5150III 50-watt Tube Head with EL34 Tubes Review

Love This Amp!

I have been enjoying my new EVH 5150 iii 50watt EL34 for almost a month now. It certainly has the "girth to play with authority and boldness" that other reviewers have stated. I am a Texas blues player and really like the "Brown" EL34 sound I can get with it. I run a JHS Little Black Amp Box in the effects loop to help tame the aggressive volume it produces for home practice. Great… read more green channel, the blue channel on mine sounds great by itself but when using a Boss OD-200 into the preamp for a little dirt even better. I run a Boss NS-2 using the x-pattern, mostly for the red channel. The amp is quiet on the green and blue channels without it. FX loop works great, being able to change impedance when needed for other cabs is big and the preamp out will come in handy. Adjusting the resonance control on the back makes my Marshall cab sound huge. Glad I got it when it was back in stock, a good value for the price when compared to the Marshall 205H 50watt I was comparing it with. Sounds great with a Gibson 50s Les Paul. Thanks to Nate Burkhardt for his help getting me one.

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I LOVE IT!

So I ordered this about 6 weeks ago. I was told that it could take as long as September to reach me. But it came in the mail today, May 2nd, so props to Sweetwater for their timely delivery! First impressions: This is one of my favorite amps of all time. Compared to other 5150s that I've played, this is definitely my favorite version of the amp. Running through the matched 2x12s.… read more The green channel sounds great, as expected. The tone you get from cranking the gain on it is perfect. Just the right amount of distortion. With the gain dialed back, the clean tones are crisp and crystal clear, and the EQ works as expected even though I wish the bass rolled off just a tiny bit harder, but definitely not that big deal. Granted, it is kinda hard to screw up a clean channel *cough* peavey *cough*, so the green channel isn't the real reason you're buying this amp. The blue channel is probably my favorite channel on the amp. I honestly thought it was gonna be the red because I'm a sucker for high gain, but the mids here are just sooooo nice. I remember watching a review a few months ago where the dude was saying the blue channel was unusable. I don't know what cr*p tones he's used to, but this channel is great. Maybe he got a dud cuz mine sounds clear and beefy without being too muddy. It's just a great mid gain tone. The red channel is great. It's hard to find anything wrong with it. Just a well balanced high gain tone without any annoying crackles or noises that you'd get from a cheaper amp. Very full bodied and robust. Sounds great on my 7 and 6 strings. And yes…. it djents…. the only negative (which isn't really that negative and is expected) is that you need a noise gate when using this channel.The effects loop is decent, although it does double up on noise when active, so this is another spot where a noise gate is really handy. I recommend something like a Deci-Mate micro G because it has a loop section that works perfectly. Pedals sound great through the loop, and work as expected. Final thoughts: This is just a great amp. I can see why Gojira modeled it for their Neural DSP release. Even if you're running a distortion/preamp pedal on the green channel, the tone is just great. Way nicer than my H&K GrandMeister 40, and definitely better than any other 50 watt 5150. This is definitely not the expected "scooped" tone you get from other 5150s. This is a very mid oriented amp, and the blue channel makes that very evident. So if you don't like mids, and wanna sound like the worst parts of the 80s and 90s, don't buy this amp! A 6505 might be more your style.

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Wish I had bought one sooner.

One of the best sounding, diverse amps I've ever played. I wish I had bought it sooner. But I like to thoroughly research and wait before pulling the trigger on anything. Clean Channel goes from chimey articulate cleans to Greasy sounding tube break up depending on amount of gain introduced. Blue crunch Channel is Midsi and tight ... every note even in chords very articulate and… read more distinct..light rock to hair metal and brown sound..put TS in front and it's very tight aggressive punchy and djenty.. Red lead channel...massive, cascading, sustaining gain ...but still very articulate note distinction...rich harmonics... Control knob on back to adjust for cab to have massive punchy bottom end or a more upper mid sound... And it plays nicely with my HD500X via cable method and midi channel changing for different scenes oer channel on my floorboard... Very cool..

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EVH 50 watt EL34

Love it! Super loud and can be quite. Tone is great. I’m still messing with it so i will have to update my review in a week or so.

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Killer

Sounds brutal with the Evh el34 50watt head.

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