Let's Discuss the EVH 5150 III 100 Watt 6L6 Non Stealth

Deadpan

Deadpan

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I had the very first 50 watt 6L6 and couldn't bond with it. Was very woody sounding and didn't boost particularly well.

Today, this happened, amp 46, $750, manufactured September 2022.

20230402_131314.jpg
 
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Hopefully that "same guy" is taking the proceeds and buying more gear you can buy from him
later at a massive discount.
 
la szum said:
Hopefully that "same guy" is taking the proceeds and buying more gear you can buy from him
later at a massive discount.
Click to expand...
Fingers crossed haha

Played this for a short while today and my initial impression is it's very different from the original 50 watt I had.

Uboosted the red channel is nice and boosted the blue channel is fantastic. The blue unboosted doesn't sound as good as the EL34 50 watt with C137 mod.

I don't have and haven't had a Stealth. Curious of others thoughts. I may do some modding to this.
 
I had one of these, had it modded to Stealth specs and then sold.

I preferred it with the Stealth mods. Green channel basically turns into a crunch channel, sounds cool but it only JUST cleans up. It’s a cool crunch sound though.

Blue channel gets more gain and sounds much better - the biggest benefit of the mods.

Red channel is largely the same. I always found it a bit much, even unboosted.

I think the 50W amps had some tweaks that became part of the Stealth circuit, it just kind of gradually evolved that way with each new version.

With hindsight I’d say leave it stock and buy a Stealth if you want the mods. The mods will take same value off the amp and even with the good price you paid you might be able to get a Stealth for not much more. It’s still a cool amp stock, my favourite tones were from the blue channel with a boost.

Sold it in the end - it was a fine amp, but I prefer the OG Peavey 5150 circuits. So many bands have the EVH ones as they’re great value and readily available. I think there are lots of great emulations that really nailed the tone (Fractal+NDSP Gojira especially).

The EVH cabs are unbelievably good IMO. Be sure to try this amp with an EVH 4x12 as well as the usual V30 ones.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
I had one of these, had it modded to Stealth specs and then sold.

I preferred it with the Stealth mods. Green channel basically turns into a crunch channel, sounds cool but it only JUST cleans up. It’s a cool crunch sound though.

Blue channel gets more gain and sounds much better - the biggest benefit of the mods.

Red channel is largely the same. I always found it a bit much, even unboosted.

I think the 50W amps had some tweaks that became part of the Stealth circuit, it just kind of gradually evolved that way with each new version.

With hindsight I’d say leave it stock and buy a Stealth if you want the mods. The mods will take same value off the amp and even with the good price you paid you might be able to get a Stealth for not much more. It’s still a cool amp stock, my favourite tones were from the blue channel with a boost.

Sold it in the end - it was a fine amp, but I prefer the OG Peavey 5150 circuits. So many bands have the EVH ones as they’re great value and readily available. I think there are lots of great emulations that really nailed the tone (Fractal+NDSP Gojira especially).

The EVH cabs are unbelievably good IMO. Be sure to try this amp with an EVH 4x12 as well as the usual V30 ones.
Click to expand...
I have had a few original 5150s that I like to varying degrees. However, I have a 6505+ that I had many mods done on and it is mind blowing.

I am wondering what changes may have been done over time to the 6L6 100 watt model as it is really great stock. I agree the blue doesn't have much gain but boosting it changes everything. I do wish it had the depth controls for each channel. I'm sure it will be fine with an eq in the loop.

Personally, I would never sell my modded amps as a devaluation from stock. If the buyer doesn't see the added value they are not the right one.
 
Deadpan said:
I have had a few original 5150s that I like to varying degrees. However, I have a 6505+ that I had many mods done on and it is mind blowing.

I am wondering what changes may have been done over time to the 6L6 100 watt model as it is really great stock. I agree the blue doesn't have much gain but boosting it changes everything. I do wish it had the depth controls for each channel. I'm sure it will be fine with an eq in the loop.
Click to expand...
If you like the 5150 II/5150+, the EVH 5150 100W is more of an extension of that. AFAIK I don’t think the 100W 6L6 circuit has evolved at all since released, the tweaked circuits have been on the 50W, EL34, stealth etc.

Curious what you think.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
If you like the 5150 II/5150+, the EVH 5150 100W is more of an extension of that. AFAIK I don’t think the 100W 6L6 circuit has evolved at all since released, the tweaked circuits have been on the 50W, EL34, stealth etc.

Curious what you think.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is the mods I did to the 6505+ were to make it switchable to 5150 with a third option on each switch. I like the + but it takes a little too much low end out early in the preamp. The negative feedback mod works fantastic on it.

I'm not so interested in the Stealth, any mods I would do to the 6L6 would be to add to the flexibility. I have to play it more to see if this is even necessary.
 
I really liked the 50watter I had. But the volume jump issue between green and blue channels really boned me. Though I think they fixed that in the gen2 version of the amp.

Also I don't rate the clean tones all that much.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
AFAIK I don’t think the 100W 6L6 circuit has evolved at all since released, the tweaked circuits have been on the 50W, EL34, stealth etc.
Click to expand...
This is interesting, took the front grill off and the tube layout label says this is Rev D, hmm

20230404_132253.jpg
 
Deadpan said:
This is interesting, took the front grill off and the tube layout label says this is Rev D, hmm

View attachment 6202
Click to expand...
cant remember if my one had the same or not (just seeing if I took photos of the chassis). Still haven't heard any mention ever of any circuit updates or changes but maybe I missed something. Could also be that Rev D is just the one that made it into production. There are some EVH amp facebook groups that are quite active and Howard Kaplan often posts there (he's also done quite a few video interviews which are cool for some background to the amps design)
 
MirrorProfiles said:
cant remember if my one had the same or not (just seeing if I took photos of the chassis). Still haven't heard any mention ever of any circuit updates or changes but maybe I missed something. Could also be that Rev D is just the one that made it into production. There are some EVH amp facebook groups that are quite active and Howard Kaplan often posts there (he's also done quite a few video interviews which are cool for some background to the amps design)
Click to expand...
I'll post there and see if anyone has a different version. Thanks.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
cant remember if my one had the same or not (just seeing if I took photos of the chassis). Still haven't heard any mention ever of any circuit updates or changes but maybe I missed something. Could also be that Rev D is just the one that made it into production. There are some EVH amp facebook groups that are quite active and Howard Kaplan often posts there (he's also done quite a few video interviews which are cool for some background to the amps design)
Click to expand...
Someone replied saying the schematic is Rev B and they have only saw Rev C...
 
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