amps suck!!!!!!!

[VoiceX3]

What's it doing?

Well Pete, it's like the gain and volume controls forgot what they're supposed to do. I almost never use the clean channel, so I don't know how f'd up it is, but the distortion channel does this.

Pre Gain - normally the pre stage, not on my amp. It's now a very dirty master volume control. (not distorted so to say, just dirty)

Post Gain - Normally the channel's volume, again, not on my amp. With the volume off, the gain is a creamy fuzzy distortion. Turn it to 5 and it cleans up to the dirty loud sound, then on 10 the volume goes back down and the same sound as it was on zero comes back.

It got to the point where I was gonna tie it to the back of my car and do a "mercy killing" but my other guitarrist stopped me.

Contact Jerry P. http://www.fjamods.com/Contact.html

He's like 4-ish hours from where you're at and I'm sure he'd help you troubleshoot over e-mail / the phone.

Thanks for the heads up, I've never heard of him.

Yup! He's THE guy to go to for 5150's. He's got a lot of good reviews. On the west-coast, there is a guy in Oregon called Bob and he runs a company called Eurotubes. Hey, guess what "fja" stands for ..."F**kin Jerry Approved" :ROTF:

I already spoke to Bob who said he'd look it over if I sent it out but that He'd never heard of a 5150 doing that either.

[emperor_black]

BTW, I seem to have forgotten (or maybe I never knew)...why did EVH decide to call it the 5150?

[jgcable]

I wouldn't rely on a soundman to make a Spyder 2 amp sound good live. Especially if your other guitar player is using a VHT Ultralead.
The band I saw that had the Spyder 2 also had it mic'd. It sounded thin, buzzy, fake and it had no balls at all.
I would get your 5150 fixed and stay away from the Spyder for live use. Home is fine. Live... NOPE.

[Firebird V]

I was in a cover band a few years back and the other guitar player had a spyder. When I brought my Amp down and we played he got lost. He was a good player too. He ended up quitting the band because they wanted him to by something that he would not get killed in the mix with. It was a good amp with only one guitar player though. The other side is that he had tons of problems with it cutting in and out. It was a first generation Spider though so I would hope they fixed that problem. I would suggest a used Flextone series maybe if you are going that route. Maybe an old randall head too. They can be had cheap and are SS... John has a point though too. It might be cheaper to get the 5150 head fixed...

[cerealkiller]

BTW, I seem to have forgotten (or maybe I never knew)...why did EVH decide to call it the 5150?

I think he took that from the police code for escaped mental patient, "5150".

[MBreinin]

Fix the 5150. Sell the 5150. Buy a Boogie MkIII head for roughly the same money. Enjoy trouble free tones ranging from Fender clean to brutality.

Mike

[emperor_black]

Buy a Boogie MkIII head for roughly the same money.

I would be pleasantly surprised if that statement were true. I am watching one selling on eBay right now.

[toejam]

Contact Jerry P. http://www.fjamods.com/Contact.html

He's like 4-ish hours from where you're at and I'm sure he'd help you troubleshoot over e-mail / the phone.

Jerry is also a member here. Trace at Voodoo amps is also a member here and in the NY area.

http://www.voodooamps.com/standardmods.html

[yard dawg]

Dude call every studio in your area and see if there is an equipment rental place nearby. Rent an amp for your needs until the 5150 gets deleivered from its possession. I know here I can rent any kind of amp and the rental co will deleiver it to the gig.

[CharvelRocker]

Dude call every studio in your area and see if there is an equipment rental place nearby. Rent an amp for your needs until the 5150 gets deleivered from its possession. I know here I can rent any kind of amp and the rental co will deleiver it to the gig.

Indeed. Gotten to check the place out yet I mentioned?

[VoiceX3]

Indeed. Gotten to check the place out yet I mentioned?

No, I didn't need to this weekend. A friend of mine loaned me his VHT Pitbull 50 watt head. I am getting the line6 this week and will keep it for my backup and home recording use. I haven't decided where to send the 5150 off to yet. I am gonna fix it for sure.

[VoiceX3]

........AND THE VERDICT IS IN!!!!!


I like it. It wasn't as difficult to figure out as I expected and I already have my 4 sounds programmed in. The Express pedalboard is built really well, and the tuner, which is a little oversensitive, works pretty easily and contrary to popular belief, WILL tune in halfsteps. Anyways I based 2 sounds off the Red Metal "Dual Rectifier" model one has delay for my solo. (the one solo I do...lol) One sound I based off the Green Insane model for more of a grindy distorted sound. The 4th is based on the RED Clean model with added Reverb, Phaser and delay.

It is much more a powerhouse than people would lead you to believe. It cut thru that big bad VHT Ultralead and my bassplayer's ampeg rig practicing at gigging volume without any problems. I am really impressed to say the least....we all were. Me, our other guitarrist and bassist (shredding guitarrist too) hung around after practice taking turns playing while we tweaked the sounds bit by bit. This amp will get me thru just fine until I get the cash to have the 5150 fixed properly and have the bias mod done.

THIS IS WHAT I CALL BANG FOR THE BUCK!

[Rupe]

The other guitar player in my band is using whatever the newest version of the Spyder half stack is (Spyder III?). Although not ideal, he certainly gets a usable tone that still sits nicely in a mix.
I'm not real big on modeling amps, but I think they are a good altenative for a guitarist on a budget.

[dmtnt]

Amps do suck. Racks FTW!

[mjl927]

Amps do suck. Racks FTW!

good luck with the chiropractic payments!!