EVH Stealth 50w 6L6

[MistaGuitah]

The new EVH Stealth 50w may not be a boutique gem, but this is one of the most exciting amps to come out this year. The Stealth truly has one of the best distortion tones there is. I started saving the day Bogner announced the 3534 because that is the ultimate amp in my opinion, but aside from some really cool new products put out by Engl, Friedman, etc., the Stealth 50 seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

An EVH sales rep said that the Stealth 50 will have a wider range of clean headroom than the 100w Stealth. There are some other neat features like an external bias. For $1299 man, that's a hell of a deal. A lot of people were receptive to the EL34 Stealth, which is a really great amplifier, but I think the 6L6 Stealth has that x-factor. If any of you guys score one, I'd love to hear some audio.

 

[indespise]

The EVH stuff is hard to beat for the price/performance/quality ratio you get, especially used.

 

[Metlupass2]

Are all the EVH 5150IIIs made in Mexico or just the 50 watt?

 

[napalmdeath]

The new EVH Stealth 50w may not be a boutique gem, but this is one of the most exciting amps to come out this year. The Stealth truly has one of the best distortion tones there is. I started saving the day Bogner announced the 3534 because that is the ultimate amp in my opinion, but aside from some really cool new products put out by Engl, Friedman, etc., the Stealth 50 seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

An EVH sales rep said that the Stealth 50 will have a wider range of clean headroom than the 100w Stealth. There are some other neat features like an external bias. For $1299 man, that's a hell of a deal. A lot of people were receptive to the EL34 Stealth, which is a really great amplifier, but I think the 6L6 Stealth has that x-factor. If any of you guys score one, I'd love to hear some audio.

I was intrigued, (and still am), as soon as it was announced at NAMM. Funny, they haven't posted a single demo on youtube…. They usually hype the piss out of EVH products, but this one seems to be a ghost...

 

[napalmdeath]

Are all the EVH 5150IIIs made in Mexico or just the 50 watt?

I believe they all are.

 

[ErikT]

I would love to hear/try one. Loved my 6l6 and EL34 5150 iii's. For the money they're very, very hard to beat. Interested in how clean the clean channel is on this one.

 

[311boogieman]

I've been impressed with these amps since day one. Only played the original though...maybe 4 or 5 different ones at one point. More saturated than say a Splawn Quick Rod but I could not get that amp to flub out. Easy to play too. Came super close to buying one.

Have not played this version you speak of and yeah, they are all MIM. Except maybe the very very first batch ???!!

Wondering how the 'wider range of clean headroom' thing works.

 

[Spaceboy]

What's different about the stealth version of these amps? I had the original 50 when it came out but sold it. I loooooved that blue channel though. Now that they have concentric pots, I might need to snag another. What does this stealth version have over the regular? I see more gain on channel two mentioned, but that doesn't seem like a big change.

 

[MistaGuitah]

What's different about the stealth version of these amps? I had the original 50 when it came out but sold it. I loooooved that blue channel though. Now that they have concentric pots, I might need to snag another. What does this stealth version have over the regular? I see more gain on channel two mentioned, but that doesn't seem like a big change.

I don't know exactly what they did but the voicing is different and there's more gain if you can believe that. I played a 5150 III 100w for a long time and really enjoyed playing it. Then the Stealth came out and I liked it even more. Whatever they did sounds amazing. However, the amps are huge and I always toyed with the idea of getting a 50w, but just couldn't go back to that after spending time with the Stealth. Now the 50w is out and if it's got some headroom on the clean channel then it's going to be really hard to beat.

 

[PBGas]

I love the full size version! However, it was not fun taking it to gigs or rehearsals though at almost 60lbs.
This version has all of the buttons checked! Nice that they added in the bias adjust in there.

At 35lbs and midi, this is a great amp!

I wonder if anyone has had any reliability issues with the smaller versions? i had an issue with the very first run that was made in Vietnam but never an issue with any of the others.

 

[Shask]

I feel like i have seen it talked about a lot, but without NAMM videos, the talk died quickly.

I think the biggest question was the clean channel. Many people thought the 100W version didn't really have much of a clean, and it was more like having 3 distortion channels with way too much gain.

I know I have been planning picking a 6L6 version up soon (Why are they out of stock so much??), and have thought about this new Stealth version, but not sure if the original would be the better all-around amp.

 

[Beyond Black]

What's different about the stealth version of these amps? I had the original 50 when it came out but sold it. I loooooved that blue channel though. Now that they have concentric pots, I might need to snag another. What does this stealth version have over the regular? I see more gain on channel two mentioned, but that doesn't seem like a big change.

I wouldn’t mind just a little more gain on the blue channel. Definitely want to hear some good clips of this amp.

 

[311boogieman]

I lifted this off the EVH home page but it was specific to the 100wattr. Not sure exactly what carried over to the 50w. Eddie said it is a "turbo charged" 5153.

-A re-voiced second channel for more present, defined low-mids and crunch
-Enhanced low-frequency range on the third channel
-Increased gain on channels 2 and 3 to drive your tone to the next level
-Rear-panel resonance controls for each channel giving you even more powerful lows
-Newly added adjustable bias control

 

[napalmdeath]

The info is listed on the page..

http://www.evhgear.com/gear/amps/5150ii ... lack-120v/

 

[MistaGuitah]

The website says "crisp clean channel," so who knows that that means. However, totally pristine cleans aren't that useful for me, but it's good to have when you do need it. Still, it's the distortion on the Stealth that I'm crazy about. Sweetwater says they'll be shipping at the end of this month so we should find out a few things in the next couple of weeks.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the concentric pots. I didn't like them on the Stealth 50 EL34 version and this has a similar design. Anyone else not a big fan of concentric pots or maybe find them useful in live situations?

 

[napalmdeath]

The website says "crisp clean channel," so who knows that that means. However, totally pristine cleans aren't that useful for me, but it's good to have when you do need it. Still, it's the distortion on the Stealth that I'm crazy about. Sweetwater says they'll be shipping at the end of this month so we should find out a few things in the next couple of weeks.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the concentric pots. I didn't like them on the Stealth 50 EL34 version and this has a similar design. Anyone else not a big fan of concentric pots or maybe find them useful in live situations?

Did you have an EL34 50 watt? What did you like/dislike about it?

 

[MistaGuitah]

The website says "crisp clean channel," so who knows that that means. However, totally pristine cleans aren't that useful for me, but it's good to have when you do need it. Still, it's the distortion on the Stealth that I'm crazy about. Sweetwater says they'll be shipping at the end of this month so we should find out a few things in the next couple of weeks.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the concentric pots. I didn't like them on the Stealth 50 EL34 version and this has a similar design. Anyone else not a big fan of concentric pots or maybe find them useful in live situations?

Did you have an EL34 50 watt? What did you like/dislike about it?

I used to play a 100w EVH head after they first came out, loved it. When the EL34 Stealth came out, I bought one from Guitar Center for $900 bucks but only kept it for a few weeks. I did not like the green and blue channel nearly as much as the 100w, and it only seemed to really come alive on the red channel with high gain. It proved my initial expectations wrong because I thought EL34s would be great, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't bond with the voicing. It also didn't have the same pick attack either. To me, it seemed unforgiving in a worse way, not in a way like say a Bogner amp would be.

Having compared it to the 100w EL34 Stealth and 50w 5153, I set it at the bottom of the list. Honestly, other people sound great on that amp and like it very much, but I just couldn't bond with it.

 

[Econ]

I’m between this one and the Bogner 3534.

 

[napalmdeath]

The website says "crisp clean channel," so who knows that that means. However, totally pristine cleans aren't that useful for me, but it's good to have when you do need it. Still, it's the distortion on the Stealth that I'm crazy about. Sweetwater says they'll be shipping at the end of this month so we should find out a few things in the next couple of weeks.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the concentric pots. I didn't like them on the Stealth 50 EL34 version and this has a similar design. Anyone else not a big fan of concentric pots or maybe find them useful in live situations?

Did you have an EL34 50 watt? What did you like/dislike about it?

I used to play a 100w EVH head after they first came out, loved it. When the EL34 Stealth came out, I bought one from Guitar Center for $900 bucks but only kept it for a few weeks. I did not like the green and blue channel nearly as much as the 100w, and it only seemed to really come alive on the red channel with high gain. It proved my initial expectations wrong because I thought EL34s would be great, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't bond with the voicing. It also didn't have the same pick attack either. To me, it seemed unforgiving in a worse way, not in a way like say a Bogner amp would be.

Having compared it to the 100w EL34 Stealth and 50w 5153, I set it at the bottom of the list. Honestly, other people sound great on that amp and like it very much, but I just couldn't bond with it.

5

That's kinda what I've read about the 50 watt EL34. Lackluster, and "voicing" not as pleasing.
I always dug the 50 watt 6L6, I just thought the red channel was insane, (in a bad way)..

 

[MistaGuitah]

The website says "crisp clean channel," so who knows that that means. However, totally pristine cleans aren't that useful for me, but it's good to have when you do need it. Still, it's the distortion on the Stealth that I'm crazy about. Sweetwater says they'll be shipping at the end of this month so we should find out a few things in the next couple of weeks.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the concentric pots. I didn't like them on the Stealth 50 EL34 version and this has a similar design. Anyone else not a big fan of concentric pots or maybe find them useful in live situations?

Did you have an EL34 50 watt? What did you like/dislike about it?

I used to play a 100w EVH head after they first came out, loved it. When the EL34 Stealth came out, I bought one from Guitar Center for $900 bucks but only kept it for a few weeks. I did not like the green and blue channel nearly as much as the 100w, and it only seemed to really come alive on the red channel with high gain. It proved my initial expectations wrong because I thought EL34s would be great, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't bond with the voicing. It also didn't have the same pick attack either. To me, it seemed unforgiving in a worse way, not in a way like say a Bogner amp would be.

Having compared it to the 100w EL34 Stealth and 50w 5153, I set it at the bottom of the list. Honestly, other people sound great on that amp and like it very much, but I just couldn't bond with it.

5

That's kinda what I've read about the 50 watt EL34. Lackluster, and "voicing" not as pleasing.
I always dug the 50 watt 6L6, I just thought the red channel was insane, (in a bad way)..

The red channel is better on the 6L6 Stealth. I have heard people say similar things about the Ecstasy red channel, but I really like it. I guess it's just a matter of taste. An EVH with just the green and blue channels would be damned versatile.