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NAD: 5153 Mini - Video Inside


Mizati20

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Hey guys... she's finally here... and WOW... this little thing is just absolutely KILLER... they really knocked it out of the park with this thing in my opinion...

 

I made a demo video of the head... however I didn't have nearly enough time to load all the HD video into iMovie, edit, export it, then upload it... so I just hit record and went until the 10 minute limit set on the camera was up... everything is there, mistakes and all... i'll do a small written review here...

 

Channel 1 - Everything here from super sparkling to mild overdrive... I'm not super picky about my cleans... but I'll be honest I was pretty concerned after reading about the shared EQ, and the huge volume difference between channels 1 and 2... and well... it's definitely there, there's no denying it... however my Gmajor II has proved vital with this head... it has allowed me to bump up the volume of the clean channel, and the compressor has allowed me to smooth things over as well so I can reach high enough gain settings for a really good rhythm tone...

 

Channel 2 - IMO the best channel on the head... honestly it reminds me a LOT of my VH-4's I've owned in the past, which is pretty crazy to say... this channel just has more girth to it than channel 3... PLENTY of gain and saturation... for those people who don't care about a clean tone... I would imagine they would live on this channel and channel 3...

 

Channel 3 - By FAR the most gain I've ever seen on ANY amp... it's kind of ridiculous actually... I have the gain set on 3 in the video... and I haven't even bothered going any higher... this channel isn't as "big" sounding per se... but it has TONS of presence and top end, making it an excellent lead channel, the amount of saturation allows for really smooth lead tones...

 

The volume issue on channels 1 and 2 is a pretty big deal IMO... if I didn't own a Gmajor II it would probably be a deal breaker for me... as one of my bands I play in a really need a CLEAN, clean channel... thankfully I did enough research and knew what I was getting myself into, however my main band doesn't need much clean, so that's a good thing...

 

My favorite thing about the head has to be the EQ section, there is SO much of every frequency... I don't like when I own a piece of equipment and I have to max out a knob to get the desired tone I want... with this head I actually find myself dialing back almost every knob... just because each one does SO much... small EQ changes yield massive changes... there is a seemingly endless amount of presence, mid, treble, bass, gain, everything to be had... and the resonance control on the back has a huge effect on the overall "size" of the sound...

 

Anyway... hope you guys enjoy the video... it ended up clipping a little, so I apologize for that... any questions about the head I will be happy to answer...

 

Setup is the 5153 mini, Gmajor II running in the loop, switched with a Tech 21 MIDI Moose... awesome little setup...

 

Oh and there is no noise gate on in the video... mine hasn't come in yet, aside from hiss on the 3rd channel just because it has SO much gain... the head is really quiet...

 

[video=youtube;lFxPOOK5bpA]

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Channel 2 sounds awesome dude
:love:

if the clean channel thing was an issue why didn't you just get the full sized head?

 

I knew it was a "known" issue... but I wasn't too concerned about it as I knew i'd be able to get a handle on it with the Gmajor II... plus I wanted something smaller... lighter... and the biggest reason is the MIDI integration... ever since I bought my first Diezel years ago I've been really spoiled with MIDI... I hate tap dancing... and like in this video... I can go from a clean sound, with Chorus, Delay, Reverb and Compression... to a lead sound with completely different effects with the push of a single button... hard to beat to be honest... thanks for watching guys!

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Good point, I didn't realize the full sized 5153 didn't have MIDI.


The Gmaj can do channel switching though, just saying
:p

 

True, but I believe it can only switch back and forth to two channels, and the head has to have external switching jacks... but in addition to that... that's just another cable to plug in, with just a single midi cable I can do all the channel and effect switching...

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Good point, I didn't realize the full sized 5153 didn't have MIDI.


The Gmaj can do channel switching though, just saying
:p

 

True, but I believe it can only switch back and forth to two channels, and the head has to have external switching jacks... but in addition to that... that's just another cable to plug in, with just a single midi cable I can do all the channel and effect switching...

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Sounds good. What speakers are you using? Can you get a good "brown sound" / Classic Rock tone out of it?

 

 

Cab is loaded with stock Celestion 75's... and to be honest I don't play anything like that... so I can't even answer that question... I can't imagine channel 2 not being able to cop just about every sound you could need tho...

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Im about to pull the trigger on a 50 watt 5150 myself.

Question for you, the Gmaj2 switches channels via midi for you without any other gear or is the midi moose switching the channels?

Would I be able to do the same thing with a GSP1101? Or would I need something like a amp gizmo for that?

Sorry im a midi noob

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Im about to pull the trigger on a 50 watt 5150 myself.

Question for you, the Gmaj2 switches channels via midi for you without any other gear or is the midi moose switching the channels?

Would I be able to do the same thing with a GSP1101? Or would I need something like a amp gizmo for that?

Sorry im a midi noob

 

 

It has midi input to switch via any midi source. IE: Midimouse->GSP->5150III Cheers, Lucius

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Anyone know if a M9 can switch the 5150III 50 watt channels?

 

 

Not sure about the M9... I'm pretty sure you need an amp gizmo for switching channels with that unit though... as the do multiple demos with that unit on the RJM website...

 

As far as the GSP unit... that will work fine... I'm actually going into the Gmajor first... because the 5153 doesn't have a Midi "thru" port... just an "In"...so I'm going into the Gmajor, and then using the Gmajor's "thru" output to plug into the amps midi input... if you have any specific questions give me a shout brother...

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