Peavey 5150

Not a lot, really. Is this a one trick pony? Yes. Read this again, YES. Once again, in unison: YES. But I personally will take the trick. Perhaps you should too? Read on . . .

No reverb, no separate eq, no digital effects, no nothing. Meaning the absence of a thing.

Oh, there is an effects loop. But you wouldn't be needing this now, would you? We all know what an effects loop does to otherwise proper tube amps. Sucks tone. Or just sucks. Whatever. Go to amptone.com. It is all eloquently explained by connoisseurs of the vacuum tube. In English, too.

There is one channel and it is called magna cum fucking loude. Clean channel? Wrong amp. Practice amp? Nope. The amp to impress your girlfriend with your EVH licks and overall guitar prowess? Strike three, my friend. Call your lawyer after you receive the eviction notice. Let me know how it goes.

So why on earth would anyone buy this amp unless they will be playing the big Rock Show at Madison Square Garden with a full compliment of burly rodies in tow? Now you are getting the point!

Still interested, aren't you??? I thought so.

Jesus Eddie, what were you thinking back in '94? This amp is almost comical. 120 watts. So I guess it finally came down to: "Sure my 100 watt Marsahll sounded great for the first seven albums, but now I need something louder." How about another 20 watts Mr. James Brown. After all, it's the extra 20 watts that sets a Peavey customer apart from his otherwise pussified Marshall breatheren.

Ever heard of the Fletcher-Munson effect? This is what happens when you put someone in charge of designing an amp who happens to be stone fucking deaf!

All right, enough of the wattage carcasim. This amp does one thing well and that is to generate loud gobs of complex, sinewy distortion. Kudos to the Creator. Crunch is no longer a noun. It is a verb. The 5150 is to distortion what the Chateau Margaux is to bordeaux. Sexy. Complex. The distortion is so rich. The harmonic content is almost haphazard. I would not describe it as brutal. Wrong musical genre, man.

But! Don't forget to turn this puppy up. Way up. And no. That does not mean to put the post gain on 1.5. That does not mean 2. That means well north of 4. Do not, repeat, do not use an attenuator. This is not how the Creator intended it. No power tubes saturation or capacitor work at anything less than 4, so sayeth the Creator. Oh, and another thing, there is an XLR input into the 5150 cab for a reason. The effects go AFTER the cab, not into the effects loop, and then into a power amp, and then, and only then, into the cabs.

Play digital / solid state? Spend a day with this head (and matching cab) somewhere where people, pets, and other viable life form do not dwell. You shall be converted, and eventually deafened.

In contrast to a Marshall, the 5150 has a fuzzy, bass intensive distortion. Not like a Hendrix fuzz. Maybe fizzy is a better word. When I first played it after playing on Marshalls for years, I didn't like it . . until I kept playing, and playing, and playing. Addicting. And yes, so very, very good.

This reminds me of the joke of the guy who jumped off the top of the Empire State building. Lady calls out to him as he is passing the 43rd floor, "How's it going?" The man says, "So far so good."

Problems: I'll just send this off to Eddie's house COD in a few years after it needs a tube and re-bias job. Probably get it back faster and in better shape than the time I sent my X100 into Jim Dunlop . . . but that is a different story entirely.

This is not a fantastic value at all. It is overpriced, discontinued, outdated, and of use to only a precious few. It is of utterly no use aside from being an unbearably loud distortion maker in early 90s dress. Would I buy it again? In a hearbeat and at nearly any price.

This amp does one thing, and that is to provide the Creator with post 1984 to VH3 distortion preamp. Will this be of use to you in any conceivable application? Probably not. Want to sound like the Creator? This will not do it.

But if you want the mother of all distortion generators cleaverly disguised as an amplifier: you have found it. Neal, pray, and give thanks. Also, I would not be too concerned about cross-over distortion, re-tubing, re-biasing, 12ax7s, and blah-blah-blah. Play with your ears, not an oscilloscope. If jacked up correctly (read loud, loud, loud) those issues will slip into a trivial irrelevancy.

If I may quote: "Nothing exceeds like excess." Enter the 5150.

Where's the beer?

okay.. maybe it's low on it's features.. I really do miss a 2nd EQ, but and I'd want an extra midi input to use with my effectsprocessor to switch channels. I allways use the effectsloop and it works for me.
I use all the possible options on this great amp.
The power is overwhelming and I don't think there's a better amp for me than this one.

dimarzio tone zone at the bridge, the dimarzio evolution at the neck.
This fully carry's my sound to another level of hardcoreporngreat music. My style is like pantera, deftones and tool etc. But very tight and groovy.
The distortion has a maximum punch.. And I LIKE IT!!!!
The great dark DEAD sound of the amp with lots of clarity and warm tone.

never had any problems....!!!

never needed it!

In combination with the other guitarplayer of the band who plays a mesa boogie tripple rectifier. It sounds f*cking great!!!
these two very different sounds fill eachother in..

This is an addition to an earlier post. I just wanted to mention that you can get very different sounds depending on whether you plug into the "normal" or "high" gain jack. If you have hot humbuckers, the "high" input will probably be too fuzzy/mushy, at least that was what I found. I plug into the "normal" input jack and I get more gain than I know what to do with. I play real metal (old Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, old Megadeth, Suicidal, etc) and I don't go beyond 6.5 on the pre (gain) knob. If I plug into the "high" input with humbuckers I find that I lose definition and it turns into a swarm of bees. If you like that it's there, but for those of us who have chops and need to hear what our right hand is doing, I recommend the "normal" input.

I bought this amp years ago as a backup to another amp. It very quickly became my main amp, and since buying the 5150 I have bought (and quickly sold) various other high end, high gain tube amps. Trace Elliot Speed Twin, Rivera M-100, Carvin Legacy, Mesa DC-5, Mesa Single Recto, Mesa Dual Recto (and others I won't bother mentioning) have all come and gone because they couldn't hold a candle to my 5150. The Dual Rec came close, but the Mesa's are too tight. A tight sound is usually a good thing, but Mesa's are so tight they sound almost solid state. They don't "breathe" the way a tube amp should, very unresponsive compared to my 5150, which has a very "open" sound. With the 5150, the Bass and Resonance combine to give you an incredibly thick sound. With the Mesa's, when you added more bass, the sound didn't get thicker, it got muddy. Didn't matter what cab I played the Mesa's through, they just weren't very responsive compared to my 5150. I haven't played any Soldano's or Bogners yet, but those cost an arm and a leg anyways. If money isn't an issue, there are probably better amps to be had, but if you aren't filthy stinking rich, these are the bomb for high gain metal tones.

lead channel,rythm channel,120 watt all tube amp,effects loop, 2 inputs(high gain and regular gain

I play a fender American strat. This amp has great tone. I play in a metal band and can play gigs with the volume at 4-5. I can get sounds like slayer, maiden, pantera, AC/DC, metallica etc.... The clean channel gets distorted at high volumes but what do you expect, it's a high gain amp. I have 4 6L6's in it. best gain i've heard in an amp. I hook it up to a 5150 4x12 cab.

Very reliable. I have to use to use it without a backup but i trust it.

never delt with them

Great Amp. I compared it to Marshall's, Mesa's, Randall's and a lot of other amps and this is the best sounding amp out of all of them.

This is just a review to counteract the bullshit of the previous review. If 5150's aren't used by Eddie- then why has his tone significantly changed to most people since the 80's? Don't tell me Ted Nugent, Steve Morse, Devin Townsend, Jennifer Batten, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Carcass, (list is endless) all have OTHER AMPS inside their 5150! Most of those guys arent even endorsed by Peavey officially!

Killer amp, brutal tone. DO the bias mod for cheap and its even better. Leads sound like Heaven. I can get Lynch to Petrucci on this amp. Alot more versatile than people think! I use a V amp 2 for clean tones but the tone is not too bad for clean (alot like a Marshall!)

Its a post PTP/Tube mounted to circuit board amp- as are most commercial amps these days. For some reason though, people have told me that Peaveys are actually pretty good in this respect, but obviously not indestructable!

Their website is great and has a wealth of info, however biased the guys who post there sometimes are.

"Jason's" review- is complete bullshit. He says that Peavey sucks, well you know what? Fender and Marshall's modern amps aren't any more reliable (all have tubes mounted to flimsy circuit boards) and Peavey's price point actually makes them better in my opinion. He goes on about a Jcm 800- well that doesnt have very good clean tone either, does it? 5150's can get you close to a Soldano AND Marshall sound- that's what my friend is known as BANG FOR THE BUCK!

I think this amp was made around "94". I've used this amp in live situations and was constantly giving this thing a second chance. It's terrible. And for all these "musicians" trying to buy all these effects to jusitfy it's pooppy tone please listen to this review and save your money. This amp has three channels (which are all terrible). All tube very loud with 6L6 power. Equipped with effects loop and foot switch.

I have a fender strat,Ibanez prestige with emg 85 and 81's,guitar I had custom built (PRS style) made from koa wood with emg 85's. My style is very versitile ranging in between Vinnie Moore to Gary Moore to Allman Brothers and I guess back to Vinnie Moore. This amp is for today's power chording pansies. This is not a soloist amp and for the money you pay for it, it should be. All the channels are terrible especially the clean channel which sounds like an AM radio and the lead channels have this annoying mid frequency you can NEVER get rid of. And I love all you "musicians" trying to justify making it sound better and suggesting buying rack shit to go with it. Please don't listen to these people. You can't make a turd smell better. This amp sucks. And if you think Eddie Van Halen plays this thing your crazy. I used to gig 6 days a week and was a hired gun for several bands I know what I'm talking about when I say you are getting ripped off by Peavey.

This amp has broken down on me before several times. I finally got it fixed then sold for 300.00 (what a relief) to the rhythm guitarist in my old band and it broke down on him unfortunatly.

Peavey sucks. Anybody that has went on tours with these amps know what I'm talking about. Way to inconsistent. The newer amps (satch model,xxx model) could be different and I've heard good things about them but I can't trust this company.

Look the 5150 sucks for anyone playing clean overdriven leads. If you want to play like Chevelle or Saliva or bullshit like that then buy it. But if your actually gonna think your gonna get Eddie's tone or anything close forget it. If I were to have had it stolen I would have been happier. I suggest buying a JCM 800 and getting a vintage tube screamer and that's it for that one good "shredd" tone. The Fender twin's and Hot Rodd's also make good versatile amps and after that don't spend no more money.

Ok guys here are just a few things to make your 5150 sound even better!
Get yourself a BBE 362 SW (or a 462). This thing is awesome! Let it sound like a different amp. Brighter and tighter!
To give the distortion channel that really tight metal sound
just change the tubes into Groove Tubes 6550 (that was a tip by Peter Diezel!). Damn, what a sound!
Next thing is: Get yourself a Mesa V-Twin (I bought the 19" version to keep everything in the rack!), Now you have two Preamps in a row! WOW!
Last thing I use is a T.C. G-Major for effects.
With all this stuff you can cover everything from Steve Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, Romeo, Petrucci, Slash, you name it to Metallica, Slayer, Maiden, Evergrey, Symphony X, . . .
OK, it still doesn't have a great clean channel. For that I use
a POD PRO through a Mesa 50/50. Both setups go through Mesa Rectifier
Cabs. That's it!
Great sound for a reasonable price!

Versatility? This amp does anything from blues to the most hardcore metal you could think of; you just need to know how to tweak those knobs. The only thing I really wish it had was a built-in spring reverb; you can all agree with me on that one I hope. I use this amp in my band (A blend between bands such as: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Unearth, Bleeding Through, Darkest Hour, etc.). This amp has more than enough power for me; the post gain on my lead channel does not exceed 4 without experiencing near-death.
After a re-bias and fresh set of tubes as well as a good guitar and cab for it, this thing is phenominal PERIOD.

I use a ESP ltd Viper-50 with Tony Iommi signature Gibson pickup in the bridge (Soon I am getting an ltd Viper-400 for the flag inlayers and set neck... but the Iommi is the best pick up I have ever heard and probably ever will hear). This suits my style perfect, has the dynamic response and balls of any of those damned botique amps that are thousands of dollars, you just have to know what the hell you're doing and you'll be suprised what you can get for a tone out of this beast. This is NOT a clean amp. Notice how it is Rythm and Lead, not CLEAN and Lead. Of course it will distort at high volumes unless you are using a very clean neck pickup and you're on the Normal Gain input - it should suit you ok then. The distortion is destructive and harmonically rich and dynamic. Don't dick around with cheap cabs with this amp; if you want to REALLY hear this amp at its peak, run it with vintage 30's and you'll know what I mean. I, personally use a Behringer ULTRASTACK 4x12 slant cab (Because the 2 top speakers slightly slant left and right) With Vin 30's and old original Altecs speakers which are incredibly rare. My bottom cab is a G-Benz George Lynch 2x12 cab (AMAZING) and my stack's tone has alot of authority with this rig. Folks, especially you Mesa Boogie junkies....you guys are really hitting the sauce if you think your precious Triple Rectifier can outdue a 5150. You all just cant admit it because all of you payed 1200 - 1800 for your Rectifiers and cant admit that an amp that costs around 500 used blows the doors off of it; so keep telling yourelf that, nobody cares... except the other Boogie freaks. Sure, Boogies sound good, but 1000 dollars more good??? Hah, I think not! The BOSS Super Overdrive (Yellow) Pedal works wonders with this amp. In the high gain input, I have the pre-gain on 6. The boss pedal's level is at MAX, the tone is at 1 o' clock (To give the 5150 a little slack on the buzzy edge it has while adding some character to the slap of the strings), and the Drive is about 3mm away from minimum. It's perfect, for me anyways.

To you people who seem to find a problem with these amps, don't complain about this amp until you have a guitar and cab even WORTHY of plugging into one of these beasts not to mention the knowledge of how tube amps are used because you line-6 and solid state rejects need to learn how to use one before you complain about it. This amp is not junk.. it's real shit dude.

Definetly, never had a problem with it.

Never dealt with it.

No spring reverb, usually needs a re-bias if you do not want that buzzy "crossover distortion" since the amp's stock bias is biased rather cool(which is part of Van Halens "Brown Sound")

E-Mail me if you want to ask me anything! Have a nice day :)

Not very versatile many my think, but because the sound is so rich and full and smooth, I am able to use the rhythm channel with the crunch switch on and achieve a great thick lead tone for rock and blues via zztop/santana and I simply back off on the guitar to clean things up for rhythm. Single coils help the guitar to clean up even more when backing off on the volume.

When I play lead I want a thick full tone, not a sharp, ear piercing tone, I want people in the audience to hear my guitar sing sweetly, yet scream at the same time, this amp does exactly that! Your solos will take on a violin like beauty, while maintaining a rock edge. I also own a Marshal TSL 2000 head and it sounds thin next to this head.

Peavey equipment lasts forever...

Get on the phone and give them a call, they're waiting to assist you...

I've been gigging since 1983. I've played everything from Black Sabbath, Hank Williams, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, BB King, etc. I own Line Six pods, marshal tube amps, crate tube amps, fender tube amps, over 100 pedals of all kinds including tube screamers rebuilt by analog man, sans amps, and they all help in their own way to achieve certain tones and effects, but now for the first time it's just me, my guitar and my head and speaker cab. My fingers and the volume and tone control on the guitar do the rest.

Amp is about 8 years old. It is very versatile, I just wish that it had seperate tone controls for both the rhythm and the lead channels. I do dig the seperate volumes for each channel, though, really comes in handy for doing lead work. I honestly don't play much hard rock or metal with this amp, i bought it for the rhythm channel. It has a great, darkened crunch tone to it that I wasn't about to pass up for the price I paid for this amp (480 bucks american). HOWEVER, it DOES do a great hard rock sound (think Deftones, Tool, etc for hard rock), but i tend to play things more along the lines of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, etc.

I switch between four different guitars. My main two guitars are my Fender Fat Strat Texas Special (two texas special single coils with a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom humbucker i put in the bridge) and my fender Telecaster (with a Seymour Duncan stacked Lil '59 humbucker in the bridge). But i also use a stock Gibson Sg Standard and a stock Rickenbacker 360. Like i said, it is excellent for crunch and with a low gain setting, i use the lead channel as a volume boost. Not EXCELLENT for a clean amp, but it does the job... i usually use my Roland Jazz Chorus for that.

It's been through a lot of shit.. 7 years and still going strong. (If i ever need backup, I'd use my Jazz Chorus with my ProCo RAT distortion, who has money to throw around for real backups?!)

I wouldn't know

My setup goes as follows: Tele, Strat, Sg, or Rick into a homemade pedalboard (Boss Tuner, Crybaby wah, Boss Delay) into a whirlwind A/B amp selector which runs to my jazz chorus or my peavey 5150 and marshall 1960A cab. I've played for about 9 years now, and if this amp were lost or stolen, I would buy another, but I would also look around for Sovtek Migs and JCM800s and such. this amp would get a 10 from me if it werent for the lack of seperate tone controls

The Amp was built in 2003 and it perfect for playing the havier kinds of music. The amp has 2 channels, 1 rythm channel and 1 leadchannel. The rythm channel also has a bright and crunch option. The channels are switchable with a button on the amp or with the footswitch. With the footswitch you can also switch the effect loop on and off.

I use an ESP Horizon with Active EMG pickups and mainly play metallicA and slayer kind of music. The distortion is very good!!! It rocks! The clean sound is also very good altough most people say it isn't

Very solid built. Perfect for gigging. Only the footswitch is made of plastic and isn's very solid built.

Never needed them

I'm very happy with this amp and I don't think I buy another amp ever again.

1995 model 5150 head. the lack of a useable clean does bother me, but the overdrive is seconed to none. you all know the features by now. I re-biased this amp to use the jj's and the thing wails. A note to you guys who want this amp to sound good....re-tube the pre-amp! The stock pre-amp tubes suck. I put groove tube gold 12ax7's in the pre (p.s.-gt12ax7 golds are 15 bucks each and there's 5 of em), and this thing sounds better than ever before. The clean channel does blow, because you can't get it to clean up all the way. I don't think this thing should be a fender, I have a twin.....I just think eddie should have considered throwing a clean like the trippleX.

with ANY pickup the amp is brutal. My style is pretty well covered. I use this amp A/B'ed with a fender twin reverb, and It is the best set-up you can get. The twin does the clean, and this 5150 does the dirty. The amp is Very noisy in the high gain imput. What I do, is go into the lo gain Imput, and up the gain on each channel. Quiet as a mouse.

Never gig with a backup for the 5150. I have a fender hot rod deville that I use as a backup for the twin, but the 5150 is a tank. I am mainly submitting this review because Of reliability. I was rear-ended with this head in my trunk. The car was toatled, the trunk of the car was in the back seat, and everything else in the car was broken. The peavey 5150 head was banged up to hell and back, and the damn thing works great!!!!!!!!

lots of other gear. I have a Soldano SLO-100 head and a Soldano 412 cab, and I use the 5150 head on the Soldano's cab. I swear!! The SLO-100 has better cleans, but not at the volumes I play at!

1995, versitile as any,3 channels if you include crunch,i wish it had independent eq for each channel but hey what the hell,lotsa power on tap,stock tubes make the amp sound flubby myddy very loose bass with no conmtrol,i change the tubes and voila tight bass reponse and clear smooth highs i love it.

this is were this thing rocks, if you cant dile in a good tone outta this amp you are a moron,keep playing with your ss vamp are your pod..
tube amps are made for guitar players not ss woosies,if a sans amp are any solid state amp sounds bether to you then a tube amp you DONT KNOW SHIT about real guitar tone.......................
ive got jj6l6gc in the power section and tesla e83cc,mullard ecc83,and electro harmonix 12ax7 in the preamp, this amp sounds good now boy,before it was a little mushy now it blows alot of competition away.

built like a tank

i dont know never delt with them

i had a mesa boogie quad preamp with a mesa boogie 50\50 power amp trough a marshall 1960a cab before i sold it now. now i have this 5150 head bias mod,randall rs412w cab loaded with celestion v30,s and i love it.the sound is much fuller than my boogie,the bass is much more controlable then any boogie,s out there,you have to be carfull with boogie to much bass and they start to fart out real bad with my peave 5150 i can put the bass on 10 and it is still tight,i love this amp hey if its good for the man himself evh then it should be good for me

Come on, this amp is really crappy. I have rehearsed with it many times and there's so many other sounds out there, the distorsion is exremely fuzzy, no real crunch n punch wich is my base. the feedback is killing, used it with a GMajor but every effect sounds so muddy with this amp. I'd totally go Mesa or marshall. im using a Tech 21 sansamp PSA-1 nowadays, wich gives me something this unit doesnt, CONTROL. Havent heard it with the bias adjustment though. but i wouldnt buy an amp that needs tweaking out of the box to sound good!

Pretty basic head - early 90's block EVH model, 2 channels (3 if you include the crunch channel). As with everybody else, I wish it came with a basic reverb / separate EQ for each channel. 120watts of tube power, certainly not for bedroom rockers - like me :)
Normal head features like effects loop, 2 inputs - high gain and normal.

Ibanez 540S with breed & evolution pickups direct into the 5150 into a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. I use a Digitech Studio 100 into the effects loop. (The studio 100 sucks but that's another story)

Ok, sounds. I got blown away back in 1996 when I first heard it. The lead channel is just the bee's knees - very, very thick, screaming lead tone that maintains clarity and punch. I can play a Dmin7th chord and hear every note in the chord. It does sound a lot like later Van Halen tones. Not quite 100% there, as I still think he's got a lighter touch, probably due to his use of light pics, but still undoubtedly Van Halenish.

Clean channels are usable but as everyone said, it's not a Fender Clean. Crunch channel is quite a fair bit removed from the searing lead channel, its more like a Marshall amp just breaking up. Overall, it's no one trick pony that many make it out to be.

It sounds very good and clear in the normal input but I notice a fair bit of mud in the high gain input. Not much noise to speak of.

Compared to my ADA MP-1, the 5150 is just a major step up sonically. I thought the MP-1 was great, but it had a very compressed sound, very midrangey and focussed. Good for Nuno Bettencourt stuff, but not much else. It lacked clarity as well, and the MP-1 ONLY sounded good when I used a BBE Sonic Maximizer with it. The 5150 is much hotter, clearer, and what some guitarists would describe as 'open sounding'.

Rumour has it that it is modelled after the Soldano SLO 100 heads. I have to check these out to verify and compare the sounds.

I've been playing for about 10 years, and I play an eclectic mix of rock (Sabbath, Faith No More) shred (Vai, Malmsteen) and recently, Jazz. (Martin Taylor, Joe Pass) This head probably isn't the best for the latter, but it is still convincing.

I've owned it for only 3 months, but it's been a glorious 3 months!
If I were in the gig circuit, I probably wouldn't gig without a backup, not because the 5150's reliability is questionable, but just because its not very wise to do so, is it?

No comment here.

I would probably buy another block EVH head if it went missing, though I suppose I would be tempted to try out a variety of different amplifiers.

Overall, a great amplifier, no glaringly obvious faults, although separate EQ for each channel and a reverb would be wonderful. I think it deserves the Van Halen stamp of approval.

PS: If anyone knows how to nail the later Van Halen tone without spending ridiculous amounts of cash, please let me know!! I've read about variacs, early Marshall heads, Wolfgangs, but I'm talking about easily achievable results without excessive expenditure. Thanks!

Basic features: 2 channels, 1 eq setting, no effects but there is an effects loop. I don't really care about extra effects anyways...so many people are like "no spring reverb." So fucking what? Why the hell do you want spring-reverb anyways? This amp is for goddamn rock n' roll and heavy metal! Much like the basic Marshall JCM 800. Only this is BETTER.

I play heavy metal and this amp just completely fucking rips, it's not even funny. It BEGS for harmonics, and when you do hit one it's like it's sent from the bowels of hell straight for your ruptured ear-drum.
When you're on high-gain and you're not playing the amp will hiss at you, but when you're playing it's gone. I have never turned the volume past 3.5 (well maybe once), and the knob goes to 10.
I have no complaints about the clean channel, I don't want to sound like SRV so I don't care about reverb. There's no button that releases fire-breathing dragons or any of that bullshit, just a basic high-gain ballsy amp.

No problems yet, I've had it almost a year now. I took it to our first gig last week and it performed beautifully.

Haven't talked with customer support yet, thank god. There is a cool web forum on peavey's website where you can ask tech questions though.

At the price I got this amp, I should've bought 2. The only thing I would like to see is a separate eq for each channel, but I guess that's why there's the 5150 II eh?

The 5150 is not a "bang for the buck amp." It's a well build, extremely versatile high gain amplifier. It's only as good as the person using it is. You need good tubes, a good guitar, and knowledge of setting your levels when using a tube amp... This isnt like some cheap solid state crate that you can set all your settings and crank it; tube amps sound very different at different volumes, and the knobs must be adjusted accordingly.

Im using a ESP viper-50 with a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge (Compare that to a Gibson SG, and the SG is sadly eaten) The dimebucker gives off this low end background hum with the power chords that bring out the TRUE monster in this high gain amp. Althought I am switching to a gibson Iommi pickup, which is also a wonderful pickup.
Can't get clean? Bullshit my friend. If you have a decent guitar that beholds a neck pickup, and you want a good clean sound.. the normal gain input is your friend. You dont need to plug into the high gain input if you have a decent guitar, the amp has too much gain to begin with -- which isn't a bad thing, because if you have a guitar with a pickup that isn't so sensitive, up goes the gain. I've gotten cleans with it that compare to my 1960's Fender Black Face Champ Amp. Distortion is amazing, no harm in taking out those ruby's and putting in some tighter sounding JJ tubes (www.eurotubes.com). Mine came used with generic chineese preamp tubes and I'm not complaining. 5 gain stages is more than anyone needs. The BBE Sonic Maximizer in the effects loop of the amplifier lets you hear frequencies that the tube clipping gives off that people dont hear without it. Frankly, I compared to a Bogner Ubershall (2200 dollar head), and the style of clipping you hear with the 5150+BBE is extremely similar to that of the Ubershall, especially with the dimebucker. It seriously blew my mind.

It's build very well.. a heavy amp insures durabilty and quality parts.

Never dealt with it.

It's just an amazing amp and anyone who thinks otherwise either has something wrong with their amp, has shitty cords\guitar\cab\etc., or is just a solid state lover.

Contact me at hatenomore2003@yahoo.com

The amp is an original batch EVH block letter from the early 90's. I've owned this amp for almost 10yrs. and still kills after all this time. Basic dial up features make quick work of setting up. The hi gain channel is stadium friendly and shakes neighbors blocks away. I've just discovered the rythm channel. Sweet old school rock blues tones can't be beat for the price of this amp. The first amp I've ever owned to drown out all drummer's incessant crashing of cymbals. Bloody magic!!!!!. To this day I still look for amps that sound tougher so I can put this one to rest and I cant find one.

Detune and drop tune guitars rule the hi gain. I play it thru a Rivera 4-12 Cab. I use Gibson SG and Ernie Ball Axis with a boss delay, chorus and flanger, thru the loop. Cry baby, bad horse wah wah and Rotovibe on the front end. Bone crunching detuned thuds in the hi gain with very little loss of hi end do to the presence and resonance dials. The guitar player in Tool should check this out. Rythm channel displays smooth tone ala Robin Trower Day of the Eagle. I can even dial up a SRV sound in this mode ala Soul to Soul. Once I discovered these sounds I don't even use the Hi gain. I also use a 60's Harmony guitar with a single p/u. I got it out of a garbage can. Cleaned it up and tuned to Drop B. By far the sickest sound I can dial up. It works in the hi gain and the rythm channels. Tom Morello would SH** his pants. On the front cover I stuck a picture of the Exorcist in full glory. It says it all. SCARY UNSTOPPABLE MONSTER.

In 10yrs it only went down once. I turned it over to my amp guy and some new 6L6's and a rebias and it works like a champ. I've roughed it up for a few years and it never let me down. I'm much kinder to it now though.

Never had the pleasure

Anybody who races out to buy a slick boutique amp or a seriously overpriced Mesa or Marshall should check again. Its right in front of you. Reasonably priced, reliable and basic user friendly. Some day the market will bear that these will stand the test of time. Very easy to resell used.

I play old school heavy and hard rock and this amp fits my style ok. It has two inputs norm and hi gain, two cahnnels, basic eq-knobs, two preamp gain controls, two post gains, awesome presence&resonance controls, effects loop, preamp out and two speaker jacks. With the head came also a crappy plastic footswitch for the loop and channel switching but as i said.... it really looks and feels bad to kick that plastic-made little bastard around.... The footswitch doesn't even bother to look reliable... I just strongly wonder why it has no in-built reverb, so i ended up using an ibanez-made vocal echo box with it. I'd give this amp a 9 but with the reverb and footswitch issues i give it an 8

I use various gibson and fender guitars, mostly an -89 LP standard, a flying V and an -83 tele and the amp responses really well to the completely different sounds of those guitars. The amp has great variety of sounds especially dirtorted ones from bluesy slight crunch to a messy mush distortion. Even on heavily distoted sounds it retains clarity and you can actually hear every note even from 6-string open Cmaj7-chord.... The hi gain lead channel is too hot for any kind of rhythm work but it just sounds kicking on cutting wailing leadwork. The EQ and presence/resonance settings give an awesome variety of different styles of sounds. I personally have the knobs arraged like this:
Input: Hi-gain
Rhythm channel:
Crunch&bright-switches in
Pre-Gain: 8
Post-Gain: 5
Lead Channel
Pre-Gain: 8
Post-Gain: 6
EQ
Bass: 6
Mid: 3?
Treble: 6
Presence: 7
Resonance: 4
This setup makes a cool slash-type rhythm sound and a cutting&singing lead sound
Again i'd give 9 but with reverb issues and other crap....

Well... it has served me well.... no probs

never dealt with....

If it only had reverb... something marshall-spring reverb style it would be and ultimate tool for a rock guitarist... but it does not so 8 again

As far as features go it's kinda limited. But as far as I'm concerned, the 5150 has all you need. There are two separate channels... rythm (not clean), and lead. Please take note to the fact that there is no clean channel. People have raked this amp over the coles saying that the clean channel sucks... the last time I looked at my 5150, I didn't see any kind of selector labeled "clean." As a matter of fact I'm also positive that nowhere on the amp does it say "clean." There's a footswitch with a channel selector and an effects loop on/off button. I'm kindof a purist when it comes to sound. I don't really like using effects at all, so the effects loop button is useless to me, but I can see where it would be useful for someone with multiple pedals or processors. I've had my 5150 for about a month now, and it took me most of the month to figure the amp out. It's a very simple amp, but it has no master volume control, which made it kind of tempermental and fussy until I really figured out what I was doing. Down to the nitty-gritty... this thing is a balls-to-the-wall 120 watt all tube gain machine. And that pretty much says it all. The only thing that I can think of that would improve this amp would be a built in spring reverb.

Again, I will go ahead and say that this thing does not have a clean channel. If you tweak on it for a while, the cleanest thing you can get out of it is much like an old Bassman breaking up a bit, but that's about it's limit. The rythm channel is awesome. I have never heard any other amp that comes close. I've played through the Marshall TSL head, and Mesa Dual and Triple Recs, and though they are both badass heads, for my liking it came down to the 5150. The rythm channel has some serious balls. And the lead channel has an extra third ball. I'm not much of a shred-head, so I don't know about all that stuff, but when I do kick it over to the lead channel and hit a lick, my nuts shake out of my trousers. Most definetly the ballsiest amp I have ever played through or owned. Right now I'm using a Texas Special Fat Strat. It sounds pretty good, but it just wasn't made for such a beast of an amp, so I'm looking into SGs. Not a very versatile amp, but they haven't made a high gain amp yet that sounds like anything from my 5150 all the way down to a fender princeton, and I'll bet you that doesn't happen for a long time (not counting Line 6.)

Haven't had it long enough.

No dealings with them.

Peavey makes some really good stuff. I also have a Peavey Classic 50 212 combo, and it's just as bad ass as the 5150 (just in a completely different way.) Anyhow... I wish the 5150 had a built in spring reverb, but nothing is ever perfect. Most definitely this thing is just as good or better than any high gain Mesa or Marshall out there, and for the price difference ($400 to $600), you can't beat this thing.

This is a follow up to me earlier post. I wanted to clear up some of the rubbish I have read in posts about this amp. First of all, the amp is set up with a Rhythm channel and a Lead channel, not a clean channel and overdrive channel. The Rhythm channel with the "pre" jacked and the crunch switch engaged get's more gain than the lead channel of some other supposed "high gain" amps. It wasn't designed to do Fender style cleans, if you bought it expecting that you are a moron and I request that you please refrain from breeding as the world has enough stupid people already. As for the lack of effects, anyone who complains about that should have RETARD tatooed on their forehead. There's this thing called an Effects Loop, learn how to use it!! Everyone has their own taste in effects, so to build effects into an amp is a crapshoot. Rather than put in effects that some people love and some people hate, or put in effects that no one ever uses, they put in an effects loop. Anyone with a brain is happy with that, but the world is full of brain damaged crack babies that want 20 effects built into their amp. I just wish those people would stick to Line 6 and Crate and not waste their time or anyone else's by posting bad reviews for good amps.

Like any good tube amp, you can get some very different sounds out of this amp with different tubes. The first three preamp tubes are for the six gain stages housed in this beast of an amp. If you are hellbent on trying to get a good clean sound out of this amp, swap out the third 12AX7 for a 5751, which has the same pin arrangement, but a third less gain than a 12AX7. This will also reign in the lead channel a little bit, which some people want because it borders on out of control. Likewise, if you want to squeeze more gain out the amp, put high gain 12AX7's in the first three positions. I recommend Electro Harmonix, but EI also does some really musical high gain 12AX7's. Obviously different combinations of preamp tubes will give different levels of gain and different tonal variety, spend some time swapping different preamp tubes in and out and you can cover a lot of different textures. The 4th preamp tube is for the effects loop, I recommend a balanced 12AX7, JJ's do a nice job here. The 5th 12AX7 is the driver/phase inverter for the power amp, I recommend a JJ here also.

As for the power tubes, I have heard a lot of people rave about the JJ 6L6's so I tried them, but for my taste the Svetlana 6L6's put them to shame and then some. My second choice is the Sovtek 6L6WXT, the amp also sounded very nice with them, but didn't have as much bottom as it gets with the Svetlana's.

The funniest thing that I have ever read in the history of the world was a few people saying that this amp doesn't have enough gain. This thing has six stages of gain, that's more than a Recto, more than a Soldano, more than anything I am aware of on the market today. If you are having problems getting enough gain out of this amp, either you have bum tubes in the preamp, or you need to go back to your crappy stomp box set up you are used to. Kids who use stomp boxes never think that real amps have enough gain, but there is a world of difference between the synthetic excuse for gain that you get from a Metal Zone, and the gain derived from cascading tube gain stages, which is much more organic. Unless of course you are a brainless Nu-metal Fag (yes, that was redundant), in which case enjoy you should skip this amp and stick to your stomp box.

One final note, get the bias set by someone who knows what they are doing. Peavey sets the bias too cold so that the tubes will last longer, but the sound suffers as a result. When you get the bias set correctly the amp sounds worlds better than it does right out of the box. I laugh when I hear people call this a mod. Setting the bias correctly is not a modification any more than setting the tire pressure on your car is a modification. A lot of shops will install some sort of external bias adjustment so that you don't need to get into the guts to adjust the bias, that is a mod. Just having a tech set the bias properly is nothing more than undoing the crappy setup that was done in the factory.

Absolutely Bulletproof. Never had the slightest problem.

Never had to deal with them.

This amp is not for everyone, but if you are looking for a amp with tons of gain and tons of tone, look no further. This thing could make a mouse fart sound like an atomic explosion. I use a BBE to tighten up the low end and a Hush to shut it up when I am not playing. I play real metal. Old Metallica, old Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, Suicidal, etc. When its set up right, this amp absolutely slays everyone else's rig. You could get a better amp if money is no option, but if you are on a budget and are looking for a high gain monster buy one of these.

fuckin balls to the wall heavy metal amplifier. 3 channel EQ for both channels. theres a good solid rythm channel and a great lead channel. you can tweak some cleans out of it but its not really made for cleans. no reverb. resonance control is awesome. this amp is made for rock/metal, so get your fancy effects somewhere else.

this amp is gold. sounds are perfect. i cant say it enough. from good ol fashion rock n roll to blazing metal, you can get it all inbetween. this amp is loud as shit too! sometimes too loud.
this is the perfect amp. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT

bought it used. it was made in 92, its 2004 now, and it sounds like a dream. never had a problem with it, owned it for a few months now. my friend has had his for years, and he's even dropped a MEsa 4x12 cabinet ON to this amp head, with no damage. his amp still performs like a champ.

peavey has a reputation of reliability that cant be beat

N/A

this amp is gold. i swear it will be a collectors item one day. i wouldnt sell it for twice it's value. if it were stolen i would cry, plus its the original issue with the EVH block letters, no the signature.
this amp rules. you will NOT be disapointed

this amp has all the features i need for what i play, simple, plug in and play with maybe 5 mins of tweaking tops, and it sounds absolutly amazing, i have friends that own basically every brand.. marshall, mesa, line 6, carvin, crate, you name it....only thing that comes close is a marshall JCM 900 or 2000 . and for all you idiots that say there is no way to get clean out of this amp thats bullshit. i have to get a new cab beause my ampeg 4x12 cant handle the sheer power of this monster...i cant even turn it up past 3 without my cab cutting out

this is a newer model 5150 with the signiture instead of the block lettering. i have a gibson les paul so of course this combo is going to sound awesome...when i first plugged into this amp i was using a shitty cable and it was noisy as hell and was acting up, so i switched to a monster cable and insantly it sounded great with no feedback or noise. so for all you guys that say this amp is noisy and gives alot of feedback JUST GET A MONSTER CABLE!!!! it seems like all you old guys that have been playing for decades have no common sence there are simple ways to fix the noisyness without spending extra hundreds....and another thing my 5150 loves cheap china made tubes they seem to sound as good if not better than a set of mesa tubes or groove tubes believe me ive played through them all. i would choose this amp over almost any amp on the market, i love it.

i bought mine used off ebay, when it came the box was totally thrashed, even halfway open with the amp sticking out. i opened it up and it looked and sounded new.i would play without a backup these amps are built like tanks ive seen friends drop these things straight on concrete and plug it in and sounds fine.

never had to deal with them.

no amp is a perfect 10, but this one comes in close, for the price you absolutly cant beat it, why not get awesome sound, relibiality, quality(it doesnt say handcrafted and designed in the USA for nothing, and hell even looks for aroung $400-1000 dollars. i have buddies with mesa boogies that have been playing them for years and say its not worth it....if you want the best distortin with BALLS behind it not just raspy noise, if you want tone tone and more tone with endless possibilities that is a fuckin monster off ALL tube power look no further than the 5150.

Cant give it a 10 here 'caus it does not do fender clean but thats is not what this amp is for!.. This is a rock amp.. everyone knows the features by this time.. but it is very flexible for getting a variety of hard rock tones.. I am very impressed with the amount of tweaking available.. reverb and all that other tone sucking crap is not required here.. effects loop is very functional as well.. My modle is a 1992 block front model - mint condition (poor stiff was selling off his studio peice by piece and needed cash)..

Peavey Wolfgang (very nice guitar to my surprice), 86 ESP Mirage Custom w/EMG's, 62 Reissue SG, when it comes to AC/DC, Zakk, Zep, etc.. they can all be done justice here..Have to admit.. when i bought this amp used.. I had my doubts as I am a vintage Marshall guy.. but I wanted to see what the modern amps were like and needed back-up for my early 70's Marshall gear...At first glance I was pissed off.. but upon investigation I found one 6L6 tube socket was cracked and after a quick call to JJ tubes.. we got this baby sounding sweet.. A further improvement was adding an EQ in the effects loop.. can scoup mids with the best of them now.. and the amp projects well also.. now for my next revolution and the reason I am writing this review.. The amp was making nice distorted sounds and plenty of power.. but like every idiot out there.. I was strickly using the HIGH GAIN input on LEAD channel.. as the RHYTHM channel had too many buttons to screw around with.. I was happy, but the clearity for this amp was not quite the MARSHALL clarity I was used to.. indivudual notes were not ringing as clear as the vintage Marshalls.. One day I decided to plug into the NORMAL GAIN input.. and (BANG).. that was it.. MARSHALL clarity and punch.. notes were exploding off the strings.. this is with Pregain at 6 and post at 4.. plenty of balls.. I am now a believer.. I put my standard rig together of Dunlop Wah, Tube Screamer (for Zakk tones), and Boss Chorus.. with my EQ and BOss DD-3 for a little echo in the effects loop.. and viola!.. their is the sounds I was looking for..!!! I dont even mess with the HIGH GAIN INPUT any more..

Have had not one single problem in 1 year of ownership now..

Have not tried to use Peavey yet.. but they have been very helpful on other subjects to date..

I am definitely looking at purchasing another or even the warmer biased 2x12 combo.. I will look into the variable bias pot as if their is a chance that this amp can sound even better.. I will try it.. I love my 100W super leads and my 2 Marshall Majors.. but lord knows when they will crap out on me..

This is 1992 block letter head, 120 watts of all out loud! Same
specs as all the other 5150's. Has no reverb,dont need it. Has
all you need to get the job done!!!

Ok when I first got this amp I thought it was lame. And then thought
I was crazy for trading my triple xxx for it, but then came the modification plan. Out came those crappy ruby tubes, and in went
the JJ's I got from Eurotubes.com and I also had this amp biasied.
Now this amp sounds KILLER! Get the JJ's and have the amp bias modded
it is worth it! My style revolves around heavy metal core stuff and
this amp dishes it out like no tommorrow. For the money it I dont
think you can do any better, and actually I prefer this beast to
some of the more expensive amps out there. The gain is very thick and has some serious grit to it. Im playing a gibson les paul gothic
that I had a gibson500T bridge pickup put into, it's tuned CGCFAD.
From there it goes into a randall XL cab with vintage 30's in it.
My only effects are a boss noise gate and a boss super chorus and yea
of course the footswitch. IMO this sounds great and I'll add that this
amp is very very very LOUD and has no problem cutting through the mix.
Watch the presemce and treble as you go up with volume, cause it can get piercing and the volume can touchy to,meaning to little or probably to much but no big deal, it sounds good kranked! The rythmn
channel can get a usuable clean tone with the pregain set around 2
and the crunch button disengaged, sounds great with the boss chorus.
Without the pedal it has a slight break up to it but oh well you want
that great of a clean buy an old musicman or an ampeg. Pushing in the
crunch button and dialing up the gain gets you killer hot rodded overdrive sounds that I' enjoy playing around with when Im not in
a metal state of mind, a channel definetly full of dynamics and a good
channel to jam some hard rock on. This amp isnt that bad noisy either,
but it can be noisy with higher gain settings but thats alot of amps.
Thats what that Boss noise suppressor is for anyways! This 5150
does what I need it to do and has no problems keeping up with a
drummer! Crushing!!

C'mon it's a 1992 model and it's going strong! This has given me no problems what so-ever. I dont expect it to, It's PEAVEY!!
Well built stuff, and then I'll mention this amp is highly rashed too!

If you need it, they try hard to help you!

I been playing for 11 years and tried lots of amps. This is about
the only one I can get some great crunch out of!
This thing weighs a ton but there's nothing
I really dont like about it. Not perfect but to me, it does it's purpose!If it got stolen Id definetly get another one, I already want another one!! I traded my peavey triple xxx for this and like this
amp much better! This amp kills for metal and hardcore sounds, just use a good cab a guitar to complete it further. I dont miss the triple xxx anymore.....GET THE BIAS MOD AND JJ's- you probably wont believe it!! Use a good guitar with it!!!