The History of the Peavey 5150
Explore how Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar amp changed the sound of hard rock and metal music.
The late Eddie Van Halen changed the sound of heavy rock guitar not once, but twice.
First in 1978 with his stock 100-watt 1968 Marshall Super Lead — with the help of a Variac — he created a never-before-heard searing, aggressive tone that sent a generation of guitarists and amp builders on the hunt to capture his elusive "brown sound."
Then in 1992, Van Halen shocked the world with his own signature amp, the Peavey 5150. Instead of simply cloning his original Marshall tones, Van Halen forged a new path, designing an amp with even more aggressive sounds, capable of extreme tones that quickly made it the de facto amp for metal guitarists looking to inflict maximum sonic punishment.
Here, we examine the origins of the Peavey 5150 and detail how it went from a concept to a staple in modern heavy metal genres.
From Marshall to Soldano
Although he used his Marshall Super Lead on every legendary VH album up to 1988's OU812, Van Halen began searching for a new guitar sound — allegedly brought on by the fading performance of his original Marshall.
After discovering pioneering boutique amp builder Mike Soldano, Van Halen became interested in Soldano's flagship SLO-100 amp.
Featuring cascaded gain stages, master volume and a 6L6-powered output section (as opposed to EVH's Marshall which was loaded with Sylvania 6CA7's — a common swap for EL34s), the Soldano SLO-100 was a modern high-gain monster, going far beyond the distortion capabilities of a vintage Marshall, with copious amounts of rich preamp gain and a more refined distortion sound.
Used extensively on 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, the SLO-100 seemed like the perfect amp to usher in a new era of Van Halen’s sound.
But ultimately, the Soldano SLO-100 would simply become a testing ground for an entirely new signature amp, the Peavey 5150.
The Peavey 5150 Arrives
Released in 1992, and designed by EVH and Peavey's lead engineer at the time, James Brown, the first “block'' logo Peavey 5150 featured a prominent EVH on the amp's control panel.
However, pro audio giant EV claimed logo infringement, so Peavey updated the design to feature Eddie’s signature instead. These are known as "Script" logo models.
The 5150 featured four 6L6 power tubes, five 12AX7 preamp tubes, dual channels and High/Normal gain inputs.
"The 5150 doesn't sound like the tone that Eddie Van Halen is so well-known for,” explains Tore Mogensen, Senior Manager of Guitar Products at Universal Audio.
“When it came out, I was expecting this hot-rodded Marshall kind of thing, and it sounds nothing like that.”
What surprised players the most, perhaps, was the insane amount of gain available from the 5150.
“Back then, if you wanted to play metal, you could get a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier or Marshall JCM 800 and use some pedals,” says Mogensen. “But the 5150 sounded awesome right out of the box, like nothing we'd heard before. It was a game-changer for many bands."
Another welcome feature on the 5150 was its resonance control, letting you dial in a tighter, yet still bludgeoning low end — especially with a 4x12 cab. It also allows for a big bottom when playing the amp at low volumes.
"The resonance control on a 5150 is essentially a presence control but for the low end," says Mogenson. "One problem with getting a proper tight metal tone is dialing away some low end. With the resonance control, you could just dial it back and remove all the unwanted stuff, creating a big, muscular sound crucial for metal."
"The 5150 was the last guitar amp that had a massive impact."
— Tore Mogensen
The Shredder’s Delight
While the 5150 was more than capable of blistering high gain sounds, it took time to become known for the bone-crushing metal tones that it’s so widely used for today.
Along with EVH, early adopters of the amp included Joe Satriani and Buckethead. These virtuosic guitar players made use of the amp’s thick saturation, sustain, and “scooped” sound to elevate their high-octane styles.
The Choice for Multiple Metal Genres
Machine Head's 1994 masterpiece, Burn My Eyes turned the underground metal world onto the dynamic, sledgehammer tones of the Peavey 5150.
Soon the Peavey 5150 came to define many of the underground metal subgenres that were quickly gaining momentum.
One such movement was evolving in Sweden, where bands like In Flames took elements of the heaviest American bands and combined them with soaring melodic riffs — and the unmistakable character of the Peavey 5150.
Peavey 5150: A Modern Metal Classic
While Van Halen and James Brown eventually parted ways with Peavey in 2004, Peavey continued to manufacture the 5150 and 5150 II under the 6505 and 6505+ titles respectively.
Along with its lasting influence on rock and heavy metal, the 5150 almost single-handedly started the “djent” movement — a genre whose sound relies almost exclusively on running an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a noise gate in front of a Peavey 5150.
This setup tightens the 5150's already taught low end for detuned 7-string guitars, and pushes the mids forward, making for extreme, punishing tones.
Post-Metal giants Gojira famously use it for their huge prog-fueled riffs, while Metalcore innovators like Knocked Loose and Code Orange use 5150s both in the studio and on stage.
"The 5150 was the last guitar amp that had a massive impact" says Mogenson. "It's remarkable how many of them you still see to this day, defining the metal guitar sound across generations."
— Austin Lyons