Struggling to Nail Early EVH Tones with EVH 5150 Iconic Series Amp

TubeNoob

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Hello everyone, this is my first post here!

I recently bought an EVH 5150 Iconic Series 15W 1x10 Tube Guitar Combo Amp, hoping to capture some of those classic early EVH tones. This is my first tube amp, and I’ve been experimenting with different settings, but no matter what I try, I can’t seem to dial it in right to nail the sound I'm after.

I’m wondering if my issue might be that the 5150 Iconic Series is more in line with the later 5150 era tones, rather than the early VH1/VH2 tones I’m trying to emulate. Could that be the case?

Any advice or suggestions on how I can adjust things or if I should be looking at a different approach would be really appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to the forum!!!

Your hunch is definitely on point, the Iconic is far more in line with the later/5150 amp tones than the earlier days.

I've definitely heard the Iconic line get a satisfactory earlier VH tone before, with the caveat that they all had a bit more gain going on than Ed's actual Plexi tone.



Unfortunately for all EVH lovers, so much of that man's tone, particularly earlier VH, is from his right hand attack pushing that Plexi into the greatness we get to enjoy. Some pickups in modern guitars are so high output they negate that kind of dynamic response right out of the gate, what kind of pickups do you have in your guitar? You already have an amp in the ballpark for the end of the chain, so I'd start working your way backwards from that point and looking into the relationship between your picking hand/pickups and how they're pushing the amp.

This is one of the few times I'll ever say this phrase, but with those earlier VH tones, less is more when it comes to distortion. For every other application/context, MORE IS MORE! :rofl
 
Tons of BooTeek winders sell them as their take on the "Brown Sound".
You can get the tone fairly easily with even a Duncan 59 .
Or one of these;
IMG_3246.jpeg
 
The Ibanez Super70 was another likely candidate used on VHI in the unmolested version of the Destroyer.

:cool:
And the super distortion. Truth is Ed had a huge impact on the tone by his playing. It’s 99% the way you play. Almost any humbucker 7-16 k would sound similar with Ed playing it.
 
If you can play the stuff with the right vibe the Wampler Pinnacle can do it or even the mxr 5150 overdrive. Just put a vintage phase 90 in front and a delay after the distortion and you can get it. Al Estrada did a video for mxr for that pedal and sounded perfect. But I can’t find it.
 
For early EVH its not just the amp, its the whole chain and most important its Him, I also agree with Drew early EVH is not really hi gain at all
 
It was a JBJ in the original but the slug coil was damaged early on and it sounds different afterwards. The white tape was added to try to prevent it happening again.
Over the years, I've had a JB, BKP VH2, Duncan Custom Custom, Duncan 78 in it, keep going back to the 59. JB set lower was 2nd best.
 
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