EVH 5150-III 6L6 and Wolfgang for the win

romanianreaper

Well-known member
Very exciting to know that Wolfgang is using my amp "right out of the box" and pretty cool hollow body he came up with. Not copying his Dad but a tip of the hat to him:

 
Remind me again, is it the 50w that essentially has the same tone/voicing as the 6l6 Stealth version on the clean (ie no pristine clean) and gain channels?
 
Remind me again, is it the 50w that essentially has the same tone/voicing as the 6l6 Stealth version on the clean (ie no pristine clean) and gain channels?

All three of the 50 watt EVH amps have the same clean channel. It's a "normal" clean channel.

The 100 watt Stealth is the only EVH with a "clean" channel that gets dirty as soon as the Gain knob hits like 8:30 or above.
 
All three of the 50 watt EVH amps have the same clean channel. It's a "normal" clean channel.

The 100 watt Stealth is the only EVH with a "clean" channel that gets dirty as soon as the Gain knob hits like 8:30 or above.

Thanks - are the blue and red channels similar across the 50w and 100 Stealth? I thought I remember something about one of the 50w versions essentially being Stealth voicing?
 
All three of the 50 watt EVH amps have the same clean channel. It's a "normal" clean channel.

The 100 watt Stealth is the only EVH with a "clean" channel that gets dirty as soon as the Gain knob hits like 8:30 or above.
See, my clean on the 50 watt EL34 seemed less clean to me. Maybe my amp was biased too high when I had it. The 6L6 50w is awesome. I had the 100w 6L6 back in the day but this one is my fav.
 
Thanks - are the blue and red channels similar across the 50w and 100 Stealth? I thought I remember something about one of the 50w versions essentially being Stealth voicing?

The red and blue channels of the 50w 6L6 and 50w Stealth are 99% identical. I've A/B'd them in a studio mic'd through real cabs and through reactive loads and mutiple IR's and couldn't tell a difference between the amps at all except for when both Blue channels had their gain set very, very low, meaning around 8:00, at which point the Stealth was a tiny, tiny bit more compressed and the 6L6 had slightly more presency treble content. But I'm talking extremely, extremely subtle differences here, like stuff no sane person would notice or care about. The only reason I even looked that hard was because the amps are so unbelievably close that I wanted to see if I could even tell a difference at all at any setting. After finding that small difference, I don't think I can call them "literally" identical, but I am fine calling them "practically" identical amps.

The EL34's Blue channel doesn't filter off as much bass from the amp's input so it's a bit muddier. Because of this, common opinion is that the EL34's Blue channel is not as good as the other amps on its own, but it pairs extremely well with overdrive and boost pedals and arguably sounds better with boosts than the other two 50w amps sound with boosts.

All three 50 watt amps have identical Red preamps, but the EL34's power section causes slightly more mids to come through relative to the lows and highs.

See, my clean on the 50 watt EL34 seemed less clean to me. Maybe my amp was biased too high when I had it. The 6L6 50w is awesome. I had the 100w 6L6 back in the day but this one is my fav.

Hmm, could be that, could be variance in amp tolerances, could have been hot pickups or a boosted signal, etc. The entire sweep of the gain control on these amps aren't squeaky clean but they should give you mostly clean headroom for a good chunk of the Gain knob sweep. From about, say, 1:00 and onward you'll probably get some breakup, but in my experience, more than half the sweep should be mostly clean on basically all the EVH 5153 amps unless you're pounding out chords and running on a bridge pickup or something... again the only exception being the 100w Stealth's clean channel, which starts breaking up if the Gain knob goes higher than like 8:30.
 
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The red and blue channels of the 50w 6L6 and 50w Stealth are 99% identical. I've A/B'd them in a studio mic'd through real cabs and through reactive loads and mutiple IR's and couldn't tell a difference between the amps at all except for when both Blue channels had their gain set very, very low, meaning around 8:00, at which point the Stealth was a tiny, tiny bit more compressed and the 6L6 had slightly more presency treble content. But I'm talking extremely, extremely subtle differences here, like stuff no sane person would notice or care about. The only reason I even looked that hard was because the amps are so unbelievably close that I wanted to see if I could even tell a difference at all at any setting. After finding that small difference, I don't think I can call them "literally" identical, but I am fine calling them "practically" identical amps.

The EL34's Blue channel doesn't filter off as much bass from the amp's input so it's a bit muddier. Because of this, common opinion is that the EL34's Blue channel is not as good as the other amps on its own, but it pairs extremely well with overdrive and boost pedals and arguably sounds better with boosts than the other two 50w amps sound with boosts.

All three 50 watt amps have identical Red preamps, but the EL34's power section causes slightly more mids to come through relative to the lows and highs.



Hmm, could be that, could be variance in amp tolerances, could have been hot pickups or a boosted signal, etc. The entire sweep of the gain control on these amps aren't squeaky clean but they should give you mostly clean headroom for a good chunk of the Gain knob sweep. From about, say, 1:00 and onward you'll probably get some breakup, but in my experience, more than half the sweep should be mostly clean on basically all the EVH 5153 amps unless you're pounding out chords and running on a bridge pickup or something... again the only exception being the 100w Stealth's clean channel, which starts breaking up if the Gain knob goes higher than like 8:30.
See that blows me away. I actually got rid of my EL34 5150-III because I couldn't get a great clean tone and the blue channel was Metallica type gain even at 9 o'clock. With my 6l6 5150-III, I can crank the gain and still do classic rock. I neeed a boost to do heavier stuff even dimed.
 
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See that blows me away. I actually got rid of my EL34 5150-III because I couldn't get a great clean tone and the blue channel was Metallica type gain even at 9 o'clock. With my 6l6 5150-III, I can crank the gain and still do classic rock. I neeed a boost to do heavier stuff even dimed.

I wonder if there was something wrong with yours. Actually if I had to guess I'd go ahead and say there likely was. Check out youtube, there are quite a few EVH EL34 50w demos showcasing the clean channel being clean.

Maybe you should give the amp another shot! It's a killer amp, after all.
 
I wonder if there was something wrong with yours. Actually if I had to guess I'd go ahead and say there likely was. Check out youtube, there are quite a few EVH EL34 50w demos showcasing the clean channel being clean.

Maybe you should give the amp another shot! It's a killer amp, after all.
The EL34'S always had me tweaking knobs. With the 6L6, I instantly was like "there it is!"
 
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The EL34'S always had me tweaking knobs. With the 6L6, I instantly was like "there it is!"

With the 50w heads... I agree. I played the 50w EL34 first out of all of them and liked it, but it wasn't until I played the 50w 6L6 that I had the "yep there it is, gotta get one" moment.

HOWEVER, I never tried the 50w EL34 with an overdrive or the Blue channel's C137 mod that brings the Blue channel back in line with the tighter Blue channel of the 50w 6L6. Maybe it's a lot better with some combination of those things.
 
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With the 50w heads... I agree. I played the 50w EL34 first out of all of them and liked it, but it wasn't until I played the 50w 6L6 that I had the "yep there it is, gotta get one" moment.

HOWEVER, I never tried the 50w EL34 with an overdrive or the Blue channel's C137 mod that brings the Blue channel back in line with the tighter Blue channel of the 50w 6L6. Maybe it's a lot better with some combination of those things.
If I was in a metal band, I think the EL34 would be the way to go. In fact, that is what Scott Ian from Anthrax uses and sounds killer. I wanted flexibility. I also have a 1x12 and bet a 4x12 sounds killer.
 
If I was in a metal band, I think the EL34 would be the way to go. In fact, that is what Scott Ian from Anthrax uses and sounds killer. I wanted flexibility. I also have a 1x12 and bet a 4x12 sounds killer.

Yep, Scott Ian uses the el34 100w head, which actually doesn't have the flubby bass Blue channel problem that the 50w EL34 head does. Regardless, that head rules. Full disclosure, I own the 100w Stealth, 100w EL34, and 50w 6L6 heads. I've also compared the 50w Stealth to my amps in my studio. I've A/B'd the 50w EL34 against the 50w 6L6, but only in music stores.

You're right that the EL34 is a great choice for a band though, as it is just a bit more forward in the mids which can help it cut through. The 6L6 amps aren't slouches though. and will cut through fine with the right EQ. To be honest, they're all very, very similar, with a few specific differences like the 50w EL34's Blue channel and the very gainy Green channel of the 100w Stealth. Still, I'd say that with a good EQ pedal in front of the amp and another EQ in the loop, and if you knew all the tricks, you could honestly make just about any one of them sound almost indistinguishable from any of the others. The only caveat is that the 100w amps have low frequencies that extend just a bit farther down the spectrum than the 50w amps, but in a studio environment with
 
I do remember people mentioning that about the EL34 50watt. I wanted to like that amp and it was ok, but the 6l6 just had that tone I was looking for. I know I'd dig the EL34 100 watt too!
 
Does anyone know if Sidoris used the EVH with Slash? He was using Wizards when I saw Slash, then he was endorsed by Orange when he sold his Wizards. He mentions Marshalls and Oranges in that rig rundown, nothing about the Wizards.
I know he, AcDc and the Darkness moved on from Wizard. Wonder why.
 
Everyone here that has the 50w EL34, have you done the C137 mod?

I have the 100w EL34, it is a beast. Love it
 
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