Got to dime a 5153 today

[Steinmetzify]

I have a few high gain amps here at the studio, and the two fave for 7 & 8 strings guitars are the 5153 100w and the Steavens Poundcake 100 MK-1. The 5153 is still the tightest one of them all with a low tuned guitar, chnl 3, master volume above 10:00.
Either amp will shake the entire studio, but the 5153 is still a bit tighter and precise.

Nice. Glad to hear because I'm moving in that direction; I'm waiting on a new 7 and think this would match up well tuned to drop A.

 

[Reflux]

I love my 5153.
We switch between songs in F# and Drop C#...the amp sounds killer playing in both tunings, without having to re-eq.

 

[K-mark5]

I've recently bought a 5150 III 100w.. at first I was like meh.. I'm gonna sell it.. then.. I figured out it was the pickup in my guitar which did not work with the wood.. i swapped it and all of a sudden, here's the tone I was chasing for apr. 5 years..

The 5150 III with a mesa 4X12 traditional cab and my custom made 7 string (swamp ash, flamed walnut top, maple neck+fretboard and a BKP warpig 7 alnico 5) totally slays..

The boogie mark 5 is leaving house soon, had the amp for 2 years, it's a great piece of gear, but the 5150 III is my number one to go to now. I even do not need a boost on channel 2.

Currently I run my settings on channel 2 and 3 almost identically:

Ch2:
gain: 2 o'clock
bass: 9-10 o'clock
mids: 2-3 o'clock
treble: 2-3 o'clock
presence: 2 o'clock
volume: 9-10 o'clock

Ch3:
gain: 9-10 o'clock
bass: 9-10 o'clock
mids: 2-3 o'clock
treble: 2-3 o'clock
presence: 2-3 o'clock
volume: 9-10 o'clock

it almost has this bogner/recto kind of flavor.. lot's of mojo, even with the bass slightly rolled off, with the warpig it is really big sounding, but still tight and smooth and guttural..no fizz, no screech.. great tone..

I kinda prefer channel 2, because I feel it has better dynamics, it's all in the picking hand in fact..
For balls out heavy chuggs channel 3 all day..


with the previous pickup i was trying to dial out trebles, presence and i was boosting bass knobs as somehow it felt thin and nasty, but with the warpig, I can in fact run the controls however I want it still sounds amazing..

LOVE IT!

 

[Orvillain]

Do you not get annoyed by the volume drop using the HD500 and switching patches?? Or are you mostly in a single patch, and are changing the amp channels from midi messages on the top row of footswitches?

Nope I use several patches. Since I use it 4CM and have the 5150 III's pre amp in the loop of the HD right before the mixer..... I use the volume in the mixer section of the POD to bump up the volume of the preamp just a hair on my clean patches. Works really well.

And you don't get spikes in volume when moving from clean with volume bump and channel 2 with no volume bump? Coz that's what I get, with my GSP1101 and my Line 6 M13.

BTW, this whole notion that the channel volumes even out when the gain is high - it's absolute bullshit. Even with the GAIN cranked, the second channel is still massively louder than the first.

 

[Orvillain]

Do you not get annoyed by the volume drop using the HD500 and switching patches?? Or are you mostly in a single patch, and are changing the amp channels from midi messages on the top row of footswitches?

Nope I use several patches. Since I use it 4CM and have the 5150 III's pre amp in the loop of the HD right before the mixer..... I use the volume in the mixer section of the POD to bump up the volume of the preamp just a hair on my clean patches. Works really well.

I'd be interested in hearing a recording if you've got time? Instead of going to the amp return, go to your recording interface, and just switch through clean with volume boost, crunch without volume boost, and then high-gain channel... all without any extra effects. That would help me greatly to decide whether I should buy a HD500!

 

[nevusofota]

Do you not get annoyed by the volume drop using the HD500 and switching patches?? Or are you mostly in a single patch, and are changing the amp channels from midi messages on the top row of footswitches?

Nope I use several patches. Since I use it 4CM and have the 5150 III's pre amp in the loop of the HD right before the mixer..... I use the volume in the mixer section of the POD to bump up the volume of the preamp just a hair on my clean patches. Works really well.

I'd be interested in hearing a recording if you've got time? Instead of going to the amp return, go to your recording interface, and just switch through clean with volume boost, crunch without volume boost, and then high-gain channel... all without any extra effects. That would help me greatly to decide whether I should buy a HD500!

Buy it through GC, you have 30 days to return if it's not doing what you want it to.

 

[ejecta]

Do you not get annoyed by the volume drop using the HD500 and switching patches?? Or are you mostly in a single patch, and are changing the amp channels from midi messages on the top row of footswitches?

Nope I use several patches. Since I use it 4CM and have the 5150 III's pre amp in the loop of the HD right before the mixer..... I use the volume in the mixer section of the POD to bump up the volume of the preamp just a hair on my clean patches. Works really well.

I'd be interested in hearing a recording if you've got time? Instead of going to the amp return, go to your recording interface, and just switch through clean with volume boost, crunch without volume boost, and then high-gain channel... all without any extra effects. That would help me greatly to decide whether I should buy a HD500!

I still need to get a firewire card for my new PC to be able to use my Focusrite. As soon I do that I'll try and post something. Ultimately like nevusofota said.. buying from a place like GC with a return policy would be the best option IMHO since you could try and see if it works for you with your gear.

Until I can do the clip I'm pretty much doing what this guy is.

 

[Orvillain]

Yeah I hear you (I'm in the UK btw) but I've owned one before, and whilst the tones were really good in the box, I personally couldn't live with the small silences when switching patches. You hear it at 7:10 in his video. I was more curious about switching the volume differences in and out.

 

[ejecta]

Yeah I hear you (I'm in the UK btw) but I've owned one before, and whilst the tones were really good in the box, I personally couldn't live with the small silences when switching patches. You hear it at 7:10 in his video. I was more curious about switching the volume differences in and out.

Man I've must have dealt with some huge gaps in switching with some of my rigs in the past because what little is there wasn't even something I noticed.

Everyone is different though.... what bugs some doesn't others.

 

[Orvillain]

It's really annoying when you're going from one sound to another, and you do the switch right on the downbeat. It kinda ruins the impact of the change. I'm sticking with just single pedals right now I think. Experimented earlier with using the blue channel but with the gain really low - just below 9 o'clock - it was pretty decent for a slightly gritty clean. Then I used a TS808 for the crunchy tones.... so I can get my three core tones this way for now.

 

[EyesOfTheSouth]

Surprised the 50w is getting so much praise here. Mine seemed cool at first just because the saturation made it so easy to play. But after awhile the distortion seemed really toyish.........like a cheap distortion pedal. This was most evident when playing for awhile and then plugging into something else. I sold mine for $700 and the guy really liked it at first........then had the same thoughts as me after awhile. Cool bedroom amp though as it sounds fantastic even at whisper volume. FWIW, I lived on the blue channel with gain around noon. The red channel was completely ridiculous to me even with gain at 9 o'clock........extremely compressed and nasal.

 

[ChadVanHalen]

But I have enough guitars at the moment and I'm waiting for a certain 7 string sig to come out. Anybody interested in the RR, it's in GC SLC. Plays like a dream and I talked dude down to under 2k.

SAY WHAT?! THAT'S AT OUR GUITAR CENTER?!
... I need it

 

[Steinmetzify]

Been there for a few months Chad...go talk em down!

 

[NJM74]

The band I work for use them. I dime the blue channel all the time. Sweetness.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

My buddy Artie from Las Vegas has sold his '77 Marshall Super lead and cab and gone completely EVH.
He was able to score a 5150 MK I combo for low change and a 5150 II head for real cheep.
Now he is playing Peavey Wolfgangs as well.
True it is trickier to get multiple tones out of basically a one channel amp (Marshall), but for me I'm sticking with mine..no weakness to go the the Ed side for me.
I am looking at basically a mid eighties set up with my 2005 Marshall 1959HW head with upgrading by George Metropoulos and my most recent acquisition a Metropoulos True Replica '68 cab loaded with 4 insanely tunefull Celestion Creamback G12H-75's.
Also awaiting a Power Soak and have been using my recently bought Rockman modules, Sustainor and Stereo Chorus Delay, in mono.
Once I can tame these Rockman modules as they need all sorts of EQ and I need footwitches for them.
I was able to score a rackmount for them.
I can really advise Rig Talkers to check out the new Creambacks as I didn't want Scumbacks and now Celestion has filled that niche.
George broke in the speakers for me and I am in hog heaven!!
Atomic Playboy

 

[Orvillain]

Did a bunch of recording for some demos this week; plugged in a dummy jack into the headphone output, plugged the preamp output into my interface, recorded using impulse responses.... at stupid hours of the night, with headphones on.

Worked fantastically!!

Really love this amp! I've just ordered an AMT Electronics F-1 pedal, which I am hoping I can use to get around the channel volume jump issue.

 

[PBGas]

I had one of these a couple of years back when they first came out. Absolutely great bang for the buck in a nice package. Great tones. Unfortunately mine developed a fatal problem and was sent back to the factory. They offered me another one through my dealer but the wait time was way too long (more than 8 months) so I moved on to something else at the time.

 

[Orvillain]

What was the problem if I may ask?

 

[PBGas]

The only explanation that I was given was that it was a global circuit failure. Putting 2 and 2 together, I estimated that one of the components inside failed and took out the circuit board. I remember playing through it at a gig, a low pitched hum started to get louder and louder and then that awful smell of something burnt. Thankfully I had a backup that evening. No was a sad day. I would have gotten another one but the wait time was ridiculous.

 

[Orvillain]

Hmm, sounds like some sort of power failure, for shit to start burning!!

I can't wait for mine to arrive, I think it really could solve my issues!