6505 MH: Mini-Compact Tube-Driven Tone, Guitar Amp with Legendary Tone, Modern Tech and Portability

Rythm channel crunch disengaged: Very good clean sounds. Did not expect it to be this good. Its a real proper clean sound. Very sweet sounding. Readily breaks up (smoothly) with high input signals but quickly and easily turns to semi-prestine clean with just rolling down guitar volume or gain knob or even selecting a low output pickup. Perfect for clean rock verses or with use with drive pedals. Rythm channel in crunch mode: Starts of as a slightly crunchy tweedy kinda blues overdrive, all the way to being a proper high gain solo lead tone, superb for solos of Satriani/Iron Maiden/Malmsteen/Judas Priest/Insert 80s rock solo here. In the middle gain position however it goes from sounding like a well defined crunchy rythm (think Scorpions "rock you like a hurricane" ) to clean with just your guitar volune knob. Incidentally this mid gain position turns pretty clean on crunch button disengaged and on my middle sigle coil pickup. and is very crunchy and overdriven on crunch button engaged (perfect for rythm) on my neck/bridge humbucker. Without changing volumes on guitar. The lead channel has TONES of gain. Gain for miles. Even with gain nob on 2-3 its has enough gain for van halen/satch/via/Yngwie solos. It always has sooo much gain. If you turn the gain up it changes the feel and tone, the gain is so high all the time that the gain knob is more of a tone shaping feature than an actual measure of gain. This amp does VERY heavy metal really well but it's not a heavy metal amp per say. All the youtube videos, no one shows you the exceptionally sweet bluesy, classic rock, hard rock and plain old-school metal (not death metal) this amp can do with excellence. Finally its VERY easy to get a good ton out of this amp, 1 watt really works loud and clear for home, but turn it to 20 watts.. on 20 watts its freakin LOUD.

I don't get why everyone loves it so much. I returned mine, I have a Blackstar tube half stack and the overdrive channel just sounds terrible to me. I'm wanting a good metal tone tone straight from the amp, without having to use amp sims and pedals. This did not do it for me. I currently get good metal tones from a Spark 2 which I run straight into the clean channel of the Blackstar and it works great. I just wanted to see if there was something better. I've tried the Line 6 Pod Go and it's metal tones were terrible also. I'll stay with the Spark amp sims until I find something better.

This is hands down the best mini-head for classic rock. IMO, it is a loud 20 watts that you can gig with in a 3-piece. I used to own a 20W Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket and this is as loud as that, and I gigged fine with a loud 5 piece (rhythm, lead, bass, drums, keyboard). Of course, you can always mic it if your band is too loud. As for the tone, it's is AWESOME. People complain about the clean channel (rhythm) not being Fender, of course not—nothing beats a blackface reverb clean, but it's great as it is. Just keep the pre-gain 12 noon and under, and at 20 watts you have some nice headroom. I like the crunch switch in the clean channel, which adds touch sensitive break up, which is perfect for classic rock and blues. There's also a switch for a Marshall voicing on the rhythm channel, which does a good job of imitation. So for your jazz, blues, and classic rock, the rhythm channel is where you'll live. Now where the amp shines, of course, is the lead channel. Distortion up the wazoo to play ANY style of metal. I won't review that channel because others have already done so. But the lead channel is EXCELLENT. Best metal amp ever. In summary, the Peavey 6505MH is a Jack of All Trades, MASTER OF ALL amp. Get it. Get a good cabinet though. If you play metal you'll want something like the 1x12 closed back Mesa-Boogie Rectifier cabinet, which adds more punch to the mids and bass (I'm assuming you play metal). That cabinet is way heavier than the head, which weighs almost nothing. Before I leave, I have to give Kudos to Amazon Fulfillment. Previous to this amp, I ordered from 3rd party music stores, and TWO AMPS IN A ROW were damaged on arrival. These 3rd party clowns didn't pack the amp well, unlike Amazon, which double boxed the amp. This is The Amp™ to get for practice, home, recording and occasional gigging. 110% recommended.

The amp has overheating problems. According to Peavey is a problem with the design. They are trying to solve the problem, but until they get it, you are buying a hot lottery

According to roger crimm of peavey sales the issues was some early production being biased to hot and the tsi with to low of a threshold for a hot bias. So the tsi was working right but they have better thermocouples now. It's a blast to play , sounds good in all modes . Takes single coils well . Hums and actives crank. I agree with most of the reviewers . But want to add this is a mini low watt el 84 , 3 12 ax7 , it's got all the tricks for a few bucks . Made in China with some overheating issues . I have not had a problem myself . People who drive it hard and long take out the plywood front for more airflow . It's not gonna move a lot of air . It's physically impossible . 84 s are 10 watts apiece , 34 s around the mid 20s . The attentuator is good to have on board but will get hot being inside the case .fx loop , and the outs Xlr , usb. H.p. Dummy load . Fantastic peavey engineering. Let's hope the China factory build is up to the task . I'm amazed at the value.perfect for the girlfriends apartment. And every time I'm back at the practice spot I'm more grateful for the el34,s. I use the standard od into delay on the fx to take out the 5150 fizz and tighten up the bottom . Same same .

I have a Marshall 100W Kerry King head. That thing sounds amazing but you have to have the volume way up to really drive the tubes and get that face melting sound from it. I was looking for something smaller that I could get that sound from at lower volumes. This Peavey was exactly what I needed. It has 3 settings for Wattage..20, 5 and 1. You can get a great sound out of it at any of these settings. It does lose volume at the 1 watt setting but still has a great sound. It has an ohm selector for 8 or 16ohms, good for many cab options. I have this head running into a 4x12 Marshall cab and it has no problem pushing the speakers. The included footswitch is a great addition. The effects loop works without issue as well. I Haven’t used the USB record out function as I don’t have any recording programs. The only issue I have with this is this little sucker gets pretty warm after using it for a while. I have a small fan blowing on the back of it to help get the heat out and it works great.

Es un buen mini amplificador. El tono que obtengas dependerá del gabinete y pedales que utilices. La función de SPEAKER DEFEAT es muy útil para grabar a bajo volumen en casa así como el atenuador. El único problema es el calentamiento extremo debido a que es de bulbos. Después de un par de horas con el post gain arriba de 6 (mucho volumen sin embargo con el atenuador en 1W o las salidas de grabación son niveles normales de uso) en el canal rojo uno de los LEDs de TSI oscila de verde a rojo. Esto se debe a un ajuste alto en el BIAS del amplificador. Es un detalle corregible, sin embargo en México no es algo que sea común de realizar en servicios electrónico. Por lo tanto, para mantenerlo al 100% debes tener a la mano un buen técnico y/o aprender y conseguir algunas herramientas para que los niveles de uso sean los óptimos y realmente sacarle provecho a todo lo que puede ofrecer. Yo lo uso para casa y es más que suficiente y suena muy muy padre, pero si lo quieres usar para tocar en vivo en lugares pequeños o ensayar con banda si debes garantizar que no estará sobrecalentandose y fallando seguido, por lo tanto el ajuste del BIAS es la única opción....

Great amp, the classic tone of its larger sibling in a smaller and quieter package. I had some doubts since el84s don't usually sound as deep but peavey did an amazing job making sure the amp sounded crushing yet retains enough low-end. It really feels like a 6505 instead of a compromise for less volume.

Me parece una muy buena opcion para conseguir un buen sonido de alta ganancia (high gain) que solo se obtiene con bulbos. El amplificador es muy ligero y practico, es ideal para ensayar con tu banda o tocadas pequeñas, ademas de que se ve muy bien. Para tocadas medianas o grandes quiza podria servir si se microfonea la salida a una consola o un master. Para ensayar en tu casa o cuarto sigue siendo muy potente (incluso utilizando el atenuador a 1 watt). Lo conecto a un gabinete pasivo 1x12 con bocina Celestion Greenback y el volumen que me da la perilla despues del nivel 3 es suficientemente alto como para molestar a cualquier vecino y a personas que se encuentren en casa. Le doy 4 estrellas ya que me hubiera gustado que la EQ de los canales fuera independiente y no compartida, porque practicamente es imposible que tu sonido limpio y con distor suene excelente usando los mismos parametros, es el unico pero que le pongo. Existen comentarios en varios foros acerca de problemas de sobre calentamiento de esta unidad al cabo de periodos de mas de 1 o 2 horas. No he podido comprobar si esto tambien ocurre en el mio ya que mis sesiones de uso son mas cortas.

Big sound in the small amp.