Are 5150 IV amps out? coming?

[NCASO]

Hey guys,

Great to be posting in this awesome forum for the first time!

I thought I saw somewhere that the 5150 IV head was announced? is this true?

I would love to upgrade my 50w combo amp...

Best, and thanks

[James in New York]

[Gary2112]

If there is a 5150 IV, I would really love for it to have a stereo FX.

Nothing kills me more than knowing I can’t get a true stereo setting on my rig w/o having to get another head/power amp to represent its full potential.


Got 5150?

[CHUCKYAB]

May sound cheesy here, but I sure hope they add the Eddie VH autograph print on the front of the amp like the original 5150's did!!

[Ashe]

I'm curious how this company will move forward in general. Eddie was the primary person making decisions and the main reason people choose the brand. Without his involvement, how long before it turns into something else non-Eddie? He was always changing and updating the products, and people bought into those changes because his stamp of approval carried weight. Who is going to want to buy something that he had no input on? People might be saying, "Would Eddie have wanted that? Did Eddie approve of this before he passed?"

Fender and Gibson seem to be living in the past. It seems that they just reissue old guitars now. Apple is not the company it once was when Steve Jobs was there. I wonder what Walt Disney would think of his company today? Sure, they are making a lot of money (not sure about Fender or Gibson), but where is the innovation?

Just thinking out loud.

[Jedi McFly]

This video bugs me because it's a bunch of baseless speculation.

Here's all we know:

• Fender hired original Peavey 5150 designer James Brown circa January 2020. He works specifically with EVH Gear.
• Last year EVH Gear filed trademarks for "5150 Iconic" for use with amplifiers
• Wolfgang's instagram photos clearly show an EVH Gear branded take on the original 5150 amplifier.
• The amp in the photos has at least 13 knobs (original 5150 had 9, 5150ii had 14) and 3 switches on the right (originals had 2). It uses a Kramer 5150 style font for the logos as opposed to the standard helvetica style font of the Peaveys.

So, my informed speculation () is that this amp won't be the "5150 IV" - it'll be an alternate/adjacent amp to the 5150iii that serves as an update and tribute to the original.

My hope would be that it marries the clean channel and switching functionality of the 5150iii with the gain channels of the original 5150. But that's baseless speculation/hope on my part.

I'm curious how this company will move forward in general. Eddie was the primary person making decisions and the main reason people choose the brand. Without his involvement, how long before it turns into something else non-Eddie?

Wolf and Matt Bruck are taking Eddie's place. Wolf said Ed left a ton of ideas for gear they could produce. And Eddie's final specs really didn't change much in the last ~14 years he had with EVH Gear. I think they could diversify the Wolfgangs to increase their market while still honoring Ed's spirit.

[bjk]

. I think they could diversify the Wolfgangs to increase their market while still honoring Ed's spirit.

I don’t know. I’ve been turned off the Wolfgangs going to all black hardware and pretty much dropping zebra pickups altogether, Just looks cheap & generic to me. And it’s hard to find a demo of any 5150 amp that’s not just detuned death metal chugging. Just seems to be going further away from anything I’m interested in.

[Jedi McFly]

I don’t know. I’ve been turned off the Wolfgangs going to all black hardware and pretty much dropping zebra pickups altogether, Just looks cheap & generic to me. And it’s hard to find a demo of any 5150 amp that’s not just detuned death metal chugging. Just seems to be going further away from anything I’m interested in.

I couldn’t agree more about the hardware and pickup colors. The switch to black hardware was a mistake on 99% of those models.

The demos have gotten better since Chris Cannella left. Frankie Lindia does a really good job, IMO.

[Brett]

Frankly every demo I ever watch for every guitar and every amp is some dork playing death metal shit that I hate. “Listen to this great tone!” No that tone is shit as is that detuned over-distorted monotonous death metal riff. Is that the only kind of music these fucking guys who demo these amps know how to play? I hate it.

Most people who want these amps are not fans of that kind of metal. We mostly want good hard rock tones. The crap they demo is just noise to me. I don’t think it speaks to the real audience of an EVH amp.

But it’s not just EVH, it’s like any amp that produces distortion requires some guy to demo for five minutes the same awful death metal crap.

[Gary2112]

Chrome or go home, imo


Got 5150?

[iplayguitaralot]

While I’d be more inclined to agree with you guys in the past, the times have changed. Evh amps are death metal amps and will continue to be marketed towards that audience. You guy are expected to buy Suhrs and Friedman’s. I wish we were in the 80s to so I could play 6 string again but we aren’t. Everyone in my generation is playing metal core and death metal, or doing some crazy hybrid tapping on multi scaled extended range instruments. I would say most people who would buy these amps absolutely need to hear what it sounds like in a death metal concept because that’s the big sound at the moment.

And I think they are losing a market with their guitars by not doing a 7 string since they already make the amp that sets the standard for heavy music. I would bet good money a 7 string black Wolfgang would probably be the hottest selling guitar they would make if Edward hadn’t had passed and the nostalgia wasn’t running so high.

[evhintexas]

While I’d be more inclined to agree with you guys in the past, the times have changed. Evh amps are death metal amps and will continue to be marketed towards that audience. You guy are expected to buy Suhrs and Friedman’s. I wish we were in the 80s to so I could play 6 string again but we aren’t. Everyone in my generation is playing metal core and death metal, or doing some crazy hybrid tapping on multi scaled extended range instruments. I would say most people who would buy these amps absolutely need to hear what it sounds like in a death metal concept because that’s the big sound at the moment.

And I think they are losing a market with their guitars by not doing a 7 string since they already make the amp that sets the standard for heavy music. I would bet good money a 7 string black Wolfgang would probably be the hottest selling guitar they would make if Edward hadn’t had passed and the nostalgia wasn’t running so high.

This is about Eddie Van Halen and his gear...not some dumbfuck

[speates]

Frankly every demo I ever watch for every guitar and every amp is some dork playing death metal shit that I hate. “Listen to this great tone!” No that tone is shit as is that detuned over-distorted monotonous death metal riff. Is that the only kind of music these fucking guys who demo these amps know how to play? I hate it.

Most people who want these amps are not fans of that kind of metal. We mostly want good hard rock tones. The crap they demo is just noise to me. I don’t think it speaks to the real audience of an EVH amp.

I always felt the same way, but recently I think I figured out why this is. I have tried both the 50W combo amp and the 50W head (both the standard 6L6 version) for the first time within the past two months or so. They have ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, amounts of gain. On channel 2, having the gain knob set to like 9:00 is equivalent to having it cranked all the way up on my amp (Splawn Quick Rod, Gear 1). Channel 3 is even worse. Everyone demos them with terrible chugga-chugga death metal tones because it is hard to get anything else out of these amps! Actually, the closest I got to a decent rock tone (in the vein of EVH's 80s tone) was channel 1, with the gain turned up fairly high. Channel 1 actually sounded pretty good and was by far my favorite, but the amps just are not usable for what I need.

[MF5150]

While I’d be more inclined to agree with you guys in the past, the times have changed. Evh amps are death metal amps and will continue to be marketed towards that audience.

I always felt the same way, but recently I think I figured out why this is. I have tried both the 50W combo amp and the 50W head (both the standard 6L6 version) for the first time within the past two months or so. They have ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, amounts of gain.

That is exactly why.

Friedman is arguably the #1 hard rock amp manufacturer out there right now, and their demos aren't death metal at all because that's not their demographic. Yet, their amps still pack a shit tonne of gain, in em.

Like it or not the EVH line of amps have been embraced more by the heavy/death metal crowd than they have hard rockers. That's because they do that better. Friedman and Marshall do what they do better than the 5150 line of amps. I'm sorry but if you're looking for those classic VH guitar sounds, you aint gonna get em from a 5150. You'll get em from a Smallbox 50 though. Quite easily.

The 5150 as we know it now, is a super-high gain amp. Most hard rock guitar players dont want or need that much saturated gain. So they direct their demos to those who are buying the amp.

I also agree that if they did a 7 string Wolf, they'd give Ibanez a run for their money in that market.

[Jedi McFly]

I think the original 5150iii 6L6 amps are more versatile than some of you guys are giving them credit for. I use mine in top 40 corporate event bands and at my church. The clean channel is great on its own and as an OD pedal platform, the blue channel with the gain below 6 has solid rock tones, and the red channel with the gain pulled way back is a great versatile lead tone.

Tons of country guys use the EVH products as well.

But the Stealth and EL34? That's where they get way too compressed and over-the-top in terms of the amount of gain. I understand the metal players flocking to those.