Peavey Bandit mod...or NOT?!

[merseymale]

just got one of my very own early BANDIT courtesy of eBay BUT can anyone advise, please?

There is this weird rheostat pot' (without knob) on the
back of my SolidState Amp between the chassis & the speaker! Is it an aftermarket Mod' or is it original...?

It looks like a master volume for a valve amp but surely a bandit would't need it?!

(Is it risky to just Plug In & turn it..?)

[The Dude]

Without knowing what it is makes it difficult to comment. It would be best if you trace it out and see what it actually is (maybe an L-pad used for an attenuator?). If that's what it is, I don't see why you'd need it on a bandit. There's plenty of overdrive available in the pre stages. It's just as easy to turn the master volume down. Of course that's speculation until you tell us exactly what the adjustment is and how it's wired.

[merseymale]

Without knowing what it is makes it difficult to comment. It would be best if you trace it out and see what it actually is (maybe an L-pad used for an attenuator?). If that's what it is, I don't see why you'd need it on a bandit. There's plenty of overdrive available in the pre stages. It's just as easy to turn the master volume down. Of course that's speculation until you tell us exactly what the adjustment is and how it's wired.

I'm not that good at doing schematics to be honest but I have photographs although it seems to be difficult to post them here…

i've asked on this forum:

https://forums.peavey.com/viewtopic....341899#p341899

...as well and they've posted my photographs
I would appreciate it greatly if you could take
the time to look at them please? THANKS!

[The Dude]

As I suspected, it's an L-Pad for attenuating output level to the speaker. It won't hurt anything, since it's a SS amp, but it is a 50 ohm L-Pad, so it would limit output power. Frankly, I don't see why it would be useful in this particular amp, but if you like the way the amp sounds........

[merseymale]

As I suspected, it's an L-Pad for attenuating output level to the speaker. It won't hurt anything, since it's a SS amp, but it is a 50 ohm L-Pad, so it would limit output power. Frankly, I don't see why it would be useful in this particular amp, but if you like the way the amp sounds........

Thank you for that!
I'm not too sure why it needs such a thing either but I haven't turned it on yet I just got a bit worried because it looks so odd having something like that tacked on

Is it a simple enough mod?
Are those LPAD things easy to come by?

[The Dude]

The amp puts out 80W at 8 ohms- much less at 50 ohms, which is why they are able to "get by" with a 25W L-Pad. I suppose L-pads are as easy to come by as any other electronic part. Yes, it's a very simple mod just interrupting the connection from amp to speaker. To undo the mod, just unhook everything and connect the blue and yellow wires from the amp directly to the speaker (yellow is positive), which is what I'd do. IMO, it's a pointless mod on a solid state amp. The main reason attenuators are used is so that output tube saturation becomes part of the sound at lower volumes. Since this has no output tubes to saturate, I fail to see what the purpose of the L-Pad is except for yet another volume control.

[DrGonz78]

I betcha the person that modded that Bandit was thinking this will turn it into a tube amp. Yeah ditch that mod and don’t look back.

[merseymale]

The amp puts out 80W at 8 ohms- much less at 50 ohms, which is why they are able to "get by" with a 25W L-Pad. I suppose L-pads are as easy to come by as any other electronic part. Yes, it's a very simple mod just interrupting the connection from amp to speaker. To undo the mod, just unhook everything and connect the blue and yellow wires from the amp directly to the speaker (yellow is positive), which is what I'd do. IMO, it's a pointless mod on a solid state amp. The main reason attenuators are used is so that output tube saturation becomes part of the sound at lower volumes. Since this has no output tubes to saturate, I fail to see what the purpose of the L-Pad is except for yet another volume control.

Yes I suppose I was thinking the same thing… my only existing valve amp is a Fender champ so I wonder if I could swap this attenuator into that amp?

[merseymale]

I betcha the person that modded that Bandit was thinking this will turn it into a tube amp. Yeah ditch that mod and don’t look back.

Y U P.

is there a way of choosing what'L-PAD' part two order based on the amplifier used? I have a little fender champ might benefit from such a device

[Mick Bailey]

I'm not so sure this is an L-pad as it only appears to have one resistive element and wiper. My thought is it's a pot (rheostat) wired as a voltage divider. 25W/50 Ohm is an unusual value for a speaker L-pad.

[The Dude]

You're probably right, Mick. At any rate, whether it's a rheostat or L-pad, I wouldn't use it on a tube amp that needs a 4 ohm load.