Evh 5153 ch 3 to plexi possible?

[Tahoebrian5]

Hi, I've got a 5153 and to me ch3 is not usable. I'm wondering if it is possible to get anywhere close to a moded plexi sound given the way the power section is set up. I could mod the preamp pretty easily to plexi values and bypass some gain stages but not sure how effective this would be. Channel 2 sounds really good so thinking try to keep mods to ch3. It's funny that these things are so different from the early EVH setup.

[Tahoebrian5]

I ended up going a different direction so please disregard. I've moded it closer to the SLO lead channel. It's getting close but the mids sound off so still have some experimenting to do

[dirtycooter]

I wouldn't say channel 3 is unusuable-you just ain't figured out how to
use it yet
As I understand it on Unlawful and Balance Ed was using pre sections and marshall power sections according to Suhr-I think I seen that over at hugeracks inc. Just fyi depending on what your shooting for you might wanna keep that in mind.

[Tahoebrian5]

I suppose unusable was a poor choice of words.. Maybe I should have just said I don't care for it. It's a shame because ch2 is sweet. My first thought was to switch ch3 to a plexi type clean channel by removing 3 gain stages. Then use ch1 as a boost/lead to ch2. I decided ch3 was closer to the slo so have removed 2 stages and swapped components to match the slo. I didn't really work out as planned. I had to cut the coupling caps down to much smaller values. So it's sounding pretty good now but it's definitely not a slo. Still have some experimenting to do, tone stack is next. The mids don't sound quite right yet.

[MrBeasty]

Curious to know how this working out ... 'cause I am not a fan of Channel 3 either.

[MrBeasty]

FWIW - I just found out that Voodoo Amps offers a couple mods for the 5150iii-50

[*]They revoice the channels a little
[*]They replace the gain and volume pot on Channels 1 & 2 with concentric pots, essentially separating the two channels and allowing an infinity of volume/gain settings between the two channels. They still share the EQ section but that is already something.

This second mod is actually pretty simple. A pair of of concentric pots (variable resistors) will cost you $20 and then it is just a matter of having the right values and know which resistors to replace on the board. If you know what you are doing, it might take you 30 minutes.

http://voodooamps.com/home/Modification ... fault.aspx

[dirtycooter]

You know
If you wanna try something before gettin on to deep surgery you should really try a SD59 into that channel.
1 it drives the channel so much less
2 its way more articulate and tight
3 the mids are different and gets away from honk city so much as the 59 is kinda scooped.
I really like it this way and skipped using channel 2. You can have clean and scream just using 1+3. 3 even cleans up decent with rolling down the volume knob too here.
Its like driving channel 3 less or channel 2 a little more to arrive at what you are after.
Just an avenue to explore

[EJSLPlexi]

I love channel 3 for leads

[dirtycooter]

Channel 3 is fine for me and its more channel 2 that needs some balls for my tastes. It just comes in just under where I like it but I still use it. Fine with hot pickups though but then channel 3 can get hard to manage then. I find this amp (the original 100w 5153) just does an awesome job of van Hagar era when you got all the stuff and fx. I love it. It's tough and makes you work hard in other applications without the pitch business though. I await the retro version Ed has mentioned coming up. I have a feeling it's gonna be a bad mofo.

[hammered]

I love channel 3 for leads

I`ve got the 50 watter like yourself and at first I thought I`m never gonna use channel 3 but after messing with the settings I`ve got the gain backed off alot and that really helped and it`s still really gainy but much more usable and with much less hiss