Peavey 5150

The amp is the newer model with eddies sig on it. This amp i bought used and i think it was a killer deal! It does everything i need for metal or hardrock!! So much usable gain!! Amazing tone too, i was skeptical at first until i got to try one... and wow, it had amazing sustain, tone and low end chugging gain that i love. It doesn't get harsh at all when turned up loud too! I give it a 9 for features because it is a shared eq for both channels.

I play through this head using a jackson kelly and it is a perfect combination. It suits my musical style perfectly! I give this a 9 for sound because i've only tried one amp better than this and it is a bogner ubershall!! ($4000 canadian) However, the 5150 it the best bang for the buck for high gain distorted tube amp!

So far so good, very reliable. I have just got it and tried it out a few times.. keeping my fingers crossed, although im sure it is a great reliable head judging by the quality.

N/A

I've been playing for almost 6 years, if it was stolen i would most definately look around and replace it. I compared this thing to a bogner ubershall (inwhich it doesn't beat), BUT it beats a mesa dual rectifier, marshall, randall, crate, and groove tube trio preamp.

I don't know what year it is but its a newer 5150 because it has Eddie's signature instead of the block letters.

This Amp is awesome. I play Metal/shred and this thing just totally nails it. I did put a adjustable bias pot in there and set it at 42ma per tube..this is a really good idea because the orginal 5150 comes with a fixed bias and when you change tubes its a pain if the ass to set it right to sound good..unlike the 5150 II which comes with an adjustable bias. Its a good idea to get this Mod cause the 5150 already sounds excellent but the stock tubes are run very cold around 15 milliamps per tube and with that low of voltage that puts it into "Crossover distortion".. and i don't know about you but i really don't like crossover distortion to much. But with this bias mod i set it at 42 milliamps per tube so there isn't any crossover distortion at all and just sounds just so much more badass and what the mod really improves on is the Clean channel. i put some Eurotubes up in there when i put the mod in..its a very Good investment.. so if your thinking about getting or allready have a 5150, with a doubt install a Bias trim pot and depending on your tubes like take a JJ 6l6 for example thats a pretty commonly used tubed, set em at least 35 milliamps a tube so your tubes aren't so cold..it will make your amp sound better than it already does if you can actually believe that.

thing is built like a TANK! comeon its a peavey they all are.

very nice guys..They'll go out of there way to help ya..

Over all i give it about an 8.. but with some badass tubes and a Bias trim pot installed i give it a 9...only thing that gets a 10 in my book is a Booger or VHT pitbull but you have 3 grand to dish out on a head? Nope didn't think so..SO fuck that Shit!..At a good price and awesome brutal tone get a 5150! you'll love it if your a metal head like I'am.

1992 block letter head, Very verstile actually, suprise, suprise!
2 channels,preamp out, 120 tube watts, fx loop, etc.. the stock tubes were replaced with JJ 6l6's and JJ ecc83's, these are about the best tubes i have tried in any amp before. got rid of A LOT of hum and the clean is pretty decent actually!

I use an ESP h-300 with emg hz's, i play many styles and it is very easy to dial in that certain tone. the additional bright and crunch switch on the rhythm channel is very cool!

Like i said this amp is 10 years old and looks brand new, built strong, it is definately a beast. A backup would not be needed, altho it might be(as with any tube amp) wise to bring spare tubes to gigs.

I never had any problems with peavey amps, but if i did i know they would bend over backwards to help fix the problem.

definately worth the price although i wouldnt pay the 1100 or whatever they want at music stores now-a-days for new ones. ive been waiting forever to get one of these amps and i would buy another if something ever happened to it.

It's a couple of years old. Two channels with a crunch and high boost on the clean? channel. One shared set of EQ.
It is loud and has tons of gain. Read the previuos reviews for more feature details.

I use a stratocaster, a Jem7V, a Yamaha RGX1220s with Seymour Duncan pickups.
Originally I did not like this amp, it was mushy, had no dynamics and the clean channel had no headroom. The combo sounded better. I never would have bought one.
This 5150 was modded to the combo bias specs, the bias was adjusted to 44ma and the tubes were replaced by an integrated quad from EUROTUBES. 2 EL34s and 2 6L6s. This amp now has the sound of the combo, but on steroids.
Excellent clean sound, lots of headroom and the lead channel growls and sings with lots of dynamics.
I highly recommend this mod and the change of tubes. The amp improves greatly and becomes more reactive to the string attack.
Using my T.C. Electronic G-Force in the effect loop, I can nail the EVH sound, old and new. With the extra headroom and dynamics created by the bias and tube mods, the G-Force allows me to nail the sounds of Eric Johnson Cliff Of Dovers and Jimi Hendrix In The West Little Wing.

Only thing I had to do is change some tubes. I haven't had the amp long enough to tell.

Very good, I needed a small part and they emailed the info right away.
I spent more than $5 with them and the shipping was free.

I've been playing a long time, since 1967. I have had all sorts of tube and solid state amps. If it were stolen, I would buy another one and get the same mods applied.
I do not compare the amp to other ones I own or owned because I was looking for a specific sound/tone and this amp gives it to me. It doesn't sound like my old Marshall Major or my VHT Pitbull 100 CLX or my Lexicon Signature 284 and this is why I bought it, a new sound in my arsenal. Without the mods, this would be a 7. With the mods,this is a 10 (for my taste).

I am a DIE HARD Eddie Van Halen fanatic. I've been doing Van Halen songs for almost seven years so take my word for it. This amp can deliver warm tube tone. It's not really versitile in my opinion, then again, that's not what it's made for. Eddie designed this thing with one purpose in mind, to deliver a warm slightly fuzzy power tube distortion. In other words the " Brown Sound". As for versitility in E.Qing, this amp offer alot of options, FOR THE DIRTY CHANNEL ALONE. True, it only has one set of tone controls for both channels, which sucks!!! But again, it's primary purpose is to deliver a nice warm tube distortion similar to an old marshall overdriven with some kick!!! (like most amp sounds from the 80's)

If your looking to get that Van Halen "Brown Sound", look no further... THIS IS THE AMP FOR YOU. Remember Eddie Van Halen is all about getting a nice, warm tube distortion. Not an overdriven modern rock / alternative/ punk sound. Of course the palm mutting isn't as defined through this amp as with others. If you want crisp palm mutting and heavy, HEAVY distortion you have to sacrifice tone and get yourself a Crate or Mesa driven to the max. Most people who complain about the lack of overdrive in this amp are unskilled, and just want something they can play power chords with. If that's you, then take my advise and save the money for some guitar lessons. This thing nails that van halen tone, but not without some additions: a full set of JJ tubes from Eurotubes, two E.Q.'s (one before the amp, one in the effects loop), a good compressor, and a noise surpressor, oh and MOST important... a nice reverb unit. Because this thing doesn't come with one (remember Eddie has 2 Echoplexes and an Eventide Harmonizer). Also, if you LOVE that 80's hard rock tone (a.k.a. the California Sound), this is the amp for you. Just remember to use a guitar with a humbucker in the bridge (warm, 8-10 ohms), and an A/B switch between this (dirty) and another amp (for clean). This thing really lacks a good clean channel. If you want a good and for a nice clean cound ONLY, don't bother with a Mardhall JCM, or a Fender Delux Reverb, get a Marshall Valvestate 65R. You won't believe the clean tone of this little monster, and it's less than $400 NEW!!!

Only owned it for a week, no problems yet.

If been playing for almost nine years now, doesn't sound like a long time but I come from a family of guitarists. I have a pretty good ear and took serious lessons for almost two yeays. So I'm no newby. Also, I've dissected Eddie's tone, his style, his influences. When I say this thing nail the Brown Sound, IT NAILS THE BROWN SOUND! The ONLY thing that gets closer than this for the original Eddie tone is either an old Marshall Plexi from the 60's (but the transformer has to be wired the same as Eddie's magic Marshall and remember they were all hand wired in those days), The Marshall will cost you over $2500 for the head ALONE!!! A Soldano SLO-100, which will also cost you $2500 for the head alone. Or a Blockhead Custom 50w Head, which again, will cost you over $2500 for the head alone... seeing a pattern here? Stick with the 5150, and get a matching 5150 cabinet, you won't be sorry.

we all know the amps features

This amp has a phenominal sound. I use a wolfgang through it and the sound is unbelievable. yes the clean channel can be a little dirty that thats the way I like it. it is an excellent hard rock amp. As for guys claiming it does'nt have enough gain: What the heck are you trying to do with it. it has way more gain than could ever be used in any style of music that I've heard. yes the combo is going to have more gain at lower settings, but thats because your not pushing it as hard. all the balls of the amp are going into half the speakers so you won't have to push it as hard. if you add a cabinet to the combo you will have the same problem.

peavey is the best company you could ever do business with. everything they buile is rock solid, and if something does break they will take care of you.

as i said if you deal with Hartley Peavey you can't go wrong

This amp has 2 channels lead, clean (clean channel has a crunch switch not that it needs it). fx loop switchable 4, 8, 16 ohms.
There really isn't much else to it.

I bought the amp used with a peavey 4x12 cabinet. At first I thought I made a big ass mistake. The distortion seemed hairy and unusable. The clean channel seemed to make a better dirty channel than the lead. Then I ran an digitech gsp2101 through the loop. Drastic change. With the graphic eq I was able to tighten up the lead channel. It became more aggressive and articulate. You could determine individual notes that previously were lost in a haze of noise. This amp should have had a 7 band eq on board. At any rate, I found I was able to yeild similar results with just a simple eq pedal in the loop. (this obviously was noisier than the 2101 so I stuck with that.) Once this amp is dialed in ,it is a beast. Very capable of keeping pace with amps twice it's price i.e.- vht, mesa, and marshall.

Peavey stuff is and always will be built like a tank. I can't tell how much abuse this thing took.

never dealt with them

Very dependable, good sounding amp for an extremely reasonable price.

This amp contains two channels, clean and distorted. It packs a good punch behind it if configured correctly. I use a fender strat and still manage to get the powerful low end out of it. The only thing I can really complain about is the fact that there is only one set of Equalizers... it makes it alittle difficult to get both the perfect clean and distorted without sacrificing alittle either way.

Ok first off I really don't see how jackasses like Noel up above come up with their reviews. Maybe you should own the amp before you go into reviewing it. Styles I play through this amp range from Hardcore to Reggae to Punk to Melodic Rock. Basically this amp can cover its ground. It has a real heavy distorted sound that can be alittle too much through some cabs but if it is run through crate, ampeg, or fender, etc. you should be fine. The clean sound is not amazing but if you wear your tubes in and configure the amplifier correctly the sound is good. It does has a bit of noise but its nothing to really gripe about. All in all I would definately recommend this head if you are looking for something that is under $1000. I gig year round and use it for practice a good 2.5 hours about 3-4 times a week plus just jamming alone.

I've had tubes go out but that is a given. No problems with it and the head is definately a couple years old. I own the older model with the EVH block lettering in the front right corner.

I've never had to deal with the company but I did has to get a check-up on it from an authorized repair center. Easy to find. great work, and quick turn around.

All in all its a great amplifier. Definately worth the money its tagged. If it were stolen I'd probably replace it but if I had some extra cash I'd actually go towards a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier but don't get discouraged by that. I love the 5150 but the mesa has really caught my eye as well.

hello people.. the only thing i want to say is that this head doesn't have as much gain as the combo..
I bought it because i wanted something bigger than the combo with the same sound.. but surprise!!.. it has around half of the gain. I couln't try it out cuz i had to order it from a store. I has enough gain oh yes! but if you are used to the combo keep it!! don't change it for the head! just go and buy a marshall cab and plug it to the combo.

If you already bought the head and already realized that it has less gain than the combo you can do the following..
Get an ibanez compressor (sustainer or limiter) and a boss noise supressor. Use the settings like this:
Ibanez compressor sustainer:
Level to the max
Treshold to the max
Sustain half way
or

Ibanez compressor limiter:
Treshold to the max
Attack to the max
Level to the max

Noise supressor
Treshold to the max
Decay to the min

The chain is the following:
Guitar, ibanez compressor, noise supressor and amplifier..

If you have any questions fell free to contact me at
el_dedo@yahoo.com

Everyone knows the features on this beast. It's got enough gain to start a war, and loud enough to end aforementioned war. It's versatile enough for i do (metalcore w/a bit of melody thrown in for good measure visit www.redwinterdying.com).

I use an RG7421 with a Seymour D. Invader pickup in the bridge. It works really well w/ what I do, its brutal as can be, almost too brutal sometimes, don't ever turn the gain knob past 7 unless you play in a sludge-stoner rock band that thrives on that mosquito eating a pickup truck full of bumble bee's sound. The sound is pretty tight, throw some JJ tubes in there (eurotubes.com) they'll freekin rock the amp 100 times more. The clean, is decent, its no JCM800 or Roland amp, but it does its job, it sounds clean at ear splitting volumes, i don't know what everyone else is complaining about.

Never given me any problems, and we tend to be crazy on stage, and its seen its share of being knocked over. I've had it for 3 months and it's pretty great.

They have a forum setup on their site thats really quite helpful. Never did me any wrong.

i've been playing 7 years, and owned a bunch of different stuff, an awesome AMPEG VH-4 that ruled, if you want a solidstate amp find this one and make it yours. Buti love my 5150 its got a gorgeous sound and loud as all death. I do love it but if it were stolen, i would actually probably go pickup that Ampeg again, but i may buy one again, oh crap i don't know, if it gets stolen i'll let you know.

This is an older model 5150, with the block letters 'EVH' on the right side of the knobs, rather than Eddie's signature. Not sure of the exact year though. I use the effects loop with many effects. It switches between channels great. It's really loud. 120W is plenty. I've never needed to turn the amp to it's full power, it'll blow up my cab! The tubes are stock (so i'm told) i bought it off of ebay, so yah.

I use an Ibanez rg470. I usually use only the bridge humbucker because i get more gain with it. I play a lot of the newer metal (ie Lost Prophets, Pressure4-5, illnino, etc.) but i also play a lot of classic rock with my dad, and old nirvana, gunsnroses stuff with my friends. The amp is not noisy at all, depending how you set the eq on the amp. A lot of people complain about it, but that's because they don't know how to set the damn thing. The distortion definitely is straight up metal. It's pretty muddy though. Not the cleanest distortion i'd like to have, but I've actually grown to love it.

I've never had it broken. I actually bought it broken though, and had it fixed for free! I've been using the amp now for about a year, and have gigged A LOT with it. I'd gig without a backup.

I sent it in after I got it in broken from some idiot on ebay. They told me to send it to them, and they fixed it right up, then they sent it back. only had to pay shipping. not too shabby. Dunno how long the warranty is though.

I've been playing for a little more than 6 years. I own a carvin custom made head, a homemade cab (i made in shop class!). My pedal board is made up of the following: BOSS Metal Zone (i uses this for little wimpy, filtered distortins at times) BOSS Equalizer, BOSS Phase Shifter, BOSS Digital Delay, DOD Analog Delay, Crybaby wah-wah, DOD Ice-Box Chorus. I uses an Epiphone Stratacopy, an Ibanez rg470fm, a gibson '63 SG Custom, and i'm about to get a schecter C1 plus.

The amp is awesome. I love it. i'd replace it if i had to in a second. I recommend you buy it!

This amp is perfect for the style of music i play: hard rock and metal. It is a two channel amp that has the option of crunch and bright tones on the clean channel. lead and rythm footswitchable. I wish it had reverb but a chorus or flanger will spice up the clean channel. 120 watts of pure tube power.

My setup
G&L RAMPAGE--vox wah--bossCE5--5150--marshall jcm900 4x12
It fits my style really well. this amp is noisy if you don't tweak the knobs accordingly. a noise gate/suppressor wouldn't be a bad idea in the fx loop. clean channel is bad but you can deal with it...keep in mind this a high gain amp, if you want a pristine clean channel look elsewhere. distortion is the best ever...awesome sustain. the low end seems to be lacking. tough to get a good metal tone low end (zakk wylde)

seems to be reliable thus far. bought it off a guy who had just had it retubed.

im sure they're nice guys.

i'm in my third year of playing. i would definatelt buy again if stolen, but that will never happen. i bought it because it has the best distortion period. if i had the money i would own this for lead and rythm and get a fender for clean and a marshall jcm800 because zakk wylde is god.

This is the older model 5150, I think, because of the block lettering of EVH in the lower right corner. This amp is versatile enough to play anything with distortion and clean. It goes from metal to punk and sounds perfect with the tube amp tone. I play hardcore, metal sounding music, ranging from very fast to clean and moderate pace. The two channels are high gain and clean. Footswitchable channels and effects loop. I really like the bright switch on the clean, it makes it sound amazing. Also, there is a crunch switch which makes the clean channel sound like a powerful crunch distortion, but not super high gain. It has all the features I would not, and doesn't have features I don't need. I personally hate amps that have so many controls and switches that it sucks just trying to play your guitar. I use this amp in my practice area, where I can play as loud as I wish, and also for shows with my band. Oh, and wow is it loud. It's very loud even at 25% volume, and the great thing about this amp is its ability to sound good at low volume. If you turn the gain to 6, it is very sweet sounding for high gain. I can't even imagine turning the gain to 10. No reason to. Classic rock sounds good at around 3.

I play with a metal style ESP with active emg pickups. That setup sounds so nice, my dream sound. Also a strat sounds great with the clean channel. The amp suits my music style perfectly, i could not ask for anything better. This is is surprisingly not noisy for such a high gain amp. I occasionly have a problem with unwanted feedback but that is due to my use of high gain pickups and settings.

An odd thing about this amp is that it sounds so good, it has a compressed, tight sound. It almost sounds like it has a built in compresser, and this fact can be great or not great. Sometimes this sound makes me feel like the amp is playing through a car trunk, or a similar, distant sound. However, the vast majority of the time I am extremly satisfied with the tone.

The clean channel is very sparkly and sweet sounding. You have to set the pre gain and post gain according to how much it will distort regarding how hard you hit the strings. You can easily find a perfect balance of volume and gain and get a great clean sound.

The distortion channel: Oh, is it brutal. It plays van halen tapping so perfectly that you would think it is a recording. Power chords have crunch and clarity, and soloing has good sustain and tone. I purchased this amp for its distortion, and I got everything I wanted and more.

This is definitely a reliable amp. Mine is old and I use it for hours a day, without any breakage. Yet I must say I've only had this amp for about a month now, so I can't comment on long term reliability (except for the fact that mine is at least 8 years old). The amp has not broken for me, and the tubes havn't been changed in a long time as I understand yet it still sounds awesome.

I have only been to Peavey's web site and asked a view question on the forums, and peavey guys contacted me promptly to answer my questions.

Finding authorized service centers is something of a problem for peavey though. I understand that Peavey is very select about who gets to deal their equipment and this means there is not a authorized peavey tech in my town. Well, there are hardly any techs in my town.

I have been playing for 5 years now, and just starting to play local shows. This is my first tube amp and I am amazed at the difference from solid state. I think I got a great deal: a new Fender silverface 412 cab and this amp for $700. If something happened to this amp, I would definitely buy it again, but I'd probably get a newer model just for variety. I love the sounds of it's distortion and its clean channel.

Here is an important fact for me:

My friend and I both bought tube heads at the same time. I bought this amp while he found a Marshall jcm900 slx for roughly the same price. We both wanted a high gain amp for our band. I quickly found out that I like the 5150 much better for the marshall and the tone is so much better. Also, I hate the marshall because it doesn't have a clean channel, you have to manually turn down the gain if you play with high gain. I also think the 5150 is better in many ways, especially the knobs and the general aesthetics. The chicken head knobs are really neat and look good, except mine are loose.

This amp is definitely a great deal and I reccomend anybody looking for a high gain amp to get it. It is a fantastic value. I took a chance, but the best advice I would give here is to play an amp before you buy it, and at meaningful volumes and with your guitar, etc.

Has 2 channels, although I never use the clean. Of course its tube. LOUD AS HELL!!!

I use 2 Kramer USA Pacers with 59' Duncans. I play Hard Rock / Metal, and this amp just Kills! At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it, but once I got my sound (via a few choice pedals) I was hooked. Don't buy it for the clean channel, but for distortion, this baby is the SHIT!!
I use this amp along with 5 pedals. In the effects loop, I run a compressor(fattens the tone) thru a DOD EQ (better control of overall tone,with standard V curve for scooped mids and Major Chunk!) to a BOSS DD3 delay (This amp is very very dry without some kind of delay, or reverb added)
and Lastly, I put a BOSS NS2 Noise Reduction pedal to clean up the hiss (yes, it works best in the loop) Form guitar to amp, I have a Cry Baby Wah which adds flexible tones for inspiration. I have been able to achieve a very lush sound,
that is very FAT in tone, yet warm and colorful.(purple spongy squeal monster!)

I waited until i had had this amp for at least 4 months to review it, and so far, no problems. I have gigged without a backup, no problem. No service needed yet.

N/A

I have been playing for 23 years. I have never achieved such a fat beautiful tone, as with this amp. I have played
Fender, Marshall, and other Peavey amps (which sounded like
shit, mostly) I tried the XXX which sounded nice (but would have cost me almost a grand for the head, and that's what I payed for the 5150 Head AND Matching Cabinet TOTAL!) MY Advice would be to try this head thru an EQ and Delay pedal
to get a true sense of what this baby can do, with a little better control over the TONE. It's the LAST Amp I'll Ever Buy, and simply THE BEST!!

2 channel but only one EQ but still cool

Has a lotta gain.To me it sounds like a marshall with Fender tubes.
But its gigable.The dirty channel cleans up nice for lower gain
rock tone.Gets a little too fuzzy for my taste but still cool.
Sounds like a healthy silver jubliee to me.If you find one used,
buy it but don't buy one new.It's still a Peavey

Its road worthy

Nice people

Its a good amp if you can get a deal on one.I couldn't have one as my
only amp.If your a true tone fanatic...Buy a boogie. If you need volume to make up for lack of talent,this is the amp for you.It is
the only Peavey Amp I would own. 20 years of playing and touring experience.

5150 ( not the block lettered version ). For features...lets just say If you play rock from soft to metal it has it all...well almost all there is a 5150II and a triple xxx. I'll probably find something I might want on it 1 day but not now. I wanted a rock monster...I now have it.

This amp plays both kinds of music...Rock and Hard Rock...is there any other?(not this amp). Throw away the pedals. I don't need no stink'ng pedals. The distortion is awesome at any volume and in any channel no other amp I've owned did it better. The only (-) is it's somewhat noisy...oh well it is HIGH gain. I have other amps for blues and jazz. This is a one trick pony but what a trick!

I bought this amp used ( beat to hell ). It performs as any other Peavey product, great. It looks like it went throuhg a war zone and it works as it should.

Don't need'em but I've heard good things.

I've beeen playing for 20+ years and I've owned lots of amps. Right now it's my favorite. For rock it just kills...lots of fun. I hear these things are fun to tweek so I might try to do some mods( could it sound any better?) I wish I would have bought one of these when they 1st came out. I love it!

1. Ibanez JS
2. Ibanez flying V
3. Yamaha Acoustic
4. Line 6 POD PRO rack preamp
5. Marshall JFX through the fx loop
The distortion is awesome. The clean sound is shit, but when you use a Line 6 preamp & Marshall JFX effects, you can get any other sound you could possibly want!

Ive done 300 + gigs, 1000 + rehersals, and who knows how much practice time. Its been covered in sea water spray, left in the desert sun all day, dropped a few times, packed upside down underneath a PA speaker in the van and driven 1000 km, had beer spilt all over it and been left turned on accidently for days at a time. Ive never even had to change the tubes although admittedly they need changing now after 4 years!

Never had to use it!

Ive been playing since I was 5 & I'm 27 now & been in bands since I was 14. I think I would be hard pressed to find an amp as good as this in the price range. My friend has a Dual Rectifier & I think the 5150 sounds better at half the price.

Block letter head & 2 5150 slant cabs
How many channels: Clean EQ w Cruch / Distortion Lead
Does it have channel switching: Yes
Effects loops: Yes
What features do you wish it had: Reverb, I have Line 6 floor units to cover the delay and reverb
Are there features you never use: Use them all.

My styles range from old classic blues to Hardcore metal and with the cover band I currently play, you need to be able to cover alot of musical ground. My set up is as follows: guitars PRS Custom 22, Les Paul Classic or a american Deluxe strat (SD Lil' 59er' in the bridge)into a pedal board that includes a VHT valvulator, Bad horsie Wah, Maxon 808 overdrive, Roger Mayer Octavia, Bionix Expandora, to a Line 6 MM-4 then to a line 6 DD-4, then to a Morley AB switch to switch from my 65 twin Reissue (clean or blues)or the 5150(dirty). I also run a BBE sonic maximizer in the effects loop of the 5150 it really helps to tighten up the soundespecially in the bass frequencies, at least to my ears. The tones I get out of this rig cover anythig from Creed all the way down to SRV or Hendrix. I've used a Dual rectifier in this system but after hearing that there was little difference and the peavey is alot cheaper, it was an easy decision to stay with the peavey. So I took the money I saved and bought another 5150 cab and had the head retubed with serviced. To sum it up for rock/hard rock tones you won't find a better amp out there for the price

I have to depend on it, I have a Marshall JCM 800 that I have used as a back up (when I had my peavey head serviced, it wasn't done in time for a friday show)and it just isn't my sound. Overall this amp seems to be built like a tank. I don' forsee any special problems , especally with regular servicing

I'm the original ownere and back in 92 my footswitch went bad after the first weekend of having it home. I called Peavey and they express mailed me a new one right away, other than that I haven't had to deal with them

I've been playing guitar 17 years of my 26 on this planet and I ahve yet to find an amp that can take the place of the 5150 in my rig. I've tried Mesa, Marshall, Soldano, VHT, Laney, Crate, Randall and Carvin amps and nothing seems to get the sound that I'm used too. I'm going to try a bogner some day but it will have to kick the living shit out of the 5150 for me to justify paying for it. Overall I couldn't be happier and to tell you the truth I don't think I'll ever find areplacement because I think I've found my sound.

Got this amp the 2nd year it was out. IMO, for shredding leads and sustain it beats anything out there in terms of a "hot rodded sound"
My JCM 800 Lead Series Marshall head is gathering dust.

I use three guitars through this head. Jackson DXMG, B.C. Rich Standard and a Fender Fat Stat.You CAN get any sound you want through this head, from Ingwie to Eric Johnson. I haven't had any problems getting a fairly good clean sound from the rhythm channel. My 5150 goes through a Marshall 1960 slant cab and you should hear this thing grind and growl....whoa man!! I have a T.C. Electronics G-Major in the effects loop with a Boss GE-7 equalizer through the front..this is the set-up I've been searching 20+ years for...I found THE hot rodded Marshall tone....in the 5150 ;o)

No problems

Have dealt with Peavey customer support in the past and they always reply in a quick and timely manner...no bitchin' here on my part. They're great

Been playing since 1977. If this head were lost or stolen I'd replace it in a heartbeat. I think you can't beat this amp for the saturated, over-driven sound.

you should know the features by now!!! i dont need anymore features than this beast offers.

im using this with a custom shop ibanez RG570 with an EMG81 and an 85. im using it with the peavey MS cabs, not the 5150 cabs. i plan on getting a 5150 cab though.

this beast suits my style PERFECTLY!! i try everything i can get my hands on, and EVERYTIME i come back to the 5150. to me, its my sound, nothing sounds like it/as good as it. i play stuff like, old metallica, slayer, anthrax, testament, iced earth, IN FLAMES etc, and i can NAIL Their tones if i want! i have a boss GE7 running in the loop, and that is a TREMENDOUS help to my sound, i wouldnt be as happy without it.

the clean channel isnt the greatest,but with an EQ in the loop, its 10x better.

there is alittle noise, but not much. I run my 5150 with JJ tubes in the power amp, and EH tubes in the preamp. it isnt muddy/loose at low, or high volumes, i think the EMGS really help that. again, i HIGHLY reccomend a boss GE7 running the loop. for this reason i have to give this amp a 10. in my opinion, it kills those muddy piece of shit rectos. my 5150 destroys my friends recto in everyway.

the 5150 isnt *that* versitile, but again, with an EQ in the loop, i can get almost any sound i want.

if you want a high gain, rip your head off, metal machine, that doesnt sound like anything else out there(except the swedish metal scene, cuz everyone is using these) THEN GET A 5150!!!

i would gig without a backup, no problem. i replace the tubes once a year

never dealt with them..

ive been playing for about 4 years, and know what sounds good to me, and this is MY SOUND. if it were stolen, id buy another in a heartbeat. i love the sound! thats what is all about!!! and this has it!! i compared it to every new marshall out there, mesa dual rectos, markIV, and to me, nothing sounds like it, or as good.....

You know all this info

I love this amp. I have been playing for 8 years. I play emo/hardcore music with my band but alone I play the blues. I need clean to brutal distortion. This amp does it all for me. I recently made the switch from a solid state to this beautiful rich tube amp. anyone in this review who knocks this amp is intitled to there own opinion but my opinion is they suck. When you need that punch like fists flieng through the air she's got it. When you need smooth cleans she's got it. I love this amp. Very versatile. I have heard amps with a smoother clean channel. But people need to learn how to adjust there pickups, pot controls on there guitars, and add the right amount of effects. Thats how you aquire the sound your looking for. I get get along just fine with this amp. IF you want something just for cleans go with something else. If your looking for the best Amp to suit your diversity, or you wanna a kick ass head for hardcore, this is it. I give it 9 cause i cant play with out it. oh yeah i almost forgot. ITS BETTER THEN A MESA BOOGIE TRIPLE RECTIFIER!

It's your typical run-of-the-mill amp. Clean/Crunch. Would be nice with some 'verb. But I guess thats where the 5150 II comes into play.

I run an Epiphone Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan Invader in the bridge. Balls out chunk!!!! Its perfect for metal/hardcore. I wouldn't go playing any speed/thrash with it though. It's a very muddy distortion so it doesn't pick up articulate rhythms too well. Not noisy at all. I get it to about 4 and then it starts go snap, crackle & pop on me. The mids are a joke. UNless maybe my mid range is broken. But there isn't much in the way of mids. The clean channel is tricky because it has a gain knob. So you have to adjust the gain knob and the volume knob just right, otherwise you get a little grit in there. But once you tweak it, you get a clean sound. Not very bright mind you but its clean. Saturate it with some chorus and you'll be fine.

Zero problemo!!! Other than the occasional tube blowing here and there. I've had no problems with it. I would totally use it without a backup.

Well, see this is where I get sour. I had an old Peavey Bandit 112 that crapped out on me so Ihad to ship it back to PEavey to get it fixed. Needless to say 8 months later I get a call. Oh, you're gonna need a new input pot and this and that. So for service, if they went any slower, they'd stop

I got this and a cabinet brand spankin new for $700. I tell ya. Its the best amp for a low budget. Lemme put it to you this way. I got a Mesa Dually, hated it so I traded it in a week later for the 5150, a fender strat, some misc items. Mesa is an overpriced one-trick pony. Get the 5150. Better sound at 1/3 of the cost!!!!!!

I have a 1999 5150. As far as i am concerned this is the best amp I could ever own. Have been a long time solid state Crate owner, but after hearing the 5150 I was sold. It is pretty versatile for rock/blues guitar players. It has a great EQ section with the separate Resonance and Presence controls adding icing to this super hot piece equipment.

Love it.

All I can say the sound is the reason I bought it. Love it.

Never had any problems with my amp. Very sturdy and solid.

Bought the amp used so havent needed to contact Peavey for any support.

Would really recommend this amp for any person interested in getting that Soldano SLO 100 sound for a 1/4 of the price. Even if you are not a VH fan you can certainly dial in a killer tone for your rock and blues playing.

120 Watt tube head that is very loud with a half ass eq that is shared between 2 channels (lead and crunch).

The guitar I use is a(maple neck)strat copy modified with a
EMG 81,SA,89 setup that I bought about 12 years ago, but it still sounds good.

The sound on this puppy is kick ass and is very brutal. The only thing that it could really use is a clean channel, but out of a All Tube Monster what do you expect. You want clean get a good digital setup. you want Tone? Get a tube amp.

Ive owned this sucker 3 years and it has been around the way. I dont neglect it, I keep it clean and replace tubes as nessary (when they start to sound muddy its time to Replace um!)

I don't know call peavey

GREAT TONE AND LOUD!
Ive been playing 15 years and this is an amp that can play many different tones. if you play clean parts or cant stand ANY noise then there are other amps that are better for your cause but if your looking for loud and kick ass you cant beat this amp or the price.

This amp head was one of the first year (1992?) models due to the "EVH" block lettering on the chassis. It's not the most versatile amp head in the world, but it just about right for me. I play modern metal/rock (kind of like a cross between Sevendust, Fear Factory, Faith No More, and Tool)and it suits my needs very well. It has two channels, crunch and lead, the crunch channel being able to set up as a "clean" channel. I do wish it had separate EQ controls for eack channel like the 5150II does, but I think it sounds fine. I use this amp for gigging and recording and it has more than enough power to suit my needs. Perhaps even too much power, cuz it's a loud mother! Everyone else knows the other specs...4 6L6 power tubes, 5 12AX7 preamp tubes, blah blah. Oh yeah it cam with the two-button footswitch. Gotta love the footswitchable effects loop.

Wow! If you play heavy music and you're tired of the million Rectifier tones out there, this is THE amp to get. The lead channel is unbelievably saturated. It doesn't have that muddy low end like a Mesa Recto does, yet it sounds just as mean and aggressive. Great for lead or rhythm tones. The crunch channel is nice, but it is damn near impossible to get a "clean" sound out of this amp. If you want a Fender/Roland/Rivera clean out of this amp, you're not going to get it. I happen to like a little grit in my clean tones, so it works fine for me. I use the head with a matching Peavey 5150 4x12 slant cab and it sounds un-freakin-believable. I use a Schecter Scorpion baritone guitar tuned to B and I get the most massive palm-muted crunch I've ever heard out of a stock amp. The highest I eaver set the pre gain on the lead channel is 6 or maybe 7. I looked at every brand of amplifier before I found this gem. Mesa, Marshall, VHT, Rivera, you name it. The only ones ran with the 5150 were the Mesa Dual Rectifier and the VHT Pitbull UL, but both of those were WAY more expensive and a little more "generic" sounding. I also considered the 5150II, but I found this gem used for nearly half the price. The only thing is that the amp is a bit noisy especially with the volume cranked and with passive pickups. A good noise suppressor like a Boss NS-2 or a Rocktron Hush unit would be a good idea. This is also not an amp for apartment jamming. It is 120 watts of tube power and it doesn't sound great with the post gain on 1.

I haven't had it long but it seems solid enough. It's lasted nearly ten years already, so I'm not worried about it. The only snag I had was the plastic footswitch was broken when I had it shipped, (Goddamn monkeys at UPS!) but that is the shipper's fault, not Peavey's. You could probably fire a .44 mag slug at it and it would still work.

I've never dealt with Peavey and I hope I never have to. It wouldn't do me any good since I bought it used any way.

I've been playing for over 8 years and I've owned a plethora of gear (Marshalls, Crates, etc.) and this is truly the best amp I've ever owned. I LOVE the sounds this amp makes and I hope it lasts as long as I do. The only thing I wish it had was a power selector switch to cut it down to 60 watts like the combo because sometimes 120 watts is just too much. Independant EQ's would be nice, but I'm not complaining. This is a great amp.

great amp... no frills, no BS.. straight up, 2 channels of tone heaven, easy to manipulate, overall great sound. switchable ohms, making it versatile, effects loops, 2 inputs, and looks killer.

i use a PRS standard 22, and a gibson SG... both compliment the amp very well, and i am extremely happy with the sound!!

i have taken this thing on the road for 3 years now, and have NEVER had a problem.

never needed it!

i will continue to use this amp... it rocks, and is very durable and road worthy.... my ONLY complaint is that the power supply is hard wired in.... if it ever breaks, i will have to resoder the thing... other than that, it kicks ass.

How many channels: Clean EQ w Cruch / Distortion Lead
Does it have channel switching: Yes
Effects loops: Yes
Headphone jack: hahaha no
What features do you wish it had: Reverb, I bought a BOSS Digital Reverb Unit
Why?: Where not all Eddie!!
Are there features you never use: Use them all.

What guitar and pickup styles are you using it with:
1) Gibson SG, The greatest riffing combination, always get compliments for my sound.
2) Samick, The Peavy 5150II Hates this guitar.
3) Wolfgang Standard w Stoptail, What can I say. Beautiful, Powerful, Controlled Rock n Roll
How does it suit your music style (and what is that style): I play basically Heavy Rock though a lot of our songs are slow mellow numbers and although the amp is a killer rock amp it was the impressive clean tone that sold me.
What kind of sounds can the amp make? How much variety: Great range of choices, as long as your main goal at the end of the day is to play Rock numbers. Not a blues anmp, not a jazz amp.

Can you depend on it: YES!!! Peavy are the most bullet proof peices of equipment on the market.
Would you use it on a gig without a backup: Yes!!. Thank god too, because I can't afford two of these things.

There is a Peavy Warehouse here in Australia so I am very happy with that. Although,I have never required their servies.

How long have you been playing: 15+ Years
If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else: Hunt the mutherfucker that did it down!!! I'd definatley buy this amp again. In my opinion this amp represents the flagship of the modern Rock amp. Marshall has for a long time not become the sell out of quality and it's refreshing to see companies such as Peavy attempt to bring not only a fresh ear to the sounds but also a greater commitment to the quality of the product produced.

Anything you wish it had: Sorry Eddie, but the rest of the world needs reverb. -1 mark. The resonance makes up for a lot.


Anything else you'd like to share: This amp is it!! Look no further..because there's nothing there!!

not sure
yes-heavy to classic rock
2 ch. yes,yes
wish it had reverb...sometimes
plenty of power....i love this amp

amp gets a little noise on lead ch. but not bad
clean is clean on the clean ch..
more distortion than you will ever use on lead ch.

has not failed me yet.......

peavey has a good web site with manuals ect.

30yrs
gibson les paul 84`
fender strat 83`
martin
vox spitfire
went to buy a marshall,bought a 5150.

120 watt all tube head..shared 3 band EQ..really 5 when you count the resonance and presence controls...2001 model 2 channel...both really are distortion channels the rythym being much bassier and the lead having a slight gain boost...wish it was a 3 channel head for a decent clean but if you want a real head for metal you cant beat it for the price...plenty of power and gain for me..no reverb though..versatile if you play metal

ive heard about the noise from this head but my head is really quiet no real problems..some crackling once in a while..what you would expect from tubes.....not much for clean sounds but i didnt buy the amp for that...its a no frills killer high gain head and VERY loud...unlike older tube amps it does sound good at lower volumes...had a very bright tone..doesnt do the scooped metal sound...more for very clean articulate lead playing

looks like it built like a tank..other than tubes i dont think there will be a problem..and there is a 5 year warranty

never dealt with them....

perfect for what im currently playing 80s shred metal...im using the 5150 head a carvin 4/12 and ESP guitars with boss efffects and everything works well together...i would definetly buy it again..cant beat the price...the dealer i bought it from is a crook though and would recomend no one ever buy from this guy Yancey music of daytona Florida..........

120 watt dual channel head,fx loop (footswitchable),crunch button in clean channel,pretty basic,really.i wish i knew the 5150ii was coming out before i bought this!the shared e.q between the two channels is fine,but means you have to make a bit of a compromise.however,it is an ideal amp for me;i simply wanted a straight up rock and roll amp with no wanky frills that just make life difficult.

i use a 76 tele,a 91 les paul standard ,a flying v and a gordon smith slimline. all of these guitars are completley different to each other in terms of pickups and buid,so im able to get slightly varied sounds from each one.i use a sansamp preamp and an skb pedal board through the fx loop with a boss flanger,a danelectro phaser,a d.o.d analogue delay and a wah. despite a small decrease in volume when the fx loop is activated,the pedals i use sound really warm and crisp in conjunction with the pre amp.the clean channel on the amp is just what i was looking for,as i like the sound to be sensitive to my picking chops;it rings nicely when strummed and delivers a mild overdrive when attacked.nothing like a matchless or a fender(shimmering strummy wank),it has huge bass that really fills the sound if you are a single guitarist in a band.As for the lead channel,i was gobsmacked at the sheer volume the amp delivers;the guitar doesnt feed back even at high volume(probably more to do with the pick ups that the actual amp)until i chop at a chord and the rest of my band members shit themselves!!! SERIOUS power,huge sustain and a gorgeous tone; when driven it is ideal for metal guitarists,somewhere between the sound of early machine head and taproot if reference is required.it could do with a little more harmonic clarity, but i found the problem near solved if i simply turn up the treble and presence and back off the tone controls on my guitar. in short,no complaints really.its an amp that puts a huge evil grin on your face when you reall push it....

so far ive had no problems with it,but it is only a year old.after phoning my local peavey dealer,i was given helpful information on acheiving the best performance from the amp.i have used it at gigs of all sizes and it always delivered the goods without too much bother.

ive never had to ring peavey about a problem with the amp,but i was given good advice on maintenance and tone control,as well as having the reassurance that the amps warranty can be renewed for a small charge.

if it was stolen i would probably buy another one, perhaps after trying a vht or a boogie,but in comparison with the amp giants (boogie,vht,bognor,matchlessetc),the 5150 is up ther with the best in terms of the huge tones you can obtain,as well as possessing its own distinctive character. i would recommend it to a band with two guitarists that want to have identical set ups to each other;my band have done this,and the wall of sound that two of these amps driven together create is mind blowingly powerful;it sounds like a produced recording with multi-tracked guitar parts! really good.yes,im definetely content with it,especially since i paid half the retail price for it!!!! but even at the price tag its at now you will find it hard to come across an amp in this budget that performs so well.

you know the features

i use a les paul, randy rhoads V, and a jackson dinky. all my guitars have seymour duncan distortions in them and i must say they are a perfect match for the 5150 because i never have bad feedback.i do have the matching 5150 cab. im hooked up to an MXR 10 band eq. if i didnt have the eq i wouldnt be nearly as happy. the eq is a must for this amp. it sound a lot more crunchy with the eq. and i have an alesis nanoverb since the 5150 doesnt have any reverb. the nonoverb has chorus in it so that helps my clean channel sound better. my dstortion is sooooo brutal. this amp is exactly what ive been waiting for. wouldnt trade it for anything

the tubes in my head are about a year old (mesa boogies). never had a problem. i treat it with very much care. i think it is very dependable.

never had to deal with them and hopefully wont ever

this amp is exactly what ive been looking for. ive owned it for over a year now and i love it more and more every day. i think the 5150 is the lowest priced best amp ever!!!

Very straight forward design. 2 channel amp. Shared eq is a slight dissadvantage (the 5150II corrected that). Unlike many here, I'm VERY happy it came without reverb. Remote footswitch controls the channels and FX loop. It would be nice if the crunch button of the clean channel was also on the footswitch (in effect, it makes the 5150 act like a 3 channel amp). I believe this was also made available on the 5150II. The head lacks any type of light to indicate when the FX loop is on or off - something I cannot believe was overlooked. I wish it had come with a half power switch to cut the 120 watts down to 50 or 60.

I use my Les Paul or Explorer straight to the head with a few FX pedals in the loop. I use a Mesa 4x12 with v30's most often and sometimes a Randall 2x12 with no-name speakers.

One thing I did was pull two of the power tubes. It helped me to reduce some of the volume and get the power tube distortion working harder as apposed to straight pre-amp gain. The drawback was the the clean channel breaks up a little bit earlier. Not a big deal for me since I'm not after pristine clean tones. I run my gain around 4.5 and for most clubs, the master around 3 or 4. I adjust the eq per club and I couldn't be happier with the tone.

I get a slight volume drop off when the FX loop is engaged. To counter that, I use a boss GE7 eq pedal (set all flat with a slight boost to the highs) in the loop to bring the volume back up. I just need to check the setting before each show starts. Works great!

It hasn't let me down yet! Like any tube amp, some routine maintenance would be necessary. So far, it has started up each and everytime!

Never dealt with em.

The 5150 is certainly not the right choice for everybody. It will probably turn off those who need to use very clean tones. Guitarists who need multiple sounds will want to look at amps with 3 channels and multiple channel switching options like the Mesa Nomad 100 which I owned before my 5150.

But if you want a very simple "plug-n-play" amp without all of the confusing switches, channels and modes, you might want to check out the 5150 or 5150II. It happens to be the exact amp I've been looking for despite a couple of minor shortcomings.

you all know the features

Just borrowed the amp from a friend because my modden jcm800 broke down.The clean channel on this amp is bad , very bad , basically you just have one channel that's usable . The distorsion on this amp is quite rough . There are always wierd overtones when i palm mute , sounds kinda like you are scraping someting over a big rusty oil tank
It's kinda muddy , this amp has a lot of gain but it isn't usable past 4 ,I like to hear some dynamics in my playing , that's hard to do with this amp , it doesn't matter if you pick hard or soft , the tone stays the same .This amp doesn't have much variety ,but amps don't need variety , just a good clean and a great distorsion is fine for me , but the peavey is not something that has this things .
the clean is not usable and the distorsion is halfway decent, not good for thight ,fast speedmetal riffs , notes on the low strings are too much a blur ,
The volume knobs on this amp don't work like they should ,
on 3 the amp is loud enough to play with a drummer , the amp is at it's loudest at about 5 but . It doesn't get louder after that , it justs start to sound worse. Can't wait to have my Marshall back

amp has never been broken since my friend bought it

I'll give it a 5 , amp would be good if you are looking for a so called nu- metal sound ,where tone and distinguising of notes don't
matter and you just have a wall of blurring guitars

I believe my head was made around 95' or so. The head has two channels which share a set of tone controls as well as power amp controls. There's a bright switch and a crunch switch on the ryhthm channel. The diode driven effects loop is footswitchable. This amp has too much power for many gigs ,the guy that said it is weak must be using a cab with weak throwing speakers or had bad tubes because this head is way too loud. This amp (after a retubing and a couple modifications) is the best sounding amp for the money. I play a bunch of differently styles that can go from bluesy, clean, to heavy thick saturated distortion. The shared EQ sometimes forces you to compromise but the 5150 2 fixes that.Ok on my head i modified the crunch to have seperate pre and post controls(only cost me $20 in parts) i also made the crunch footswitchable(cost $1.50 in parts) and a bias control. I did the mods myself with the help of a tech so i can't say how much they would cost for a tech to do it but it certainly can be done.

I am using a Peavey wolfgang special and an 89' or so peavey falcon active guitar(killer guitar totally noiseless active singles). I use the amp in conjunction with a midi controller system and 2 rack tube preamps so whatever the 5150 lacks i just use the preamps to fulfill my needs. The head suites my style perfectly but i can see how others find it very limiting, especially in stock form. The preamp is noisy but that's only if you believe you should turn the lead pre up to 7 to get a heavy distortion. I never push the pre over 5 and i usually run it at 3 with very little noise. With stock tubes the EQ is not very responsive but after a retube (with JJ electronic tubes, www.eurotubes.com, these are some of the highest quality tubes and the guy that runs the business owns a 5150 and can answer all your questions regarding tone) the EQ makes a very very noticable change in tone. The amp doesn't do the metal scooped tone(which makes me sick) but if you add an external eq in the loop it is very easy to do. The clean in stock form is very lackluster and clips when the pregain is on 2 or so, this is because the power tubes aren't getting the right amount of current which leads to cross over distortion(very nasty clipping,especially on the rhythm channel, it also gives the lead channel a hard edge which some like). To fix this you should put a bias pot in, or get a tech to(around $40) and get a bias probe so you can set the bias yourself(go to www.alessandro-products.com around $100)I own a bias probe and it takes seconds to set the bias without fear of getting electrocuted or paying a tech to reset it. The amp is set around 18 ma's on my probe in stock form(this is with sovteks) to get the amp out of cross over distortion requires a setting of 35 ma's, With the JJ tubes i set them at 38ma's to warm it up a bit. With good tubes(I use JJ pre and pwr tubes) and the bias set, the clean on my head is phenominal one of the loudest warmest cleans i have heard in an amp. I can run any guitar with humbuckers with the pre on 4 and the post on 8 and there is very little breakup. This is way too loud for any gig but it is nice to know i have enough headroom if i need it. The lead gets smoothed out a bit from resetting the bias which for me is better but the distortion is still the same, very thick very heavy. The only thing that hinders the amount of different sounds you can achieve at 1 time is the fact that there is only 1 EQ but i am able to find a happy medium for both channels.

The amp never gave me a problem(although i have modified it a bit i am still confident it will last for years). The reason the 5150, or any tube amp for that matter, dies is usually because of tubes. If you use the amp heavily, say 12 hours a week every week, than you should replace the tubes atleast once a year. Preamp tubes can usually last 2 years but power tubes should be replaced every year. I strongly recommend you contact bob at eurotubes.com for all your tube needs he is #1 for customer service and his product is top of the line. Don't be fooled by salesmen that push Groove Tubes, did you know that Groove Tubes' top most expensive tubes are the same as eurotubes.com sells? And guess what? They are double the price for the same tube!

I love peavey they are very friendly and the techs really know about their amps. I've sent them a preamp in for repair and they basically only charged me for labor even though they replaced over $60 worth of parts!! The forum at peavey.com is the best place to find info about tube amps.

I've been playing about 5 years and now have a huge collection of gear and now plan on stop buying guitar gear since right now i am overly pleased with my setup. I own a small but very functionable rack setup which consists of a peavey midipro(8 channel switching jacks and 4 independent A/B boxes) peavey rockmaster preamp(Think ultra plus head in a 1 space rack with 5 effects loop killer preamp they usually go for $100) ADA mp-1(latest edition to my rack i have yet to really program it enough to find how versatile it is but it sounds good) and a Peavey addverb 3 effects processor. I definately buy another 5150 if it was ever lost or stolen but i'd modify it becuase i love the way it sounds the way i have it now, or i might even go for a 5150 2 and modify the lead channel back to the original 5150's specs. I love the tones this amp is capable of achieving with a little effort especially the clean, i don't hate anything about the amp but i do think the clean has way too much bass and too little treble compared to the lead but there might be a modification for that down the road. I have heard dual rect's live and they didn't impress me as far as tone(they suffer from lack of current going to the power tubes as well) but they are 2 different amps. I retubed a Crate Blue Voodoo head for a friend(with JJ tubes from eurotubes.com of course) and i set the bias so it has a nice warm tone to it but the distortion channel just sux. The clean channel is very good but other than that i'd have to sum my opinion of the head with a quote from a reviewer "it's more like an expensive nightlight". There is no perfect amp and i don't think there will ever be one amp that is considered the "Holy grail" but this is sure one hell of a good amp. I plan on using my setup for years to come because it has basically any tone i need. Never go by anyone's review of anything make sure you try anything before you buy it! I am favoring this amp because i like it but some really hate it so let your ears be the judge.

My Marshall JCM 900 recently died on me at a show, so I borrowed this head for 3 days to get through a big show. I play punk rock, and you wouldn't think it would be that tough to make me happy.. well this amp was even able to dissappoint. It's got 2 channels, 120 watts, and just barely had enough power for me. It's all tube.

Here's my complaint.. I played one show and one practice with this head, and my Peavey Firenza JX with an Invader in the bridge. I found the lead channel to be 100% unusable. As you can prolly guess, I sing and play, and this designates me to rhythm playing with solos here and there. The hiss was so loud on the lead channel that it sounded like a forest fire was coming out of my cab.. more like a furnace than an amp. The best sound I could manage was a rhytm sound out of the first channel, with the gain up, and the crunch switch out. It gave a good, clean, crunchy palm muted sound, but lacked a lot of power for chords. And sadly enough, it's just as loud as my Marshall, despite the 70 watt difference. There's not a lot of variety in this amp, so heres my warning. If you're a solid rhythm player, I suggest looking elsewhere, getting used to the hiss, or finding a way around it. Oh, and no clean channel to speak of.. so much for ska.

Peavey is my favourite guitar company.. they're the best at building quality gear. My guitars and Bandit amp could go through a tornado, and I wouldn't even worry about a scratch, let alone having to replace them. This head is just as well built at 90% of the Peavey line.. it's heavy as all hell, particleboard and steel, tough tolex, and not a corner cut on the whole design. It ran great for me.. and of the 5150 owners I know, they have never had a problem wth their amps.

Peavey is a great company to deal with, and they deserve a lot more respect than they get. AJ on the Peavey forum always answers every question thrown his way to the best of his ability. "hope this helps".. hehe And as for an authorized dealer, I do business with Elmore's music in Peoria, Il., and I have no reason to go elsewhere. (they have Marshall and Peavey.. two brands I play exclusively) Not sure how long the warranty is, but that doesn't matter unless you get a lemon.

I've been playing 6 years, and I own a Marshall JCM 900, Peavey Bandit 112, a Peavey T-60, Peavey Firenza JX, an will be the proud owner of a Wolfgang special stoptail and a JCM 2000DSL tommorrow. If I owned this amp, I would trade it, as I am my JCM900, towards a JCM 2000 DSL.. the palm muted sound on this amp (the 2000) is so tight and the sound so brutal that it leaves this 5150 amp in the dust. Just think of a 5150 if everything were done right.

I love the construction, easy to see design of the knobs, and the simplicity of it. I hate the loud hiss and how noisy this amp is when you're not hitting constant 16th notes on the lead channel. I do wish it had a footswitchable crunch, as I've heard many other people request. I'd also like to add that this amp is overrated for what it is.. I even played a Wolfgang through it (my dream guitar) and it still managed to hurt the sound of such a great guitar. Just because Eddie designed doesn't make it good.. just consider what you want an amp for. My main focus is rhythm, and I was dissappointed, though I could see a lead player falling in love with this amp.

I use a eVh wolfgang special and a les paul guitar's, and love the tone and crunch tha the peavey provides for soloing and clean blues tones. For seperate sounds I use a variety of Boss pedals for extra warmth. I do not use the effects loop because I've found that straight in provides the tru and accurate tones. Only one problem though, the huge humming noise from the crunch channel, cant fid the problem.

I have not had any problems with the head on any of the aprox. 30 gigs per year I play (x 5 years of owning the head), but always carry a spare set of groove tubes 6L6.

I deal with my local gear buff.

I have played for over 15 years using everything from Sun to Marshall, and are quite satisfied with the results and sound from the Peavey 5150. I do us my 2 Marshall 4x12 JCM 800 and 900 cabnets for the big sound.

2 channel (3 including the 'crunch' button on chan.1) Pre Out, FX Loop, 120w head.
Mucho grunto!

If your looking for an amp with a great clean channel, don't bother. This amp basically does one thing, pure valve distortion/overdrive. This is quite simply a balls out rock & roll amp that does one thing oh so very well.
I'll paraphrase the man (Eddie) himself commenting on watching an AC/DC gig from side stage.
"Well they basically just keep writing and playing the same song over and over......but what a great fucking song!"

I bought mine from the first shipment that landed in Australia all those years ago. This thing has toured all over the state, been in the back of a tour truck for 4 years, has taken numerous knocks and falls, has been in venues with dodgy power (brown outs/power surges), has had punters spill drinks into it, you name it............and it's never let me down once (touch wood).
All original, with all the original tubes.
I've owned Fenders (Super Reverb, Twins) and a Marshall (JTM) and during their time with me I replaced tubes on a regular basis (The Super Reverb in particular would go microphonic within 6-8 months)

Never needed it.

I'd be great if it had a good clean channel, but it doesn't, and I knew that before I got it, so big deal. If it were stolen or lost I wouldn't get another.........I'd get a 5150II !!! :-)

This head is a 95, and has been through hell and is still kickin!!!
My band (Partners in Crime) has done 4 CDs and 3 tours with this amp and i have only changed tubes once! and that was the day i bought it. (i slapped in some mesa boggie tubes) I was new then and it still sounds new! I use the head with a rocktron replifex in the loop so i can channel switch with presets. I do wish that the EQ was set up different. I would put a boost cut opion, say at 12 oclock is 0 and turning down would go from -1 to -10 and the opposet for the boost.
I have never had to turm my amp up past 4 it has tons of headroom.

I use several gtrs through this amp, a peavey tele, the wolfgang, a stock les paul and my own custom Ibanez with evolutions and a steve morse pickups, partnersincrime.net go to "guitar shop", this head is noisy but the smart gate on my rocktron takes care of that. the distortion is great i have it set at 6 and it is BIG! like i said the EQ could use a new touch to it.

I have had this amp for years and it has never messed up on me. i only have one amp on stage and that it no backup, i dont need it.

never had to contact anyone for service

Have 4 CDs out and have played over 200 gigs in the last few years with this baby, not to mention all the rehersals and sound checks and after party jams. i would buy this model again in a second.
i love most everything about this amp other than the EQ and maybe the weight of the bugger, its heavy to lug around. i wish it had better handles and maybe come in a rack version so i could stick it in one and wheel it around. Before i tryed out the 5150 i went though 2 marshals and a bogner as well as a parana/marshal pwr amp, but the 5150 takes them all to school!!

I have the original EVH 5150, the one with the block "EVH" letters on the front, instead of the signature. 2 channels, 1 EQ, EFX Loop, 120W all tube.

I currently play with an Ibanez JS100, with DiMarzio Evolutions. I now know that mixing extremely high output humbuckers with this amp is bad. WAY too much distortion. The clean channel is nothing special, but this amp really isn't designed to play clean. I wish it had separate EQs for each channel. It sounds great when it's really low or absolutely cranked up...the sounds from post gain settings from 0-1 suck. The tubes in this thing are awful and desperately need to be replaced...there's no way EVH uses the same tubes to get his tone.

Absolutely SUCKS. This amp is 5 years old, and it may already be dead. I was playing the other day and something blew out (not a tube, they all still work fine) and now I can't switch the Standby switch on...possibly the transformer blew. The warranty is a joke for an amp costing this much money (new). My $250 Fender Amp has a 5 year warranty and the one on this thing isn't over a year.

Warranty is terrible. When I tried to find a service center, the website listed a bunch of places that no longer service Peavey amps.

Well, if the amp still functioned, it'd be amazing. I will NEVER buy another Peavey product (except for 5150 4X12s)...anything that can't last 5 years is a disgrace, especially at this price. However, I will be hanging on to the 4X12 5150 cab...it sounds amazing with other amps.

I bought this amp off of Ebay. I had tried it out at Sam Ash in Westminster, CA (I live in Corona) and was blown away by the distortion on this amp--I've never played an amp that has the lead sounds jump out at you like this one does. Well, I took the money that I'd been saving up for a Marshall TSL 100 and bought one of these instead--boy, I'm glad I discovered this amp because it is perfect for me. 2 channels (lead, rhythm--no clean despite what others have tried to say), no reverb which is fine with me, shared eq for each channel which is also fine with me. I haven't used the effects loop yet (I've owned it for about two weeks). Has all of the features I need except clean sounds--I will be buying another amp for that, and a/b which is something I always wanted to do rather than have it all in one amp.

I currently use a Music Man Axis guitar but am saving up for a PRS or Gibson or both. The Music Man is a great guitar though. I won't use a guitar with single coils--I hate them very much. I play a cross between, oh I don't know, say Tool, Rage Against the Machine, 311, Offspring, and AFI. In other words, nice and heavy and very fast at times. The distortion on this amp is better, in my opinion, than a Mesa Boogie or a Marshall. The sustain is incredible, and like I said above, the sound when playing lead is better than anything I've ever heard. I use the rhythm channel with the gain all the way up (this channel has more gain than my last amp, a crappy Marshall Valvestate) and the sound is very bassy after setting the eq's the way I want them for the lead channel. I have the gain on the lead channel set to 6 out of 10 and it is as much as I think I can handle. So I have any awesome sound on the lead channel and I can switch to the other channel for a similar but bassier sound. That's how I use this amp. I love it, I love it, I love it!

I won't give this a rating because I haven't owned the amp very long, but I see no reason why it would be unreliable (except that it's a tube amp, subject to the same uncertainties any tube amp is subject to).

Have not dealt with Peavey.

I've been playing for about 3 and a half years. I'm in the process of forming a band and wanted a halfstack. I bought the cheapest amp I could find with decent distortion about 6 months ago--a Marshall Valvesate 100 watt head, and got a Crate 4x12 to go with it. It was alright but I said that as soon as I could afford it I would buy something better--I found something much better.
I give a "10" for "Fantastic Value" because that's exactly what this amp is. I doubt I will find another amp I like better for distortion--I've played Marshall JCM 2000's, the Crate Blue Voodoo, Mesa Rectifier amps, etc. I've owned a 15-watt Fender amp, a Crate solid-state 65-watt amp, two Marshall Valvestate amps, and for the last 6 months or so I've been trying out every amp I could and I've been reading about amps on Harmony-Central and wherever else I could--I settled on the Peavey 5150. It's really great. There's nothing I'd change about it. I would buy it again if necessary.

Two channels - clean - lead. One set of EQs for both channels.
For my use there isn't a lacking feature. Different music asks for different amps....

I use a Jackson Rhoads with an EMG-81 in the bridge.
I play all metal and rock. You will need effects to get a good clean sound. The gain (distortion) on the lead channel is ferocious.
You will not even hear a distortion pedal used on the lead channel.

I use a Digitech RP2000 plugged into the effects loop input. The RP2000 is my preamp. I have modeled every sound for every band I play. This is a very killer setup. The power that the 5150 puts out is deafening.

There's not much to say about sound. I can plug straight into the 5150 and sound like Dimebag. But I like to mold every single song to sound like the original - so a good modeler like the RP2000 changed life for me.
If you play sweet stuff this isn't your amp.
If you're a headbanger - this is it.

Never a problem in 7 years. It gets ripped at very high volumes regularly.

Never needed

I sold my Marshall for this and don't regret it at all. Anyone who wants to have some serious horsepower behind them will love this amp.

Two channels. Single three band EQ. Resonance. Presence. Pre/post gain for each channel.

I wish it had an EQ for each channel instead of a "universal" one. If you're like me, you set the clean EQ differently than the distorted sound. Having only one limits your options. Also, I wish the foot switch could control the "crnch" on the clean channel.

I use both a Jackson RR-1 with the stock Seymour Duncan TB-4 and SH2 pickups and a (surprise here) Gibson Lucille with dual AlNiCo 490s and the variotone swith which adds a lot of versatility. It absolutely SCREAMS with the Rhoads. I have not heard better with the RR, and that includes comparisons to the Marshall 900 and the Mesa. Those amps don't come close to the wicked tone you get with a hot guitar. I stress the need for a hot guitar because the BB King still sounds good but not as good as the Rhoads. I've also used my friend's Telecaster through the amp but wouldn't recommend it since Teles have those wimpy twangy and lipstick pickups.

The clean channel is alright, but it could be clearer in the extreme ranges. Here, the BB King sounds much better, but the Rhoads is passable. But I play hard rock with occasional softer parts, so the clean channel isn't nearly as important.

Bottom line: if you put a srong guitar into this amp, you'll get PHENOMINAL distortion.

This thing is built like a tank. Peavey overall I've found to be totally reliable.

I've never had a problem, thus I've never needed CS

I've been playing for about seven years and this amp is awesome for my uses. I would absolutely buy one of these things again. For the money, you cant beat it. I play it through a Marshall 1960 cab and it just blows away the competition through the same cab. If you play heavy music and nead something that screams, the 5150 is it.

Made in 96. everyone knows the features...ill go to sounds. I'm a simple person, this is a simple amp...nuff sed.

Using a 94 PRS CE 22 with a Duncan JB in the bridge, through a morley wah, Boss Chorus Ensemble, and a Danelectro 7 band EQ. My style is eclectic...i love metal (Ozzy, Zakk, Pantera, Randy Rhoads, Machine Head, Cradle of Filth...) and lots of other stuff like Punk (Social Distortion, Sex Pistols, Bad Religion) and softer stuff, Classical, etc. im a musician, i cant just stick to one thing. usually my setup on the amp is Pregain rhythm at 2 or so, bright in, Lead pre at 4, bass at 8, mids at 1.5, treble at 4, resonance at 3, presence at 9, my EQ pedal set with a 1.6k at almost full, all sliders left of it gradually going down, lowest set flat, two higest going down from 1.6. in other words, inverted V shape. with the amp set up like this, i definetely have my own, very heavy sound, but it does go in the vein of Zakk Wylde and Dimebag Darrell as well as Randy Rhoads. i can play old ozzy, really heavy metal, or just about anything. the clean channel could be better, but i use the chorus to tighten it up and make ti sound nicer. works wonders. i dont go through the effects loop though...i dont like it. for some reason it doesnt seem to work right (to my ears).
i stay around 4 on the lead gain because its about perfect...not too distorted, not too clean and as you push the volume on the post, the power tubes kick in and its beautiful. of course, i used to uset he pre on 6 or 7 and have recordings and it sounds nice...but i like pushing the power tubes a lot more now. but there still can be uses for all this gain (and there is way too much) it just lets me know that i can get totally saturated if need be, but i can also do many other things with it. also, this is run through a laney 4x12 cab with three celestion 75 watts and a peavey 80 watt speaker...cab at about 280 watts. someone said earlier that the peavey cab is 300 and that a marshall cab or anything else would distort and sound really trebly. not so...i have it sounding pretty trebly, but thats becasue i want it to. and it doesnt distort the cab and speakers. but it is loud. :) maybe the cab helps me get my own sound too...? :)

hasnt broken y et, been in a car accident and have not had a problem at gigs without a backup...cant afford a backup, and i would have one if i could afford it, but no problems yet. im not worried at all.

pretty good...havent really talked to them much, havent needed to, but they did respond to an email i sent once, really quickly too. of course, i could drive and visit them, theyre only 100 miles away from me in Meridian, MS :)

Ive been playing for 9 years, have owned crate and laney gear...the peavey has been more reliable and better sounding, and to all the people who say you can only sound like VH with a 5150, train your ears. i sound nothing at all like Eddie on this amp. it can sound like a Boogie, or a Marshall (kinda) but has its own distinct flavor...and yes it can sound like Eddie, but it can also sound like Dimebag or Zakk or Randy...you just have to play with it. the amp is perfect for me, it has the essentials, and ive added my favorite effects (not much) and i can say im happy. if i had the money id get another and another 4x12 so i could have a stereo setup...maybe ill go for a solid state 2x12 next though so i can have a great icy clean sound too...and have two channels on my 5150 set up with different sounding distortions. all in time...but that would be my ideal setup. as it is now, im happy, and have no intentions of leaving peaveys products...they are great, dependable, sound great, and help me acheive my own sound.

i got my used i traded a JCM 900 head for it.. because i needed more gain. its an older EVH model that i hear has a strong output transformer.. and let me tell you from experience with my JCM 900.. its NO FUN for one of those to go bad!

its a 2 channel amp with a crunch setting on the clean channel if you want some over drive. this thing is 120 watts and is LOUD.. i wish the lowest volume setting was dead quiet for when my parents are sleeping but what can ya do? the effects loops is a nice touch. all in all its fairly standard.

ok first off this distortion is BRUTAL but you can get just about any tone you desire. the chean channel is nice but i use a compressor to round it out some. the bottom end can get muddy so its a good idea tnot get so extreme with the settings. i use mine with a 4 12 marshall cab and a gibson sg. Machine Head use this amp so its very metal worthy.

id like to try out the 5150 2 because i head the bottom end is tighter. the resonance knob is great and can reall shape your sound. i use it with the gain full blast and a Boss SD-1 overdrive to give it even more of a crunch and fuzz.

my neighbor has a Mesa dua recto head and id say the 5150 is much better. when compared side by the side the 5150 has such a biting evil tone that the dual recto doesnt have. those amps sound really hollow and bassy to me and its really hard to flavor them with overdrive effects because its so tailored to play on its own.

i play big guitar style indie rock but love the sounds metal guitarists get. this amp is fuzzy but its so cool. i get such swirling tone from this thing. its a best all around amp and for the money you cant go wrong. i rate it a nine because i wish the bottom end was tighter, but other than that this amp is soooooooooo original and amazing sounding!

never has a problem

peavey are pretty cool. they even have techs on hand to assist you.

this amp is awesome. if it was stolen id upgrade to the 5150 2 but id seriously have to compare. ive been playing for about five years and this amp just rules all. i love the peavy fuzzyness it has.. great ass amp!

three channels, cleanish, not so clean, and distortion. only two of them are footswitchable. ( cleanish & dis. or "not so clean" & dis.) The clean channel is OK, the reason why its OK is because most of the time it distorts at high volumes. and also since there is only one EQ, you can't make it a pretty clean, its always (for me anyway) set so the dirty channel is better. and i think the distortion channel is awsome, i play metalcore, so i wanted a distortion that gives me awsome harmonics, easy tapping, and HUGE bottom end, deffenently one of the best, (set aside a Mesa duel and triple rec.)

i use my ibanez rg, with a seymour duncan distortion in the bridge. and my esp m-350 with an emg-81 and a emg-85.
sometimes it will make funny noises at random, espetialy when the pre-amp tubes are going. but most of the time the ground switch takes care of that. you can get prolly any kind of sound you want from it, metallica, zao, extol, living sacrifice, or whatever. from the easyer metallica sound to the awsomeness of zao.

i haven't had any real problems with the amp yet, i don't think i'm going to need a backup amp anytime soon, i think its worthy of touring.

never had to contact

i have been playing guitar for 5 years and if this amp was stolen or it blew up on me, i would prolly buy another one, (or save up for a mesa) i think this amp is better then any marshall, exept for the clean channel

You know the features

I put the 5150 side by side with a marshall JCM 900 super lead when I bought it 6 years ago and it blew it away. It was like comparing mono to stereo as far as being FULL and rich. It put the marshall to shame and was almost half the price. I played about 100 or more gigs with it and always had people coming up and asking me what I used, and they could not believe I pluged strait into the amp with no fx. My only bitch is the clean channel. so it get a 9

Over 100 gigs and never a problem. That says alot. I bet there are no mesa/boogie owners out there that can say that. Never used a backup

Never needed

The 5150 is a great amp and I don't care what any of these guys who think they know tone say. It has proved it to me. If you strapped on a MESA plate on it and told these guys it was a boogie they would all want one, then when they found out it was a peavey they would find something wrong with it because it's not a boogie man--or dude it's not a marshall. Shop for an amp with your ears not your eyes. I've been playing 15 years and played them all, this is the best bang for your buck. I think I know because I am not writing this review 2 weeks after I got it like most these people, rather 6 years after I got it with many gigs along the way. Trust your ears

FEATURES 4 6L6'S & 5 12AX7'S, WITH TWO CHANNELS SHARING ONE SET OF EQ KNOBS (TREBLE,MIDDLE&BASS) AND RESONANCE / PRESENCE CONTROLS. EACH CHANNEL HAS ITS OWN PREAMP / POST GAIN. EFFECTS LOOP AND PREAMP OUT ON THE BACK. ONE DIMENSIONAL BUT ONE OF THE BEST PREAMP SOUNDS AROUND.

I USE A WOLFGANG W/ A MAPLE TOP, MESA 1X12 CABS (3) & AN EVENTIDE HARMONIZER. I RUN A WET,DRY ,WET SET-UP FOR A HUGE STEREO SOUND W/ THE MIDDLE CABINET DRY. THE CLEAN SOUND IS VERY STERILE BUT THE OVERDRIVE AND DISTORTION SOUNDS ARE EXCELLENT. DO NOT USE THE EFFECTS LOOP FOR ANYTHING BUT A NOISE GATE/SUPPRESSOR. IF YOU ARE SMART AND WANT TO RUN STEREO OUT OF THE AMP, USE THE AMP FOR A DRY SIGNAL AND USE THE PREAMP OUT TO AN EFFECTS PROCESSOR IN AND OUT TO A TUBE STEREO POWER AMP LEFT/RIGHT. YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE A STEREO POWER AMP W/ 6L6'S SO IT HAS THE SAME CHARACTERISTICS AS THE 5150. THE STEREO SET-UP WILL ALLOW YOU TO USE THE 5150'S PREAMP AND RUN IT IN TRUE STEREO. PRETTY COOL IF YOU ASK ME.

VERY HEAVY AND RELIABLE. BUILT LIKE A TANK. I HAVE SEEN EVERYONE'S OPINION AND I HEARD FROM EDDIE'S OLD TECH THAT HE USED (4) 5881/ AMERICAN MADE 6L6'S AND (5) ECC83'S MIXED IN W/ AMERICAN MADE 12AX7'S. THE ECC83'S WERE PUT IN PIN V1 WHICH IS THE CLOSEST TO THE INPUT STAGE AND ONE IN PIN V5 NEXT TO THE POWER AMP TUBES

GREAT!!!!

PREAMP IS THE BEST!!!!
NOT VERSATILE THOUGH.

2 Channels, Rhythm and Lead. (Note, these are NOT Clean and Dirty. These are basically designed as Break-Up and Tapping. These are the two basic sounds Eddie was using at the time this amp was designed.)
The Rhythm channel has Bright and Crunch switches, Bright being a 6db boost at 2khz, and crunch being a 16db gain boost. It has a three bans equalizer that is shared between the channels, with Resonance and Presesnce controls. Presence boosts extreme highs, while Resonange raises the power amp's gain at the resonance frequency of your cabinet, how it's supposed to know what this frequency is, I have no idea. It also has a single level(low level, pedals)effects loop. It has foot switching on channels and effects loop.
Versatile enough for me, as a rhythm guitarist in an odd death metal band. I give it a six because a clean channel would have been nice, and there are 4 channel amps with built in effects out there. Modeling amp like Johnson have, like, 120 channels, so those are tens.

It's got an awesome sound, the Lead Channel's Preamp tubes are obviously run at maximum voltage, causing the buzzy-ness that is apparent the moment you plug into this thing. No, the equalizer doesn't do tons, but personally I'm against trying to force an amp to sound like something else. It's for the most part impossible to overcome the inherent voicing of an amp, unless you own a VTM, but that's another review.
I use an Ibanez RG something, was HSH, now HHH, I use a DiMarzio Super 3 in the bridge, and a Fast Track 2 in the middle, I will soon have a Super 2 in the neck.
By just switching pickups, I can cover all Carcass' album's tones, save Swansong, which I couldn't care less about. With a different pickup, say a Tone Zone, or something with an ash body, I could probably coax a halfways decent Mr Bungle tone from this thing, but right now, it's all Carcass, but even MORE saturated, with tons more sustain, almost too much sustain. I have to palm mute after strumming to get a decent fade out.
My basic settings for this thing are Lead: gain at 4.5-5, lows at 7 or so, mids about 2, highs on either side of 5, presence to fit the song, but never off, resonance about 6-7.5 depending.
Rhythm, which I use as a second lead channel, has both switches in, with the gain at about 5, sometimes more.
The rhythm channel's got alot more bass, and less buzz(not hum, lower voltage) than the lead channel.
This means I alomst have to use my bridge pickup on it.
This is a garbage in, garbage out amp. You NEED a good guitar with quality pickups, and quality cables to get anything good out of this. This thing sounds like fucking razor rash with stock Lbanez pickups. I find it sounds heavier with the mids up a bit, which says alot for it's distortion. I was noisy, very noisy, but I re-tubed it, I keep the shitty Chinese tubes for backup, I replaced them with 2(I run at half power, I don't want to KILL the neighbors) Groove Tubes 6l6S's and got rid of 90% of the noise, I'll re-tube the preamp when I get more money.
The ryhthm channel's mooshier than I like, but it's better than a suck tone distortion pedal (like the ultimate shit box, the MT-2). Might have it modded to max voltage some day. I love it, but it sounds very 'brown.' It was designed for Eddie after all. I hear people saying this thing needs a Sonic Maximiser in the loop. I feel that first of all, it shouldn't need this in the first place, and second I shouldn't have to sacrifice bypass of the cable runs on my Poly Chourus, which doesn't have true bypass either. That is why it gets a 7. A ten would be more balanced between channels, and have more natural presence.

I've heard nothing but good things about this, but I havn't owned it long enough to rate it.

I bought it used, but I found the manual on Peavey's website and got it for free.
I've had nothing but good experiences with Peavey's customer support.

I love it, it suits my playing style, but it does lack natural presence, and the rhythm channel makes me glad I still have my VTM 120.

Very little, but enough for 90% of guitar players. Could use a real equalizer. The one on the 5150 seems like it's more for decoration than anything. It doesn't hardly do anything.

With the matching 5150 4x12 cab, I use Gibson and Epi Les Pauls, and an Ibanez JSsomethingorother. I run them through a cheap DOD gate/loop, a Dunlop Crybaby wah, and most importantly...a Boss Metal Zone. I use the Metal Zone to overdrive the clean channel because, honestly, the lead channel distortion sucks to anybody who knows what sounds good (I think most of these posts are from people who work for Peavey). It sounds like I have my wah pedal on and tilted forward followed by the cheapest ass distortion pedal on the market...actually, on most amps that would sound better than the 5150's lead tone. Like the guy said below, it's unuseable. However, if you use a Metal Zone pedal on the rhythm channel, you get a rather evil, throaty, bloody meat sandwich distortion...right up my alley. And if you turn it up REALLY loud it REALLY kicks ass! Gut wrenching chunk! Without the pedal, the clean channel is fine for anybody that plays metal. Other than that, this amp sucks a big fat sloppy one.

I just bought it about 2 weeks ago and haven't had a chance to gig with it yet, but it seems sturdy enough.

I've been playing for about 13 years. I've owned a ton of stuff, too much to list here. Most recently, I purchased a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL half stack. I think I was more disappointed in that thing. What an overhyped, overpriced hunk of KEERAAP!! I returned it and purchased this other overhyped, lesser piece of crap. As you can tell, I'm rather disappointed in both Marshall and Peavey. I wish somebody would produce an amp head that sounded like the Crate GFX212 combo. I'd buy that sucker. I have yet to hear a head that puts out the sounds that that thing does (except my wife's :). Finally, my advice for anybody out there that's looking for an amp head with good distortion is: forget it! Find an amp that has a decent clean channel and buy a metal zone pedal. Any amp head with a truly awesome distortion is going to cost you a bundle! A good clean channel with a metal zone pedal is the best and cheapest alternative. Oh wait, another piece of advice, don't depend on these reviews before purchasing stuff. I'd say about 80 of the reviews of this amp are totally full of crap!

If this amp had reverb and separate EQ's for both channels, it would be the PERFECT amp.

I play metal, country, blues, and everything in between, and I found this amp is versitile enough for any style.
It sounds geat at any volume. Distortion is beefy with a Gibson SG. I usually use an Ibanez RG570 for clean and that sounds great too. Extremely clear sound on the clean channel when I use a single coil neck pickup. Whoever said this amp lacks tone doesn't know shit about guitar amps.

Very durable. I've had this amp for 3 years and used it under the most extreme conditions (snow, rain, sun). Never had to do as much as change a tube.

dunno never used it

I've compared the 5150 to sovtek, marshall, mesa, crate, fender and hi-watt. It can kick all their asses with one hand tied behind its back as far as sound and durability.