EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

Gypsyblue

Gypsyblue

New member
Curious if anyone has compared the two. Or if anyone here owns the Legacy 3. I was watching a Steve Vai video demoing the Legacy 3 last night and Steve comes right out and says that he preferred the Legacy 1 to the Legacy 2 - maybe that was the period when he was using Bogner's instead of his signature Carvin amps? One thing the new Legacy 3 has going for it over the EVH 5150 III would be the lower price. The other would be independent tone controls for each channel in the Legacy vs. shared tone controls for channels 1 & 2 with the 5150 III. That seems to get mentioned in the online reviews as a negative. Seems like it would be fun to own and play through one of these even though neither is really my style. Here's Steve's demo - I like the clean channel - sounds almost acoustic:



And here's Steve new guitar:

emerald-ultra-guitar-three-640-85.jpg
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

Gypsyblue said:
Steve comes right out and says that he preferred the Legacy 1 to the Legacy 2[/IMG]
Click to expand...

Carvin used different designers on the Legacy 2. Via wanted his amp to be modeled around the Bogner Ectasy Red Channel. He work hand in hand with Carvin and a few designers to create the Legacy I. For some reason, they same people were not involved in the building of the Legacy II. The Legacy III is suppose to be an updated Legacy I (which most prefer) with a master volume and a 3rd channel (which is boosted).
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

I have no experience with the LEGACY III, but a good bit with Legacy I. I'm not a fan of Vai's style, nor am I a metalhead, but that amp slays for classic rock - alternative rock to even hard rock. The clean channel is probably in the top ten cleans on a high gain amp. Distortion is liquid sustain meets crunchy peanut buttery goodness.
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

I am a fan of Vai's style, and EVH's style and even Yngwie's style. Of the three I prefer the music of Vai although I appreciate the playing of all three.

But I'm a blues player primarily. Lately my old Fender combo amps have been getting a little unreliable with regular use. I've had to replace the output transformer in one and the power transformer in another.

One went down last week onstage with the first note I played. Bummer. Fortunately there was spare Blues Deluxe onstage and I was able to play through that for the rest of the set. Not bad.

I have some nice Matchless speaker cabinets that are not getting used and I was thinking of getting a nice head to go with them. I have a 1 x 12 with a G12-65 in it and a 2 x 12 with a Vintage 30 & G12H30 in it.

So I've been thinking about an amp head. Might be fun to play through something different for a change. Or not.

I did like the sound of that clean channel on the Legacy 1 and 3 although the super overdriven capabilities of channel 3 might not get used much, if at all, by me on gigs. It'd be more fun at home just to fool around with.

I do like the boost feature of the Legacy three that works on all three channels.

100 watts is more than I ever use though.
 
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Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

I was thinking about both too, and got the EVH 5150 III 50 watt.

For one, price isn't an issue. The Carvin sells for $899. If you look around like I did and catch a sale, you can get the EVH 50 watt for $899.

I just had the Carvin V3 head- and read on the Carvin boards that you could dial in the Legacy tone on it. I did, it was nice, but was too pretty, not enough hair and b*lls to it.

Third, I wanted an amp that sounded great at lower volumes. The Carvin Legacy had a reputation of only sounding good at cranked volumes, whereas you could get a great tone out of the EVH 50 watt at bedroom levels. Though the L3's output can be lowered to 25 watts, 25 watts is still loud with tubes.

Fourth, it really annoyed me that Carvin would release a promo video of Vai playing the L3 with a ton of delay or reverb through a $1500 Axe FX- sure, the tones sound beautiful threough that $1500 unit, but how are we supposed to know how it sounds without the Axe FX? On the other hand, there's a tone of videos out there with the 5150 III 50 watt played dry so you can tell exactly how it sounds on its own without effects. The amp sound amazing on its own, but if you do add a little delay or reverb the way Vai did, it slays the L3's gain.

The shared EQ on the EVH- I have the EVH, this isn't a problem. If you dial the amp in correctly, you can easily get a nice clean tone and great overdrive tone with the shared EQ. Also, the amp cleans up nicely using the volume on your guitar, so really I haven't been at a disadvantage.

Basically the L3 is a pretty tone, the 5150 50 watt is alot ruder, meaner and p*ssed off
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

Is the OP talking about the 5150 III 50 watt or 100? Pretty sure the 100 watt has there seperate channels.
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

Im suprised he preferred the 1. didnt they have Fargen work on the 2? The 3 is def visually different
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

jmh151 said:
I was thinking about both too, and got the EVH 5150 III 50 watt.

For one, price isn't an issue. The Carvin sells for $899. If you look around like I did and catch a sale, you can get the EVH 50 watt for $899.

I just had the Carvin V3 head- and read on the Carvin boards that you could dial in the Legacy tone on it. I did, it was nice, but was too pretty, not enough hair and b*lls to it.

Third, I wanted an amp that sounded great at lower volumes. The Carvin Legacy had a reputation of only sounding good at cranked volumes, whereas you could get a great tone out of the EVH 50 watt at bedroom levels. Though the L3's output can be lowered to 25 watts, 25 watts is still loud with tubes.

Fourth, it really annoyed me that Carvin would release a promo video of Vai playing the L3 with a ton of delay or reverb through a $1500 Axe FX- sure, the tones sound beautiful threough that $1500 unit, but how are we supposed to know how it sounds without the Axe FX? On the other hand, there's a tone of videos out there with the 5150 III 50 watt played dry so you can tell exactly how it sounds on its own without effects. The amp sound amazing on its own, but if you do add a little delay or reverb the way Vai did, it slays the L3's gain.

The shared EQ on the EVH- I have the EVH, this isn't a problem. If you dial the amp in correctly, you can easily get a nice clean tone and great overdrive tone with the shared EQ. Also, the amp cleans up nicely using the volume on your guitar, so really I haven't been at a disadvantage.

Basically the L3 is a pretty tone, the 5150 50 watt is alot ruder, meaner and p*ssed off
Click to expand...

I often get teed off about demo vids (esp on Youtube) of amps where they are using delay and stuff . Run it clean and then maybe add a minute of "here it is with some effects...."
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

I have owned a 5150III 100 watt and currently own a legacy 3.
Generally the evh has a more modern tone and sounds soldanoish. The carvin is more vintage and sounds bognerish.Im not a clean channel guy but for a pure clean channel I would give the edge to the legacy. If you want to get some grit on clean the evh does nice mild breakup on clean channel Crunch channels the evh has more gain and compression. It has more bite also.
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

Thanks to everyone. Seems like a 50 watt version of the Legacy 3 would be a good seller. Even if Steve would only gig with a 100 watt version, I'll bet there's plenty of players who'd prefer 50 watts.

Yngwie likes 50 watt heads, BTW. So does Jeff Beck if I remember right.

Not sure at all that I'd go with either one: the Legacy or EVH. I'm just curious at this point and gathering information.
 
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Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

BloodRose said:
Im suprised he preferred the 1. didnt they have Fargen work on the 2? The 3 is def visually different
Click to expand...

Ya, Series I was what he envisioned. Series II got away from that. Series III is back where he wants it to be.

I gotta read back up on it, but something changed from I to II.
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

The big "improvement" on the Legacy 2, which Ben Fargen worked on, was to be able to get a better tone at lower volumes by using a master volume. The Legacy 1 needed to be cranked, and when it was cranked, it was extremely loud. It was their amp to create a three channel amp. The Legacy 1 was known to need a booster for a good lead tone. Instead of boosting the drive channel for the Legacy 2, they boosted the clean channel.

The Legacy 1 couldn't stand on its own anyway for Vai-he was using Keeley modded TS-9's and DS-1's to get his tones till he got the Ibanez Jemini, and then used that for his dirty tones.

The Legacy 3 is now three channels, clean, crunch and high gain lead, and as Vai says, he now longer needs any distortion or overdrive pedals to get his tone. Simple amp, simple to understand, good tones, and a wattage that can be reduced to 25 watts.

Vai was rarely seen playing live with the Legacy 2. IMO it just seemed to be an unfinished project
 
Re: EVH 5150 III & Carvin Legacy 3

jmh151 said:
The big "improvement" on the Legacy 2, which Ben Fargen worked on, was to be able to get a better tone at lower volumes by using a master volume. The Legacy 1 needed to be cranked, and when it was cranked, it was extremely loud. It was their amp to create a three channel amp. The Legacy 1 was known to need a booster for a good lead tone. Instead of boosting the drive channel for the Legacy 2, they boosted the clean channel.

The Legacy 1 couldn't stand on its own anyway for Vai-he was using Keeley modded TS-9's and DS-1's to get his tones till he got the Ibanez Jemini, and then used that for his dirty tones.

The Legacy 3 is now three channels, clean, crunch and high gain lead, and as Vai says, he now longer needs any distortion or overdrive pedals to get his tone. Simple amp, simple to understand, good tones, and a wattage that can be reduced to 25 watts.

Vai was rarely seen playing live with the Legacy 2. IMO it just seemed to be an unfinished project
Click to expand...


So far I have not seen him playing the Legacy 3 either. It looks pretty setting on top of the Legacy 1's. Nothing plugged into them though... I really like the concept behind the L3 but if the sig user won't play them I have to wonder why
 
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