EVH 5150III Stealth 100S - Euge
- Thread starter rsm
- Start date
SQUAREHEAD
Well-known member
You know, I had one of these 100S Stealths about a year ago and I really, REALLY liked it!
However, It’s a huge, heavy, monstrosity of a head, and I found it had just a little bit too much gain for my personal tastes.
Guys on here who I really respect, talk about it having a plastic tone which I personally didn’t hear or feel, but I guess we all hear things differently.
… but, that being said, as soon as I got it, I loaded it with NOS Sylvania STR-415’s and ALL NOS Mullard / Tungsram preamp tubes with a Telefunken Smoothplate in the phase inverter slot.
I certainly noticed a huge improvement over the stock JJ tubes in the amplifier, which always sound like congested, muffled cardboard, in my opinion.
But, ultimately, a good old early ‘70s Marshall 100W set up properly is such a beautiful thing for my personal taste.
However, It’s a huge, heavy, monstrosity of a head, and I found it had just a little bit too much gain for my personal tastes.
Guys on here who I really respect, talk about it having a plastic tone which I personally didn’t hear or feel, but I guess we all hear things differently.
… but, that being said, as soon as I got it, I loaded it with NOS Sylvania STR-415’s and ALL NOS Mullard / Tungsram preamp tubes with a Telefunken Smoothplate in the phase inverter slot.
I certainly noticed a huge improvement over the stock JJ tubes in the amplifier, which always sound like congested, muffled cardboard, in my opinion.
But, ultimately, a good old early ‘70s Marshall 100W set up properly is such a beautiful thing for my personal taste.
harddriver
Well-known member
harddriver
Well-known member
I don't hear it either, seems the trick is running the gain low if you are going for that marshall hotrodded plexi tones like gain barely cracked, that's how a guy on YT runs his and it sounds very good to my ears.You know, I had one of these 100S Stealths about a year ago and I really, REALLY liked it!
However, It’s a huge, heavy, monstrosity of a head, and I found it had just a little bit too much gain for my personal tastes.
Guys on here who I really respect, talk about it having a plastic tone which I personally didn’t hear or feel, but I guess we all hear things differently.
… but, that being said, as soon as I got it, I loaded it with NOS Sylvania STR-415’s and ALL NOS Mullard / Tungsram preamp tubes with a Telefunken Smoothplate in the phase inverter slot.
I certainly noticed a huge improvement over the stock JJ tubes in the amplifier, which always sound like congested, muffled cardboard, in my opinion.
But, ultimately, a good old early ‘70s Marshall 100W set up properly is such a beautiful thing for my personal taste.
It's not a Stealth 6l6 this clip is the EL34 which has the some of the Stealth features not my vid this is that Dan Leal guy on YT.
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harddriver
Well-known member
I am really impressed how it retains the crunch and tightness with all that gain with no boost pedal or EQ to tighten things up. That's an accomplishment engineering wise IMHO.
VH1R2
Well-known member
^ Fantastic ^
Bram576
Well-known member
Man, I got a 100W stealth, wizards, all kinds of stuff right now. I guess the level of compression and gain some people could say it sounds a bit synthetic, but it sounds good… and it sits in a mix or band setting great. With minimal work.You know, I had one of these 100S Stealths about a year ago and I really, REALLY liked it!
However, It’s a huge, heavy, monstrosity of a head, and I found it had just a little bit too much gain for my personal tastes.
Guys on here who I really respect, talk about it having a plastic tone which I personally didn’t hear or feel, but I guess we all hear things differently.
… but, that being said, as soon as I got it, I loaded it with NOS Sylvania STR-415’s and ALL NOS Mullard / Tungsram preamp tubes with a Telefunken Smoothplate in the phase inverter slot.
I certainly noticed a huge improvement over the stock JJ tubes in the amplifier, which always sound like congested, muffled cardboard, in my opinion.
But, ultimately, a good old early ‘70s Marshall 100W set up properly is such a beautiful thing for my personal taste.
There’s some amps that people have hyped up here to a crazy degree and they might be a bit more raw sounding and less compressed, but several don’t jive well with other instruments because of that and some of them just have real weird frequency ranges going on. Some of them just don’t sound good as a whole that I’ve tried, and I’ve been like wtf is this lol. Then comes the statements like the amp doesn’t sound like itself when micd and all that.
rsm
Well-known member
You know, I had one of these 100S Stealths about a year ago and I really, REALLY liked it!
However, It’s a huge, heavy, monstrosity of a head, and I found it had just a little bit too much gain for my personal tastes.
Guys on here who I really respect, talk about it having a plastic tone which I personally didn’t hear or feel, but I guess we all hear things differently.
… but, that being said, as soon as I got it, I loaded it with NOS Sylvania STR-415’s and ALL NOS Mullard / Tungsram preamp tubes with a Telefunken Smoothplate in the phase inverter slot.
I certainly noticed a huge improvement over the stock JJ tubes in the amplifier, which always sound like congested, muffled cardboard, in my opinion.
But, ultimately, a good old early ‘70s Marshall 100W set up properly is such a beautiful thing for my personal taste.
It's more gain than I want too, but I'd expect to be able to reduce the gain some? Does it just start at too much?
I think a Splawn Quickrod 100 EL34 is about the maximum gain I'd want; I think my JVM410H would cover the same high gain tho; and I have an Engl Artist Edition 100 E651 that has plenty of gain on tap, I mostly use it set for hard rock ('70s - '80s Kiss)
rsm
Well-known member
Also considering the 5150 III EL34 100 as it has more of that pre-90s gain structure to my ears; haven't heard it in person. the local GC has a used 50W I may check out this weekend.
TheGreatGreen
Well-known member
The EVH 100w Stealths can do more than rock and metal, too.
Here's a clip I did a while back I like to throw into 5150 III discussions just because it's so outside what most people think these amps are capable of.
EVH 5150 III EL34 100w - Blue channel - Gain set somewhere around 8:00
PRS with EMG 81 bridge, 89 neck
Mesa 4x12 and Creamback 2x12 IR's
And yes I know it's an EL34 100w Stealth, but believe me the 6L6 100w Stealth can sound every bit as much like this as well. I have both versions and their Blue and Red channels preamps are practically identical. The only difference is that the 100w EL34's poweramp emphasizes the mids very slightly more.
SFW
Well-known member
Killer clip. And you are correct, the EVH amps will do a lot more than rock and metal. I think the cleans on the Stealth are quite good. But pound for pound, these amps just deliver killer rock tones. Which is the world I live in.
Here's a clip from back when I was using the OG 5153.
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Chronic Narnia
Active member
But he didn't boost it!
VH1R2
Well-known member
harddriver
Well-known member
If I had an EVH I'd be happy with this tone for sure........I' m still all Marshalls except for my Musicman and Fender Bandmaster but I enjoy the EVH 100 watter clips that are out there. If one were to fall into my lap at a good price I would be very tempted........Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome
You nailed it, that is perfect
What's not to like, three killer channels, road proven reliability, I don't hear people complaing that their EVH amps are always broken or having issues......
The video is a guy named Dan Leal, he has the Stealth and the EL34 EVH 100 watter and records some good stuff if you explore his channel.
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