Peavey 5150

rdf:langString Peavey 5150

rdf:langString The Peavey 5150 is a vacuum tube based guitar amplifier made by Peavey Electronics from 1992 on. The amplifier was initially created as a signature model for Eddie Van Halen. After Van Halen and Peavey parted ways in 2004, the name was changed to Peavey 6505. The 5150 name was used again by Van Halen in partnership with Fender under the EVH brand. Peavey's amplifier was renamed to 6505 in celebration of Peavey's 40th anniversary (1965–2005). Design 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 5150 and 5150 II, until 2004. While the product was designed around a centered printed circuit board (PCB), an aspect sometimes considered "impure" among audiophiles, its cascading five preamps (actually four preamplifiers and one phase inverter) and four gain stages were implemented in a very simple manner. 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. 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. 17), and five 12AX7 Tubes in the preamplifier staging (with one as a phase inverter). A defining attribute largely responsible for the 5150 sound is the fixed bias. 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. having a more forgiving sonic range than similarly "hot-biased" configurations. While able to stand among modern technology as a relatively "simple" design, especially in comparison to boutique "hand-wired" variants, the reliability and era its inception welcomed helped verify its cultural significance in Hard Rock, later Metal, as a unique product with a unique tone. Both 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. An early breakthrough was its use by Colin Richardson and Andy Sneap, two "seminal" British producers of heavy metal; especially Machine Head's Burn My Eyes (1994) helped the 5150 gain a reputation for its sound, which "defined a generation of guitar tone". Other notable artists and producers to use the 5150/6505 include Jason Suecof, Matt Tuck and Dino Cazares.