Peavey Transformer 112

The amp was made in 2001. It's very versatile. See features listed in other reviews.I still don't care for the tuner as it seemed a little inconsistent. I have returned to using my BOSS TU-12. I set it next to the foot switch and my volume pedal.

I play a Strat with EMG DG20's and it sounds great! I play worship in a church. Most of my playing is on the clean patches but I have been experimenting with the distortion. I didn't care for the pre-set distortions, they were too intense for my style. I am using the "crunch" mode and get more of an "overdriven" sound. I'm very happy with this.I've had the amp for 3 or 4 months now and the sound just continues to get better as I make minute adjustments on a weekly basis.

Very reliable. My first map had a problem but there havae been no problems with this amp at all.

Very helpful.

I've played for over 30 years. I would replace this amp if it were lost or stolen. For the price and with the features it has, I don't think it can be beat. Get beyond the name, "Peavey" and give it a try. Very impressive amp.

Customer Support is great, considering I run into the Peavey Rep often. Its nice to get to talk face to face with someone who practically built the amp. (He could tell me stuff the tech support line didn't know.)

I've been playing about 3 1/2 years, I've got a Genuine Fender Strat. If this amp were stolen, I would...call the police. If they couldn't recover it, I might buy a new one (if I didn't go for the cyber-twin)

The reason I bought this amp is because it is so versatile! I play worship in a church and I need a wide variety of sounds. The features have alredy been described better than I could. The only effect I think I won't use is the phaser. I was initially concerned this amp might not be loud enough or have enough power. I was wrong. It is loud!The features are what made me look at this amp. It is the most versatile amp I have ever owned and it is a blast to use!

I play a Strat-type guitar I bought used. I replaced the pickups with EMG DG20's. The guitar sounds great through this amp, particularly the clean sounds. Sparkly and shimmering which is a sound I was unable to get through my Fender Champ 25SE. This amp can make a lot of sounds, more then I will ever need or use. The trick is really having the time to experiment and find the sounds you like. I've only had the amp for three weeks so I am still working and tweaking the amp. I only find it noisy on extreme settings and I will never use them.In all fairness, this has been when I was playing in a small bedroom. On stage, in a more open space, the noise might not be as detectable. I have found overdrive sounds that I am really pleased with. I have every reason to believe my sound will improve as I continue to work with it and become more familiar with its features. As others have said, it doesn't exactly replicate the sounds of the amps it supposedly models. This wasn't my intent when I purchased it anyway. It sounds great to me and I like being able to get 2,3, or 4 cools sounds as opposed to only getting one sound. If it's a trade off between sound and versatility, it's one I'm willing to make. It sounds pretty good to me.

The first transformer I bought died after six hours of play. It was a floor demo and it just shut off. Instead of getting it repaired, I told the store I wanted a new amp. It took over a month to get a new one, but the new one seems fine. I will write a new review if I have any problems.I have an Anvil case for it so it should last forever. I would gig without a backup.

Because of the problem mentioned above, I was on the phone with a company representative. He was very helpful and friendly. He took care of me and contacted the store to ensure my new amp was ordered and I knew the status of it. Yes, an authorized service center was easy to locate. The warranty is for 5 years.

I've been playing for 30 years.If it were stolen, I would replace it . I love this amp! The only feature I'm not crazy about is the tuner. I like that it's one less pedal I have to carry around and one less battary to worry about going dead. The tuner is a strobe-type and it seems a little touchy. It might be because I use fairly light stings. Yes, I compared it with other amps. I had tried Line 6 and was unimpressed. I had every intention of buying a Yamaha DG50 but I couldn't find a single store in my area that had one in stock. In my search, one store mentioned the Transformer and said I should check it out. I will admit that I was initially turned off to the idea. (I have never been a Peavey fan.) I did my homework and read all I could find about the amp and kept hearing good things. When I finally played one, I was impressed enough to buy it. As I said, I play on a worship team. I have never had a killer rack or major pedalboard. My ideal set-up would be an amp and my guitar. This comes very close. I'm not out to impress people with my equipment and I don't want to lug around stuff I'm not going to use. I use the floorboard, (which is very cool), and a volume pedal.I am not gigging for money (anymore) and didn't have $1,500.00 to spend on am amp.
This amp is versatile, lightweight, affordable and has a ton of features that seperate it from other amps in its price range. I am very pleased.I feel it was a great value for the money I could afford to spend.

Alot read the manual though every features makes sense and are easy to excute in a live enviroment.

If you are looking for accurate reproductions of models look elsewhere. What you do get some real great sounds and effects. My favorites are tweed really good,vintage, American modern, british vintage & 5150 through a british vintage cab emulation. You can also pick what cab to use to which is a big plus. The amp has punch and had no problem micing it for gigs. Can get loud enough but I do mic it. Digital reverb is one of the best I have heard for a added built in effect. One thing the amp likes good sounding pick ups I changed my pick ups to some dimarzios what a big improvement. My vintage sounds dearmond m75t with p-90 pick ups sound excellent.

no problems

This amp has everything to do a gig no excuses with this one. Sounds have solidstate sound to them but are very good and like able.Reliable so far to make me think twice about wanting to lug my tube amp to small gigs.For rehersals jams and practice its my first choice. My first peavey and I am happy. I have been playin for a while.

50 watts, 112 Transtube Modeling amp. Loud enough for band rehearsal and small gigs. More Features than I care to list really, insted I'll ask...What's doesn't it have? On a regular basis, I use not even half the features this amp's got. The extensive footswitch (which is more complicated than most amps) is handy when trying to use all the features while playing.

The best thing about this amp is you can almost make it sound like ANYTHING. I say almost because none of the sounds are quite "there". I play a PRS CE 24 and basically I can take any sound in the world an mimic it, but never exactly get the same feel. The only decent distortion is the American Modern, and if you don't take the time to tweak each channel just perfect, it sounds like you are playing through a cardboard tube. Some of the cleans and crunch channels are alright, and the Tweed is nice and punchy. Most of the effects are great though.

I've had it for two years, and only had a few minor problems. The handle broke while i was on the road with it, but it was easily fixed. The very first preset has a bad habit of changing itself on me, it's wierd, but nothing that can't be fixed in a matter of minutes. Other than that, pretty solid amp.

Couple year warranty. Never contacted Peavey so I don't know how they are.

Overall, one of the most versatile amps I've ever played. Then again, it's a modeling amp. Plenty of power behind it. If your looking for a amp to get a wide veriety of sound, this is the amp. If your an effects freak, save yourself the money on buying stompboxes and get yourself a modeling amp. But if your looking for a good quality sound, find yourself a good tube amp.

2001 model I believe. 50 Watts power, but sounds more like 75 Watts. I have not tried to crank it that loud so see other reviews for detail. I mostly use it for recording/jamming.. Two imputs, one low and one high.. This is a digital modelling amp with 16 factory presets and 16 user banks. With 14 different amps to model it is quite versatile, and that is how my relationship towards this amp is; I use it for its versatility and not for accurate modelling of other amplifiers.
I love the interface with its infinite rotating knobs and the LED indication (looks cool in the dark) which enables for easy switching between sounds. The interface is quite intuitive; select the amplifier to model and then adjust the parameters to your liking, then store it.
"Standard" parameters are pre- (distortion) and post-gain, EQ (low, mid, high) and reverb, but what probably makes this amp so versatile is its impressive effects section. The effects section besides delay has five modulation-effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo and rotary) of which you can choose one at a time.
Other than this there are "hidden" options which allow you to tweak this amp more (input gating thresshold and sensitivity f.ex.). Read Peavey's site for how to.

The accompanying foot-controller controlls the preprogrammed Boost-, Modulation-, Delay- and Reverb-settings. You can also switch banks with it as well as controll the tap tempo. It Also has a built in tuner which to me is quite useless as I tune in C where it only has settings for Eb and E.

Other features are an effects loop and a headphones jack, but what I feel it lacks is direct out which is present on the 212 edition. Why?
The effects loop is not good enough for DI because it has no speaker/cabinette simulator. The headphones jack obviously has a power stage which renders it useless for DI too. I really believe they should have bothered inserting one. Even if it would be mono.
The amplifier is also supposed to be internet ready, which most likely means that you can in the future download presets from the internet and transfer them to your Peavey Transformer.

Finally the master volume stage has a T.dynamics controll which enables you to tune down the overal power, though I usually run it at 100% as I need to feel the lows, heh.

My guitar is quite obscure it seems, Rayhorn (?) "seven", but is was modified with two Marshall humbucker pickups some 10 (I estimate) years ago. Anyway, it has a great tone. I use 11-gauge GHS Electric Boomer 52s strings.

I play something between ambient and doom metal (ambient drone doom to be more exact - http://www.mp3.com/hlidolf for more info). Basically (though I do a lot of experimenting) what that means is that I generally use distortion (I prefere the Peavey Ultra setting) and very high lows, as well as a heavy load of effects. And I must say that I love the sounds which the Peavey Transformer can produce; everything from down-to-earth stuff to far out, trippy tones of delay-heaven.. It is all there, just experiment and have fun with it. At least I am satisfied with it.
Great effects, which are tweakable.
Great distortion. Very much to my taste.. And to the people who say it is not brutal or powerfull enough, turn your volume pots up.

The amp is quiet, though there is some bottom noise, but this might be improved if you have grounded sockets (which I do not have where I "work"). And the input gating thresshold and sensitivity can be adjusted for quieting the effects from working during playing-"silence".
Just keep guitars away from monitors and high EM fields.

I have had this amplifier about a year or half now, and I have experienced no problems. Of course, I expect it to work for more years.
The amp is built with protection paddings on the corners and otherwise looks like it can take a beating. I am not sure about the knows though.

Never dealt with Peavey, never had to. Peavey have an optional extended warranty for US residents, but not for international users it seems.

I have been playing for 4-5 years and I find this amplifier to inspire me very much.. If it was somehow lost I would probably look for another Peavey Transformer, but perhaps I would have gone with a 212 instead.

The Amp is a 2001 Model. Fantastic well thought out features! I learned to play Guitar in 1950 when I was 6 years old so I have seen a lot of stuff come and go in over 50 years but have never seen or heard an Amp as good as this one. I play 1960's Ventures style a lot along with some Bo Diddley, Duane Eddy, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry style plus a lot of my own stuff and of course, Blues and Country. This amp can handle it all! Has a lot of stuff I have never tried but it is going to be! Great sound for 50 watts! I will use it for multi track recording mostly.

G & L Custom Shop Samick Strat Copy, 1962 Fender Jaguar, Guild Starfire V. Play mostly Older classic rock and R&B and my Own Stuff. No noise problems. Sounds the Amp can make will be impossible to list if any thing, it has too many features to learn in less that a year or two of experimenting. Factory presets are about all I need, but it is fun to experiment with. I seldom use distortion.

Too soon to tell but dealer says no problems with any he has sold and will provide loaner if any problems happen. That alone is worth a lot!

Great Dealer. Very helpful. Local service if needed.

50 years plus. Several fine insturments and Computer with Cakewalk Guitar tracks pro software. Yes, I would buy another after I caught the S.O.B. that took it and Casterated him with a Chainsaw!I like the Amp as well as any gear I have ever owned. It can even mimick my beloved old Silvertone Twin Twelve 1963 Tremolo/Reverb tube amp PERFECTLY! Looked at Fender Cyber twin but this amp can do what I want at about 1/2 the cost. Several Old Farts I play music with have had nothing but praise for Peavy Products and this is my first Peavy Amp. Try it Out it is not for a beginner but if you really know music, it will blow your socks off!

This thing has a lot of great features which is why I bought it. Great sounding effects, easy to use controls, and a tuner which makes it great. It has 16 programable channels and 16 factory preset channels. Comes with it's own footswitch which allows you to do a lot without touching the amp controls.

I usually play my wolfgang guitar though it for practice. The wolfgang has different pickups than most, I have a pearly gates in the bridge and 59 in the neck so I can get a variety of tone with the guitar. If you turn the pre-gain up to 10 it will get a bit noisy but if you back it off to 9 it goes away. Clean channel sounds great, very full and punchy not thin and weak. The thing has a dozen or so amp models but most sound like crap to me. It does have a speaker cabinet simulator which does give some options and if you search for the right cabinet it doesn't sound too bad. However, most of the distorted sounds sound like every peavey solid state amp I ever owned. The amp also sounds much better if you open up the volume a bit. At lower volumes it doesn't sound very good. Great effects.

Built solid and I have always had great luck with peavey products. I have seen a peavey 212 amp fall 5 feet during a gig, pick it back up and it function just like new. No issues with this amp yet.

They have also given me great support and helped me with problems and parts. A bit slow but helpful.

I have been playing for 17 years and owned many differnet brands and types of amps. Peavey makes a good product but this amp falls short of other modeling amps. I own a Johnson Millennium and a Tech 21 trademark 10 and these amps are far superior in sound quality. I sold my Line 6 spider to buy this because that had no balls. Sounded great but no balls. I bought this for a nice loud reliable practice amp with some good effects and that's what I got. The amp models truly stink for the most part and sound similar but you can get a few good sounding ones which is enough to make me happy. You have to play with this amp and tweak it a while and the sounds get better.

Just bought a Transformer 112 (2001 model year) after checking out several other "modeling" amps out there on the market (Line 6, Rocktron, Johnson, Crate...). Didn't get the chance to try Yamaha, but by then my ears were getting a little mushy and I was wondering if I could afford any of these. I play in a pop-rock, variety type band so I really needed something versatile enough to play anything from "country-twang" to balls-out, overdriven modern rock. My main guitar is a PRS "Studio", which is PRS's version of a "super-Strat" (single, single, humbucker). In a nutshell, the key to why I bought the Peavey is this: I doubt you'll find anything else with as many features, this compact, in this price range, and even more importantly, so damn easy to tweak and re-program. Which in live performance situations, is cricially important...to me, anyway. That's NOT to be interpreted that I think this is the best-sounding amp out of the bunch I tried. In fact, some of the Transformer's pre-set amp simulations sound kinda weak to me and sound....well, typically "Peavey-ish", for lack of a better description. It's not a bad sound mind you, but you'll NOT mistake any of this amp's sounds for an overdriven, honest-to-God-class A tube amp. Period. But after all that's said and done, the Transformer 112 holds up pretty darn good, and I sincerely doubt there are many people in the audience (even other musicians) that will be able to discern your amp's tone from the "real" thing. In the studio, yes, but not live...
The Transformer tries to do what all the other guys do: simulate Mesa-Boogies, Fenders and Marshalls. This is a 50-watt, 1-12" combo that weighs in at under 50 lbs. It comes supplied with a footswitch that allows you to switch/select among 4 banks (each bank with 4 programmable amp sounds, so in effect, you can have 4 pre-set channels immediately available to you without additional button- stomping) as well as the effects (e.g., chorus, tremolo, rotatiing speaker, flange, delay, reverb, all of which sound pretty rich in my opinion...). It has an effects loop and headphone jack, but no speaker extension jack, and no direct out. However, I did check with Peavey and they assured me that I can always use the send-out jack of the effects loop as a hi-Z direct out with no problem.

As far as it sounds, this thing is still new enough to me that I haven't quite figured out all of it's possibilities. Which in essence, means that I am really impressed with how much you can do with this. So far, I've been really happy with it's clean sounds, crunch and flat-out overdriven modes, but you really have to play around with the EQ to get what you like. Myself, I like the British vintage and American hi-gain best, but to each his own. I like to set my first bank of 4 channels to: clean, slightly overdriven rhythm, crunch and then high-gain, overdrive. This gives me the best of all worlds and is easy to switch while playing live. I also like the "boost" function that is available for each pre-set. Very handy, especially if you just need to quickly boost your clean rhythm very quickly.

As far as reliability, I have another also own a Gallien-Krueger 250ML, a Rivera R55-112, and a Peavey Stereo Chorus (2-12"). Out of all of these, I've had the most problems over the years with the GK, and none ever with Rivera and Peavey.

The only times I've had to contact Peavey was to ask general questions about their product(s) and they've always responded promprtly (within a day or two at most). Otherwise, I can't complain about anything.

I've been playing in bands on and off for over 20 years now, so as far as amps and other guitar products, I think I have a pretty good idea of what is just hype and what is not. since this amp is so new to me, I haven't really gotten attached to it yet, but barring the discovery of any monumental deficits, I can't imagine that I'll be unhappy with this amp over the long haul. It's just too convenient, compact, economical and comes with effects and features that are so very easy to program that I just can't bitch about it. ....Maybe it doesn't reproduce the quality tones of Vox, Mesa or Rivera, but for the money, it comes close enough and I'll bet you can't find anything else that can touch this...

I'm not going to waste your time giving all of the features. The other reviews did an excellent job of that. It's just a very versatile amp with tons of features and gadgets. It's almost got too many features. I usually only use 2 of the banks with 2 or 3 variations of 3 or 4 different sounds. I really love the tuner, too. Mine has always been dead on. I guess the other reviewer got a lemon.

When it comes to trying to sound like other amps, it's not a perfect amp. But, it has an almost unlimited number of sounds. I am a little disappointed with some of the amp models, but it already has more than I need, so I just ignore those. I love the flange. I'm not too crazy about the tremelo and the rotary speaker, though.

VERY RELIABLE
It has turned over a couple of times and it still plays like a brand-new amp.

Peavey has great customer support if you have a great local Peavey dealer. Both places that I've lived have had different service. But, both also were directly related to the local dealer.

I really like this amp. Honestly, if I could afford a Line 6, I wouldn't own this amp. But, if I could afford a Line 6, I would just buy that used Marshall head and 4x12 stack down at the local music shop. If you're on a limited budget, I would really recommend this amp.