# 5150 III Settings



## Blytheryn (Oct 1, 2017)

Hey guys, 

The 5150 III is a hard amp to get a bad tone out of, we all know that. But how do you set yours, and what kind of pickups and pedals do you have in your chain to get your tone? 


My blue channel (5150 IIIS) is set as follows:

Gain: 2:30
Low: a hair over noon
Mid: 12:30
High: a hair under noon.
Presence: 09:00
Resonance:10:30

Red channel:
Gain: 11:00
Low: 12:00
Mid: 2:30
High: 11:00
Presence: 11:00
Resonance: 2:30

I’ve got my Formula loaded with Black Winters, and those do a lot for my tone, so it makes me roll back on the gain and highs more than with other pickups, depending on the situation. I keep my mids past noon because COB is my favorite band and they use tons of mids.

Love the tones I get. Been on a Slayer kick recently and really loving the punchy tone of the blue channel.


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Oct 2, 2017)

I have a 5153 50w head and love it. Super brutal, decently versatile, and easy to tote around. It's not my main amp anymore and it honestly doesn't see a ton of use, but I don't think I'd ever get rid of it.

Blue/Green channel:
-Gain at 4
-Bass between 5 and 7 depending on the guitar/cab
-Mids usually at 4
-Treble at 6 or 7

Red channel:
-Gain at 4
-Bass, mid, and treble at 7

Master presence at 6 or 7, resonance at 3:00

Back when I was gigging/practicing with it, I was using a TC Electronic G Major in the loop for delay/reverb/eq as well as compensating for the volume jump between the blue and green channels.

I boost the front end with a Mesa Grid Slammer for heavy rhythm playing and a Duncan 805 for solos, and I have an Xotic SP Comp for cleans. My main 6 string has a Dominion bridge, main 7 has a ceramic Warpig, and the amp is going through a Mesa Stiletto 4x12.

I'm not sure how great the search function is since the site was updated, but try and track down the EVH owner's thread  you'll find lots of tips, settings, tube recommendations, and testimonies from others who love these amps.


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## takotakumi (Oct 3, 2017)

I used to pair my old EVH head with a Mesa 4x12 Rectifier and do this wierd trick I read somewhere about the high/presence:

Presence: Maxed out
Highs: Very low, around 8-9:00
Resonance: 3:00
Low: 1-2:00
Mids: 1:00

All of that boosted with a SD 805 or TS808 at the time

For some reason if you max out the presence, the contrasts in the highs sound less harsh, better, but still cut, weird to explain haha
I remember comparing that to my old setup which was highs at 11:00 and presence around noon, but that sounded better to me.


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## chopeth (Oct 10, 2017)

I use mine 50 watter with a GSP1011 through 4CM to control through midi the volume jump and add a noise gate a a bit of compression or delay here and there. I'm very happy with it, it really cuts and sadly it buries my bandmate's amp, a Powerball I 100w, but my drummer is such a beast I have to raise the volume to 2:00 o'clock to hear myself and every unwanted noise is magnified. I guess my guitar and pickups have something to do there too.

As I use it only for rehearsal purposes (I have an Ironball at home), I only use it with my RAN 7 loaded with ceramic Warpig and Coldsweat. The guitar is brutally trebblish so not even the Cpig is able to sound dark. My other guitars have Juggernauts, Black Winters or EMG 81, which I like the same except for the latter, my least favourite among them.

Green and Blue:
Gain: 11:30
Low: 1:00
Mid: 2:00
High: 12:30.
Presence: 9:00
Resonance: 3:00

Red channel:
Gain: 11:30
Low: 2:00
Mid: 2:30
High: 11:00
Presence: 9:00
Resonance: 3:00


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## Mwoit (Oct 10, 2017)

I don't use the blue or green channel unfortunately, grind only requires max distortion. Red channel, gain about 11, low about 2, mid about 11, high about 1. Presence and resonance at 12. 

I run an Unknown Pedal Decompose -> HM-2 (not on usually) -> MXR Noise Gate -> Boss Delay -> Whammy. Simple set up.


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