LiveeviL2000
Ambassador of Pentagonal Pentatonics
As some of you know I picked up one of these amps used from a friend of mine for about half the price of a new one. He also threw in a 212 Carvin Slant cab.
Now that I’ve had it for a few days and played around with some of the settings and all 3 channels, here is my review.
1) aesthetics- it looks completely mean. All black with the signature EVH grill and hints of silver. Chicken head knobs look great with clear white markings. And it feels solid.
2) controls- the controls are clearly marked easy to read even in dim light. Every little movement of the controls makes a difference.
Channel 1 and 2 have separate controls for gain and volume (inner and out knob configuration) while they share the 3 EQ controls. Channel 3 has completely independent controls from the other two. There is a ton of range on each knob. I do knock a couple of points off for the resonance control being on the back. But it’s not a deal breaker for me. Just would have been nice to have on the front next to the presence control.
3) sound / tone - the green channel can go from beautiful cleans to crunch when you pump up the gain. The blue channel picks up where the green leaves off and it doesn’t take much of a twist of the gain knob to get it to sound pretty mean. The red channel can get you into some trouble with the neighbors as it can make you axe sound like a tree cutting chainsaw. For my personal taste less gain is more here (I can’t believe I just said that!). The tones I have been getting on each channel are pretty nice and varied. As of now, my favorite channel is the blue channel with the mids scooped and gain at about 10 o’clock. It sounds down right magical through the 212.
The only pedals I have running though it are my 10band EQ and reverb. Both through the loop. Otherwise I am plugging directly to the front.
I did plug my DSL40CR into the 212 to do a comparison and I like both equally. It just seems the 5150 can push more gain easier than my DSL. Of course there is that distinct Marshall sound compared to the EVH.
Now that I’ve had it for a few days and played around with some of the settings and all 3 channels, here is my review.
1) aesthetics- it looks completely mean. All black with the signature EVH grill and hints of silver. Chicken head knobs look great with clear white markings. And it feels solid.
2) controls- the controls are clearly marked easy to read even in dim light. Every little movement of the controls makes a difference.
Channel 1 and 2 have separate controls for gain and volume (inner and out knob configuration) while they share the 3 EQ controls. Channel 3 has completely independent controls from the other two. There is a ton of range on each knob. I do knock a couple of points off for the resonance control being on the back. But it’s not a deal breaker for me. Just would have been nice to have on the front next to the presence control.
3) sound / tone - the green channel can go from beautiful cleans to crunch when you pump up the gain. The blue channel picks up where the green leaves off and it doesn’t take much of a twist of the gain knob to get it to sound pretty mean. The red channel can get you into some trouble with the neighbors as it can make you axe sound like a tree cutting chainsaw. For my personal taste less gain is more here (I can’t believe I just said that!). The tones I have been getting on each channel are pretty nice and varied. As of now, my favorite channel is the blue channel with the mids scooped and gain at about 10 o’clock. It sounds down right magical through the 212.
The only pedals I have running though it are my 10band EQ and reverb. Both through the loop. Otherwise I am plugging directly to the front.
I did plug my DSL40CR into the 212 to do a comparison and I like both equally. It just seems the 5150 can push more gain easier than my DSL. Of course there is that distinct Marshall sound compared to the EVH.
