For the love of a Bandit

[ehdwuld]

I was at my buddy's house yesterday, as he ran through the piezo options on my Dean Shire

He was working up some new songs for an upcoming gig and needed a twelve string.
The Shire, with the chime of the piezo, does a nice impression of one.
The Shire sounded wonderful through his rig, which was a two amp setup with a pedal board
He had his Classic 30 with a CRex and his Bandit 75 with the Blue Marvel that came from the 30

We both marveled in how great the guitar sounded.
How much better it did those two songs than his Strats

After about 30 mins, we realized the Classic 30 wasnt on.
It was all the Bandit

Instantly he announced he was selling the C30,
He got the C30 thinking the tubes would be a giant step up from the SS Bandit
It wasnt
It sounds good. And is a great amp.
But the Bandit does that too
It doesnt break up and get gritty like the C30
But the Bandit sounds smooth and warm, it has none of those sterile, grating sounds
Everyone says solid state amps have

He said he had been gigging with the C30 ,
but had brought the Bandit in to add a little more bass

No one in the audience even cares what amp you're playing through
They dont care about brand
Not about tubes
Not about size

Just if it sounds good
Which the Bandit does
And this particular one has since the 80s
With no particular maintenance save the new speaker and a power cord
The Scorpion it came with was busted.
And the power cord dry rotted

Awesome amp

Just friggin awesome

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

Very cool! I love those "aha" moments.
Who cares what your playing, as long as
it sounds good.

 

[Mincer]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I used a Bandit for years. It's got solid sounds. They will outlive us all, too.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I wish I had another Bandit, so I could mess around with a power section that won’t blow up if I plug in a load box that isn’t just so. I literally do not have a solid-state guitar amp in my home right now, except for a couple of battery-powered toys. My old teal-stripe Bandit died ages ago. I think the Chinese ones sound really good.

A Bandit like my old one. (Not my picture.)

View attachment 96001

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I’d argue they don’t even care if it sounds good. Or rather, the definition of “good” is far more broad than guitar players’ definition.

 

[ErikH]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I used to have one, two actually. Killer amps that are workhorses. Even them models from the early 2000's sound great.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

When I got my Carvin Belair I was sure it would be much greater than my Laney GC80A
It wasn't
It is different though, the Carvin is a more clean tweed sound while the Laney has a distinct British flavor

Both are super loud and heavy
Lugging them around isn't what I want to do

My newest Bugera G5 is just right for me now

I probably should offload some of these amps I dont need anymore too

 

[Diego]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I'm in a bit of a situation with my gear where I wanna sell it all somedays.

I'd seriously consider a Bandit as an amp choice. It sounds heavy as balls if you want it to. And I don't need a trillion effects onboard. Unless I find a SS head of sorts with an FX loop for a competitive price, which I seriously doubt I'll do. The Orange Crush 120 is amazing but not for me, too fuzzy and I don't want those tiny Joyo heads. We'll see.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

Isn't the Supreme head just a Bandit in a head?

 

[Diego]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

Isn't the Supreme head just a Bandit in a head?

Oh ****, didn't know about that one. Never seen one. If I pull the trigger on selling my gear I'll be hunting high and low for one of those.

 

[SoPhx]

Re: For the love of a Bandit

I have an 80's Bandit and with the right speaker they sound very good. I play pretty clean and it works well for that. I get tired of screwing around with the vagaries of tube amp frequency response (too bright, too dark) and can appreciate something with a relatively flat response. Check out the tone stack calculator By R. Keen for tweed amp frequency response---pretty flat.