5150 Amp Head direct AKA dealing with bands

Cannon Fo So · 15th February 2003

So the band I am working with is freinds with this big band on MTV who made a truely amasing sounding record. They keep telling the band I am working with"For your clean sound you GOTTA take the 5150 head DIRECT no cab". I will say straight up I think I took a High Gain head direct once and it was on a cover of that big cardigans hit Love me Love me song to imitate the solo in the 2nd verse and it worked for that but I wouldnt wanna do that 7 days a week for a clean sound. So anyone have any experience doing this? any tips? I haver no problem telling the band that theres more to a sound then the source and to **** off and ill get a great sound otherwise but I wanna be acomadating and pretend I care what they think.

Jay Kahrs · 17th February 2003

Well, since the output tranny of the amp won't be happy without a load you'll have to connect it to some kind of speaker. When you do that take the DI and print both. Then you make the band happy and you'll have a safty that you know will work. Plus, the amp won't melt.

Cannon Fo So · 17th February 2003

Suposedly the amp has a direct out for this purpose. I guess I will find out.
Jesse

out1ear · 17th February 2003

the avalon u5 has a nice feature that might help as well: IT's a speaker in, you just plug in a cab...then out from the cab to the avalon and you can get everything in the chain run as a di signal.

Jay Kahrs · 18th February 2003

Ok, but does the Avalon provide a load for the head? I've got a pair of Whirlwind passive DI's that will take a speaker level input but you still need to loop it back out to a cab. If your using a tube amp there needs to be a load on it. Without a load the output transformer on the amp will burn up and take the tubes and screen resistors and whatever else it damn well feels like along for the ride. I've seen it happen and it ain't pretty or cheap to repair. Sure, take the DI but make sure there's a cab plugged in to the speaker outs.

out1ear · 18th February 2003

you can't plug straight from the head to the di, no. You have to plug out from a cabinet to the di and there is a 400w max. It's switchable on the front panel so it's easy to a/b between a clean direct signal and the speaker thru.

15th February 2003	#1
Cannon Fo So Gear Head Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Montclair,NJ Posts: 60 Thread Starter	5150 Amp Head direct AKA dealing with bands So the band I am working with is freinds with this big band on MTV who made a truely amasing sounding record. They keep telling the band I am working with"For your clean sound you GOTTA take the 5150 head DIRECT no cab". I will say straight up I think I took a High Gain head direct once and it was on a cover of that big cardigans hit Love me Love me song to imitate the solo in the 2nd verse and it worked for that but I wouldnt wanna do that 7 days a week for a clean sound. So anyone have any experience doing this? any tips? I haver no problem telling the band that theres more to a sound then the source and to **** off and ill get a great sound otherwise but I wanna be acomadating and pretend I care what they think.

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17th February 2003	#3
Cannon Fo So Gear Head Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Montclair,NJ Posts: 60 Thread Starter	Suposedly the amp has a direct out for this purpose. I guess I will find out. Jesse

17th February 2003	#4
out1ear Gear maniac Joined: Jan 2003 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 263	the avalon u5 has a nice feature that might help as well: IT's a speaker in, you just plug in a cab...then out from the cab to the avalon and you can get everything in the chain run as a di signal.

18th February 2003	#5
Jay Kahrs One with big hooves Joined: May 2002 Location: Earth, NYC metro Posts: 5,899	Ok, but does the Avalon provide a load for the head? I've got a pair of Whirlwind passive DI's that will take a speaker level input but you still need to loop it back out to a cab. If your using a tube amp there needs to be a load on it. Without a load the output transformer on the amp will burn up and take the tubes and screen resistors and whatever else it damn well feels like along for the ride. I've seen it happen and it ain't pretty or cheap to repair. Sure, take the DI but make sure there's a cab plugged in to the speaker outs.