Not waiting for Peavey 6505 to come to UK....Got me a 5150 MK 1 head today !!

A good friend of mine plays one...we played the same Katrina benefit show yesterday. He was VERY LOUD in a live band situation...his volume was just under 3 (or 9:00). Believe me, that was loud.

 

He plays with a healthy dose of gain...enough to make your teeth rattle. It didn't sound bad, either...very thick. He was playing a Gibson Explorer with a '59/'59 pickup config into the 5150 thru a Traditional Mesa Recto 4x12. His leads were boosted a tad with a GE-7 EQ...mids bumped.

I've played through his rig before...very simple, but very nice gain. He plays with more gain than I would...but it doesn't sound bad at all (to my ears). The gain is thick with a lot of "bite"...cuts through the mix really well. His bass player was using more mids than he should've...but the 5150 could still be heard perfectly, i.e., the bass player really wasn't stepping on him.

Don't expect the 5150 do have a good clean channel...it wasn't made for that. Oh, and one more thing...if you run a lot of effects through the loop, you may have to add another EQ pedal at the end of the chain as the effect loop isn't known to be that great. With all that being said, you could easily have those deficiencies corrected with some cheap mods. If you're going after some hefty metal/hard rock tones...no need to modify...the 5150 will do you just fine. For the price, they're REALLY tough to beat. (Not sure of the pricing on your side of the pond, though.)

Something tells me your Les Paul will be HUGE sounding through the 5150.

 

LOL!!!

He just uses the EQ for a bump in his mids for solos...believe me, this is a loud amp. We played a benefit concert together and during rehearsals, he found it necessary to boost some mid frequencies during his solos in order to really stand out. (I do the same with my rig.) If you're the only guitar player in the band...it probably won't be necessary.


Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt because the head isn't mine...so I'm going off memory and conversations I've had with my buddy. We do gig out every so often together in a side project...and I've had his rig in my house for the last 2 months. The 5150 has "mean" sounding gain when pushed...there is a lot of saturation if you want it.

I know the amp doesn't get a lot of love on this board, but I'd put the 5150 up against many amps double or triple the price of it in the correct application. Many people just dismiss it because it says "Peavey" on it...IMO, that is a mistake. I've seen him drop his head (he did it yesterday before the gig) with no issues.

The 5150 tends to be a "forgiving" amp for leads, it isn't sloppy or muddy sounding...it is hard to describe...maybe it is the compression that levels out the pick attack. If you dial back the gain, that quality will probably disappear.

Regarding the Crunch Channel...yes, turning up the Pre control will give you a healthy rhythm crunch. The Global control does some pretty interesting things to the tone, too. I would like to spend some more time with that.

 

The poor bastard has no idea of the impending a$$ whooping he's about to be dished out. His solid state head is about to face an all out nuclear assault.

Extremely reliable...never an issue. (He's gigged regularly with it for about 5 years now.) Seriously, during load in yesterday he dropped the head from about knee high height...my eyes (and his) were about as big as saucers. Plugged in...fired it up...no issues. The only thing he mentioned he would like to do is add a trim pot to bias the amp a tad warmer. (But he's been saying that for about 2 years...and still hasn't done it...must not be THAT important to him!! )

 

Anytime, Jimmy...let us know how it goes when you can fire it up!!!

 

I've messed with the 5150 very little, but the Crunch is what I dug on the amp. The Lead channel was too over the top for me and I never use a clean channel. The crunch had a nice Marshall vibe to it.