NAD!! - 5150 III 50 watt

He responded while I was sleeping last night haha. Probably gonna get the LEDs, concentric gain and volume, stealth, and supersonic mods. I will skip the power scaling and the full EQ concentric pots.

He's doing dual eq now? Probably not a must have but way cool!

Yeah, so you can have all the pots on CH1/2 be concentric. Pretty cool option, but I tend to dial the channels in the same anyway, I think. I dunno. Did you find the stealth and supersonic mods to make a big difference in tone?

I tend dial the eq on 1& 2 similar too.

Stealth- can't really answer this one because I never played the stock version- I ordered the 50w and sent it right to Kruse.
I did play a lot with a standard evh 100w head but from what I read that is much different than 50w and Stealths.

Supersonic: You can dial it to 0 for '"stock setting". I do not like it anywhere near full blast. But dial it in moderation 8-10 o'clock and I really like the way it responds. It seems to bring some nice clarity and dryness which is very cool since the amp is so saturated.

How is it compared to the Mark IV? I have a Mark IV but am intrigued by the EVH. I would love having the midi to control my AX8 instead of using a separate box like I do with the IV. Also don't love channel 2 on the IV.The low gain on the EVH sounds great from the demos I've seen.

I once tried the 50 watt combo and it sounded amazing. The G12H30 speakers sounded so good with it, very deep sounding.
I really did not like the original 100 watt head at all

rbasaria":3n0skdpc said:

Well, first let me post this picture. I had this amp out of the box for about 15 minutes before I packed it up and returned it. Didn't like the way the low end responded at all haha...so I didn't post a NAD for it.



This one, though, is fucking sweet!!

[box]https://app.box.com/embed/preview/88f3fotkbccqo7zq8ucuymr9dnmpfkii?[/box]



5150 III 50 watter. It sounds great! Much better than the 100 watt or the Stealth. The feel is really similar to my 5150 combo (which my other guitar player is borrowing right now, while his ENGL PBII is in the shop). The tone is somewhat similar, but the gain feels and sounds more put together than the Peavey. Maybe cleaner, maybe smoother...I don't really know how to describe it, but its fucking awesome. Anyway...we'll see what happens, because we all know I am not prone to keeping stuff, but this thing sounds really good, so I hope I keep it haha. It sort of sits between the Mark IV and the 5150 combo, in a way. The gain structure is definitely more 5150 line, the feel is sort of in the middle, but closer to the 5150, and the tone is smoother than the 5150, more in the direction of the Mark IV...if that makes any fucking sense.

Click to expand...

I too had the Peavey 6505 mh and I sold it 3 weeks after getting it,it just didn't sound good at all! I know my EVH Lbx 15 watt heads kicked the 6505mh's ass! still have the LBX and my 5150-3 50 watter as well..great choice!

Speeddemon":rh7zpzmz said:

Welcome to tha family!

By the way, I really recommend putting in some slightly lower gain tubes in V2, V3 (and/or V4) to tame the red channel and to tame the brightness a bit, by using NOS tubes with a darker character.
Stock, to me the red channel reached 'insane gain' around noon on the Gain knob. Now it's more around 2 o' clock ish. So you still have gain to spare, but it makes the '8 o' clock to 12 'o clock range much more useable for med-high gain tones.

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I was wondering what to do to my 5150-50 watt head and this sounds like a good experiment,my 50 watter and my mini head 5150-3 15 watter is the same way,I set my gain at max on 3 on the red "burn" channel,sounds kickass! If you ever want a smaller head get the LBX 15 watter,its extremely loud and sounds like the 50 watter all at 15-16 pounds.

crankyrayhanky":2jjknbqw said:

Welcome to the club yo

I love gain too, but that red channel just did not work for me in a live loud band setting- too much of everything!
V2: JJ 12au7 is magic; try it out! Still brings the brootz but so much more clarity

Here's my Kruse EVH:

Click to expand...

I am going to try the JJ 12au7 in my 5150 3 50 and 15 watt heads,just ordered 2 of them,and I dig the lights! is that light kits or some lamps from behind ? also going to check the Kruse mods out,their website is cool.

I think Jens put a lightstrip in there
Here's my notes from the day I was tube rolling:




It is said that Howard recommended 12au7 in V2 & V3 to reduce red channel gain.
Really cool! With gain on full it was less than the blue, so that wouldn't work for me but would likely be cool for less gain freaks.

I then tried
V2: LPS
V3: JJ 12au7

Now this ^was very close to what I wanted, but still just a bit more tame than I wanted. I imagine many players would love this though

I flipped it and found the magic:
V2: 12au7
V3: LPS

This was awesome! It retains most of the ferocious girth and power but allows full use of the gain- cool tones from 9oclock to maxxed. I tried the original 12ax7 in V3 but that brought back some extra noise, so back to the LPS


I have the LPS in V5 and the rest stock

I'll throw some clips up....Red was too much before, but now it may be my favorite! It has gain, low punch, and saturation of a Cobra with a fast attack of a Fortin.

I used to use Blue for this stuff, but now I may knock that down with an au7 and use it for light/mid gain stuff, not sure yet.

Sources:
12au7
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=182542

Sovtek LPS
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=124599&p=1979196&hilit=sovtek+lps+evh#p1979196

misterspockyall":16lakako said:

crankyrayhanky":16lakako said:

Welcome to the club yo

I love gain too, but that red channel just did not work for me in a live loud band setting- too much of everything!
V2: JJ 12au7 is magic; try it out! Still brings the brootz but so much more clarity

Here's my Kruse EVH:

Click to expand...

Love those lights!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I will think about the supersonic thing, but I might skip that one. Not sure yet.

I talked a little bit about how it compares to the Mark IV in the OP...Did you have something specific you wanted to know about the comparison? They are very different amps in terms of general tone and feel, but they have some similarities. Sadly, my cousin and I were recording yesterday, and my Mark IV suddenly has no balls or gain. Seems like something is wrong with the lead drive pot.

I also didn't like the 100 watt nearly as much as this. It was cool, but nothing really unique, I thought. This one is pretty different, though.

I was considering the LBX as well, but I wanted a clean channel.

I randomly have a 12at7 in my Mark IV...would that have a similar effect as the 12au7? Surprised that the LPS makes that much of a difference, too.

BrokenFusion":36mv6f9k said:

How is it compared to the Mark IV? I have a Mark IV but am intrigued by the EVH. I would love having the midi to control my AX8 instead of using a separate box like I do with the IV. Also don't love channel 2 on the IV.The low gain on the EVH sounds great from the demos I've seen.

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I can answer that.

For over 2 decades I passively lusted after a Mark IV, after playing one as a teenager. Always unaffordable (these things were shit-expensive in Europe), until a while ago I had a lead on a used Mark IV Rev A from '91.
Mind you, at this point I already had (and still have) the 5150III 50W and an Engl Invader 100 and an Engl Ironball.
Reluctantly* I bought the Mark IV for a very nice price (the seller really needed to get rid of it, as he was getting a VHT Pittbull), but I sold it 2 months later to a guy in Finland.

* Reluctantly because:
+ The cleans are THE best evah. And I have a '74 Princeton SF at home (Fender cleans are my benchmark).
- with some extreme EQ-ing I could make the red channel of the 5150III come close to the Mark IV's lead tone. The EVH is slightly rawer, the Mark IV was a bit more 'liquid'.
- the Mark IV is stupid heavy (especially given its size), while the EVH is a very manageable 15kg (32lbs).
- R2 in the Mark IV was very lacklustre. I wasn't planning to use it with a boost, as neither my 5150 nor Invader require it. I was hoping for a more Marshall-esque tone, but alas. (my Mark IV was 6L6 loaded, but I couldn't imagine that big of a change when using EL34's, so I didn't bother)
- The internal fan was annoyingly noticeable.
- Today's awesome settings sounded mediocre tomorrow. The EVH doesn't suffer from that. Set and forget.
- The EVH could sound bigger and bolder at lower volumes thanks to the Resonance.

Where the Mark IV wins (IMO) from the EVH:
-clean channel!!!!!
-versatility
-onboard reverb (not the best though...)

Where the EVH wins:
-blue channel !!! (red channel is a tie (after retubing) with Mark IV's lead, for what I want from it)
-ease of use
-size/weight
-consistency of tone

After a while I found a used Mark V:25 (for home/studio use), so I still have my unmatched Mark-cleans, but now in a 15lbs package.
And the Crunch mode in the Mark V:25 *is* to me what R2 in the IV should have been. The fan in the Mark V:25 was also too noticeable to me, so I contacted Mesa for the correct specs and installed a Nanoxia Deep Silence 60mm myself. Totally quiet now.

rbasaria":3gowj447 said:

Thanks for the info. I will think about the supersonic thing, but I might skip that one. Not sure yet.

I talked a little bit about how it compares to the Mark IV in the OP...Did you have something specific you wanted to know about the comparison? They are very different amps in terms of general tone and feel, but they have some similarities. Sadly, my cousin and I were recording yesterday, and my Mark IV suddenly has no balls or gain. Seems like something is wrong with the lead drive pot.

I also didn't like the 100 watt nearly as much as this. It was cool, but nothing really unique, I thought. This one is pretty different, though.

I was considering the LBX as well, but I wanted a clean channel.

I randomly have a 12at7 in my Mark IV...would that have a similar effect as the 12au7? Surprised that the LPS makes that much of a difference, too.

Click to expand...

I don't know what was up with the 100w you tried, but it and the 50w are really similar sounding. Ch.2 has more gain on the 50w, but Ch.3 sounds damn close. 100w has a bit more balls at loud volumes; you can compensate using the resonance knob on the 50w, but it isn't quite the same.