6534 Amp

[Nitro Express]

You can get that anywhere.. there's a kit by Metropolous you can buy and assemble from parts for $1000, or a really good one ready to go for $1600 by Goodsell that's a dead-on 68 plexi.

Also, there's that David Brey guy who mods any chassis with a Plexi board and trannys.. "exact copies" are literally everywhere, and where they are not you can modify.

My dad and I used to built Heathkit stuff when I was a kid. My dad actually built a color television which was a huge project. I ordered a Metropolous kit and my dad hand wired the whole thing beautifully and it was the last thing he built before he passed away so that amp is pretty special to me. Yeah, they are a good company.

Marshall is a legendary company and I must point out they are still family owned as is Peavey. Jim Marshall and Hartley Peavey are the last of the old guard and neither sold out. Both companies have made their fair share of mistakes and have had some bum products but overall they are still the real deal. Look at what has happened to the others who have sold out. Just a brand name usually with a lot of debt attached and marketing people and finance people wanting to maximize profit.

[Nitro Express]

At your age, just save up and get a JCM900 - it's the same chassis from the JCM800, workable to modify into a Plexi circuit.

You should find one in functional condition around $450 - 650 depending on how maintained its condition.

Another candidate is anything older, or a Plexi reissue of later years, used about $800 and up.

I wouldn't recommend newer amps than a 95, their pots are just crap, trannies are shit and everythings' a circuitboard assembly. Doubt me just look on youtube, lotsa guys show their chassis and demo those amps, their not what the fancy badge purports em to be. It's one thing to get the fancy badge into your bedroom, you think "ah it's gonna sound great" then start grabbing at straws for reasons to compromise why it doesn't.

People hated the JCM900 amps when they came out. You would hear all this "It's not a real Marshall" talk. I bought one brand spanking new for $600. The store couldn't sell them and just wanted to cut their losses . Marshall was using 5881 tubes because the sources of good EL-34 tubes in the 90's had dried up and people wanted a more metal sound anyways. It's just that people were buying Mesa Boogies and not Marshalls for that.

But then I heard the same when the JCM 800's came out. Not a real Marshall and people were horrified to find they had diodes in the preamp to clip the signal. Now they are considered classic amps because Slash plays them.

So there's a lot of mumbo jumbo. Play it, if it sounds good then enjoy.

[Nitro Express]

My 5050 II has huge transformers. I was looking at the Fender 5150 III and it's transformers were smaller. The 5150 III is a decent sounding amp but it's overpriced and I'm not sure if the build quality is as good as the Peavey. The new EVH amp is made in Mexico and my experience with some of the newer Fender amps is the pots and connectors aren't the best.

[ELVIS]

Hmmm...

Splawn can make ANY Marshall sound just how you want it...

[GAR]

But then I heard the same when the JCM 800's came out.

Friend of mine bought a GC sale stack new, xmas 1985 for $999. Unbelievable deal even by today's standards, JCM800 100w, 1960A 1960B cabs both 300w..

He didn't do too bad, took the head to Mike Moron for a Blackmore-type "bass boost" he called it $85 additional. Played it a decade without changing the tubes, never a problem.

That's the kind of amp you want, right there as an intermediate player, before you move up to high-performance / high-maintenance tube-eater which I'd like to have someday but am not up to playing skill to justify the expense.

Although I must admit, I do find the Boogie Mark5 head very flexible and stable, for $2000.00

[Nitro Express]

I picked up a new JTM 45 reissue for $200 new when Musician's Friend sold it's retail stores to Guitar Center. They were clearing out the inventory.

[Nitro Express]

I've played through so many different amps and owned so many over the years. For a high end amp, I think I would go with a Soldano. I really like those amps and they are well built.

[VanHalenFan5150]

So there's a lot of mumbo jumbo. Play it, if it sounds good then enjoy.

Exactly, man. I've played plenty of amps before, and I like them all, pretty much, but nothing adds up to the total tube breakup of a classic Marshall stack, which i've had the luxury to play cranked out when nobody was around at Sam Ash. I will always cherish that pseudo-orgasmic, mindblowing tone that I procured out of that amp, and that Ibanez RG350 that day.

[GAR]

I've played through so many different amps and owned so many over the years. For a high end amp, I think I would go with a Soldano. I really like those amps and they are well built.

Nobody that's owned a Soldano head has said they were unhappy with it. That being said, I've chosen NOT to own one for the reason that I'm willling to have custom engineering done on a used amp.

Not everyone has the time or patience to do that I know. But it's not like I knew how to do that when I first started, and it took alot of effort and technical reading-up to understand what terms to use with a tech in order to have the tone I have now. And I think this 6534 head sounds really good in the clip, more to my tone and more to what I've liked than any other Peavey amp they've ever made, and all here know how I hated the 5150 so this is interesting to me.

Buying a Peavey is about budget watt-per-buck, always has been. But with this amp it seems they get it with all the features, and the tone is a very different one. Really thick and full-sounding, I can tell immediately.

[Nitro Express]

I've been playing around with my 6534 for a few days and it's perfect. It needs no tweaking. It's good for clean, crunch, and high gain and has a lot of variety in the EQ. The resonance allows you to be thick and chunky or tighten it up. It's no one trick pony and if I could have just one amp, this would be it. It's sounds really good with a Marshall cab. I think this is the best Peavey amp I've played ever.

[GAR]

One thing it lacks, is a good sparkly-clean sound from what I gathered off the video.

Is that not the case? It has a clean sound sure, but it's not close enough to a classic Fender clean is it...

[Nitro Express]

One thing it lacks, is a good sparkly-clean sound from what I gathered off the video.

Is that not the case? It has a clean sound sure, but it's not close enough to a classic Fender clean is it...

It's kind of like a Marshall. It can go clean, it can sound beautiful clean but it's no classic Fender. I might have to plug it into an open back cab with some different speakers and see what it sounds like. Even with a good clean amp they don't sound the best through a closed back 4x12.

[GAR]

EL34's were designed to provide greater gain than the 6L6 at the time, but that inherent soft harmonic distortion characteristic paired with Celestion speakers means you're not going to do much better than a JMP-type amp when it's dialed down in gain and volume and everything else.

Then again, if you're main focus is benchmarking as close to the first 6 VH albums anyways, you're probably not focused on clean to begin with. You can get clean in many type of amps, solid-state or tube.. but it's way more difficult to get a refined dark distortion with good overtones such as this amp. This may be a winner for Peavey.

[ELVIS]

My Fender amps retain the classic clean tone plugged into any cabinet...

It's not the speakers...

[Nitro Express]

EL34's were designed to provide greater gain than the 6L6 at the time, but that inherent soft harmonic distortion characteristic paired with Celestion speakers means you're not going to do much better than a JMP-type amp when it's dialed down in gain and volume and everything else.

Then again, if you're main focus is benchmarking as close to the first 6 VH albums anyways, you're probably not focused on clean to begin with. You can get clean in many type of amps, solid-state or tube.. but it's way more difficult to get a refined dark distortion with good overtones such as this amp. This may be a winner for Peavey.

Actually neither the EL-34 or 6L6 were designed to clip. That isn't what the engineers at Phillips had in mind at all. The EL-34 was designed to be an inexpensive consumer grade tube that took up less space than a 6L6 but put out the same power. What happened was amp builders like Leo Fender followed the basic RCA schematics for the power amp but made up their own preamp which tended to overload the power amp early. When guitars players would turn up past half they would get some dirt. Then Ken Bran at Marshall copied Fender's fucked up circuit with British parts and a magical mistake happened. Actually making a distortion free tube amp was expensive. McIntosh Labs made tube amps that would go full volume with no distortion but they were far from cheap. In the old days they didn't want distortion because it was the sign of a cheap amp and transformers.

[Nitro Express]

My Fender amps retain the classic clean tone plugged into any cabinet...

It's not the speakers...

Really? I have a Bassman copy and the speakers make a huge difference. Especially, turning it up into a sealed cab, all the sparkly brilliance goes to shit.

[Nitro Express]

Actually Ken Bran copied a fucked up preamp design and fucked it up more by making a signal splitter that resulted in crossover distortion. Put a Marshall on an ocilliscope and you will see a little ridge on the sin wave. A Fender won't have this unless the bias current set too low. You can dial it out on a Fender but you can't on a Marshall. It's part of the Marshall sound and they do it on purpose but originally it was a Ken Bran fuckup.

The amps the British technically go right were the Hi Watt amps. No mistakes in those and the original ones were beautifully wired. But electric guitar is all about fucking up in a good way.

[Nitro Express]

I never play a clean amp anyways. What I like about Soldanos or the Peavey 6505 o 6534 is I can dial in my classic amp distortion sound and clean it up with the volume knob on the guitar. I don't switch channels to go to clean. I use the high gain channel as a boost. 99% of the time I'm in the crunch channel and I do tend and that's a combination of pre-amp to power-amp ratios.

[GAR]

The top rate is 17.5% just now so 7% higher than your sales tax.

A lot of stuff like food, energy, books, stuff for kids is 0%.

An amp would be 17.5% plus there would be import duties but it's still weird.

Import duty from China to California for fully-assembled guitars is 5.5%, if you have the necks off 'em you save 1/2%.

[GAR]

I can dial in my classic amp distortion sound and clean it up with the volume knob on the guitar.

That's the way it ought to be!

[Coyote]

But Marshall isn't a letdown when it comes to signature amps, you see. Not only that, but they are one of the most trusted names in the business...

Although, a Laney will eat one for breakfast.

[jhale667]

Although, a Laney will eat one for breakfast.

As will a Mesa Mark anything... (Rectos don't count....lol) My Mark III's middle and lead channels still clean up with the volume knob (to varying degrees of course) and you still have the option of the pristine Fender-esque clean channel.

[GAR]

Coyote is absolutely correct!

[ELVIS]

Really? I have a Bassman copy and the speakers make a huge difference. Especially, turning it up into a sealed cab, all the sparkly brilliance goes to shit.

The speakers may muffle the high end a bit and break up at high volume but the clean output signal stays the same...

A Bassman isn't known for sparkling highs like a Twin is, rather they break up early and have nice lows and mids...

[Diamondjimi]

I'll take a Fender Deluxe any day over a Twin. Have yet to play through one I like...

[ELVIS]

I have three Deluxes...

[GAR]

Why 3, just collecting?

[ELVIS]

I have a blonde and a green that I use together and a sunburst that I bought because it looks awesome and it was cheap...

[ELVIS]

I like the Deluxe because it's small enough to take places easily and they sound BIG!

I get plenty of volume with two...

[GAR]

Which one do you use for worship.. blonde?

[Nitro Express]

I have a modded Dual Showman. It used to be my bass amp.

[Nitro Express]

I have the 2x15 cab, so it doubled at a bass or guitar rig. It got the job done.

[Nitro Express]

The Deluxe is probably one of the best blues amps ever made. I love the way they get the right amount of raunch when you dial them up. Want some more dirt just load the front end with a peddle. For a small club 50, watts is about all you need and with a PA you can get away with less.

[Nitro Express]

Fuck! I mean a pedal.

[ELVIS]

[ELVIS]

The Deluxe amps sound similar to my '73 Super Lead, believe it or not...

[ELVIS]

Which one do you use for worship.. blonde?

I haven't been going to church as much, but I want to get back into the worship...

[Diamondjimi]

I like the Deluxe because it's small enough to take places easily and they sound BIG!

I get plenty of volume with two...

Do you run them in stereo or dual mono?

[GAR]

For a small club 50, watts is about all you need and with a PA you can get away with less.

I hear that from every soundman. I still like the looks on their face when you roll up with a wall of cabinets: "You can't do that."

Oh yes we did..

[ELVIS]

Stereo!

I still use my trusty ADA MP1