy. If you readjust all the other settings it can be made to sound ok. But IMO it just messes up the tone too much and makes it too buzzy.

Good tubes and speaker are also a necessity. This amp as stock is held back by all these things. I have a Jensen in it now, but have tried an all-tone and an EV. The jensen seemed to work best with this amp. Another thing i found is that it's not loud at all for 25 watts. Perfect for home use, but if you wanna gig it it will need help big time unless you wanna mic it, which i don't because of the way it destroys your tone IMO. I have yet to try to get more volume, but i am planning on doing so by getting a speaker that has at least another 3 or 4db and some military spec 84's. Even then i doubt it'll work for me live. The reason is this....i find that after about 5 on the master volume the power amp starts distorting real quick and it totally, and i mean TOTALLY masks the preamp tone and becomes a completely different amp. Some may like that, but the whole character of this amp's preamp that makes it what it is goes away after 5 and your left with a pretty ordinary sounding cranked amp tone. Again, some may like it but i find it rather generic with no special tone like the preamp has at lower volumes. All the amp's unique rich and harmonically complex preamp tone just goes right out the window after 5 or so. So in order to gig it at 5 on the master it would have to get a hell of a lot louder, and i doubt thats possible. I'll give it a shot tho eventually.

So i can't say whether it can be made to have enough volume and retain that awesome tone at gig levels till i try the speaker upgrade and tubes. But if you are after a practice amp and want a killer tone somewhere between hard rock and classic rock, i absolutly cannot imagine a better deal. They haven't made em for years, but they go for between about $100 and $200 easily. With a speaker and some tubes your in tone heaven for $200-$300. By the way, definatly get JJ 84's for it, and experiment with various tubes in the 1st and 2nd preamp slots. I was able to get the tone much more to my likeling and further tow

I've had it apart and i feel it's one of the better PCB amps i've seen as far as build. It's solid as a rock with a thick fiberglass board and just very well made for a modern production amp. i also have a classic 30, and the guts aren't even close to as well built.(great amp tho)

They will help you more than most companies i've dealt with.

It's absolutly the most harmonically complex tone i have heard in any production amp. It's just a matter of whether or not you like that perticular tone type. I've been playing a good 30 years or more and gigged over 20 of those. I've owned around 60 amps as close as i can figure, so i do have ears for tone.
I'd rate it the same as i did in the sound section.....7 for stock, 10 after the speaker upgrade, baffle and tubes. But being an amp thats been out of production for a while, you may well not need a tube upgrade because it's very possible one of the previous owners may have already done so. I was unlucky there and the amp i got came with horrible tubes. the main thing that i cannot stress enough is the baffle !!! In fact, i'd probably give it a 10 just with that mod alone. It's the key to getting rid of the amp's sonic flaws. It's like having a ferarri and putting those "4 for $99" tire deals on it and wondering why it handles like a toyota.

And lastly, as i said before, but it bears repeating........unless you are prepared to mic it, buy it as a practice amp, not for a gigging amp. And again, realize it's not gonna sound like it does at home at 5 or below when cranked up further onstage, so expect a totally different sound. To gig it you may do ok with a extention cab with speakers that have a high SPL rating. But i wouldn't expect to get the signature tone of the amp live any other way. If you are looking for a high gain hard rock/metal tone for practice, i would go as far as to say this may be the best amp in the world for that! W/O the slightest doubt whatsoever it's the best in a price range anywhere near it for sure !!! At $100 to $200 it's a rediculously easy no-brainer.

I just got one and I waited till after I put the Eminence g25 and the JJ tubes, and played it for a couple months before I made a review. Tubes and speaker upgrades make this amp great. The guy who said this amp doesn't compare to the bootique amps might be right but this one sounds pretty tasty to my ears. It has two channels, reverb and a boost button. EQ is very sensitive. I'm giving it a 7 because it isn't that great, stock. It's not real loud but I've played gigs with it. Just mic it for big rooms.

Cheap Epiphone with a minibucker, single coil and humbucker. Hummers have coil tap. With the g25, I can hear all the single coil definition that you would expect. Even at huge distortion it is still clear. Hummers are real smooth but lack the perfect single-coil definition. Harmonics are outrageously great...due to the JJ tubes no doubt (the JJs are worth way more than you pay for them at Eurotubes...TRUST ME!!!!!) Clean is rich and full. Overdrive is bright and punchy. Heavy distortion is clear and compressed. Sounds really tight and good.

Too soon to give an opinion. Only had it for a few months.

I bought it for $200 and put another $100 into it for speaker (Dave at Avatar) and JJ tubes (Bob at Eurotubes.) For $300 bucks this is a steal. Would I buy another one? Yes.

Made in the USA in the 90s. Versatile for all styles. No effects needed. Two channels. Twenty five watts. I wish it came with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, but I fixed that one, myself. This amp is not a high class, boutique sounding amp. I know because I own some of those. The reviews that say this amp can compete with that quality of amplifier are just pure bullshit. Most of those reviewers have never heard a Dumble, VHT, Soldano et al, in person. You ain't gonna make chicken salad from chicken shit, friends. The old saying is true. You get what you pay for. For the 200-250 that these sell for, they're okay. They feature decent tube sound and that's about it.

For what it is...a cheap PC board-based design that looks like a throwback to the Flintstones BAM-BAM school of amp design, it's pretty good sounding. All these people who say it sounds like a Marshall stack are only partially correct. It DOES roar like a Marshall JCM 800 but a REAL JCM 800 driving 8 Celestions in a pair of Marshall cabs will NEVER be mistaken for the sound of a Peavey Bravo...no matter what kind of tubes and speakers are added to upgrade it. It's a small, twenty five watt amp with a single twelve and therefore it's limited to it's diminutive size and power rating. I have JJs and a REAL Vintage 30 in mine, and I know what the hell I'm talking about, okay? Not putting it down, just telling you the facts.
If you can afford a low wattage boutique amp then you'll never choose this over one of those, BUT for what it is, it's one hell of an amp. In my opinion everyone should get one of these...owing to the fact that they are so cheap and they sound so great! So, for what it is, it rocks solid. Bang-for-buck it has a high value. I play through mine all the time and I own lots of top end gear. I think the thing that makes it so cool is that you can crank it up on 8 or 9 and it cops that output stage vibe at levels that are tolerable.

Your guess is as good as mine. I leave it on for hours and hours. I've left it on for a weekend more than once. No problems.

I've got 400 in her. Paid 200 for the amp (Ebay!) and another 200 to have my tech make some mods and add the JJs and Celestion. For me it's a cheap crapper. It sure looks like one with that crunchy tolex covered ten-ton particle board motif! Somebody whacked it a hundred thousand times with an ugly stick.
I appreciate the fact that most people don't have an unlimited budget for gear like I do. So get one of these and don't worry, be happy!

Two very nice channels to choose from. Both channels give a wide range of tone options. Get a footswitch for it. Compared to more upscale amps in its class, it doesn't have many features. If you just want great tone on the cheap (with some modifications-see SOUNDS category) then this is your amp. Features-wise it gets a 5-average.

With stock speaker, the amp sounds ok at low-mid volume levels. That's not going to cut it if you want this amp's true colors to shine. Get the speaker upgraded to a Celestion or the Eminence clones that everyone is talking about below. With a new speaker and some decent tubes this is a KILLER amp, period! Once you go past 5or6 on the volume dial, it turns into a beautiful tone machine. You can't get there with the stock speaker. I rate the sounds as a 10-with the upgrades.
As for noise...the reverb introduces noise and the distortion channel is noisy at high gain levels. So what?
I'm playing humbuckers through it with a Les Paul, using the low gain input. I set the clean on 8-9 and adjust the distortion channel's gain and volume to achieve the same volume level. Both channels have very sensitive tone controls.
Overall I give it an 8 here.

I'd say average...maybe give it a seven 'cause Peavey is built like a truck. It's heavy, too.

This is the BEST living room, practice or bedroom amp, period. I also use it for jams with the buds. I have used it with a microphone on it at large halls and even outdoors, once but I usually use my bigger amps for bigger venues. All around, this is a very nice amp. I would buy another one. I've been playing since the early 70's.

2 Channel Tube Combo with 3x12AX7 Preamp and 2xEL84 Poweramp Tubes. The Channels (clean/drive) have independent 3band eq's and volume/gain. Reverb and Channels are switchable with a footswitch.
The amp produces 22W, loud enough for every situation. That's all what I want from a lightweight combo amp.

Play a 89 Strat plus with gold lace sensors and a PRS Santana SE with stock humbuckers and a Steinberger (black paddel) with EMGs (S S H). This amp likes them all.
Last week I bought my second Bravo 112 and this amp are the best, I ever owned. The Sound ist EL84. The clean channel is fender like and very versatile tweakable with the excellent eq and a bright switch, that gives the clean sound more sparkling highs. You can get a light powertube crunch with volume is past 3oclock. Very bluesy. The little wattage and the EL84 tubes makes this amp sound warm with a wonderful powertube drive especially on the second channel. This channel is between marshall crunch and higain and sounds excelent too. It is a very versatile channel. The gain and eq lets find you very much usable fantastic overdriven sounds.
22 W, beleave me, this is pure tube watt an it is very loud in both channels with enough headroom for the clean sounds of channel 1.
I changed the stock tubes with EL84 groove tubes. Great. Youn need no bias change.

Seems to be very reliable. The tubes are in a closed carrier. Much better protected as in the most tubeamps I know. There is a little ventilator in it for cooling the electric components.
No rattle or other noises even with high volume.

never need customer support. Peavey has a good WEB Page and there is a helpful Userforum.

I play for 25 Years all styles of modern music from Rock/Blues to Funk/Jazz. I have owned many different and sometimes very expensive amps (Fender, other Peavey, Accoustic, Laney, Marshall, Boogie and Polytone). I have compared the Bravo with many other lowwattage tubeamps from 15-30Watt. The Bravo sounds best and I will buy a third one if there is one used on the market. I know some other Peavey amps. I dont like this amps very much but the Bravo 112 is awesome and in my oppinion one of the best little combos ever build. At least the price makes this amp unbeleaveable.

These are early-mid 90s amps. They have the old-style, indestructible Peavey packaging. Ugly as sin and heavy as hell. Thats the downside of the features thing. Everything else is the upside, except maybe for the lame reverb, which isn't all that bad, really. Two very different channels, lots and lots of gain on both channels. Very sensitive volume and tone controls on both channels. Very sensitive preamp circuits that make it a blast to use a good overdrive / boost & cut pedal. By the way, the stock speaker is just okay...same with the stock tubes...nothing special. Get a Vintage 30 or an Eminence Legend V 12 in the amp with a re-fit of good quality tubes (like I did)and you will have an amp that can easily run with the big dogs, No shit.

I drill into this thing with Hamers, equipped with stock humbuckers. I use Fender strats, too. Everybody raves about the Marshall-like tone and distortion of the distortion channel, which is true but I am in LOVE with the clean channel's Fender Super Reverb vibe that can be dialed in with real authority, depending on the tools available. I use a BOSS ME 10 (old unit from the 80s, I think) but any other similar unit would do, probably. I only use the ME 10's EQ function and output level control to drive the clean / distortion channels. The ME 10 has a "unity gain" of 5 on the output level, even though it goes higher than 5. I use it at an output level of 2.1, 2.6 and 3.2 to drive the preamp on the clean channel, using the high gain input with the amp's channel volume at 10 all the time. The dimed channed takes advantage of the amp's output-stage distortion, which sounds very cool. With the ME 10's output on 2.1 the Bravo does a respectable job of reproducing a clean Super Reverb tone, when EQ'd right. Up the ME 10's output level to 2.6 and you start dipping into that back-and-forth output stage distortion-very pick attack sensitive. It's really just wonderful to hear. At levels above 3.0 on the ME 10, you get that blunted, creamy distortion that decays into a nice, clean, sustained tail with single notes and chords. At these levels, bcking off the volume works to clean things up nicely. Lemme tell ya...it's all kinds of fun watching the look on peoples' faces when they see the Peavey nameplate on the amp and then get an earful of the killer tones this amp puts out at nice, medium to loud volume levels. Since there are no tubes visible in the back (They're inside the amp chassis) I tell people it's another Peavey Solid State clunker. You wouldn't believe how it freaks people out! This amp has tone that kills if you know what you're doing. Even the volume control changes the timbre of this amp. Now, as for the distortion channel...Mr. Marshall lives there. No doubt. Enough Gain for anyone. Good EQ. Reverb isn't good past 3. Overall, this is a nice, small, loud, tone machine.

Take good care of it and it will take good care of you. Jacks are PCB muonted and may crack solder joints. I re-did all of my jack connections and I baby them. There is a tiny fan blowing over the tubes, which is a good idea. I never had any problem with mine.

Don't need it but Peavey is the best. I have a few other Peavey amps and they treat you like a king when you write or call. Excellent company to deal with and they KNOW their shit, too.

I own three other Peavey amps, all solid state, all Transtube. They are good amps but nothing sounds as good as this little Bravo. I'll probably buy at least one more. At $200 plus another 100-150 for new tubes and a quality speaker you have an amp that rivals the $1000 price range units. It's a no-brainer. Overall, it's a fantastic value for the money. I have to say it's a 10 for being such a great sounding amp for next to nothing.