I have a peavy 5150 II head with a 4X10 cab and a play with gibson flying V with emg pickups. I use a boss GT6 to get certain effects such as a slight compression, gate, reverb, chorus, and eq. but only very little. It actually sounds pretty good. However i want to get rid of the GT6 and use just a few select pedals and i am looking for a heavy sound like chimaira and machine head.

First, i have an extra rack mount Rane equalizer that i am not using for my PA system. I am wondering if anyone knows if i can come outta the peavy head, into the equalizer, then into the cabinet. I dont understand if this will mess up the ohms or anything.

Second, can anyone suggest some distortion pedals or other effects i can use to beef up the 5150.

Distortion? Probably the Digitech "Death Metal" distortion. The Boss Metal Zone doesn't have enough balls for me.

The rest I can't help you with. It looks like there are a few typos in your post, so I'm not sure if I'm reading it correctly. Your best bet is to go to a local music store and ask them to be sure.

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You dont need a fucking distortion pedal.... you have a 5150

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honestly? why the hell would you spend the money on a 5150 II if you are going to use distortion pedals.... really... it's like wiping before you shit.... doesnt make any sense ....

so forget the pedal....
if you want more beefiness, use a sonic maximizer, parametric eq, aural exciter, or graphic eq type unit in the fx loop....

you don't want the eq after the head, that would probably destroy something... put it in the fx loop of the head...

for pedals, i don't like digitech stomps... to limiting, all the controlls, lack something....
they're stompbox's trying to emulate other stomp boxes.... which doesnt make any sense.... i can see a pedal or digital unit emulating something like a $2,000 boutique head... but a $90 pedal emulating a dod death metal pedal or boss metalzone.... pathetic....

boss pedals are usually good, well built and most sound good(non distortion types), they're reasonably priced too.... there are better, but it'll usually cost you... boss seems to be the standard in quality rigs...

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ive been considering a 5150II lately... not a bad amp at all. but just get a graphic and a BBE 362 and your good to go... or get it modded.

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the bias mod for a 5150 or 5150 II will improve the cleans alot... also, the mk II mod has a pretty unique sound, not so much better or worse, just different, which is great to get away from the generic 5150 sound.... because everybody uses them these days...

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And don't forget to switch out your stock pre-amp tubes and get some good ones instead (JJs, sovteks, or electroharmonix). Sound improvement is amazing.

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ok
there is no way you need a distortion pedal on the 5150 II. It has more gain than you can use already.

I have a 5150 head, but I never use the clean channel,. So you say that the bias mod will improve the clean, but will improve the lead channel?

I have Groovetubes in the pre-amp, all the tubes changed to Groovetubes, so I think it sounds pretty good. But will the bias mod give me a better distortion sound???

Ive explained the bias mod way too many times, use search.

http://metaltabs.com/forum/search.php?

gracias

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it mostly improves then clean... but the lead channel is still improved too... bls has explained it before...

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Actually there's a way to use the equalizer, and it can be done the same way Eddie does (or at least did at some point in the 90's). The way Eddie did was to have the guitar into the 5150 head, then the full-power output with the desired amp-tone went into some sort of power attenuator (they had rigged up something weird, it wasn't THD or Marshall), and then the signal went to some effect units. After that it went into a poweramp and the speakers. At least this is they way Eddie's guitar tech explained it in some magazine.

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that's not possible to send the speaker outs on a 5150 into an eq and have it work.... even with an attenuator.
if he sent a line out(like a preamp out) from the 5150 and skipped the the poweramp of the head maybe....
otherwise it pretty much has to be before the 5150 or in the fx loop.

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No man, I'm telling you I've got it right here on paper, an interview with Eddie's tech!

"It's most important that the effects enhance the signal AFTER the output stage of the guitar amp, not before. That way, the dry sound of the amplifier remains the foundation of your tone, and the tonal characteristics of the power amp section aren't lost.

So we bridge the signal from the amplifier's speaker output by putting it through a Palmer speaker simulator. The Palmer is basically a glorified thru-box, and it's only real function is steal enough signal off the speaker output of the 5150 to feed the effects a line level signal. The signan makes its way through the effects to the last effect's output stage. From there it goes to a power amp, which then goes to the cabinets."

That's the way they've done.

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I've got GT-12ax7-M Mullard reissue preamp tubes and GT-6ca7-GE output tubes in my JCM 800 and they scream.

The v1 slot is what affects tone the most so if you're short on cash, at least buy one for that tube socket.

Put those in and get yourself an ADA 3TM MP-1 and a BBE Sonic Maximizer and you'll have all the distortion, gain, boost you'll ever need. Guaranteed.

Whatever output tubes you get if any, get the amp biased for them. They will last a lot longer. (Don't know if the 5150 can be biased or not)
JJs, sovteks, or electroharmonix are good. I hear the 9th generation Chinese tubes are okay too.

well, that's completely different with what you were saying...
it's pretty much not using the 5150 for powerampflication... running the line out to a cab simulator into a poweramp.
i don't think he ment speaker outs... because it just isnt possible... a simple eq unit can handle a load like that.

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Well i figured it out. You can run straight from the head, into and eq, and then into the cab. Thats way too much power for the eq to handle. The best thing i have found is to get a sonic maximizer of some kind and an eq and run then through the effects loop. It is incredible how much this can shape your sound and get it exactly the way you want it.

In addition to this, if you want the 5150 to be a metal amp, you have to get it modified. Most importantly you have to make a wider bias. Peavey purposely makes a narrow bias range because they have certain warranty issues they have to accomodate such as the live span of the tubes. Also there are a few other bias modifications guys do to these amps that make them sound better. This site has all the info. http://members.aol.com/fjamods/FJAMods.html

um.... no, you can't...

told ya.


you don't have to do anything to make a 5150 a metal amp except turn it on...
mods are great if you really want to find the amps true potential.... but stock 5150's are pleny metal, even with shitty stock preamp tubes and a cold bias.

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