EVH 5150 Iconic Series 40-watt 1 x 12-inch Tube Combo Amp - Black Reviews

My first impressions made me smile and happy about this product, it covered everything I was looking for in a combo amp for the price.

As I started using it for recording, I decided to take it a step up and exchange the woofer with a Celestion G12M-65 Creamback 12-inch speaker.

Ever since then, the sound of the amp has improved significantly, if anything like a $ guitar amp.

This thing handles pedals well, so whatever you are trying to achieve at a good price, I believe this amp offers everything and has greater potential if you do what I did, which was switching the speaker to get the sound be close to the end result you have in your head.

I hope you found this helpful!

Love it. Great Amp! massive distortion, just like I like it.

Worth every penny. I mainly wanted great distorted rhythm and lead tones for under a grand. I didn't really need 40 watts, and I read and watched reviews on many amps. This was the right call. I am mostly playing it on the 10W setting. It sounds great at all volumes. Set on 1 in my practice room it doesn't bother anyone. On 5 it's quite loud. Many reviews said channel 2 is too much gain. It is not, it is awesome. I mostly play stuff like UFO, Whitesnake, Van Halen, and I play a lot on both channels. My current settings are in the picture. I am getting Van Halen tones that I like (he had many). I have tried the burn setting but channel 2 is red enough without it. I 60 years old and I am not an extreme modern metal guy, but even for me burn is not crazy over the top. Bottomline, ALL the gain levels are useful on this amp, none are way out of bounds like on some amps. Amp is quiet. I didn't like the reverb at first but now I do, it is a very good fit for this amp. I thought I might buy a reverb pedal but I won't. The resonance knob is useful. It adds ooomph without adding mush. Boost adds boost. This amp needs no drive pedals.
The construction of the amp is very solid and well done. The design and look is utilitarian. No flash, all dash. I love this. It's an amp, not a ballerina.

What don't I like? I didn't like the plastic '5150' badge on the front, so I took it off and replaced the screws. I would like to have separate EQ for each channel, but that is obviously something that would have pushed the cost up. Wheels would be nice, this thing weighs 50 pounds, and I am old.

Best amp I have ever had. Last amp I will ever buy. Great service by Sweetwater.

Great tones, great overdrive, very powerful! Love this amp!

Before purchasing I was reading a lot about this amp and what it can do. Watched many you tube vids with demos to hear how it sounds.
I have to say that once I plugged into it it performed better than the reviews and videos I saw. It gives me the sounds and versatility that I was looking for. I am very pleased.

I love this amp. It has power, growl and guts. It's very versatile and the different channels offer a wide range of sounds. Want cleans? it's got cleans. Want heavy? It's got heavy! The EVH 5150 kicks everything else out of the way and screams: "I'm here! Sorry it took so long...but listen to me now and know I am the amp champ."

The best tube amp I own...period. The amp is rugged, high quality and affordable. I highly recommend this amp if you are looking for a dual channel tube amp, with amazing sound, adjustable power, footswitch included, too many great features to list. Thank you, Sweetwater Team, for getting this amp shipped safely to my home studio in mint condition.

I had a chance to demo this amp at my local music store, Needless to say I was quite pleasantly surprised. I play use the clean channel and this amp has a really good clean sound with a reverb that not to springy. the overdrive channel is good too.
I don't really use a lot of overdrive so it's good for ME.
Overall, this amp is pretty good. Did I forget to say for 40 watt amp this amp is loud. I think this would make a great pedal platform.
Great work EVH. You didn't disappoint at all.

Absolutely the most awesome combo I have ever played. Both channels give me the tones I have been after. The lead boost is a majestic beast all its own. My pedals are now optional. A real hot rod right out of the box. Been playing semi-professional for 38 years and this monster is going to make the next year's Rock.

I purchased this amp because I am on a budget for cost and this amp seemed like a good choice for that reason. When I received the amp everything worked properly and the sound was very good. I decided to put in a Vintage 30 speaker to get closer to the sound I like and WOW! Absolutely perfect. I loved the sound and features just as many others have stated.

The first problem I encountered was after about 2 weeks. The channel one went to a very low volume and was heavily distorted like a blown speaker sound. ( the speaker wasn't blown) channel two still worked fine. I contacted Sweetwater to see if they had any ideas for troubleshooting and we tried an input tube. Didn't work. I returned the combo and received another one. The second combo lasted about 5 weeks and both channels went out and just had a low 1 watt volume level. I tried the input tube again but no go. I just sent the second combo back to be repaired in the hope that the repair will solve the issue.

The amp is great, but there seems to be a problem with the amp that I have seen others talk about and I thought it might help to post about this mysterious batch of failures. Being under warranty it is more likely that people like myself will just get another combo to replace it and not mention the problem(s) they ran into.

Amp was DOA on arrival. Lit up as expected, had power, no sound. A quick google search shows this is a common issue.

It shakes mainly when you rest your palm on the bridge to get a Hard Rock Thump sound

Made for cheap wood it rattles over halfway volume and if you lean it back on a amp stand it shakes like a category 5 hurricane