EVH LBX vs 5153 50w

[BYTOR]

 

[Speeddemon]

IMO,
The chime/sparkle is better on the 50W, when you played the Dance the Night Away and Tie Your Mother Down riffs on the blue channel.
The LBX seems a bit tighter, with honky-er mids a bit, while the 50W gives more low-end push. So the LBX seems clearer in the red channel.

Then again, a decent retube of the 50W and the right EQ-ing...

 

[MrDowntown]

Lbx sounded tighter to me as well. And I got the more vintage tone/sound from the lbx he talked about, especially on Unchained.

Great review btw.

 

[shred-o-holic]

That was a very good review as he really discussed a lot of key concerns with the 5153. Sounds like a great bedroom jammer. It's funny because I definitely prefer my 5150 III 50 at band practice and live over home. So his points ring well with me. That being said there are always ways to manipulate the output of the amp so you can get the higher volume sound at home. All in all good review and it has renewed my interest in checking out the smaller fry.

 

[shreder75]

Lower the resonance on the 50 watt, and I bet it can get the lbx tone if that's what one is shooting for, or at least very close. The lbx sounds cool, but that price doesn't make it attractive to me.

 

[Speeddemon]

Lower the resonance on the 50 watt, and I bet it can get the lbx tone if that's what one is shooting for, or at least very close. The lbx sounds cool, but that price doesn't make it attractive to me.

That's something I also noticed;
it's not totally fair to compare a 2xEL84 to a 2x6L6 with the exact same channel and resonance/presence settings.
The 6L6's will sound bigger, beefier by default, so lower the resonance a bit and you'll get close.
Then drop a 5751 in V1 of the 50W and voila, your blue channel suddenly sounds opener too.
Try a 12AU7 (ECC82) in V3 or V4 to totally change the red channel to something milder and more controllable. More complex mids, less saturation and compression. Instant Gary Moore was my take on it when I tried a 50's NOS RCA ECC82 in V3 of my 50W.

 

[shreder75]

Lower the resonance on the 50 watt, and I bet it can get the lbx tone if that's what one is shooting for, or at least very close. The lbx sounds cool, but that price doesn't make it attractive to me.

That's something I also noticed;
it's not totally fair to compare a 2xEL84 to a 2x6L6 with the exact same channel and resonance/presence settings.
The 6L6's will sound bigger, beefier by default, so lower the resonance a bit and you'll get close.
Then drop a 5751 in V1 of the 50W and voila, your blue channel suddenly sounds opener too.
Try a 12AU7 (ECC82) in V3 or V4 to totally change the red channel to something milder and more controllable. More complex mids, less saturation and compression. Instant Gary Moore was my take on it when I tried a 50's NOS RCA ECC82 in V3 of my 50W.

The resonance on the 50 watt is easily one of its coolest features. Sweeping that knob changes the characteristics of the whole amp, which leads to a lot of options.

 

[lettmusic]

both sounded great. But I still favor my 50w, with just one simple fact: it has a clean channel, at a press of a button. I'm sure if you bring down the gain on the Blue (on the LBX), you can get a good clean sound too, but who has the time to do that on a jam or a gig?
If the LBX has a clean channel, it'll be surely one of the best amp of its class out there, if not the best.

 

['63-Strat]

I think if you're only playing at home, then yes it probably does make sense to go for the lower wattage lbx. But live for hard rock rhythm tones I don't want less than 50 watts personally. And I'm really only concerned about tone when playing live or recording. For practicing at home it's not as important to me, I can be happy practicing unplugged if needed. Still it was a good review

 

[Badronald]

I'm really only concerned about tone when playing live or recording. For practicing at home it's not as important to me, I can be happy practicing unplugged if needed.

Same here. I rarely ever plug in at home. I could care less about the tone. I could use just about anything.

 

[BYTOR]

I'm really only concerned about tone when playing live or recording. For practicing at home it's not as important to me, I can be happy practicing unplugged if needed.

Same here. I rarely ever plug in at home. I could care less about the tone. I could use just about anything.

y'all so crazy

Great tone.....even at home

 

['63-Strat]

I'm really only concerned about tone when playing live or recording. For practicing at home it's not as important to me, I can be happy practicing unplugged if needed.

Same here. I rarely ever plug in at home. I could care less about the tone. I could use just about anything.

y'all so crazy

Great tone.....even at home

Practicing is more about the playing for me, the gear is kinda irrelevant IMO. In some ways less distraction that way but ymmv.