Re: EVH 5150 III 50 watt vs stealth?
I have all three versions; the original 100 watt, the 50 watt and the Stealth. Both the 50 watt and the Stealth have increased gain over the original model. It's most apparent on the blue channel. The clean and blue channels are mostly what I use. The gain is very similar on both amps. Obviously, you get a little more bottom and variety on the Stealth because each channel has it's own separate resonance control. But if your focus on the 50 watt is the blue channel, you can use the single resonance control to dial in a sound very very similar to the Stealth.
There can be a volume issue with the shared clean and blue channels on the 50 watt but that doesn't both me too much. You can bypass that issue with a midi controller and control you channel switching by that methodology. Just use the channel volume for the midi controller to compensate for any fluctuations. The more expensive fix is to modify the amp. kkamplification (Jens Kruse) does complete re-vocings of standard 5150 III and coverts them to the Stealth model. On the 50 watt version he can change the voicing and add separate channel 1 and channel 2 gain. I sent him an email on just adding the separate gain. He said it would be $200. That was in February of last year so the price may have changed.
