5150 sig price check

[BeZo]

1) INFLATION- We here in America have our money supply and politics manipulated by a private bank. The Federal Reserve is a privately owned central bank. Inflation happens because they print money, not because of a war, pandemic, or president. Private bank.

2) BIAS- Fixed bias amps need to be biased just like any other amp. Just because an amp is fixed bias, doesn't mean you don't need to change the bias resistor to properly bias your tubes. Yes, biasing your amp wrong will effect the tone, but no, Peavey did not design the amp to run cold. They designed the amp to run safe. The bias mod allows your to run properly. The bias mod is for function, and not to effect tone.

3) CHOKE- The choke transformer filters power into the circuit and makes the amp tighter. In all of the shootouts I've done, it absolutely makes the amp tighter and punchier. That is the only mod that improves the 5150 without really changing it. I truly believe that Peavey failed to include a choke for cost purposes only. Adding a choke transformer adds value.

 

[VESmedic]

1) INFLATION- We here in America have our money supply and politics manipulated by a private bank. The Federal Reserve is a privately owned central bank. Inflation happens because they print money, not because of a war, pandemic, or president. Private bank.

2) BIAS- Fixed bias amps need to be biased just like any other amp. Just because an amp is fixed bias, doesn't mean you don't need to change the bias resistor to properly bias your tubes. Yes, biasing your amp wrong will effect the tone, but no, Peavey did not design the amp to run cold. They designed the amp to run safe. The bias mod allows your to run properly. The bias mod is for function, and not to effect tone.

3) CHOKE- The choke transformer filters power into the circuit and makes the amp tighter. In all of the shootouts I've done, it absolutely makes the amp tighter and punchier. That is the only mod that improves the 5150 without really changing it. I truly believe that Peavey failed to include a choke for cost purposes only. Adding a choke transformer adds value.

The “bias mod”… so, how do you think people run their amps when they get this because they think “ it’s supposed to sound better”?? I’ll give you a hint, it ain’t colder.

The amp sounds perfect stock. Facts. More facts: no one uses a modded 5150 on your favorite records. If they sounded that much better, you better believe people would be using them, but they don’t

 

[BeZo]

The “bias mod”… so, how do you think people run their amps when they get this because they think “ it’s supposed to sound better”?? I’ll give you a hint, it ain’t colder.

The amp sounds perfect stock. Facts. More facts: no one uses a modded 5150 on your favorite records. If they sounded that much better, you better believe people would be using them, but they don’t

At proper tube dissipation according to the demands of the tubes. Yes, that is hotter than the stock bias. This is the same thing any tech would do to the Marshalls of the past by changing the resistor. This is called biasing your amp. Professional musicians do have their amps biased. I, and many of my peers, do consider a bias modded 5150 to be "stock", so both are correct. You have to be delusional if you think any professional musician would not have their amps professionally serviced.

It's silly to me to think that the signature amp of the guitarist who popularized using a variac and was constantly modding every piece of gear he owned wanted his amp to have a stock, cold bias. I'm sorry, that was Peavey, not Eddie. Eddie would mod his amps. It's fucking Eddie Van Halen.

 

[VESmedic]

At proper tube dissipation according to the demands of the tubes. Yes, that is hotter than the stock bias. This is the same thing any tech would do to the Marshalls of the past by changing the resistor. This is called biasing your amp. Professional musicians do have their amps biased. I, and many of my peers, do consider a bias modded 5150 to be "stock", so both are correct. You have to be delusional if you think any professional musician would not have their amps professionally serviced.

It's silly to me to think that the signature amp of the guitarist who popularized using a variac and was constantly modding every piece of gear he owned wanted his amp to have a stock, cold bias. I'm sorry, that was Peavey, not Eddie. Eddie would mod his amps. It's fucking Eddie Van Halen.

And ironically, the “pros” I know who make records and use Marshalls, often have them biased much colder, despite popular internet folklore. Again, tone is in the eye of the beholder, I get it. But what I can’t stand, is people who just do things because someone told them it’s better or supposed to be better. A lot of these “myths” are just that , myths. And I agree absolutely 100 percent that EVH was the king of modding anything and everything, no doubt. I’m just simply stating that I’ve never once heard a 5150 biased hotter or with a choke or any of the other garbage that voodoo amps and everyone else started putting in these amps 20 years ago, ever sound better than stock, or ever be picked over a stock 5150 in the studio.


And I sure as hell wouldn’t say it “adds value” to a 5150… different collectibility ( for now), but when was the last time you saw a “modded” JMP or plexi go for more than a stock one? Modded by a “somebody” ( Friedman, soldano, morin, Jose) sure, that’s one thing. But any old Joe blow who “modded” his plexi to have a master volume, or another gain pot etc or whatever? They definitely don’t command a higher price than a stock plexi, and we all know that.

 

[Greazygeo]

It's silly to me to think that the signature amp of the guitarist who popularized using a variac and was constantly modding every piece of gear he owned wanted his amp to have a stock, cold bias. I'm sorry, that was Peavey, not Eddie. Eddie would mod his amps. It's fucking Eddie Van Halen.

You have to remember that time and tone EVH moved away from. His modern tone is very different from the early tone. He had a signature amp designed, why would he mod an amp that was already to his specs...you would think that there were various revisions before it was released.

Some like the mods for them, some don’t. Mine sounded perfect stock with the sylvania 6l6’s. Plenty of range in the controls to dial in whatever.

With volume cooler bias is better imo. Made the mistake of biasing my Triple Rect more “correctly”. Sounds better cold, need to get around to putting it back one of these days.

I wouldn’t mind picking up another block letter. Not at 2k though. Looks on Reverb the prices are starting to come down. Still aways to go though.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

To echo some of the guys in this thread, I agree that 5150's sound better stock with their colder bias.

I feel like a lot of guitar players don't actually know what a hotter bias actually sounds like. The intuitive thing to think would be that hotter bias just "makes the amp louder and 'hotter' and makes it rock harder" or whatever vague marketing words people use to describe tone, along with thinking a kind of Yngwie-ish "more is more, so a hotter bias is obviously better than colder bias because it's more electricity and pushing components harder which is OBVIOUSLY better" but that's really not how it works.

A hotter bias usually equates to a darker, looser, more spongy tone, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what people who play 5150's are looking for. The stock, relatively colder bias of the 5150 actually makes it sound brighter, more articulate, and slightly more aggressive than it would sound with a hot bias.

Stock, slightly colder biased 5150's sound better to me than any modded 5150 I've heard.

 

[glpg80]

And ironically, the “pros” I know who make records and use Marshalls, often have them biased much colder, despite popular internet folklore. Again, tone is in the eye of the beholder, I get it. But what I can’t stand, is people who just do things because someone told them it’s better or supposed to be better. A lot of these “myths” are just that , myths. And I agree absolutely 100 percent that EVH was the king of modding anything and everything, no doubt. I’m just simply stating that I’ve never once heard a 5150 biased hotter or with a choke or any of the other garbage that voodoo amps and everyone else started putting in these amps 20 years ago, ever sound better than stock, or ever be picked over a stock 5150 in the studio.


And I sure as hell wouldn’t say it “adds value” to a 5150… different collectibility ( for now), but when was the last time you saw a “modded” JMP or plexi go for more than a stock one? Modded by a “somebody” ( Friedman, soldano, morin, Jose) sure, that’s one thing. But any old Joe blow who “modded” his plexi to have a master volume, or another gain pot etc or whatever? They definitely don’t command a higher price than a stock plexi, and we all know that.

There's nothing mythical about crossover distortion. It's a byproduct of an improperly biased pair of tubes.

I do agree going too hot makes an amp loose and soft, it's also non-beneficial to tube life, but to prefer cold, meaning crossover distortion, is also non-beneficial because it can cause speaker coils to overheat, bass responses to be soft and undefined, and also ruin high-end clarity. That isn't personal opinion, it's basic physics.

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

I see both sides as many of us are clearly programmed to shop/search for ‘stock original condition’ amplifiers… Amplifiers that haven’t been messed up by some guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing (like me) cutting and soldering…

I’ve owned six 5150’s over the years…
The best one, by a long shot had the tubes all running around 30-32mA
The rest of ‘em all ran so cold it was stupid,
I clearly remember one at 7 - 11mA…
To my ears, they clearly sound like absolute shit that cold.
If you don’t agree, well, you have very forgiving ears.

 

[Racerxrated]

I see both sides as many of us are clearly programmed to shop/search for ‘stock original condition’ amplifiers… Amplifiers that haven’t been messed up by some guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing (like me) cutting and soldering…

I’ve owned six 5150’s over the years…
The best one, by a long shot had the tubes all running around 30-32mA
The rest of ‘em all ran so cold it was stupid,
I clearly remember one at 7 - 11mA…
To my ears, they clearly sound like absolute shit that cold.
If you don’t agree, well, you have very forgiving ears.

Definitely. 7-11 ma is way too cold even for an amplifier with a ton of preamp gain; like a Recto/5150/SLO to sound good. Those amps absolutely sound best on the colder side of things (26-32ma) vs a Marshall that has much lower preamp gain but likes a higher bias (36-40ma). That seems to be a commonality with high gain preamps vs lower gain preamps.
With regards to a choke vs a resistor; I don’t agree that a choke always makes the amp sound better. I preferred the 2554 tone over all the other Jubilee versions; the 2554 has a resistor and had a tighter response. The non choke D60 also sounded better to me than the versions that had chokes.