Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

[Archer250]

I had the honor of trying a 50 watt one yesterday (if my wallet were bigger, I'd buy it on the spot and have the store send it to me via package), and what really struck me was how EVERYTHING I played sounded reasonably good. I plugged my JB/Jazz loaded RG into it and pretty much everything I could play cleanly sounded sweet as hell. The leads screamed and the rhythm had a piercing quality to it that I like.

But here's the kicker: even on the blue channel at low gain, there's already enough gain to hide any mistakes. Obviously, I haven't had enough time to test everything about it, so I must ask those who own such amps if they found it to be more forgiving than other tube amps.
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[Johtosotku]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

It's just you.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

It's just you.

Lol. I just feel like it's not revealing like what people say tube amps are.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

I couldn't agree less with the idea. Every tube amp I have ever played have added a richness, soft compression and bloom to playing that have an immediate effect of everything sounding "better". I think if you're going to take the training wheels off and really try to play as cleanly as you can and let the amp not cover it up, get a solid state high wattage beast like a jc120, twin chorus, etc. Turn off all time and modulation and leave the eq flat or with highs up. It'll hurt...a lot. Tube amp is cream in coffee, mayo on a sandwich...or something everyone can universally agree on culinarily.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

I think if you're going to take the training wheels off and really try to play as cleanly as you can and let the amp not cover it up, get a solid state high wattage beast like a jc120, twin chorus, etc. Turn off all time and modulation and leave the eq flat or with highs up.

Yeah, I practice on solid states with maxed highs... hmm.. a high wattage, huh? Sounds like a cool idea :deal:

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Lol for maximum hurt man!

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

There are amps that cover up mistakes (5150 with gain maxed out) and amps that have a more open voice that exposes sloppy players (splawn, friedman, even mesa mark series).

 

[Archer250]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Hmm interesting. I played on the blue channel with 8 o'clock gain, though.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Creating an amp to suit everyone is impossible. If the blue channel didn't start gaining up at 9:00, metal guys would accuse it of not delivering enough gain at 2:00. And visa versa.

Also, you've got to consider that it's the amp for Edward VH. Unless his sound is your sound, it may not be the perfect amp for you.

50 watters compress more at high volume too. When they also have high gain preamp sections, those types of amps play like butter. So, I understand what you mean by "cheating."
The opposite would be like a Hiwatt or something.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Creating an amp to suit everyone is impossible. If the blue channel didn't start gaining up at 9:00, metal guys would accuse it of not delivering enough gain at 2:00. And visa versa.

Also, you've got to consider that it's the amp for Edward VH. Unless his sound is your sound, it may not be the perfect amp for you.

50 watters compress more at high volume too. When they also have high gain preamp sections, those types of amps play like butter. So, I understand what you mean by "cheating."
The opposite would be like a Hiwatt or something.

Nah, the sound IS perfect; I just found it a bit masking...

 

[JeffB]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Yeah. Go play some NMV amps like 59/87, dr103, or a Bassman. They will give you the opposite experience. EDIT- Brain Lapse- DR103 is a MV amp, but still a very tough amp to play. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming without moronic oversights from me.

Hell, the Class5 really is a transparent playing amp. No hiding the slop with that one, unless you use a Fuzz or super heavy dirt box.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

I blame the advent of the master volume control for all of this kind of stuff. Guitar sound went to sh!t with the advent of that evil little knob.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

It's the compression that you like. Compression makes everything easier as far as playing which is why some use it for their clean tone as well. It's the same thing with pickups as well. Between the Custom8 and the L500 that replaced it the L500 is more demanding than the C8 was. Very dynamic and puts out only what you put in and leaves you no where to hide. I had to readjust my technique to accommodate and the same is true with amps.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

A little philosophical - but I don't like the idea of "covering up mistakes"

Just because it doesn't sound good clean doesn't mean it's bad. That's like saying if you watched an indy car driver going slow, you'd see all these micro-adjustments that don't get seen when going 200mph. So what? Driving down the street isn't driving at Indy. Why apply the same standards?

And I most certainly have heard crappy playing with distortion and delay. In fact, I can often play crappy with distortion and delay.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Gain doesn't really cover up mistakes. By the time it does, it's a pretty ridiculous amounts. I know quite a few clean only players who need more than a few minutes to adjust to the feel of gain. It doesn't feel any easier for them.

The dual rectifier is one of the most reactive amps I can think of which is why it's so panned. Tight in is tight out and anything less won't sound good but it starts and finishes with the player.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Gain doesn't really cover up mistakes. By the time it does, it's a pretty ridiculous amounts. I know quite a few clean only players who need more than a few minutes to adjust to the feel of gain. It doesn't feel any easier for them.

The dual rectifier is one of the most reactive amps I can think of which is why it's so panned. Tight in is tight out and anything less won't sound good but it starts and finishes with the player.

I think it does by a bit, though. Gain adds compression.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

Honestly, when you have too much gain to where you can't decipher what you're doing, then your tone and playing will sound like one big mistake anyway.

That being said, the 5150III is a fantastic amp no matter how you slice it. It's just perfect for just about anything, despite the fact that it has Edward's name all over it. It can be used for way more than Van Halen, and many guys use the same amp and half the time you can't even tell that it's his amp.

 

[9unslin9er]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

It only feels like cheating because you don't have to stick a bunch of pedals and cables in front of it to make it sound good.

You can still play like crap out of it.

I heard Satchel play out of his and it was unbelievable. It was humbling, knowing how good it could sound if you had the fingers to go along with it.

 

[Toe-Knee]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

I blame the advent of the master volume control for all of this kind of stuff. Guitar sound went to sh!t with the advent of that evil little knob.

THe SLO100 begs to differ.

 

[philthis]

Re: Is it just me or are the 5150 III the ultimate cheater's amp?

It only feels like cheating because you don't have to stick a bunch of pedals and cables in front of it to make it sound good.

You can still play like crap out of it.

I heard Satchel play out of his and it was unbelievable. It was humbling, knowing how good it could sound if you had the fingers to go along with it.

I have this amp and I love it. Why anyone would want to take a super expensive plexi or boutique amp out on crazy gigs or jam sessions is beyond me. I would save that stuff for home or the studio. I have the 50 watt head. For the money it's almost unbeatable. I don't like a whole bunch of pedals to get my distortion and with this amp I don't need them either. I love channel 2. It sounds like what I would have to do to a Marshall with several pedals to get this tone. Its already there with no pedals and I can make it more clip heavy or more gain heavy or both. If it breaks? Its not rare, its not hard to find parts for and its built solid enough to hold up well. Its got a crazy gain channel I use for solo's so again....no damn pedals to get the tone except what I want to add to the tone to enhance it. I dial in the resonence control on the back cuz not all my guitars have the same pickups so I can fine tune the tone I want no matter what guitar I am useing