Peavey 6505 Head

2 Channels. Rythm and Lead. EQ, Resonance, Presence, FX loop. There is no clean, but if you want that, go for the 6505+ head. The only thing that lets this amp down is the flimsy footswitch. Actually, it would be nice to have an extra EQ channel for the lead channel,as it would be nice to add some more mid into solos, but thats nothing really to be honest.

Saying how this amp only has rythm and lead, thats not to say that it cant do other sounds. I mainly play metal and rock, and for that, this amp is amazing. but if you tweak, for instance turn the gain of the rythm pre-gain down to 2 / 3 and select the middle pickup settings there is a nice bluesy jazzy bite.

The gear i use are - Digitech Whammy, Crybaby Wah. My guitar is homebuilt with EMG 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck. For the music I play, this setup completey kills everything else. For cleaner sound i just lower the volume on the guitar, if I ever do need a full on clean sound, I would A/B this with something else.

This amp is a bloody tank!!!
I cant see it breaking down any time soon, I have only had the amp for a couple months, but it looks pretty dam solid, and weighs a ton!

Ive been playing guitar for 7 years now, and this is the amp for me. I spent a good 6-7 months trying out different amps, and for the price it is, this amp is the best in the market.. for me anyway. I had also tried out Kranks and Randalls, and although fantastic in their own right, the price put me off.

I think the only downsides to this amp is the fact that the footswitch is a bit cheap looking, and the lack of an extra EQ. Again, If i wanted clean, i would have went for the 6505+.

If this amp was stolen, I wouldnt need to buy a new one, the guy would be still trying to carry the thing down the road by the time i got back!! But if the worst of the worst happened, yes i would buy it again.

you should know the stats on this so im not gonna bother you with that stuff. its a very VERY loud amp with a effects loop and two button footswitch. i only gave it a five because it has only has 2 channels, the effects loop looses volume with long effect chains adn gettin a clean soun is hard as hell (but not impossible just try tweaking the knobs)

Right now my guitars i use are a wasshburn x12 with one seymour duncan'59 pickup in the brige a les paul standard (stock) and a fender strat(also stock) and the effect i use are ibanez boss and electroharmonix delays (each one has a different setting) a ibanez flanger and boss phaser and corus. and with that set up all i can say is THIS AMP IS FRIGGIN SWEET i have tried alot of different amps from marshalls and mesa to diezels and bogners. and i gotta say for the price none of those amps come close in terms of versitility and sound quallity. like i said above the clean is hard to get but not impossible and to tell you the truth once you find the setting your looking for your gonna love it. the distortion is about as brutal as you can only imagine i can get anything from a classic zep sound to foo fighters to tool, lamb of god, vanna, as i lay dying and of course you have to play your favorite van halen riffs. so you can pretty much any sound you want all you have to do is fuck with the knobs for a while.

sorry cant help here haven had it long enough to tell but it is built like a tank so i trust it so far

havent had to work with them yet so nothig here

overall this amp is the best amp out there below 2000 dollars in my opinion if it were stolen i would deffinately buy it again. so if you ever see one in you local music store give it a try you just might be as impressed as i was.

I bought this amp from Guitar Center wtihout a year and a footswitch.(which I did get) There are two channels, one EQ, master resonance, presence, volumes, and two inputs. The clean channel has a bright and crunh switch. (I leave the bright switch on for volume) 4 6L6's in the power amp and 5 12ax7's in the preamp. Effects loop and selectable speaker impendence. I always use the high gain input.

As everyone knows, this amp is made for metal. Peavey really sells you a crunch and a lead channel though.

The clean is ok. A chorus pedal really helps (Boss CH-1) and can boost the volume a little. Because there is so much ditortion, the clean channel gain has to be set at around 3 for a clean sound. This causes an unevenness in volumes. Whatever.

The lead channel is gorgeous. Note this now: YOU WILL NOT GET A SCOOPED SOUND FROM THIS AMP! It is very middy which gives its tone character. The bass response is awesome. It shakes your balls. Easy as that. Plenty of low-end chug and cutting leads. The EQ is very responsive, allowing for any tone except for scooped metal.

I purchased an MXR 6-band EQ to cut some mids and it does the job beautifully. THIS AMP IS ALSO EXTREMELY NOISY! A Boss NS-2 is all you need.

I have owned the amp since last April and have had no problems yet. Only been in my basement and never turned up past 4.

When I had to get my footswitch the lady on the phone was very nice helping me choose the right one. Other then that, nothing. Doesn't have a warranty, I bought it used.

I've been playing for a little over 3 years. I have an Epi LP custom and an Epi LP Special. They both have never let me down and are great guitars. The only thing I wish it has a was a cleaner clean channel with a separate EQ. But thats why they make the 6505+ I guess. I bought this amp as a relativley cheap solution for my need for gain, and was not let down. If it were stolen I would be heart-broken and pissed, and probably get another one unless I could find a Framus Cobra. Overall though, a very hard-rocking amp.

This AMP rocks! I used to get solid state amps and use pedals such as the metal muff to produce metal distortion, but this thing comes with enough distortion i need and because it's a tube amp it's tone is nice and thick, not thin like solid states. It has three channels clean, crunch, and lead and an eq. It has an effects loop too, which i use to put a little 6-band eq in. I used this amp in guitar center and i was blown away, it had the metalcore tone that i was looking for but also has good lead and solo sounds too. I love it, i find myself heading up to guitar center just to play it and as soon as i have enough money, it will be mine.

IT makes metal sounds and rock sounds with some tweaking. the distorion is brutal and can choke a donkey. The guitar sounded really good with a schecter hellraiser with emgs in it. I'm sure my guitar would sound good too (esp m400 w/emg actives). it suits my style perfectly which is metal /hard rock. It does make some noise but definitely not as much noise as my pedals those things are too loud.

It looks solid and sounds solid and tubes are nice and umphy. It looks like it will last as long as you don't drop it off a roof. I would probably gig w/out a backup, but that's because i can't afford another one right now.

never dealt with them.

I've been playin for three years and own a esp m400 and several effects like chorus, wah, and delay. I would be sad if it were stolen cuz i couldn't afford another one so i would prolly settle for something else. I love the gain but i hate the price, if it were cheaper i pick it up now! It has all i need.

Made in 2007, got it brand new from the store. I play metal, hardcore sometimes some indie/emo stuff, once in a while some blues. I think the amp is versatile enough for these styles, you can go from clean to crunch and there's more than enough gain. 2 Channels, shared equalizer works fine, bright and crunch switch in the first channel. Footswitch (made of plastic :-( included. Panels are rather simple to work with, that how i like it!

Like i mentioned the amp IS versatile, although there might be better amps for straight blues players oder indie/emo-heads. But the sound has got so much punch and clarity, the distortion doesn't get fuzzy oder muddy at all. I use the low gain input and there's enough gain for the parts i play in my metalcore/hardcore band. Sqeals come out easy. I'm still waiting for my BBE Sonic Stomp, but the amp on its own has, like i said, enough clarity, definition and punch. Somehow i think it likes the emg81s more than the 490Treble Gibson Pickups. But both work fine with this amp. Great Metal-Tone. I also use a ISP Decimator, so there's not to much noise, at least no hum, so hiss on palm muted, but this is easy to handle.

Never broke down, people say it won't. At the shows i am playing, there are always at least two or more peaveys, so if mine broke up, someone would help me out, i guess.

Been playing for 15 years or so, owned different gear through the years, i like gibson, engl, peavey... i think it has a little more punch than the engl fireball/powerball, but this also might depend on the cabinet one is using. i love the rather simple concept of this amp. But i still like the design of the 5150 much more, the central peavey logo on the front of the 6505 somehow sucks... but the sound is enough excuse for that, i guess.

I bought this February of 2006. I belive that Peavey had just released it. Since then the price has gone up so lckily(if that's what you call it) I bought it when I did.

The amp is NOT versatile, but anyone who is buying a 6505 should know that already. Metal, hardcore, anything that involves a lot of distortion. How much versatillity can you need?

It technically has two channels, but who are they kidding? It has two distortion channels. One that sounds like crap, and the lead channel which is LOUD! Has an effects loop. It never worked too well for me though.

Now my sound has changed so I am getting a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100.

I played shows with my band for over a year, inside, outside, out of state, everywhere and it had plen T of power. First of all, 120 tube watts is not even in the realm of necessary, but I was always heard.

This amp can make one sound, and one sound it does. High gain metal!

What is a clean channel?

I played an Ibanez sz320 with stock ibanez/seymour pickups in it. Very warm and brittle sounding. I never got a very strong, fat, piercing sound through it. Maybe a different guitar would help. It worked well for what I was doing. hXc.

It was super noisy!!! Had more hum and buzz than I thought was ever possible.
I got a noise supressor and it did wonders.

This thing is a tank! Never had any problems with it breaking down. Blew a fuse once, but about $1 later that problem was fixed. It is really heavy, and really sturdy.

None

I have been playing for about 3 years, playing shows for a little over a year now. My set up was an Ibanez sz320 through a Korg tuner, Boss NS2, and a BBE Mazimizer Stomp Box.

If you are thinking about buying this amp... Don't! Just ebay the 5150 and you can get one for around $350 and it will be the exact same thing only three times cheaper.

Musically I'm into everything but I usually play Metal to Jazz on this head. As far as its features, its got 2 channels(Rhythm, Lead) with the Pre Gain controls used as the gain and the Post controls used as the volumes for each channel.

120 watts (rms) into 16, 8, or 4 ohms (switchable)
Five 12AX7 preamp tubes and four 6L6GC power amp tubes
High and low gain inputs
2-channel preamp switchable on front panel or remote footswitch
Rhythm channel: pre-/post-gain, bright and crunch switches
Lead channel: pre-/post-gain
Channels share 3-band EQ
Presence and resonance controls
Switchable post-EQ effects loop
Preamp output
Footswitch included

This head is used for practice and band situations and has plenty of power and the only complaint I have with it is the sharing of the EQ for both channels. Although the settings I have for both channels isn't bad it would just be nice to have another set of EQ's for my clean sounds.

This amp can do light crunch sounds to PLENTY of gain saturated sounds and if you experiment with the Rhythm gain(I use this channel for clean sounds) you can get a nice clean sound out of it. I have my Rhythm gain set on 3 or 4 and it doesn't break up much at high volumes. So if you want some more break up just turn up the gain a bit. The Lead gain is great. Its one of those controls that is usefull all around...When I play heavy stuff I have the gain at 4 or 5 and thats plenty for me. You guys setting this thing at 10 must have a horrible sound. I don't think anyone should even need to go past 7 or 8, thats when the mud could come into play. If you want an amp with an incredible amount of crunch and gain this is for you. The amp bites so its not so useful for really scooped overdrive but I never liked that type of distortion anyways. Most the time I play through a Gibson Les Paul Studio with the stock custom shop pickups and I love the sound. I also play my Dean Hardtail with EMG 81 and 85's through it. Obviously if you stand next to the amp its gonna hiss but as long as you don't have the gain at 10(which you should never need) its not to much noise. Plugging strait into the amp with no effects when I first got it there wasn't alot of noise at all but my live set up I have 4 effects and my Digitech DigiDelay gives the amp all the noise.

It seems built really good but I have a head cases on its way right now regardless of how its built because I don't want to take any precautions with the tubes getting broke or cracked. Since its a tube amp I gig with Randall solid state for backup but so far it has never messed up on me.

Never really delt with the company.

I've been playing guitar for about 10 years now and I would certainly buy another head if it were stolen or lost. My buddy has a Marshall DSL50 which I like but I still like my Peavey. I chose this amp because they go cheap on Ebay and I wanted a tube head.

Pretty straight forward, inputs, preamp output, effects loop and EQ/volume/gain knobs, channel switches, a 'bright' and a 'crunch' switch for the rhythm channel. A reverb would have been nice, but probably not its style.

unbeleivable to me, everything is so crisp and clear yet powerfull. Its not syrupy at all, it's like it's throwing precision sound at me, no mud, nothing bad to speak of except you cant get a thick, fuzzy dark sound from it unless you color the tone with effects, the tone of this amp is very bright and snappy.

I've heard stories after stories about how this amp has handled the road and have met numerous people in the touring scene that swear by it, so it must be very reliable, I wont know for sure for about another 2-3 years, but i'm sure it deserves a ten - all that praise cant be for nothing.

Like the reliability rating, I've heard - but not experienced - that their customer service is incredible, someone I used to know called them to drop the wattage on his 5150 to 60 and they sat and walked him through it step by step - for a product well past its warranty + a service they don't even officialy offer. They have a great reputation, even though having never dealt with them, my mind is at ease if anything were to happen.

For just about anything metal or rock (especially metalcore, IMO), this amp is the best in a category all its own. Some argue that the krank revolution is beating it out, and surely theres a decent number of prestige and boutique amps that can nail it on afew categories but for $1,200 or so I don't think you can do any better and it's not at all a compromise. It is a bonafide professionals amp, the 5150 is a legend , don't forget that this is the same amp, but a different name and slightly different design (all tiny things, all of it "where" they printed "what" , like the logo.)

Style: Classic Hard Rock/Metal, Doom metal, heavy stoner rock

If you are reading this, I'm sure you are familiar with the features. 2 channels with shared EQ (not a problem for me)

Only thing I would add is reverb, but a pedal in the loop works just fine.

Use with a Gibson Explorer with medium output passives (Rio Grande BBQ/Texas. Digitech Bad Monkey slamming the front (set up as a clean boost) and an MXR 10-band EQ in the loop for extra shaping. I also use the Normal Gain input for more clarity.

I want to start off by listing the amps I've owned in the last 4 years:

Engl - Powerball, Fireball, Screamer, Thunder
Splawn Pro Mod
Marshall TSL and DSL (modded)
Mesa Boogie Single Recto and Road King
Peavey XXX

The 6505 absolutely sits on all of them. I never gave the 5150/6505 a chance because they just seemed to popular/generic to me. Boy, have I been missing out. It is the kind of dark and sinister gain that I have been looking for. I hear the 6505+ is much brighter and is lacking a little gain. The 6505 seems to be a little harder to record than the Engl amps, but sounds better in the room IMO. People say it is buzzy and sounds like crap at low volumes. Wrong again, I put a 5751 tube in the V1 pre-amp slot and most of the buzz disappeared. I'm sure the bias mod will make it even clearer and I plan on doing that down the road. But it roars at low volumes just as it is. And it just gets better as you turn it up. The clean could be better, but I don't play clean so it doesn't matter. Rhythm with gain around 4-6 (crunch engaged)gives me all the classic rock/early metal tones I need. And Lead with gain at 5 is brutal as hell and lets out some awesome harmonics/squeals. I wish I would have discovered the amp earlier.

The amp is pretty noisy at high gain settings, but nothing a good noise gate like an ISP Decimator can't fix.

If you like mid-scooped metal, this is probably not the amp for you. I turned the mids to "0" for kicks and it still sounded pretty "middy". The mids are raw and abrasive as hell without the EQ in the loop. I use the MXR to smooth them out a little bit.

IMO, it is important to use the lower gain input. It makes the amps EQ a little bit LESS responsive, but makes the tone much thicker and darker (which I like). I also think the amp gets along very well with Celestion GT-75's since they do not add any extra coloration to your mids.

Brand new and no problems yet !

If it were lost or stolen, I would QUICKLY find another one. I have been playing since 1985 and I think my days of tone searching are over.

120 Watt ALL TUBE (5 12AX7's, 4 6L6's).
LOUD LOUD LOUD!
2 Channels, with a bright and Crunch switch on the Rhythm Channel (Clean).
Comes with Footswitch for channel and effects loop.

This amp has enough power for ANYONE.

This amp was made for ROCK AND METAL.

I use dual Humbucker guitars equipt with EMG 81's, and EMG 707's on my Seven String.

This is the first time EVER that I have played an amp plugging straight in with NO EFFECTS! That's right, you don't need an overdrive/distortion/fuzz box in front of your amp to get the same pick attack/sustain. This amp takes care of that. Marshalls sound good, but they don't have HALF the dynamics of this head!

I play Progressive Metal (Dream Theater, Children of Bodom, etc.) and this amp is PERFECT. I plug straight in, and I have a Boss DD-3 Delay, MXR Phase 90 in the effects loop.

For Metal, you couldn't ask for anything more than this amp, Honestly.

A lot of Hardcore and Metal bands that tour accross the county and World use Peavey, so if it can handle constant touring at LOUD volumes, I'm sure it can handle your 2-3 times a week practice and occassional gig...

It's heavy, but built like a tank.

I haven't dealt with Peavey, but I have heard from others that they answer e-mails promptly, and are friendly over the phone.

I've been playing guitar for more than 5 years. I have owned 4 different Marshall Heads, went through Numerous Rack set-ups, I have tried Mesa Boogie Rectifiers, Road Kings, Soldano heads, and when I finally bought this amp, I decided that I will NEVER need anything else EVER again. This amp soudns soo good, you have to ehar it to believe it.

I love complicated rack set-ups (Just look at John Petrucci's rig!), BUT I have always loved the simplicity of a guitar plugged into an amp. Ever other amp I have ever owned, I have needed and overdrive pedal, or EQ, or a BBE Sonic Maximizer to tweak it to sound the way I liked, and EVEN THEN, I wasn't totally satisfied with the sound.

This is the first time EVER that I have LOVED my amp sound, and it's just the amp ALONE. EDDIE VAN HALEN Sure knows how to design an amp (For those of you who don't know, this amp is the current version of the 5150 II Head which he designed, but since he is no longer with Peavey, they released this head in 2005 to mark their 40 year anniversary, 6505= 1965-2005).


If you are still unsure about this amp, do yourself a favor and find your nearest Peavey dealer and go try it out. REMEMBER: Tube amps have to be played at a decent volume to get their true tone. This amp is VERY LOUD, but I think that playing this amp on 1 or 2 will give you a general idea of what it will sound like. I can play this thing on 1, and it sounds killer!

If it were stolen, I hunt down the person who took it, and make him buy me another, then beat the crap out of him (I know Judo), and then take back my original head so I could have 2!

So if my review still hasn't convinced you, just go try one out!

Check out my music at www.myspace.com/paulgabriel

New recordings are coming soon with the 6505 head!