EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 NEW

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DanTravis62 said:
This. Everyones first impression was of the clips with the complete garbage matching cabinets that had garbage speakers in them.

Apparently they sound great with big kid speakers - I've not played one, but I've heard clips and they sound very much like the standard 5150 series from what I can tell, with a better clean channel

It's kind of mind blowing, if their cheap asses loaded the cabs with Chinese v30s or one of the various v30s copies, or literally ANY decent speaker, I think the iconic would have flown off the shelves

It's actually kind of mind blowing how stupid big corporations can be
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For sure. The stock speaker in my 40 was garbage. The magnet on that thing is TINY. I put a WGS ET65 (Creamback 65) in it and it's awesome. I like the 5150 III, but it lacks the aggressiveness of the original Peavey. It's a lot more versatile and is what the II/+ should've been IMO. It's a very refined amp but sounded too polite to replace my OG 5150. The Iconic nails the original voicing with the Burn switch in, plus you get closer to the 3 without. The crunch channel has way more range than the Peavey and the cleans are gorgeous. The footswitchable boost is great and the built in gate makes the amp silent. Really impressed with the Iconic. Not really anything close to its price that can touch it on the used market. It's basically the price of what 5150s used to be and it's way more versatile.
 
MatrixClaw said:
For sure. The stock speaker in my 40 was garbage. The magnet on that thing is TINY. I put a WGS ET65 (Creamback 65) in it and it's awesome. I like the 5150 III, but it lacks the aggressiveness of the original Peavey. It's a lot more versatile and is what the II/+ should've been IMO. It's a very refined amp but sounded too polite to replace my OG 5150. The Iconic nails the original voicing with the Burn switch in, plus you get closer to the 3 without. The crunch channel has way more range than the Peavey and the cleans are gorgeous. The footswitchable boost is great and the built in gate makes the amp silent. Really impressed with the Iconic. Not really anything close to its price that can touch it on the used market. It's basically the price of what 5150s used to be and it's way more versatile.
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And with all that going for it

The reputation was completely ruined by their corpo penny pinching choice to use awful speakers

Honestly it's a lesson that other companies should learn from

On the positive side, iconics are relatively sane priced on the used market 🤷
 
DanTravis62 said:
And with all that going for it

The reputation was completely ruined by their corpo penny pinching choice to use awful speakers

Honestly it's a lesson that other companies should learn from

On the positive side, iconics are relatively sane priced on the used market 🤷
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Yep, definitely a shame, but also not complaining cause I traded like $300 worth of gear for mine and it's definitely the best $300 I've spent in a long time :LOL:
 
DanTravis62 said:
The reputation was completely ruined by their corpo penny pinching choice to use awful speakers

Honestly it's a lesson that other companies should learn from
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Didn't something similar happen with the original 5150? The cabs were loaded with some horrible Sheffield speakers and it wasn't until people started plugging into different cabs that it took off? So I've heard at least.
 
7704A said:
Didn't something similar happen with the original 5150? The cabs were loaded with some horrible Sheffield speakers and it wasn't until people started plugging into different cabs that it took off? So I've heard at least.
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The sheffield's aren't anywhere NEAR as bad as the "EVH Custom" in the iconic.

I vividly remember playing the 5150 combo at a local shop when it came out, and the speakers definitely didn't ruin the experience
 
7704A said:
Oh boy, I didn't realize things were  that bad.
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Especially in the price range, I don't think I can think of a worse mismatch as far as speaker pairing with an amp release

In all the mic'ed clips they sound kind of like a raw line out without an IR, and that's actually being diplomatic about it

In a raw line out, generally the bass frequencies don't sound like a cardboard box being kicked during palm mutes
 
The amp fucking rules. Stay away from the burn button "although I want to hear someones analysis of how the burn button can be used" but if you play metal or rock, and cant make the Iconic sound good through a 2 or 4x12 with some decent speakers, you probably just lick.
 
japetus said:
The amp fucking rules. Stay away from the burn button "although I want to hear someones analysis of how the burn button can be used" but if you play metal or rock, and cant make the Iconic sound good through a 2 or 4x12 with some decent speakers, you probably just lick.
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I love the Burn button and don't understand the aversion people have to it. Versus the 6505 head I had when I got mine, the Burn was the key to get it to sound almost identical. James Brown even said on TGP that the point of the Burn was to give the amp the original 5150 red channel voicing. I guess if you are more of a 6505+/5153/Boosted Crunch user, the Burn would be bad for you, though.
 
These are the first positive things i've heard about the Iconic series.
 
Soundstorm said:
These are the first positive things i've heard about the Iconic series.
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Any clip or promo that most of us saw, was with the garbage stock cheapo speakers. In person, through a quality cab it smokes ANY of the 5153s I've owned. Which, at this point have been: 3 5153 50w( I kept trying to like it), 1 100w 6L6 Stealth, and just last fall a 100w EL34 Stealth.
Not saying they are crap or even average sounding amps, they sound good but fall far short of what I like.
But the Iconic is a keeper.
 
What's the point of making it with gold faceplate if it isn't more marshall? I think that is what people want. So what is the deal with the preamp? 2 preamp tubes and the rest are transistors or fets?
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
What's the point of making it with gold faceplate if it isn't more marshall? I think that is what people want. So what is the deal with the preamp? 2 preamp tubes and the rest are transistors or fets?
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The phase inverter is solid state
 
harddriver said:
With all the used one popping up on CL you guys are making want to try one out.........STOP IT........:p:bash:
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I wish i was in whatever your area is, there aren't any used ones in washington state
 
DanTravis62 said:
I wish i was in whatever your area is, there aren't any used ones in washington state
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There were a couple of them around here a month or so ago, haven't seen them recently but they were priced right. I'm mostly just curious about them with the S/S preamp stages to hear how they sound and feel in person. The clips sound good........The Iconic amp for me falls into the category of "HOLE IN MY HEAD" in the hierarchy of NEEDS.........:LOL:
 
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