My 5150 head sounds like shit

[JerryP]

Re: My 5150 head sounds like shit

It could be a microphonic preamp tube or it could be the pickups in the guitar. A noise gate in the loop works great to get rid of the hiss. My lower gain mod helps with the noise a little.
Jerry

[Venomboy]

Re: My 5150 head sounds like shit

He has hiss but it's the howling and feedback that's out of control.

[Sancho]

Re: My 5150 head sounds like shit

Originally posted by JerryP:
I work on a lot of 5150's and I see very little that goes wrong with them. They're one of the most dependable amps out there. There are exceptions to the rule and I'm sure there's a few lemons out there, but for the most part they're solid.
Jerry

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, I know, I'm not dissing 5150 or something. I had one, sold it, then got a new one. I guess the second one was a lemon, cause the first one worked perfectly. But believe me, the second one was a major pain in the ass!

[me wise majic]

Re: My 5150 head sounds like shit

I can't decide if I'm going to (try to) mod mine or just go for something different. How's the 5150 combo at low or lower volumes? I hear a lot that Marshalls suck these days. I played a Soldano HotRod 50 and loved it. Only one channel, but I hardly ever play clean anyway...

[Sancho]

Re: My 5150 head sounds like shit

The 5150 combo sounds buzzy at low volumes. It needs a bit of a push to come to life.
The Marshall TSL60 combo is pretty good, and should sound better at lower volumes. The footswitches on those are crap though! One of the reasons why I sold my TSL.
I didn't think I needed a good clean channel either, so I got a Laney GH100. Great amp, but essentially one-channel + boost.
Guess what, nowadays I find myself playing more and more clean parts and I'm getting tired of fiddling with my guitar's volume real quick. So I'm getting an Engl Ritchie Blackmore. It's something to consider when buying an amp. Sometimes your band dictates the sounds you'll need.