Peavey Transtube question

Aceman

Aceman

I am your doctor of love!
I had an early Transtube amp - a Studio Pro 112. Personally, I really dug that amp. Great cleans, and the transtube tone was fantastic, especially in the moderate tube-breakup zone. It could play Jazz, Blues, Trash, yodeler into the loop, whatever. Very flexible. Anyway, the insides were eaten by an escaped hamster….

I was recently searching to replace, and came across a Peavey "Express" 112. It appears to be the same amp?!?!?!?!? Is it? If so did they just change the name? Or is it somehow different.

65 wats, two channels, reverb, Sheffield….anyone?
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

Are they from the same series? Most of the time the difference was actually the power. In the older blue and grey series the studios were 40 watts the express was 65 and the bandit 80. Preamp wise all 3 amps were the same with maybe a bright switch here and there and the speakers being the biggest difference in tone. I know that when they went to the black tolex series the same format was retained just the power scaled up a bit... the bandit became 100 watts so on so forth.
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

Though Bob I must ask... What does a 65 watt transtube do that your Valvestate doesnt?
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

The Marshall (8100 style) is, well, a Marshall. Pretty flexible, as Marshalls go - which means it has at least three or four sounds: Crunchy breakup MArshall, Overdrive Marshall, Hot rodded Marshall, and Uber-Marshall. That said….I can make a LOT of good hard rock / metal sounds with it.

For everything else…that Peavey was the schiz. I'd SWEAR my Studio Pro was 65 watts?!?!?!?!? It was loud….But I could make ANY sound with it.

So express, eh? Yeah - and of course there is always the bandit option with the Tube Dynamics power soak knob….who doesn't need an extra Bandit laying around for whatever? Jazz, Blues, Rock, Metal….

Interesting note; The Original Rat pedal on my board - sound just like the OD1 channel on my Marshall. Makes sense….1990 Marshall sounds like Uber hot rod pedal.
 
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Re: Peavey Transtube question

I really liked my Transtube Bandit 112. It could definitely get a wide range of useable tones, and it was the first Peavey amp I'd heard that didn't have that Peavey sound. Until it died.

But then I replaced it with a Fender RocPro 1000 head and a Carvin 212 cabinet and got the same amount of useable tones and increased clarity, even at highest gain settings (which were actually pretty high for a hybrid head).
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

they are really good all around amps, and they are all around( but they are actually square).
They do nothing great, but do everything fairly well.The cleans are passable, but why anyone would love that ratty distortion is far beyond me. They are der Volkswagen Beatles of amps; ya wouldnt' one one as a daily driver, but they could serve the purpose of basic transportation, if you get my drift.
I have two of those old Peavey bandit style amps.
I keep one for old skool Country, and one for practice.
I want an old Bandit, but for pure nostalgia reasons, same reason I want an old VW Beatle.
God help you if you think these are any legitimate substitute for a nice old blackface.

For not much more money, you could get a Dr. Fong.( :dunno:)
 
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Re: Peavey Transtube question

Yeah, who would use a Bandit?



 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

dominus said:
Yeah, who would use a Bandit?



Click to expand...


I see,and it sounds good, but for that kind of music, isn't the 6505 the industry standard? I just cannot help thinking that the 6505 would be an enormous step up in sound from the Bandit for those bands.Hell, even a Peavey Hybrid like my 60 watt Classic VTX to get some tube organics and saturration. The problem with the bandit is that it wasn't made for Metal, like say, a Warhead. The new transtubes might have more stauration, but it's bound to be grainy.To me, it's shortcomings are apparent in those clips, as the guitars lack Punch, ad bass resonance. IDK though.
 
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Re: Peavey Transtube question

I heard there is a simple mod for the Bandits that make them sound 100% better and even will get compliments and all kinds of questions on how you get your tone from other guitar players.

It involves removing the Peavey label and making up your own boutique sounding brand and designing a label and new box for your Peavey. Once you do that mod, everone will say how much better it sounds than that old Peavey Bandit you used to have and smart of you to finally upgrade to a real amp. If you can incorporate metal grills somewhere in the new box design you house your Bandit guts in, it will make the tone really come out for metal.
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

Okay, I sailed my Corsair alongside your inferior Cutlass . I fired a salvo over your stern to indicate that you should submit . I was met with resistance, therefore I must unleash the full fury of my Cannons directly admidship- 'The Bandit is an inferior amp', no matter what engineer makes of it in any recording"
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

MetalManiac said:
Okay, I sailed my Corsair alongside your inferior Cutlass . I fired a salvo over your stern to indicate that you should submit . I was met with resistance, therefore I must unleash the full fury of my Cannons directly admidship- 'The Bandit is an inferior amp', no matter what engineer makes of it in any recording"
Click to expand...

Which Bandit and inferior to which amps? Inferior how?
 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

This looks like a lot of amp


I think I would be pretty happy owning that and could get some good sounds out of it.

I passed up all combos on my last round of amp buying though and went with three different amp heads. One solid state, one hybrid, one tube. The tube is a Peavey, but if they had a Bandit head in lunchbox size with good fx loop, I probably would have snagged it. I bought the scourge of the tube line for my Peavey - The ValveKing, but its a ValveKing II, a micro, and it rocks with great sounds no matter what people try to say about it. With stock tubes too. I think there is a lot of people that do not know how to dial in amps right unfortunately. I also think the Bandits that were before their transtube tech created a reputation for that grainy gain on the early ones and sort of carried over to blanket the line with a certain reputation.

The ValveKing is the same way. They redesigned it but carried the same name and people will always associate that name with the first batch.
 
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Re: Peavey Transtube question

MetalManiac said:
I see,and it sounds good, but for that kind of music, isn't the 6505 the industry standard? I just cannot help thinking that the 6505 would be an enormous step up in sound from the Bandit for those bands.Hell, even a Peavey Hybrid like my 60 watt Classic VTX to get some tube organics and saturration. The problem with the bandit is that it wasn't made for Metal, like say, a Warhead. The new transtubes might have more stauration, but it's bound to be grainy.To me, it's shortcomings are apparent in those clips, as the guitars lack Punch, ad bass resonance. IDK though.
Click to expand...

The guy that designed the Transtube technology designed the 5150. (And JSX. And XXX.)

Here's those bands playing those songs in front of 80,000 people:





 
Re: Peavey Transtube question

the only mod that makes a Bandit better is a speaker change
all the older ones I have heard or played thru, had a blatty , farty sound at volume that was instantly remedied by upgrading the speaker

the Scorpion speaker in the early 80's Bandit 75 was nice
the Sheffield speakers sucked bad

My buddy gigs with his 80's Bandit 75
he bought it for $49 and free shipping from some NY GC used.
it arrived UPS and the box looked as if it rolled all the way from NYC
this is probably why the speaker cone on the Scorpion speaker detached
He replaced the speaker with an Eminence and it sounds great
 
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