EVH 5150 Stealth vs Soldano SLO

[glpg80]

I've owned and played a lot of different amplifiers. I would have to disagree with you on this one. I think the blue channel boosted sounds excellent!

Blue channel does sound good but the amp overall carries a thin lifeless tone to my ears. It’s definitely not as big sounding as my Bogner or as thick as my Marshall. It’s a great studio polished amp, but there’s better for live. We can differ in opinion - that’s perfectly alright

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Mine was brand new. It’s just the voicing of the amp, period. It’s just all wrong for modern metal. Again, for everything else yes sure it’s a great tone, but this guy is talking about comparing it to the stealth in a way, so I’m assuming modern metal. I’ve got tons of clips of it compared to all my other amps, it’s just weak and bloated sounding to my other amps for that style of music. Again, it’s a great tone for what it is, but I wouldn’t use it for any music that the stealth is presumably going to be used for.

Maybe your right hand is weak & bloated?
Gotta eliminate the variables

 

[VESmedic]

Maybe your right hand is weak & bloated?
Gotta eliminate the variables

Could be… or… it could be the most overrated amp of all time for anything other than rock and blues. Considering nothing about it is great for high gain, I’m gonna go with that.

 

[RedB4Black]

I own the SLO mk2 and an 100w Stealth. Aside from the fact that the EVH has more gain and is tighter, I feel the SLO shits all over it for any style (boosted for metal to make it tighter - not really for gain). While I like it for the purposes I use it for, the EVH is overly gainy and compressed. I'd like the SLO more if it was a little tighter without the boost.

 

[cragginshred77]

I own the SLO mk2 and an 100w Stealth. Aside from the fact that the EVH has more gain and is tighter, I feel the SLO shits all over it for any style (boosted for metal to make it tighter - not really for gain). While I like it for the purposes I use it for, the EVH is overly gainy and compressed. I'd like the SLO more if it was a little tighter without the boost.

Sounds like you don't like either amp? I offed the stealth for the more open Blue ch in the 1st gen 5150 100w 6L6 model
Slo 100 and 30 were also sold. difficult to dial the 2 ch's in to work together. Killer note distinction but not flexible at all to me.

 

[RedB4Black]

Sounds like you don't like either amp? I offed the stealth for the more open Blue ch in the 1st gen 5150 100w 6L6 model
Slo 100 and 30 were also sold. difficult to dial the 2 ch's in to work together. Killer note distinction but not flexible at all to me.

they aren’t my be all end all amps, but I like them. I just don’t understand when people say an SLO can’t do metal. I just wonder what they find lacking. I do think the SLO is a much better amp than the EVH for any style of music.

 

[Smashedguitaris⸸]

Could be… or… it could be the most overrated amp of all time for anything other than rock and blues. Considering nothing about it is great for high gain, I’m gonna go with that.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Slo either. Or the Evh.

 

[DanTravis62]

Seems odd to compare the two, the stealth is for "modern metal" and the SLO is for classic metal and hard rock sounds.

TBH I don't see the overlap appeal, at all.

 

[Racerxrated]

Seems odd to compare the two, the stealth is for "modern metal" and the SLO is for classic metal and hard rock sounds.

TBH I don't see the overlap appeal, at all.

Yep, very different amps in many ways. Great reason IMO to own both.

 

[DanTravis62]

Yep, very different amps in many ways. Great reason IMO to own both.

Yeah if you need both those sounds, I could understand both.

I'm not a stealth fan at all, and I'm especially not a fan of modern heavy tones, but it seems to be one of the most loved amps for that style. Channel 3 is a mess IMO, but channel two and channel two with a boost is a very clean, very anodyne, very modern rhythm tone. That you could totally use for meshuggah, periphery, Black veil brides, and whatever the 14 year old goth chicks are listening to.

The SLO however is TOTALLY my speed. It's bloated, creamy midrange is one of the best amplifiers I've ever used for recording leads. You can get surprisingly good semi modern rhythm sound with the crunch channel and a tube screamer, as well, in my opinion. But when I say semi modern I mean late 80s early 90s thrash. But where it really shines is the lead tones, the clean tones, and the sheer midrange balls.

They really truly don't have a lot of overlap, so if OP already has a SLO, if you want that modern tone, the stealth really isn't going to overlap much.

 

[Racerxrated]

Yeah if you need both those sounds, I could understand both.

I'm not a stealth fan at all, and I'm especially not a fan of modern heavy tones, but it seems to be one of the most loved amps for that style. Channel 3 is a mess IMO, but channel two and channel two with a boost is a very clean, very anodyne, very modern rhythm tone. That you could totally use for meshuggah, periphery, Black veil brides, and whatever the 14 year old goth chicks are listening to.

The SLO however is TOTALLY my speed. It's bloated, creamy midrange is one of the best amplifiers I've ever used for recording leads. You can get surprisingly good semi modern rhythm sound with the crunch channel and a tube screamer, as well, in my opinion. But when I say semi modern I mean late 80s early 90s thrash. But where it really shines is the lead tones, the clean tones, and the sheer midrange balls.

They really truly don't have a lot of overlap, so if OP already has a SLO, if you want that modern tone, the stealth really isn't going to overlap much.

I'm one of the few that liked the Red best, just had to drop the gain down to 2-3. Very thick and menacing. But couldn't deal with the 'plastic' tone it had overall..hard to describe but it just paled to other amps I had at the time.

 

[DanTravis62]

I'm one of the few that liked the Red best, just had to drop the gain down to 2-3. Very thick and menacing. But couldn't deal with the 'plastic' tone it had overall..hard to describe but it just paled to other amps I had at the time.

Once I dropped the gain that low it just didn't punch enough for me *shrug*

I'm generally just more into high gain amps with more of an open, uncompressed sound

 

[Racerxrated]

Once I dropped the gain that low it just didn't punch enough for me *shrug*

I'm generally just more into high gain amps with more of an open, uncompressed sound

Definitely..I had to try one years back since they were pretty cheap and so many guys love them. Open, raw and good to great clarity is the way to go.

 

[Techdeth]

I don’t have a SLO but I will say that Stealth 100 resembles my Soldano Avenger 100 . They definitely felt very alike . Stealth cuts through live good but if I been playing by Wizard or any of my diezels the stealth feels thinner . But I think wizards do that to other brands from my experience

 

[BrentSP]

I have both original SLO and 5153 100S. I personally love both. I have all of my amps on a amp/cab switcher so I can compare on the fly. The blue channel is very close to the SLO lead channel. The SLO is more open, cleaner and clearer but the Blue does a great job of getting “that” tone. I have NOS Svetlana 6L6s which I find make a huge difference.

 

[Zado]

I have both original SLO and 5153 100S. I personally love both. I have all of my amps on a amp/cab switcher so I can compare on the fly. The blue channel is very close to the SLO lead channel. The SLO is more open, cleaner and clearer but the Blue does a great job of getting “that” tone. I have NOS Svetlana 6L6s which I find make a huge difference.

Honesty, the SLO sounds far better in that video

 

[cragginshred77]

I have both original SLO and 5153 100S. I personally love both. I have all of my amps on a amp/cab switcher so I can compare on the fly. The blue channel is very close to the SLO lead channel. The SLO is more open, cleaner and clearer but the Blue does a great job of getting “that” tone. I have NOS Svetlana 6L6s which I find make a huge difference.

Did the tubes you mentioned help the EVH get closer to the SLO?

 

[cragginshred77]

There HAS to be distinction when we mention EVH. This is the OG gen 1 which sounds Very different than the newer wash of gain and fizz ones. The 100w is more open than the 50w everyone seems to have. I have owned every one at some point including the LBX which it's Blue ch on the gen 1 version was killer!

This was last Friday,


My 3rd Slo100 is inbound, this was almost a year


What I can say after last Fridays tone test is the EVH gen 1 100w with matching cab is a lot of fun. As mentioned in my 2 vids I did, I wish there was a little more overlap between the two, but overall the Slo 100 crushes in terms of note clarity and gain structure.

Someone asked 'why compare these'? Simple, Eddie owned a Slo and based his design on it, but WHY add so much compression Ed??? It has punch and great gain structure boosted and is a lot of fun to play, but once you've played a Slo 100 it kind of sets the bar so high it ruins ya!

And finally I gigged all summer with the Slo30 which is a fun amp too!

 

[BrentSP]

Did the tubes you mentioned help the EVH get closer to the SLO?

The SLO is really on another level, so there's not an EVH that's going to do what the SLO can do including the OG. The SLO can cover so much ground including really nice shimmering clean and in-between tones. The EVH cannot....but it does do high gain really well. The tubes did make a positive difference, but I wouldn't say it got any closer to the SLO, just sounds better overall.

 

[BatmansRigTalk]

EVH 5150III has a unique tone not replicated by any other amp. It has an inherent mid-range bark. Your mids on 0 won't even get rid of it. It's the signature sound of the amp. That is why it isn't recommended for chasing metal tones that belong from the 80s and 90s. With the 5150III you are aiming for Gojira.



It takes years to become familiar with the EVH 5150III. Six years later and the same player eventually found a way to milk Metallica out of the 6L6 for example.



The green channel isn't for cleans. It is for taking distortion pedals like a champ. Your distortion pedal through that channel will beat a distortion pedal through a Marshall clean channel.



Boost the blue channel using a Maxon 808 OD and you will have a new channel. This is great because you can then have up to 4 channels on a 3 channel system.

The amp is very sensitive to bias settings. Running too hot or too cold and it won't sound good at all.

SLO is a different amp. It's a single channel and so has more of a focus on sounding really good with that one tone and being versatile with it. It is basically aimed at studios with that price tag rather than your average player, IMO. So professionals with an amp farm will probably want to add it to their tonal possibilities. IMO, when you down-tune and play on a SLO you can get very close to stoner metal type greatness. Like a Metamp x Sunn sort of feel to it. If I had one of these that is what I would be playing on it. Kyuss, Sleep, Dopethrone. I wouldn't use the EVH for that, I would look more at my Orange for those Stoner Doomish tones. So I think a much better comparison IMO would be a SLO vs Orange doing stoner metal.