Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

J

jajones480

New member
My main amp is an old Peavey Bandit with the 12" Scorpion speaker. Unfortunately, the speaker just went out on me. It was crackling and sounding like I was overdriving it when I wasn't and today it finally gave up the ghost. My question is this: Do I replace it with the same 12" Scorpion speaker or should I get something else for it?

I play mostly blues and rock on both my acoustic and electric. Getting a whole new amp setup is not really an option because I would really like a tube amp but I can't spend that kind of money right now. I would like to get a Mesa Boogie a couple years down the road so if I can fix this one for less than $100 that would be great.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Look into a Eminence Red Fang, wouldent hurt.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

The generic Eminence Fender 12" (kinda like the Legend) works well in this amp; 50 watt rating, relatively uncolored, inexpensive. The RI C12N might work pretty well too...
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

v30s will definately give you a lot of sparkle and presence . . . might be too bright if the bandit is an open back cab though . . .
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

:wow: an older Bandit.

The Peavey Sheffield in the newer Bandits is a far better speaker.

But I wouldn't discount the other recommendations given thus far.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Is it my understanding that the Peavey Bandit is an 80 watt amp? I just bought a older(think silver stripes on the front!) Peavey Special "solo Series", with the scorpion speaker, and it's 120 watts at 4 or 8 ohms, and you just plug the speaker into one of the outputs on the combo, pretty cool. I guess what I'm getting at is you'll want a higher wattage speaker?
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Thanks for all the advice! I looked at the Eminence Red Fang and they are a little pricey new - $150. If I could find one on eBay that would be perfect but chances are not. I'm going to check into the Peavey Sheffield speaker as well. The first thing I need to do is open her up and check all the contacts to make sure it is the speaker before I spend the money on a new one.

I believe the older bandits are 65 - 70 watts.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

I think I may pull the trigger on a Celstion Seventy 80. They seem to have gotten good reviews and many people recommend them as a cheap upgrade to the Peavey Bandits!
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

The speaker in the Special was a Scorpion Plus, rated to handle the extra power in the Special. Older Bandits were rated at 65 watts, and the Specials at 120 watts RMS. When the newer Transtube Bandits came out, they were rated at 80 watts in at 8ohm load (combo speaker), and 100 watts into a 4 ohm load. The TT Bandit combo and Peavey's 112SX cab makes for a nice little rig.

The Scorpion Series speakers were pretty good sounding speakers in those amps, and they were very durable. You can probably still get a recone kit for the Scorpion thru Peavey--I'd check their Forum website, or give their CS department a call. You can do the recone yourself--it's easy! I also liked their Sheffield Speakers, but I'm not crazy about the "Blue Marvels".

The cool thing about putting another Scorpion in it? I bet you could find one for dirt cheap!

Whatever you get, be sure it has the same impedence rating as your old speaker.

Good luck!

Bill
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Thanks for all the input! I checked out some stuff on Ebay and there was nothing there that I could get immediately so I went to Parts Express and ordered a speaker. Peavey wanted to charge $70 + shipping just for the basket!!! I got an Eminence 12" Swamp Thang for $84 shipped. It was a toss up between the Texas heat and the Swamp Thang but I chose the fatter bottom end and better sustain of the Swamp Thang.

Anyone have any experience with this speaker? I'm supposed to get it on Friday so I'll post on my experience.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Please do keep us posted. May it be the speaker of your dreams.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

LesStrat said:
:wow: an older Bandit.

The Peavey Sheffield in the newer Bandits is a far better speaker.

But I wouldn't discount the other recommendations given thus far.
Click to expand...
Are they (old Bandits) cool or something? How old? I have a Bandit 112 from about 1993 or 94, & I don't care for it all that much.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Alright - I got the 12" Eminence Swamp Thang installed on Friday and the amp sounds awesome. I apologize that I am not that well versed in trying to describe the sound of the amp in more technological terms. This is the first amp speaker that i have ever replaced. Unlike the stock Scorpion speaker, the Swamp Thang has TONS of bass and sustain. With the Scorpion, I found myself turning the bass up. With the ST, I'm doing just the opposite. The highs are sweet but have a nice edge to them that really makes the JB in my bridge sound spectacular. Overall, there is definitely more clarity in the sound from the amp.

I do have a couple of questions though:
1. What is the normal "break in" time for a speaker? When I first plugged it in, it was hissing something terrible. It's gotten better but there is still more hiss than I noticed before.
2. The reason I got the speaker is because I thought the Scorpion went bad. Now, I don't think that is the case. When I first plugged the Swamp Thang in, the volume was really low and the highs seemed to "crackle". I had to really crank up the volume on the amp and then it was like someone jumpstarted the sound and it was fine. I'm assuming this is a problem somewhere in the amp electronics but I'm not sure where to start troubleshooting. Is it something as simple as dirty contacts on the volume pot or input jack or is the actual amplifier part of the amp (the big heavy boxy thing) going bad?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Congratulations on that speaker. It is a pretty high-power-handling speaker, so you might find yourself playing at higher volumes than you were before. Break-in time is approximately 12 to 15 hours of high-volume play. As far as the other noise issue, I think some other members here can give you a better answer than I can.
 
Re: Peavey Bandit Quandry - Which 12" speaker???

Thanks for the reply, Baritone. I've only put about 2 - 3 hours of high-volume playing so I've got a little ways to go. It definitly sounds better now, though.
 
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