Well, some of you know i have a 6505+, and in rebellion with peaveys reason for changing it, and in commemoration of its roots, (and because i can get any vinyl graphics i want free) i have been contemplating taking the grille off my peavey and applying a vinyl overlay to revert the looks, and the name back to the way peavey originally intended it to look... anyone who knows peavey, knows they only changed it due to some legal shit between them and EVH, and ive heard from a rep himself that if it werent for that they would never have changed the name to begin with... some may say "why not just get the original" well plain and simple, i like new shit.. and i dont trust old shit (when it comes to electronics anyways) so should i change my amps appearance or should i leave it alone? of course im not doing this so i can brag to anyone that i have an original 5150II amp, or anything of that sort... its more like a modification for me... but i wonder what other people would have to say about a mod like this... any input people?

the most common cosmetic mod i see done to the 5150s is to get rid of the wood panel that's behind the metal grille, so that you can see the tubes and such from the front. otherwise, i probably wouldn't bother doing anything with it.

yeah, but i like that faceplate... i dont like having all my innards showing... on some amps it looks good, but they usually have something more than a honeycomb black grille in front... like your ENGL, or soldanos, or the crate blue voodoo.... but amps like fender, marshall, peavey, (except for the valveking) and even mesa all have covered fronts... constricting airflow through the chassis might actually help with keeping the tubes up to a certain temperature... as for the emblems, i talked to peavey and i might actually be able to get the real emblems versus using a vinyl sticker ... i dont really agree with EVH and bull bullshit... the guys a showboat and thinks all too highly of himself.... because of that, he took his copyright on the 5150 name to fender... anyone seen the 5150 III yet? shits fuckin ugly... and as we all know, fender isnt capable of making a real good metal amp... the metalhead was junk...so, because of that... im going to do what i can to mod mine to be what it was meant to be.... hell, if it comes out good, i might market the product myself.... legalities? there arent any... im producing a mod for the 5150's already produced out there.... if someone wants to use them the way i am? no problems with that on my end lol it just bothers me that the law can make someone change a classic piece of art because a jackass like that wanted it to be.... and im a rebel...

more airflow/ventilation around the tubes is actually a good thing.

i would have thought that would cause a problem with their heating... airflow around a hot item is a good thing when you are trying to reduce heat... but i thought tubes work better in high heat scenarios (O_o)

nope.....you want as much ventilation as possible so that they don't overheat....if they get too hot, it'll shorten tube life. the heat they get up to is more dependent on the way the amp's bias is set, and if the bias is set too hot, for example, the metal parts inside the tube will turn red and glow....and that's not a good thing at all.