Ultra 112 is an all-tube combo amp, featuring true three-channel control for increased tonal flexibility. Designed for any rehearsal, studio or live application, the it's built for easy portability. It delivers 60 watts of all-tube power into selectable 4, 8 or 16 ohms, so it can handle stand-alone or any extension speaker combination.
Ultra 112
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on november 18, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 550
Features: Peavey Ultra 112, made sometime in the late 90's. 3 channels for your versatility goodness. Has a seperate passive EQ for the cleans and an active EQ, which the dirty channels share. Also has a "resonance" control button which has got to be one of my favourite things about this amp. I use it mainly for small/medium gigs and this thing's volume has never went past 6. It's an open cab - that's the only beef I have with the amp. Planning on using extensions. The stock Power amp tubes blow ass(they sound thin). I've retubed it with Tung-sols in the preamp and JJ's in the power amp and now this thing BITES! // 9
Sound: I always use very hot pickups due to being a thrashing head. Having said that - yes, this amp suits my music style. It has a rather unique sound to it's high-gain grind, though. Not the common Marshall tone, that you're used to hearing. The open cab can be a bit "loose" on the low end sometimes, but this is where my favourite feature kicks in - the "resonance control" Switch lets you Switch between 3 modes - loose, medium(which tightens the lows and voices the mids out a bit) and tight(which tightens lows and voices your highs for more attack). This Switch has saved me more than once at gigs, where something in the sound was "just missing". It's noise is in the norm, considering it's a tube amp. About the sounds - This hunk can cover A LOT with it's 3 channels. The cleans are not the best but you can definately make due with them. They don't break up and if your guitar is Humbucker equipped - there is a "bright" Switch on the amp, which brightens up the dark bucker sound. I used the channel with a piezo-equipped acoustic guitar on my last gig and it delivered an acceptible sound. The crunch is just that - great crunch for blues/rock/classic metal. Very responsive to gain adjustment and guitar volume. You can get it from slightly fuzzy to mean-sounding. I used to have a booster in front and use this channel as my main rhythm channel and it delivered the mids I needed to have my place in the mix(very Machine Head - Burn My Eyes sounding).
The Ultra channel delivers more lows and more highs and slightly pulls the mids back. I used to use it for soloing only but have recently moved to it as my main blend. Normally, I would have the Resonance set to "tight" to voice out those biting highs and to keep the insane lows from spilling out. It delivers. Overally the distortion on both dirty channels is brutal enough. Lots of saturation on the Ultra channel, lots of crunch on the... um Crunch channel. Lots bite on both. Sometimes I wish that the gain knobs would go to 11, because I'm a gain freak and it's just never enough! Whenever I feel like that I just throw my booster in and I'm a-ok for the day. Overally, though, I play on the Ultra channel with no booster what'soever(just one in the loop for solo-volume-boosts). // 9
Reliability & Durability: I am having a bit of a problem with the "highs" pots on bot clean and dirty channels - that's how I bought it - I have no idea what the previous owner has been doing with them. The problem itself is that when I turn the knobs I can hear a screeching and at certain positions, the highs will just die out. I need to wobble the knob a bit 'till it makes contact and I get my sound. As far as durability goes - I sit on it and stand on it very often. I've had a cigarette fall on the tolex on a gig and it stayed there for quite a bit before I saw it - the tolex only melted a bit and it doesn't even show all that much unless you know what you're looking for. On another gig a guy from the audience went flying towards the amp, feet first. A few of the covering grill's threads got torn, but it stayed together - the threads are metal and I can bet my life that the tearing will not spread and will not grow to be a hole. The thing is a tank. // 10
Impression: For thrashing sounds - it suits me quite well. What I really want is a 5150, but that's gonna wait 'till my bank acoount grows a bit. Otherwise, I can definately dial up some 5150 tones with the Ultra. Been playing for 7 years. This is my first all-tube amp - I've been using processors, pedals etc. through solid-state amps before. Ain't never going back(unless modelling gets really really good and really cheap one of these days). If it were stolen, I'd look for a 5150II/6505+ OR I would get an Ultra head, if a deal comes around. Dragging that combo around can get tiresome. I love it's versatility, it's over-the-top saturation and it's powerful sound. I hate it's weight. // 9
Ultra 112
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on july 30, 2005 1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Features: Ultra 112 is an all-tube combo amp, featuring true three-channel control for increased tonal flexibility. Designed for any rehearsal, studio or live application, the Ultra 112 is built for easy portability. The Ultra 112 delivers 60 watts of all-tube power into selectable 4, 8 or 16 ohms, so it can handle stand-alone or any extension speaker combination. Additional features include an all-tube amp head; four 12AX7 preamp tubes and two 6L6GC power amp tubes; 60 watts at 4, 8 or 16 ohms (selectable impedance); three footswitchable channels (ultra, crunch and clean); 12" Sheffield speaker; footswitchable reverb; effects loop and master volume. The Clean channel features passive EQ, Crunch and Ultra channels feature active EQ, and a footswitch is included. The Ultra 112 offers exceptional flexibility and rugged all-tube design at an affordable price. // 8
Sound: I have a high output distortion humbucker on my guitar (which is the only real good thing about it apart from the bigsby talipiece) which distorts it at high volume only when the pickup volume is on full though. The clean sound is very much like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and very bright on the bridge and on the neck is very bassy when the tone is down and good for playing chords. On distortion the crunch is't really that good for rock and is better for very low gain stuff such as blues. The ultra gain is great for power chords but not enough sustain. I might get a compression sustainer to sort that out. The reverb is very good and sounds like a concert or somtheng. Overall, the sound really siuts my style of music (rock, metal blues). // 8
Impression: I think this amp is good for my stlye of music (rock, metal blues). I like the footswitch and the warm tube sound. If, by some amazing thing, sombodey managed to steal this amp without stepping on somtheng and waking me up I probbably wouldn't get hold of another one so I'd have to get somtheng else but if I could then probbably not because of myself really. I like viriety and I'd probbably get a more modern amp, with onboard FX, but definetly somtheng with a good preamp aswell like a Fender, which would probbably have more gain aswell. // 8
Ultra 112
Reviewed by:
iya415.2365, on september 26, 2005 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 1098
Purchased from: lokal music superstore
Features: This amp was made a few years ago and I've had it for about a year now. It's an all tube, 60w combo 3 footswitchable channels, switchable impendance and 2 speaker outputs for an extension cab (also availible in 2 or 4 speaker versions but I'm cheap so I got the 1 speaker version) a sheffield speaker (I like sheffield) and Fx loop for various effects. Oh yes and a thing that changes speaker damping. // 10
Sound: The sound on this is rather good, it's very versitile for different styles, from acoustic (although you really should buy an acoustic amp for that) to thrash/shred metal and a lot of the stuff inbetween. The clean channel is a lot like a vintage amp really so it does distort but this is the good, tube kind, and if you don't like it, turn it down and turn up the master volume! This is a pretty modern style amp so it's not very good for tweedtone stuff (although it is pretty bright when you want it to be). It does jazz pretty well, but it would probbably need a bit of Eq treatment for it to work best at it. Overall, I like it! // 9
Reliability & Durability: Despite having a pretty "hand made" feel, it is very solid and will easily do gigs no probs. It's also rather loud even without an extension cab. It hasn't broken down yet but that's because I regularly (well y'know what I mean) replace the valves or "tubes." I can stand on this thing without it breaking so that's good but on somedays it makes an unnerving crakling noise at random intervals, yes that's it. // 8
Impression: This amp is very good for most styles of music and is great for the guitarist who prefers real tone and dynamics to digitally created crap. // 9
