Peavey 5150 tonal variation

TheSneakyTruth

TheSneakyTruth

Member
Have you guys noticed any tonal differences between otherwise identical 5150 heads?

I'm not talking block letter vs signature and tube differences, I'm talking with regards to component tolerances between like-for-like comparisons.
 
I think the kind of variance you're talking about does exist, and is just an inherent quality of tube amps and the way their components are manufactured.

As for your question, I ended up with two 5153 Stealth 50w amps in my studio at the same time for about a week or so, and one was slightly fatter sounding than my 5153 50w 6L6, and the other was slightly thinner sounding. Having said that, I noticed those differences while I was listening under a microscope, and the differences were probably nothing that any sane person would notice outside of that "test" scenario. The Stealth 50w's were very much "the same" amp, but yes I could tell very, extremely slight differences between them. Not sure if it was the tubes or other internal components, or both. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I can tell you that it wasn't just the TMB knob variances though. When I say "fatter" and "thinner" I'm talking about how much low end content from the guitar was being sent through the gain stages. One had very slightly less and the other had very slightly more.
 
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Yeah i have the same experience - we had two 5150s tested, both signature versions and one was bland and sterile cold sounding even if we decided to swap the tubes from the good one and set bias accordingly. The other one sounded full, juicy, bouncy we nice sag, overtones. Not sure why that happens, probably like you said - tolerances.
 
Tolerances are what they are, this exists in all electronics. I will say in my opinion, peavey and the 5150 specifically are extremely consistent as a whole. Sure there might be differences, but compared to other amps, they are extremely consistent. I’d put Mesa in that category as well. We shot out my rev F dual recto vs a friend of mine’s that was much earlier than mine. We put his tubes in my amp, same DI track, same settings, same mic, mic pre/signal chain etc. his sounded slightly more saturated, mine slightly dryer. But I mean this is realllllyyyyyy splitting hairs, 9/10 people would say they sound exactly the same, and I mean guys like us not people who don’t play.
 
Every time I shot out 5150s, they weren't on equal footing. There is always mods and stuff to account for differences. Why have a stock 5150 when you can bias mod, add a choke, clean up the green channel, and whatever else. Personally, the only mods I ever felt were worth it are the bias mod and a choke. I did an amp party where we had 4 stacked up, but one was FJA modded, one was modded by a local tech, one was modded by Wolfe Amplification, and one was stock. The Wolfe 5150 was a converted combo, so it wasn't fair. It's never been fair.
 
@TheSneakyTruth - just curious why you are asking?

VESmedic said:
Tolerances are what they are, this exists in all electronics. I will say in my opinion, peavey and the 5150 specifically are extremely consistent as a whole. Sure there might be differences, but compared to other amps, they are extremely consistent. I’d put Mesa in that category as well. We shot out my rev F dual recto vs a friend of mine’s that was much earlier than mine. We put his tubes in my amp, same DI track, same settings, same mic, mic pre/signal chain etc. his sounded slightly more saturated, mine slightly dryer. But I mean this is realllllyyyyyy splitting hairs, 9/10 people would say they sound exactly the same, and I mean guys like us not people who don’t play.
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Wonder if a big part of that observation (regarding Peavey and Mesa) are due how cold the are biased out of the factory. Seems that would neuter some of the component differences?
 
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