riffermadness
Member
First off I don't own a lot of gear anymore,and mainly a stay at home wanna be guitarist,not really but I will start of with this,I have a EVH 5150-3 50 watt head and matching 2-12" cabinet in Ivory color,the speakers are the G12H-30 Anniversary models that come stock in this cab..I bought this rig new 7 weeks ago,and its my second go round with this same head but different color..anyway I have read and have experienced these 5150-3 series tube amps can get a nice high gain sound at even bedroom levels which is why I decided on this brand/company..but like other guitarists I am always searching for something that will maximize my sound to its fullest while at lower volumes with an occasional get to open it up,and I have tried several Overdrive pedals hoping to get me the sound in my head,if that will ever happen..I have read so many reviews and watched lots of videos and really liked what I have heard with this Gus g signature OD pedal,so at $40 i ordered one 4 days ago and it arrived earlier today,it feels and looks like a nice solid no frills or botique pedal,and the 3 controls feel nice and smooth,even when turning with the right amount of tension that there should be no problems with making unexpected changes in the settings..real quick my EVH 5150-3 head is pretty much brand new with about 15-17 hours tops on it,but I swapped the V1 and V3 with a Tungsol reissue 12ax7's and a 9th Gen Shuguang 12ax7 in V2..also some powertubes from my favorite seller who does a great job of matching all tubes,and these are JJ's 6l6-GC's..I biased tubes to the 30 mA setting each and ready to roll..I am using my new Ibanez Iron Label RGAIR6 in flat black with dual stock Dimarzio Fusion Edge pickups which sound awesome through high amd low-mid gain,and even clean,so overall the right guitar for a metal head like me..running the ibanez into the G screamer into the front of the amp,I started on the green clean setting with gain at 9am and rest of controls at or barely above noon,w/o the OD pedal this gives a nice breakup with fairly aggresive handstyle stock,then I clicked on the OD pedal with the gain off,level at 12 noon and gain at 12 noon and the amp came alive,the sterileness of these EVH 5150-3 amps was all gone,had a real nice probably 12-15 db clean boost signal w/no noise and wow there was lots of sustain and I had a nice gritty breakup that responds to picking style,heavy hand brings raunchy aggressive breakup w/out being too clean if that makes sense-,and as i dialed up the level to about 3/4 of the way and the gain up to 12 o'clock and tone at 12 noon the amp was barking and really punchy with nice even amounts of sustain..great sound..dialed up the Blue Crunch channel and started the gain about 2 o'clock on the green/blue shared eq rest of controls still at or barely above noon and again the amp this time started sounding huge,switching pedal on and off there is a very noticeable difference in volume boost and gain with no noise at all,the palm muted power chords are thick and full with a nice not over the top sizzle and articulation is awesome,the notes fly off the fretboard with a mid to heavy picking hand,and turning the guitar volume control down brings a nice slightly crunchypre AC/DC style crunch,but dial the Blue channels gain to max and the OD pedal about3 o'clock and the amp is pushing into high gain heaven,long sustaining notes,pinch and natural harmonic overtones are coming out without very much compression to choke it off,the amp sounds huge now and so damn hard to stop playing ! Now to the Red Max Gain channel I usually stay at from 2-3 o'clock with bass/low at 2 o'clock,mids at 10-11 o'clock and treble at 12 noon,presence at 11 o'clock,amp turns into an uncompressed monster even at the bedroom volume level,this is where I find my favorite stock tones of this amp but adding the G-Screamer OD pedal its just brutal as F*#k!! These speakers aren't anywhere close to being broken in and the amp becomes more alive with spacious chords that are aggressive and defined and pick hand attack is still a factor here,changing the amps rear panel resonance control has a nice effect here as well,I raised the dial to above 12 noon and the walls were shaking and geez the amp just sounds amazingly uncompressed with some natural ambience,like a little reverb dialed in and gets rid of the sterile EVH tone,I didn't even run my EHX Holy Grail Neo reverb pedal in the loop,it sounds awesome ! I know you all will probably make it to the end of the 1st paragraph and I don't blame you,but my ranting and raving here is to maybe let some other EVH 5150-3 amp players know that the sterileness can be dialed out with the Awesome Pedal,$40 -$45 bucks and instant total different amp sounds,from clean to filthy..My main goal was just to push the amps natural frequencies that are hidden in it out at lower volumes to get rid of the compressed sterile sounds and WOW with this pedal as a clean boost w/o the gain turned up or an even more intense amp as the gain and pedal level is being turned up..this amp has 6L6-GC power tubes and I like them because of the low end chug..Guys and Gals this is a true Sleeper pedal from BBE,I would definitely buy another one and will as a backup or just to have one,this pedal feels and looks like a solid build..I am just a regular guy here on Rig Talk that just has been looking for a good OD pedal to push my standard EVH 5150-3 50 watt head/speaker combo to the next level at lower volumes and I did get to turn up the volume up to 9am and being in a bedroom with the amp and pedal clicked on it is awesome ! Don't be fooled by the dull black color with just basic graphics and standard control knobs(knurled dome) this pedal is awesome and doesn't add but very little extra noise at up to a fairly loud volume,this pedal can be used as a fairly clean boost with the gain knob all the way down + the 3 controls make a noticeable difference as you start raising the levels..AWESOME PEDAL HERE FOR CHEAP !! GREAT FOR A HIGH GAIN AMP AND MID TO LOW GAINS AS WELL !! Don't shoot me for babbling on ! HAHA ! Thought I was done well I forgot this,I have a new little Jet City Custom 22 head that should be arriving by Tuesday at the latest and plan on checking it out with this OD pedal as well,so look out I may do another what I call review soon ! I can use my phone to record and probably make a video of what I did today or a later one with the Jet City,but I don't know how to transfer to here-Rig Talk so any suggestions other than ragging would be greatly appreciated ! You guys need to her this pedal !