Re: Peavey 6505 or XXX Head?
The store let me borrow a 6505+ so I have both amps right now and I am going back and forth, comparing them at super-loud volumes, which I can't do in the store. In my studio I can play as loud and as long as I want. I have a 25-foot ceiling and everything sounds huge.
I started with all knobs of both amps on 5, pointing straight up, before tweaking anything. Cleansed my palette by playing with every knob on 5 again before returning to the other amp for more comparison.
When cranked, these amps were equally loud. The 6505 gets louder "earlier" and puts out more lows.
Guitars used in this test (each tuned to standard dropped D) are:
- Wolfgang hardtail (w/ rosewood board, maple neck, basswood body w/ maple top, bright/edgy pickups)
- Warmoth soloist w/ original Floyd Rose (maple neck and board, alder body, warm/smooth pickups: Air Zone & Air Norton)
Cabinets used (both at same time):
- Genz-Benz G-Flex 4x12, 75w GB speakers - 8 ohms
- Mesa 2x12, Vintage 30 60w speakers - 8 ohms
Ran both amps at 4 ohms. For tubes I put JJ EL34s in the XXX, slightly over-biased. Big difference over the 6L6s that were in there, in the opposite way I thought would happen. Everything tightened up and cleaned up, partly due to, hey, new tubes. I was gonna put a gold-pin JJ in the V1 but I couldn't get the f**ker out. The stock one says Electro-Harmonix on it so I figured, eh, good enough. The stock 6505 preamp tubes are (right-to-left) 4 JJs, a Sovtek (betcha that's the one dedicated to the FX loop) and an Electro-Harmonix. I am not sure which is V1. My guess was the EH was, but maybe the EH is the one that's dedicated to channel one. Power tubes are Rubys.
FX loops were not compared. One pedal was used, a Boss phaser, in the front-end.
Condition: sober, focused, no one bugging me
Findings in no particular order.
XXX:
- more trebly overall, a little less pleasing sounding in general
- a bit more articulate, most noticeably with the proggy stuff
- crispier rhythms
- less lows
- more modern sounding
- Dimebag tone readily available if one wants
- FX loop levels act as a pseudo-half-power switch / power band thing. Don't need a half-power switch nor a variac.
- finicky EQ, but you don't have to re-adjust it as much after a change to volume settings
- not plug 'n' play, have to tweak all 3 channels
- channel two is the most plug 'n' play, and is the best and most versatile of the three XXX channels
- more complex clean sounds for jazz lines, and, able to get bent clean notes to moan when you shake them
- cleaner cleans
- strikes me as more of a studio tool, sounds more "quality" albeit trebly, not necessarily harsh
6505:
- a much warmer, smoother, less complex amp than the XXX, yet more pleasing sounding overall
- easier to dial in "punch", "bite" without getting too middy
- more lows, and the lows are more complex
- perceived as about 25% louder on most settings, I think due to the great low-end
- gets louder "earlier" -- the more these two amps are turned up, the less there is a volume difference
- when the volume and gain are maxed, there is feedback even with no signal (guitar volume on zero)
- chicken head knobs let you tone-sculpt easier than the chrome where-is-it? knobs on the XXX
- more plug 'n' play by far
- sounded a little better with a Boss phaser in the front-end than the XXX did
- less gain, but more gain that I can use without getting fuzzy or flabby on the big jazz chords I use in metal
- Dimebag tone harder to acheive if one wants
- channel one in crunch mode with scooped EQ, resonance and presence way up = awesome rock and roll!!!!
- beefier jazz lines on channel one's clean mode
- gotta love those resonance knobs!!!
- presence can be too vowel-like, but it's a very useable presence for such a high-gainer
- strikes me as more of a "guilty pleasure" amp. You know, how it should be.
- want to keep playing this one more, not just cuz it's fresh sounding to me. Has more of that "I don't want to stop" feel
Summary:
Which one wins? Whichever one I happen to be playing. When I switched back to each amp, each amp's differences made me smile, and each made me want to go in different directions. A lot of overlap, both capable of making a lot of the same sounds.
Plugging back into the XXX was like, ah, familiarity.
Plugging back into the 6505 was like, ah, the warmth I've been missing.
The biggest thing for me is that the 6505 is a lot warmer in general, and I am surprised at how much I really like channel 1. And I missed having a presence knob(s) on the XXX. Plus I forgot how cool the resonance knobs are. Better lows, and more of them.
My feeling is I'm gonna keep the 6505. It's just so plug 'n' play, and more fun to play. The sounds are a bit more pleasing, though the XXX is more complex and versatile.
This is a hard one for me to judge. May try to figure out how to keep both.
