NAD!!! 5150III In the House.

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SFW

SFW

Well-known member
Well, my brand new 5150III arrived today. Had the chance to play it for a few hours tonight. So far, I think it sounds great. All three channels are very usable, and once I have had more time with the amp I know will smoke. It's a lot more Marshall voiced that some of my amps have been in the past few years, so I'm having to get used to that style voicing again. I can tell that this amp is going to cut right through a band mix. :rock:

Some things that I have noticed. Channel switching is not silent kike they advertise. I have a very audible pop when I switch between the channels. Not I deal breaker, but annoying for sure. The Blue channel... Man, this channel is 99% there. I wish they had given this channel just a touch more gain. I'll have to see what OD pedal this amp will like. Channel 3 (or Red) is the shit! Talk about just mean, mean thick meaty gain!!! This channel alone was worth the amp. I'm still dialing it in, but I already know that this is going to be where I spend a lot of time on the amp. The green channel (clean) sounds really nice. It's full and with the gain up a tad, I get a really nice light breakup when I really dig in to it. More than usable for my needs.

The Loop... The loop is going to be where I have issues with this amp. It does not like my Nova System at all. I don't know if this amp was setup more to take pedals in the loop, but it seriously does not like my NS. I'm getting this washed out chorusing effect when I have the loop turned on and there's no chorus on my patches. Gonna have to play with this a bit.

Over all, I am very happy with the amp so far. I have band practice Thursday, so that will be the true test. Anyway... here's a quick iphone pic...

IMG_0227.jpg


I was watching a Gary Hoey vid and noticed that he had changed the color of the volume knobs to better stand out. I thought that was a brilliant idea... so I did the same thing. Makes them easy to find quickly.
 
Very nice. I also like the knob idea. I saw a guy who changed the volume knobs with green, blue and red to match the channel LED's. Looked way cool.
Those things are frackin HUGE. Does it actually fit properly on any cab in the known world?!
 
You have to be the first to say anything negative about the fx loop. In fact, I think this is one of the high points of the amp. It loves my Gmajor2. I also run mine through a Mesa 4x12 and really like it. The knob swap is a must, especially for live.

Congrats on the new amp!
 
D-Rock":2pfk81bo said:
Very nice. I also like the knob idea. I saw a guy who changed the volume knobs with green, blue and red to match the channel LED's. Looked way cool.
Those things are frackin HUGE. Does it actually fit properly on any cab in the known world?!
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It actually lines up really well on top of my Recto cab. It's a bit deeper than the cab, but if you had a straight cab, it would fit perfectly.
 
nevusofota":2sqpwdzu said:
You have to be the first to say anything negative about the fx loop. In fact, I think this is one of the high points of the amp. It loves my Gmajor2. I also run mine through a Mesa 4x12 and really like it. The knob swap is a must, especially for live.

Congrats on the new amp!
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Maybe I'm just not hooking something up correctly. I plan to work on it some more. At the moment, the amp sounds killer with the loop off.
 
Really? Someone who has no trouble with a GMajor and the 5150 III loop? The 5150 loop works great with pedals, but the GMajor (I and II) don't seem to work well at that level, at least not at lower volumes. If you crank the amp, then it works much better. at lower volume with every input maxed, range set to consumer, etc... I barely get an input level at all. Even cranked up it does not go up to where it should be for best tone.

The channel switching should be completely silent, except at very low volumes. Like, basically volume off... one thing to try, ensure the switch it all plugged in before you turn the amp on. Otherwise, it's a pretty common issue and from what I hear, Fender will fix it for free.

As for the knobs, I did that too, but I swapped all the gain and presence knobs to green/blue/red, and volume knobs to orange... this was after two gigs where every time I took a quick look to tweak a knob while playing I was lost for a second or two in the dark with the white on white.
 
Maybe that's where I'm having trouble. I haven't had the amps volume up very loud. Will have to wait and see what happens a practice- when I can let it breathe a bit. I've only had them around 9 0-clock so far. Maybe it needs to be louder. I know that I had to turn my gate off in my Nova System to even get signal to pass though. My TriAmp has one of the best loops I've had on an amp. So maybe I'm spoiled.
 
congrats man! I'm really missing my 5150 these days. It's stuck back home while in living in a college dorm! but its coming back with me in a few weeks.
I haven't had any issues with the loop but I've only used pedals. it's a pretty good loop IMO. I've had some tone loss when using the loop but I think that is normal and because of the long cable urns.
 
bsp01":36fmjpvo said:
Really? Someone who has no trouble with a GMajor and the 5150 III loop? The 5150 loop works great with pedals, but the GMajor (I and II) don't seem to work well at that level, at least not at lower volumes. If you crank the amp, then it works much better. at lower volume with every input maxed, range set to consumer, etc... I barely get an input level at all. Even cranked up it does not go up to where it should be for best tone.
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I mirror this statement.
 
the loop is great with the line 6 m13. I ran 4 cable with it for awhile ( until i decided i hated 4 cable with anything and it's massive dynamics suck)
 
Maybe I'll just look into a delay pedal. The loop worked much better with the TC chorus pedal that I have then with the Nova System. I find that there is a definate difference in tone with the loop on versus loop off. I'va also noticed some extra noise with the loop on. Just trying to work it all out. I love the core tone of the amp. Just trying to figure out how to add some greese to that core tone.

I also love that this amp seems to really like P90s. That's a huge plus for me!
 
Code001":2yqu70nk said:
bsp01":2yqu70nk said:
Really? Someone who has no trouble with a GMajor and the 5150 III loop? The 5150 loop works great with pedals, but the GMajor (I and II) don't seem to work well at that level, at least not at lower volumes. If you crank the amp, then it works much better. at lower volume with every input maxed, range set to consumer, etc... I barely get an input level at all. Even cranked up it does not go up to where it should be for best tone.
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I mirror this statement.
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You mirror it?? So you feel the same but opposite?? :lol: :LOL: :poke: just playin.
Hmmm. I have my GM2 in a loop of my GCX (with the GCX being in he loop of the EVH), You cannot tell ANY tone loss when you remove the GM2 completely from the chain, even at low volumes. I'll try to post my GM2 I/O settings later if I get a chance. I know that others on the forum also have good results, even with the G-System in the loop.
 
^^ Yeah, I'd love to know what people are doing to make it work better. I suspect I just generally play it at pussy volume.
 
Sweet! HNAD!! I am about to get rid of my orange and pick up a 5150 III mini. Can't wait!
 
i got a 5153 head and cab today, very nice amp.
i owned one years ago and really liked it but sold it to try something else, finally decided to get another one and im glad i did.

congrats man.
 
Les Zombie":2t73490z said:
i got a 5153 head and cab today, very nice amp.
i owned one years ago and really liked it but sold it to try something else, finally decided to get another one and im glad i did.

congrats man.
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Your avatar has me drooling...lol!
 
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