EVH 5150 III

[smucarolina]

tell me about it?

I know there are probably several threads already but anyways...

how does it compare to the original 5150/6505 series?

does it have as much gain as the original 5150/6505 series?

how does it compare to the cobra?

 

[nevusofota]

My main amp since 2007. Exactly what I was looking for in tone and features. Great clean channel. Channel two is very punchy, and boosted is where this amp shines. Channel three is very high gainy but I like the attack of a boosted channel two more. The effects loop is perfect. Downside? It seems to blow preamp tubes, though I only blew one in 3 years. I believe that most of the reliability issues you read about boil down to the preamp tubes. I don't use the footswitch because I use midi controls via a Mini Amp Gizmo and Liquid foot pro. The other issue, though minor, is the footswitch cable it comes with is very cheap and flakes out causing uncontrolled channel switching or lack thereof.

This is one of the most versatile amps out there. The only thing I can say is go play one. When I bought mine I was actually going to the store to buy a SLO. I saw this sitting there and thought I would demo it. I found it was more versatile so it beat out the SLO, the rest is history.

I have a 5150 combo and to me they are TOTALLY different amps. I don't like high gain sizzle, which I feel the original 5150's have too much of. The EVH is much smoother, though still very high gainy.

Hope any of this helps.

Now, open up the flood gates with people saying that they would never spend that much on a MIM amp (without playing one).

 

[smucarolina]

is it worth getting rid of a cobra for?

the reliability issues kind of scare me away from it...but then again people have given cobra's a bad reputation as well but honestly i never had any problems with it.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I've never played a Cobra, but I have grown very fond of the 5150 III tone. It's much smoother and more modern sounding than the Peavey models. Think of it as a bridge between Peavey and Mesa. It sounds great at low volumes too.

 

[Bishop5150]

Much more versatile than the original 5150 I still have one. The hi gain channels are similiar. Little smoother and warmer than the original but can still do brutal. Way better clean. The hi gain channel is not as fizzy as the original. The second channel can get a nice overdriven Marshall type sound.

 

[ke2]

Not too bad clip, the talking is in German, but you`ll get the drift.

 

[emperor_black]

They had HORRIBLE reliability issues in the beginning including some illegal immigrants found hiding behind the transformer. But the newer ones dont seem to have any complaints. On the Jackson forums a guy had to return 3 of them because all of 'em crapped out within days of getting them. But these were the very first run.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

to me the 5150 III cosmetically looks great, reminds me of an Ecstasy. I have never played one, but sat in store with an employee wankin out VH tunes for about 20 minutes.

The weird thing to me is it sounds kinda out of phase? congested, with hollow sound. Maybe he didn't dial it in right, but I hear it in a lot of the clips as well.

I would like to sit down with one and try and figure that out....

 

[JakeAC5253]

congested, with hollow sound.

Did you happen to miss whose name was on the amp?

 

[Gainfreak]

I was considering getting one of these because I actually did have a lot of fun playing on the amp. The only thing that stopped me is that when I went to Sam ash to play one, channel 2 was totally out and majorly screwed up. It sounded as if it had channel 2 and channel one playing at the same time with more of channel one bleeding through. Not such a big deal if I had not gone to Guitar center only to power one up and have it blow a fuse. I figured after that I'd go home and do some research and after a few minutes I saw some people complaining about various issues. The bottom line is that I'll probably own one one day but it wont be until Ive heard that they have addressed all of the issues Ive been hearing.

 

[nevusofota]

They had HORRIBLE reliability issues in the beginning including some illegal immigrants found hiding behind the transformer. But the newer ones dont seem to have any complaints. On the Jackson forums a guy had to return 3 of them because all of 'em crapped out within days of getting them. But these were the very first run.

I keep hearing of a guy who has had problems with 3 back to back EVH heads. My theory.......it's the same guy on all the forums and he was plugging all of them into the same "bad power" outlet.

I think the whole late model run being more reliable than the early model run is all forum hype also. I have 1 of the first 500 made and never had a major issue (besides the 1 bad preamp tube)

 

[Rayneman]

I got one of these when they first came out...people seemed not to like them. Now they appear to get more favorable reviews. My take on the amp was that 1) the clean would easily become gritty, cool if that's your thing 2) The blue channel had a cool sound and vibe to it, but just not quite enough gain/drive... I can see boosting this 3) The red channel sounded s bit strange to me, really, really different than the Peavey amps in terms of high gain, but yet more like I "think" EVH would have his sig amp sound like.

If I recall, its quite a bit bigger than most amps. I sold it not long after I got it. It really had nothing bad going on, it just didn't do anything that really made me want to keep it.

 

[tonmazz]

I got one of these when they first came out...people seemed not to like them. Now they appear to get more favorable reviews. My take on the amp was that 1) the clean would easily become gritty, cool if that's your thing 2) The blue channel had a cool sound and vibe to it, but just not quite enough gain/drive... I can see boosting this 3) The red channel sounded s bit strange to me, really, really different than the Peavey amps in terms of high gain, but yet more like I "think" EVH would have his sig amp sound like.

If I recall, its quite a bit bigger than most amps. I sold it not long after I got it. It really had nothing bad going on, it just didn't do anything that really made me want to keep it.

Perfect explanation of that amp. I actually went through two brand new ones that died on me in the middle of jams both times. Third one was pretty good though. As you said not a bad amp at all, just wasn't my thing in the end. ps - I had mine in different outlets when they died!

 

[nevusofota]

I got one of these when they first came out...people seemed not to like them. Now they appear to get more favorable reviews. My take on the amp was that 1) the clean would easily become gritty, cool if that's your thing 2) The blue channel had a cool sound and vibe to it, but just not quite enough gain/drive... I can see boosting this 3) The red channel sounded s bit strange to me, really, really different than the Peavey amps in terms of high gain, but yet more like I "think" EVH would have his sig amp sound like.

If I recall, its quite a bit bigger than most amps. I sold it not long after I got it. It really had nothing bad going on, it just didn't do anything that really made me want to keep it.

Perfect explanation of that amp. I actually went through two brand new ones that died on me in the middle of jams both times. Third one was pretty good though. As you said not a bad amp at all, just wasn't my thing in the end. ps - I had mine in different outlets when they died!

Just curious, did you ever find out why the first two died? I'm wondering if it was the common preamp tube issue. Also, do you frequent the Jackson forums?

 

[smucarolina]

well...a guy offered me his EVH 5150 III + $150 cash for my Framus Cobra...

Should I do the trade?

 

[lolzgreg]

Do it, or you'll be very sorry.

 

[tonmazz]

I got one of these when they first came out...people seemed not to like them. Now they appear to get more favorable reviews. My take on the amp was that 1) the clean would easily become gritty, cool if that's your thing 2) The blue channel had a cool sound and vibe to it, but just not quite enough gain/drive... I can see boosting this 3) The red channel sounded s bit strange to me, really, really different than the Peavey amps in terms of high gain, but yet more like I "think" EVH would have his sig amp sound like.

If I recall, its quite a bit bigger than most amps. I sold it not long after I got it. It really had nothing bad going on, it just didn't do anything that really made me want to keep it.

Perfect explanation of that amp. I actually went through two brand new ones that died on me in the middle of jams both times. Third one was pretty good though. As you said not a bad amp at all, just wasn't my thing in the end. ps - I had mine in different outlets when they died!

Just curious, did you ever find out why the first two died? I'm wondering if it was the common preamp tube issue. Also, do you frequent the Jackson forums?

Never been on the Jackson forums so there must be another. Mine, from what I understand, were all the second tube layout. They actually still had the factory sticker inside with Eddie's original desired tube layout but all three of mine were different so it wasn't the tube thing. Same thing happened to both, just went from band volume to totally quiet and couldn't get it to work. The dealer was super cool and kept ordering new ones, but they never told me what the issue was. The last one I had was great, no issues but I still was always nervous. I know guys that never had a problem though. Fender sent me a bunch of t shirts and a head cover for my trouble so they knew something was up with them.

 

[nevusofota]

I got one of these when they first came out...people seemed not to like them. Now they appear to get more favorable reviews. My take on the amp was that 1) the clean would easily become gritty, cool if that's your thing 2) The blue channel had a cool sound and vibe to it, but just not quite enough gain/drive... I can see boosting this 3) The red channel sounded s bit strange to me, really, really different than the Peavey amps in terms of high gain, but yet more like I "think" EVH would have his sig amp sound like.

If I recall, its quite a bit bigger than most amps. I sold it not long after I got it. It really had nothing bad going on, it just didn't do anything that really made me want to keep it.

Perfect explanation of that amp. I actually went through two brand new ones that died on me in the middle of jams both times. Third one was pretty good though. As you said not a bad amp at all, just wasn't my thing in the end. ps - I had mine in different outlets when they died!

Just curious, did you ever find out why the first two died? I'm wondering if it was the common preamp tube issue. Also, do you frequent the Jackson forums?

Never been on the Jackson forums so there must be another. Mine, from what I understand, were all the second tube layout. They actually still had the factory sticker inside with Eddie's original desired tube layout but all three of mine were different so it wasn't the tube thing. Same thing happened to both, just went from band volume to totally quiet and couldn't get it to work. The dealer was super cool and kept ordering new ones, but they never told me what the issue was. The last one I had was great, no issues but I still was always nervous. I know guys that never had a problem though. Fender sent me a bunch of t shirts and a head cover for my trouble so they knew something was up with them.

By second tube layout do you mean JJ's instead of the Sovtek/EH combination, or did each V slot do something different (for example: V7 in the first layout was for phase invertion but in the second layout was for Effects loop)?

 

[Laura]

I got one a few weeks ago. It is probably my favorite amp right now. It sounds more refined in comparison to my 5150. It is less snarly but it cuts like a hot knife through butter in the mix. Killer amp and totally under the radar for metal these days.

 

[Mailman1971]

I would love to get one someday as well.