My guess is: First two gain stages are tube, then it goes through some solid-state gain and EQ circuitry similar to some of the Amptweaker pedals Brown has designed, then the second preamp tube is the phase inverter and the power section is as you stated.
Makes so much sense. It's like running my Kemper Stage through my KSR PA50/ Mesa 2:90. Got it! I ordered mine already, so I'm crossing my fingers! Thanks for the episode!!!
Yep 3 days ago I told my luthier teacher that the two tubes were to just get that initial valve response to ensure that pick attack glassy sound comes through. I bet this amp will sound better than my 5150LBX with much less noise. Id sell my lbx and get this as I play in a large room with a band and a very crazy loud drummer
Yeah analog baby all the way. That makes way more sense to me, if he put his pedals in there and drove it with the pre amp and power amp...... , because i can crack on blackstar's hybrid all day even though it sounds great , it does not keep up and does not produce everything the player does when tons of speed is thrown at it , it skips out milliseconds of playing everywhere= mega latency problem. however their silverline behaves like it should similar to a line 6 medeler. and does not have the problem.
I’ll be keeping my original block letter 5150. Despite the Iconic name these amps may not be trying to recreate the original amp. I think they are just more affordable 5150III amps made in China. If Eddie was involved with these before his death then I’m sure they will sound good. He makes good stuff. I hope this series continues that legacy.
Even when Eddie was involved, the EVH 5150iii 100W that I have is really cheaply made on the inside. Sounds really great but poor build quality and these sell for like 1800$. That has me really worried about this one. Hope they were just smart and it's a great cheap design on the Iconic.
Also the cooler a tube runs the less head room . Allot of people think it's the other way around . Now in order to get power tubes to ad to the tone , you'd be cranking it .
Thanks for the video. I just picked one of these heads up last week. It sounds good but it's missing that heavy mid push that all of the others have. Other than that it's actually pretty nice.
I got a feeling this amp could be a nod to the plexi era tones, dont really need as many tubes for that :p and yes i intend to get one of these to run in stereo with my engl powerball :D
666th subscriber and happy with it. It's nice to see someone going into the technical details that I wonder about too with this particular launch so quickly after.
I think plate fed tone stack with tube phase inverter. Transistor based clipping in the front ala amptweaker circuit. If so, it should be a pretty quiet amp even at high gain settings.
Thank you finally someone who understands!!! Got my subscription just with in the 1st min alone!! I say the same thing all the time but all the "bigger" TH-cam stars *coughfluffcough* say something incorrect and everyone believes him.
PURE TUBE POWER Two JJ ECC83S (12AX7) preamp tubes erupt with mega overdriven tone when pushed to the max, while four JJ 6L6 power tubes up the ante with plenty of saturated, high-gain attitude synonymous with Van Halen evhgear.com/gear/amplifiers/head/5150-iconic-series-80w-head/2257400010
I think you’re pretty much right on with your speculation. Still though, it all seems rather “meh” and disappointing to me. But, I can’t wait to hear it.
With all the new digital tech and plug ins getting better as we go id say these bad ass amps might get cheaper just so they'll keep selling them. I love my EVH 50 watt 6l6 man. Hope tube amps do start getting cheaper but keep quality but thats me dreaming. There are so many young people that are waiting to rock the world and it would be nice if they could afford a bad ass EVH or a Mesa Boogie amp. Lol
@@RDamps well they did what Vox did with the AC10C1, they used high voltage mosfet transistor stages. Not a big deal. I personally think mosfets sound identical to Sovtek preamp tubes, especially in a hifi stereo. As long as there are a couple of tubes occupying the most important part of the preamp where the additional harmonics are made - I bet it will sound 95% as good as the original, probably quieter too. Most players and certainly all audiences won’t hear any difference
It’s James Brown's Tight Metal pedal infused with a noise gate and a 5150, to make a cost cutting budget friendly amp, that I speculate Ed would have never approved. Bluck. Will prob sound decent though.
I would agree, with you there. Although if Ed ever signed off on it, we will never know 🤷🏻♂️. We’re told it’s the last thing he signed off before his passing but I guess we will never know the truth of that. Thanks for watching the vid 👍
I'm looking forward to this amp...and I love fets if that's the case..J201 rocks in the brown sound style pedals ...idk if the same tech applies to amps or not....the more I listen to your analysis,the more right you sound about where this amps secrets lie.
6505MH has a Solid State phase inverter. 4 gain stages is a lot of distortion (ask Orange). A small JFET boost would be enough to make scream more than needed!
My money is on.. V1 and PI. JB has made lots of pedals under his company, AmpTweaker, so my bet is that it's modeling, but solid state. Could be digital too I suppose... But I guess solid state.
Digital actually is solid state too. Solid state just means using transistors and digital circuits have transistors, even in the silicon chips. The amp Tweaker pedals are analog and in a way those are are sort of solid state analog modeling of a tube amp. I think it’s very possible it uses the Amp Tweaker pedal circuits.
Two preamp tubes…. 🤔 kinda like some kind of hybrid Valvestate but with two preamp tubes instead of one and an all tube power amp section. It’s interesting but nothing will ever part me from my EVH EL34 head.
I'm sorry, "inspired by". Layout or circuit diagram. There's more than one one way to draw a schematic but the blocks are the same. The JTM45 was a clone of a Bassman. Do they sound the same? The preamp stage is so similar only adding 1 extra gain stage and moving the effects loop post master, plus the addition of a resonance circuit. (which was then added to the SLO) I would be curious to see if Ed's own SLO's had any deviations to the original SLO circuit.
I saw this and had to say James Brown is an Engineer not a tech, if you’re going to speculate an Engineer with JB’s credentials, you should have the credentials and experience at least
I think you missed the point of my video. I was not criticising JB as an engineer. I never claim to more than a tech. But I feel I have a lot more of an idea how amps actually work than a lot of the other TH-camrs loosing their shit because it “only has 2 pre amp tubes”. If JB is involved I’m sure it will sound great. EVH as a brand haven’t released a bad sounding amp yet. I don’t suppose that will change.
ehhh. calling a 5150 an SLO clone is just... ehhh... I mean it has a 39k resistor in it... I guess you can call that a clone LOL. You want an example of a bad SLO clone, look at the early Dual Rectifiers. Those are part for part identical in the preamp.
@@RDamps Ya that's pretty cool insight. I never knew why he didn't stick to the SLO. Though I thought the f.u.c.k. album tonally was pretty blah compared to his albums recorded with a plexi. It was just too scooped for my tastes.
At the end of the day I have only one question. Do I like how it sounds?
Yes! and that's all that matters. Love my Helix, love my Marshall Mosfet Lead 100
My guess is: First two gain stages are tube, then it goes through some solid-state gain and EQ circuitry similar to some of the Amptweaker pedals Brown has designed, then the second preamp tube is the phase inverter and the power section is as you stated.
Makes so much sense. It's like running my Kemper Stage through my KSR PA50/ Mesa 2:90. Got it! I ordered mine already, so I'm crossing my fingers! Thanks for the episode!!!
Yup, I was thinking the "burn" switch was a built-in tubescreamer circuit.
I own the original 5150 Peavey block letter amp and am looking forward to the new ones!!!
Regretfully sold mine years ago. Be awesome if this can come close
I too am looking forward to this release. EVH haven't put out a bad amp yet so I can see this one being any different tbh.
@@stevewhite8178 Oh man! Yeah i hope so too.
@@RDamps They make great stuff! Have played it all.
Yep 3 days ago I told my luthier teacher that the two tubes were to just get that initial valve response to ensure that pick attack glassy sound comes through. I bet this amp will sound better than my 5150LBX with much less noise. Id sell my lbx and get this as I play in a large room with a band and a very crazy loud drummer
I'm going to go on a limb and say JB threw an amptweaker circuit in there and it's all analog
I'm starting to think that also
for sure my guess too
Yeah analog baby all the way. That makes way more sense to me, if he put his pedals in there and drove it with the pre amp and power amp...... , because i can crack on blackstar's hybrid all day even though it sounds great , it does not keep up and does not produce everything the player does when tons of speed is thrown at it , it skips out milliseconds of playing everywhere= mega latency problem. however their silverline behaves like it should similar to a line 6 medeler. and does not have the problem.
I’ll be keeping my original block letter 5150. Despite the Iconic name these amps may not be trying to recreate the original amp. I think they are just more affordable 5150III amps made in China. If Eddie was involved with these before his death then I’m sure they will sound good. He makes good stuff. I hope this series continues that legacy.
Quite right. Just checked out your channel. Love it. You have a new subscriber
Even when Eddie was involved, the EVH 5150iii 100W that I have is really cheaply made on the inside. Sounds really great but poor build quality and these sell for like 1800$. That has me really worried about this one. Hope they were just smart and it's a great cheap design on the Iconic.
Of course he was involved,he approved it,this isn’t a cash grab because he died this has been in the works
@@tommilitello198 was gonna comment this same thing, they've been designing this amp since before his death
AWESOME yes fits nicely into Fenders future stategy.. Im betting on your therory brilliant video!
Brilliant thank you
Checked out your channel, love it
@@RDamps cheers buddy appreciate your kind words
Agreed. They meshed the two and will probably rock better than expected 👍
Also the cooler a tube runs the less head room . Allot of people think it's the other way around . Now in order to get power tubes to ad to the tone , you'd be cranking it .
I do love it when I find new guitar channels!.
Subbed!...
Thank you 😊
@@RDamps Thankyou! ;)
Thanks for the video. I just picked one of these heads up last week. It sounds good but it's missing that heavy mid push that all of the others have. Other than that it's actually pretty nice.
It’s going to be epic. Can’t wait
I use a Helix with my DT 50 Bogner/Line6 designed Head. Do you think this is similar to this design? Kind of sounds like the same type of technology
That's kind of the idea I had but I'm leaning more towards the hybrid Solidstate/Valve thing.
Kyle Bull had some info that the phase inverter would be solid state.
Yes I saw that. Similar to the Blackstar Club series
I got a feeling this amp could be a nod to the plexi era tones, dont really need as many tubes for that :p and yes i intend to get one of these to run in stereo with my engl powerball :D
That would be cool, but that power section doesn’t scream Plexi to me.
@@RDamps it's James brown that designed it we have to wait and see. 6l6 Vs el34 there's not THAT much difference :)
This will have way more gain.
666th subscriber and happy with it. It's nice to see someone going into the technical details that I wonder about too with this particular launch so quickly after.
Thank you Bill!! It’s a special number that holds a dear place in my cold black heart ! 😉
I was thinking the same thing only digital didn't come to mind. I figured it would be solid state pre with the tube used for tone shaping/buffering.
I think plate fed tone stack with tube phase inverter. Transistor based clipping in the front ala amptweaker circuit. If so, it should be a pretty quiet amp even at high gain settings.
Yes I’m starting to think this is the most likely way it’s going to be.
HOLY SHIT WHAT AN EDUCATION! BEST VIDEO EVER.
what im thinking is that it could be some JCM900 kinda thing, hybrid preamp with a tube power section
Thank you finally someone who understands!!! Got my subscription just with in the 1st min alone!! I say the same thing all the time but all the "bigger" TH-cam stars *coughfluffcough* say something incorrect and everyone believes him.
Thanks for the kind words!
the actual fender release says all tube preamp nothing about digital
Not on EVH’s blurb. There’s no way it’s “all tube” signal
PURE TUBE POWER
Two JJ ECC83S (12AX7) preamp tubes erupt with mega overdriven tone when pushed to the max, while four JJ 6L6 power tubes up the ante with plenty of saturated, high-gain attitude synonymous with Van Halen
evhgear.com/gear/amplifiers/head/5150-iconic-series-80w-head/2257400010
If I were to guess it's using mosfets something like James Browns AmpTweaker metal pedal
@@ViciousAudioTX , definitely. That’s some clever marketing speak there: “Pure Tube Power”. Yep we can see the power section is “all tube”.
@@ViciousAudioTX Those pedals sound great, throw some tubes in the mix....boom
I think you’re pretty much right on with your speculation. Still though, it all seems rather “meh” and disappointing to me. But, I can’t wait to hear it.
With all the new digital tech and plug ins getting better as we go id say these bad ass amps might get cheaper just so they'll keep selling them. I love my EVH 50 watt 6l6 man. Hope tube amps do start getting cheaper but keep quality but thats me dreaming. There are so many young people that are waiting to rock the world and it would be nice if they could afford a bad ass EVH or a Mesa Boogie amp. Lol
I’m just wondering if this is going to be a hot rodded Marshall styled amp, which is why it’s called the Iconic. It’s Eddies classic tone.
That would be cool too!
When will we hear one?
October-November is the release date. I’m guessing some of the bigger TH-cam celebrities will get some early ones though
Hi :-)
Pete Browns company amptweaker made nice higain solid state pedals didnt you think that is what drive the new 5150 iconic?!
It certainly is looking like that will be what’s happening
Do we know for a fact there are only two 12ax7 tubes? In the original 5150, they hid five preamp tubes inside the chassis out of view
Thats what it says on the official release. 2x 12AX7's and 4x 6L6's
@@RDamps well they did what Vox did with the AC10C1, they used high voltage mosfet transistor stages. Not a big deal. I personally think mosfets sound identical to Sovtek preamp tubes, especially in a hifi stereo. As long as there are a couple of tubes occupying the most important part of the preamp where the additional harmonics are made - I bet it will sound 95% as good as the original, probably quieter too. Most players and certainly all audiences won’t hear any difference
It’s James Brown's Tight Metal pedal infused with a noise gate and a 5150, to make a cost cutting budget friendly amp, that I speculate Ed would have never approved. Bluck. Will prob sound decent though.
I would agree, with you there. Although if Ed ever signed off on it, we will never know 🤷🏻♂️. We’re told it’s the last thing he signed off before his passing but I guess we will never know the truth of that. Thanks for watching the vid 👍
I'm looking forward to this amp...and I love fets if that's the case..J201 rocks in the brown sound style pedals ...idk if the same tech applies to amps or not....the more I listen to your analysis,the more right you sound about where this amps secrets lie.
6505MH has a Solid State phase inverter. 4 gain stages is a lot of distortion (ask Orange). A small JFET boost would be enough to make scream more than needed!
If you take away the cathode follower and FX loop, an SLO-100 lead channel is left with only 4 gain stages anyway, isn’t it?
Solid state analog or digital? I'm NOT an amp tech..
Good one! I didn't consider modeling, that's a pretty good bet.
Marshall dipped their toes into hybrid modeling with the JMD series. I didn’t get the impression that those were very popular.
They sounded bloody awful to be honest
@@RDamps I never had the pleasure of playing one. One day maybe.
According to wiki: Original 5150/6505 - (5) 12AX7 preamp, (4) 6L6GC power. Mark II/6505+ uses an extra preamp (6) 12AX7 for more headroom.
Thank you 👍
I bet it's just as you describe it, but something like the tight metal Jr pedal in that distorted stage as others have said. But it could be digital.
yeah I think you're right. It would be a logical step
My money is on.. V1 and PI. JB has made lots of pedals under his company, AmpTweaker, so my bet is that it's modeling, but solid state.
Could be digital too I suppose... But I guess solid state.
Digital actually is solid state too. Solid state just means using transistors and digital circuits have transistors, even in the silicon chips. The amp Tweaker pedals are analog and in a way those are are sort of solid state analog modeling of a tube amp. I think it’s very possible it uses the Amp Tweaker pedal circuits.
I’m pretty convinced on the “amp Tweaker” hybrid preamp thing. Digital reverb for sure
Input stage of preamp and the rectifier are ss
Agree
Two preamp tubes…. 🤔 kinda like some kind of hybrid Valvestate but with two preamp tubes instead of one and an all tube power amp section. It’s interesting but nothing will ever part me from my EVH EL34 head.
Love the EL34 EVH’s. Do you have the 50 or 100 watt?
You'll never know unless you've cracked one open.
I would very much like to!!
Dirt cheap amp made in Asia for pennies on the dollar. Not only is Wolfgang a great musician but a shrewd businessman to boot.
He's a smart lad!
No Amp will ever outshine the Peavey EVH 5150!
Funny he says the original was a clone of the soldano. I don’t think it sounds anything like that amp. Layout is much different too.
I'm sorry, "inspired by". Layout or circuit diagram. There's more than one one way to draw a schematic but the blocks are the same. The JTM45 was a clone of a Bassman. Do they sound the same? The preamp stage is so similar only adding 1 extra gain stage and moving the effects loop post master, plus the addition of a resonance circuit. (which was then added to the SLO) I would be curious to see if Ed's own SLO's had any deviations to the original SLO circuit.
I saw this and had to say James Brown is an Engineer not a tech, if you’re going to speculate an Engineer with JB’s credentials, you should have the credentials and experience at least
I think you missed the point of my video. I was not criticising JB as an engineer. I never claim to more than a tech. But I feel I have a lot more of an idea how amps actually work than a lot of the other TH-camrs loosing their shit because it “only has 2 pre amp tubes”. If JB is involved I’m sure it will sound great. EVH as a brand haven’t released a bad sounding amp yet. I don’t suppose that will change.
ehhh. calling a 5150 an SLO clone is just... ehhh... I mean it has a 39k resistor in it... I guess you can call that a clone LOL. You want an example of a bad SLO clone, look at the early Dual Rectifiers. Those are part for part identical in the preamp.
Alright… Heavily inspired by an SLO. But I stand by it was made so he had a mass produced amplifier to facilitate touring.
@@RDamps Ya that's pretty cool insight. I never knew why he didn't stick to the SLO. Though I thought the f.u.c.k. album tonally was pretty blah compared to his albums recorded with a plexi. It was just too scooped for my tastes.
I love them both. But I love amps.🤷🏻♂️
Have you ever thought about making your own amp to your specs someday? A real amp not a plug-in
I kind of did, with my JTM50 clone.
Disagree. The SLO had a lot less gain than then 5150 and no clean channel worth a shit like the SLO did
As someone who hated eddie , I’m more than happy to see wolfie make food money off his dads grave
That's a weird comment
how can you hate someone that you never knew?