Guitar Gear Forum

I just found out our department is getting a bonus in our next check. I'm digging the above mentioned amp, but not sure if I should go with the EL34 or 6L6 version(50 watts) I'm in two cover bands at the moment. One is classic rock, and the other is hard rock, classic metal with some 90's AIC, Soundgarden etc mixed in.

I like the EL34 50w with the C137 mod for the blue channel. It's very easy to do and sounds great.
Other than that, I like the regular 6L6 version.
The Stealth, I like the 100w, but the 50w is not my favorite. I think the regular 6L6 50w sounds better.

The regular 50 watt is the best version. The stealth versions are more similar to each other, with the 6l6 sounding a bit messier maybe but not by much.

The el34 50 watt is Not a “stealth” model. Only the 6l6 50 watt “stealth” is stealth. Lol Somewhat ironically, the el34 50 watt combos are stealth modded. And of course the el34 100 is a stealth model

Stealth

LoLoL. I forgot the el34 50 is not actually a stealth. They made it confusing by making the el34 100 watt a stealth lol.

ninjaraf wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 1:09 pm LoLoL. I forgot the el34 50 is not actually a stealth. They made it confusing by making the el34 100 watt a stealth lol.

Even more so by making the el34 combos Stealth!!

The EL34 50 watt is perhaps the biggest “outlier” among all the amps. Basically cause that Blue channel is completely unique to all the others. It’s the only one that leans towards the original 5150 green/rhythm channel. I know the “c137” mod mitigates that, but to me it’s still different with the mod. It tightens it up which most would probably like a bit better than stock. But it’s still different to my ears. It’s the one channel of all the amps that if one simply prefers using a boost, it’s the channel that responds best to a boost cause it has that much bigger and rounder low end.

Endtime wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:46 pm
The EL34 50 watt is perhaps the biggest “outlier” among all the amps. Basically cause that Blue channel is completely unique to all the others. It’s the only one that leans towards the original 5150 green/rhythm channel. I know the “c137” mod mitigates that, but to me it’s still different with the mod. It tightens it up which most would probably like a bit better than stock. But it’s still different to my ears. It’s the one channel of all the amps that if one simply prefers using a boost, it’s the channel that responds best to a boost cause it has that much bigger and rounder low end.

Yep. I agree 100%.

i do like my c137 modded EL34 50w, with my 81 loaded guitars the blue is perfect without a boost, its super quiet and records awesome. the red is great too.

Honestly man, I would give the Kraken MKII a serious look as well. Our band does mostly 90's and 2000's rock covers with some 80's, some of the modern rock country stuff and some of the heavier 2000's bro metal stuff too and the Kraken has been the most impressive amp I've taken on stage for our music except for the Mark VII (which is ultimately what I ended up buying) but I'll be damned if I didn't seriously consider the Kraken if nothing else but to save a shit load of money.

I've gigged with both the Kraken MKII and Raf's 50w 5153 (non stealth) as well as the 100w original 5153 model and unless you're throwing down majority metal, I think that the Kraken gets the nod for more flexibility and a better overall structure for cleans, crunch and hard rock type sounds but still has a nice tight high gain structure for metal as well.

I just felt like it does all the non-metal stuff better than the EVH amps. The EVH's weren't bad at all. (very good actually) The blue channel is probably where you'll spend 99% of your time but the Kraken was a much more impressive amp when it came to everything but the tightest high gain stuff.

The crunch of the Kraken is FANTASTIC and a much fatter and sweeter of a sound than what you can get from the blue channel on the EVH or the green channel with the green channel cranked up.

Shameless channel plug for the Kraken but you can also find the review for the 100w, 50w and a comparison vid of the 50w vs 100w 5153's on my channel too.