5150III 1x12" 50-watt Tube Combo Amp with EL34 Tubes Review

This amp is a beast with some history.

TL/DR- great amp, great price. Well hey there heavy metal amp. This is an interesting thing, as the evolution of technology fascinates me. This is an excellent example of evolution of an amp circuit, the internet has a ton of info on how these came about. This amp circuit started out as a Peavey Butcher in the mid 80's, which quickly evolved into the VTM. Both single channel… read more lead amps that were Peavey's 6L6 answer to the Marshall Plexi and Marshall JCM 800 both EL34 based. They called them Mississippi Marshalls. Peavey at the time was known for durable and affordable amps. Like everyone had one at one point. It was what you bought when you couldn't afford a Marshall and you wanted loud tubes that got the job done. Then they evolved into the Ultra/ Triumph series and added 2 and then 3 channels. Similar tone stack with the improvements to the VTM and Butcher sounds. And then Eddie Van Halen, who had been playing heavily modded Marshalls decided to design an amp with Peavey based on the circuit, thus the first the 5150. All 6L6 powered. Van Halen left Peavey when his agreement was up (they renamed the 5150 to the 6505 series and kept making it), he took the amp to Fender and the ultimately produced the 5150iii, which like the older Ultra series has 3 channels (at least the current iteration- so you can have a clean channel, a crunch channel, and a lead channel) which was his final iteration. This on has EL34s instead of 6L6s, and sounds more like the Marshalls that inspired the amps that lead to this in the first place (the modded Van Halen JCM 800's). Clean is really good, with range from crisp to warm gainy bluesy. Crunchy shares eq with the clean channel, and sounds crisp and very much sounds like its VTM/Ultra forbears but with refinements of repeated tinkering. The lead channel is a lot of gain. Like noise gate gain if you are using active humbuckers and want it at more than 5 or 6. But even with the gain up, it is defined sounding. The EL34's make this a bit more British sounding, as intended, mids are rounder and a bit softer. With an eq box that can be dialed out (but really if you want the tighter hiagh and low and scopped mids, get the 6L6 one) just as you can dial them in on the other model. Overall its very versatile in terms of the tones you can get out of it, with an emphasis on high gain, but also decent for classic rock, etc. The digital reverb is fair. Its nothing to go crazy over, but it is way more pronounced than the reverb on the DSL Marshalls, so you can jack it up and have it be very present in the tone. Overall, this is a great amp and well worth the money.

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EVH EL34 5150 III 1x12" 50-watt Tube Combo Amp

I concur that this Amp delivers the goods and the customer service was awesome. Highly recommended!

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