EVH 5150III 2x12" 50-watt Tube Combo Amp - Ivory Reviews

Waited for this Monster to come back in stock well worth the wait!
Crispy cleans to dirty dirty as you can get all 3 channels are incredible!
No Disappointment!
Tone out the waaaaazooooooooo!

I bought this amp to be a high gain counterpart to my Fender Delux Reverb but was totaly blowy away by the clean cnannel. Heck the blue channel can hold it's own against jsut about any hight gain amplifier out there but Eddy gave a middle finger to the competetion with that red channel! And knowing he's not with us any more I really feel his spirit in the room when I crank this amp up. I have the 2x12 combo sitting on top of the 2x12 extension cab for a 50w half stack. With the built in attenuator I can practice with it all night and then rock it on stage with a loud band behind me and it has no trouble at all. I've mic'd this amp up in the studio and it even sounds fantastic on record/digital. Some have complaned about the noise and yes it is a bit noisy at high vol's on the blue and red channel but honestly my fender delux reverb is noisy if I crank it up so I don't know what they were expecting. F'ing jam on man and you won't hear the noise at all! (Unless you suck! haha JK) Or get a noise gate pedal to quiet it down during those idle moments. Or kick it over to the clean channel and use the gain nob as a base boost at low guitar vol settings this amp has a beautiful sound, quiet, clean & rich. This is a enjoyably useable amp at all settings and at the price point is a complete steal. Buy one before they go and discontinue it.

Exactly what I was looking for. Many times I've looked at buying another amp then decide, "no my EVH has it covered."

I've been a lifelong 5150 owner. I had a 4 x 12 signature half stack back in the day, then later the 60 watt 5150 2x12 combo. Both sounded amazing but honestly only the red channel was useable for modern metal tones. This amp is bright, punchy, and crisp on the blue channel, similar to an Orange or Soldano, and the red channel is an updated version of the classic 5150 high gain tone but with more OOMF. I use a mild boost/compression pedal (MXR 5150 overdrive) for that extra thump but honestly straight into the amp is amazing anyway. Plug it, turn up, and enjoy the saturated tube goodness ;)

The tone of this amp is absolutely killer. I am a long time musician who plays frequently in cover bands from small to large venues. Being in a cover band I play everything from Pink to Led Zeppelin to Luke Bryan pretty much every Genre. Every single sound guy I have worked with has said they love the tone of this amp, people who are guitarist at my shows coming up asking what pedals do you use I love your tone, to which I reply just delay and a phase pedal which I dont apply very often the sound is not from pedals its all the Amp.

I run a Dunlop delay pedal into an MXR delay pedal into the phaser into an NS2 noise suppressor into the effects loop thats it. Yeah yeah NS2 is supposed to go before the delay pedal blah blah. I have sustain for days in this configuration.I tried a million different ways but this arrangement sounds amazing. I use the X method on the NS2. If you put any pedal into the signal chain going into the front input of this amp it completely changes the sound just don't do it.

And for everyone who says I can't get clean tone? Your broken. One flip of the pickup switch to the neck pickup and warm creamy tone with just an almost noticeable amount of beautiful fuzz for those slow love songs. Want a perfectly clean tone? roll off the volume knob just slightly and bam there it is.

I am telling you this amp is a head turner and sounds absolutely Amazing, I bought a second but I got the 1x12 version to have as my back-up. If these were ever slated to go out of production I would buy a third just in case 20 years from now I need another. I will never buy another amp.

Good grief I love this amp!

All three channels are so darn on-point. The clean channel sounds very good and add a little reverb and it sounds great. Turn up the gain on the green channel and it's time to rock and roll. The blue channel delivers palm-muting metal crunch. It's not called the crunch channel for nothing. The red channel is a little too gained out for rhythm but it sounds awesome for lead work. I'm a big fan of the reverb on this unit - add a little reverb to the red channel and look out!

I plug directly into this amp, no overdrive needed. I have a BE-OD pedal that has done great for me in other applications but I can't come up with a single combo of settings on the pedal that makes the amp sound better than it does plugged in directly. I do hear some of the noise other reviewers have mentioned but it's not a distraction. A noise gate would take care of it, but I have played this amp for four months without feeling the need to buy a noise gate.

This amp plays beautifully at apartment volumes. You can play this amp and it will sound great without getting the cops called. But you can blow out your windows with this thing too.

So the real question you're asking is (for $) whether you will giggle a little inside when you plug in and flip on the standby switch? Heck yes!

This amp only got 4.5 stars because the original unit I bought died after a couple months. One afternoon the electronics simply wouldn't turn on. Sweetwater made the exchange process as easy as it could have been and the replacement has been flawless. Buy with confidence from Sweetwater.

First of all, the sound: The 5150 series has rightly earned a place on stages and studios as a no-nonsense, less expensive option for players who want lots of gain. Though EVH markets this amp as a versatile amp for many styles, to me it's a metal amp through and through. I couldn't imagine a country or even classic rock player using anything but channel one. But if you're a metal player, this is the sound to have. This amp makes the crunch you've heard on many of your favorite metal records, and will handle any sub-genre from speed and thrash to metalcore. Its strong suit is its tight midrange punch and lots of gain which makes power chords growl, palm mutes woof and lead lines soar; no overdrive pedal necessary. It doesn't have the low beefiness of a Marshall or Mesa, but that's intentional. The sound is tight and focused. I've found that judicious use of the Presence control is required to tame the top end. The Resonance control, curiously located on the back of the amp, can be used to add some fullness to the bottom end.

This version, upgraded for 2018, has separate volume controls for channels one and two. This adequately solves the volume jump problem which was a big negative for previous versions. The only downside to the concentric knobs is that it's easy to bump the gain or volume for one channel while adjusting the other, but you learn to be careful. The EQ is still shared between channels one and two, which I never found to be a problem.

Channel one (green) is referred to as a clean channel, but in my experience starts to break up gently with the Gain control past about 3. If clean headroom is what you're after, all I can state is that this amp has more than enough for me, though maybe not enough if you wanted to play it super clean at gigging volumes. Rolling back the volume on the guitar can help. It just depends on what you're looking for, and I have found it perfectly acceptable for my uses. With a boost pedal, even this channel can get quite dirty.

Channel two (blue) is your basic crunch channel, and man, does it ever crunch. With the gain about halfway up and the EQ set to taste, this provides plenty of dirt for metal rhythm or even lead playing without ever losing focus. It's bright and present, but can be piercing unless you set the presence down below about half. I still can't decide whether I like this channel or the third channel better.

Channel three (red) adds even more gain, but also has a darker voice intended to tame the highs during solos. But with the gain, or alternately the volume on the guitar, dialed back, this works equally well as a rhythm channel. It just depends on taste, and it's nice to have options.

With the high gain this amp can produce, one feature that's obviously needed but absent is a noise gate. Some amp manufacturers have started to include them, but unfortunately not EVH. While it's not a deal breaker, it would be nice to have during long recording sessions where I have long pauses in playing. I resorted to putting two outboard noise gates in my signal chain, one before the input, and one in the effects loop to squash the preamp hum.

The Power Level control was the entire reason why I opted for the combo version instead of a stack, since the 50W head lacks that feature. I thought it essential for using the amp at low volumes at home. I've found that while turning the power level down does make the volume controls less sensitive at low levels without changing the sound of the amp, turning it down too low seems to raise the noise floor considerably. After playing with it for awhile, I don't think it's as necessary as I thought it would be. Whether you play it on 50W or 1W or anywhere in between, this amp sounds great at any volume.

Other features are a headphone jack, which works but sounds harsh, a MIDI input for channel switching, a foot switch jack (four button switch included), a serial effects loop which can't be switched from the foot switch but can be switched via MIDI, a preamp out, two speaker jacks with selectable impedance, and digital reverb. The reverb, which is another feature in the combo that's not included in the standalone 50W head, has a single knob control, is switchable from the foot switch, and sounds really good. It adds shine to clean phrases and much-needed mass to high gain solos.

Overall, I'm very happy with this amp, especially since other similar amps that I was considering cost many hundreds more. It's a simple, straightforward amp, but it has it where it counts, in the sound. In the two weeks I've had it has already breathed some life in to my guitar playing which was starting to stale. Also worthy of mention is that I ordered this amp on a Monday evening, and Sweetwater shipped the next day, and for FREE. Good gear, good price, and good service. Thank you, Sweetwater.

This amp is the best amp I have ever owned. I have played on a 50 watt stealth head and fell in love with the blue channel. The blue channel on the combo is the same as the stealth at a cheaper price point. The switching between channels on the footswitch has no delay at all. A few things to consider when you get this amp. You will need a ns-2 or something similar with the setup because it can get noisy. Not that I'm moving it from where it is but, it's heavy.

Crazy hum on channel 3 and channel 2 just sounds horrible. Amazing volume but Fender missed the mark on the massive channel 3 buzzing. Dont buy unless you try.

Update to my previous Review - As I stated before I own two EVH 5150 iii Combo amps both the 2x12 and 1x12 combo's. With nothing plugged into the amps there is such loud noise problems channel three is unusable even with a noise suppressor. Channel one is quiet, and Channel two is only usable with a noise gate. That is $... in EVH amps that are absolutely terrible. See my You Tube Video "EVH 5150 iii Noise Problems 2018" on You Tube

All I did to these amps was put a custom fabric grill on them and move the emblems to the top.