The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm a long time Peavey amp user and I've had a recent resurgence of interest in steel guitars - both non-pedal & pedal. I currently have three Peavey 'silver stripe' Bandit 112s, a Peavey Revolution 112, and two Peavey Ultra 112s (tube) amps (all USA made).

As I get an electric lap or pedal guitar I need to choose an amp for it.

Hows does the Bandit 112 compare to the Nashville 112 amp? Anyone use a Bandit 112 for pedal or non-pedal lap guitars?




Thanks.

Any of the Peavey amp models that you have would work fine for steel or lap steel applications. But the Nashville 112 and Session 115 amplifiers feature certain characteristics such as active eq with mid shift circuit and a pre eq volume pedal insert point for passive volume pedals. Your Transtube Bandit has passive circuitry, but it may appeal to your liking.

Mike Brown
Peavey USA

Thanks Mike. I'm studying the Nashville schematic to see if I can lift the pre-eq loop and add it to the Bandit's clean channel.

There's a Peavey Bandit in one of the practice spaces I play in - I've used it before for steel.

Now I've always been extremely skeptical of Peavey products due to an experience with one of their older guitar amps (an old model from the early 80s). So I was expecting it to be pretty bad.

Actually, it was pretty good! Changed my mind about the brand even.

That being said, the sound from the Bandit I played through wasn't truly comparable to the sound I get from my Quilter Steelaire, or a Twin Reverb (or frankly, any old Fender), or a Music Man amp I play through.

I suspect the Bandit will be adequate, but perhaps not inspiring? Of course, it's all relative, right? I'll say this, if I had to plug into a backline and they provided a Bandit, I wouldn't be excited, but I wouldn't be worried about it either. And if they had a Nashville or 400, I'd be set.

Early Bandit Solo Series, 50 bux on Craigslist. Works great for me if I don't feel like hauling my Session 400 or Twin.

The mid-shift control in the NV112 is really invaluable in contouring the sound. Without a mid-shift, the amp either has the tone you like, or it doesn't. It really gives you that "extra edge", and the only thing that will replace it to dial in your tone is a graphic EQ pedal between the guitar and the amp.

Interestingly. I was,looking at the comments on one of Bill Sutton's videos and he was using a Peavey TNT 130 bass amp. Sounds great!

I have played a lot of amps, from Fender Twin, Session 400, Bandit, Nashville 400, Webb 614E's, but the NV112 is the purest cleanest sweetest amp I have ever enjoyed. I have a Emmons PP bolt-on, and run it straight through the volume pedal direct to the amp with no effects just a bit of NV112 amp reverb- totally fabulous.
Onstage I run to the PA with either the XLR jack in the back or out the output jack on the front right; the PA board is set flat with no extra reverb or tone correction and the sound output is just as perfect as the amp sounds.