5150 sig price check
- Thread starter savant421
- Start date
glpg80
Well-known member
Sig model, $1000-1200 based on condition. Block letter, $1200-$1400 stock. USA 6505, $800-$1000 stock, non USA 6505 $700-$900 stock.
Add $150 or so for any upgraded transformers or chokes added. Bias mods add value as well.
I wouldn’t let go of my USA 6505+ for any less than $1400. Bias mod, IEC plug, MM choke, MM OT, and modded to run EL34 or 6L6.
Add $150 or so for any upgraded transformers or chokes added. Bias mods add value as well.
I wouldn’t let go of my USA 6505+ for any less than $1400. Bias mod, IEC plug, MM choke, MM OT, and modded to run EL34 or 6L6.
ZEN Amps
Well-known member
How does it sound with EL34's out of interest?
glpg80
Well-known member
I can’t say fairly. I took gain out of it and changed the slope resistor to 33k to add back in some Marshall bark. This was all before I could afford modded Marshall’s or a Marshall at all. The EL34s compliment the voicing especially with the OT I chose. It sounds more like a hybrid of a SLO and a gained up Marshall than it does a 5150 II anymore. It’s kicked a lot of amps to the curb at amp fests. The ones it can’t touch are Bogners which is why I own one
Here’s a clip with all mods but 6L6GC loaded
Bad.Seed
Well-known member
I sold my last 2 for $1,250, sold in less than 24 hours after posting, but I also have a pretty good audience that's always looking for stuff like this.
With the mod, it's an improvement, but now that these amps have somehow become "Collector's Items" that may hurt the value a tad. I'd probably still list around $1,200 and see if you get any bites
With the mod, it's an improvement, but now that these amps have somehow become "Collector's Items" that may hurt the value a tad. I'd probably still list around $1,200 and see if you get any bites
BeZo
Well-known member
They are selling closer to $1600 regularly. I have a modded block letter that I wouldn't consider letting go for under $2k. With just general inflation, that is the pricing everyone listed above. A 5150 was under a grand back when gas was $2 a gallon. Now the money isn't worth as much, because the printed a few billion more dollars. They aren't, however, making anymore Peavey 5150s and judging by the haggard ass ones I see touring bands use these days that are beat to shit with missing knobs, they are getting more rare.
BeZo
Well-known member
In the next decade, the Peavey 5150 will become like the Marshalls of decades past: Broken and repaired, hot prodded and modded, collectable and increasingly rare. It is the sound of a generation, and as demand grows and supplies dwindle, the price will keep going up. $2000 is becoming the new normal. You all might live to see then hit $3k.
TheGreatGreen
Well-known member
glpg80
Well-known member
I can agree to disagree. They are still making them - where they are made and what the design is has changed, but internally it’s all identical.
I took mine in on looking to do consignment at a local shop just out of curiosity and they wouldn’t value mine any higher than $400. I told them the iron and tubes are worth that much.
I’d personally never pay the kind of money they’re fetching now, but if you’re right, I’ll gladly continue to hang onto mine.
Hard, hard pass on any “modded” 5150 adding “value”, can’t agree with that in the least. I’d buy an abundance of high gain amps over a “modded 5150” especially with the bias mod or choke garbage. All those things do is neuter this amp. It was designed perfectly for what it is out of the box, and not a single modded 5150 has ever beat out a stock one to me personally.
glpg80
Well-known member
James lugo ran his stock one against mine at his amp fest. The difference was night and day. Not a week later he sold it. They aren’t bedroom amps and they need cranked to obscene levels to tell the difference but it’s definitely there even for someone with your experience to tell.
I’m just the opposite. I’d pay more for a 5150 if someone’s upgraded the stock resistor to a proper choke, improved the OT with aftermarket, and done a bias mod to remove crossover distortion. None of the original amps are at their full potential stock, not even close. Do they offer a sound? Yeah. Can it have deeper punchier low end, better singing highs, better clean clarity, longer lasting tubes? Sure.
skoora
Well-known member
For me it falls into, they’re classic for a reason. All the albums recorded with them that we consider iconic are with stock 5150’s. If mods make some folks personally happy, good. I personally would want to have a stock one so I know that I’m getting an actual 5150. It’s like all the boutique guys making their perfected Fender’s and Vox’s. All the great sounding music was already recorded with the original “crappy” ones…lol
The amp was literally designed the way it was for a reason. I’m not saying everyone likes that sound, but it was for sure at its “full potential” stock. Eddie wanted the amp to stay together and not fall apart at loud volumes, thus the amp is biased cold. That way, it stays tight and out of the gross power tube overdrive mixed with preamp gain type of sound. Biasing the amp hotter just makes everything softer, less high end, less defined low end. It’s the same with any amp really. I almost always bias my amps cold for this very reason, they always sound better. My Herbert, my modded JMP, they all have much better high end and low end than when biased hot, and the tubes last longer due to the colder bias.
Again, tone is in the eye of the beholder, everyone likes different things for sure, I just personally think biasing that amp hotter and adding a choke etc ruins everything I love about the amp and what made it famous.
Exactly. 100 percent of my favorite 5150 tones, and I’m willing to bet everyone else’s too, were done with the stock amp for sure. But again, if someone likes it modded, more power to them. I just think most of the guys that think they like the amp modded aren’t really listening critically. I’m sure glp80 above really enjoys his, and that’s cool for sure. But I remember hearing all of these “modded” 5150s back in the early 2000s etc, all the way up to today. They all sounded incredibly soft and neutered to me.
glpg80
Well-known member
I said biased out of crossover distortion, not hot. Crossover distortion actually reduces low end punch and decreases high end clarity because you guessed it, there’s added distortion. It’s a good thing to have the bias mod on these regardless of year. They ran them cold for reliability reasons and that’s it. Mine is sitting at 32mA for 6L6 which is exactly where it should be. You cannot get them out of crossover without modding them - original or II/+ series.
As far as chokes and OT, you’re right it’s personal preference. The amps are capable of much more of the same tone Eddie loved with better quality components than what were chosen. The reason resistors were used instead of chokes is because of cost. Eddie wanted anyone to be able to afford the amp and allow them to be common everywhere. If they could have ran a choke like the circuits need, they would have because every quality amp out there runs them as they should by design.
Bad.Seed
Well-known member
Only the ones I paid much less forAre you getting rid of your 5150's, Kyle?
Say it ain't so!
Bad.Seed
Well-known member
I totally agree with this. The first time I had a 5150 bias modded, I was SO disappointed. The cold, clanky chunk of the palm mutes was replaced with kind of a dull, thick thud. The upper.mid range was also dialed back a bit and the amp no longer had that signature peavey mid snarl.
I now have a stock 5150 sig with the Peavey Sylavania USA glass, and an FJA Metal Modded block letter. I prefer the stock, and only keep the block letter because I got it for next to nothing and I just consider it a different flavor at this point.
Very well could be. But, with Sleepy Joe's $$ printing machine running 24/7, inflation has come on exponentially seemingly overnight ( not literally, but very fast). Something has to give. Food on the table and gas in the car vs. keeping hooby stuff. I think gear prices could actually come down at some point.
It’s so true man. I feel it’s like this with any high gain amp really. The myth of biasing amps hot ( I realize that wasn’t what GLP80 was saying, but it’s in the same conversation) is just ridiculous and overblown. Never once has a high gain amp sounded better biased on the hotter side vs cold to me, ever.
I think the FJA stuff rules, he did great stuff. Much better to me personally than voodoo and some of the other guys popular during that time during the early 2000s. I just firmly believe people that think an amp sounds better hot is just really not listening and going with what they think they are “supposed” to think. If you want creamy, midrangey and loose, by all means turn up the bias. If you want punishing rhythms with better and extended low and high end, drop that sucker colder. I couldn’t believe how much better my Herbert sounded cold.
Greazygeo
Well-known member
I bought a first run 5150 brand. The ones that had the original 6l6’s. It wasn’t biased cold. I think it was set up for that tube and after they ran out and switched to the russian tubes, the bias was never changed.
My buddy bought one after he heard mine and he was bummed it didnt sound as good. Finally figured out it was the tube change.
I agree though I would never want a modded one, mine was awesome.