peavey 5150 sounds bad

[torpedoted]

Hey guys I just joined to see if anyone can help me out. I have a peavey 5150 that sounds like crap. I just got all the tubes replaced including the peamp with jj and my guitar tech moded my power supply to give my tone more definition. I still think their is somthing wrong my tone with the highs and the presence at 12 o clock sounds really blurry, muddy, and not that bright or crunchy at all. Just so I can get a really nice clear bright crunchy tone I need to turn the highs and presence all the way up and I have to use a 10 band eq in the Fx loop just to brighten it up. I use two different cabinets a marshall 212 mc with vintage 30s and a peavey 5150 cabinet. I told my tech about it and he said that everything checks out good. another problem I have is my presence knob doesnt work untill you turn it to 8 than you hear it kick in. Can anyone help me out or has anybody have had this problem. If I cant figure it out than im just gonna have to save my money and get an engl fireball or vht

[Steve Conner]

Well, did it sound bad BEFORE your tech did all that to it? Or did he mess it up?

If it sounded bad before, then maybe that's just the way it was designed to sound, and you need a different amp.

If he broke it, then it needs fixed.

[Jazz P Bass]

Peavey 5150

From the schematic it appears that the Resonance Control is before the Presence Control.
Can you check whether or not they are interactive?
I would think the Presence should kick in before you turn it to 8.
Are you using the correct output jack for the cabs that you use?

[torpedoted]

the stuff he did to the amp made it sound a little bit better but the overall tone is still bad

[torpedoted]

yea im pretty sure im using the right speaker cable for my amp. Im using a monster cable for speakers.

[bluesfreak]

The 5150 (especially the MK I ) do run on very low Bias (typically 11-13mA) so its sound depends highly on the quality of the tubes. I don't know which tubes you have installed but I would recommend you JJs as they sound generally a bit more bold and bassy then average 6L6. Stay away from 5881, IMHO they are to brilliant for this amp and please forget about SovTek in a 5150. I would recommend that you get an adjustable bias installed and good tubes biased properly that will make a huge improvement.

[Jazz P Bass]

Peavey 5150

yea im pretty sure im using the right speaker cable for my amp. Im using a monster cable for speakers.

What I meant was is the cabinet plugged into the correct jack.
4, 8 or 16 ohm.
What is the DC resistance of the cabs?

[torpedoted]

well the 5150 cab has one 16 ohm mono jack and the 5150 has two jacks so I just set the amp to 16 ohms and plug it into one of the jacks on the amp to the cabinet.

[torpedoted]

well the 5150 I have is the one with the signature not the one with the big block letters that say EVH. Yea my guitar tech replaced my old tubes with JJs including the preamp which has JJs as well plus he upgraded my power supply now as far as biasing the tubes im not sure if he did that. I really dont know anything on bias tubes or what it means

[torpedoted]

well it does work and it doesnt sound like or not even as good as any of the other 5150s or 6505 ive heard but it is what it is I guess. Its good for a back up amp so like I said im going to get somthing that is actually good and save my money for an engl fireball or a vht pittbull thanks any way guys.

[bluesfreak]

Don't give up too early, a 5150 can be a very impressive amp. The bias mod is pretty simple, just remove R68 (15k) and replace it with a 25k poti in series with a 4.7k resistor and set a 10k R in parallel so your connection is not open when the bias pot fails.
The adjust bias to approx 38-40mA (~68V) preferrable measured with a bias probe...

[Steve Conner]

OK, but isn't the 5150 supposed to be a dark, "brown" sounding kind of amp? It was designed with input from EVH to get his so-called brown sound, after all.

Now, this guy has all of the treble controls goosed, an EQ to boost the treble, Vintage 30s which are known for their ferocious treble, and he's still not happy with the treble. I don't see a bias mod fixing that. The cold bias was a deliberate choice to improve the lead tone, anyway.

Are you looking to get a bright, cleanish Fender Twin kind of sound out of it on the rhythm channel (that's probably not going to happen) or is it the high-gain lead tone that you want to brighten up?

[axpro]

Personally i HATED my 5150, but that was many many years ago. but beyond my opinion.. you haven't really cleared up whether the amp sounded "good" or not before the tube change.

Is there a specific sound you are going for? for example, stock, a 5150 doesn't really do "clean" at all. and it is a darker sound by design. also, have you played other 5150's of the same era? if it is an early (ver 1) 5150, there were some changes as they went forward.

[torpedoted]

Well the amp does sound better with the new jj tubes in it. I did bring my 5150 up to guitar center and compared it to a 5150 2. My amp at that time did have the new tubes in it and the 5150 2 still had the stock tubes in it. The 5150 2 didnt have as much sustain or gain as mine but it sounded brighter, tighter, and sharp if that makes any sense, like it had a good bite to it when I would do a fast picking rhythms. My 5150 sounded kinda loose and flabby compaired to the 5150 2 and not as bright. basically the tone im trying to get is for example theirs a band "which I dont know if you ever heard of them" called Inflames, they use a peavey 5150 6505 and their tone is really tight and sharp, thats the kind of distortion im looking for.

[torpedoted]

im trying to brighten up the lead tone on it like when I play fast picking rhythms I want it to sound bright and tight not flabby and loose. Now if im playing drop D kind of stuff such as lamb of god songs and I have the amp volume turned a little past 2 with the eq going through it, it sounds decent but its still not up to my standards.