Peavey Transformer 112

I'll toss my hat in the ring to do a review on the new firmware revision IC. For 25 bucks you can get a new IC to replace the original amp firmware with new, improved firmware. It is called version 2.0 and was released in 2006. Call PV parts and order it. Instructions come with it including how to use all the new features. If you don't feel comfortable installing it then take it to a shop. I put mine in but I took the amp chassis out of the amp to do it. (The legs on the IC have to be bent inward just a little to fit in the socket. They're a little fragile so if you have problems you should take it in to a shop.)
This IC is worth more than 25 dollars when you consider what you get for the money. Here's what you get:
On the new IC there are 4 new amp and amp cabinet models, a boost function that works without haveing to use the EFX mode, a new effect called octaver and some interesting new ways to set up the tap delay function. You also get global and patch gain adjustments, presence, bright switch and resonance adjustments plus a 1/2 power reduction and improved tuner. The PFC4 controller MIDI interface is expanded too.
If you use the PC interface, it has been updated to use the new IC.Not bad for 25 bucks!

All 4 new amp models are good and all have active EQ so you can use the same model to get very different sounds, plus you can set the range of the mids. It's more like having about 10 new models because they are mega tweakable.
The octaver kind of sucks because you can only use it at a minimum due to tracking problems at higher levels. I'll probably never use it.
The boost feature lets you go to the alternate patch settings right from the current patch. Just step on the patch button again to toggle between main and alternate. No more going to EFX mode to do it. Super handy.
The presence, bass boost and resonance features make big changes that you can hear right away. The presence is noticable on clean patches but not so much on distortion.
Bass boost has 4 settings, presence has 3 and resonance has 3. Patch gain is either -6 or 0 dB so its good for matching clean volumes to distortion patch volume in a bank of presets. This worked out a lot of stuff for me.
The global gain adjustment gives you +/- 18 dB of boost and cut so you can get more headroom or more gain. Yes, you can get stupid amounts of gain!
I played with the tap delay tweaks. They're interesting and can be adjusted to change on the fly. Don't know if I'll ever use it.
I definitely notice an improvement in the tuner.
All this adds up to a lot more dynamic range for the patches and better control of the amp. Cheap at 25 bucks. Makes the amp more flexible and easier to use the features.

While we're on the topic of sound here's a good tip for you. Put a multi band EQ and compressor in the Transformer effect loop. I have a Digitech TwinTube in the loop that I use only for a tube based EQ (seven band equalizer)and good solid compression. Boy does it make a difference in the clarity punch and tubey-ness of the sound.
Being able to equalize the sound after distortion is a life saver. Being able to feed a consistent signal to the power amp using the compressor adds tons of clarity too. I just use the tubes in the TwinTube for warmth and harmonic content-not for gain or distortion. For me it works real good and its quiet. Its like putting a sonic maximizer in the loop.
I rate the new firmware chip as a 9 because of the lame octave effect. The rest of the new firmware is must have.

PV parts got it to me in 5 days. I ordered on the phone. They knew exactly what i was talking about.

If you have a PV Transformer its a no brainer to buy this firmware chip. Its the best 25 you can spend to make it better.

This was Peavey's entry to the modeling amp genre. Not sure when these hit the market so I'll guess it was early 21st century. Stock amps have 12 amp models and an effects section with modulation effects, reverb and delay. The midi foot controller controls all the functions of the amp and it can be used to turn mod, reverb and delay effects on and off. You can store two separate versions of patches in each location and call up the alternate by using the footswitch in effects mode, using boost function. Delay has a tap function. There is a good noise gate. There is an effects loop and a mono headphone jack.
The stock models take you from vintage tweed to super high gain.

One big change that Peavey made in 2005 was the release of eprom version 2. This was a hardware change that involved replacing IC U506 with an upgraded chip containing improved and expanded microcode for the control CPU. It added many new functions and four new "blended amp" models for a total of 16-up from 12. It also expanded the MIDI control. Very cool and only 25 bucks from the factory. The new eprom makes this a totally new machine.

One reviewer below was complaining about the 4 ohm speaker. Transformers come equipped with a Blue Marvel speaker at 4 ohms, driven by a modern power amp IC. Before I bought this amp I ordered the schematics from PEAVEY parts (best service guys in the business) and checked out the components. At +/-25 volts on he rails of the power amp (LM 3886), the amp will produce 50 watts into a 4 ohm load. But the LM 3886 (a great audio amp, by the way) tends to run a little hot in this configuration so I went to an 8 ohm speaker, reducing the wattage to about 38 watts but giving the LM 3886 a cooler operating environment. Anyway, the amp will operate just fine with an 8 ohm speaker connected so you can stick any of the "cool" speaker choices that are available at 8 ohms, in this amp. The reduction in power can easily be overcome by selecting a high SPL speaker. For example, I have an 8 ohm SWAMP THING in mine and it's louder at 38 watts than the Blue Marvel was at 50 watts. MUCH LOUDER! Get something with an SPL rating over 100 and you'll be fine at 8 ohms.

Peavey went to the JRC 4560 op amp in the power section, which is a huge improvement over the old JRC 4558. More musical sounding and definitely quieter. Overall the power section is pretty tight and with the upgraded speaker and V2 eprom you can push some very nice tone from this amp. The V2 eprom also gives you more control over the power stage with presence and resonance tweaking available. In the preamp the new V2 chip gives you total control over the gain structure. If you get a Transformer 112 or 212, get the new eprom. If you have one of these amps now, get the V2 eprom. A no brainer and easy to install. For 25 bucks it's like buying a brand new amp.

The 112 model has stereo capability using the effects out jack. Insert the standard 1/4" plug to the first click and send the signal to any power amp. It will be the "right" half of the stereo sound. Not terribly stereo-ish but it's there.

With the standard V1 eprom this gets a 7 or 8. With the V2 eprom it's a 10. Either way, it is a very versatile machine.

Peavey took a way different approach to the modeling thing than the other guys. I've tried just about all of them and my personal opinion is that the Peavey approach is the best path to a decent overall sound. This is mainly because they use the computer to control the amp instead of going 100% digital with the model and effect sounds. The Transtube technology stays analog for a more traditional analog sound. Pure digital modeling has come a long way but it still tires my ears, if you know what I mean. Transformers have a more "real" feel to them in my humble opinion, and they are capable of more "in between" tones. Just my personal preference. Our other guitarist uses line 6 stuff and he sounds killer. I just don't get a warm fuzzy feeling when I play through his rig.

Speaking of tones, the Transformer is capable of a wide range of tones because they copy the selected amp's tone ranges and gain structures. The V2 chip also enables cabinet swapping, input padding, preamp gain -increase/decrease, bottom end and top end controls-beyond the tone controls, and some models have active boost and cut. In the end you can select any particular model and create 3-4 patches that sound completely different. So there is a lot of range to play with here. Unfortunately there are only 16 places to store them. For me that's enough but some may find it limiting.

I'm using humbucking pickups and single coil pickups on solid body guitars with the Transformer. You can hear the guitar with the Transformer. Different guitars and pickups sound different, which is great if you like being able to listen to the guitar's wood.

With the speaker upgrade and the V2 chip this amp is a total winner. It needs a second power amp to play really loud shows. I use an open back 60 watt powered cabinet with a 8 ohm Wizard speaker to play outdoor shows. Placing the two cabs about 20 feet apart and using the stereo function gives a nice wide spread.

With the upgrades this amp is a 10. No question about it.

Peavey makes reliable equipment, period. This amp is lighweight and the knobs are plastic so there's an issue there but overall if you're careful with it then you'll be ok. I'll shave two points for the plastic knobs and shafts. Don't drop it down the stairs and you should be ok.

Peavey is number one. You can get a manual or schematics from them.
The V2 chip is available too. Call Peavey Parts at: 800 821 2279 and order part number 99000974. It's the eprom version 2 for the Peavey Transformer. They'll get it out to you ASAP. Go to the unofficial Transformer webpage for all the info on this chip replacement plus other cool stuff. http://tform.home.comcast.net/

It's true that these never got the big push that the Johnson and line 6 stuff got when modeling amps came out. I think these were seriously under rated and under appreciated by the guitar mags and the industry in general. They weren't as sexy or as feature laden as the competition so they were overlooked.
I don't knock pure digital because it sounds pretty good, actually. Certain people are going to prefer pure digital modeling and I say fine, play what you like. I've been playing for 4 decades and I have listened to a lot of raw guitar through a million differnt amps in my day-some better and some worse than this amp. For me the digital stuff is impressive but it is still lacking in dynamics and after a while it all sounds kind of sterile to my ears. That's just me.

I gig with this amp. I like the way it sounds and I like how simple it is to operate. I like that is small and lightweight. I don't like the plastic knobs. Overall I think I made a good choice to pick one of these up. I'm dead positive I made the right choice to buy the V2 chip for it. Rock on....

I have owned two of these. See my previous review from a few years ago. With the second edition of the prom ($25 from Peavey) the Transformer has so many useful features that it is about twice as good as the first version. If you can imagine an amp sound, chances are you can find it in the Transformer 112. If you can't find a great tone with all the tools this amp has then you should seriously consider taking up thew piano. Read the rest for features but know this: The tools this amp has are all good, useful tools. It has the goods to craft the sound the way you want.

Transformers can go from sparkling clean 50's R&R music all the way to earth shattering death metal palm mute Recto tone. The cabinet swapping and the adjustable overall gain, tone, mids, power damping, power compression, preamp gain level, post gain, cab resonance, half volume sitch, low end presence,high end presence, brightness, delay roll off, etc, etc are really powerful sound sculpting tools. What the hell MORE could you ask for? These are not just vanilla flavored, digital "more or less of the exact same sound" tools. These tools actually DO SOMETHING that changes the tone and timbre of the amp. Quiet? Most models are dead quiet. At maximum gain on the high gain models the amp will hiss. It is NOT digital artifact hiss. It is the normal hiss you would expect from a high gain amp. duh, no shit!
When you crank up your Marshall or any other amp, you have to adjust the tone because more power will boost different frequencies, differently. Same for the Transformer. People set up a cool patch at bedroom levels then they say "This amp is shit when you turn it up!" Try setting your patches at high sound levels and you'll be fine. ALL amps act differently at different volumes. I'm giving it a 10 with the new prom in it. Obviously it's not a boutique amp but compared to other modelers it deserves a 10 for overall sound.

I read the review by Dave Williamson last night and thought, "This guy sounds like me!" I think he probably got frustrated with his Transformer like I did. With the new PROM this amp is unstoppable. I have whittled my collection to a Peavey Transformer 112, a nice old Les Paul and my old Ibanez fat strat. As far as the amp goes, the Transformer gives me the ability to have any amp i want it to be so there is no reason to ever own another kind of amp. This is an ass-kicking amp that has been overlooked by the snobs since day one, in my opinion. Yes I would buy another one and I recommend it..

This is a solid state, analog modeling amp. Peavey doesn't make it anymore. It was made in Meridian, Missippi, USA. The Transformer is not a digital modeler; it is analog and uses the patented Transtube preamp and poweramp, with a digital controller that switches the tone settings, cabinets, amp types and all that stuff. It's different from what most of us are used to in modelers. It has 16 factory presets and all are useless. But you can program 16 of your own by combining 12 amp types, different cabinets and effects. Lots of versatility here.
The software and hardware are version 2, which the previous owner paid about 30 bucks for. You send away and get a new control chip and download editing software for your PC from a website. Do it yourself, all the way. Pretty cool. The upgrade is worth the money because it gives you a few more useful features, tweaks and settings.
It comes with a midi controller for changing channels, using the effects mode, using the boost feature and changing banks. Effects are not all that good but the decent ones are reverb, delay and tremolo. Chorus, flanger, univibe and phaser are lame. Octave effect sounds like a whale farting in a tin can. Cab resonance, presence and bright switch come with revision 2. You also get a programmable preamp, a bass expander and controls over the pad on the input plus a final power cut. There is also a master volume and the famous Peavey power attenuator but I can't tell the difference between 10 and 100 perceny. Midi out for hooking up another Transformer (why?) or connecting the amp to another midi device, effects loop (why?), useless headphone jack, single 4 ohm Blew Mudville (Blue Marvel) speaker. It's all wrapped up in a cheap plywood cab. Is it versatile? Yeah I guess it is, for what it is. I think it came out in 2001. By todays standards it really doesn't measure up but it has a decent sound if you're willing to tweak it. Have to give it a 7 because it's pretty much an outdated model.

You can get cleans to palm mute metal tones. Lots of variety but nothing really special here. Totally solid state tones that are two dimensional. It's not bad but you could never get this amp to produce a good tube sound. At loud volumes it acts just like any solid state amp. In other words it goes to shit. The Blew Mudville is a lame excuse for a speaker but since it's 4 ohm speaker I say good luck finding a decent replacement. It can't handle the amp at high volume. No speaker out either so what you got is what you get. I managed to get six decent patches from the thing. They sound good at low or medium levels but not loud levels. Here's the amp's downfall: at 50 watts you expect to be able to gig with it but it sounds good only to about 25 watts so you've got a great practice amp, but not so good for playing in a band. That's about it.
For the price I paid I'm okay with that. I don't gig with it but it works out just fine in the bedroom and for friendly jams with friends and it's faily lighweight so it moves to jams in the back seat of the Honda.
I'm using an epiphone Les Paul with GFS Hot PAF pickups. I have a Squire Strat with Texas Specials but this amp doesn't like single coils.

Knobs are the weak point and the midi connectors look fragile. The rest is Peavey tough. Knobs are not well protected so you have to be careful not to break them. They don't have start and stop points. There are little lights to tell you where you are on the dials but the knobs just turn forever.

Played guitar for 11 years. Play mostly rock and blues. This is a decent amp for 80 bucks but I'm not sure I would buy it again. Probably a good amp for practicing and for a beginner.
If you want something decent and cheap as a kick around amp then it's ok but as a REAL amp it falls on its ass. I have a fender Blues Junior and I just bought a brand new Epiphone Valve Junior head with matching cabinet. Both of these amps beat the crap out of the Peavey Transformer in the tone category.
Anyone know where a player can get a decent 12" four ohm speaker for this thing?

I really don't care for effects, but this thing has a few built in. It's a modelling amp, and it has enough amp models to give you a variety of tones. The amp is pretty versatile.

I should mention that I got this from my friend, who had apparently obtained a new chipset for this amp that was built by the designers of this amp, but was never put into mass production. It gives the amp a few more features - for instance, pressing the bank button again on the footswitch instantly puts you to the boost mode of the preset (without switching to the mode that would regularly require you to go into boost mode). I've never played a regular transformer, but at the time, only the amp designers' Transformers and my friend's Transformer had this new chipset. Maybe that's not the case today, but I guess it was then.

Okay - originally, I would have given this category a much higher rating, but my sound seems to have disappeared. The amp models are all usable and sound good, but now, I hear nothing but bad-sounding mids and grating treble. This could be a speaker problem - I am looking for a good replacement (I'm thinking Eminence Texas Heat or Swamp Thang).

Reliable amp. My friend openend this up and modded it, and it's still reliable.

Never dealt with them

This amp gives you the sounds you want - easily accessible through a good footswitch, and a lot of options. I must say that I prefer tubes - I regularly use a Peavey Ranger 212 (with speaker and tube upgrades) and a Fender Blues Jr. This amp is not a replacement for tubes, but it sounds good. I use a maple-necked Fender Strat and a Gibson Les Paul Studio through this, and I play most everything except metal (no 80's or modern metal). This amp adequately handles all of those, and it can even handle some very heavy sounds if that's your thing. I have been playing for 10 years; I have heard a lot of amps - this is the best modelling amp. Forget Line 6 stuff.

I bought amp brand new in 2003 to 560 dollars. You for features read which are covered. I come to this page to read review but I write my own now. As features rating I make 10 because Peavey gives all tools and make good musical sound. This is because Peavey wants amp in hand of musician, not fake guitar player wanting tone buried under effects and distortion. Many now amps like fake sound not Peavey.

I'm playing guitars as Ibanez and Fender with single and double pickup kinds. All sound the right with Transformer. Not with too much effects to make sounds not as guitars in Peavey Transformer but enough. This is good for musician who will to find own sounds like real guitar player not fake. To clean and distorted sound I say is best to sound as Peavey. I play to clean sound mostly plus little bit od distortion not much. I like sound as Beatles and also to rock and roll but not to heavy metal. Peavey is good to this sound and good to brutal which is distortion if wanting it. Transformer makes all sound you want and like. All good sound to Peavey Transformer and easy for making to sound tools.

I move from Russia to 2002. In Russia to play for 15 years as to play parties and to clubs not much. In Russia is not much guitar amp which is good. All is not to tube amps because are old and not so much reliable. I know of Peavey and not much play with one but I like one of friend not Transformer but Express. Is not Marshall or Fender or Sovtek amps in Russia to buy and are not reliable with costing very high. I best want to have Peavey amp but not to be able. So I buy it when I come to US which is good to my playing guitar. Is best to play and so I buy it again if stolen. To speaking English is not best yet but I am trying as improving to English and guitar play. Peavey is best.

I just finished reading Donald Raycher's review below. Everything he said is true. Less is more.

I use a lot of different guitars with this. The trick to getting good sound from this is to go easy with the controls and effects. The models give you pretty accurate renditions of what they claim they are modeled on in the manual so if you just make minor tweaks to them, you'll be fine. I always start with all tone knobs and pre/post gains at 12 o'clock. Some of my patches are just that...all knobs at 12. Other patches are slight variations. If you go crazy with the ajustments then you're fucked. You will go right past your sound. BTW, this amp sounds very good at high volume settings.

I've been hacking away since 1970. I play rock and some jazz/rock...no metal. This is a good choice for anyone who wants a lot of options and power, and who knows the sound they are looking for. It is more reasonable than a lot of modeling amps to operate.

I bought it used. I don't know when it was made. It's 100% identical to the first one I owned, which I sold to get another solid state and a small tube amp. The Transformer has 12 amp models and 16 user / 16 factory presets and digital effects, including seperate delay, reverb and modulation package. It has no speaker out so what you get is one 4 ohm BlueMarvel speaker and thats that. Headphone jack is included but it's mono. Compared with all the other Modeling Amps it doesn't have a lot of features. What it does have is a real feel and a real tone. I give it a 7 for features, compared to some of the other modelers.

I bought my first Transformer a couple of years ago and I had it for about a year before getting sick of endlessly twiddling with it in search of the "perfect" presets with my computer. So...I sold it and bought two other amps. Guess what...while using these other two amps I realized that my problem with the Transformer was an operator problem and not an equipment problem. (In other words...I was the problem.) I was fortunate to have access to another guy's Transformer, which I programmed in a different way from what I had previously done on mine (eg...no endless twiddling with my PC and the Txformer software.) The thing is, I discovered that my original Transformer's presets were such overkill, and that I had really overengineered them. I went way past the good sounds that the Transformer had to give with all the adjusting I was doing. No more. My "new" Transformer has 5 basic sounds (Fender, Vox, early Marshall, HiGain Marshall and Rectifier.) I don't have a lot of effecs on the raw presets...just reverb or delay. When I am using a preset, I go into the effects mode and I have a second "boost" setting for the patch as well as the delay, modulation and reverb settings at my footcontroller. This approach made me re-think the Transformer, so I bought onother one! Now I love it. Simple IS better, for me. It's loud enough for the gigs I play and versatile for every style I play. In my opinion the amp sounds really, really good

I'm an experienced guitarist. I play semi-pro and have done so since the early 80s. I play rock, using clean and distorted sounds. I like this amp because it isn't heavy and it gives me the basic tones and sounds I need, without needing pedals. My other equipment includes a Marshall Valvestate VS100, a Fender Pro Junior, a Les Paul, an Ibanes S-series HSS guitar, a Gibson SC and an Epiphone Moderne. I have BOSS pedals and a Crybaby wahwah. I only use the wahwah with the Transformer. Nothing else is needed. For me this is the best amp to choose. Would I buy it again? I already did!

I can't believe that nobody has come forth with an opinion that includes a review the fantastic Peavey software that is available for this amp. All you need is a PC and a midi cable (game port to Peavey midi in.) IMHO the software is THE feature of this amp that makes whipping up presets a joy. Everything can be done from my HP laptop and I can demo things in realtime as I adjust the tone, gain, presence and resonance and volume. The software is a real force multiplier. Without it I'd rate the amp as a "10" because it has so many cool features on its own. With the software on my HP I have to go with a "15" because there are features available only with the software, which round out the tone and power curves of this thing. Another thing people forget to mention is the stereo feature, using another amp. I've used a crappy old Crate as the left channel amp with success. It's a fifty watter too and I adjust it to be neutral tone-wise. There is a nice seperation with chorus and delay, across the stage. Another thing I've tried is using the "left" amp as a monitor and the Transformer as the backliner. Using a second amp adds to the power and cut significantly if you need to have more volume. I am going to buy a power-engine (Tech 21) for this thing!
On the con side...No speaker cabinet jack...you get a 4 ohm load and that's the Blue Marvel speaker, PERIOD. The stereo effects out is nice but I gotta ask, what were they thinking because it has a mono return. and while we're talking effects loop...what for? The amp has all the effects you'd need! Finally the headphone jack is mono..lame. Overall, I'm giving it an 8 but to be honest...it has everything you need for playing gigs, including the best, easiest midi controller in the business.

The only guitar I own is a Les Paul studio edition. Basically it's a Les Paul without the nice carved maple cap. Other than that it's your basic Les Paul. It sounds lie a LP with the amp's different patches, which I have set up to span clean (Fender tweed), crunchy clean (Peavey Classic 30 crunch), C-C-C-CRUNCH (Marshall High Gain JCM 800 with 4 X 12 cab), Solo (Marshall High Gain with mids boosted) and DOOOOOM (American High Gain Recto.)
All of these patches were so much easier to do using the software because you can set and adjust the gain levels. The "stock" gain levels are different for the different models so it can be tricky to adjust the overall volume to match patches. With the software it's a breeze. This is a MUST HAVE, in my opinion. With it you can open up the huge potential of this system. Peavey should consider a web updater that would allow for these kinds of upgrades to be incorporated in the amp itself. Bottom line...I rate it an 8 again for stock and a 15 with the software package. I'll compromise with a 9.

Peavey makes all their products to last. I don't worry about reliability with this amp. The knobs are cheap but recessed and protected. Plastic shafts save dough and keep costs down but BE CAREFUL!

Great website and the Transformer designer has his own website, too. I've emailed him and he's answered me personally. A Yahoo users group for Transformer owners swaps presets and other info. Manuals are available, schematics, etc. The Peavey boys do customer service right. The best of the best.

I've been playing since the mid 80s. My older amp was a Marshall Valvestate 2 X 12 combo...early 80s model. Killer amp in its own right, really. (Way better than the new Marshall stuff.) It just wasn't versatile enough for all the different styles I have grown into. The Peavey does Marshall and all the rest so it's a no brainer. I sold the Marshall to help pay for it and kept the shitty Crate as the stereo slave, which I don't use all that often anyway. I love just about everything this amp offers. Toss in the cool software and it is a fantastic value indeed. I'd choose it again and I honestly think it is one of the BEST modelers available, overall.

I bought my amp used off of ebay for 400 plus 35 shipping. The previous owner bought it new and took very good care of it. I consider myself lucky to have gotten a virtually brand new amp for the price I paid. I have had it for a year and a half and I started using it for shows the same week I got it. I won't bore you with a huge rundown of the features again. Basically it's a modeling amp with a slimmed down menu of effects and amp types. The features match up with players like me who do the weekend warrior thing, playing at parties and medium sized gigs. It's loud enough to handle gigs in parking lots and I mic it sometimes when needed. It does not have true spring reverb but some of the modeling reverbs are impressive. Not all the models are useable for me but there's enough different types to please anyone, IMO. The stock speaker sounds pretty decent. It's pretty light for its size at about 36 pounds. One thing I don't like is the front panel display. It has enough lights on it that you could use it as a runway marker at the local airport. To be fair, the WYSIWYG interface really does work pretty good at letting you know what your effects and tone settings are. The included midi pedal is one of the easiest and best designs I ever used. Everything you need to play live and nothing you don't need. Easy to use, set up and easy to carry.

I play mainly with a Les Paul. The band covers classic rock, surf and modern covers of 30s, 40s and 50s tunes, including bop, big band, swing, old TV themes (Peter Gunn, Route 66, Bonanza and other classic TV stuff.) It sounds wierd but people freak out at hearing something like the Bonanza theme twisted and whammied into impossibly tight sounding, high gain grooves. It's a blast to play this stuff in live settings. That's where the Transformer comes in with its array of effects like Phasor, Plangers and Rotary Speakers...not to mention the traditional Reverbs and Tremolos.
Here's my live setup: The transformer is my effects amp and I use a 65 watt Peavey Express as my clean amp. The volume settings are the same for both amps. They are fed from a BOSS ME 10 pedalboard (used for the compressor, EQ, master volume and gated reverb-no other effects.)
I play rhythm guitar mostly so I have to have a lot of amp types and effects at my fingertips to compliment the clean sounds of the Express, which is set to give a shimmering clean tone, for every song we do. The Express' tone and volume never changes except for patch changes in the ME 10 output which are Eq'd slightly different on the 5 patches I use to drive the two amps. The ME 10 is not a stereo device. It has two outputs in mono, which is what I need to make my rig work and sound the way I like it. The Transformer patches change according to the song requirements and the user mode allows for adding and taking away individual effects during a song. It's pretty easy and the two amps combined make for a really good mix with a crystal clear top end from the Express.
The midi pedal allows you to select a boost for soloing, which I do on a couple of tunes and jams.
It's very easy to create presets and there's a lot of versatility in the individual presets so that you can make several different sounding presets from the same amp models if that's your thing. Listening to recordings of our shows with headphones, I can easily hear my amps in the mix and the overall sound really does sound very different between the presets that I use on the Transformer. You'd never guess that the same amp was being used to make all the different rhythm parts. Top marks for versatility and overall quality of sound.
I don't use it to record so I don't have an opinion on that. For live shows I occasionally use a Shure SM 57 to mic (and another SM 57 for the Express) it and it comes through real good when it's mic'd.

I quit other amp companies years ago, when Peavey's teal-faced models came out. I thought the Transtube amps were a big step forward for the company and I own two of them. Very reliable and consistant sounding amps. I never had a problem with a Peavey amp.

Never used it. Never needed it.

I started out in the 70's doing covers of Deep Purple, Hendrix, the Doors, Zep, Jeff Beck. As the years rolled by I did mostly rock covers of the day. Played through Fender Twins mostly but I hated the weight, inconsistancies and cost of tube unreliability. Unlike a lot of players, I don't like tube amps because of the hassles. I think they have that certain something-tonewise-but it's not worth the downside of tube amps. Nowadays there's no reason to have to use them for shows because the newer SS amps are so good sounding. IMO the Peavey Transtube amps sound the best. The transformer is a very versatile, good sounding amp. I'm glad I bought it and I would do it again. It's as light as the Express and for my setup it's perfect.