5150III 50-watt Tube Head - Black Review

Fantastic versatile amp

Great amp overall. The dual concentric pots for channel 1 and 2 are a great upgrade over the 1st model. I can get tones from a true clean, to mid gain crunch, and obviously the insane high gain this amp is known for. The blue channel responds well to the volume control of my guitar and cleans up nicely. I do find the power and standby switches being on the back a little annoying… read more but I guess necessary due to space. Not sure what tubes EVH is using now since all of mine were unlabeled. I swapped out the preamp tubes for a tone kit from a well known tube supplier and noticed a big improvement in tone and noise reduction. A Revv G8 makes it super quiet as well. Overall I'm really happy with the amp. Using a Line6 Helix via 4 cable method and this amp, I can get just about any tone I want out of it.

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Whole lotta tone.

Excellent amp head. I will not go below 50 watts, my other heads are all 100 and 120 watts. For 50 watts I was able to get every tone I wanted. Channel 1 (green), The cleans are great. Channel 2 (blue) has enough gain for a great Van Halen style rhythem tone. I set it pretty high and push it over the top with a boss sd1 overdrive, and its excellent enough for a great lead tone as… read more well. Channel 3 (Red) is so over the top amazing, I barely set the gain on that channel to under half way and it just kills. I couldnt be happier!!

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Not a weakness in this amp

First, thanks SW for great service as usual. I have read many reviews about this amp and will start by saying that in an amp at this price a buffered effects loop and a lot of stuff people knock -like cheap knobs?- come on, are not valid points. I've played Hi Watts, M Super Leads, dual 100 Bassmans, Mesas, Sunn, Orange and a lot more in 50+ years and as the title says, I see no… read more weakness in this amp. I noticed a slight but noticeable drop in volume when engaging the effects loop. Acceptable but easy to correct if you want. I have modulation pedals through the effects loop PLUS a little Wampler Tumnus with the distortion @0, vol @9oclock, and treb @3 oclock! In the loop are a Collider, an MD200 and a double delay I built on the lines of an Aqua Puss with a level knob on each side in one box, my little Tumnus for volume matching, and a tiny Communist made noise gate. To the amp input I have a 535Q Wah, into a Strobostomp, into a Cali76 double comp and lastly a Jamman sampler. This amp is VERY loud, so I use a simple 50-watt power attenuator I built for about sixteen bucks (understand that, at its simplest, a power attenuator is just a great big meg ohm, 50 watt variable resistor) add a 'hi' switch and a 3pdt stomp and you save...WOW up to $1400.00. Add a 2x12 V30 cab and you got tonal Nibana. Don't get me wrong, I consider this amp expensive but save your moolah and get one. You will love it.

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Fantastic Amp

This amp stands up to amps in the way more expensive price range. The clean channel is very clean, something I was not really expecting because it is a high gain amp. The blue channel is fantastic, to me it sounds like a Marshall that has been heavily modified to have more gain, very Van Halen sounding, it is really hard to get a bad sound out of it. The red channel has lots of… read more gain and is very nice for any Metallica or modern high tones.

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Last Amp you will ever need.

This has got to be by far the most amazing amplifier I have ever played. It handles great rhythm tones add amazing lead tones. You can chug away to your heart's desire and handles tight low tunings really well. I use this Amp with 6/7/8/9 string guitars and they all sound great. I am currently running my amp into a torpedo reload and out to 2 2x12 EVH cabs.

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