Hey! So my buddy was nice enough to loan me his brand spanking new 5150 III EL34 literally like nanoseconds after he opened it. Which was super cool! I got it and plugged it in looking forward to recording with it and shooting my YouTube spots on it. And I was quite surprised with my results. This same buddy loaned me his original 5150 III and I was super close to picking one of those up, I loved it! I also had some experience playing the Peavey 6534, while not the same amp, I’d say they’re voiced in a similar fashion. Beings that I used to use a 6505 live I was quite familiar with the difference between the 6L6 version and the EL34’s version. And with Peavey I really liked it. With EVH I really liked it but it was certainly not at all what I was expecting. I actually liked it for what made it different than all the other amps. Those differences are also a source of debate or contention among the various people that have played or listened to demos of this head. So in this quick write up, I want to discuss the good the bad and the ugly of the new 5150 III 50 EL34. If you want to just skip all the long reading bits, the YouTube videos are posted below.
First appearance.
Not much has changed other than the color scheme. But, I have to say I really dig the colors. The black and gold is a great look but in my opinion, every version of this amp looks good. The first version being available in white caught everyone’s attention and every model after that as well looked great as well. The Eddie Van Halen stripes, however, can make just about anything look cool and the EL34 is no exception. Obviously, the footprint of the 50 watt is smaller than the 100 watt big brother but that’s a not a bad thing. As most players are moving away from the bigger is better mentality the compact size of the 50 Watt has never bothered me.
Second, features.
Probably my favorite feature of the EL34 50 Watt is the Resonance knob on the back. They describe it best as basically a presence knob for the bottom end. What it allows you to do is dial in how much low end is going to your cab. Think of it as almost a high pass filter. You can dial in the bigness with your eq settings and then cut it from the back. Which to me is fantastic as adding fatness adds bigness and can impact various cabs differently.
The other party trick on this amp are the dials on the Gain and Volume for channels 1-2, they have 2 sets of controls. You can see under the chicken head dials is another dial for the other channel, this is a fantastic idea but I don’t think it’s executed in the best fashion. First, the dials turn very easily so in setting one you inadvertently change the dial under it. Or in my case with my fat sausage fingers probably bumping it. Secondly, if you can do this with the gain and volume why can’t you do it with the eq as well? This config forces you to have the same eq settings for clean as for your rhythm channel and for most that’s just not gonna work. I, for example, run my dirty channels very mid-rangy so it will cut through the mix. My cleans, however, I run somewhat scooped to give it a big chimey sound. So for a live situation, this forces me to make compromises that I don’t think I’d want to make. I’d love to see a future revision where the second set of dials are stiffer to turn or can maybe lock in place so turning the top dial won’t change my settings as easily, and I know they can make the eq work independently as well. How great would it be to truly have an independent 3 channel 50 watt head?
Third, how’s it sound?
In a nutshell, different. I’m personally not one of these guys that has a huge preference in power tubes. I think for the most part people get really carried away with “I have to have (Insert your tube preference here) The reality is while different power tubes will have their own characteristics I think the differences are very subtle in most cases. The circuitry of the amp makes much more difference think 6505 vs 6534. There was a difference but I can’t imagine someone who plays a 6505 totally not being able to play a 6534. This head however to me was not just regular 5150 50 watt restamped and loaded with EL34’s. I found this one to sound and behave significantly different. First being the clean channel.
I’ve had a hand full of comments on my YouTube demo discussing how my cleans were not very clean. And they’re not. I actually had a very tough time getting the cleans to dial back far enough to not break up. I tried a couple different guitars and really, in the end, the slightest little spank with the pick would get you a bit of break up. The only way I could get it really clean was to pull the gain back so far on the amp and the guitar that then the tone suffered. I don’t mind a bit of grit in my clean channel but sometimes you just want that squeaky clean sound and it was very difficult to obtain for me. Now the comments on my demo have varied from some who praise the cleanness of the cleans to those that had the same experience I did. So keep this in mind.
The Blue Channel. I was really surprised by this channel. In many cases, the rhythm channel is basically a scaled-back version of the lead channel. However, this seems like a totally different amp to me. In every version of the 5150, the one thing I’ve come to expect is standard barky, aggressive type of response. This however almost felt more British-ish to me. There was a lot more squish and fizz in this channel that I would have expected. Again, my forum searches gave similar results to the clean channel where some totally agreed with me and some completely disagreed. (Did we all play the same model amp?) Don’t mistake my comments for not liking the channel, I do actually like it as it can serve a distinct purpose by having a unique characteristic. Or basically not leaving you pigeon-holed into just having one style of amp. However, for me, this seemed much more advantageous in a studio situation as in a live scenario I personally would want the more traditional Clean, Crunch, High Gain setup.
The Red Channel. I don’t have a lot to say here other than this was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Loads and loads of balls. And honestly, it’s more gain than you will ever need. I think I used it at around the 1.5 to 2 mark and its loads of breakup an metally goodness. I loved it and found that it was capable of doing whatever I wanted for my heavy sounds. Basically, if you’re a high gain fan this channel will not disappoint!
Other Features. Resonance Knob, It’s a fantastic lil’ knob on the back to adjust the low end. I think of it as a high pass filter. You can kind of dial it in to what’s best for your cabinet, you can dial in the bass and get the bigness you like and at the same time fart out the cabinet. The tone may be better with higher bass and then dialing the resonance back until the cab can handle it. Some look at it as merely a bass knob and it’s really not. The only bummer with this obviously is that it’s on the back of the head and not the front. But with smaller size amps you’re going to find more and more on the back. That being said if you’re using the same cab all the time I wouldn’t imagine you’d have to adjust it much.
Finally, you get an effects loop, a preamp out and also a midi in making this really a full featured head. My recommendation would be to play the various versions of this head before you pull the trigger on it. The 6L6 version does appear to be voiced quite differently so be aware of that if you’re considering one of the EVH heads for your rig. They’re all fantastic but if the forums are any indication people seem to expect much different things from these heads and maybe purchasing having conflicting expectations of different heads. I think from a general perspective they all sound fantastic but they sound different and much more different than the power tubes selected. I totally recommend picking this guy up. Check out my video demo’s below and also if you’re interested in purchasing the EVH 5150 III 50 Watt EL34 check out my affiliate link HERE!!!!!!
Resonance Knob, It’s a fantastic lil’ knob on the back to adjust the low end. I think of it as a high pass filter. You can kind of dial it in to what’s best for your cabinet, you can dial in the bass and get the bigness you like and at the same time fart out the cabinet. The tone may be better with higher bass and then dialing the resonance back until the cab can handle it. Some look at it as merely a bass knob and it’s really not. The only bummer with this obviously is that it’s on the back of the head and not the front. But with smaller size amps you’re going to find more and more on the back. That being said if you’re using the same cab all the time I wouldn’t imagine you’d have to adjust it much.
