• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

Shnook

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 6, 2002
Messages
259
I love what you did with the 5150 Combo. How'd you get in there to do it?
 

nobozos

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
675
Location
Pekin, Illinois
Thanks for the comments. The top on the Axis was just a lucky break. The local Ernie Ball Dealer ordered one and that's what they got. Of course, once I saw it I knew it had to be mine. I traded my 2000 trans-purple Axis and my Washburn Nuno for it.

The stripe job on the combo wasn't that hard at all. Remove the back panel, take out the screw that holds the power cord to the inside of the amp, take the 4 long screws out of the top that secure the electronics tray to the amp and slide it out the back. After that, take the four screws out that hold the "5150" panel onto the amp. About the hardest part is taking out all the staples that hold the grille onto the panel. Once the grille is removed, take off the 5150, and the Peavey placks and start painting. Not that difficult, but time consuming.
 

Jimi D

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
1,962
Location
Ottawa ON
That's a nice Axis nobozos! and I like the 5150 paint job on your 5150 :)

You use a Trademark 10 for a practice amp too, I see... I love mine! ;)
 

nobozos

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
675
Location
Pekin, Illinois
Yeah I actually gig with my Trademark 10. I run a Rapco A/B box with the 5150 on A and the Trademark 10 on B. I use the Trademark 10 for all my clean sounds. I run XLR output to the board, and the sound guy gives it back to me in my monitor.

I tried the Trademark 300 because I thought if the 10 sounded that good, the 300 would sound great. Boy was I wrong. I have figured out quite by accident that if you run your effects send from your Trademark 10 into a tube power amp, and then into a closed cabinet, it is the most awesome sounding amp ever.

At a gig one night, one of the pre-amp tubes on my 5150 took a crap, so with my limited knowledge of electronics, I theorized that if I ran a patch cable from the effects send of the Trademark 10 to the effects return of my 5150 combo, I should be able to use the power section of the 5150 combo with the pre-amp section of the Trademark 10. The results were amazing. First of all, none of the controls on the 5150 were active anymore, all of the volume control was done at the Trademark 10. Secondly, I found that I liked the tone better if I turned the cabinet emulator switch to flat, and let the natural resonance of the 5150 cabinet take over.
The rig in that configuration, I thought, sounded better than the 5150 did stock. The only problem was, I was a little concerned that running my amp that way for long periods of time may damage my 5150, so I had it re-tubed and now I A/B the two amps.
 

hbucker

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 11, 2002
Messages
707
For the record, I'm not an electronics expert either. However, I do know that you won't hurt your 5150 by running another preamp into the "Effects Return" jack. In fact, this is the best way to use an outboard preamp with an existing amp. It bypasses the onboard preamp as you described, so you aren't stacking up your preamps. IMO it sounds better and makes it easier to control the tone and volume with the outboard preamp since the controls on the main amp are bypassed. (The exception to this is when you have active controls on the main amp. I've found they are placed after the loop and then you have two sets of eq's to worry about. Also, Reverb tends to be after the loop but that's not such a big deal.)

When I use my Yamaha DG-Stomp preamp I always use the "Effects Return" jack and I always have excellent results.
 

Shnook

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 6, 2002
Messages
259
nobozos,

Thanks for the info about getting to the 5150 logo on the Combo.
I've got some ideas of my own to put in there, I just couldn't figure how or if it was even possible. Mystery solved! Thanks...
 
Top Bottom