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King Loudness « The original! »
Published on 10/31/11 at 17:25The Peavey 5150 head was designed in the early 90s by one Edward Van Halen as a signature amp and at the time was touted as the answer to getting Ed's famous Brown Sound. However, many modern players discovered that the 5150 had a certain crunch to it that was ideal for heavier metal settings. It delivers 120 watts of power and is run by 6L6 tubes. The 5150 has two channels, channel one having more of a "clean" application and channel two being more of the high gain side. It has a shared EQ with presence and resonance controls in addition to the standard bass, middle, and treble. It also has an effects loop as well, great for running time based effects
UTILIZATION
Getting a good tone out of the 5150 is very simple. The amp is loud and high gain but the EQ controls are very responsive and easy to dial in for great tones. Peavey amps as a general rule are very "player friendly" and the 5150 is no exception. The tones are good just about anywhere that the controls are set and it works well for a whole host of modern sounds.
SOUNDS
This amp sounds best to me when using thicker sounding guitars such as Les Pauls, SGs or Flying Vs. The sustain is really quite good with this amp and the tones are very meaty and full, especially in a band mix. The clean tones are not the amp's strong point - the clean channel is really more of a crunch channel. It sounds great for really gritty clean tones or classic crunch sounds with the gain dimed. The second channel is where it's at for high gain molten metal tones, and it sounds especially great for chugging rhythms or sustained modern leads. Definitely a tone to be reckoned with for high gain brute force.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Peavey 5150 is a truly cool high gain amp. Though it might be a bit of a one trick pony, it does that trick extremely well. It's perfect for the modern metal player who needs serious doses of high gain tones at high volumes. They can be had for about $700 used if you look which is a very good price for a high gain, great sounding head that's made in the USA, definitely worth the look.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good tone out of the 5150 is very simple. The amp is loud and high gain but the EQ controls are very responsive and easy to dial in for great tones. Peavey amps as a general rule are very "player friendly" and the 5150 is no exception. The tones are good just about anywhere that the controls are set and it works well for a whole host of modern sounds.
SOUNDS
This amp sounds best to me when using thicker sounding guitars such as Les Pauls, SGs or Flying Vs. The sustain is really quite good with this amp and the tones are very meaty and full, especially in a band mix. The clean tones are not the amp's strong point - the clean channel is really more of a crunch channel. It sounds great for really gritty clean tones or classic crunch sounds with the gain dimed. The second channel is where it's at for high gain molten metal tones, and it sounds especially great for chugging rhythms or sustained modern leads. Definitely a tone to be reckoned with for high gain brute force.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Peavey 5150 is a truly cool high gain amp. Though it might be a bit of a one trick pony, it does that trick extremely well. It's perfect for the modern metal player who needs serious doses of high gain tones at high volumes. They can be had for about $700 used if you look which is a very good price for a high gain, great sounding head that's made in the USA, definitely worth the look.