5150III 2x12" 50-watt Tube Combo Amp - Ivory Review

NO BAD SETTINGS

I bought this amp to be a high gain counterpart to my Fender Delux Reverb but was totaly blowy away by the clean cnannel. Heck the blue channel can hold it's own against jsut about any hight gain amplifier out there but Eddy gave a middle finger to the competetion with that red channel! And knowing he's not with us any more I really feel his spirit in the room when I crank this… read more amp up. I have the 2x12 combo sitting on top of the 2x12 extension cab for a 50w half stack. With the built in attenuator I can practice with it all night and then rock it on stage with a loud band behind me and it has no trouble at all. I've mic'd this amp up in the studio and it even sounds fantastic on record/digital. Some have complaned about the noise and yes it is a bit noisy at high vol's on the blue and red channel but honestly my fender delux reverb is noisy if I crank it up so I don't know what they were expecting. F'ing jam on man and you won't hear the noise at all! (Unless you suck! haha JK) Or get a noise gate pedal to quiet it down during those idle moments. Or kick it over to the clean channel and use the gain nob as a base boost at low guitar vol settings this amp has a beautiful sound, quiet, clean & rich. This is a enjoyably useable amp at all settings and at the price point is a complete steal. Buy one before they go and discontinue it.

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Tone for days

Good grief I love this amp! All three channels are so darn on-point. The clean channel sounds very good and add a little reverb and it sounds great. Turn up the gain on the green channel and it's time to rock and roll. The blue channel delivers palm-muting metal crunch. It's not called the crunch channel for nothing. The red channel is a little too gained out for rhythm but… read more it sounds awesome for lead work. I'm a big fan of the reverb on this unit - add a little reverb to the red channel and look out!I plug directly into this amp, no overdrive needed. I have a BE-OD pedal that has done great for me in other applications but I can't come up with a single combo of settings on the pedal that makes the amp sound better than it does plugged in directly. I do hear some of the noise other reviewers have mentioned but it's not a distraction. A noise gate would take care of it, but I have played this amp for four months without feeling the need to buy a noise gate.This amp plays beautifully at apartment volumes. You can play this amp and it will sound great without getting the cops called. But you can blow out your windows with this thing too.So the real question you're asking is (for $) whether you will giggle a little inside when you plug in and flip on the standby switch? Heck yes!This amp only got 4.5 stars because the original unit I bought died after a couple months. One afternoon the electronics simply wouldn't turn on. Sweetwater made the exchange process as easy as it could have been and the replacement has been flawless. Buy with confidence from Sweetwater.

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Great amp.

Exactly what I was looking for. Many times I've looked at buying another amp then decide, "no my EVH has it covered."

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This IS the amp you’ve been looking for

I've been a lifelong 5150 owner. I had a 4 x 12 signature half stack back in the day, then later the 60 watt 5150 2x12 combo. Both sounded amazing but honestly only the red channel was useable for modern metal tones. This amp is bright, punchy, and crisp on the blue channel, similar to an Orange or Soldano, and the red channel is an updated version of the classic 5150 high gain… read more tone but with more OOMF. I use a mild boost/compression pedal (MXR 5150 overdrive) for that extra thump but honestly straight into the amp is amazing anyway. Plug it, turn up, and enjoy the saturated tube goodness ;)

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I bought Two!!

The tone of this amp is absolutely killer. I am a long time musician who plays frequently in cover bands from small to large venues. Being in a cover band I play everything from Pink to Led Zeppelin to Luke Bryan pretty much every Genre. Every single sound guy I have worked with has said they love the tone of this amp, people who are guitarist at my shows coming up asking what pedals… read more do you use I love your tone, to which I reply just delay and a phase pedal which I dont apply very often the sound is not from pedals its all the Amp. I run a Dunlop delay pedal into an MXR delay pedal into the phaser into an NS2 noise suppressor into the effects loop thats it. Yeah yeah NS2 is supposed to go before the delay pedal blah blah. I have sustain for days in this configuration.I tried a million different ways but this arrangement sounds amazing. I use the X method on the NS2. If you put any pedal into the signal chain going into the front input of this amp it completely changes the sound just don't do it. And for everyone who says I can't get clean tone? Your broken. One flip of the pickup switch to the neck pickup and warm creamy tone with just an almost noticeable amount of beautiful fuzz for those slow love songs. Want a perfectly clean tone? roll off the volume knob just slightly and bam there it is. I am telling you this amp is a head turner and sounds absolutely Amazing, I bought a second but I got the 1x12 version to have as my back-up. If these were ever slated to go out of production I would buy a third just in case 20 years from now I need another. I will never buy another amp.

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