Peavey 5150 vs Marshall JCM800

[Witch Claw]

I'm in the market for a new head and I've narrowed it down to these two amps. Which do you think I should go for ? I play mainly 80s style Heavy Metal.

[t_e_l_e]

depending on which version of jcm800 we are talking about, the 5150 is the more versatile amp, cause its two channels are footswitchable and it has an effects loop

 

both are great amps, personaly i would go for a jcm800, but just my taste of preference and my needs

[Mikeo]

I'm in the market for a new head and I've narrowed it down to these two amps. Which do you think I should go for ? I play mainly 80s style Heavy Metal.

 

Personally I like that Marshall JCM 800's an own one from the 80's the gain is enough for me, but it might not cut it for what you want to do.

I think many of the 80's metal folks either modded these Marshall or pushed the front end with a OD pedal.

 

The 5150 should be a great all around amp. Nice cleans and od. The Marshall can be a one trick pony. What they do they do well.

 

Now I have owned many Mesa Boogie amps, If you are not locked into the Marshall or Peavey amp thing. These are versatile and a great quality build, with a nice compromise between printed circuit board wiring and PTP wire. Kind of like stuff was made in the 70' and early 80's

 

These were very nice. Mesa also make a great ext cab.

 

https://reverb.com/p/mesa-boogie-single-rectifier-solo-head-50?gclid=CjwKCAiAhp_jBRAxEiwAXbniXUq3Qi4HoL12JjyNI0Sdyx1J0dQHDCrAwBSaW-4LPi9y73560EaqBBoCsJAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&hfid=13686532

 

 

Ceriatone 800 are quit nice, old school Marshall amps and are also worth looking into.

https://reverb.com/item/6532570-ceriatone-800-2204-50-watt-2017-black

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CamaroKid2SS]

I'm in the market for a new head and I've narrowed it down to these two amps. Which do you think I should go for ? I play mainly 80s style Heavy Metal.

 

FWIW, If I were you, I would hunt down the Kerry King signature JCM800 and get that. It will definitely satisfy what your looking for. It's an underrated amp I think. On the other hand, you can get 5150's dirt cheap these days so...yeah.

i was thinking, a plain Jane JCM800 even with a boost isn't going to come near that 5150. But it WILL do 80's metal all night.

[Bumhucker]

Either one will work, you can always tweak it with some overdrive and eq pedals.

[Daehtihs]

Both great amps but I think the marshal would have a slight edge in the hard rock territory and the 5150 would have the advantage in the brOOtlz department.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Both great amps but I think the marshal would have a slight edge in the hard rock territory and the 5150 would have the advantage in the brOOtlz department.

 

This.

 

I would personally go with the JCM800, but I've recorded both amps many times - it's hard to go wrong with either one; it just comes down to personal preference and what type of sound and features you want / need. If possible, I'd recommend that you try one of each and then go from there based on which one you like the sound of best.

[WRGKMC]

If you haven't played through either, I'd suggest you do before spending all that cash. you don't want to be guessing when you're spending over a grans and want things to sound good.

 

Eddie Van Halen used a hot rodded Marshall Super Lead head on his first couple of recordings. Live he'd use an attenuator on the head then tap a signal from its outputs to drive multiple SS heads which is turn drove all his cabs. Cant remember the name of the power heads but I'll post the article on it. He also placed some of the effects like echo between the Marshall and power heads so they sound much more driven compared to using them before the amp head.

 

The 5150 amps came out later when he had become famous and could afford to have something like that branded with his name. EVH was big into doing allot of guitar mods but he's not an electronic engineer. He simply had someone design it for him and from what guitarists who use them say, they seem to like the results.

 

Personally I like the others prefer an actual Marsahall, but I don't have much use for the 100W Tube versions. You have to really crank those heads to sound good and I'd much rather push a 50W and get those tones. I played out with one for years and its the ideal club amp. The 100W stuff packed into a small club head banger territory. you really need a big stadium for those amps to sound their best but with the use of pedals you could run them clean at low volumes and get any sound you want.

[Xxflat4faxx]

It really depends what you want to do.

my main rig is a jcm800 2204 50 watt boosted up front.

As mentioned before the jcm 800 2203kk is a real work horse that thing comes with 4 kt88 tubes. It sound huge!

​​​​​​As far as my experience with 5150s I can only speak on behalf of the 6505+ it's a very dark amp but it sits a bit too low in the mix for me. However the mids are very pronounced. Its a very tight amp. Tighter than the jcm800.

what kind of artist from the 80s do you like to get a better idea. I'll try and record my jcm 800 and 6505+ so you can get an idea.

[AJ6stringsting]

The 5150 is far stronger than JCM 800, in the distortion department and the clean channel is better.

Back in 1986, my JCM 800 went capoot, so I got a new 1986 Carvin X-100B to use as my Marshall was being repaired

The drive channel on X-100B was not as strong as the 800, but when I put a Boss distortion pedal in the input, the dynamics blew the 800 out of the water.

The 5150 to me is much like a Carvin X-100B on steroids, you can put a distortion or overdrive pedal and the dynamics are amazing.

You can used different guitars and the special differences between the guitar won't lose their tonal individuality. The 800 seems to kill the dynamics of the guitars.