Amp for 80s heavy and hair metal...

[Panos_Stargazer]

Hey guys!!!

I want your opinion on which amp should I choose to play pure 80s heavy metal (Van Halen, Maiden, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P., Dokken, Whitesnake etc)

I am between the Peavey 5150 and 6505...do they have any differences except the name?

I would also want your opinion about the Soldano SLO100 head and the Marshall JCM200 DSL (Dual Super Lead) 100 head

Thank you in advance guys  :)

[Dmoney]

the SLO will cost you about £4000 new in the UK and the only company importing them disgust me.
I have an Avenger and it rocks!

the 5150/6505 are the same amp. They are also great but I find them a little noisey. The circuit is based on the SLO but they execution is different.
The DSL is Marshall's biggest selling amp (I think?). I think it's a decent amp and more reliable than the TSL.

The SLO is going to be great, but it costs and crazy amount more than the other amps (which are also availble at good prices second hand). It should be easy enough to find a 5150/6505 or DSL to try out for yourself.

EDIT: I just spotted you're in greece. Also, 5150's are fine, if the noise is an issue you can use a noise suppressor with them. A lot of people do that.

[Panos_Stargazer]

Hey thanx a lot for your reply!!!

SO we just forget the SLO because of its high cost...and we focus on the 5150 and DSL...Yes definetely I'm going to use an attenuator (I have also the knowledge to make one on my own so I'm not gonna spend more money on that...) because I live in a 5 storey building in the historical centre of Athens (the vast area around Acropolis if you know...) and if I open an 100 Watt amp over 5/10 the neighbours will call the police and they'll be right...so I take my measures from now haha!!!

Well...another question...which cabin with 2 or 4 Celestion Vintage 30 12 inch speakers would you suggest? I'm between some Engl, some Randall and some Diezel ones...

Once again thanks a lot man!!!

[Dmoney]

If you're running a 5150 at lower volumes you probably won't notice the gain hiss so much.

I've own a 6505 and it was built like a tank! I did the adjustable bias mod to it also. stock the valves were idle at about 14mA with 450+ volts on the plate. It sounded good. I thought It was quite noisey when I took it on its last tour but I never tried a lower gain 12AX7 in V1. It has a lot of gain, so it wouldn't really suffer from doing that.

If you make a good attenuator then that will be cool. But the 6505/5150 is still 120watts! to play it 'quiet' you're still not going to be turning the master vol up that much. Too much attenuation in my experience spoils the tone. I'd rather play with -8dB or something and keep the amp volume down. shame you won't be able to crank it!

I've never owned a DSL and I've only used one once. I have a few friends who have had them. They do a modern marshall tone pretty well and i think they are more flexible than the 800's, 900 SLX and high gain MKIII. better than 900 dual reverb. Worth checking out.

The SLO is probably your dream amp if you need Clean/Crunch/HiGain tones and an FX Loop.
If you can find a Soldano Hot Rod 50/100 Plus... that will give you clean and hi gain with an FX Loop, cheaper than the SLO, but still more expensive than the 5150 or DSL.

[Transcend]

Ill chip in with the TSL.

Mine has been very reliable and with getting rid of the cr@ppy marshall rebadged valves and replacing everything with JJS its an absolute tone monster and is extremely versatile and could easily do what you want

[Dmoney]

Ill chip in with the TSL.

Mine has been very reliable and with getting rid of the cr@ppy marshall rebadged valves and replacing everything with JJS its an absolute tone monster and is extremely versatile and could easily do what you want

Cool.
I'd read about them being a bit sketchy. A friend of mine owned one and he was an INCREDIBLE guitarist (god rest his soul). It failed quite a few times. He only used it at home. Ended up trying power conditioners and all sorts of things to stop it from failing.

[HTH AMPS]

the Fender 5150 mkIII would do the tones you're after and they're not crazy expensive either (EUR 1735 from Thomann in Germany)...

http://www.thomann.de/gr/evh_5150.htm

[Dmoney]

if you can test stuff out, you could add this to the list too
http://www.thomann.de/gr/jet_city_amplification_100h_plus.htm

[tekbow]

The SLO is probably your dream amp if you need Clean/Crunch/HiGain tones and an FX Loop.
If you can find a Soldano Hot Rod 50/100 Plus... that will give you clean and hi gain with an FX Loop, cheaper than the SLO, but still more expensive than the 5150 or DSL.

I have an HR50, amazing amp, picked it up for about 800 quid. On the 5150 side i would try and get an actual 5150 and not a 6505. they're not made in the U.S. anymore as far as i know

if you can test stuff out, you could add this to the list too
http://www.thomann.de/gr/jet_city_amplification_100h_plus.htm

and i would go for this over a 5150

[Panos_Stargazer]

if you can test stuff out, you could add this to the list too
http://www.thomann.de/gr/jet_city_amplification_100h_plus.htm

Well...I can't find Jet City Amps here in Greece...

the Fender 5150 mkIII would do the tones you're after and they're not crazy expensive either (EUR 1735 from Thomann in Germany)...

http://www.thomann.de/gr/evh_5150.htm

Well is this amp the same with the old Peavey 5150 or they differ?

THXXX!!!!

PS Do you know any good cabs for the amp?

[tekbow]

if i say trust me on the jet cities would you? lol

they're basically soldano's produced in china. its mike soldano's budget line and by all accounts knock anything in that price bracket out of the water for sound and build quality. i think the only place you can buy online is thomann, and to be fair, and normally i would never say do this, but they may actually be worth buying blind

plenty of clips on rig talk and the soldano forums

[Dmoney]

the Fender 5150 MKIII is a different amp to the older 5150/6505 style and different to the 5150 MKII and 6505+.

I can't really comment on the cab's. I've always got on quite well with marshall cabs containing T75's or V30's. Not really into mesa oversize Vintage30 4x12's though. So someone else might have a better suggestion.

[tekbow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN9xduiMmvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlgfGjVCubk

[hunter]

More a 5150III than a 5150 would fit that bill.

You might also like the Marshall Vintage Modern 100W, great amp for those tones.

A Splawn Quickrod anyways.

If you can afford an SLO100, get that and never look back!

A Cornford Mk50H is also nice for these.

Why not a DSL100, also a great amp. What about the new Marshall AFD100?

Many many nice amps out there. Do you need proper cleans? Loop?

[Afghan Dave]

Go for the Egnater SL2x modular system and be future proof

Check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdc22Y7-d2k