Whats the deal with 5150s?

[Ed Hunter]

One of the best 5150's for a more 80's or classic rock tone is the 2x12 5150 PV combo.
for whatever reason these have a totally different tone when plugged into a ext 4x12 cab.
I have a 5150II that i love but it will never sound like a marshall 800 for 80's metal or rock

 

[dreyn77]

Of course it won't! the sound is too dark you have to use a EQ pedal and then it will.
So all EQ dials on 10 and then boosting with EQ is required.

 

[dreyn77]

Don't forget the 800 has the sound of basicly 'all treble'.
Your 5150 is basicly the sound of 'all bass'.

 

[EL 34]

my first gen peavey 5150 sounded awful. it has 6L6s for god's sake. eddie's marshall had EL34s. big difference right there. it just sounded sterile, not enough mids and high end sparkle jingle jangle.

 

[dreyn77]

well that's where the guitar added all the mids to the sound he had.

if the speakers were greenback/evh types it should have sounded better than that.

I guess he was just tired of the same old sound.

When you listen to ed's recordings of the 5150 amp have a listen for the bass notes to be slightly more powerful to the mids, which seem 'dull' and the trebles seem really quiet.
but because it's a loud amp and it's set for max power and it's high gain, SOME treble/sparkle is put back into the sound.

When you play a fender amp it doesn't matter where you set the dials, you'll never get the marshall sound of the amp set to 10.
it's this same principle with the 5150 amp. doesn't matter where those dials go, it's not getting you the orig VH type sound.

because its supposed to be run full on, as soon as you turn the dials less than full on, you have huge tone loss. so some pretty strange EQ settings would need to be set inorder to get a marshall type sound.

 

[hbucker]

I do find it interesting how the PV's have evolved into an amp for people who want "brutal" Metal tones. IMO, EVH never really used it to bet brutal tones. I would describe his tones to be: Hard Rock, greasy, aggressive (at times), even crispy, but not "brutal" - especially in the modern Metal context.

Strategic use of the volume knob on the guitar really is a key in coaxing nuances from the amp. Generally speaking, I think it is best at louder volumes too. I've not heard people talk about results they've gotten with attenuators on the PV's.

Having said all this, and having been an Ed-head forever, I've never really bonded with the PV 5150's. The 5150 iii's however... I want one in a bad way

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Of course it won't! the sound is too dark you have to use a EQ pedal and then it will.
So all EQ dials on 10 and then boosting with EQ is required.

Mine is not dark at all, in fact, I had a little too much high at end at last weekend's show, was making sure it cut through the mix. That it did alright, next time I would lose some highs. Treble around 6, mid the same.

 

[dreyn77]

I'm starting to think there isn't much difference between the 5150 amps at all and the biggest factor in the sound has been Ed's pickups and speakers.

By swapping guitars I can make the DSL 100 sound reasonibly close to all VH era sounds.
So unless the 5150 circuits are radically different (like incorperating SS technology like the peavey rage) I don't see how they can be much different.
all his amps are using the 6L6 valves, and the big transformers.

If you are hearing a big sound difference it might be a simple problem causeing the sound change like the speaker cable.
Ed might have used a different brand during the late 90's. My DSL 100's sound has varied widely with different speaker cables plugged in.

I still haven't updated my pickups from the 1984 Kramer Carrera. It still gets me into the same realm as 'different kinda truth' era.

Why does Ed keep making the head box smaller in width than the speaker cab box? The head and cab don't look like a matching set.

 

[hbucker]

My understanding is that the original 5150 was better voiced (to Ed's ears) for the EBMM EVH model. When he went to the Wolfgang, they revoiced the amp and gave it a more usable clean channel. My understanding is that there is a difference between the two, but they are relatively subtle.

The 5150 iii on the other hand is very different from the PV offerings. It is much more Marshall-like, IMO.

I've had good results getting usable VH-like tones from a variety of amps and guitars. Lots of it is technique, in addition to how you set the amp.

 

[bman]

Just my opinion of course. I owned the first 5150 series 2x12 combo and a peavey wolfgang about a dozen years ago. To me the amp was a one trick pony and that would be Metal. Much heavier and more compressed tone than all 80's and most 90's hard rock. It was also much to fizzy and noisy for my liking. As you see by my profile pic I now own a new Fender wolfgang and Marshall Dsl40c. I have to tell you I don't know if its the amp or the combination of the two but it nails the VH era tone from 1978 to the Carnal knowledge album. Not only that but can even be a little gainer than that if needed. The pleasant surprise was how nice the clean channel sounded. Very nice for a Marshall. I would suggest you give the DSL40 a listen. You can not go wrong with the $700 price tag. Almost forgot to mention The Fender EVHIII is quite a bit more versatile than the earlier Peavey models. It's probably one the the better amps on the market now but has like a $1500 asking price for the combo. I'll happily stay with my DSL.

 

[marshall1967]

.. i use a 5150 combo, i changed the speakers to g12h30 55hz reissue speakers. Once you mess with the controls, it can be a versatile amp. I can get jtm type tones, classic rock/metal, and of course its great for high gain stuff, such as, Metallica or new metal. I like to use the volume control on the guitar for ''cleaner'' sounds on any amp so i like ''one trick ponies'' (my other regular amp is a 78 2204 ''one trick pony'') . I think all the van halen 5150's sound real good from the 2 peavey's to the fender 5150 III.

 

[dreyn77]

I agree the DSL does a great version of all era's.
I also think all the VH product should be great too.
and as you said, the price is a big issue.

I'm glad marshall changed that 'one trickyness' with the modern amp. it's curtainly changed peoples perception about amps.

I was listening to a Saxiphone player last night and he made many notes that had lots of dynamics to them. notes the swelled up in vol from really low to loud. notes that had more growl than others in a solo. etc..

Guitarists can change the notes in solos but they, for the most part, don't.
SO I think the problem is 'user error' and 'copy cat' syndrome. (the view that the recorded version is the only true version)

maybe the EQing of the 5150 persuades the users to only have one setting. (most of the buyers are going to be VH fans)

It takes some unusual thought to get a different result.

 

[diesect20022000]

wow there's so much missinformation in this last page alone my head hurts lol.


one of them reminds me of stevie ray and his prized amp. he loved to dial the eq to full tilt but on his one amp it didn't sound right so he went to the technician who walked up to the amp to help him figure it out and ultimately dialed the low end back a bit to which Stevie replied "that's it! that's the sound i want!" then Stevie came in and saw the knob was down and freaked out saying he wouldn't play it with anything less than all the knobs on 10.

so the long story short is, the tech set the amps eq to have less bass in it for him so he could get that rolled back bass knob tone with the bass know rolled up so he still got to have it all on ten.


kinda like the whole "it goes to eleven" thing which i believe is a LIKELY source for that whole joke from spinal tap in the first place.


but yeah there's a lot going on here that's just not correct.

5150 original series one block letter peavey heads are mostly mids for starters.......

anyway, i love all of the 5150's so far. they're great amps for lots of styles.