24 posts
Right off, this is not as bad as it seems, lol, because I did sell a lot of other stuff over the last few weeks to ease the blow of this new gear I had to have. This was all done last week! :o
On Monday I ordered a couple things online.
Tuesday I drove to the far side of town (the only Exotic dealer in the area it seems) to finally sample the BB Preamp. First time ever playing one in person. Killer pedal. Bought it! Thanks Sheep.
Wednesday I took a break. ;)
Thursday I hit GC to pick up a much needed tuner pedal (tc eletronic polytune). Haven't owned a tuner since I was like 14.
Friday my online order showed, a Heritage G12 Greenback (55hz) to toss into a 4x12 (for close mic use only) and...
....here's the biggie....a new 5150 III Head:
Really short day one test here, need time to learn the amp more, try tubes, etc, and obviously can't wait to get the new speaker loaded and broke in to try with it, but newayz, yeah, so far it's packed with great tones!
EDIT: Updated with new clip:
5150 III Day One Clip / Download
Oh, I can do the same with my new POD HD...
Ahahahahahaha !!! Sounds SUPER, Derek !! Tight and crisp, fantastic !!
Congrats for your new toys !!
Ciao!
Marco
Sounds good, good luck with the new purchases.
Wow! When the man has GAS, the man has GAS! :o (No cat-fogging puns intended. ;) )
:)
Heh at the first picture I spotted that footswitch and wondered when you got the 5150 III.
Holy cow does that sound sweet... Was that straight into the amp?
Just out of curiosity, can you get more bass out of that amp?
BTW, I just grabbed a polytune as well. I like it a lot although the drop tuning modes are not as advertised.
Thanks!
I don't doubt ya, Lwb, those HD's sound nice!
Thanks dbm!
True Craig, it hit me hard! But really, I unloaded things (pun intened :D) that were just collecting dust, most notably my Plexi RI, that paid for 2/3 the 5150. The Fulldrive II got dumped in favor of the BB. I let one of my 2 Charvels go to fill in the gaps, etc. And I totally redeemed myself by trading the van for the Greenback, straight up. :P
Thanks, Paul. Fender really hit one with these things, does about 5 distinct tones WELL! It's NOTHING like the previous Peavey 5150 line. It has Fender Blackface-ish cleans, vintage Marshall type drive, higher gain (but tight) Plexi type crunch (my clip), kick on a boost pedal on that channel and it gets lead tones easily but stays open and organic, and lastly, channel 3 has really meaty/creamy high gain solo tones with nice sag and a little SLO vibe going on. And the icing - they sound great at normal volumes (one of the reasons I let the Plexi go, AMAZING tone but so fucking loud).
The clip is a Charvel (super distortion) straight into the amp. The volume was on TWO!!! ;D The Low knob is at 10:00, so yep, plenty more to be had. Do you think my clip needs more low end? Be honest!
I wasn't even aware the PT had that feature. I'll prolly never need it so no biggie if it's iffy.
Oh yeah, for anyone curious, a 50 watt version is due right about now and the supposed street price is 1k....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQJGIZncEuI (skip to 1 min to get to the amp)
No, your tone is sweet, I'm just thinking of what I would do with it, lol...
oh man.... you got me gassing now you bastard, lol...
yeah I like the tuner as well without the drop modes.
Awesome, thanks for that! Didn't mean to get ya gassing, but really, if it wasn't this, something else woulda gotcha, lol, no escape from it - we're all life long guitarists, just accept it. :)
Thing is, I've never been a "sig gear" guy but damn if there aren't some nice things out there now. Looking forward to mic'ing the GB soon, gotta go slap it in tonite. Should be a little smoother on the high end (the clip I posted is a well worn anniversary G12H30).
The secret to these amps is really a proper bias. I did not love it at the store but knew going in (having read numerous posts online) that Fender is notorious for cold factory biasing, go figure...not sure how they expect to snag folks on a a high gain amp with such friggin sterile fizz due to a cold bias. Mine was at, get this, 15ma per tube :o. Luckily biasing these things is a breeze with nothing more than a simple multimeter as there are clearly labeled "bias (+) bias (-)" contacts inside. Cranked mine up to what Dave Friedman recomends for these amps (30ma) and all is well. So if you sample one in person and can't crank it, remember, every dude I've seen buy and then post about these has reported the same thing, 15ma to no more than 18ma factory biases, just way to low for amps sporting average plate voltages around 475.
Another vid, more tasteful than the other....Vinnine Moore in clinic plugged straight into a white 5150 III, sounds great and note when he rolls the vol back, sounds groovy and "touchy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7OsN7JTxrM
Ok, you said "Fender" in one of your first posts, then again in the one above this... What does Fender have to do with this? Are the newest series of 5150's now made by Fender? And, if so, how come they aren't mentioned on the 5150iii website? :-?
CraigBert — Jun 28, 2011Ok, you said "Fender" in one of your first posts, then again in the one above this... What does Fender have to do with this? Are the newest series of 5150's now made by Fender? And, if so, how come they aren't mentioned on the 5150iii website? :-?
Yeah, the EVH stuff is Fender owned/made. That's why I say it's totally a new amp and shouldn't be compared to the previous 5150 stuff, simply sounds nothing like them. I guess they really want the product line to stand on its own - it's not just the site that lacks mentioning it, even the gear excludes nearly all signs of "Fender" (the new Wolfgangs included I believe). Only on the rear panel of the amp will you spot the "a product of FMIC, Corona, CA USA" words.
Man it's getting confusing! Now Fender is producing an amp that sounds like... a Marshall? (Albeit, a modded Marshall.)
Oh well, it DOES sound great! You said that a 50W version will be coming out, I wonder if they'll join the micro-amp trend and make one in the 3-15W range...
Crazy. They've managed to deliver in one amp something that retains the glassy 6L6 classic Fender chime AND a pissed off Marshall tone. Not that that's a first, people been trying to do it for eons, lol, boo-tique builders included, just that some got close enough, some not so much. It really is a sleeper of a head. Easily the best production line amp I've personally plugged into anyway (not saying much, I haven't plugged into nearly as many as most of you guys I'm sure).
Yeah, a 15watt verson would be awesome. But you never know, history is sometimes not as kind to follow-up pieces (course sometimes they're better), "they're ok, but not as good as the original", or "corners had to be cut to meet a price point", etc. That's kinda one reason I didn't hold out for the 50watt, you never know how things will shake out - maybe something will sound a little different (but most likely not)...the 100watter has a proven track record, I figured ef it.
You really need a picture of the Wolfie with the EVH head. ;)
Yep - next time I break out the camera to snap a room pic or something.
Nice stuff Derek! Really like that amp. Interesting comments about the bias, too. Not sure why they'd bias a higher gain amp that cold.
And Chris is right, you need a Wolfie to go with that. I love mine, and it's just one of those old cheap Peaveys! :)
my jaw just hit the floor.....lots of lovely stuff there ;D
Howie, does your Wolfie had the drop d Deal on the bridge? Or is that just the newer ones?
KrankZilla — Jun 28, 2011Howie, does your Wolfie had the drop d Deal on the bridge? Or is that just the newer ones?
I had an older one (at least 10 years ago) and it came with the Drop D, so not just the newer ones.
Here's a blurry pic:
http://www.nwdreamer.com/Pics/StudiosAndGear/Old/Studio/09a.jpg
Kabala — Jun 28, 2011
Crazy. They've managed to deliver in one amp something that retains the glassy 6L6 classic Fender chime AND a pissed off Marshall tone. Not that that's a first, people been trying to do it for eons, lol, boo-tique builders included, just that some got close enough, some not so much. It really is a sleeper of a head. Easily the best production line amp I've personally plugged into anyway (not saying much, I haven't plugged into nearly as many as most of you guys I'm sure).
Yeah, a 15watt verson would be awesome. But you never know, history is sometimes not as kind to follow-up pieces (course sometimes they're better), "they're ok, but not as good as the original", or "corners had to be cut to meet a price point", etc. That's kinda one reason I didn't hold out for the 50watt, you never know how things will shake out - maybe something will sound a little different (but most likely not)...the 100watter has a proven track record, I figured ef it.
Can you pull the two middle tubes out and make it a 50? Yeah, I know it doesn't make much of a difference... Heh.
I probably could yank the outter tubes and rebias, but eh, I just got it, lol, lemme have some 100 watt fun first!
Took another short stab with some dials swapped around (turned down the high, turned up the prez)....also, this is with the Greenback now (roughly 3 hours use, llllllloooooooonnnnnngggggg way to go until the coveted "hundreds of hours" stage). Clearly has less zing on the top but I'm not sure if that's from the high on the amp being toned down or from the different speaker. Regardless - these are the fun days. :)
Test Two
I like the looks of the fifty, it would fit nice on top of my two 1-12 cabs. Mini stack, but since I have EVM12L's in the cabs they would hold up to any 4-12 Celestian loaded cabs easy.
Mine has the D Tuner. It's a really great playing and sounding guitar. Definitely a rocker.
