5150 Iconic blew me away.

[Blix]

Dudes, I tried the 5150 Iconic yesterday, and this thing SMOKES! I was totally not expecting it to be that good.
I'd say the green channel does the best early Van Halen sound you can find outside a SL68 and a good cranked plexi. Cleans up fantastically and is intense!
Red channel is gainer and more typical hi-gain 5150, and sounds awesome too. The 40w combo was loud as fuck.

Good lord I need one.

 

[CBHScott]

They are fantastic.

I had the 40 for awhile, but even at the 1/4 power setting, it was just too much for my home use, plus it's rather large for a combo. I moved it along before the 15w version came out.

The great thing about these amps are how versatile they are. There is all kinds of flavors of dirt, yet the cleans are REALLY good. While I'm not that into the red channel on just about any EVH amp, it can be tamed well within my liking at low gain settings.

These are also built fairly well - at least no worse than the other Fender amps in the price range. I had my 40 chassis out once to change out the power tubes, and was rather pleasantly surprised at the relative build quality - mostly through-hole components, and the tubes were on a separate PCB IIRC.

Bottom line is this may be the best bang-for-buck amp line out there right now, and even though I have a TK Gremlin, I may just have to pick up the Iconic 15w - I have played through one a few times, and it kills.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Very nice! Feature set on these is great! I do have an empty slot in my new shelf

 

[Mongillo19]

Very nice! Feature set on these is great! I do have an empty slot in my new shelf

Diversify, you have a stealth

 

[JiveTurkey]

Diversify, you have a stealth

 

[FuzzyAce]

Dang, price is good on these for what you get.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Dang, price is good on these for what you get.

Seriously; if you could load some el34s in them without issue; um; I'd be grabbing one. Whether or not that would even actually make a difference or not tonally speaking

 

[FuzzyAce]

Seriously; if you could load some el34s in them without issue; um; I'd be grabbing one. Whether or not that would even actually make a difference or not tonally speaking

I doubt it'd make that much difference at normal levels.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I doubt it'd make that much difference at normal levels.

I know.

to myself

 

[FuzzyAce]

But it's not a single channel, face-ripping Marshall so....

 

[JiveTurkey]

But it's not a single channel, face-ripping Marshall so....

 

[6CA7-A]

Its basically a distortion pedal w/a tube power section.

 

[hemmelight]

I compared the Iconic 80-watt head to the 5150 III 6L6 50-watt head and much preferred the Iconic actually.
The crunch mode on the green channel was my favourite sound for sure, but the red channel was fun too.

 

[Blix]

I compared the Iconic 80-watt head to the 5150 III 6L6 50-watt head and much preferred the Iconic actually.
The crunch mode on the green channel was my favourite sound for sure, but the red channel was fun too.

Yep! I see an Iconic head in my future. So awesome.

 

[norminal]

Is there a TL;DR of the difference between the Iconic and the OG?

 

[Blix]

Is there a TL;DR of the difference between the Iconic and the OG?

Yes! The Iconic does that cranked Marshall ting on the green channel. Red channel is more your typical 5150 hi-gain tone.

 

[norminal]

Yes! The Iconic does that cranked Marshall ting on the green channel. Red channel is more your typical 5150 hi-gain tone.

Grabs the Gas-X™

 

[la szum]

Been curious about these for a couple of years now. Never played one. Have not heard one
bad thing about them from those who have, though.

 

[ejecta]

We carry them at the store I work at and I’ve played it and I concur that it’s a great sounding amp for that type of sound.

 

[norminal]

The EOB and medium gain tones sound excellent in this video:



Damn you @Blix!