About 3 months ago I had the privilege of meeting Howard when I brought my EVH 5150 2X12 combo to him to do the complete concentric separate channel one mod and was blown away by the man before he even started on my amp. He updated me on the progress nearly daily and asked me how I wanted certain things. I simply can not say what a great experience it was. He is so generous with his time and his attention to my needs. The outcome was better than I imagined. I can honestly say not only is he the best of the best at what he does, but I actually feel honored to have gained a new friend in Howard.
Howard is the man! He's the only guy I will trust with any of my amps. One of the nicest kindest human beings I have ever met in all my years. His knowledge and expertise is unsurpassed in this business.. They broke the mold...
Mr. Kaplan is such a nice guy. I haven’t been part of the 5150 III group for long but he’s always friendly and more then happy to help others that use the amp he designed.
Isn't that amazing how concerned he is about his product/design? I wish more engineers and designers would take that kind of attitude towards their products...
Howard is a great guy! I have never met someone who actually took the time to speak with clients who had issues, or questions! I've dealt with him many times when I purchased my EVH amps... I say "amps", because I had one of each model that came out... the 100w reg, the Special ed striped front, the red 50w, updated 50w, the 100w Stealth (when the still used Winged C's), the 50w stealth etc... lol Great guy! Lots of good info shared!
I will say I have had a great experience with Dave Friedman. He personally addresses customer questions and has taken care of me several times. I'm in San Diego and it's a 2.5 hour drive to his shop in Hollywood and he is always accommodating if I need to take hime something. Howard and Dave are rare birds in todays world, for sure.
Have chatted with Howard several times on Facebook and he is always ALWAYS available and thoughtful in his information.....he was also generous when I developed a problem with a shipped EVH 4x12 cab being damaged by logistics company....I ask Howard if there were any possibilities to get a replacement baffle grill spec? .... He one upped that by helping me secure a complete replacement baffle!! ...Thank You again and again Howard
What a cool man! Thanks Howard love my 5150 lll heads. Massive tone even at low volume. Thank you sir for the insight on working with Ed. And the design aspect. You Rock Howard!!!
Howard is a genius. I have a Vox AC30C2 and I absolutely love it. But you can't really do Metal tones with a Vox AC30C2. I went with the EVH 50w EL34 head and matching 2x12 cab. I absolutely loved it. That EVH amp gets me to high gain heaven really fast. The Green channel is surprisingly clean. The Blue channel in my EL34 50w head has not had the C137 mod done to it. An eq pedal in the loop and I don't need to do the mod. My Blue channel is BRUTAL. Red channel is absolutely SAVAGE. I saved this video because I plan to watch it a few times. Thank you very much for making this video. And thank you to Howard for being willing to drop his wisdom on us. It is immeasurably beneficial to people like me.
I am glad I waited to get my EVH 5150 III EL34 50. I love it. I lowered the gain slightly on my ch. 3 with a V4 5751preamp tube. To get a more usable control of the ch. 3 gain.
I was totally blown away with the tone of the LBX1, I was like ' How could this little amp do this?' I was so impressed I eventually got an EVH 50W combo 1x12. You get more versitallity from classic rock to heavy metal. Both amps work great with single coils too!
@@karmaceutical3963😂 He's an ultimate troll character. He thinks you can't use Gibson guitars into fender amps because the electric won't work. He's dead serious though so I think he's on the spectrum 😢
Howard is a fantastic human being, always willing to help out. The 5150 iii's are great amps ... I just wish that they were altered to be less bright and more warm. They just lack warmth, sadly.
All the amps with the same articulation and more "warmth" are about twice as costly. Orange Rockerverb comes to mind. Or you could spend a couple of hundred on a mod? Or use a pedal?
I noticed that when I use my stealth head with real vintage celestion speakers that's super warm and what I expected the stealth 212 cabinet to sound like but sadly it's not, it's louder with the EVH stealth 212 cabinet than the old 412 with old celestion speakers in it but not the tone I expected.
For the LBX-S I noticed they made the bias adjuster accessible from the tube cage vs opening up the bottom panel to PCB like the previous 2 versions. My question is does the bias of the lbx stealth still have a recommend value of 28mA like its older siblings? Thanks
Ill summarize this stry..I was searching for a reliable Hi-gain head, mostly used for practice but if the opp arose to play live I could do it with a 212 cab. I personally tested 4 r 5 diffrnt amp manuf until I came upon a 212 6L6 combo..with the concentric rev. It sounded killer! Long story short..I now rock this exact 50 watt 6L6 head..with 2 ×12" C V 30's...lov it. Thank You for ur work Howard..we appreciate it.
Brah I want to get this amp, but based on horror stories about this one I wouldn't call it reliable... many people had it failing multiple times within the warranty period. Honestly I don't want to deal with that.
Great guy and amazing design! I'll never part w/ my 50w head. 3 channel, Midi, 7 preamp tubes that can be used to buy diff tubes to customize your sound even a HP out (never seen that on a 30w or bigger amp!).
I have the EVH 5150 iii 100 watt at Sonic Palace. It's a beast and a great piece of gear for the studio. The clients love it. I had the opportunity to purchase the EVH 4x12 cab with it, but honestly we felt our 1960 marshall 4x12's sounded cleaner a punchier. We also felt we didn't need one more 4/12 cab in the studio as we have limited space.
A secret of pro's I found years ago is to use g12 h 50 hz Celestion speakers they are actually bass speakers as apposed to the typical g12 h I use the black backs from the 70's great for hard rock and metal but country guys live them to cheers !
a realy great amp, lots of distortion for killer sounds, only a couple of flaws, after playing a while, i get a ringing pitch of very slight sound, which is annoying, and also there have been some humming, which can be corrected with a noise gate, but not often the case.
I have the 1x12 50 watt combo. I find the green channel cleans are very bright when I have the blue channel dialed in the way I like. Too bright to be useable for me. Any ideas?
I bet this is a good place to ask... Is the Effects Loop of the 5150 iii 50W Line Level or Instrument (Pedal) Level? Thanks for the awesome video! I love my 5150 iii
@@Crunch104 I have the 50 W Stealth and I’m pretty sure the effects loop is line level. I run my time-based effects pedals in the loop without any issues. Hope this helps.
@@redrugambientguitar8852 Thanks man! My guess is that it is Line Level as well. I find it strange though that I cannot find any confirmation from any official source or from Mr. Kaplan.
Great video!! Does anyone know if you can program the EVH ( midi ) to go to any channel example: ( Ch 1 blue-Ch 2 green-Ch 3 blue- Ch 4 red ) or any combination desired using midi foot controller - I’m using voodoo lab ground control Thx🤘
EVH 5150iii 50w 6L6 red channel cut out. Still barely hear it. All other channels are good. Listened to this interview and tried to keep up. Need help.
Do you know the impedence rating of the 5150iii 50watt 1x12 combo speaker? It has the G12EVH-50 speaker but I can't find any info for the 50 watt version. Not Celestions website, no where.
What are the bias values in mV for EVH LBX series amps? EL84 will have less voltage I guess? Can V1 and V2 in LBXs be replaced with lower gain tubes? eg. 12at7 12au7 (they have different current so is it safe for the amp?)
I have one of the older 5150-3’a that doesn’t have the concentric pots in channel 1&2. I’d like to look into getting that mod but the links you provided for Howard don’t work. Any updates on those?
I have an (EVH 5150 100 STEALTH ) plugged into a load box (Torpedo captor X ) for direct recording through IRs. When I have the sound turn down on the monitors and I play the guitar, I can hear it coming from the amp head. There is a Randell ISO cab speaker cabinet plugged in Captor X. There should be no sound since the monitors are turned down. is this normal for high gain amps.
Yeah I hear resonations when I play my amp through my reactive load. It's either the amp or the reactive load (suhr, the amp is ceriatone), but it's like a really silent and buzzy version of what I'm playing.
Hey is Kaplan have a email can ask him some questions or maybe someone here knows? I have a 5150 III 50W EL34 head. It has Genalex el34/KT77 tubes but they say KT77 are them tubes safe to be in the 5150 III 50W EL34 HEAD?
The channel 2 voicing changed somewhere along the way. Anyway you could ask him when did that change happened? I prefer the original. They turned the channel 2 to sound more like the channel 3.
Interesting what he said at the very end, the Iconic first stage is solid state. Which we kinda already knew. I am still waiting to see the inside of an Iconic head. I'm not a fan of "made in China".
Tube shortages bring down tube quality that is why EVH is only producing 50% of there norm output. Tubes are the main reason I see people w/ problems. My 2014 is a tank.
why did they put a shitty speaker in the iconic 15 watt 10 inch speaker , any sugestions as to what would be a good replacement, i wish i got the 40 watt 12 inch with 2 6l6
About 3 months ago I had the privilege of meeting Howard when I brought my EVH 5150 2X12 combo to him to do the complete concentric separate channel one mod and was blown away by the man before he even started on my amp. He updated me on the progress nearly daily and asked me how I wanted certain things. I simply can not say what a great experience it was. He is so generous with his time and his attention to my needs. The outcome was better than I imagined. I can honestly say not only is he the best of the best at what he does, but I actually feel honored to have gained a new friend in Howard.
Howard is the man! He's the only guy I will trust with any of my amps. One of the nicest kindest human beings I have ever met in all my years. His knowledge and expertise is unsurpassed in this business.. They broke the mold...
Finally happy to hear Howard explain in explicit detail, why the combo amps channel 2 are like no other!
Mr. Kaplan is such a nice guy. I haven’t been part of the 5150 III group for long but he’s always friendly and more then happy to help others that use the amp he designed.
Yes, he is a great guy.
Isn't that amazing how concerned he is about his product/design? I wish more engineers and designers would take that kind of attitude towards their products...
Howard is a great guy! I have never met someone who actually took the time to speak with clients who had issues, or questions! I've dealt with him many times when I purchased my EVH amps... I say "amps", because I had one of each model that came out... the 100w reg, the Special ed striped front, the red 50w, updated 50w, the 100w Stealth (when the still used Winged C's), the 50w stealth etc... lol Great guy! Lots of good info shared!
I will say I have had a great experience with Dave Friedman. He personally addresses customer questions and has taken care of me several times. I'm in San Diego and it's a 2.5 hour drive to his shop in Hollywood and he is always accommodating if I need to take hime something. Howard and Dave are rare birds in todays world, for sure.
Have chatted with Howard several times on Facebook and he is always ALWAYS available and thoughtful in his information.....he was also generous when I developed a problem with a shipped EVH 4x12 cab being damaged by logistics company....I ask Howard if there were any possibilities to get a replacement baffle grill spec? .... He one upped that by helping me secure a complete replacement baffle!! ...Thank You again and again Howard
He is a great guy.
Guy likes his Gain! THIS should be interesting ;)
I was glued to my screen for this, very cool interview! Didn't know the "brown sound" reduced filament voltage thing was built-in, nice :)
What a cool man! Thanks Howard love my 5150 lll heads. Massive tone even at low volume. Thank you sir for the insight on working with Ed.
And the design aspect. You Rock Howard!!!
Howard is a genius. I have a Vox AC30C2 and I absolutely love it. But you can't really do Metal tones with a Vox AC30C2. I went with the EVH 50w EL34 head and matching 2x12 cab. I absolutely loved it. That EVH amp gets me to high gain heaven really fast. The Green channel is surprisingly clean. The Blue channel in my EL34 50w head has not had the C137 mod done to it. An eq pedal in the loop and I don't need to do the mod. My Blue channel is BRUTAL. Red channel is absolutely SAVAGE. I saved this video because I plan to watch it a few times.
Thank you very much for making this video. And thank you to Howard for being willing to drop his wisdom on us. It is immeasurably beneficial to people like me.
Glad you like it.
Howard is a great guy
I am glad I waited to get my EVH 5150 III EL34 50. I love it. I lowered the gain slightly on my ch. 3 with a V4 5751preamp tube. To get a more usable control of the ch. 3 gain.
I have 3 5751 tubes for channel 3.
@@cbphotovideotipsDid that get rid of the hissing?
@@SuperPapa44 I use TC electronic Sentry noise gate at the input and fx loop.
I met him in Arizona I was complaining about my amp ! He said youll love my new amp I designed it for Eddie . Good enough for me
I was totally blown away with the tone of the LBX1, I was like ' How could this little amp do this?' I was so impressed I eventually got an EVH 50W combo 1x12. You get more versitallity from classic rock to heavy metal. Both amps work great with single coils too!
Wrong.
There's NO heavy metal from any EVH amplifier.
Clearly you're doing something wrong.
@@dreyn7780 what? absolutely plenty of metal tones in those amps
@@karmaceutical3963😂 He's an ultimate troll character. He thinks you can't use Gibson guitars into fender amps because the electric won't work. He's dead serious though so I think he's on the spectrum 😢
Great vid! Howard is a friggin brilliant genius. I'm a 6L6 50 watt user... LOVE it!! Saber Tooth Gary... cheers!!
I'm Gary and Saber toothless.. rahhhrrr!!!
Howard is a fantastic human being, always willing to help out.
The 5150 iii's are great amps ... I just wish that they were altered to be less bright and more warm.
They just lack warmth, sadly.
Try a different speaker cab.
Try the EL34 50w head.
All the amps with the same articulation and more "warmth" are about twice as costly. Orange Rockerverb comes to mind. Or you could spend a couple of hundred on a mod? Or use a pedal?
I noticed that when I use my stealth head with real vintage celestion speakers that's super warm and what I expected the stealth 212 cabinet to sound like but sadly it's not, it's louder with the EVH stealth 212 cabinet than the old 412 with old celestion speakers in it but not the tone I expected.
I absolutely love the 5150 III; it sounds exactly like my Powerball.
i wish there were similar talk about the LBX heads.
And/or if we could have an official concentric pot mod for the OG LBX
Not sure if there is a mod for those heads.
For the LBX-S I noticed they made the bias adjuster accessible from the tube cage vs opening up the bottom panel to PCB like the previous 2 versions. My question is does the bias of the lbx stealth still have a recommend value of 28mA like its older siblings? Thanks
Very cool tidbit about the amp being tweaked to reduce the voltage a la Brown sound.
Great info! I picked up an EVH 5150 III 50 watt head with 6L6’s recently and absolutely love it. It’s a great versatile amp.
Great to hear!
Ill summarize this stry..I was searching for a reliable Hi-gain head, mostly used for practice but if the opp arose to play live I could do it with a 212 cab. I personally tested 4 r 5 diffrnt amp manuf until I came upon a 212 6L6 combo..with the concentric rev. It sounded killer! Long story short..I now rock this exact 50 watt 6L6 head..with 2 ×12" C V 30's...lov it. Thank You for ur work Howard..we appreciate it.
Brah I want to get this amp, but based on horror stories about this one I wouldn't call it reliable... many people had it failing multiple times within the warranty period. Honestly I don't want to deal with that.
Great guy and amazing design! I'll never part w/ my 50w head. 3 channel, Midi, 7 preamp tubes that can be used to buy diff tubes to customize your sound even a HP out (never seen that on a 30w or bigger amp!).
I genuinely believe that the original 6L6 50 watt head is a modern classic.
I have the EVH 5150 iii 100 watt at Sonic Palace. It's a beast and a great piece of gear for the studio. The clients love it. I had the opportunity to purchase the EVH 4x12 cab with it, but honestly we felt our 1960 marshall 4x12's sounded cleaner a punchier. We also felt we didn't need one more 4/12 cab in the studio as we have limited space.
Thanks for sharing!
A secret of pro's I found years ago is to use g12 h 50 hz Celestion speakers they are actually bass speakers as apposed to the typical g12 h I use the black backs from the 70's great for hard rock and metal but country guys live them to cheers !
Thanks for that....i have one of the first 5150iii combo's and it got 2 of the expensive green speakers some how
Cool
Howard rocks!
Had a chat with him about cold bias, really nice guy. Offered me to mod my 50W amp but I can only wish because sadly I'm in Sydney.
How can i get channel 1/2 mod for my evh 5150 III combo if i live in EU ? Is there any Fender support for that ?
I have a peavey 5150 II and a Fender 5150 III stealth. The Stealth is unbearably loud. I like the peavey better!
Very interesting interview!
Great interview! Thanks for sharing it.
Glad you liked it.
a realy great amp, lots of distortion for killer sounds, only a couple of flaws, after playing a while, i get a ringing pitch of very slight sound, which is annoying, and also there have been some humming, which can be corrected with a noise gate, but not often the case.
Nice chat. I wish he would have talked a little bit more about the 2-12 combo with the 6L6’s. I picked one up last week and love the heck out of it
Great interview. Thanks 👍
Thanks Steve
I have the 1x12 50 watt combo. I find the green channel cleans are very bright when I have the blue channel dialed in the way I like. Too bright to be useable for me. Any ideas?
I bet this is a good place to ask... Is the Effects Loop of the 5150 iii 50W Line Level or Instrument (Pedal) Level? Thanks for the awesome video! I love my 5150 iii
Anyone? There is no mention in the documentation and all my Google searches turn up results with people not being sure. Thanks!
@@Crunch104 I have the 50 W Stealth and I’m pretty sure the effects loop is line level. I run my time-based effects pedals in the loop without any issues. Hope this helps.
@@redrugambientguitar8852 Thanks man! My guess is that it is Line Level as well. I find it strange though that I cannot find any confirmation from any official source or from Mr. Kaplan.
@@Crunch104 No worries! Thinking about it, I wonder whether it's more likely to be -10 dB rather than line level.
Hey it appears Kaplans Amp Service website is down, is there anywhere where I could find the schematics for the volume mod?
Great interview. Can't wait to get an EL34 model.
The Anniversary's sound wayyyyyyy better too. Nothing against Greenbacks but I definitely prefer them.
Great video!! Does anyone know if you can program the EVH ( midi ) to go to any channel example: ( Ch 1 blue-Ch 2 green-Ch 3 blue- Ch 4 red ) or any combination desired using midi foot controller - I’m using voodoo lab ground control
Thx🤘
I have a 15w lunchbox the one w the green and blue channels. Are the power tubes set for the Brown sound on that head?
I will ask Howard next time we chat.
Ok how do I find this upgrade? The Links do not work.
Very cool dude
Special thanks to Howard.
EVH 5150iii 50w 6L6 red channel cut out. Still barely hear it. All other channels are good.
Listened to this interview and tried to keep up.
Need help.
Thanks!
Thank you!
HI Craig, i have problems with my FX loop, when i turn it on there is a noise / hum ...do you have a Idea what is the problem? thx
Having the same exact problem with mine ...not happy
Thx for a great video 😍🤘🔥
Glad you liked it!
bought a 5150 lbx-3 15watt head today,,,,blue&red lit buttons only,,,how do i find how old it is??? super nice & nasty lil' thing
Anyone know what the plate voltage should be on an el34 50 watt head? Mine runs at 485v
That's perfect for EL34.
Great video
Thanks
Do you know the impedence rating of the 5150iii 50watt 1x12 combo speaker? It has the G12EVH-50 speaker but I can't find any info for the 50 watt version. Not Celestions website, no where.
That sounds like the EVH iconic combo.
Should be 16ohms. Get a multi meter.
What are the bias values in mV for EVH LBX series amps? EL84 will have less voltage I guess? Can V1 and V2 in LBXs be replaced with lower gain tubes? eg. 12at7 12au7 (they have different current so is it safe for the amp?)
Check with Howard on Facebook or via email.
I have one of the older 5150-3’a that doesn’t have the concentric pots in channel 1&2. I’d like to look into getting that mod but the links you provided for Howard don’t work. Any updates on those?
Howard shut down his business.
@@cbphotovideotips well that sucks. :-(
@@johncarter9509 There are other techs that can do it. It all depends on where you live or if you're willing to pay for shipping.
@@asnark7115 I assumed this. But finding them is the issue.
Howards website link is invalid. Good discussion though.
Howard has unfortunately shut down Kaplan’s Amp Repair to work for another company. He no longer provides the mods.
I have an (EVH 5150 100 STEALTH ) plugged into a load box (Torpedo captor X ) for direct recording through IRs. When I have the sound turn down on the monitors and I play the guitar, I can hear it coming from the amp head. There is a Randell ISO cab speaker cabinet plugged in Captor X. There should be no sound since the monitors are turned down. is this normal for high gain amps.
Yeah I hear resonations when I play my amp through my reactive load. It's either the amp or the reactive load (suhr, the amp is ceriatone), but it's like a really silent and buzzy version of what I'm playing.
This man is bringing
Hey is Kaplan have a email can ask him some questions or maybe someone here knows?
I have a 5150 III 50W EL34 head.
It has Genalex el34/KT77 tubes but they say KT77 are them tubes safe to be in the 5150 III 50W EL34 HEAD?
KT77 are in the EL34 family. They will work in the 50 EL34 albeit that the tubes are a matched pair.
I cant find Howards Facebook Page and Website, is it all down?
Yes, he shut down his business.
@@cbphotovideotips Thank you Craig! I have a older EVH 5150iii 100w and i can only go to 100 mV at the test points is that normal? Thank you so much
@@01leftThat could be a sign that the tubes are starting to go.
The channel 2 voicing changed somewhere along the way. Anyway you could ask him when did that change happened?
I prefer the original. They turned the channel 2 to sound more like the channel 3.
Changes made were to Eddie's suggestions.
@@cbphotovideotips yes but do you know what year that happened?
@@TavaresProject Only Stealth has that, no changes on the regular model
What kind of mods does Howard to for the 5150?
You will have to check with him, his contact info is in the description.
Amp.needs a adjustable noise gate
The only time you hear that noise is when you are in between songs and only if your guitar is turned all the way down.
I'm sure the speakers don't blow often because most people play these amps with the master volume down.
I got the guitar it's bleach blue the Amp is next withe the head stock
But I have spider classic line 6 it puts the. SOUND out too sound n taste
Howard’s website and Facebook no longer exists and I’d really like to get In touch with him. Anyone know why he is off grid now?
I think he is working for someone now.
@@cbphotovideotips Do you know if his CH1/CH2 mod PCB is still available from Fender or anywhwere?
Interesting what he said at the very end, the Iconic first stage is solid state. Which we kinda already knew.
I am still waiting to see the inside of an Iconic head. I'm not a fan of "made in China".
Why are the new ones breaking down ?
It is hard to say whether the newer ones have a higher failure rate. You often only hear about problems on social media.
Tube shortages bring down tube quality that is why EVH is only producing 50% of there norm output. Tubes are the main reason I see people w/ problems. My 2014 is a tank.
Such bullshit that they chose G12-H30s over the EVH Celestions in the 212...the speakers are about the same damn price!
👍
❤
I'd love to get my 5153 head modded to have concentric pots but nobody seems to do it in the UK?
His website and Facebook pages are down… is he okay?
He’s fine. He’s working for a new company, and has closed Kaplan’s Amp repair permanently.
Think I’m owed some $$$ 😂😂
It would be awesome to interview you about your work on the first 100 watt head.
@@cbphotovideotips unfortunately I’m not the right Matt Wilkins lol
I’ve had mine for 2 years and just found out, because it’s 230v I’ve got to switch the cables inside the head 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
why did they put a shitty speaker in the iconic 15 watt 10 inch speaker , any sugestions as to what would be a good replacement, i wish i got the 40 watt 12 inch with 2 6l6