Just drove 5.5 hours and back to pay $600 for a 120 watt 5150 II head and matching straight cab.  Didn't need it. But friend of the family had her husband clean out the bank account and take off with no notice - she needed money for gas and food, adn Christmas presents for the kids.

Thing really thumps.  Does anyone know if my Peavey 412MS cab will sit on the 5150 cab?  Might get to tick off a bucket list item and play a full stack.

For the record, the Peavey 412MS will nto fit on top of the 5150 cab - the recesses for the wheels are slightly off.

Take the wheels off and just sit it on top of the other cab. Also, if they're the type that attaches with 4 screws and don't have a foot in the cab that they screw into, they can be repositioned.

And congrats!

Thanks for the ideas.  I'm getting old, so I'm partial to having the wheels.  I can still hook them both up - just can't stack them for right now.  So my old solid state head sits on one, and the tube head sits on the other.

For the record, this thing sounds awesome.  Will probably have to repair the edge of the back of the cabinet, which has a chunk missing and some torn tolex, but it is all cosmetic, and I am enjoying the heck out this ....

Yeah 5150s have great tone and are so friggin versatile. When you have the chance, have the bias mod done to it, assuming it hasn't already been done to it. It'll allow you to warm it up to proper levels and will make it sound even better, because from the factory, most Peaveys including 5150/6505 amps have an extremely cold fixed bias.

I don't think I will ever be able to turn this thing up enough to get output tube distortion even if it gets biased hotter.  The amount of gain from the pre-amp is off the charts.

Also, I may be the only guitar player in Christendom that likes the Sheffield speakers.  They sound as good to me as any recommended alternative.

You don't have to turn it up to hear the difference. Cold bias sounds more brittle at about any volume.

And the Sheffields are good. They're right in there with any of the Eminence British voiced speakers (had a few and still have a few). Heck, they might have been made by Eminence for all I know.

Edit: looked it up, Eminence does make them. I guess the 1200s are copies of the Greenbacks in EVH's favorite Marshall cab.

So you would say that a hotter bias on these makes them sound "warmer"?  I will look into it.  From what I have read, it is just a resistor change.  Will probably do that when I re-tube it.  It sounds great right now, but I don't know what tubes are in it, or how many hours are on them, so I will probably end up pulling these down the road for a matched quad of "something" before one of these lets go - unless I can find someone local with a tube tester to check these out and give me a clean bill of health.

I also have a rack-mount Peavey Classic 120, which should also have a matched quad of 6L6, but again, got it used and have no idea how many hours are on them.

Footswitch for these has three functions - channel, crunch mode for clean channel, and effects loop.  So instead of a mono or stereo 1/4" plug, it has a 7 pin DIN-style connector.  Found an aftermarket source for $45 shipped, with cable - which was HALF of what I could find anywhere else.  Got it in last night and it works great - appears to just be the Peavey footswitch without the word "Peavey" on it.

Haven't really played guitar seriously since 2001, so this is kinda getting me back into it.

As to the speakers, I *LIKE* Scorpions, Sheffields, and Black Widows.   I think a lot of guitarists "hear" their cabs with their eyes by judging them based on the brand name, and same for speakers.  Some Marshall cabs are great, aand some of them are cheap crap with cheap chinese clone speakers in them.  I worked at Frontier Music in Lawton in the late 90's, so I got to try a lot of stuff.  Never understood the hate for Peavey and Crate.

I'd have to look it up, but yeah, the main part of the mod is replacing the bias resistor with a potentiometer so you can adjust the bias to the optimum setting. It would be handy to run banana sockets off of the pins to make it easier to hook up your multimeter.

And I agree that guitarists tend to hear with their eyes. And yeah, those cheaper Marshall cabs are made out of MDF. But I would argue that the Celestion Seventy/80 is underrated. It's a fairly flat speaker, so it can be a bit of a chameleon that can mimic other more popular speakers with some EQ tweaks.

But Crate? Some of their amps really do suck. Back in the '80s in the heyday of the Blue Voodoo, they used the cheapest no-name caps & resistors money could buy. But, if a guy goes through one and replaces the caps with good ones, such as real orange drops, it makes a big difference.

And Peavey has also been known to use cheap components, and in the case of their rectifier circuits, inadequate diodes that eventually fry. But that stuff can be fixed fairly easily if you're handy with a soldering iron.

I actually have one of the Celestion 80's in my Peavey 412MS cab.  Bottom 2 speakers had the dog piddle on them, they got replaced with one Peavey XXX sheffield and one Celestion 80 that Sweetwater was selling for $30 ea as open box pulls.  Can't tell much difference when running it wiht the other 3, but it has a rep of being good to use with modellers.

Great deal!  I am working on getting a VTM 60 tomorrow.  

Output tubes are "winged C" SEDs..   Iguess they are supposed to be good tubes.  I don't know if they came stock in it.

Cool!  Head or combo?

VTM mod via DIP switches.

I have heard they are good too, but TBH most power amp tubes don't live at that ragged edge where it might matter.   I had a 6505+ combo and when I first got it a friend and I did get a tiny bit of power amp distortion by diming the power amp gain and only the tiniest bit of preamp gain.  It was kick you in the chest loud.



VTM 60 head, and if I buy it I'll check out that info about the switches.

Sweet.  What cab will you run it through?

Probably try my Marshall 1960A that has 2 v30s and 2 T75s in an x pattern first.  Else I have a Soldano 212 with Eminence Legend V1216s or a G-flex cab with 2 EVM 12Ls.

I've read about the X-pattern fitment, but never tried it.

Here it is with most of the collection in my basement (except my 5150v3 that is in my living room).
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How is the 5150 II with two 412s?

SED Winged Cs are badass. They were the original Svetlana brfore Electro-Harmonix screwed them out of their name and were probably the best modern production tubes made, until they went out of business. And since they've been in such a cold biased amp, they're probably still good.

And congrats on the VTM60, Jakezor. I've had a VTM120 since I was 16. Great amps. They're based on the JCM800 circuit and the dip switches are for switching in and out the various mods that were popular back in the day, including some of the Jose mods.

Honestly - I haven't tried it yet.  The other 412 is a Peavey 412MS, and normally my Fender M-80 Chorus head sits on it - that was my big amp until I got the 5150 II.  I also have a Peavey Classic 120 power amp and a Tubefex and Rockmaster pre-amps which were relics form when I was considering going totally rack-mount.  When I mess with those, they also use the 412MS.

I did fire up the 5150 II in the garage with its matching cabinet - paint peeling loud.   Definately needs a noise gate.

One of the knocks I read on line about the 5150 II is that the "lead channel doesn't have as much gain as the original 5150".  Seriously it still has more than you can use.

I love it so far.

Make a wooden cradle to nest on the top of the cab that will also nest the feet/wheels of the head, paint it the appropriate color and - voila! Safe, secure stacking!

Nope.  Stock tubes were Ruby in the 5150 II

Great minds think alike.  I'm thinking a grid made out of 2X4, with edges that just go over the top of the cab, painted black.

Thanks for the info.  These winged C's sound really, really good.

Yes. Although a little routing might be in order to make a snug fit. But I was thinking smaller than 2x4 in hardwoods, more like a ships grate, with enlarged framing around it to hold both cab and head snugly together.
At any rate, we do what we can with what we've got.

Anyone see the DV-77 from Eminence?  I'm tempted to get 2 to put in a 2x12 with this VTM.  They seem to be like a v30 without any fizz on the topend.

How does the 5150 II compare to the original 5150 212 Combo?  I wish I never got rid of mine.......

Haven't seen those, but I've had their Governor, Legend V12, and CV75, all of which are in the V30 vein. The Governors were ok, the V12s were pretty good, but I like the CV75 the best of the three. Eminence tends to have something in the low mids that I don't like, but the CV75s don't seem to have it, and like their other V30-ish speakers, they're not as obnoxious in the mids and have a smoother top end. Good speakers.

From what I read, a little bit better clean channel, slightly less (but still insane) amount of gain on the lead channel, separate presence and resonance controls for the clean channel, lost the lo-gain input jack, can now switch clean channel to boast/crunch mode with footswitch.

If you are on the hunt for one, be advised, the 5150 is now made by Peavey as the 6505, and the 5250 II is the 6505+. They had to stop using ht e"5150" moniker when EVH left.

5150 II/6505+ has two sets of EQ controls so rhythm and lead get their own too.

So a friend has the matching straight cabinet to my 412MS slant cab, and wants to sell it for $100, but I don't really need a third 412.

That just means its time for another head!

I don't think I can justify THREE half-stacks when I'm not even in a band right now.

Didn't really want to start a new thread, but got the DV-77s and the Eminence 212 today, will hook them up after work.


So far this is a great value cab $199 + tax since it was shipped to a local Eminence dealer.  It is 3/4" ply all around, t nuts on speakers and removable rear piece too.  Painted black everywhere, serious it's like they dipped the damn thing.  Two sets of speaker mounting holes for the different patterns.  3/4 or 1" machine screws included too.
https://www.eminence.com/speakers/ext-cab-detail/?model=XTC212_BT
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I also got one of the limited edition signed speakers as well.  Both included some 7 signature picks too, sorry didn't take a pick of that.  They look like the small Jazz IIIs with hella grip on them.
https://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=DV_77
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Eminence makes *great* cabs.  I had a pair of ported 2x12s until I went digital.  They were amazingly full and tight - and they weren't crazy directional like most guitar cabs.  Highly recommended!