Anyone here play the new 5150 Iconic 80 Watter?

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In the Riffs Gears and Bears video, he did a shootout with other versions of the 5150.

To my ears, it didn't have as much girth, they took out some of the low mid wool (padding). Whether you like this or not, its a matter of taste. I heard someone say its reminiscent of a DSL. They aren't going to release an $800 version of their $2500 amp with the same basic circuit, its been modded somehow. The question, is it worse or just different?

My opinion is that for the style of music the reviewer was playing (chug), both the PV and EVH 5150II sounded better. But overall I felt I any of them could sound roughly the same with adjustments and would happy with any of them. I wouldn't be surprised if they copped the DSL circuit or something similar. That being said, why not just buy a DSL?

https://youtu.be/QxNj2pE3Bkw


Curious if anyone has checked this out.
 
I tried the Iconic and own a DSL. Not the same to me. The DSL is all tube while the Iconic has a hybrid preamp. I thought the Iconic did the Dokken Tooth and Nail tones (Randall RG) very well.
 
Kyle Bull also has a very good comparison video/s.
The OGs have a lot more midrange content than the Iconic, but like Bog said just take it as it's own thing, like a slightly flatter/wider version.
 
CipherArcher said:
I tried the Iconic and own a DSL. Not the same to me. The DSL is all tube while the Iconic has a hybrid preamp. I thought the Iconic did the Dokken Tooth and Nail tones (Randall RG) very well.
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From the fender ws

"Designed by renowned amp engineer, James Brown, the 5150® Iconic® Series 80W Head is powered by four 6L6 power tubes and voiced by a complex, multi-stage hybrid preamp section anchored by a duet of ECC83 tubes providing all the fire power the modern guitarist needs in a simple to use format."

What does this even mean? Anchored by a duet of tubes? I know a high gain preamp can be built with two ax7 tubes, I have heard that each tube is actually two gain stages.

So is this a diode clipping preamp like a distortion pedal? If so, what are the tubes for? Clean gain?

And if a design has tubes in the preamp, what rationale is there for not making it a full tube preamp?

atm, my take is that it is probably a ss preamp, with tubes providing some ancillary function like effect loop.

I guess I would have to actually play it to see how responsive it feels, how much dynamic range there is, what the attack is like, etc.
 
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James Brown has answered a ton of questions about this on the sevenstring.org forums, but the short version:

The two ECC83 tubes are basically taking the place of what would be V2 and V3 in an ordinary high-gain head; they're the gain stages. As you probably know, ECC83s and 12AX7s are dual-triode tubes, so that comes out to a total of four gain stages, which is pretty standard for high-gain head designs. The input stage is solid state, but done with some trickery to help it take boosts more like how a tube amp does. The PI is also solid-state. No diode clipping; all of the distortion comes from those two tubes.
 
Just for the record, diodes don't provide "gain", they can be used for for "clipping", not the same thing. I'm 98.6% sure the Iconic is not using diodes for clipping, it is getting the first stage gain from SS, probably FETs, but could be an opamp, the tone shaping/clipping is from the tubes, then the PI is SS. If it sounds good, none of this bothers me. I haven't tried one, don't really need a big tube amp now, if I did and was shopping I might try it out. I may still check out a combo just for the giggles.
 
There were a lot of popular rack preamp units that only had 2 tubes; ADA MP1, Marshall JMP-1, etc. Plus, James produced some great sounding pedals @ Amptweaker before going to EVH. I think the hybrid preamp in the Iconic works well for the market it seems to be targeting.
 
I think it's intriguing if you wanted a brand new 5150 type amp and didn't want to spend much. But there are tons of Peavey 5150/6505s out there and even some EVH 5150 IIIs for less money on the used market.
 
devastone said:
If it sounds good, none of this bothers me.
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For what it's worth coming from someone who hasn't played an Iconic (and, as such, it's worth exactly nothing), my one real misgiving with this design is the SS PI. There's really no such thing as a "clean" phase inverter (even if not clipping, a phase inverter naturally creates an asymmetric waveform, since a common-cathode amp has a higher voltage than a common-grid amp), and that's probably the single biggest circuit that gives a tube amp its "feel"/"flavor". If James Brown worked some magic to duplicate that in an SS circuit -- which TBH might well be within his unmatched abilities in the area of high-gain amplification -- then it's probably an incredible amp. However, just with the knowledge I have of the amp and his work with Amptweaker, I'd rather see him go SS on the distortion stages and use a tube PI.
 
allbutromeo said:
There's currently 8 50W EVH 5150IIIs on reverb for the same price or less than the Iconic is retailing for, 7 6505/6505+, and a handful of Peavey 5150 heads.
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I think your search must be different than mine along with your numbers. The 50 watt EVH stuff is all over so those amps are moot as far as I am concerned and they are 50 watts as well. Anyway, my searching all over the place doesn't show the Peavey stuff being for less nor am I seeing "tons" of them.
 
Bogner said:
The "loudness" of a 50 vs. 100 isn't a huge difference. I will almost always take the 100 over the 50if given a choice.
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In the case of the 5150 III, that's a mistake IMO. The 100 is simply an inferior product (no depth knob, less useful presence knob sweep) for twice the price.
 
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