Question for 5150 III Owners

[Pentatonic Wanker]

Haven't had my 5150 III 50 watt head for long. Mostly spend my time on the blue channel, but playing around more on the red channel lately.

Here's my question. At band volume levels, the red channel feeds back if I juice the gain anything beyond about the 10 o'clock position on the dial. It's fine at bedroom levels. Is this normal, or should I start looking for a microphonic preamp tube?

 

[skullfxr]

Probably a tube,assuming the gain level and volume of the channels is equivalent. Haven't owned a 5153 though tbh.

 

[K-Roll]

Had a 50w 5150 III in our rehearsal room, anything above 9-10 on the gain knob is just mushy compression on the red channel and it would squeal like mad. It was more about guitar and pickups than tubes, some guitars with hotter pickups would squeal like mad, others not so much. Also somehow cabs wired for 16 ohm did it less than 8 ohm but maybe im making this up. Overall the blue channel or blue with boost was a far superior sound than the red channel. The 50w is btw my most favorite of the whole product line.

 

[Pentatonic Wanker]

Had a 50w 5150 III in our rehearsal room, anything above 9-10 on the gain knob is just mushy compression on the red channel and it would squeal like mad. It was more about guitar and pickups than tubes, some guitars with hotter pickups would squeal like mad, others not so much. Also somehow cabs wired for 16 ohm did it less than 8 ohm but maybe im making this up. Overall the blue channel or blue with boost was a far superior sound than the red channel. The 50w is btw my most favorite of the whole product line.

Thanks for the reply. What you said about the pickups makes sense. I'm running tonezone/airzone on the bridge and neck, and they are pretty hot pickups.

I'm just trying to find a way to make the red channel useable and it looks like the best way to achieve that is scoop the mids a little for the 4 or 5 songs we do that need that particular type of sound. Otherwise, I just can't find much of a use for it. I wonder what Eddie was thinking when they came up with that design.

The blue channel just SLAYS though.

 

[sleewell2]

I live on the blue channel and use my helix for cleans. Such a badass amp.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

Normal. Red channel is blasting a ton of tubes, it’s not as noticeable on low volumes. I also hang on the blue with an overdrive, but if you want to use he red loud, might want a gate

 

[Beyond Black]

Put a 5751 low gain tube in V2. Makes channel 3's gain much more useable, less squishy and compressed.

 

[Pentatonic Wanker]

Put a 5751 low gain tube in V2. Makes channel 3's gain much more useable, less squishy and compressed.

Awesome tip.....I'll give it a try!

 

[D-Rock]

I put an AT7 in V4 and that helped the red channel on my 50w.

 

[napalmdeath]

Short of modding it, the red channel is a complete mess. Low gain tubes, whatever, it's still way more gain than any sane person would need. And that's at 10:00!

 

[Pentatonic Wanker]

After more playing around with it, I still think the best use of it is for a mid scooped "nu-metal" sound. It's pretty much trash for anything else.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

I believe the red was meant for ripping solos only. Or extreme death metal. Everything else, use the blue