NAD! EVH III 50 Watt Steallth

DirtySteve

DirtySteve

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I ordered from GC on Wednesday and it already arrived today. It's got that new car smell. What a beast!

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It matches pretty well with my 112 Mojotone cab, but I'm going to get the matching 212 cab for it soon.

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Clockworkmike said:
Nice! How is it?
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It's awesome!

I don't know if I talked much about it here, but I had an EL34 version and for several reasons I won't get into here I wanted to get a 6L6 version and ditch the EL34s. So, I traded in my EL34 version for this 6L6 version.

I haven't spent much time on it yet and I don't know if new amps have a break-in period, but my first impressions are that it's brighter overall, as expected the blue channel is much better, it's much tighter and doesn't flub out on the low end if I turn up the bass. It has a much more aggressive and punchier top end, I have to dial the highs and especially the presence lower than on the EL34 version. I would say the Clean channel is about the same, but what surprised me the most is I really like the red channel on this one over the EL34 version, it's not as fizzy sounding on the top end, it sounds fuller overall and that's a good thing.

The Stealth is the only version that has the bias setting on the back panel. I checked the bias and it was set cold (as expected) at 45.5mV. I set it to 58mV. 60mV is recommended by the amps chief designer, but I just set it to 58mV, I may experiment with that later on. I also swapped out V1 for a RFT, which tamed the top end a little less than I expected, but it does sound a little better with it in there.

I will say that the EL34 version had something going on that is missing from this version (maybe a "Marshall quality"), I'm not sure how to describe it, it's just different. Maybe I just don't have it dialed in just yet. Overall I like this one better and it looks a whole lot better with the blacked out theme.
 
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So, after playing most of the day and experimenting I really don't believe there's anything this amp can't do. Beautiful cleans, light breakup blues, classic rock, hard rock, metal, doom, thrash, whatever...it's in there. Every channel loves a boost or OD no matter where the amp is set. I really like it a lot more than the EL34 version, especially the blue channel, but even the red channel is better. I'm really glad I got the Stealth, definitely an upgrade!
 
DirtySteve said:
I ordered from GC on Wednesday and it already arrived today. It's got that new car smell. What a beast!

ug8sPnk.jpg


It matches pretty well with my 112 Mojotone cab, but I'm going to get the matching 212 cab for it soon.

g4flK8h.jpg
Click to expand...
I think it's one of the best amps I ever played.
Although internally it's one of the most complicated...but I think I'd rather play that than a Boogie.
I think you get better lower mids and lows from 6L6s.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
I think it's one of the best amps I ever played.
Although internally it's one of the most complicated...but I think I'd rather play that than a Boogie.
I think you get better lower mids and lows from 6L6s.
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I know it's the best amp I ever played. I thought that about the EL34 version, too, until I got this one.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Another good thing about it is you do have Fender tech support. Fender does have one of the best customer support systems for parts and service.
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I hope I don't have to find out. :fingersx: I did read a few complaints about quality, but you never know if some of those guys did something stupid to cause issues, like mismatched impedance or something, a lot of people don't know how important that is. That's why I bought new over used this time.
 
DirtySteve said:
So, after playing most of the day and experimenting I really don't believe there's anything this amp can't do. Beautiful cleans, light breakup blues, classic rock, hard rock, metal, doom, thrash, whatever...it's in there. Every channel loves a boost or OD no matter where the amp is set. I really like it a lot more than the EL34 version, especially the blue channel, but even the red channel is better. I'm really glad I got the Stealth, definitely an upgrade!
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...I forgot to mention how well guitar controls work also. I was having a lot of fun today on the blue channel with the gain almost all the way up rolling down the guitar volume to get a light break up and then rolling it up to a hard rock tone and everything in between.
 
DirtySteve said:
I ordered from GC on Wednesday and it already arrived today. It's got that new car smell. What a beast!

ug8sPnk.jpg


It matches pretty well with my 112 Mojotone cab, but I'm going to get the matching 212 cab for it soon.

g4flK8h.jpg
Click to expand...
Congrats!!
I have that exact same amp.
I have two words. BLUE CHANNEL!!!
The blue channel on that amp is my all time favorite. I have it hooked up to my 212 Randall and it sounds glorious!!!

You are going to love that thing!!!
Enjoy it
 
I have not played the Stealth but the older 50w 6L6 white EVH amp and I liked the 6L6 tubes as well as the 5881’s in the JCM 900 DR.

As far as EL84 amps I agree and said that before but if the amp is built like the 18w plexi they can sound decent depending on how the pre-amp is tweaked.

I also have a Egnator tweaker 15w that had 6V6, I changed them to 6L6. That amp is not my favorite.
Congrats on a killer amp Steve.
 
LiveeviL2000 said:
Congrats!!
I have that exact same amp.
I have two words. BLUE CHANNEL!!!
The blue channel on that amp is my all time favorite. I have it hooked up to my 212 Randall and it sounds glorious!!!

You are going to love that thing!!!
Enjoy it
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Where do you have your bias set? A guy posted in my thread on MF that he likes his set at 53mV. I had mine set to 58, close to the recommended 60, but today I set it lower at 53.5 and, wow, what a difference it made! It took some of the smoothness and thickness out of the low end and gave it some crunch and bite...there's that Marshallness I was missing! It was great before, but man it sounds killer now and has a nice feel, not so stiff.
 
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