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tonmazz « EVH 515III 50 Watt monster! »
Published on 08/05/12 at 10:35Wow! This little brother to the 100 watt EVH 5150III is an absolute monster of an amp. Still a tube amp like its big brother it sports 50 watts which sounnds like 250 watts when turned up. Sporting 2 6L6 power tubes and 6 12AX7 preamp tubes, this thing can hang with the best of them. Comes with MIDI footswitch and built in effects loop.
UTILIZATION
Very functional for gigging with its three channels allowing for clean, rhythm and lead settings. One difference from its big brother is that you have to share EQ controls on channel one and two while three has its own. I guess you can't have everything but this comes close to giving you just about everything. Manual is sufficient, no rocket science here. Easy to use and understand.
SOUNDS
Cleans are good enough in combination with effects through the loop. Rhythm channel is probably the best part of this amp, just pure tone like EVH himself would expect. It is as close to pure Marshall tone as I have ever heard from a non Marshall amp. Very pure sound, not muddy at all. You have all of the punch in all three channels you will ever need, hard to believe this is a 50 watt amp. Channel 3 is super over the top distortion with the inherant tonal quality of channel 2 but slightly thinner for cutting leads. Once again, way more gain than you will ever be able to use but so great it's there if you need it. The presence knob has so much range, it is almost impossible to get a tone you are not happy with. All of the tone controls simply work well and have the range needed to take this amp whereever you want it to go.
OVERALL OPINION
Having had the big brother 100 watter, this is a much better amp in a smaller package. Absolutely love the price point of this one. So much amp for the money, under $1,000! All three channels are extremely useable and bring something to the table. It has both cutting tone and bottom end power which makes it so close to the perfect amp. It is also very open and organic, not compressed like a transistor amp is. Just roaring, Marshallesque tone for any hard rock and even metal situation. Hard not to like this amp! Bottom line is, great price, great sound, comes equipt with a loop and midi footswitch, looks great and works perfect. The only downside was as mentioned, two channels sharing an EQ. If this bugs you, buy the 100 watter and problem solved.
UTILIZATION
Very functional for gigging with its three channels allowing for clean, rhythm and lead settings. One difference from its big brother is that you have to share EQ controls on channel one and two while three has its own. I guess you can't have everything but this comes close to giving you just about everything. Manual is sufficient, no rocket science here. Easy to use and understand.
SOUNDS
Cleans are good enough in combination with effects through the loop. Rhythm channel is probably the best part of this amp, just pure tone like EVH himself would expect. It is as close to pure Marshall tone as I have ever heard from a non Marshall amp. Very pure sound, not muddy at all. You have all of the punch in all three channels you will ever need, hard to believe this is a 50 watt amp. Channel 3 is super over the top distortion with the inherant tonal quality of channel 2 but slightly thinner for cutting leads. Once again, way more gain than you will ever be able to use but so great it's there if you need it. The presence knob has so much range, it is almost impossible to get a tone you are not happy with. All of the tone controls simply work well and have the range needed to take this amp whereever you want it to go.
OVERALL OPINION
Having had the big brother 100 watter, this is a much better amp in a smaller package. Absolutely love the price point of this one. So much amp for the money, under $1,000! All three channels are extremely useable and bring something to the table. It has both cutting tone and bottom end power which makes it so close to the perfect amp. It is also very open and organic, not compressed like a transistor amp is. Just roaring, Marshallesque tone for any hard rock and even metal situation. Hard not to like this amp! Bottom line is, great price, great sound, comes equipt with a loop and midi footswitch, looks great and works perfect. The only downside was as mentioned, two channels sharing an EQ. If this bugs you, buy the 100 watter and problem solved.