Origin of the Peavey 5150/6505 - VTM or SLO?

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CurlOfTheBurl

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I've read/heard that the Peavey 5150 was the next stage of evolution of the VTM series. The VTM is essentially a Marshall MV circuit with a bunch of mods that can be turned on/off using the dip switches.

But then I've heard that the 5150 is a shameless copy of the Soldano SLO in many respects. The Soldano SLO is supposedly inspired by the Mesa Mark II and Fender Bassman (which is also the inspiration of the original Marshall JTM-45).

These lineage stories don't really add up to me. What's the truth (or are they both true in a way I'm not seeing)?
 
SLO is more like a modded JCM800 with an extra gain stage and a stiffer, more linear power amp. Not that much in common with a mark II.
 
This could be all marketing hype, EVH wanted Peavey to beat his current setup at the time, which was a Soldano SLO slaved into a Marshall head for EL34 power section.

He tried all the amps at Peavey and said the only one he thought was decent was the VTM.

The 5150 is based around the SLO, with tweaks by EVH and James Brown, and came out around 1991-2. I’d call it a poor man’s SLO.

He tried to make a better clean channel and thus the combo was born in 1995. Then, in 1998, the 5150II with its nasally midrange and better clean channel was released. Supposedly, the crunch channel in that amp is based around the EVH Plexi, as told to me by a Peavey rep, Marshall Madden, at the time, but again, could be pure conjecture.

Soon thereafter, EVHs and Peavey’s contract ran out and they parted ways
 
VTM is supposedly an 800 with a Jose type mod; dip switches to mold the tone.
 
CurlOfTheBurl said:
These lineage stories don't really add up to me. What's the truth (or are they both true in a way I'm not seeing)?
Click to expand...

The DR and 5150 both rip off the SLO lead channel shamelessly. There are some different switches here and there, the other channel is different, the power amps are different. It's really obvious in a schematic because the SLO has some idiosyncrasies that are very unlikely to replicate in a different circuit by random chance. It's clear both amps were designed after someone with an electronics background took apart a SLO and went through it in detail.

Everyone, including Peavey, had an amp that was a Marshall 2203/2204 copy, but with additions - frequently more gain. The SLO falls right in line with that trend, as Mike was modding Marshalls earlier, and it's pretty clear he just took those mods and did a full-up design of his own. It's not a 2203 copy, but definitely influenced by it. So, the claim that the 5150 is an evolution from their VTM isn't completely BS, but also sounds like an attempt to obfuscate what they did lift from Soldano.

There's no similarities between the SLO and a Boogie MK-anything. I don't know why that rumor circulates. Perhaps, if "inspired" means "I plugged into one and thought I'd like that much gain out of a Marshall" or something like that......????
 
The Soldano was the first to use a 39K cold clipping cathode resistor. This is an oddball size and speculated to be an accident iirc
You will find the same 39K in Mesa rectifiers and peavey/evh 5150/6505 variants which is a blatant rip off
That being said they all differ in other areas of the preamp circuit as well as power amp enough to make them fairly different/unique soundwise
 
5150 has more gain stages and tweeks but that 39K cathode is there..

JB talks about the process on TT

 
PLX said:
FWIW, James Brown says they started with a Peavey "Butcher" and went from there.

Click to expand...

I am no expert, but I guess hardly anyone in the business would ever confess in ripping off someone’s circuits lol
 
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A trainwreck express uses a 10k clipper but it is far from a jcm800.
I’m sure the 39k used in other amps isn’t a coincidence, but it takes more than one cathode to say an amp is a copy
 
At 10:30 in that video they talk about the legendary prototype amp Jose built for Ed, that went missing.

:cool:
 
Aynirar27 said:
A trainwreck express uses a 10k clipper but it is far from a jcm800.
I’m sure the 39k used in other amps isn’t a coincidence, but it takes more than one cathode to say an amp is a copy
Click to expand...
Dave Friedman somewhere in THIS video confirms that DR is a ripoff. I don’t know if that is enough though.
 
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