Well, it finally happened… not vibing with my EVH 5150 iii 50 watt…

mystixboi1

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
I spent years looking for the “best” amp that fits my style. The most important thing to me was having a great lead tone with gain that had some teeth to it, but also compressed to provide some nice sustain. Think Marshall with some hair. I also wanted a nice clean tone… it didn’t have to be the best clean tone but I didn’t want it tonally dead.

Some amps that I owned(although they don’t fit that bill exactly):

VHT Ultralead

Bogner Ecstacy 101b

Fender Tonemaster

Soldano Hot Rod 50

Peavey JSX

Carvin Legacy

Numerous Line 6 amps

Peavey Classic using Vox Satchurator for dirt

Genz Benz El Diablo

And a bunch more…

The JSX was my main amp for years… but I got the EVH 5150 iii 50 watt as soon as it was released and I haven’t looked back(except for a few days of weakness with a Mesa). Even though the clean isn’t the best, I use a Line 6 Pod XT Live in the loop to add some eq and reverb to make it a lot more usable. The blue channel with a boost is where this amp excels for sure…

BUUUUUT, I’ve been playing more and more with my Tech 21 RK5 Fly Rig and I dig it so much. I plugged into the 5153 last night and hated the tone. I couldn’t turn the amp off fast enough. It didn’t didn’t feel right with me anymore.

Maybe I should just stash it away for now and come back to it in a year or something...
 
If the Fly Rig is really getting you what you love tonally maybe you just need a very neutral powered speaker and use the Fly Rig to tweak out all your tones. Something along the lines of the Tech 21 Power Engine.
 
You need this: https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-head/

"BIAS Head is a guitar and bass amplifier that accurately captures any amp tone in the world, including the cab and even mic position. You can safely connect your cab into its powerful Class D 600 Watts RMS @ 8 Ohm or 300 Watts @ 16 Ohm. With the included BIAS Amp Pro software, you can share and download thousands of amp match models and save them right in the head."

"Design your custom dream amp and sync unique presets in real time. Swap out the virtual tube types, preamp, transformer, tone stacks, cab and mic position to create your own signature sound, with just a few taps or mouse clicks."

You can match an amp that is close to what you want and then tweak it from there. You'll never not vibe with your amp again.
Don't like something? Tweak it out.
Change your mind? Tweak it back in.

If only it came in purple....
 
dodgechargerfan said:
You need this: https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-head/

"BIAS Head is a guitar and bass amplifier that accurately captures any amp tone in the world, including the cab and even mic position. You can safely connect your cab into its powerful Class D 600 Watts RMS @ 8 Ohm or 300 Watts @ 16 Ohm. With the included BIAS Amp Pro software, you can share and download thousands of amp match models and save them right in the head."

"Design your custom dream amp and sync unique presets in real time. Swap out the virtual tube types, preamp, transformer, tone stacks, cab and mic position to create your own signature sound, with just a few taps or mouse clicks."

You can match an amp that is close to what you want and then tweak it from there. You'll never not vibe with your amp again.
Don't like something? Tweak it out.
Change your mind? Tweak it back in.

If only it came in purple....
Click to expand...
I'd love to try one of those. Their software plugin is what I use for 99% of my recording these days.
 
You may be best off with a good neutral amp like a Fender Twin or a Hot Rod Deluxe with the first preamp tube changed. In fact, with having little kids around the house, I think the latter is probably your best bet. The amp will have a great clean sound on it's own... but it's a solid platform for running the flyrig or a great Wampler pedal into it. Even though the dirty channel on my Mesa sounds great, I would say that 99% of the time I gig with the clean channel and use the Flyrig for my dirt, tone shaping, and solo boost.

 
I really love my fryette sig x. it is so versatile and can run at 100 or 40 watts.
 
mystixboi1 said:
Maybe I should just stash it away for now and come back to it in a year or something...
Click to expand...


This. I think you and I could have saved a ton of money if we just put something away for a few months, then come back to it. You could have saved a little more because you do amps and guitars and I mainly do it with pedals :grin:
 
baimun said:
You may be best off with a good neutral amp like a Fender Twin or a Hot Rod Deluxe with the first preamp tube changed. In fact, with having little kids around the house, I think the latter is probably your best bet. The amp will have a great clean sound on it's own... but it's a solid platform for running the flyrig or a great Wampler pedal into it. Even though the dirty channel on my Mesa sounds great, I would say that 99% of the time I gig with the clean channel and use the Flyrig for my dirt, tone shaping, and solo boost.

Click to expand...



If you aren't gigging anymore, I agree with the Hot Rod Deluxe. It has a perfect clean sound to put a drive pedal in front of. I say if you aren't gigging because I don't think it stays clean. I had one in a old band and I had to get rid of it because at the volume we played, it started to grow a little hair and I needed super clean.
 
Chad said:
If you aren't gigging anymore, I agree with the Hot Rod Deluxe. It has a perfect clean sound to put a drive pedal in front of. I say if you aren't gigging because I don't think it stays clean. I had one in a old band and I had to get rid of it because at the volume we played, it started to grow a little hair and I needed super clean.
Click to expand...

Agreed... he's playing at home with kids... so as your stage volume grows you need 40, 50, 65, 85, 100 watts for whatever level of clean, but at home levels 25-40 watts is perfect (or if you mic your combo like I do).
 
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