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MGR/Joe Gilker « Peavey Bandit 112 Transtube series »
Published on 12/17/02 at 15:00I purchased this amp 2 years ago at Renaissance Music in Kingston, Ontario for $600 CDN.
I was looking for an amplifier with kickass sound, loud enough for gigging, and that wouldn't break the bank in the process. For my budget, a good tube amp (which I really wanted) was out of the question. I was never very impressed with the distortion sound of solid-state amps.
The salesman pointed me to this amp and I was a little skeptical at first. I had already owned an older Peavy Bandit 112, and the lead sound sucked without an external distorion.
However, the second I heard this one, I fell in love! It pumps out 80W through the internal 8 ohm speaker, or 100W through an external 4 ohm cabinet.
SOUND SOUND SOUND! This amp has tone like nobody's business. The 'transtube' circuitry really emulates that 'edge' you get from a tube preamp.
Both lead and clean channels are very versatile. Clean channel has 2 settings 'Modern' and 'Vintage'. Vintage gives you that classic 'popping' type sound siilar to old Fender Twins. Crank a Strat or Tele through this, and it's like being back in the 70s. Also excellent for country.
The Modern setting gives a thicker, warmer sound.
Ol the Lead channel, you get 3 settings; Modern, Vintage, and a 3rd, unlabelled setting. Vintage gives your that old classic tube overdrive sound with lots of treble and mid to spare. It sounds incredibly like an old Marshall tube combo I used to own.
The 'unlabelled' setting is heavy and bassy; excellent for heavy metal. I can almost perfectly match Metallica's sound from the 'Black' album on this setting. There's plenty of tooth rattling power using this setting.
Modern sounds like a combination of both the other sounds. This setting gives you absolutely STUPID levels of distorion and tone; even a little too much for me. However, if you need to cut though with a blistering lead, this is definately the setting. I was jamming with a friend and his 150 W Crate half stack, and I can bury his rythm guitar playing leads on this setting.
Absolutely amazing!
The amp is almost flawless, for all intents and purposes. I could certainly make slight improvements on the design, like making the 5 different modes switchable from a footswitch, rather than from switches on the amp.
Also, I would prefer if the foot switch controlled Channel and Reverb rather than Channel and Effects Loop.
This amp is built like a tank. It's solid, and the controls are nice and smooth. I don't think you could improve on this design even if you wanted to.
I have never seen such a versatile amplifier at this price range. This amp kicks serious ass, regardless of what type of music you play. The only amps I'm aware of that have this wide range of versatility are Mesa Boogie, which cost 3 - 4 times more.
Even if you've sworn off of solid state amps, you should take a look at this baby. There's a lot of goodness in this package.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I was looking for an amplifier with kickass sound, loud enough for gigging, and that wouldn't break the bank in the process. For my budget, a good tube amp (which I really wanted) was out of the question. I was never very impressed with the distortion sound of solid-state amps.
The salesman pointed me to this amp and I was a little skeptical at first. I had already owned an older Peavy Bandit 112, and the lead sound sucked without an external distorion.
However, the second I heard this one, I fell in love! It pumps out 80W through the internal 8 ohm speaker, or 100W through an external 4 ohm cabinet.
SOUND SOUND SOUND! This amp has tone like nobody's business. The 'transtube' circuitry really emulates that 'edge' you get from a tube preamp.
Both lead and clean channels are very versatile. Clean channel has 2 settings 'Modern' and 'Vintage'. Vintage gives you that classic 'popping' type sound siilar to old Fender Twins. Crank a Strat or Tele through this, and it's like being back in the 70s. Also excellent for country.
The Modern setting gives a thicker, warmer sound.
Ol the Lead channel, you get 3 settings; Modern, Vintage, and a 3rd, unlabelled setting. Vintage gives your that old classic tube overdrive sound with lots of treble and mid to spare. It sounds incredibly like an old Marshall tube combo I used to own.
The 'unlabelled' setting is heavy and bassy; excellent for heavy metal. I can almost perfectly match Metallica's sound from the 'Black' album on this setting. There's plenty of tooth rattling power using this setting.
Modern sounds like a combination of both the other sounds. This setting gives you absolutely STUPID levels of distorion and tone; even a little too much for me. However, if you need to cut though with a blistering lead, this is definately the setting. I was jamming with a friend and his 150 W Crate half stack, and I can bury his rythm guitar playing leads on this setting.
Absolutely amazing!
The amp is almost flawless, for all intents and purposes. I could certainly make slight improvements on the design, like making the 5 different modes switchable from a footswitch, rather than from switches on the amp.
Also, I would prefer if the foot switch controlled Channel and Reverb rather than Channel and Effects Loop.
This amp is built like a tank. It's solid, and the controls are nice and smooth. I don't think you could improve on this design even if you wanted to.
I have never seen such a versatile amplifier at this price range. This amp kicks serious ass, regardless of what type of music you play. The only amps I'm aware of that have this wide range of versatility are Mesa Boogie, which cost 3 - 4 times more.
Even if you've sworn off of solid state amps, you should take a look at this baby. There's a lot of goodness in this package.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com