Does anything sound like a Peavey 6505?

gearaddict

I kind of want one of these but £1000 is a lot of money. I guess there's the Bugera clone but I can't quite bring myself to go down that road. Plus, I wouldn't mind something not quite as huge and heavy. I was thinking maybe a Dark Terror style thing - but I think that is tonally quite different.

 

ThePrettyDamned

5150/5153.

Dark terror is very different, looser with a sparkly top end. The Jim root terror is tighter and cleans up better, but is still a different type of sound - a little looser and more classically voiced. Listen to slipknot's 'sulphur' for a good example of the rockerverb sound, and anything by trivium, EVH, bullet for my valentine, machinehead etc for the peavey/EVH sound. It's a versatile amp, so they all sound different but even when machinehead are in drop a, it's noticeably tighter sounding than slipknot in drop a.

The 6505+ combo is great, just needs a speaker upgrade in my opinion. Still quite big and heavy though, you could possibly rehouse it?

Alternatively, how about a 6l6 valve power amp (Peavey did a couple I think) and an Amt p2 preamp? It literally sounds identical when run direct into the 6505 power amp, though a bit different into a solid state power amp.

fretmeister

I've owned a 6505 and the EVH 5150 50W head is much better.

More controllable and still with massive saturation.

£800 new or about £600 used and a bargain

ThePrettyDamned

fretmeister;117618" said:

I've owned a 6505 and the EVH 5150 50W head is much better.

More controllable and still with massive saturation.

£800 new or about £600 used and a bargain

I heard EVH wouldn't let them change the lead channel circuitry, so they're identical. Not sure about the other channels.

I compared the two in a store through the same can (orange 2x12) and couldn't hear the difference (I only used the lead channel though as it's likely the only one I'd use).

ThePrettyDamned

Also, the 5153 50 watt head is a nice size, and is unavailable in head form from Peavey, so *is* a real alternative.

I'm really hoping Peavey update the 6505 to bring a 50 watt head, so long as they don't touch the lead channel...

It'll be nice if it had 2 channels - clean and lead, rather than the half arsed clean, rhythm and lead (which is really crunch and lead with a daft clean option) as it would suit the average punter better, and the best crunch tones come from the lead channel anyway. Imo, obviously.

monquixote

The AMT preamp pedal is meant to be very good.

guitarfishbay

If you want separate channel controls wait until a reasonably priced s/h 100 watt EVH comes around. It is big and heavy, but in terms of tone and flexibility it is the best of the 5150 lineage IMO.

If you are ok with the shared controls I'd go for the EVH 50 watter as it is smaller and lighter, not to mention cheaper.

The curveball choice is the Laney Ironheart head. Same ballpark-ish but a less complex and also a drier tone. It will be cheaper than any 5150 head and can be a serious bargain used. @Drew_fx is on holiday but has both the EVH 50 and the Ironheart 120h, he'll be able to give you a better run down than I can. For my needs I'd pick the IRT120h over the EVH 50 just because you can actually pick your clean volume independently of the rhythm channel. If money was no object I'd probably pick the EVH 100 though.

digitalscream

monquixote said:

The AMT preamp pedal is meant to be very good.

I can personally confirm the truth of this. Not my favourite sound, but it's certainly good

Drew_TNBD

50-watter EVH5150III is good. There are some issues with it, namely the channel 1 and channel 2 volume jump issue. But if you only need two sounds, not a problem - crunch+dist or clean+dist. Works really well.

Lightweight, very loud, and lots of clean headroom.

100-watter would be better if you want a true 3 channel amp.

The Bugera clones are actually pretty good if you get one of the newer ones with the circuit changes; earlier version had heater problems.

lespaulcustom68

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peavey-6505-Amplifier-/261356419829?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&var=&hash=item3cda0e7af5
plus another at £200. Head around £600. All on ebay at the moment!