6505 20W Mini Heads...

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Who's got some experience with this fella right here? I think I just bought one inadvertently, just looking for some general feedback on it? I'm going to be running it through my V-30 loaded 2X12 to start with. Anyway, the good, the bad, & the ugly, all comments are more than welcome!!! Thanks a bunch!!!
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

I have one on the way, it will still be a few days before it arrives. I've played out of the larger 6505's before & it was great! I'm just wondering how these compare to their big brothers?
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

Long story short, a friend who borrowed one of my heads to record with broke it. He's got this on the way & no other way to repay me so he asked if I'd take it instead? I told him that I'd give it a shot but couldn't promise I'd like it? Can anyone comment on the clean CH???
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

I own one: it has fantastic sound for Satriani's kind of playing, great little high-gain little amp, it is very loud indeed.
Also the clean channel can be cranked up sickly high and it has great distorted, yet very clear sound.

Technically, it seems to have some little issues that allegedly should be solved quite soon by Peavey.
I don't regret that I've bought mine, although I'll send it into the service these days to be checked.
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

What amp got broken?? I look forward to your review!! Im anxious to hear more...
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

The broken amp was a 15W VOX Night Train G1. If it can be fixed it's going to be on him to get it done? He dropped it somehow & now the P.C.B. has a crack in it and on top of that every tube except V1 broke in it's socket so there's a $#it ton of glass rattling around inside of it and I'd be very surprised if the sockets are all still functioning...

They might be alright, but even if the tube sockets are okay, he's still going to have to put way more into it than its worth I.M.H.O.? If you think about it, by the time he pays for the new board, new tubes, shipping it, the service, and return shipping he could probably buy two slightly used G1 heads for less?

The 6505 M.H. will arrive sometime Monday morning & I can't wait to give you a review! I would have, & definitely should have, had it last week but Proaudiostar SUCKS!!! Seriously, I would never give them a dime & I wish I'd known he was ordering from them so I could have warned him! I've bought one item from them in the past & that was more than enough to turn me away forever!!! The 6505 M.H. was paid for the Thursday before last!!!

So they had the money for a complete week and they didn't actually get it out the door until last night!!! Almost the exact same story with my Marshall DSL (my one item) it was a new amp, not B-stock or Open Box? It still took almost two weeks to get here & it was broken upon arrival so I had to send it back for a replacement, that took another two weeks!!! This place is exactly 383.7 miles away, I could walk there in two weeks!!! The return process was awful too, they wouldn't send me a prepaid label, just a R.A. so I paid to return it. Still waiting for my $68 return shipping refund they said I'd get once they received it, 6 months later....


FAH-Q Scammers from Crookland NYC....
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

One mans junk is another man's treasure if the transformers are OK toss the PCB, take the rest to a local tech and get him to put some nice valves and some handwired loveliness on a turret board in there. and charge your friend for the privilege
A matchless lightning or marshall 1974X has suprisingly few components.

If you dont like the 6505 of course
 
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Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

Im sorry you had that.. I bought my Tak 12 from them. Was going to return it just cuz I wasnt happy with it. (needed truss tweaks) they hooked me up with a label and all quick. But I ended up keeping it..

look forward to the review...
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

Long story short, a friend who borrowed one of my heads to record with broke it. He's got this on the way & no other way to repay me so he asked if I'd take it instead? I told him that I'd give it a shot but couldn't promise I'd like it? Can anyone comment on the clean CH???

and what have we learned.? dont let friends/family borrow ****,BECAUSE no one takes care of your gear better than you..


being serious.. if someone wants to borrow anything from me..pffft. never going to happen... and ill need collateral if i do consider it

yep got burned a few times
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

and what have we learned.? dont let friends/family borrow ****,BECAUSE no one takes care of your gear better than you..


being serious.. if someone wants to borrow anything from me..pffft. never going to happen... and ill need collateral if i do consider it

yep got burned a few times

Oh, he wouldn't burn me??? We've been friends a very long time, since grade school I think? Not only is he the godfather of my son and one of my closest friends, I'm the godfather of his daughter and I was the best man at his wedding! I'd give him a kidney if he needed one....

Honestly if he called & asked to borrow another amp or guitar tomorrow I wouldn't hesitate to give it to him, I know if anything were to happen he would do everything he could to fix or replace it as soon as he possible. When he first told me about the accident he offered to go pawn a bunch of his other gear that day just to get the money to buy a replacement. I told him that was stupid because he would be lucky to get a 1/4 of the actual value of those items & it's not like it was my only amp, so I could wait for a bit. I actually hadn't touched the NT50 in months when he took it so I've hardly missed it?

The damage to the head was a accident plain and simple, it sucks but we can't turn back the clock & I'm not going to let a stupid piece of equipment ruin a 25 year friendship? Plus, he's let me borrow some pretty great stuff over the years too, having that kind of back & forth relationship has been quite beneficial for us both over the years I'd imagine? Between him & I we have a massive amount of gear to work with so sharing isn't just beneficial, it just makes sense!!!

Actually, I used his P.A. (something I need periodically but not enough to actually buy one) the last time I played out & I've got his P-90 loaded L.P. sitting in my bedroom right now. He's also got a pretty nice little studio in his basement hat I can record in whenever I want, & for free!!! Since playing out has become much harder for me in the past few years being able to go over there and use whatever I want whenever I want is absolutely great!!!

Lol, as to the comment about nobody taking better care of your gear than you, this man is the exception to the rule! He's probably the most patient, careful person I know! Literally to the point where it's irritating sometimes!!! I mean $#it happens, I'll give the 6505 a shot & if I don't think its something I'm going to like then we'll return it & find something else? I'm just trying to avoid making him pay the return shipping and restock fees? He said that he doesn't mind but all totaled its probably about $100 or more down the hole for no reason....
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

I don't own one but I've played one a few times trying to find a lower watt head or combo amp.
it's a dark sounding amp. It has a very good OD channel that can take you into Full on metal assault. Not very good at Classic rock as it has a bite to it that is not present in classic rock tones.
Now the clean channel can get you into Classic rock, it basically starts out there. It has tube break up very early and really doesn't have a "Clean Channel". It's more like a light crunch channel and a Metal channel amp. If you look at the amp names of it's channels, it's rhythm and Lead which is exactly right.
Overall for what it's designed to do it does very well. I think if your a classic rock metal guy your gonna love this head. It sound basically exactly like it's big brother without all the head room. I played it a few times and almost purchased it because I found some good tones for some of the stuff I do. But the clean channel for me is the deal breaker. I'm so use to having a fender like clean that anything else that doesn't measure up I'm not really interested in.
I do however know a few people who own them and like the clean channel. So honestly clean channels like any channel is a very personal taste. But if your looking for a Vox or Fender like clean, this is not the amp for you.
 
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I've got a A/B box and both of these guys have great cleans & a fair amount of headroom. I think using the TSA15 with a reverb pedal running through the loop for cleans & the 6505 for high gain dirt via a A/B switch should make a pretty mean setup? I actually do the exact same thing with my Marshall and the pictured 72 Bandmaster all the time, they're just a little bit over the top for my living room!!!

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Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

...It has tube break up very early and really doesn't have a "Clean Channel". It's more like a light crunch channel and a Metal channel amp...

Being myself an owner of a 20 Classic MH, I must disagree here: it depends very much on the tubes/valves used here. It is also not really a dark sounding amp, rather warm- but not dark. The JJ tubes are by far worse sounding than any nice old stock tubes I tried in this little fellow. JJ are also really muddy, maybe therefore your impression of dark sounding?
Mine was also out-of-store way too hot biased by Peavey so that could also could have reduced the headroom...

For metal players 6505 is shurely a better choice. With Classic 20 MH one should use one or another pedal to let it "sing" properly, as it isn't a metal amp, despite quite a lot od distortion of the lead channel.
 
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Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

So I got the head yesterday and I've got to say I'm definitely impressed!!! It's quite a versatile amplifier & very user friendly!! It's loaded with features and better yet features that are actually things that are there for a reason, not just as a gimmick? I probably don't have to get into all that too much as I'm sure most of you are familiar with them? The speaker defeat is especially fun, it's not often you can play an all tube amp @ 3:00 am in the morning through headphones and not pi$$ anyone else in my house off!!!

The 6505 mh is very easy to use & it doesn't really seem to matter how the EQ is set, just adjust the presence & resonance & it sounds great! Personally I like the rhythm CH more than the lead but in all fairness it does have more gain with the crunch button engaged on clean than my Marshall does on lead!!! Probably my favorite thing about it is how the notes ring out & sustain. It's almost like pinch harmonics without actually pinching the string? You can definitely find that EVH influence in it very quickly!!! All & all I'm very happy with it & I think it's going to be around for quite some time!!!
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

VERY Cool to hear!!! Id LOVE to get a "real" amp with headphone capability as that is mostly how I play.. And yeah the thing has some other good features that all seem usable. My only concern was how close it actually sounds to the reg one.. as discussed in some other threads, I normally dont like EL84 amps as well and normally dont find that when a company tries to make an amp that sounds similar to an amp that normally has big bottles and they use EL 84s, they often differ quite a bit. Never understood why they dont just use one of whatever big tube is in the big one..??

Also REAL interested to hear some real reviews of the Pirahna!!

How you like the TSA15? was real curious about those when they came out
 
Re: 6505 20W Mini Heads...

Never understood why they dont just use one of whatever big tube is in the big one..??

To use one output tube would mean running it in pure class A, so it would sound the same as the bigger version running in A/B. I'd love to see more 6V6 lunchbox heads!
 
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