EVH 100 watt vs. 50

[napalmdeath]

I know this topic's been beat to death, but my searches didn't come up with detailed answers.

It's been said that the blue channel has less gain on the 100 watt, but is it still aggressive, and tight with a boost? Is the red still over the top, or is it subdued a little on the 100? I'd still like to try a 100 watt. Many say it's much bigger sounding, and voiced a bit different? What's the consensus? It's been on my bucket list. I loved the 50 watt, but disliked the insane red channel, and I love aggressive gain!

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Owned both about 5 years ago and preferred the 50w. I felt the red was over the top on both and pretty much unusable for me. I liked the Blue boosted on the 50w as it seemed to have a touch more gain maybe. They seemed voiced the same to my ears.

 

[aftec]

The original 5153 blue channel is the best IMHO, less gain than the 50w, way less than the stealth and the EL34.
Open sounding but chewy, snarly sound with a lot of harmonics, a dream to boost. The 100 watter's secret weapon are the 3 presence knobs, they are very powerful.

 

[motorboy1]

You’re selling your Splawn because it’s “ too much “ EVH 100 is even more so . It’s stupid loud @ 1on the volume. I’ve played it a bunch of times at GC because I wanted to buy one, but always walked away because it’s just too synthetic sounding to my ears. You’ve owned a Helios, Splawn, etc. I think you’re going to be sorely disappointed owning a EVH after playing those. Keep the Splawn and be content...

 

[napalmdeath]

You’re selling your Splawn because it’s “ too much “ EVH 100 is even more so . It’s stupid loud @ 1on the volume. I’ve played it a bunch of times at GC because I wanted to buy one, but always walked away because it’s just too synthetic sounding to my ears. You’ve owned a Helios, Splawn, etc. I think you’re going to be sorely disappointed owning a EVH after playing those. Keep the Splawn and be content...

Things have changed and I'm able to keep a half-stack. I think you're right, I should keep the Splawn, or maybe try a BE-100.

 

[aftec]

The BE100 has amazing tone for sure, but after 7 years gigging with the EVH5153, it's a good amp. A tuner, a wah and 1 low gain overdrive, a carbon copy in the loop and I'm done.
3 separate channels with full tone stack, gain, master and separate presences? Does the Splawn or the BE100 gives you that? It gives you a nice clean, a very good crunch and a Über high gain third. (I never run the gain above 9 o'clock on the red channel)
Does it excel on bedroom levels. No. Neither the BE100, the JJ Junior is.

 

[skullfxr]

Keep the Splawn over the 5153. That's not even a question in my book.

 

[Speeddemon]

Just throw a pair of 5751's in the V3 and V4 slots and suddenly the red channel of the 50W is useable again.
You'll even have 70's hard rock tone in the first 20% of the gain range available.

If you want to go even more extreme in gain reduction, throw one 12AU7 (very low gain) in V3 or V4. Boom, Gary Moore tone in the red channel. But now it will be hard to get a gutpunchin' thrash tone from it.

 

[nevusofota]

I’ve owned the original 100w and the 50w. I bought the 100w new in 2007, it was one of the first few hundred made and became my main gigging amp for the next 7 years. Love that amp and as someone previously stated the blue channel of the original 100 is the best single channel of all the incarnations IMO (though all blues are pretty close). You can play entire gigs with that one channel, a boost and your volume knob. A local guy wanted to sell or trade his SLO for a cheaper amp. He wanted my 100w or 50w (+ $1200) so I chose to part with the 100w and keep the 50 for the following reasons:
- it’s too big for frequent gigging
- doesn’t have midi. I was using a mini amp gizmo but liked the built in midi of the 50.

In general, for really heavy tight stuff (though not my thing) a boosted blue channel sounds more in-your-face and tighter than any of the red channels alone.