EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 review – is this Eddie Van Halen’s Brown Sound on a budget?
$899/£819, evhgear.com
Eddie Van Halen knew what he was doing when it came to designing gear. As I’ve previously pointed out, the great man might have changed the landscape of guitar playing in his pomp, but his impact on guitar gear might be even more significant in the long term.
READ MORE: EVH Frankenstein Relic review – a slice of pure Eddie Van Halen innovation, without the stripes
The numbers 5150 are a key part of this legend. The California legal code for involuntarily incarcerating someone with mental illness clearly struck a chord with Ed – it was the name of Van Halen’s seventh studio LP, the name of his home studio, the name of one of his Kramer guitars, and most notably, the name of a signature amp that took on a life of its own.
Why is the Eddie Van Halen 5150 amp so important?
Back in 1992 Eddie Van Halen released his first signature amp with Peavey, named the 5150. This was a guitar amp that not only found its home in the backline of Van Halen fans, but thanks to the near-unlimited amounts of gain this monster head could churn out, it became a hugely popular amp with a new generation of metal guitarists – particularly those in the nu-metal camp.
The popularity of the amp outside of the Van Halen fanbase continued even after Eddie parted ways with Peavey and it was rebranded the 6505. When Ed went on to partner with Fender to create his own brand of gear under the EVH Gear moniker, it didn’t take long for 5150 to reappear – indeed the original ivory white incarnation is frequently spotted in the background of every high-quality studio, such is its reputation for heavy tones.
In the years since, the 5150 has also become a hugely popular combo amp for players who want those 5150 tones at affordable prices and less punishing volumes – indeed the 5150 Iconic combo has quietly become one of the most popular valve combos on the market.
Image: Press
How is the 5150 Iconic EL34 different to the standard one?
One of the curious things about the popularity of the 5150 Iconic has been that it wasn’t really an amp designed to replicate the Van Halen sound most of us think of when we imagine the man himself. It was designed to meet the ever-evolving requirements of Eddie Van Halen in the 21st century, just like his Wolfgang guitar was.
That was great of course, but if you were looking for authentic classic Van Halen sounds, the 5150 Iconic and its ECC83 tubes probably wouldn’t be your first port of call. After all, on Van Halen I, he primarily used a 60’s Marshall 1959 Super Lead – an iconic British EL34 amp design. The 5150 Iconic EL34 looks to solve that conundrum and “captures many of Edwards Van Halen’s earliest” classic ‘British’ tones in a compact and affordable package.
Image: Press
EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 build quality
Like the rest of the range, the Iconic EL34 is made in China. The chassis is housed in an MDF enclosure with plywood baffling, and there’s a single custom-designed EVH Celestion 12-inch speaker there to do the shouting. It feels rugged and solid.
Also in common with the rest of the line, it’s a two-channel amp, and both channels offer an extra voicing activated by two small buttons on the control panel. The channels share an EQ but have independent gain and volume controls. Channel 1 is the clean channel but also doubles as a hefty dirty channel with its overdrive button engaged.
Channel 2 is voiced with significantly more gain and its alternative voice (named Burn) unleashes further cascading levels of gain. A footswitchable global boost knob also allows a clean-ish boost if required (up to 10db). There is also a digital reverb on board and an XLR out with speaker emulation for recording direct. It nods to its Marshall-inspired roots with gold piping, control panel and 5150 badge on the front – a nice way to differentiate it from the vanilla 5150.
Image: Press
What does the EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 sound like?
Armed with a PRS Custom 24 I head straight for the dirt and crank channel one’s gain control, leaving the EQ settings at noon and adding a little bottom and a dollop of high end from the global resonance and presence controls. Straightaway, we have ourselves a gnarly rock tone that harks back to the days when modded Marshalls dominated the rock scene. Power chords and single-note riffs not only have a punchy venomous growl but possess real clarity too. By boosting the presence a little more I get a similar hi-octane tone reminiscent of Paul Gilbert’s Racer X days. It’s 80s rock heaven, basically.
Switching to the more gain-heavy channel two using similar EQ settings produces a much thicker, and more harmonic-laden overdrive, with greatly increased low-end and a slightly more compressed character.
The extra gain squashes things a little more and you lose some dynamics, but it proves to be a great lead channel with its near-endless sustain. Activating the Burn switch ramps up the gain even further, compressing the tone even more – resulting in a thick and fluid sound that would suit a lot of legato players. This voicing offers a modern twist to the souped-up Marshall formula and there are doubtless many players who will desire the ludicrous level of gain available – personally, I find the tone more characterful when disengaged.
Back to channel one with the overdrive off and the clean channel is eminently usable with plenty of headroom. However, there’s more fun to be had with the overdrive engaged and obtaining our cleans by rolling off our guitar volume – much like the master himself would do.
Should you buy the EVH 5150 Iconic EL34?
As with a lot of vintage-voiced amps, the Iconic EL34 is very responsive to different guitars, and each one I plugged in offered a completely different tonal palette. This is quite an attractive proposition from a high-gain amp, given their frequent propensity for colouring the tone irrespective of the guitar plugged into them. Whether the Iconic EL34 nails the Brown Sound perfectly is a matter for debate, but there’s a cogent argument to say that it could be the amp that early Van Halen aficionados have been dreaming of for the last 40 years.
It’s most certainly representative of an era of rock that was pushing tonal boundaries at the time, and if you are on the search for hi-gain vintage rock tone with a near unlimited amount of gain on tap then the Iconic 5150 ticks all these boxes
EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 alternative options
The Blackstar HT Club 40 MkIII Valve Amp Combo (£799/$999) is now in its third incarnation with impressive versatility delivering the ability to provide rock sounds that cover the entire spectrum of the genre. If the name ‘Marshall’ simply has to be emblazoned across the grill then the Marshall DSL40CR 40W (£569/$729) is a budget-priced heavy rock amp with heritage. Hard rock and metal guitarists should also be checking the high-gain three-channel Laney Iron Heart IRT30-112 30w (£729/$1349), similar in spec to the Iconic and just as much gain on board.
The post EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 review – is this Eddie Van Halen’s Brown Sound on a budget? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
