James Brown, designer of 5150 amp, talks about working with EVH

[Lewguitar]

Will definitely check it out, I've never owned a 5150 -I like the idea of a cold bias -it's interesting for some applications -but all of Eddies classic tones I know of were voltage starving the entire Marshall Plexi to create that condition right? so I guess there's a lot of merit to Brown's approach too -but I never really bought into 5150s enough to buy one... and most people playing them I knew when they were popular were in Hardcore and Metal bands and had so much extra gain on them that I just never got a clear evaluation of them -or at least what Eddie intended, and I've only recorded them a few times.

It's one classic amp I just don't have a lot of experience with to know enough of what I'm missing. I see you Youtube shootouts -and I never pick them as the best -but they usually rate well in my blind tests.

If you're talking about the Peavey 5150 even Ted Nugent used one. Not that he's a favorite guitarist of mine but he's not an especially high gain guy. Cranked Twin Reverbs is more his style.

Most players DO play with too much gain these days tho. Makes everyone sound more or less the same and robs them of their own personality I think. Just a lot of dweedily dweedily....

I really like the EVH 5150. Has great clean tones. Not just clean rock tones but great clean tones.

And the lead tones don't have to be super high gain to get that elastic, spongey, rubbery feel to them that I like. Kind of like an alnico 2 humbucker.

I'd like to have one although if I'm going to be realistic, I'm fixed for amps for life.

[NegativeEase]

If you're talking about the Peavey 5150 even Ted Nugent used one. Not that he's a favorite guitarist of mine but he's not an especially high gain guy. Cranked Twin Reverbs is more his style.

Most players DO play with too much gain these days tho. Makes everyone sound more or less the same and robs them of their own personality I think. Just a lot of dweedily dweedily....

I really like the EVH 5150. Has great clean tones. Not just clean rock tones but great clean tones.

And the lead tones don't have to be super high gain to get that elastic, spongey, rubbery feel to them that I like. Kind of like an alnico 2 humbucker.

I'd like to have one although if I'm going to be realistic, I'm fixed for amps for life.

Yeah, thats in keeping with my experience, it seems like the things 5150s were lauded for are not the things that most people I knew were using them for.

I think it was probably timing, with Mesa Triple rectos, JCM900s and even more gain being contemporary to the times -perhaps the 5150's best tonal spot was not taken advantage of enough.

I still can't say I've heard a bad one though.

[xotsa]

Oh, I'm a big fan of him. I even wanted to become a guitarist, but I was only losing money. Well, raising money has always been a challenge for me.

[esandes]

I had the first generation 5150 amp by peavey with the 6L6 tubes. How can I take this video seriously? It sounded nothing like early VH. What were they thinking?

[ErikH]

I had the first generation 5150 amp by peavey with the 6L6 tubes. How can I take this video seriously? It sounded nothing like early VH. What were they thinking?

I had a first gen 5150 as well. It's not what they were thinking, it's what Eddie wanted. HE approached them wanting someone to build an amp to give him that sound that would be affordable. Enter the 5150. They said that very early on. And it was the sound that Eddie wanted at that time.

[pittbull]

Early Van Halen = Marshall

[jeremy]

where id you hear that? i heard it was a fender champ in the bathroom

[GuitarStv]

where id you hear that? i heard it was a fender champ in the bathroom

Everyone knows it was a Metal Zone into a Roland JC-120 . . . played really quietly. The key is the quiet. People are always turning their amps up loud and ruining the tone.

[jeremy]

its really the time travel thats the tricky part with that

[devastone]

Hmmm, this explains the new Iconic 5150 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-brown-b8796315/

Didn't know he had sold Amptweaker and moved to Fender/EVH

https://evhgear.com/gear/amplifiers/head/5150-iconic-series-80w-head/2257400010

[ErikH]

Hmmm, this explains the new Iconic 5150 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-brown-b8796315/

Didn't know he had sold Amptweaker and moved to Fender/EVH

https://evhgear.com/gear/amplifiers/...ead/2257400010

I didn't know that either. Would be curious what his thoughts are on the 5150 III since he has most definitely been inside them to see what they are about now. That Iconic looks like it's gonna be a sweet amp. Very cool features.

[devastone]

Interestingly it only uses 2 12AX7 preamp tubes, so the preamp is definitely a SS/tube hybrid, probably has some Amptweaker SS type stuff going on too. I haven't tried one of those, but I hear they are great in front of a clean amp or into a power amp.

[JamesPaul]

Interestingly it only uses 2 12AX7 preamp tubes, so the preamp is definitely a SS/tube hybrid, probably has some Amptweaker SS type stuff going on too. I haven't tried one of those, but I hear they are great in front of a clean amp or into a power amp.

Back in the Peavey days, there was a lot of tone shaping which kept reducing the gain. I think one reason they had so many 12AX7 preamp tubes was to bring the gain back up.

Do you know if the phase inverter is tube or SS in this incarnation?

[devastone]

I don't know anything more than the website says. I would guess the PI is SS, but take that with a grain of salt.

Yeah, he talks about adding tubes in the link, but it is 3.5 hours, I was listening to it at work, every once in a while I was say "what?" (or "WAT?") and have to back up.

[ErikH]

In most cases, the PI is half of the last 12AX7, in this case V2, and the first half would be the recovery stage of the tone stack. V1 is usually the input gain and tone shaping pre tone stack. But, there could be some different design tricks in there.

I'm really curious about this one.