Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

mantis

mantis

New member
Hello all ,
We got a guitar shop next door and I figured I'd go over there and see what they carry in replacement speakers. All Peavey with a few Celestion models but no matching pairs. I needed a matching pair for my cab in 2 x 12.

I was running Eminence legends which are a fantastic low end brute force speakers that break up very nicely and have amazingly clear cleans. I thought they where the issue in the bloating I get sometimes when I dial in a drop C or D. Palm muting can be very strong and my goal was to smooth that out just a bit. I can eq it but it never seems to go exactly where I want it.

My amp is a Krank Revolution 1 2 x 12 combo which I love and replaced a JSX with. I did however really like the JSX but liked the Krank better.

So they had a matching pair of the 5150 speakers and they said they where a rodded version of the V30's. Eddie wanted a bit more of this and a touch of that and low and behold the 1200 5150's where made.

Well I re wired the cabinet with new 14 x 2 copper speaker wire with a new 1/4 speaker jack , wired in series so the ohm's is 8 ohms just like how the Eminence where.
I let the head warm up a bit , the 5881's sound best after at least 10 minutes of warm up.
I tried clean first and noticed a completely different sound. I didn't change any settings. I kinda like it but it's not as tight as the Eminence's are. The mid range is a bit more forward and it's nice but it's kinda loose sounding now. Now when I switched the the gain channel , this is where I wanted the speakers out. It's nasty sounding. My tight crunchy tone is now mush. It doesn't have any of the weight down low that I'm use to. It's not brutal anymore , it's mushy and weak. My gain really never goes beyond 3 , I turned it up to 5 and it just got worse. I don't like these speakers with the style of metal I play. Maybe a 5150 head will match much better. Whats strange is that the 5150's gain and the Krank are similar with some minor differences but they sound a lot alike. If you listen to Bullets for my Valentine , thats basically my tone and they use 5150's. If you listen to Shadows Fall , not the newest Album but the last few older , that is my tone almost exactly. That tight mean brutal clear driving force. With these Peavey's I get none of that.

I don't get it how speakers can alter your tone that dramatically. It's amazing how much I hate these speakers. I'm wondering if Celestion V30's would be a mistake to even bother to try?
The Eminence legends are damn good. I 'm gonna rewire once again and put them back in and get my tone back. I was really hoping these 5150's would be awesome , they are not. They have bigger heavier magnets and that was exciting for a minute.

Anyone else have any experience with these speakers? Am I the only one who doesn't care for them? In my case hate them.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

dude, sheffields are quite well known for being meh at best.

You need to try some V30s.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

I'm gonna play them again today after work and give them a full work out. If I can't dial in the tone I want , they are out and the V30's will be next.
So far I agree with you totally.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

The 1200's are supposed to be a higher powered green back style with an early breakup.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

Have you changed your settings yet to accomodate the new speakers? Document where they currently are so you can set everything back if you swap the Eminence's back in, but play with the tonestack so you maximize the speakers potential. I guarantee you that if you swapped V30s in without changing your settings, they would sound aweful since the Legends and V30s are voiced differently. I'm not saying they are right for you, but give them a chance by finding what works best for the speaker. Plus, if they're brand new, you also have to figure the break-in period.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

BFMV uses the 5150s, but I believe they use Mesa cabs. I think at one point, they actually used Rectifiers. Can't remember for sure.

Shadows Fall used a Krankenstien and a Rev. 1 for a while each with matching cabinets. So, the Rev had the Legend V12s and the Krankenstien had Texas Heats. I can't remember which albums they used them for.

What about your tone do you want to improve over the legends?

xxxplorer is right though, the 1200s are "copies" of Eddies GB cabs where the magnets started breaking apart.

And a bigger magnet, does not always mean better.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

speed2dirt said:
Have you changed your settings yet to accomodate the new speakers? Document where they currently are so you can set everything back if you swap the Eminence's back in, but play with the tonestack so you maximize the speakers potential. I guarantee you that if you swapped V30s in without changing your settings, they would sound aweful since the Legends and V30s are voiced differently. I'm not saying they are right for you, but give them a chance by finding what works best for the speaker. Plus, if they're brand new, you also have to figure the break-in period.
Click to expand...
The 5150 speakers I have are reconditioned completely. They where stiff and not broken in. So basically I played for hours just different stuff with effects to shadow over the tone I was not enjoying.
After a while I noticed the speakers calming down and not being so crappy sounding. I actually started dialing in a very nice clean tone. They are not as bad as they where the first time I played them , they are actually kinda cool speakers with a completely different tone. With that being said , I did change all my setting to accommodate the new link in the chain.
 
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Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

Soulcrusher_X said:
BFMV uses the 5150s, but I believe they use Mesa cabs. I think at one point, they actually used Rectifiers. Can't remember for sure.

Shadows Fall used a Krankenstien and a Rev. 1 for a while each with matching cabinets. So, the Rev had the Legend V12s and the Krankenstien had Texas Heats. I can't remember which albums they used them for.

What about your tone do you want to improve over the legends?

xxxplorer is right though, the 1200s are "copies" of Eddies GB cabs where the magnets started breaking apart.

And a bigger magnet, does not always mean better.
Click to expand...

I don't recall Bullets using mesa amps , the cabinets maybe but they use the 5150 amps. They might even have changed to the 6505 series but I can't confirm that. But that tone they have is so close to my original tone.

Shadows fall yes used both the Krankenstien and the Rev 1. If you listen to "Threads of Life" and "fallout from the war" , you will hear their Krank tone. It's exactly like mine , when I first heard "Dead World" I was amazed how exact that opening tone was compared to mine.

As far as what I would want to improve over the Legends with my tone is just the heavier then normal chugging tone I get when I palm mute certain chords. I was thinking if I had a bit more mid range style speaker with an even tighter bottom end , I could lose a bit of that sound. It almost sounds like a Bass player is backing me up note for note. Don't get me wrong I enjoy that tone most of the time but it can get annoying all the time when I don't want it there.

The Legends to me are one of the very best sounding all around speakers I have ever owned. They are remarkable in so many ways. I'm a tone chaser and changing out speakers is fun and exciting. Getting a completely different tone is fun and can bring out some writing that may not have been there. IMO tone sets the mood and then music comes naturally , when my tone is off , I'm beat.

The bigger magnets is just a man thing , bigger better etc etc. I do plan on picking up different kinds of speakers to try out , you guys gave me many ideas on where to go next. The Legends are here to stay and I might even pick up a 2 x 12 and 4 x 12 cab to change around and listen / play with.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

I'm starting to believe the 5150 speakers have way to much mid range hump. The Highs are not that great and the low end while they dig low , they don't attack like I would like them to do. I would also go on record to say they are not as clear overall as the legends.
I'm missing my Legends and plan maybe this Sunday putting them back in. It's a small pain in the ass as I have to unsolder and re solder.
MGS looks very interesting so thats going to be my next stop.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

Today I removed the 5150 speakers and put the legends back in. I gotta admit , the legends smoke the 5150's in every single way. I don't know what I was thinking when I was trying to dial in a good tone with them. Even the cleans where so so. yeah nice but not buttery and creamy , not blanket soft and comfortable.
The legends are remarkable and I think I'm gonna have a hard time getting something better for a all around speaker. The V30's are gonna come home with me as I have to give them a serious test drive. Every single clip I listened to with them compared to all others ,I always pick them as my favorite.

Here's whats really funny , all these years I had this over tone when palm muting with only one chord. I play E on the A string 7th position and bar the low E string to give it a fatter meaner tone. I've been doing this technic since I learned how to palm mute back in the 80's. All these years of doing this I developed a bad habit That I really didn't know I had until tonight after reinstalling the Legends.
Basically when I had the 5150's in , I couldn't get the aggressive thick tone I wanted , I had this strange mid bass thing with weak highs. I re eq'd my entire rig to find some common ground with them. I did however dial in some nice sounding tones but never to my personal liking.
After the Legends went back in , I had to re eq again as now everything was way to bright and strange sounding. After getting all my setting the way I like them , the overtones where back with my A chord adding the Low E string 7th position which would be a B note so A add B? Anyway since I was struggling with my tone with the 5150's , I noticed I was overly agressive with my palm muting and backed off a touch , then a touch more and found a way to calm my over tone down. All this time I thought maybe it's the amp or speakers , the way I dial in etc and all this time it's been my palm muting technic. Funny how that worked out.

I can't say my time with the 5150's was a waste of time. I got to learn something this old dog has been doing wrong for many years. I learned a new way to play with palm muting and make different attacks with it in a few minutes. Thank you Peavey for making crappy to me speakers to help my playing out.
Thank you Eddie for putting your 5150 on it to attract me to trying them.

I'm sure many people like these speakers but they sure are not for me.
 
Re: Tried out some Peavey Sheffield 1200 16 ohm 5150 speakers.

ohh Great! Yeah i really got a lot from it! Thanks my dear Friend... Stay blessed
 
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