-
At this morning’s big band rehearsal, the guitarist had a Peavey Backstage Chorus, a small-ish SS amp with 2 8” speakers. I had never seen one before but then PV seems to have made dozens of amp models over the years.
I got to thinking about PV Bandits. There are a lot of different versions: 65 watt, 85 watt, 100 watt, teal stripe, Transtube etc. Some versions are rated higher than others, apparently.
Can anyone tell me the Bandit story?
-
05-06-2022 04:56 PM
-
-
Mmmm, no.
-
I love the teal version, but the used ones here are in a very bad shape
-
Believe it or not someone did take the time to write it down
Please Wait... | Cloudflare
Never did much for me
-
Years ago when I started playing bigband, there was this red stripe Bandit at the rehearsal location. I think it was 80 Watt or so. It was hardly loud enough for nomal rythm guitar playing and there were not that many horns.... the sound was not very clean either. I was not a fan of that Bandit.
-
Well I did own several Special 130’s back in the early 1980’s Cheap and had more midrange than anything. Bandits were just even cheaper and heavy as well.
Not a big fan of Peavey Guitar amps!
-
I have to disagree with the dissing of the Bandits. I am most familiar with the USA Redstripe Bandit as I've owned one since my wife gave it to me early in this century. It's not the best amp in the world, but it's perfectly usable for my purposes - which include using the clean channel, not the lead channel, and get distortion (which I don't use all that much) from pedals. It's heavy, though, and I never cared for the cosmetics since Peavey did away with the side metal strips. It was plenty loud enough for archtop rhythm guitar in a 16-horn big band. Used, they're pretty good values.
It's a good, serviceable amp, as I said. But amps have come a good way since this version of the Bandit was released. Today I'd buy a Quilter or a Fender ToneMaster, not least because of the weight. But I'm not planning to get rid of it anytime soon.
-
Bandits are great
-
Well, actually, can anyone think of anything made by peavey which is truly great? I dont mean value for money or something you bring when you dont want to put the really great stuff at risk.
-
I tried two: a 75W Solo Bandit (Teal stripe) and a 80W Transtube (Red stripe). The Teal stripe had really nice cleans with my Telecaster. I recall it as more "sparling" than the Red stipe I currently own which OTOH may be a little more all round. The difference may be due to different speakers. What sounds good and cuts in a band setting may differ from what sounds good for solo. It all depends, doesnt it? Neither of the two appear more high end than what price indicates, but they do offer a good functionality for the money.
Loudiness also depends on distance to a reflective back wall and height above floor.
-
I know nothing about the proper history of the bandit… but I had a peavey something when I started out about 30 years ago. And the new rehearsal space has a recent bandit 112. Oh and I was jamming in another place that has this peavey stereo chorus thing.
My old peavey was a total piece of junk, the only thing it could do was a kind of PA-like loud clean tone, and some nondescript distortion. Then again I wasn’t exactly a good player then and would probably sound like crap on a vintage deluxe reverb too.
The new bandit 112 has three modes, classic, warm and vintage. Vintage actually does a passable fender thing and with a pedal set to gentle edge of breakup it can work surprisingly well. Classic mode is that PA-like clean again. I think it could be an ok pedal platform or flat clean amp for an archtop.
That stereo chorus thing was just awful.
But none of those get close to modern emulation, like my BJF S-66 that has a great Fender sound no matter what I do, all I need to do is turn it on.
-
One man's trash ... this is why it "takes pedals well". Technology of today is emulation of the sound of the past :-) Nothing wrong with that, its just funny, isn't it?
Originally Posted by frankhond
-
Yeah I'm waiting for some amp that has the "sound of the future"... but maybe we already have it, with digital plugins. Originally Posted by teeps
One way to look at it is that musical instruments (an amp is an instrument in this context) evolve towards features that are pleasing to people in that particular culture... and music evolves as well with possibilities given by new instruments. Fender, Marshall, Vox et al have "something" that was useful for musicians, who in turn made music that we like today. And we want to play those songs. So it makes some sense to be able to get in the ballpark of older sounds.
As for taking pedals well, there are two interpretations: (1) clean amp that amplifies the pedal sounds (2) amp interacts with pedal in a certain way. A bandit (or something like a hotrod) will do (1) but not (2) very well. There is something about a pedal into a deluxe or twin at a certain volume, or a vox with a treble boost. A good emulation can capture some of that. There is also something about some amps at "magic" settings that can be emulated.
I would like some modern amp that can deliver that sweet spot sound at any volume. Right now there are these expensive tube amps that first amplify the signal with 100W and the bring it down with a reactive load. There has to be a better way.
-
There was a guitar store near me (long gone now) that had a red stripe Bandit on sale for literally a few years. For some reason, nobody ever bought it. Every time I'd go and check out a guitar I'd use that Bandit, and it always sounded good.
And for some reason, I never bought it either.
-
We have a Bandit in our backine at the club. I'm not even sure which one it is, but there's a red stripe on the panel and it's not one of the early Transtubes. It's loud and proud, and it's never failed us in the decade+ it's been up there. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
-
I bought the first model Trasntube that came into my local dealer and returned it after the first gig. Unmic'ed, it was simply not loud enough played clean for a wedding band with trumpet, tenor, and rhythm section. But I've had a few other Peaveys of various kinds over the years (bass, keyboard, and guitar - tube and SS) and got great service from them all. Most of the Peaveys I've owned or played through sounded decent or better, were solid amps for gigging, and were priced right. Originally Posted by hotpepper01
-
Yes, actually. I ordered a Peavey Classic 50 4 x 10" sight unseen on the basis of a Guitar Player magazine review to which I got a sneak peek (I worked in a music store part time). Sixty-six pounds, 10 dollars a pound. All tubes, foot-switchable Clean/Boost/Reverb. Fabulous tones, sweet 'verb, moved lots of air. Main gigging amp for years. My grandson is still using it, decades later. Here's a couple of live-off-the-board tracks demonstrating the range of clean-to-obscene tones from a private July Fourth Picnic BBQ party: Originally Posted by JohanAbrandt
15 RED HOUSE
-
I keep hoping Peavey will put out a version with a built-in delay and call it Time Bandit. That would leave no room for reverb, so they'd bundle it with a Holy Grail pedal, for something completely different.
-
Country guitarists and steel string players like Peaveys for their loud, clean and clear tone, for being dependable, and for being inexpensive.
I have a Transtube red-stripe Bandit that I bought for €100. It has a lot of tonal variety between the bass/mid/high tone controls, the presence, the vintage/modern switch, the T-Dynamics control, and the speaker resonance switch. This is using the clean channel, btw; the lead distortion channel is a taste that I have not yet acquired.
Peaveys are workhorses but they will never be coveted by gear heads. And I can understand the dislike that some have towards them. They don't have much personality compared to a boutique tube amp, but I personally like them for that.
The redstripe Bandit is part of a family that also includes the Studio Pro 112 and Envoy 110. Less volume and less weight. I wouldn't mind getting either.
-
I guess if you have a proper preamp pedal and use the line in for the power and speaker section it might be okay. But I would never buy one with so many better options like Quilter, etc!
Acoustic Control use to make good solid state amps, but again these weighed quite a bit. Solid state technology has come so far especially recently. So now it’s a viable option to tube amps!
-
I had a Peavey Bandit 112 back about 1981 or so. Good, no frills amp. Clean cleans. Loud.
I also had a Peavey Classic 30, which was a great amp, and I would put it up there with the Fender tube amps. Quite a bit cheaper than the Deluxe.
It was very heavy, which is why I didn’t keep it, but it was loud as heck. I couldn’t turn it up past 3 o’clock at home.
I think of a Peavey Classic 20 with reverb as the Holy Grail. Too bad they never made one.
-
Old Peavey stuff isn't hi fi... it's simple, durable, cheap, and if you spend some time with the pre & post, the EQ section, and the "pull thick" - an '80s Bandit has a nice, middy jazz tone that totally works (for me) with solid & hollows. My living room amp is an Audition 20, too. Love the stuff. I like it for more distorted sounds too, but there I really do like fuzz of questionable taste, LOL.
-
Correct me if I’m wrong but they were doing speaker simulated XLR outs on the Classics long before Fender made that a thing on the Tonemasters. (This is the sort of thing that makes me very excited)
Shame the lower powered Classics are a bit lacking in headroom and the big ones are a bit heavy. Otherwise they are great amps.
-
There is a Peavey Classic 30 in the rehearsal space with two HotRods. Not a Fender Deluxe sound exactly, IIRC it has EL34 tubes. It sounds just fine, a nice base tube amp sound.
I liked the sound and was trying to use it but had to crank it a bit when the drummer starts cooking and then it starts to buzz the way cheap tube amps do when pushed. I had a Blues Jr that did the same thing, had that one serviced by a local genius who moved some cables around and made it quiet. Apparently the placement of the cables can create or remove buzz, especially on cirquitboard designs. And the factories don't care.
Reply With Quote
I found this rarity,
Today, 03:05 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos