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Which is tighter and thicker.... 5150 or 5150 II???


Meatbeard

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I really want to pick one up in great shape here soon. Ive played both, but, its been a while. I remember the II being a tad more marshally voiced in comparison. I know theres alot of player out there. Suggestions??? Any really nice ones for sale in the 750-800 range???

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Boost it with an SD-1 or Bad Monkey and even with the bass turned up on the amp it'll still be tight! Now you're got tight and thick!!

FTW!!



i think the I is too loose for metal but perfect for making a dense soundscape. i really dont feel it was tight enough for riffing, but since i dont riff, it was perfect for me :thu: maybe your playing style is conducive to tight tones from the I but i couldnt get a tone tight enough for riffing if i wanted to

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I think the I can be tight. I hated mine for a long time, until I figured out how to get it clear and tight. Mainly preamp tubes, and bias. But, with EMGs, I can get a Fear Factory type tight tone. But, I agree it was mushy forever, and I couldnt stand it.

Also, using boosts is another way. I couldnt play mine without boosts forever, and now I go back and forth. Of course, with a good boost it can be really tight also.

So, it can be tight, but its kind of on the verge of being too mushy. You gotta be picky about pickups, boosts, EQs, Tubes, etc...

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I think the I can be tight. I hated mine for a long time, until I figured out how to get it clear and tight. Mainly preamp tubes, and bias. But, with EMGs, I can get a Fear Factory type tight tone. But, I agree it was mushy forever, and I couldnt stand it.


Also, using boosts is another way. I couldnt play mine without boosts forever, and now I go back and forth. Of course, with a good boost it can be really tight also.


So, it can be tight, but its kind of on the verge of being too mushy. You gotta be picky about pickups, boosts, EQs, Tubes, etc...



i played it with a jb equipped mahogany guitar, it had like 17 year old tubes, and no boost.

man that was loose and thick :p

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The 5150 has more gain, it's thicker, and it can get more saturated. The 5150II has a little more headroom and less gain which makes it tighter and more open sounding, it's brighter too. This all applies to the lead channel.
The rhythm channel of the 5150II has quite a bit less gain giving it a better clean and a lower gain crunch channel.
Jerry

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The 5150 has more gain, it's thicker, and it can get more saturated. The 5150II has a little more headroom and less gain which makes it tighter and more open sounding, it's brighter too. This all applies to the lead channel.

The rhythm channel of the 5150II has quite a bit less gain giving it a better clean and a lower gain crunch channel.

Jerry



Yes Jerry but, which one brings teh broootals!:freak:

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Two things that I have found make a huge difference in the sound you get out of the 5150 are the pickups in your guitar and which input you plug into.

The amp certainly doesn't sound bad with passive pickups, but I personally think it sounds better (tighter and clearer) with an EMG equipped guitar than it does with any of the passive pickups that I have heard through it.

Every time I hear someone refer to the 5150 as a "can of bees", I have to wonder if any of them actually had to the god given sense to plug into the "normal" input on the amp. There are two inputs on the 5150, one labeled "normal" and one labeled "high". Seeing as the 5150 produces far more gain than anyone could possibly need, it's completely unneccesary to plug into the "high" input. If you plug into the "normal" input, there are still gobs and gobs of gain on tap, but it's far tighter and clearer than when you plug into the "high" input. You still have plenty of chunk, balls, gain, burn, etc. but you lose the excessive fuzz that is a common complaint.

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i played it with a jb equipped mahogany guitar, it had like 17 year old tubes, and no boost.


man that was loose and thick
:p

Yeah, no wonder, lol.

I had mine running on 2 tubes, with the bias cranked up, passive pickups, etc.. it was pure crap, lol.


As far as pickups, its been awhile since I have had a variety of them. My Gibson 500T and 498T works pretty well. I used to have a lot of Dimarzio back in the day which worked well.

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