5150
Eddie Van Halen wanted the 5150 as he had a few different criteria:
- "The Kids" had to be able to buy it
- He wanted to be able to go into a music store anywhere in the developed world and pick up the amp if he needed one for practice/concert/whatever.
James Brown built the 5150 prototype for Eddie using the Marshall Superlead with the Jose Arredondo gain mod as the starting platform.
Jose Arredondo built an amp for Eddie and it was supposed to get sent to James,
Bought SLO-100 and some other amps like Eddies to get him near the sound and give the 5150 the sound Eddie wanted.
DNA of the 5150 does begin in the preamp, with much, or most of the preamp having been lifted from a Soldano SLO-100.
The Block letter came out as "EVH" on the prototype, but ElectroVoice complained that because they were naming their models "EV-A", "EV-B" etc, that "EVH" was diluting their brand. Harley Peavey decided it wouldn't be worth the fight so gave it the name that Eddie often used for his signature, "5150".
The 5150 "I" head version was first launched and sold in 1991.
- Made in USA
The 5150 60-watt combo amp launched in 1994. It includes built-in reverb. There was also a tightness mod that was added to the preamp by James Brown that Eddie liked as this mod prevented the amp from getting muddy as the volume was turned up and as the available headroom was used up.
- Made in USA
The 5150 "II" head version launched somewhere around 1999. This amp included the tightness mod created for the Combo version of the 5150.
- has extra preamp tube
- only 1 imput jack
- separate EQ for each channel
- footswitch toggle between clean/crunch (previously unavailable)
- separate resonance and presence knobs
- Made in USA
40-watt combo created between James Brown and Eddie - never comes to fruition. James left Peavey, Eddie separates from Peavey.
- 6505 / 6505+ (2004)
2007 Eddie starts the EVH company and partners with Fender for the "EVH 5150 III" - All are made in Mexico
2009 - Peavey moves some of their manufacturing to China, 6505+s start getting made in China.
2012 - EVH 5150 III, but a 50-Watt version.
- Complaint: there are not separate knobs for volume and gain so there can be a large jump in volume when switching channels.
- Some amps made in Vietnam. People had quality issues with the amps made in Vietnam. Currently no 5150-III 50 watt versions are made in Vietnam.
2013 - EVH 5150 III 50-watt Combo amp with two 12" speakers
2014 - EVH 5150 III 50-watt combo amp with one 12" speaker
2015 - Peavey profiled by "Undercover Boss" and shown to be just a disaster of a company. All manufacturing moved from Mississippi to China.
2015 - EVH 5150 III "Lunchbox" 15-watt head released EL-84 tubes, three 12AX7 tubes
2015 - EVH also launches 5150-III "Stealth" all black 100-watt head.
- More gain
- Thicker Low-mids
- Closest to gain levels of the original 5150 but with tightness of 5150-III
- Independent Resonance controls for each of the channels (available on the back of the amp)
2016 - EVH 5150 III - 100 and 50 watt EL-34 versions
- 50 watt has independent volume and gain knobs
2017 - 5150 LBX2 with one fewer preamp tubes
2018 - 5150 III 50-watt 6L6 version revamped, changed the badge and named "6L6" so as to prevent confusion with the 50-watt El-34 version.
- separate gain and volume knobs per channel - fixing problem with previous 50-watt with only single-versions of the gain and volume knobs
Preamp
Preamp tubes are cold-biased so as to enable high gain distortion easily.
