My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

B

Blix

New member
Got the fantastic new EVH amp a couple weeks ago.
Interestingly it doesn't seem to like my A2 humbuckers at all.

Duncan SH-11, EVH Frankenstein, and a Motor City Black Iron all sounds way too soft and compressed in the bottom end on it.

Put an 80's DiMarzio Super Distortion in the guitar and punchy low end was restored, also one of my other guitars with a A5 Railhammer Hyper Vintage (8.5K) pickup sounds great.

So, I was thinking it was time to try some magnet swapping in the TB-11.

So, A5 or A8, or even ceramic?

While the EVH amp can really chug hard and be super tight, it still got some "woddiness" in the low end which is super cool.
I don't do djent or anything brutal, so I don't really want the low end to become too stiff though.

A picture of the baby:
51531.jpg

By blix72 at 2012-03-30
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

just go out and buy a bunch of magnets and swap em all out till you find what you want. A5, A8 or ceramic will be ur best shot
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

I'm looking into a mag swap on my Super Dist. in the neck position of my guitar. I think I'll end up with an alnico V. I found a good selection of mags at mojotone.com, they're like $4 each.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

my 5150III 50w loves my Custom 5 Loaded Charvel. So I'd try an A5 in there for sure. That amp also hates V30s alone too, yet it's killer with a H30/V30 mix...but that's another story.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

Thanks for the input. I'll probably get a 5 or 8 then, or a set with 5,8 and ceramic....
Hard to find here in Europe though, Mojo wants a whopping $41 in shipping for one magnet, which is beyond ridiculous...
Shipping to Norway should be a couple bucks at most.
Those guys on eBay wants $13, which is still way too much, but at least doable if I don't find other options.


I can imagine the amp not liking V30's only for sure. Right now I use it with two 1x12's with EV12L's which sounds great. But I have the EVH 2x12" coming my way, looking forward to set up the full w/d/w rig. :)
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

What cabinet? Maybe the amp likes A2 just fine but the cabinet is revolting.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

Try the A5, all the good EVH pickups have had A5s in them...the EBMM, Peavey, Charvel and new EVH brand.

I'm running mine W/D/W with three Splawn 4x12 cabs now. Middle dry cab has H30/V30 mix which is great with it and the wet cabs are all V30s which are fine since they have no dry running through them at all, just delay. I'm on the hunt for a 4x12 EVH cab and then when the 1x12s get back in stock I think I may get two of them for my wet cabs.

Does the EVH 2x12 have the EVH speakers or the H30s like the 1x12s do? I never looked into the 2x12s since I was set on the 4x12 and two 1x12s for wet idea.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

GilmourD said:
What cabinet? Maybe the amp likes A2 just fine but the cabinet is revolting.
Click to expand...

Lol, maybe! :D The cabs have handled A2 just fine before with different amps.

XSSIVE said:
Try the A5, all the good EVH pickups have had A5s in them...the EBMM, Peavey, Charvel and new EVH brand.

I'm running mine W/D/W with three Splawn 4x12 cabs now. Middle dry cab has H30/V30 mix which is great with it and the wet cabs are all V30s which are fine since they have no dry running through them at all, just delay. I'm on the hunt for a 4x12 EVH cab and then when the 1x12s get back in stock I think I may get two of them for my wet cabs.

Does the EVH 2x12 have the EVH speakers or the H30s like the 1x12s do? I never looked into the 2x12s since I was set on the 4x12 and two 1x12s for wet idea.
Click to expand...

The EVH 2x12" got the H30's as well.
I used to run w/d/w with a 4x12" and 2 1x12"s, worked wonderfully, but I'm trying to make the rig somewhat compact, the OS Recto cab didn't exactly help :)
Now 3 4x12"'s would be ideal, but just not doable for me. I was trying to go just w/d with the 1x12"'s, but nah, need w/d/w and some Celestions again.

Btw , try running plenty dry in your wet cabs, that's how EVH, Steve Stevens and others do it, never strictly "wet" in the wet cabs, pretty much d/d/d when the effects are off. :)
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

Interesting. My 5150III 100 loves the TB-11 that I just put in my Les Paul.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

SFW said:
Interesting. My 5150III 100 loves the TB-11 that I just put in my Les Paul.
Click to expand...


Different amp, different guitar... :)

For the record, I'm a big fan of A2, but this recent amp doesn't seem to agree. :)
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

That's weird. I have the 50 watt head and the EVH 2x12 with the G12H30s. I'm only playing A2s (RTM, EVH Frankenstein, SD 78, and a custom wound pickup with A2) through it right now and I love the tone. The EVH Frankenstein actually sounds better through the new set up than my old Peavey 5150 combo.

I didn't like the TB-11 because the lows were a bit loose. Wasn't bad, just a little looser than I prefer. Sold my TB-11 to Ed Huner.

I've got a JB that is going to go into a guitar that I'm building; so, I can't wait to try that out to see how A5 sounds through it.

Overall love the sound though.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

They come stock with JJ 6L6GC's. Nothing to complain about there. However, it has all JJ's in the preamp section, so this amp won't like "darker" pickups from the get-go, unless your guitar is bright to balance them. However, Eddie did plenty of testing, not only with his Wolfgangs (pretty much the same deal since EBMM, let's face it) but his REAL Frankie, as well as the clones. I'm pretty sure this amp can be dialed in for whatever pickups you have , but perhaps your guitar is the culprit, not the pickups.
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

IanBallard said:
They come stock with JJ 6L6GC's. Nothing to complain about there. However, it has all JJ's in the preamp section, so this amp won't like "darker" pickups from the get-go, unless your guitar is bright to balance them. However, Eddie did plenty of testing, not only with his Wolfgangs (pretty much the same deal since EBMM, let's face it) but his REAL Frankie, as well as the clones. I'm pretty sure this amp can be dialed in for whatever pickups you have , but perhaps your guitar is the culprit, not the pickups.
Click to expand...
There are so many ingredients in the recipe for tone that any one of them can make a noticeable difference. The '59 Trembucker I have in my Frankenstein sounded COMPLETELY different in my hardtail Strat (which ended up with a Custom Custom).
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

All JJ tubes as Ian says.
The guitar in question is a 83' Kramer Pacer which sounds great.
Now the CC and EVH Frankenstein is like 99.99% identical and the MCP Black Iron is a high output A2 bucker as well, I could imagine a lower output A2 pickup would work better.
The guitar/pickup combo could of course just not be working, maybe I should try one of them in one of my other guitars to be sure . :)
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

A helpful Italian member have some magnets to sell me, so there will be a couple coming my way soon.
Also I just got an email from addiction-fx which could send me one in a letter, which should be a couple bucks at most.
So I'll have some experimenting to do. :)
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

XSSIVE said:
Try the A5, all the good EVH pickups have had A5s in them...the EBMM, Peavey, Charvel and new EVH brand.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the new EVH brand have ceramic in it (the Wolfgangs)? And the Frankenstein humbucker has A2, right?
 
Re: My 50watt 5150 III dislikes A2.

I think the Kramer Pacer is gonna ask for A5 minimum, but go A8 first. If you strum those unplugged, it's like a tennis racquet. A pretty good tennis racquet compared to my old Ibanez, - dont get me wrong it's a player for in your face mids.

But CC can be quite soggy even in a regular 5150. Also, not all Kramers are supremely constructed for resonance.

The EVH has a tight wind, & MotorCitys are great... So perhaps the Baretta doesnt feed it much bass. The EVH Frank is put in a Squier strat was castrated of all bass, but the attack was crisp.

I play under 30w. If the 5150 120w runs like a cold 75watts, then maybe 5150 50w is similar, I dunno ( on the 5150 II- they made the bias adjustable.) But try turning down the preamp, & the master on ten, or 8 & see what happens.

My point is : little Kramer + A2 + cold 50w=bass not tight... The magnet will definitely help, (or heavier guitar. But Kramers rock, so mag up! ) I know the A5 will split the diff, BUT try the Alnico 8- you can then hit the power tubes with a more bottom orchestrated muscle & crunch, yet still have clean singing, woody leads.

Ceramics are often shrill or harsh after Alnico. If Im guessin the tone a guy with a Kramer & 5150 is after, the ceramics will be harsh- and dont go by the Dimarzio, thats a gem of its own.

(if you click on my youtube demos below, youll hear what I mean by slamming the power tubes in an under 50watt scenario.)
 
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