Drew's EVH5150III 50watt thread (aka Incoming...)

Drew_TNBD

rockmonster said:

Just seems odd to me to compromise your sound because you like your pedal board! Surely your basic sound should come first. IMHO!

That isn't the reason for all this discussion. Essentially, I really like the lightweight and portable nature of the 50watt. I like the clean tones of the amp. I also really like the crunch tones. I REALLY like the high-gain tones. But the 50-watt cannot adequately do all three.

Which leaves me with a choice:

1. Use the amp for clean+high gain, with pedals for mid-tones.
2. Figure out a way to replace the clean channel with something else, using the amp for mid tones and high gain.
3. Get a different amp.

I'm not longing for midi switching and 4-cable method. It seemed like it could be a cool thing, but in practice, seems finnicky with whatever device you use - unless you've got some beefy Bradshaw rig... it's probably not worth doing. To my mind anyway.

So yeah I could get the 100-watt (or swap my JVM for one of the 100watts) but if I can figure a way to do this whilst keeping the lightweight nature of the 50-watt, then I would be happy. So far pedals as the mid tones is the best route I've come up with.

ThePrettyDamned

2 of the fifty watters in a stereo set up, one for cleans only with dedicated effects, t'other with crunch and lead? Means it's... Er... Sorta portable? Would look the balls

rockmonster

ThePrettyDamned said:

2 of the fifty watters in a stereo set up, one for cleans only with dedicated effects, t'other with crunch and lead? Means it's... Er... Sorta portable? Would look the balls

Nice idea! =D>

ChrisMusic

ThePrettyDamned said:   2 of the fifty watters in a stereo set up, one for cleans only with dedicated effects, t'other with crunch and lead? Means it's... Er... Sorta portable? Would look the balls

We are of the same mind here, nice one.  I was just in the process of typing up the same thing !

I'm not sure about the MIDI implementation, but if you treated the two EVHs as two pre amps and two power amps (split via the effects loop), then everything could run in stereo.

Bonus is you also have a backup amp which does the stuff you like should one fail, and both use exactly the same parts too.

And it would look cool enough to die for.  

rockmonster

The 100 still does most of that though! >:D<

guitarfishbay

I actually think it is daft they left midi off the fullsize head. It isn't like there is a lack of space - the amp is huge.

rockmonster

Yep good point.

Drew_TNBD

This is why I like the EVH so much:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/th9d65463ji2v99/Mosaic_110bpm.mp3

THAT crunch!!

When I write stuff it often starts out as something like the above; a moodboard, or riff palette, just to kick things off. This was done using the preamp output of the EVH, into Logic X, then using Recabinet with some custom impulse responses I made of my Egnater cab - it's very close to my live sound, which I find really inspiring to write with. I am able to do this at all times of the day or night - technology win.

No ears were harmed during the making of this moodboard

Drew_TNBD

Another moodboard - actually it is a bit more complete than that, probably going to end up being a Tacoma song, but check it out and let me know what you think:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/quiac5ifn75p7go/Consume.mp3

Same recording process as the other one - preamp out into my MOTU 8-Pre, dummy jack in the headphone socket to stop the sound getting out into the cab. Recabinet running some of my own impulses. This amp sounds much better than taking the FX loop send from the JVM. I can't explain why.

Drew_TNBD

On the FX-Loop thing... I was thinking... wouldn't it be possible to use an ABY in front to select either the front of the EVH, or the front of a modeller. Then take the send from the amp into a noise-gate, then take the output from the modeller and the output from the noise-gate, and go into a signal-merger of some kind... and finally into the FX loop return.

Would that work??

ChrisMusic

My thoughts on this, for what they are worth, are that if you were considering an ABY then it depends what you are driving that with, if it is a low impedance buffered output then you could probably just split the signal into both modeller and amp inputs, via a rats tail or adaptor plug.

Then run out of the amp pre and out of the modeller into a switcher, an ABY the other way round would give either or a fixed mix of the two, you would have to adjust the balance on amp and modeller for that mix or individual signal levels.  It may need an ABY switch with buffered inputs for this.

This would then feed into common FX loop positioned FX or into the power amp, depending what you want common to the signal paths.

Do get another opinion on this though, it has been a long time since I've done this sort of stuff, so ICBM or someone with good up to date knowledge can say if this is a workable solution (in progress, I suspect) or not, or suggest something better.

Cheers,  Chris

digitalscream

Drew_fx said:

On the FX-Loop thing... I was thinking... wouldn't it be possible to use an ABY in front to select either the front of the EVH, or the front of a modeller. Then take the send from the amp into a noise-gate, then take the output from the modeller and the output from the noise-gate, and go into a signal-merger of some kind... and finally into the FX loop return.

Would that work??

A signal-merger...you mean, like a mixer?

Yes, that'd work. If you think about it, all you're doing is 4CM but manually.

Drew_TNBD

lol, yes a mixer. But signal-merger makes it sound more guitary

I realised last night I could probably use a stereo-in pedal, like my Zoom MS70CDR for instance, which is why I took it out the classifieds! Gonna try it some time today. If it works okay, then it's just about finding the right modeller for the clean tones - no point having something as large as the GSP!

chrispy108

Sounds like a plan there Drew,

I can see a problem with using two amps through two sets of speakers (even in one cab); getting the soundman to mike both sounds, and getting him to balance them properly. Seems you'd be a bit more in control of everything this way.

Drew_TNBD

chrispy108 said:

Sounds like a plan there Drew,

I can see a problem with using two amps through two sets of speakers (even in one cab); getting the soundman to mike both sounds, and getting him to balance them properly. Seems you'd be a bit more in control of everything this way.

I agree!

Monstronaut

chrispy108;90244" said:

Sounds like a plan there Drew,

I can see a problem with using two amps through two sets of speakers (even in one cab); getting the soundman to mike both sounds, and getting him to balance them properly. Seems you'd be a bit more in control of everything this way.

I used a palmer pdi-09 guitar DI with my evh. They worked really well together. I believe EVH himself uses a pdi-03. That takes the soundman out of the equation and gives consistant tone from gig to gig.

ThePrettyDamned

How did the stereo thing work out mate?  

Drew_TNBD

Haven't really tried it to be honest dude. I did try two amps at once, and it was okay. Big fat ground loop though. I need an ABY with isolated outputs I think. Gonna fix my LS-2 and give it a shot though.

ManWithoutSkin

Sorry to hijack your thread, but does anyone on here have any experience of both the 50 and 100 watt versions? Do the gain channels sound any different?

Drew_TNBD

The designer Howard Kaplan has said that they are exactly the same.