New Gear Day Episode 2: EVH 5150 III 100w Head

[@aeloutdoors7781]

the head sounds its best with its matching cab. its like night and day honestly. Ive had 4 of these. the EVH 4x12 cab has something really special about it.

[@totallyradguitars959]

I would love to have one of those cabs too - unique speaker choice in them, I just don’t have the space. I’ve heard they are similar to 20w greenback speakers

[@LMerchant01]

Cabs/speakers make the biggest difference in tone ( can completely change an amp) dont hesitate in investing in different 4x12 especially used ones. They usually can be had for less than the speakers would cost.

[@DirtyMikeTM]

my jaw hit the floor at the value of all the amp heads I see in this video

[@totallyradguitars959]

You should see it now... it's worse

[@DirtyMikeTM]

@@totallyradguitars959 lol if your ever dont want any you can send em my way lol

[@JotaSilvaPT]

Cat goes likes "ohhhh new toy!!" ... nice video mate !

[@muleblues71]

I found one used for a great price after been using a kemper exclusively for the last 3 yrs. Needed a tube amp again. I painted the black grill white and left the stripes black ala the original striped guitar. Replaced the white knobs for black and kept the volume knobs white. Was using my marshall 4x12 with a combo of g12-65's and Gt75's in a X pattern. Recently acquired a Peavey 4x12 with sheffields in them giving me a full stack (lol) Ed designed these to run greenback type speakers. Looking at getting some Mojotone greenback type speakers are almost half the price of the celestions.

[@totallyradguitars959]

Nice! I love the way these look modified - I saw one with red knobs which I thought looked pretty cool as well. I've heard good things about the sheffields - 6505/5150 cabinets come up very cheap and I'd love to try those speakers, same for the G12M-20 speakers in the EVH 5150 cabinets. I haven't had any mojotone stuff but reviews all look great... especially for the prices

[@LMerchant01]

Sounds great. I love g12t75 speakers also. Not shure why they get so much hate . They are a classic tone.

[@r1deftone]

Nice rip, good job.

[@Hallow334]

Nice demo, Bret. Has some good sounds! I'm with you. I think the gain on the blue channel is good. You have entirely too many heads in that room. I would hate for you to have to move all of them into a new place. Entirely too much work for you. I could be talked into taking a couple of them off your hands and save you from having to left an carry them! 🤣 Is that Kramer a re-issue? Thats a cool cat. I have a black Manx.

[@totallyradguitars959]

Haha maybe I'll have some new biceps to show off after moving all of this stuff to the new place! I should probably pare down a few of them at least but it's just so hard to decide what to let go of! At the rate I'm getting new ones though something will have to go - I'm trying to sell guitars at the moment since I'm having more fun with the amps than the guitars. The Kramer is the real deal from 1987 - no reissue. I did have a Nightswan from 2020 but I didn't particularly love it so I ended up selling it off. I have a couple of vintage Kramers and just prefer them to the new production stuff - the only "new" one I had that I really regret selling was a 2006 '85 Reissue which was a fantastic guitar, made in USA, but it did have a bare neck and I prefer the glossy finishes. Thanks :) She's a cute cat, at first I thought it was weird to not have a tail but I'm so used it now that cats with tails seem weird to me instead. Rock on!

[@chadcobanovich6509]

What would you say about the comparison between the EVH III and that JCM 800 2205?

[@totallyradguitars959]

Extremely different sounding amps overall. The EVH has a ton more gain on the red channel and much more saturated attack in the low end. Much better for modern metal. The mids are not as angry sounding as the 2205. All three channels are very usable for different sounds and it's reasonably bright and cuts through nicely, and it does a better "scooped" metal tone than the 800 does - or at least, a more modern sounding metal tone. The 2205 on the other hand is a little darker, but also grittier and the mids have more... character. The "normal" channel is extremely loud and very basic - not a bad sound but not versatile either. The highlight is the boost channel which for me is one of my favorite guitar sounds. Since it's a little less bright than a single channel 800, I really like it for leads because the notes seem to flow together nicely on it. I like that it has a built in spring reverb tank, even if it's not the best sounding reverb I turn it on just a little and it adds a little warmth to the tone, especially for leads. All just my opinion of course. If I had to play in a band with multiple sounds or was doing heavy metal rhythms, the EVH wins out. When I'm noodling leads/practicing at home or playing 80s stuff, the Marshall wins.

[@K707OR30]

Congrats on the new amp. With that much dirt I would highly suggest cleaning the tube sockets too, a soft brush and maybe a little compressed air. As far as cabs, check out Jim Lill’s experiment on KZbin. Interesting stuff for sure but you can be the judge on how much difference a cab or material may or may not make. Speakers ultimately make the biggest difference in my opinion.

[@totallyradguitars959]

Yes absolutely - speakers definitely the largest difference then based on my very unscientific testing, the physical dimensions of the cab. My Fender 4x12 is 2" smaller on all sides than my Marshall, with the same speakers loaded into both there is definitely less lower frequencies (as expected) on the smaller cab. I may do a deep dive video on speaker comparisons. I wish I had a quad of each speaker but at the moment I have about 15 speakers all in singles (except for the quad of G12T75's and the quad of V30's that came in these two cabs). I'm very tempted to do a few experiments with what I have already just for my own benefit - but I'll stick it into a video anyway for the channel so it helps others too. Most likely I think I'm going to end up with the oversize Mesa simply because it's physically larger than the Marshall, and that gives me three different sized cabs to play around with (I swap speakers around a lot..)

[@marinkovic87]

Hi! Great demo, I enjoyed listening how EVH sounds. Maybe a comparison between Peavey XXX and EVH 5150 at some point?

[@totallyradguitars959]

Good idea, maybe I should do a "3-channel high gainer" comparison since I have so many now (EVH, TSL, XXX, Mk IV, Mk V, Recto, TC50, Blackstar...)

[@marinkovic87]

@@totallyradguitars959 Great idea! That I would want to hear! 👌👍 Also..that would be very informative, like some kind of study in gain structure and voicing of diffrent amps.

[@MrMeik1970]

Your cat has found the new one to be good 😁 nice Amp 👍🏻

[@ericsalinas1839]

Chinese or UK T75s? Would be a cool comparison video if you had both

[@totallyradguitars959]

Hey, these are '86 year UK G12T75's. They sound very similar to my more modern G12-65 Heritage speakers. I also have 2014 G12T75's which are chinese made and they sound completely different. People seem to get them confused a lot - but it's another thing where they should've changed the name of the current production G12T75 because they sound so different (and use different part numbers even internally to Celestion).

[@AussieTerry]

Sounds sick, i need to check out some g12t75s, im using a stock laney ironheart 2x12 cab n those stock speakers suck.

[@totallyradguitars959]

OEM-brand speakers can be really hit or miss, that's why so many people end up with Celestions and pay more for cabs with them. I've heard some amazing sounding "cheap" speakers but also a lot of duds. Speakers are a huge part of the sound - something I misunderstood a lot before I started the big gear collection. G12T75's are cheap used and I'd highly recommend it, especially if you can find some older ones like this cab has. Keep in mind current production G12T75's are quite a bit different from the older ones, for modern/new speakers I'd be more likely to recommend the G12-65 Heritage or G12M-65/G12H-75 Creamback speakers.

[@johnbre20]

How does this amp compare to orange mkiii?

[@totallyradguitars959]

Definitely feels like it has more gain, much more saturated palm mutes and low end, and way smoother mids. Extremely different amps to my ear. The Orange RV3 has a bit more of a classic feel and probably better if you do any kind of classic rock stuff, the EVH can still do it with the blue/green channels but it doesn't quite have that gritty rawness in mid gain sounds.

[@johnbre20]

@@totallyradguitars959 I’m looking to maybe purchasing a tube amp… just not sure what tone I’m going for or best bang for my buck…. All the orange amps feel like it has great warm tones which I like…. But want to bring out my solo too like I hear in the sound differences on the evh….they have mesa boogie amps which maybe sound closer to what I’m aiming for?

[@totallyradguitars959]

@@johnbre20 What kind of music influences you the most? The cool thing about the EVH is it'll do anything from clean, to classic rock, 80s metal, all the way up to metalcore or Djent and do a really solid job at all of it. The Orange is a nice amp but I feel it's a bit less flexible, so if you're still finding "your sound" the EVH might be better for you, then you can use what you learn playing the EVH to inform your next amp purchase sometime in the future. We're really spoiled for choice these days so it's hard to go wrong either way.

[@johnbre20]

That's what I was worried about being limited. I do like the warm fuzz of the orange amp but Brainworx had a sale going on for an orange amp simulate....also got the mesa boogie rectifier amp by Brainworx all for 30 bucks....I'm not needing an amp for live shows or am I in a band....maybe one day when I get a group of people together. Right now I just mic up a drum kit I worked on for home studio recording.! working pretty good thus far! @@totallyradguitars959

[@Squidz66]

I just saw a vid about how standby, and power switches are not recommended..? Just turn it on.

[@totallyradguitars959]

I saw that too - made me feel better because for years I've been just turning the amp on and standby on only a few seconds apart

[@Squidz66]

@@totallyradguitars959 All it has done is made me scared to turn my amp on...so many decisions...(chews nails)

[@totallyradguitars959]

@@Squidz66 Got to play them sometime! If you blow a fuse or a tube well, that's the price of analog music and worth the risk (in my opinion of course)

[@Squidz66]

@@totallyradguitars959 Absolutely. It's a feel thing. Nothing like a real amp.. no matter what they say

[@caseykittel]

Which 5150 amp has 80 watts?

[@totallyradguitars959]

Hey, the newer 5150 "ICONIC" is an 80w amp

[@kenaiello4851]

I keep my amps covered all the time