Peavey 5150

you know by now what it has and what it doesn't have.

This amp is the best. I am currently using it with a Washburn wr150 (tuned to drop C), peavey Wolfgang (tuned to drop d and standard) and a Vaccaro V2 generator X (standard/drop D). My band play very heavy stuff but personally I go for more blues and rock stuff e.g. guns n roses, Metallica and Ozzy stuff like that (maybe not rock, maybe metal). This amp works for both very well. You don?t have to play a stadium or open air gigs with it just buy a THD hot plate I did and it ace. The thing about this amp is if you want a mild overdrive just roll down your guitars volume a bit and its there sweet valve OD. It is a bit noisy on higher settings but that is what a noise gate it for. You can?t be telling me that you want high gain and no noise without a noise gate, if you are your fucking stupid.

you cant expect a valve amp to sound amazing for ever without care and looking after. i would never gig without a backup because afterall it is valve. my backup is another 5150 head. because of the use these amps get we always carry spare valves and fuses (because you just never know). both my heads get revalved evert 3 weeks during a tour (or whenever they need it, my guitar teck deals with that). it has never broken down as of yet (i have been using it for 2 years). it has to be a 9 because of the valves but apart form that its a 10.

i went to the peavey headquarters and met with them befor buying this amp. but i have never delt with the coustomer support.

buy this amp. i have played for 15 years now. the past two i have sounded my best because of this peavey.

I Don't understand the hype on this amp. I have allwsays used marshalls and this is exactly what this amp trys to sound like, but falls short just a tad. Yes it has amazing grunt and yes it has a great over the top sound but thats all it does. At least a jcm800 will give you reasonable clean tones. Don't be fooled with companys marketing. Ed Van Halen said it himself that his sound comes from his hands as if not more than his gear, it don't matter what he plays through it will allways sound like him. I was lucky enough to be able to test drive this amp for a few months while it;s owner was overseas, and as fate may have it guess what this guy plays in a VAN HALEN CONCEPT SHOW. aWESOME PLAYER I SWEAR, if you close your eyes it is eddie, but he is going back to his Marshalls cause they sound BETTER. Now i don't know about the rest of the WORKING MUSOS OUT there, but when was the last time you ever got to play a 120 watt amp even at a bees dicks of that power in a club/pub gig without the rest of the guys in the band and the sound guY and the manager and most of the crowd telling you to turn the FUCK DOWN. Honestly if you don't play stadium shows or alot of big outdoor venues this amp will be as usefull to you as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest, but hey thats just my opinion. Do yourself and your ears a favour and stick to what is practical for your needs, if you need more volumE outa your amp get the rest of the guys in the band to TURN DOWN, and look for an amp that will give you a variety of sounds at different volumes. I now use a traynor YCV - 40WR and i can tell you my friends if god played guitar this would be his amp, The rest of the band will love you, the sound guy will want your children, and the manager of the club will give you another gig.

Just Remember, practise, practise, practise!!! and play with the other guys in the band and not yourself.

120 watts all tube. this amp is very versatile. most people say it's a one trick pony, but i have to disagree. the clean channel sucks, but it's useable. the distortion this thing produces will convert the most hardcore solid state user to tube. it's amazing. it has two channels, rhythm and lead. the rhythm channel is what i use for cleans and lead takes care of all the high gain mayhem. there is a crunch switch for the rhythm channel that engages more gain if you want to use two distortion channels. it also has a bright switch that does just what it says. without it i find the clean tone too dull. both the channels are footswitchable. it also has an effects loop that is also footswitchable. everybody else has listed the controls so i won't get into it. i find them to be very sensitive. they can be manipulated to produce great sounds or terrible sounds, half a position can make the difference. 120 watts is enough to kill small animals and scare kids, it's the loudest amp i've ever heard. it can drown out my friends 200 watt randall. at low volunmes it's sound is very limited, around 4/5 it starts to come alive.

i have a lot of guitars, my main ones are a 1979 gibson sg with a seymour duncan distortion bridge pickup, my second is an ibanez sz520qm with stock pickups. i'll be swapping the bridge pickup in the ibanez soon because it can't compeat with the duncan distortion, which is one of the sickest pickups ever made by the way... i play metal, and rock mostly. it's great for these styles. the clean channel (the rhythm on clean settings) isn't noisy at all with good tubes(more on this later), the lead channel is pretty noisy though. not uncontrollably noisy but it is noisy. feedback is not much of a problem unless you're standing right next to it with your hands off the strings. the clean isn't incredible but it's fine for a high gain amp. the distortion completley redeems any bad qualities this amp has. destructive, brutal, punishing whatever over used word you want to use... it can't be described unless you hear it. unfortunatley, with the stock tubes you can't tell. they are utter crap. mine came with low gain, overly bright electro-harmonixs and microphonic, noisy sovteks. peavey went for the cheapest alternative in this case. i waited a long time to review this amp because i didn't want to review with the impression that the stock tubes gave me. when i changed them for 1 tung-sol reissue and 4 high gain jj's it was a holy shit experience. the stock power tubes, ruby 6l6's, are good though, i still use those.

peaveys are known for their indestructability. i had an old butcher before this, stock tubes from 1986, used it with a intrument cable instead of speaker cable(didn't know any better). i would gig without a backup. it's never given me any trouble, now that i'm smarter it should last me for a long time.

peavey is a great company to deal with. their forum is so helpful. never needed repairs or had to deal with them directly, i can always find what i'm loking for on their forum. the warranty is 5 years i think, if you register it. i rate the forum a 10, to peavey i have to give a "no opinion" because i can only know what i've heard about them, some good things some bad things.

i've been playing for around 10 years, i own lots of gear, i know nobody cares what it is. if it was stolen i'd have to get another. i love everything about it, even its bad quality's are like defining traits. i compared it to mesa/boogie triple rectifiers, marshall dsl, marshall tsl, and 5150 II. i got this thing at a great price, right when peavey came out with the 6505 and stores were trying to get rid of the 5150's. bottom line is try it out at high volume, change the pre-amp tubes, and treat it good.

Not sure when it was made, very new though. I play high-end metal, this is the amp for that. This amp doesn't have a true EQ for any clean sound, the best way to get a clean sound is to keep the Lead Pre Gain below 1, so that the sound is clean and not muddy. It's a pain in the butt when that knob moves out of place. It has enormous power.

I use an Epiphone Korina Explorer. Perfect for old '80s metal. Very crunchy. I have tried a Metal Zone with it just to see how it sounds, if you like crunch then that is the combo right there. I was blown away at the sound of this amp when I first plugged it in. I found it kind of funny because I realized that almost no matter what sound you use with this amp there is still that hint of Eddie Van Halen in the sound. The sound stays crisp even at high volumes, very little feedback if you don't stand right next the thing.

Very new still, no problems yet, I don't think I will have any.

I have been playing guitar for around eight years and this is the second amp head I have owned. Before the 5150 I had a Mesa single rectifyer. That didn't have enough power so I traded it in for the 5150. I only had to pay them $200 along with the amp. It was worth every penny. This amp can produce just about any sound, so if you can find for cheap, go and get it.

Made in 2002 I beleive. This is just one of the amps that I own. I play metal, hard rock and jazz. For hard rock and metal I use this amp. It is as dirty as my ADA MP-1. I run that pre-amp into the effect return of the 5150 sometimes and it just kills. The 5150 also makes a great tube power amp when you use the effect return because the presence and resonance controls are in the power amp section allowing you to add enormous thump and sizzle to any pre-amp you are using. I also run my Digitech GNX-4 into it the same way with spectacular results. Unreal bottom end and high end sizzle combined. Best tone Iv'e had for all out balls and thump. Palm mutes shake the walls and furniture in my house. PLENTY of power. I use a matching 5150 bottom cab as well. SWEET! The 5150 used on it's own is great. I can get razor sharp massive gain out of it or if you play with the eq a smoother sweeter Boogie type of gain. I think it's all about playing with the eq. You can get alot of cool and different metal tones with it. Sounds great with the master above 3. It's a tube amp! It sounds good at bedroom volumes as well which is one of the reasons I bought it. I use a Boss graphic eq into the front end sometimes and this just pushes the amp into UNGODLY gain. I use an ISP decimator noise suppressor after the eq.

I use a MUSICMAN EVH guitar and an old KRAMER FOCUS with a DUNCAN DISTORTION pickup. My particular 5150 is surprisingly quiet. I use JJ preamp and power amp tubes. That is the reason. This is one of the top 5 amps for metal and hard rock and it can be made to sound just as good or better than amps twice the price or more. A little EQ is all it takes. There is no true clean channel. The amp is not made to get a good clean sound. I use a Fender M-80 solid state for my clean sounds. The 5150 is made to get great dirty tones and in my opinion it is perfect for that purpose. Like I said before the distortion is brutal! And with the EQ. WHEW! Just way beyond over the top, but not muddy and unusable at all. Keep your pre-amp gain no higher than 7 though because after that it gets to be a bit too much and you really dont get that much more gain out of it anyway. Your better off using the outboard eq into the front end to boost. More tonal control and a tighter low end.

Never had a problem with it. Not once.

Emails from peavey with questions were answered the same day or the very next day. very cool.

Been playing for 27 years. Head guitar tech at MUSICMAN/ERNIE BALL for 10 years. All hard rock, metal, and clean jazz. I own 5150 head and 5150 bottom cab. 5150 2-12 combo, Digitech GNX-4, ADA mp-1 pre-amp. Fender M-80 90 watt combo, various delay and reverb pedals, BBE sonic maximizer. Musicman EVH and Kramer guitars. Love the amp. Combo and head. I would compare it with a SOLDANO and a hot rodded MARSHALL. IT's like a cross between the two in sound. And thats what Eddie designed it to be. A cross between his old MARSHALL PLEXI super lead and his SOLDANO SLO 100 which unknown to alot of people he used on an awful lot of recordings later in his career. I do wish the head had come with reverb like the combo, but thats what my BOSS RV-2 is for. Overall AWESOME AMP! Thanks ED. Can't wait to see and hear your next signature amp. One final comment for everybody. Everbody is always saying that the older block letter versions sound "better" than the newer ones. This is a crock of shit only used to get more money for the used ones that are still around . I had two back in 1992-93 and I don't hear any difference at all. Been around these things for many years so I should know. It ALL depends on the tubes you use. Some are good some are bad. Peavey may have had better quality tubes in a few of them so that is the reason. It's the same today. Tube quality makes a HUGE difference in your sound. Sometimes you just get freak tubes that sound like magic. So do your speakers and cab. Those two things are the key(as well as a decent guitar and pickups) If you don't think your 5150 sounds up to snuff email me and I can give you a few tips on how to make it sound better.

I got this amp on a trade for a Marshall JMP-1 and some other rack mount stuff. I play mostly Emo, Screamo, Post Hardcore(Underoath, From First To Last, Saosin, etc...) It has 2 channels switchable with 2 button footswitch and effects loop that can be controled by the footswitch Awesome feature! I wish it had a Master volume but, no worries. This thing is loud i use it for Recording, Live and Practice. It is all tube.

I mainly use a Epiphone SG G400, Epiphone Explorer a Epiphone Les Paul Special with the neck pickup out and only a EMG in the bridge sounds sweet and a Lotus les paul model with EMG 81 Pickups. For my music style it is great a lot of people complain about the clean channel but, in my case i can get some really nice tones out of it just play around with your settings and different tubes and let the tubes warm up. As for the distortion it is amazing for me. Notice how i said "For me" The music i play is heavy but, very melodic i love the way it really brings out your tone. Ive played Marshall and Mesa and they are amazing amps but not the right sounds for me. Mesa just doesn't have enough gain for me and Marshall's gain is to Trebley for me. Once i get enough money i will dish out for a Bogner or Orange but, for now the 5150 is amazing. I think if you play a more aggressive style of music the 5150 is for you but, if you like lighter gain and use a lot more clean it won't suit you very well.

Peavey may be more known for their PA's and mics and mixers but the few really good heads they make are built very well. The 5150 is a beast and i would never worry about anything happening to it but, like all tube heads you have to be carefull of the tubes just get a good road case. I had a Peavey XXL before i got the 5150 and it lasted me forever and still sounds fantastic for a soild state head. I have no worries about the 5150.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing guitar for over 12 years now and i have finally found the tone i have been searching for in the 5150. If it were stolen i would cry for days because im poor and would have to go back to my XXL which is soild state and after playing all tube heads i don't want to go back to solid state.

Pretty basic features, shared EQ for clean and lead channels. Foot switchable effects loop, saved me a few times playing live (when turning off two or more pedals at once isn't possible).
Tube wise: 4- 6L6 Power Amp tubes and 5- 12ax7 pre amp tubes.
Wattage: 120 RMS
Inputs: High Gain and Low Gain.
Basically the only down fall (feature wise) is the shared EQ between the 2 channels, but I've learned to live with it and it doesn't bother me any more.

Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Studio (stock pickups... for now)
Effects: Dunlop Crybaby, Digitech Whammy (reissue), Boss CS-3, Boss GE-7, Boss PH-2, Danelectro Cool Cat, Boss PS-3.
Well I've owned this amp from new for about 7 or 8 yrs and I've pretty much tried everything with this amp as far as sound goes. During my early yrs I was playing things from pearl jam, soundgarden, and yes of course Nirvana. Well the amp did just fine for that type of music. The clean channel lacked what I was originally looking for but leaving the pre gain on 2 - 2 and 1/2 seemed to solve that problem decently, although not as warm as I would've liked. As for the lead channel the trick I found was to back off on the lead channel gain (3) and that seemed to do the trick for Grunge distortion. Next step came when my playing styles changed to those of the drop D world. Bands such as Tool and Rage had influenced my style at the time, and once again I changed my settings by increasing my Gain for my lead channel (about 5) and inceased the resonance channel to about 8 or so (gave a nice low thud for palm muting). Now with the stage I'm at I've been playing a lot of velvet revolver, G n' R, Van halen, and lenny kravitz and I have to say once again this amp is serving me quite well. With the recent tube replacement(Eurotubes (JJ)), this amp has been hitting similar tones, if not exact to the bands I've just listed. I'm Quite happy with the verisitlity.

In regards to the Effects world, I'd say that this amp responds well to effects but keep in mind this is the first amp I've really started adding effects to. So I haven't had much expreience with other amps as far as effects loops go.

Oh I almost forgot, I'm playing the head through 2 5150 slant cabs. And I love the sound this amp produces with those cabs. I never thought I'd be playing a peavey hahaha

I've never once had this amp fail me. It's been through hell and back with some of the shows my last band played. It's even been tipped over while on and not on standby (on grass mind you, thanks to a drunk at a party) and as soon as I stood it up again, it sounded just like it did before. Very reliable and I don't use a back up when I do use it live.

hahahaha one more thing that prooves this amp is totally durable, last summer I took it to a friends place to use as an outdoor music setup (plug a CD player up to it, play with the EQ's and it works ok), but I never picked it up until the january after. That might not say much but the amp was left outdoors, under a patio. This thing has gone through changes of Summer, Fall and Winter all outside. When I brought it back to my place mid January and plugged it in, it worked completely fine... hows that for reliability and neglect hahaha...

Never dealt with peavey... Warranty is probably way long gone.

Well if anything were to happen to this amp I would honestly consider looking at other amps just to see what is out there now. But I know I would come back to the 5150, especially since I retubed it with JJ tubes; this thing wails!! I might try the bias mod in the future, but I'm currently happy with the setup now. Why change a good thing.

I would recommend this amp to anyone looking to play most rock/hard rock/metal music. Except I might be bitter suggesting it to any of my friends, I like the fact that I'm the only one I know with a 5150 setup.

READ THIS if you still want to get some REAL clean tones out of this amp.
120 watts all tube, 2 Channels Rhythm and Lead.
I wish it had a switch for the crunch on the foot controller!
Use it live in a hardcore band
TONS OF POWER

I play in a post hard-core band. My style of music has just as much clean channel parts as distorted ones. As you have read before this amp was never designed to have a true clean channel, though you can turn down the gain to 3 and get a signal without distortion. I said "a signal" which sounds more like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoons than a guitar tone. I couldnt deal with it so I played a Marshall solid state head for the last 2 years. Im a gear junky and buy tons of CRAP without trying it out enough. The 5150 was just another peice of that gear. It set in my room untouched as I rocked the Marshall to the fullist extent of the law. I was seconds away from selling the 5150 and decided to really work with it before I did. I bought it used and the tubes where old. I changed them and the mud I was getting almost dissapeard from the lead channel. However the clean still sounded like raw un-cut ass!
One more thing to try! Today I Borrowed a new BOSS GE-7 EQ peddal from a music store to try it out on the clean. Needless to say I will have to pay for it Monday because it wont be going back. If you set the "rythm channel" Gain on 4 and put this peddal in your signal chain, scoop the mids boost the highs (on the peddal) I promise you are gonna hear something very familer. I could have swarn it was a Fender amp!
I will have to hit 2 bottons at one time on stage to switch on distortion and shut off the EQ (because the lead channel rocks) but I dont care! Try it!

This is a TANK

Iv been playing for 10 years. This is not the best sounding amp Iv ever heard, but it gets the job done. It has a versitillty rating of a 1 because it was only designed to rock, but now I found a way to make it ROLL!

I have two(2) 5150's that I run in stereo. Each has it's own 5150 4X12 straight front cab. They are mid 90's, back when they were first available. 2 channels sharing 1 EQ which also includes a presense knob(for tuning the amp) and a resonance knob(for tuning the cabinets). This is nice because rooms sound differently and you can compensate. Each channel has it's own pre-amp and master volume.Has an effects loop, but I usually plug straight in the front. Rhythm channel has a bright and a crunch button, which is cool 'cuz I'm hardly ever in the same mood.It doesn't have a headphone jack 'cuz yo head would explode.Does have channel switching with a foot switch that I have hooked into a "y" cord so I can switch both channels at the same time with one foot switch. Reverb would be nice, but I didn't choose them for a bunch of features. I didn't want features, I wanted TONE. I like stripped down simple heads that do just a few things extremely well. I'm rating it a 7 'cuz it's not a feature amp, it's a rock and roll monster with enough head room (120 watts each)to play outdoors and not go limp!!

These bad boys hiss like a pit full of rattle snakes. Reason is the plates in the output section run hotter than a pistol. It's a tube eater. PEOPLE, IT'S A HOT ROD TUBE AMP DESIGNED BY A GUY WHO IS WAY OVER THE "SCHIZZLE" AND IT ACTS LIKE ONE. (And that's why you gotta keep your tubes replaced at least once a year.)But Tone to the bone!!!! Loud hum, to me, is part of good rock n' roll. I can tell how good a band is gonna sound just by how loud the equipment is before they start playin'. When your playing a tune, you don't hear any hum or hiss. I play a Les Paul Jr. with a P-90 thru these babies and it's ON! Harmonics flying all over the place. I also play a Les Paul with humbuckers and it's a wall of rock n roll. Sometimes I use my American Fender Thinline with Texas Specials and it's raw cool!!!I plug my guitar into a stereo delay pedal to split the signal and barely delay the wet signal to thicken things up. It sound like three people playing...an over dub effect. That really works well with these amps! Clean channel sounds like sooped-up plexi, but you gotta barely have the preamp on if you want it crystal clean 'cuz it wants to rumble. Lead channel sounds like a JCM 800 on steroids, ya'll be careful not to hurt yourself!

Never had any trouble. One of the reasons I chose Peavey is 'cuz they're pretty tough. It's time to replace the power tubes. The gain has dropped and the tone has changed. It's cuz those plates are so high voltage. But tube amps require replacement of expendable parts, it doesn't mean it's a bad amp.

Pretty good. Found out that 5150's are self biasing from Peavey tech.
They have a good web-site, You can download some manuals if you need to.

One head I bought new for $600, the other used for $300 (so I entered the average). I spent a lot of time researching and playing amps before I decided. At the time the 5150 was a little ahead of the curve(this was the mid 90's) I was looking for a simple rig that did in your face rock music, no fancy stuff. This amp isn't for everyone. It's SPICY. If I were to half to change to something else it would have to be a Red Bear MK120 or a Sunn Model T, but they don't even make those any more. I used to have a Peavey Butcher, I'd do that again. The 5150's are were I'm at tonal....rowdy....like the audience being humped by rottweilers

Well all know the goods.

Kudos to peter a few posts down on the NS2 tip. You MUST do this. The 5150 is a noisey amp! With the noise supressor placed in the proper place this noise gets removed. The lead channel on this amp is amazing.
Very full and clear. One thing that helped was putting a tube screamer infront of the amp with 0 drive and 10 volume. I know it sounds crazy but it works. I am playing through a 1960a cab and things are nice. Dont really care for the Rythm or clean channel. But I didnt buy this amp for those.

Peaveys are solid. This is my second high gain tube amp from peavey and Im sure it wont be my last.