mortega76
Fractal Fanatic
I've been an SS/Digital guy for many years... I first started off with a Valvestate 200 (because I figured that 200 watts was better than 100 watts...), then I moved to a 300 watt Vetta II HD (because I thought 300 watts was better than 200 watts)... now I'm at an Axe-fx Ultra with 500 watts per channel into two Marshall 1960 cabs with G12T-75 and V30's in X-pattern... well my buddy Paul was gracious enough to let me try out his 5150 at practice last night... he hooked it all up for me and we initially had it setup through the 16 ohm input and it sounded very thin and not very loud at all... so we switched it to 4 ohm (both on the amp and cab) and things got immediately louder.
Paul proceeded to setup the amp like he usually sets it up via his Mills Cabs (which at his house through his cabs sounds killer!) But through my stacked cabs (and at the storage room practice facility) it sounded thin and the bass was super loosey goosey... almost like what a guitar with active pickups sounds like when the batteries are about to die. We tried the lead channel first... (with the input on the high gain) and it sounded a bit ice picky and the low end was very flubby... adjusting it made it sound worse sometimes and made it sound better sometimes... so we tried the rhythm channel and it had much more going on in the low-mids area... but adjusting it didn't give it any kind of killer gain/drive. So we were adjusting the knobs back and forth and I wasn't really digging the sound when compared to the Axe-fx... the Axe-fx has (at our practice facility) this immediate clarity and bigger and tighter lows and mids and is much louder with the Peavey PV1500 when we I’ve auditioned with both cabs... I was more impressed with the sound that I've gotten in the past with my Axe-fx.
After about an hour and a half we were going to start practicing... so I asked Paul if we could just run the bottom cab since our percussionist (2nd guitarist) only runs one cab... I wanted to make sure our volumes were all level. We settled on the lead channel of the 5150 and with the volume up about 2 o'clock. We all started playing and it was a completely different animal all together. I was drowning everyone out... I had to turn down to around 11 o'clock and still it was a bit too loud in the band context. Playing with a tube amp for the first time I "felt" the sound of the amp fill the room with a low that I've never heard before. I described it to Paul that it felt like I had a inner tube (the kind you use when you go swimming) around me filled with low/mids... very crazy. The sound when I put my ear to the bottom cab sounded really good in the band mix but when I stood back up to sing it sounded as if the gain had dropped off... very weird. One thing that I immediately noticed was how forgiving the 5150 (or maybe just tube amps in general) is on my playing. I've been used to very unforgiving amps with my Valvestate/Vetta/Axe-fx... I just couldn't make a mistake with these three because you would immediately hear it... whereas with the 5150 it was very forgiving. In a way I like it because it made me a better rhythm player for it (with the SS/Vetta/Axe-fx).
I could feel the low end compression going back and forth with that push/pull that I've heard about so much... I really liked it. With my Axe-fx setup I've always had to turn up to be heard and as I've said, I've never felt any of my SS stuff like I felt the 5150... totally different experience.
The axe-fx is much cleaner and definitely much tighter sounding all around and I could immediately tell that on its own the Axe-fx killed the 5150 at our practice place through my cabs... but where the 5150 totally outshined my Axe-fx setup was in mix of the band. So now hopefully tomorrow Paul will bring over his Axe-fx so we can run the Axe-fx into the power section of the 5150 and see how that sounds. I'm hoping that it will have all the superior clarity and tightness of the Axe-fx with the room filling inner tube sound of the 5150.
P.S. This is not a stab at anyone or any particular gear at all... I'm just sharing my experiences and hopefully someone will benefit from them some way or somehow.
P.S.S. This is how the sound "felt" in the room in a band mix... I just noticed that this might be totally accurate with the "brown sound" of the 5150... :lol: :LOL:
Paul proceeded to setup the amp like he usually sets it up via his Mills Cabs (which at his house through his cabs sounds killer!) But through my stacked cabs (and at the storage room practice facility) it sounded thin and the bass was super loosey goosey... almost like what a guitar with active pickups sounds like when the batteries are about to die. We tried the lead channel first... (with the input on the high gain) and it sounded a bit ice picky and the low end was very flubby... adjusting it made it sound worse sometimes and made it sound better sometimes... so we tried the rhythm channel and it had much more going on in the low-mids area... but adjusting it didn't give it any kind of killer gain/drive. So we were adjusting the knobs back and forth and I wasn't really digging the sound when compared to the Axe-fx... the Axe-fx has (at our practice facility) this immediate clarity and bigger and tighter lows and mids and is much louder with the Peavey PV1500 when we I’ve auditioned with both cabs... I was more impressed with the sound that I've gotten in the past with my Axe-fx.
After about an hour and a half we were going to start practicing... so I asked Paul if we could just run the bottom cab since our percussionist (2nd guitarist) only runs one cab... I wanted to make sure our volumes were all level. We settled on the lead channel of the 5150 and with the volume up about 2 o'clock. We all started playing and it was a completely different animal all together. I was drowning everyone out... I had to turn down to around 11 o'clock and still it was a bit too loud in the band context. Playing with a tube amp for the first time I "felt" the sound of the amp fill the room with a low that I've never heard before. I described it to Paul that it felt like I had a inner tube (the kind you use when you go swimming) around me filled with low/mids... very crazy. The sound when I put my ear to the bottom cab sounded really good in the band mix but when I stood back up to sing it sounded as if the gain had dropped off... very weird. One thing that I immediately noticed was how forgiving the 5150 (or maybe just tube amps in general) is on my playing. I've been used to very unforgiving amps with my Valvestate/Vetta/Axe-fx... I just couldn't make a mistake with these three because you would immediately hear it... whereas with the 5150 it was very forgiving. In a way I like it because it made me a better rhythm player for it (with the SS/Vetta/Axe-fx).
I could feel the low end compression going back and forth with that push/pull that I've heard about so much... I really liked it. With my Axe-fx setup I've always had to turn up to be heard and as I've said, I've never felt any of my SS stuff like I felt the 5150... totally different experience.
The axe-fx is much cleaner and definitely much tighter sounding all around and I could immediately tell that on its own the Axe-fx killed the 5150 at our practice place through my cabs... but where the 5150 totally outshined my Axe-fx setup was in mix of the band. So now hopefully tomorrow Paul will bring over his Axe-fx so we can run the Axe-fx into the power section of the 5150 and see how that sounds. I'm hoping that it will have all the superior clarity and tightness of the Axe-fx with the room filling inner tube sound of the 5150.
P.S. This is not a stab at anyone or any particular gear at all... I'm just sharing my experiences and hopefully someone will benefit from them some way or somehow.
P.S.S. This is how the sound "felt" in the room in a band mix... I just noticed that this might be totally accurate with the "brown sound" of the 5150... :lol: :LOL:
