Which 5150 and why?

[spawnofthesith]

The 5150 IIIs are way too gained up compressed to my ears.

I usually run my mids around noon on the red channel of my 5153 if that makes up for any of my Mark mid scoopery

 

[greatmutah]

I had a Block Letter 5150 I sold for $500 bucks in like 2017. WTF??!!

The 5150 IIIs are way too gained up compressed to my ears.

That said, if I stumbled on an EL34 5150 III for $700 I'd jump on it.

I had a block letter back in 2011 I let go stupid cheap. Same with the sig panel I had in 2012. This current one? It stays with me until I die or it dies.m

I still wouldn’t mind trying the EL34 50 watt with my setup to see if it works. Or I could just grab a 6534+ when it pops up. I really liked that amp.

 

[Devin]

i dont really like combos but id love to try the old 5150 combo.

They're sort of a unique beast in the line - 60 watts and brighter and tighter than the original head


I've been thinking about seeing if I can find someone local that would trade me for an Iconic head

 

[spawnofthesith]

I had a block letter back in 2011 I let go stupid cheap. Same with the sig panel I had in 2012. This current one? It stays with me until I die or it dies.m

I still wouldn’t mind trying the EL34 50 watt with my setup to see if it works. Or I could just grab a 6534+ when it pops up. I really liked that amp.

Back in college I used to jam with a guy who had a 6534+. Sounded great

 

[JiveTurkey]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the 6534+

 

[greatmutah]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the 6534+

Not enough of them out in the wild! The one I played was outstanding! Funny thing… I had a Peavey Vypyr VIP2 for a while as a practice amp. I religiously used the 6534+ mode on it. It sounded excellent even with the stock blue marvel combo speaker.

 

[la szum]

I usually run my mids around noon on the red channel of my 5153 if that makes up for any of my Mark mid scoopery

 

[la szum]

What's the relationship between the 3120 and the 6534? None?

 

[JiveTurkey]

3120 is a rebranded JSX iirc?

 

[greatmutah]

What's the relationship between the 3120 and the 6534? None?

3120 is a rebranded JSX iirc?

The 3120 is actually a rebadged XXX. And this is where it gets a little confusing. Peavey had the XXX and JSX. Similar amps but the JSX had fat mode switches and a bit more balanced gain in the crunch mode vs ultra. The XXX was stupid high gain on ultra and still pretty high gain on crunch. When Joe left Peavey, the JSX was rebadged the XXX II. The XXX was rebadged as the 3120. There was also going to be a 2 channel Satriani amp that was renamed the Butcher.

 

[FuzzyAce]

renamed the Butcher.

 

[spawnofthesith]

The 3120 is actually a rebadged XXX. And this is where it gets a little confusing. Peavey had the XXX and JSX. Similar amps but the JSX had fat mode switches and a bit more balanced gain in the crunch mode vs ultra. The XXX was stupid high gain on ultra and still pretty high gain on crunch. When Joe left Peavey, the JSX was rebadged the XXX II. The XXX was rebadged as the 3120. There was also going to be a 2 channel Satriani amp that was renamed the Butcher.

A diffferent butcher than the one they had in the 80s?

 

[la szum]

The 3120 is actually a rebadged XXX. And this is where it gets a little confusing. Peavey had the XXX and JSX. Similar amps but the JSX had fat mode switches and a bit more balanced gain in the crunch mode vs ultra. The XXX was stupid high gain on ultra and still pretty high gain on crunch. When Joe left Peavey, the JSX was rebadged the XXX II. The XXX was rebadged as the 3120. There was also going to be a 2 channel Satriani amp that was renamed the Butcher.

Cool info.

I assumed the XXX was supposed to be George Lynch's Sig Amp with Peavey
until the deal fell through. Isn't the JSX a totally different amp than the XXX?

Wasn't there an earlier version of The Butcher---like the VTM in that time period??

 

[greatmutah]

A diffferent butcher than the one they had in the 80s?

Yes very different. I think the idea was a two channel amp with just a clean and crunch channel. Less gain than the JSX

Butcher Series 2 on Reverb

La Szum, I also know the George Lynch story. The XXX was also a direct descendant of the Ultra Plus and Lynch was involved with it until the deal went sour (a friend recallls Lynch calling Hartley Peavey a “decrepit old fuck” at a guitar clinic at a later date). But the amps have their share of similarities. Active EQ on both crunch and ultra channels, 3 channel setup and similar layout. The JSX had a more refined sound for Joe’s needs and the crunch channel actually had more middle of the road gain sounds. Some have claimed the Ultra channel of the JSX was the Crunch channel of the XXX and the JSX Crunch is closer to a classic 50 gain wise. Plus it actually had presence and resonance controls for the power amp. The XXX had a damping control on the back for power amp response on the lows. My buddy always ran his in the most wide open setting. Just sounded better. Both amps claimed they could be biased for EL34s (just a switch to flip) but the early XXX amps shipped with screen grid resistors that weren’t in spec for EL34s and actually trying to run EL34s was problematic to say the least.

There was a Butcher in the 80s that predates the VTM and even Triumph. Basically Peaveys take on a stock 2203 with 6L6s. Never played one. Would love to.

 

[Deadpan]

A diffferent butcher than the one they had in the 80s?

Very different.

 

[James Freeman]

A quick reminder that the OG 5150 has a 50k mid pot instead of the typical 25k like in Marshall, Soldano, etc. so the equivalent of Mids on 5 will be Mids on 2 with the 5150.
A 5150 with 5,2,5 EQ settings will sound like a Soldano with 5,5,5 settings, confirmed on the AxeFx, real amps, and a Tonestack calculator.
The EVH 5150-III has a standard 25k mid pot, so it doesn't apply to it.

 

[Los-D]

A quick reminder that the OG 5150 has a 50k mid pot instead of the typical 25k like in Marshall, Soldano, etc. so the equivalent of Mids on 5 will be Mids on 2 with the 5150.
A 5150 with 5,2,5 EQ settings will sound like a Soldano with 5,5,5 settings, confirmed on the AxeFx, real amps, and a Tonestack calculator.
The EVH 5150-III has a standard 25k mid pot, so it doesn't apply to it.

View attachment 27541

Thanks for highlighting this. We probably need a separate thread but I would like to see / discuss more on the Rectifier / Soldano / 5150 similarities and differences

 

[greatmutah]

A quick reminder that the OG 5150 has a 50k mid pot instead of the typical 25k like in Marshall, Soldano, etc. so the equivalent of Mids on 5 will be Mids on 2 with the 5150.
A 5150 with 5,2,5 EQ settings will sound like a Soldano with 5,5,5 settings, confirmed on the AxeFx, real amps, and a Tonestack calculator.
The EVH 5150-III has a standard 25k mid pot, so it doesn't apply to it.

View attachment 27541

I wonder if Peavey did the 50K mid pot thing because Ed’s Plexi had a 50K mid pot?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

A quick reminder that the OG 5150 has a 50k mid pot instead of the typical 25k like in Marshall, Soldano, etc. so the equivalent of Mids on 5 will be Mids on 2 with the 5150.
A 5150 with 5,2,5 EQ settings will sound like a Soldano with 5,5,5 settings, confirmed on the AxeFx, real amps, and a Tonestack calculator.
The EVH 5150-III has a standard 25k mid pot, so it doesn't apply to it.

View attachment 27541

explains why a 5150 with the mids cranked gets so honky. Sweet spot for me is around 2, so this is interesting to read.

 

[greatmutah]

Yeah you don’t need the mids much higher than 2 on these. There’s no reason for that.