James Brown, designer of the 5150 amp starts new company

[Bucksears]

Thanks for the compliment. I pretty much use things I learned from every product as I move forward designing new things. Your idea of making some kind o 5150-sounding pedal is a good one, and I'll put that in my list of ideas I've been getting from people.
thanks,
JB

James,
I had a 5150 combo in the mid-90's and loved the 'Crunch' setting on the rhythm channel; the 'Crunch' and 'Lead' put into a tube pedal (or rack distortion unit like the rackmount Tube Driver) that you could bypass would be incredible.

 

[Han Solo]

Hey James,

It seems I can't fill out the form on the site properly; it doesn't accept my personal data. ( I live in Europe)

 

[radcliff]

papa's got a brand new bag?

 

[Peppy]

VTMs were very good amps. Maybe a combo facsimile of those if possible.

 

[amptweaker]

Hey James,

It seems I can't fill out the form on the site properly; it doesn't accept my personal data. ( I live in Europe)

It's probably getting confused with the phone number since it wants you to use 3-3-4 numbering scheme.....just type in 123-123-1234 or something like that, and it should let you through.

If you can't get it to work, throw your idea on here for now, and I'll keep getting the site 'tweaked'.
Thanks,
James

 

[amptweaker]

Hey James,

It seems I can't fill out the form on the site properly; it doesn't accept my personal data. ( I live in Europe)

I had the website form changed so it no longer requires the phone number. Hopefully that will allow you to put your suggestion in.

Thanks,
James
www.amptweaker.com

 

[hk45acp]

James
The Peavey Classic 50 is one of the best amps ever! I owned a rehearsal studio that had Classic 50s in them for about 6 years. Those amps were played everyday for 6-8 hours a day for those 6 years and they just ran and ran. 1 out of the 5 amps we had died but that was due to someone spilling beer down the back! We use one as a backline amp at the bar I own now and it's able to get sounds for almost every kind of music we have there (metal, punk, ska, rockabilly, surf).

My suggestion is this:
A 4 6v6 amp w/ pre/post gain ala the classic series with reverb and true pitch shifting vibrato.

 

[mississippijoe]

I have always said the Classic 50 was not just a great Peavey amp, it is one of THE great amps of all time.

 

[Lution]

Hi James. welcome to TGP.

I really love your Kustom Double Cross amp, but if that could be made at 50 watts with only 2 EL34s, that would be a killer!

Also, I think many many folks have always wanted a clone of the Bogner XTC Blue channel in a 50 watt head or combo.

If someone could make a 2 channel amp combining the sweet clean channel from the Bogner Shiva with the XTC Blue channel (with a higher gain boost switch) and offer it in an EL34 head for under $1,200 bucks I would buy two of them!

Or, since you are working on pedals first, XTC Blue Channel in a pedal.

 

[BPSUL]

Thanks for the peavey classics! That's all I have to ad.

 

[amptweaker]

Thanks for the peavey classics! That's all I have to ad.

It's great to hear people that appreciate other amps I worked on besides the 5150.....I'll have to admit that neither the 5150 or the Classic 50 were MY favorites, but they apparently both moved the bar up on what good tone meant for both moderate and high gain amps.

My favorite Peavey amp I did was the Triumph/Ultra/Triple XXX models. I used those at gigs the whole time I worked at Peavey. Now I play through a '36 Coupe, and it rocks too.

Thanks in advance for helping me come up with new products that continue to improve on the sounds of these past products.

James
www.amptweaker.com
PS.....my website has had more hits from you guys than any other referral from the net so far! thanks for your interest and your help.

 

[Section10]

Im a former 5150 owner, as well as 2 other older Peaveys.

To fenderize the clean on the 5150 would be heaven, as the crunch and lead were plenty more than most can ask for. But one of the most amazing aspects of the amp was the presence. Thats an amp with Umphh.
But I admit 5150 was mostly for the eddie sound I was going for, taste has changed since I re-entered the electric world again. My style of playing really suits a pickless Knopfler style playing since i'm classically trained. I enjoy a clean with more boutique-like Responsiveness. Fenders usually do great at it, but theirs overdrives seem to be just more gain on the clean which can be a little too sparkly for distortion.

But from when I last entered the electric world I can see that the newer trends in Guitar amps are definetly the Boutique-style amps. I didnt' recognize half of the brands in the guitar stores! Egnater, Vox, Bugera, (Local Boutique brands like Vintage Sound, Bob Burt, Boyden) are all brands that I didnt normally see in guitar stores. Im seeing less Randall, Mesa Rectifiers, Soldano...etc.

It seems like theres more of an opportunity for guys with knowledge like you that can start their own company and do quite well with moderate popularity than ever before. Considering the Internet boom we no longer have to rely on a famous artist to tell us about how great Marshall amps are. But we can simply watch a youtube video or follow a link to a website to see and hear how great an amp sounds.

Good luck with your explorations, its a picky world!

 

[littlejohn]

+1 for the Ultra, had a couple of them...I wish they would have made an Ultra head, maybe they did? The combos were great but a bit heavy for me so I moved to a head/cab setup for my jams. Had fun with those amps. So my vote would be for an amp similar to the Ultra, but maybe in a single channel format with a master volume and distortion boost.

 

[Whiskeyrebel]

Sweep mids might be easiest to use with boost/cut and a center 'flat' detent rather than cut only. You could even have a center detent on the freq sweep to help the player quickly find the point that you voiced as the sweet spot, and a tone bypass if they really get into trouble.

I've wondered if LDRs are used for channel switching, could they be 'feathered' to effect a channel blend rather than an either/or operation?

 

[BPSUL]

It's great to hear people that appreciate other amps I worked on besides the 5150.....I'll have to admit that neither the 5150 or the Classic 50 were MY favorites, but they apparently both moved the bar up on what good tone meant for both moderate and high gain amps.

My favorite Peavey amp I did was the Triumph/Ultra/Triple XXX models. I used those at gigs the whole time I worked at Peavey. Now I play through a '36 Coupe, and it rocks too.

Thanks in advance for helping me come up with new products that continue to improve on the sounds of these past products.

James
www.amptweaker.com
PS.....my website has had more hits from you guys than any other referral from the net so far! thanks for your interest and your help.

I got an idea.

Reissue the VTM 60 because when I was amp shopping I coulnd't find one. Dont add any features or anything, just a simple balls to the wall single channel amp - maybe a couple rows of mini toggle switches instead of dip switches. That would look great, I always thought if I picked up a vtm I would mod it to be all mini toggles on the DIP panel.

And thanks again for the classics. I traded away my C50 a few months ago, tied a handful of other amps and quickly ran back to a C30 head. Those amps rock.

 

[amptweaker]

Not to start the hate, but if I asked
"hey what do you use?"
and got the response
"an amptweaker..."
I would probably roll my eyes based on the name alone. I'm sure they will sound great though.

I am shallow.

Understood. It's tough coming up with a name for a company, and especially for a product. In this case, I'm selling me....it's what I do to make a regular amp sound better or feel better. It's also a word that nobody is using anywhere, which is often tough to come by.

The Amptweaker name works fine for the pedals, since that's also what THEY do. My plan for amps is a little different, and I haven't been spelling it out clearly but here goes:

If I ask 100 people what kind of amp they want, guess how many different kinds of amps I'd end up building.....you got it, 100. So my ultimate plan is to build a custom amp 'system' that allows me to make every amp different. Using some modularity in the design, and using a lot of no-tooling cosmetic methods, I am building up a Fine Tuned Amps system that will just have the 'A' with the Pick shape on it.

The logo on the amp will be something the customer will have to come up with. Or leave off. I plan to put my 'A' logo on the chassis instead of a big giant AMPTWEAKER across the grill or whatever. The point is to make something that's individual like all you guys are.

I'm also working on a system to streamline the process of designing the features and tweaking the tone by using some video and audio selection, along with a bunch of choices such as guitar type, pick, string gauge, pickups, etc to try and zoom in on the details of the design that I would suggest could be more effective at getting YOUR sound to work for you.

Anyway, I'm not ready to kick that amp thing off yet, but part of the reason for gathering info from all you artists out there is to get a better feel for what choices are necessary. For example, if I get 1 guy out of 1000 who thinks all amps need tremolo, then maybe that's a feature to leave off.....but if 50 people say 50W is a magic power level, then I'll make sure to hone in on that detail. Get it?

That 'A' logo will be like the one on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/amptweaker

If you want to, after you get me to build YOUR amp, you can just say that James Brown and I designed this 'insert your product name here' amp, and there's not another one of these out there. .....Unless you get me to build you a couple of backups.

James

 

[kruts]

Welcome James! I started new threads on www.guitarscanada.com and www.hugeracksinc.com for you. I wish you all the best in your venture!

 

[Bstring]

How about, starting with the 5150 clean up the clean channel ala fender etc. and instead of the overdrive channel being so brutal smooth it out some sort of like a Bogner XTC. Not that your amps werent any good by no means, I own the Classic 50, but just an idea.
P.S. Love all of your designs.

 

[Lution]

How about simply. . .

Brown Amplification

 

[kruts]

How about simply. . .

Brown Amplification

And a twist... "Brown Sound Amplification"

Or... does EVH already have "Brown Sound" trademarked