5150 50 watt head questions

[LilDreamer81]

Hello everyone, I come to guys for assistance always so thank you. 2 days ago I got a 5150III 50 watt head. Bought from Guitar Center. In all my research on the World Wide Web, I read of people having volume cut in half when using the effects loop. I thought, “I hope that doesn’t happen to me…”, OF COURSE IT DID. My questions to you guys is, what causes that? I was like fuck it, I’ll plug my effects right into the front of amp in the input, which I did and it worked fine, and my other question, it didn’t come with the channel foot switch. Can I buy a channel foot switch that would be compatible with it, and not the EVH brand which is like $140. Thanks always!!

[Jedi McFly]

Hmm. I've not heard of that issue. And IIRC the 50w heads have a solid state FX Loop. What FX are you trying to run in the loop? Sometimes they can be sensitive to input/output levels if they have settings for instrument vs. line level signals.

[LilDreamer81]

I had a pedal board with a tuner, and phase 90. I’m like what the heck??

[Jedi McFly]

Just a tuner and Phase 90? I'd run those in front of the amp anyway. You want to tune a clean signal and Ed used the phaser before gain. Phasers are way more pronounced post gain. You'd want to run effects like pitch, delays, reverbs and some other modulation (chorus) in the FX Loop.

Also, no other foot switch will work with the 50w heads. They've got a bunch of internal electronics to make the near instant seamless switching happen. It's not a standard simple mechanical foot switch. There's a processor in there.

[Majestic]

Just a tuner and Phase 90? I'd run those in front of the amp anyway. You want to tune a clean signal and Ed used the phaser before gain. Phasers are way more pronounced post gain. You'd want to run effects like pitch, delays, reverbs and some other modulation (chorus) in the FX Loop.

Also, no other foot switch will work with the 50w heads. They've got a bunch of internal electronics to make the near instant seamless switching happen. It's not a standard simple mechanical foot switch. There's a processor in there.

They literally make you purchase a foot switch separately, though? That’s bonkers to me.

[Jedi McFly]

They literally make you purchase a foot switch separately, though? That’s bonkers to me.

No, the foot switch is included with new amps. I was assuming the amp was used and thus is missing the foot switch.

Dreamer - if the amp was new then call GC up and have them find the foot switch or get you a replacement.

[LilDreamer81]

Thanks for the insight Jedi, yeah it was a used amp from GC. I’ll just use the input on front, I was reading a lot of threads through a google search last night and this seems to be a thing with the volume drop with effects loop. And I’ll just deal without the switch hahah! It will be staying ok the blue channel anyway. I wanna rock. Rock!

[joezlo]

This might sound kooky, but were you running the power from the head & the pedals through the same outlet?

I have had volume drops with every EVH amp when the electricity is out of phase from the amp VS the pedals.

[LilDreamer81]

Nope just the power of 9 volt batteries on the phase 90 and tuner. Maybe my wires are shit, but if you google it, people deal with it. But fuck it, I’m just gonna rock!

[AsIs]

I have the 50W EL34 with a Phase 90 first in the loop and do not have this issue.

Is it possible it's your batteries?

[LilDreamer81]

No the batteries were replaced the day before. Im training to play a Halloween party next month. But if you google evh head loses power with effects loop, youll see others with the issue. I was praying the one I just got wouldn’t have same issue, but that’s my luck always hahaha