PEAVEY

6505 1992 Original

- ART THOMPSON

HOW TIME FLIES! It's been 30 years since the introduction of the Peavey 6505, a high-gain tube head that was a fixture of the 1990s modern metal scene and beyond. Now it's back in the guise of the 6505 1992 Original, on review here.

The 120-watt head is a two-channel (dual-mode) affair with Rhythm and Lead channels, and it carries five 12AX7s in the preamp section and four 6L6GCs in the output stage. Its Tolex-covered birch-ply cabinet has perforated steel grilles front and back, and metal corner protectors. The steel chassis contains most of the components on a large PCB, which is connected to smaller boards that hold the preamp and power tube sockets and the rear-panel jacks and switches.

It's easy to navigate the control layout, which starts from the left with high- and low-gain inputs, a Rhythm pre-gain control, and accompanying Bright and Crunch switches, a Lead pre-gain control and three knobs for the passive low, mid and high EQ, which are shared by both channels. Next in line are the Rhythm post-gain and Lead post-gain controls, and a set of global resonance and presence knobs.

On the rear panel is a voltage selector (100, 115, 220 and 240 volts) and a complement of 14-inch jacks for effects loop send and return, preamp out, and the included two-button foot switch for channel-select and FX loop on/off. There are two speaker jacks along with an impedance selector for 16-, eight- and four-ohm loads.