The OG returns. Again

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steinmetzify
  • Start date Start date
Check this local deal out.

Screenshot_20260917_140912_Facebook.jpg
 
Saw that listed the other day, he really came down in price.
 
That is awesome dude! These things are a staple for a reason. They just plain kick ass….and, in my experience, they are tanks.
 
Played the 1992 original last night at low/moderate volume and thought...meh...wasn't impressed. Then this morning played it at volume with guitar straight in to the lead ch no boost...I am utterly stunned. I instantly started chugging out those early days Machine Head type riffs for like 2 hrs without coming up for air. Then boosted the crunch ch with a fortin 808...again stunned. I think this may be the most growling/snarling most pissed off amp I've ever played. Some would say it has that cocked wah sound, but to me that's what gives it that growl/snarl in the way that I think only a 5150 does.

There is something really magical happening in the power amp section too that is translating to the cab and the room, not sure how to explain it but its almost like there's a hint of reverb but not reverb, really hard to put to words but its quite incredible whatever its doing. And the tone and feel is super organic which surprised me because I expected a typical filtered down neutered high gain tone, not at all, really rich, warm, but stupid grinding and hyper aggressive. I love tight amps and set a certain way this thing can be almost too tight, still immense and thick and sounds incredible, but just hard/revealing to play like a Wizard or Fryette. I needed to grease it up and once dialed with a tad more gain and the right eq its really juicy, tight, huge, thick and tracks incredibly fast.

I did swap the JJ preamp tubes before playing this morning so not sure how much that changed things but last night playing I felt it was just missing a lot of high end/upper mid clarity like a blanket over the cabs and boxy sounding but my suspicion is that was just the nature of it at low volume and winding it up just brought it to life. I know amps thrive on volume but this seems to be the worst low volume amp I've played I think. At some point I'll throw the JJ preamps back and compare at proper volume. I don't usually notice significant difference with tube swaps but for info sake I put in the following: V1 Tungsol-V2 China 12ax7B-V3 Bejing 6n4 square getter-V4 China 12ax7B-V5 Sovtek LPS.
 
Last edited:
MetalHeadMike said:
Played the 1992 original last night at low/moderate volume and thought...meh...wasn't impressed. Then this morning played it at volume with guitar straight in to the lead ch no boost...I am utterly stunned. I instantly started chugging out those early days Machine Head type riffs for like 2 hrs without coming up for air. Then boosted the crunch ch with a fortin 808...again stunned. I think this may be the most growling/snarling most pissed off amp I've ever played. Some would say it has that cocked wah sound, but to me that's what gives it that growl/snarl in the way that I think only a 5150 does.

There is something really magical happening in the power amp section too that is translating to the cab and the room, not sure how to explain it but its almost like there's a hint of reverb but not reverb, really hard to put to words but its quite incredible whatever its doing. And the tone and feel is super organic which surprised me because I expected a typical filtered down neutered high gain tone, not at all, really rich, warm, but stupid grinding and hyper aggressive. I love tight amps and set a certain way this thing can be almost too tight, still immense and thick and sounds incredible, but just hard/revealing to play like a Wizard or Fryette. I needed to grease it up and once dialed with a tad more gain and the right eq its really juicy, tight, huge, thick and tracks incredibly fast.

I did swap the JJ preamp tubes before playing this morning so not sure how much that changed things but last night playing I felt it was just missing a lot of high end/upper mid clarity like a blanket over the cabs and boxy sounding but my suspicion is that was just the nature of it at low volume and winding it up just brought it to life. I know amps thrive on volume but this seems to be the worst low volume amp I've played I think. At some point I'll throw the JJ preamps back and compare at proper volume. I don't usually notice significant difference with tube swaps but for info sake I put in the following: V1 Tungsol-V2 China 12ax7B-V3 Bejing 6n4 square getter-V4 China 12ax7B-V5 Sovtek LPS.
Click to expand...

Noice man, glad to hear they didn’t fuck it up! REISSUE ALL THE THINGS

Also HNAD!
 
MetalHeadMike said:
Played the 1992 original last night at low/moderate volume and thought...meh...wasn't impressed. Then this morning played it at volume with guitar straight in to the lead ch no boost...I am utterly stunned. I instantly started chugging out those early days Machine Head type riffs for like 2 hrs without coming up for air. Then boosted the crunch ch with a fortin 808...again stunned. I think this may be the most growling/snarling most pissed off amp I've ever played. Some would say it has that cocked wah sound, but to me that's what gives it that growl/snarl in the way that I think only a 5150 does.

There is something really magical happening in the power amp section too that is translating to the cab and the room, not sure how to explain it but its almost like there's a hint of reverb but not reverb, really hard to put to words but its quite incredible whatever its doing. And the tone and feel is super organic which surprised me because I expected a typical filtered down neutered high gain tone, not at all, really rich, warm, but stupid grinding and hyper aggressive. I love tight amps and set a certain way this thing can be almost too tight, still immense and thick and sounds incredible, but just hard/revealing to play like a Wizard or Fryette. I needed to grease it up and once dialed with a tad more gain and the right eq its really juicy, tight, huge, thick and tracks incredibly fast.

I did swap the JJ preamp tubes before playing this morning so not sure how much that changed things but last night playing I felt it was just missing a lot of high end/upper mid clarity like a blanket over the cabs and boxy sounding but my suspicion is that was just the nature of it at low volume and winding it up just brought it to life. I know amps thrive on volume but this seems to be the worst low volume amp I've played I think. At some point I'll throw the JJ preamps back and compare at proper volume. I don't usually notice significant difference with tube swaps but for info sake I put in the following: V1 Tungsol-V
Click to expand...
Thx for the detailed review. W
MetalHeadMike said:
Played the 1992 original last night at low/moderate volume and thought...meh...wasn't impressed. Then this morning played it at volume with guitar straight in to the lead ch no boost...I am utterly stunned. I instantly started chugging out those early days Machine Head type riffs for like 2 hrs without coming up for air. Then boosted the crunch ch with a fortin 808...again stunned. I think this may be the most growling/snarling most pissed off amp I've ever played. Some would say it has that cocked wah sound, but to me that's what gives it that growl/snarl in the way that I think only a 5150 does.

There is something really magical happening in the power amp section too that is translating to the cab and the room, not sure how to explain it but its almost like there's a hint of reverb but not reverb, really hard to put to words but its quite incredible whatever its doing. And the tone and feel is super organic which surprised me because I expected a typical filtered down neutered high gain tone, not at all, really rich, warm, but stupid grinding and hyper aggressive. I love tight amps and set a certain way this thing can be almost too tight, still immense and thick and sounds incredible, but just hard/revealing to play like a Wizard or Fryette. I needed to grease it up and once dialed with a tad more gain and the right eq its really juicy, tight, huge, thick and tracks incredibly fast.

I did swap the JJ preamp tubes before playing this morning so not sure how much that changed things but last night playing I felt it was just missing a lot of high end/upper mid clarity like a blanket over the cabs and boxy sounding but my suspicion is that was just the nature of it at low volume and winding it up just brought it to life. I know amps thrive on volume but this seems to be the worst low volume amp I've played I think. At some point I'll throw the JJ preamps back and compare at proper volume. I don't usually notice significant difference with tube swaps but for info sake I put in the following: V1 Tungsol-V2 China 12ax7B-V3 Bejing 6n4 square getter-V4 China 12ax7B-V5 Sovtek LPS.
Click to expand...
Thx for the detailed review. Can I ask which do you prefer reissue 6505 or EVH iii stealth??
 
Inflames said:
Thx for the detailed review. W

Thx for the detailed review. Can I ask which do you prefer reissue 6505 or EVH iii stealth??
Click to expand...
Never owned the stealth, just the OG 100w and 50w 5153 but that was like 12 years ago.
 
Nice score. I had two of them back in the day & foolishly sold both.

In 2021 I bought a first gen 2x12 combo, and swore this time I’d learned my lesson and would be holding onto it. Recently I picked up a 50w 6L6 5150 III, which does a lot of what I love about the OG. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it though.
 
cobrahead1030 said:
Nice score. I had two of them back in the day & foolishly sold both.

In 2021 I bought a first gen 2x12 combo, and swore this time I’d learned my lesson and would be holding onto it. Recently I picked up a 50w 6L6 5150 III, which does a lot of what I love about the OG. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it though.
Click to expand...
Same boat. Had a few of the OG heads for years. Now I just have a 50w, that kinda does the thing.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
Played the 1992 original last night at low/moderate volume and thought...meh...wasn't impressed. Then this morning played it at volume with guitar straight in to the lead ch no boost...I am utterly stunned. I instantly started chugging out those early days Machine Head type riffs for like 2 hrs without coming up for air. Then boosted the crunch ch with a fortin 808...again stunned. I think this may be the most growling/snarling most pissed off amp I've ever played. Some would say it has that cocked wah sound, but to me that's what gives it that growl/snarl in the way that I think only a 5150 does.

There is something really magical happening in the power amp section too that is translating to the cab and the room, not sure how to explain it but its almost like there's a hint of reverb but not reverb, really hard to put to words but its quite incredible whatever its doing. And the tone and feel is super organic which surprised me because I expected a typical filtered down neutered high gain tone, not at all, really rich, warm, but stupid grinding and hyper aggressive. I love tight amps and set a certain way this thing can be almost too tight, still immense and thick and sounds incredible, but just hard/revealing to play like a Wizard or Fryette. I needed to grease it up and once dialed with a tad more gain and the right eq its really juicy, tight, huge, thick and tracks incredibly fast.

I did swap the JJ preamp tubes before playing this morning so not sure how much that changed things but last night playing I felt it was just missing a lot of high end/upper mid clarity like a blanket over the cabs and boxy sounding but my suspicion is that was just the nature of it at low volume and winding it up just brought it to life. I know amps thrive on volume but this seems to be the worst low volume amp I've played I think. At some point I'll throw the JJ preamps back and compare at proper volume. I don't usually notice significant difference with tube swaps but for info sake I put in the following: V1 Tungsol-V2 China 12ax7B-V3 Bejing 6n4 square getter-V4 China 12ax7B-V5 Sovtek LPS.
Click to expand...
They have to be cranked.

Sadly I wished on the '92 they would have fixed the master volume, had they done it would fix the volume issue.

One thing I did back in the day for home practice with the OG, I ran a Quadraverb in the loop as that was my main delay for decades lol but for home use I could crank the amp at normal gig/rehearsal/recording levels and just back the output down. Sounded great. Straight up if Peavey had fixed the master I would have already bought one.

Look online for a passive volume attenuator for the loop, you can find them cheap or stick a volume pedal in the loop. Works fine.
 
napalmdeath said:
Check this local deal out.

View attachment 460093
Click to expand...
Lots of haters on those cabs and speakers, I loved them with my OG's, the XXX and the JSX back in the day. I had 3 of them, two straights I used for rehearsals and live gigs when I could get away with 2 4x12's and I had a slant that I used at gigs with smaller stages so I could hear myself back in the day.
 
jabps said:
They have to be cranked.

Sadly I wished on the '92 they would have fixed the master volume, had they done it would fix the volume issue.

One thing I did back in the day for home practice with the OG, I ran a Quadraverb in the loop as that was my main delay for decades lol but for home use I could crank the amp at normal gig/rehearsal/recording levels and just back the output down. Sounded great. Straight up if Peavey had fixed the master I would have already bought one.

Look online for a passive volume attenuator for the loop, you can find them cheap or stick a volume pedal in the loop. Works fine.
Click to expand...
Do you know if peavey used linear or audio taper pots on the master volume?

I have read that Lar Mar PPIMV additions are somewhat popular on the OG 5150s.
 
jabps said:
They have to be cranked.

Sadly I wished on the '92 they would have fixed the master volume, had they done it would fix the volume issue.

One thing I did back in the day for home practice with the OG, I ran a Quadraverb in the loop as that was my main delay for decades lol but for home use I could crank the amp at normal gig/rehearsal/recording levels and just back the output down. Sounded great. Straight up if Peavey had fixed the master I would have already bought one.

Look online for a passive volume attenuator for the loop, you can find them cheap or stick a volume pedal in the loop. Works fine.
Click to expand...

I used an EQ pedal in the loop for more tweaking, but also for better volume control.
 
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