EVH5150III 50watt - Stealth/6L6/EL34 - differences???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Orvillain
  • Start date Start date
Orvillain

Orvillain

Active member
So these 50-watty jobbies. So you've got the original 6L6 version... the EL34 version... and the Stealth version, which also has 6L6 tubes.

What are the real world tonal differences?? Why would you buy one over the other??

Recently I got the 100watt 5150III Stealth EL34 model, and I like it. I fancy a 50-watter too. I've had the 6L6 version before, but not the other two!
 
Sorry for asking a question that has probably been covered in a hundred threads before, but if I do a search that would involve some sort of brainpower which I lack on account of shoving drop-C metal riffs into my ears like pins into a bollock, for the last 20 odd years of my life.

Can anyone help with my bollock? It is the left one.
 
But no seriously, are they all just the same amp with different tubes and the C137 or not ?? Or more to it than that??
 
I own a 50w 6L6 (version 2, with the concentric Gain/Volume pots on the green and blue channels) and had two 50w Stealth's at my place at the same time for about a week to test them out.

The 50w 6L6 and 50w Stealth are almost the exact same amp. Under a microscope, you can hear that the 50w 6L6's Blue channel is sliiiiiiiiiiiiightly less compressed under some Gain settings, but other that that I found them almost exactly the same. Any real differences between them could probably be attributed to differences in component manufacturing tolerances, meaning the difference between any two 50w 6L6 amps is going to be about as pronounced as the difference between any given 50w 6L6 and 50w Stealth.

The 50w EL34 is slightly different. The EL34 power section means there's more damping in the power section, which means the mids are just a tad bit more prominent. The 50w EL34's Red channel is the same circuit as the 50w 6L6 and 50w Stealth's. The 50w EL34's Blue channel doesn't filter out as much low end as the 50w 6L6's Blue channel, so it's a bit looser and more woofy, but like you said, the difference can be minimized with the C137 mod.

I also have a 100w EL34 and the major difference between the 100w and 50w amps is that the 100w amps are slightly thicker or fatter in the mids, not in the output EQ but in the preamp. The 50w amps can be made to sound slightly closer to the 100w amps by slightly mid-boosting the 50w's input) and the 100w amps extend farther down into the low frequencies than the 50w amps.
 
I have owned the EL34S combo (stealth) for about a year and just got a 6l6 50 watt around Christmas. I am selling the El34 because I no longer need it. It is a great amp but the 6l6 does exactly what I want.

I mentioned this before but on the blue channel EL34, I couldn't get the gain low enough. On the 6l6, I can dime it and love it, but can be at 9 o'clock and have a great hard rock tone. I love thr tone more on the 6l6, usable gain more on 6l6, and clean channel is wayyyyyy cleaner.

I can't stop playing my 6l6.
 
Back
Top