Use īoth the 5150 and the 6505 are well known for their high gain overdrive channel, and have seen widespread use by rock, hardcore and metal guitarists. having a more forgiving sonic range than similarly 'hot-biased' configurations. Commonly described as an analog to a car engine and its respective idle, the 5150 bias was set to a lower value (lower engine 'idle') which resulted in the Power Tubes running at a lower energy commonly known as 'cold-biased.' This configuration supposedly resulted in a more controllable gain setting (i.e. 17), and five 12AX7 Tubes in the preamplifier staging (with one as a phase inverter).Ī defining attribute largely responsible for the 5150 sound is the fixed bias. Initially, the Peavey 5150 I shipped with four Sylvania 6L6 Power Tubes this was later changed to Ruby Tube 6L6 Power Tubes, when Peavey's Sylvania supply was exhausted (per James Brown, 'Tone-Talk', Ep. This design and implementation allowed the individual components to carry themselves (such as by placing the transformer so as to ensure acoustical integrity by minimizing transconductance), in addition to commonizing the system's ground by way of a multilayer PCB, thereby avoiding a large source of unwanted nuances in most poorly grounded musical applications. While the product was designed around a centered printed circuit board (PCB), its cascading five preamps (actually four preamplifiers and one phase inverter) and four gain stages were implemented in a very simple manner. The 5150 was inspired by the cranked Marshall plexi tones of Eddie Van Halen and designed to provide high gain saturation as well as a clean channel. The 5150 has been widely used in metal and is renowned for its high gain distortion and character. Peavey has since released several other versions of this amplifier.

ĭesign of the amplifier began in 1990 and it became a flagship project for Peavey and for then lead engineer James Brown (who has since founded Amptweaker ), lasting for about 13 years, comprising the 51 II, until 2004. The 5150 name was used again by Van Halen in partnership with Fender under the EVH brand in 20.

After Van Halen and Peavey parted ways in 2004, the name was changed to Peavey 6505 in celebration of Peavey's 40th anniversary (1965–2005). The amplifier was initially created as a signature model for Eddie Van Halen. The Peavey 5150 is a vacuum tube based guitar amplifier made by Peavey Electronics from 1992 on. Eddie van Halen playing in front of a wall of EVH 5150 amps and cabs, 2012.

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