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

Lewguitar

Lewguitar

New member
I posted this yesterday and it got hijacked by an angry forum member so I deleted it.

But it's a very long, very detailed interview with James Brown, the designer of EVH and 5150 amps, and Dave Friedman.

A lot of info that'll go beyond the needs of most members here but if you're an amp tech or an "I want to know everything about Eddie" kind of fan give it a watch.

They talk about designing the 5150, the best 6L6 & EL34 tubes, the best caps, the best speakers, even guitar cords and how they affect the tone.

For example, Eric Johnson likes George L cords and says he can hear a difference between George L's and conventional guitar cords..

So can I. As it turns out, so could Eddie.

And when James had the 5150 prototype just about finished Eddie started using George L cables and James had to make changes to the 5150 to warm it up.

Like I said it's LONG. You might want to skip around, watch for a bit and then skip ahead and around some more.

 
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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.
 
JOLLY said:
This is great. I'll have to watch it over about a three day period.
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Yeah! I was hoping you'd watch a little of it. You're kind of a "I want to know everything there is to know about Eddie" sort of guy.

I don't play in his style at all, but I'm a huge fan, and think Eddie is the most influential guitarist of the last 40 years.

He was a natural and his playing is uplifting and always makes me smile.
 
Lewguitar said:
Yeah! I was hoping you'd watch a little of it. You're kind of a "I want to know everything there is to know about Eddie" sort of guy.

I don't play in his style at all, but I'm a huge fan, and think Eddie is the most influential guitarist of the last 40 years.

He was a natural and his playing is uplifting and always makes me smile.
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Hope you're doing great buddy....Eddie was phenomenal.First time I heard Running With The Devil I was like WTH? LOL....A few folks really got to me when they passed...Lennon,Neil Peart and now EVH....
 
I watched all of it, and it was great. I wish I just had 10% of the knowledge that James Brown and Dave Friedman have about amps and electronics. Those guys have forgotten more than I'll ever know. Thanks for sharing!!
 
JOLLY said:
I watched all of it, and it was great. I wish I just had 10% of the knowledge that James Brown and Dave Friedman have about amps and electronics. Those guys have forgotten more than I'll ever know. Thanks for sharing!!
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Yay! :beerchug:
 
That was a great watch. The guitarist on the other side of the rehearsal room has a 5150 half-stack. Now I am wanting to plug into it. Of course with his permission, and him in the room.
 
Bookmarked. I'll have to watch this over a few days. Used to own a first gen 5150 head. What a killer amp. Wish I still had it. My back says "no you don't" LOL. That think was a boat anchor!
 
Lewguitar said:
Was it a combo amp?
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No, it was the head. It could anchor a nice fishing boat. The combo on the other hand could anchor a yacht!!! LMAO!!!

The TONE though, wow. It was a killer amp. The resonance knob on the power amp was a first for me and I gotta say, a very nice feature. While the presence would add in some additional top end and openness, the resonance control would fill in the rest. You could make a good 4x12 sound like a wall just by dialing those knobs in to the sweet spot in the room.
 
AC30 como amps are like that too. Just too heavy. So I use a Two 12" Matchless speaker cab with Celestion Silver alnicos and an AC30HWHD head so I don't get mad just moving the thing!

I'm thinking I'm going to turn my Blackstar Artist 30 into a head and speaker cab too. I'll use the original cabinet as a speaker cab and build a wooden cab for the amp chassis. It's just too heavy as is!
 
Have been watching quite a bit of Marc's videos and they are great. Watched the Egnater one earlier and the Matchless guy too...Great stuff.
 
NegativeEase said:
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.
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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.
 
Lewguitar said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
esandes said:
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?
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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.
 
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