EVH Gear has turned its fire-breathing 5150III 6L6 guitar amp into an all-digital 50-watt modelling 1x12 combo that weighs 16kg lighter than its tube-driven sibling.
This is what EVH Gear calls the 5150III Hypersonic 6L6 1x12, and the Fender-owned brand will be hoping the Hypersonic’s super-lightweight digital versions of the O.G. tube amps will be a similar success to the Big F’s Tone Master series, which digitalised some of the most classic Fender amps in the catalogue.
EVH Gear promises the same dynamic range, the same chewy, hot gain, and the same saturation of the original 5150III 6L6. Tone-wise, they are “virtually indistinguishable”.
But there are some differences to the control setup. As before, we have the three channel format – Clean, Crunch and Lead – but the Hypersonic has concentric EQ controls for Clean and Crunch.
Each channel also has its own noise gate and trim control, which could be very helpful when running with super-high gain, high volume. And there is a heap of tone-shaping power, including global Resonance and Presence controls to respectively fine-tune the amplifier’s low-end and high-end response, plus reverb.
Perhaps we should have seen these coming when EVH Gear debuted the 1,000-watt Hypersonic FR-12 FRFR speaker in July for players using amp modellers. It was a sign of its digital transformation.
Here, the DSP architecture of the Hypersonic model allows EVH Gear to present players with six different power modes, one at full power, five attenuated and a mute switch for use on a silent stage or when using to record direct.
It has a balanced XLR output, plus onboard IRs, MIDI and USB-C inputs on the back of the amp. EVH Gear has also updated the five-button footswitch, making the reverb and effects loop switchable.
But if you were to look at it from a distance, it’s only the Hypersonic badge on the grille cloth that would let you tell the difference between the original tube and the new digital modelling amp.
We still have the chicken head knobs on the top-mounted control panel, the same closed-back design with a cabinet constructed of 11-ply 15mm ply, inside which you’ll find the same Celestion EVH G12H 30W Anniversary Series 12” speaker as found on the tube equivalent.
EVH Gear described that tube amp as “arena-sized sound” in a 1x12, as “a culmination of Eddie’s career-long chase for the holy grail of tone”...
Well, if the Hypersonic 5150III 6L6 sounds just the same, then that holy grail just got a lot easier to carry up the stairs, because this weighs just over 39lbs (17.75kg to be exact) – and it is available now, priced £1549/$1,699.
For more details, head over to EVH Gear.
