EVH 50 watt question

[crwnedblasphemy]

Speeddemon has good insight. The EVH stuff is very responsive to glass changes. Some amps preamp tubes do like 3-5% change in tone....the EVH stuff is pretty significant. Like 10-20% I'd gather. I need to do this, cuz I have some Jan Phillips 12ax7wa blue labels that need to go into my 5150. They are silly smooth. I also have some Amprex Bugle Boys, but those are usually bright. I do have some old ass Mullard 5751s that I could try in different spots as well. I have some nice glass just sitting in a bin....need to pull the chassis and experiment.

 

[The One]

Im not against boosting at all. My 800 is nothing without a boost. Every Recto I've had definitely needed a boost.

This really wasnt a boost/unboost quest. It was just to see whether the 50 watt EVH line has some other vibes besides being a naturally aggressive amp. And everyone has been very helpful with their experience. Especially with the various preamp tube suggestions!
Thanks!

The one thing i can tell you for sure is the stealth won't help you. It is MORE Aggressive than the OG 6l6 50 Watt.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

@flimz This might sound strange, but what specifically do you mean when you say "fat and warm" ? These words can mean different things to different people.

One person's "fat" might mean they want a lot of low end at the input stages so the distortion comes out as fuzzy, "splashly," greasy, or "wooly," I guess would be the words. However, another person's "fat" might mean they want a super clear and articulate gain character and feel, which you'd get by removing a lot of low end at the input stages, but they want a metric ton of low frequency thump overall by adding bass back at the end of the chain, and they want to remove the harsh "slice" of the overall EQ signature by turning the Presence way down.

In your case, do you mean you want a tight articulate feel that has a lot of "warmth" and low end overall, or do you want your "warmth" to come from a particularly squishy and fuzzy feel in your distortion?

If you can tell us that, we can be a lot more accurate with what we recommend.

 

[TotallyRadGuitars]

Please Know i didn't make my comment to sound shitty

Hey no problem I didn't take it that way. Just contributing to the discussion

 

[flimz]

@flimz This might sound strange, but what specifically do you mean when you say "fat and warm" ? These words can mean different things to different people.

One person's "fat" might mean they want a lot of low end at the input stages so the distortion comes out as fuzzy, "splashly," greasy, or "wooly," I guess would be the words. However, another person's "fat" might mean they want a super clear and articulate gain character and feel, which you'd get by removing a lot of low end at the input stages, but they want a metric ton of low frequency thump overall by adding bass back at the end of the chain, and they want to remove the harsh "slice" of the overall EQ signature by turning the Presence way down.

In your case, do you mean you want a tight articulate feel that has a lot of "warmth" and low end overall, or do you want your "warmth" to come from a particularly squishy and fuzzy feel in your distortion?

If you can tell us that, we can be a lot more accurate with what we recommend.

I understand. Descriptors can be vague. By fat & warm I mean a tone that doesnt slice your head off no matter what you do. Broad and full mids. Healthy lows. Treble that can be tamed but still be articulate. Sort of like the Bogner 101B Blue channel. I know the EVH is probably not too similar to that amp...more modern flavor.

Thats why I put the 3534 50 watt in my original post. Thats most likely the amp Im looking for, but theres not many clips out there, and its way more expensive.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I understand. Descriptors can be vague. By fat & warm I mean a tone that doesnt slice your head off no matter what you do. Broad and full mids. Healthy lows. Treble that can be tamed but still be articulate. Sort of like the Bogner 101B Blue channel. I know the EVH is probably not too similar to that amp...more modern flavor.

Thats why I put the 3534 50 watt in my original post. Thats most likely the amp Im looking for, but theres not many clips out there, and its way more expensive.

I have a Bogner XTC 101B and a few of the EVH amps and I can say they are much more similar than you'd think. The EVH has more built-in cut in the lows at the input so its distortion is going to be more articulate out of the box, but if you add your own low cut to the XTC at the input with a pedal, the amps can be made to sound strikingly similar.

However I will say that EVH amps can easily get big and wide sounding too if you crank the Depth and Bass, and pull back on the High and Presence knobs. The EQ controls on the EVH and the Bogner are all after distortion, so they don't change the character of the gain. Instead they operate more like how the EQ on a stereo works.

The Bogner can give you the option of squishier, more vintage tones because it has less low end filtering at the input, whereas you can't really add back low end at the input in the EVH because it is internally filtered away just after that in the amp, but if you're going for a big wide high gain sound that is still articulate, you really can't go wrong with either. They will both do exactly what you want I think.

Once you add a pedal that cuts lows and maybe boosts everything else to the XTC, I don't know how else to say it but the differences are broadly that the EVH feels slightly harder and more modern by like 5-10%, and the XTC has just a bit more "bounce" to it. I hope that translates but seriously the difference is small.

edit: I found some old clips to clarify what I'm talking about. This is a guitar track that was recorded direct and reamped through both heads. One clips is of an EVH 5150 III 100w EL34 and the other is a boosted and low cut Bogner XTC 101B. I believe the boosting and cutting on the XTC was done with a Boss GE-7. Both heads are running through the exact same signal chain, same reactive load, same IR's, same everything. Also no knobs were dimed so any slight differences in EQ could probably be accounted for fairly quickly and easily. If the EVH doesn't sound quite as hot as the XTC, a boost of just a few db's at the input or maybe just turning up the gain knob slightly would probably negate the difference, etc.

 

[flimz]

I have a Bogner XTC 101B and a few of the EVH amps and I can say they are much more similar than you'd think. The EVH has more built-in cut in the lows at the input so its distortion is going to be more articulate out of the box, but if you add your own low cut to the XTC at the input with a pedal, the amps can be made to sound strikingly similar.

However I will say that EVH amps can easily get big and wide sounding too if you crank the Depth and Bass, and pull back on the High and Presence knobs. The EQ controls on the EVH and the Bogner are all after distortion, so they don't change the character of the gain. Instead they operate more like how the EQ on a stereo works.

The Bogner can give you the option of squishier, more vintage tones because it has less low end filtering at the input, whereas you can't really add back low end at the input in the EVH because it is internally filtered away just after that in the amp, but if you're going for a big wide high gain sound that is still articulate, you really can't go wrong with either. They will both do exactly what you want I think.

Once you add a pedal that cuts lows and maybe boosts everything else to the XTC, I don't know how else to say it but the differences are broadly that the EVH feels slightly harder and more modern by like 5-10%, and the XTC has just a bit more "bounce" to it. I hope that translates but seriously the difference is small.

edit: I found some old clips to clarify what I'm talking about. This is a guitar track that was recorded direct and reamped through both heads. One clips is of an EVH 5150 III 100w EL34 and the other is a boosted and low cut Bogner XTC 101B. I believe the boosting and cutting on the XTC was done with a Boss GE-7. Both heads are running through the exact same signal chain, same reactive load, same IR's, same everything. Also no knobs were dimed so any slight differences in EQ could probably be accounted for fairly quickly and easily. If the EVH doesn't sound quite as hot as the XTC, a boost of just a few db's at the input or maybe just turning up the gain knob slightly would probably negate the difference, etc.

Those 2 clips do sound very similar! More than I wouldve expected. I had a 20th XTC. Never shouldve sold that amp!
I went to 3 locations today to try out some of the EVH 50's. Struck out 3 times! The 1st guitar center was having a malfunctioning ac sending toxic fumes into the store, so they wouldnt let anyone in. The next was Sam Ash and turns out they didnt have one in stock even though they said they did. Then another guitar center had a 6L6 and an EL34...both didnt work. Maybe its a sign LOL!

 

[romanianreaper]

The one thing i can tell you for sure is the stealth won't help you. It is MORE Aggressive than the OG 6l6 50 Watt.

That is not my experience. The clean channel is cleaner, blue channel is warmer and focused more on low mids, and red channel is more usable.

 

[The One]

That is not my experience. The clean channel is cleaner, blue channel is warmer and focused more on low mids, and red channel is more usable.

And the red channel for the og & the stealth are the same. According to Howard Kaplan that designed them.

 

[romanianreaper]

And the red channel for the og & the stealth are the same. According to Howard Kaplan that designed them.

They may be the same design-wise but the EQ is different and focuses more on the lower mids which I think results in a heavier sound, but more usable.

I love both of my amps, the regular and stealth, and they sound similar, but the stealth is more usable as I turn the knob. My regular 6l6 loses clarity. Now I biased my stealth and not the regular one so could be a bias thing.