Peavey Bandit w/ Scorpion - speaker swap?

[f13ndus]

Hey all, I know the Bandit is pretty popular around here. I've got one of the original Bandits (the 50w model) in great shape, with the original Scorpion speaker. I like the amp a lot, great clean and reverb, I've pretty much decided to replace my Randall RG80-112SC with the Bandit as a gigging amp - the Randall does drive/distortion a lot better, but the cleans and reverb aren't quite as good, and the Bandit has a more useful channel switching setup IMO (Here's that thread.)

I am curious, however, what a speaker swap could do for this amp! From what I've read, and from looking at the speaker design, I'd guess the Scorpion's voicing leans more towards the "British" side of things. I have no idea what it's effeciency is like. I'd like to try something else, maybe a ceramic Jensen or an EVM or a Weber California, something more "American" sounding. I'm more concerned with cleans than overdrive sounds, and I don't really want speaker breakup - something very efficient would be nice, too, to get the most out of the 50w output.

I did try a vintage Jensen P12N for a bit - sounded very nice, but I know it won't stand up to gig use with the original cone, and don't really want to blow it!

Has anyone with a Bandit tried different speakers in it? Especially if it's one of the speakers that i mentioned (or similar), but I'd like to hear any swap experiences you might have had. Alternately, if you've used any Peavey amp with a 12" Scorpion speaker, and you swapped it out, I'd like your thoughts too.

[Steve G]

Interesting thread. Id love to know how much lighter it would make the amp too, those Scorpions are like old battleships!

[Jakedog]

I have moved the Sheffield 1230 from TT Bandit II into my TT Studio Pro 112, so I am in need of another speaker for the Bandit. After much researching, I'm gonna take a shot with an Eminence Texas Heat. Seems like it might be what you're looking for too... maybe read up on it a little. I think it'll do the trick for me. I hate speaker breakup, but the guy I e-mailed at Eminence said I should be ok with this model, and my Bandit II is an 80 watt amp.

[f13ndus]

Yeah, I was doing some reading after I posted this yesterday and was thinking the same thing about the Texas Heat, it definitely sounds like it's worth a try. If you get yours soon, come back to this thread and post what you think about it?

I'm also intrigued by the Lil' Texas, which looks to be almost the same speaker but with a neo magnet. Slightly higher resonant frequency (90hz vs 79hz for the Heat), slightly more sensitivity (101 vs 99, using Eminence's listed specs) and slightly more range (70hz - 5.5khz for the Lil, vs 70hz - 5khz for the Heat), but a little less power handling (125W vs 150W.)

Plus the magnet is 4oz(!!) vs 38oz in the Heat - that's over two pounds less! Would surely lighten up the combo a bit, which would be nice, I'm only 24 and I'm already complaining about my back sometimes (working at UPS certainly hasn't helped! )

[emiller45]

I would browse the Eminence line. It seems they have a speaker for just about every sound preference and power range and the prices are reasonable.