5150 Iconic ** NAD **

  • Thread starter Thread starter MrDowntown
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If you can record a clip I'd love to hear one and congrats
 
KentC said:
Good choice! I tried one of these out for the first time yesterday. Was passing time and figured why not. It definitely seems to not have that weird mid sound that the 5153 has, which is a good thing for my personal tastes. I too found myself liking the green channel w/ the overdrive engaged, gain between 2-3 o’clock.

If you wanted that same sound, but just slightly goosed up a little, then channel 2 without the burn engaged and gain around 50% was a good balance between the two channels to go from “nice”, to “oh, that’s cool” without things being too much.

I honestly thought it did the high crunch sounds better than the typical 5150 high gain thing. When I tried to do the brutal stuff with the gain being up and burn switch engaged, I thought it was lacking a little. But with some more time I probably could have gotten it to where I would expect it.

The foot switch was still packed up so I didn’t feel like taking it out of the plastic just to test the boost function. So I’m still not really sure what it boosts. Is it gain? Mids? Volume?

And I hear a lot of disappointment around the sound of the clean channel, but I thought it sounded just fine. Nothing wrong with it and perfectly useful and doesn’t get gainy unless you wanted it to.
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The small amount of time I’ve spent with it that’s how I like to run the green channel. The boost on thr FS to me sounds/feels like a db boost. IMO it’s a good boost too. Doesn’t muck the tone… just a clean boost.
 
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I really like what I’m hearing with these in the green channel with the boost engaged. It sounds really heavy and just overall brings the goods.

It’s got me eyeballing one even though I certainly don’t need one.
 
I briefly owned an Iconic head and think it's a great amp for what it is.

I'm kind of a 5150 nut, so I bought one to try it. But, I ultimately returned it because my 5153 100w EL34 and 5153 100w Stealth heads sounded a bit bigger and more 3D. For the kinds of sounds I go for, and paired up with the rest of my specific gear, there was nothing the Iconic did that those two amps didn't do juuust a bit better imo. I have to admit though, the 5153 100w heads are not "much" better, mind you, just a little bit better, or maybe just very slightly different in a way I preferred. The difference was subtle though, way more subtle than I'd have liked, considering the 5153 head are over 2.5x more expensive. :D

Having said that, the Iconic is a great amp full stop, and it's an incredible amp for its price point. I don't think there's a better deal in the world of high gain amps actually, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anybody who was interested. If I didn't already have two 5153 heads, I'd have absolutely kept the Iconic, no question.

It's almost scary to think of what James Brown could produce if he was just allowed free reign to design whatever he wanted with no price point constraints.
 
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I have the combo, fun amp to play. Really only use the green channel with gain.
 
Tone Junkie said:
Try one out. Can’t be beat for the coin. I picked one up. Love it. Is it my favorite or best amp nope. Is it good. Yep.
The green channel is where I like it. Noise gate descent. Boost needed. Depends on your style if playing.
I had a 100! Stealth. Couldn’t wait to unload it.
Red channel useless if gain past 3. Blue channel good. Clean ?‍♂️
And noisy AF.
As stated. Try it out. YMMV.
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?
 
Tone Junkie said:
Try one out. Can’t be beat for the coin. I picked one up. Love it. Is it my favorite or best amp nope. Is it good. Yep.
The green channel is where I like it. Noise gate descent. Boost needed. Depends on your style if playing.
I had a 100! Stealth. Couldn’t wait to unload it.
Red channel useless if gain past 3. Blue channel good. Clean ?‍♂️
And noisy AF.
As stated. Try it out. YMMV.
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To each his own but the “clean” channel on the Stealth 5153’s is probably my favorite thing about them.
 
It’s got a pretty decent noise gate on it..though that wasn’t your question specifically. To me it’s got a hiss/white noise but not a lot squealies and electrical sounding muck going on.
 
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i THINK the noisegate is before the preamp, so..... only going to effectively quiet single coils and noisy overdrives...

anyone know for sure?
 
tonedover said:
i THINK the noisegate is before the preamp, so..... only going to effectively quiet single coils and noisy overdrives...

anyone know for sure?
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Ah. That makes sense. I bet you’re correct on that.
 
Congrats, definitely worth considering at the price offered on these, Played a combo for 16 minutes or so, never got a Marshall vibe I was hoping to get..probably not a good enough example to know for sure. Straight it. Maybe a good eq or boost could make it more marshall
 
One last ShAt clip:


Couple things on my clips. All in 10w (1/4 power mode). Green channel, Volume about 40-50%, gain about 3.5-4. As for my playing…I often liken it to someone reading random words from a random section of a dictionary; Paying no regard to the phonetic spelling. By adding some nuance and a touch of phrasing it begins to sound like someone reading a story,,,but there’s no real story there. It’s just a bunch of random words, some of which are largely mispronounced jumbled into a confusing mess.
Enjoy!
 
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I was hunting around for a schem on that gate and can't really find anything. On the Marshall forum there is a tread talking about how this amp has 2 preamp tubes and a SS phase inverter. FWIW.
 
I just got one a few days ago since I couldn’t find a 6505 in my area for my life. Really decent amp for the money. Kinda stiff feel (due to the transistor V1 and PI), almost like a solid-state amp, but decent for metal. More than enough features for me.

My only complaint is there’s no info about biasing on the web, and the company won’t provide the info.

BTW, if you want more info on this amp there are gut shots and a conversation with the designer on TGP.
 
The knobs are super sensitive on these. Dial in with your ears not your eyes. A slight bump of a tone knob makes a big difference.
 
I have one and love it! Really surprised. Seems built well and solid construction...great tones. Reminds me of the original 5150’s.

I thought it would bug me having the “hybrid” preamp section....but I rarely think about it. A keeper for sure!
 
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