Opinions on Lemon EVH 5150 100 Watt Head

[Stellar Sepulchres]

Hello fellows, merry Christmas, happy holidays and all that. I wanted to get the forum's opinion on my gear woes. I have had this EVH head for a couple years that I bought new and it has been an utter head ache a couple of months after I bought it. The ongoing issue I have is that the second channel does not work. It produces sound but it doesn't respond to the gain knob hardly at all and the volume is way to low even when cranked. I should have made some reasonable demands of the seller but I never did and I think it would be unfair to contact him now. I have replaced the tubes relevant to the second channel and have taken it to a tech who was unqualified and took hundreds of dollars and only F*@#ed it up more. I did make demands on him regarding a reimbursement but he only offered "free" repairs until it was fixed to which he continued to wreck it further. I considered that it would cost me more to take him to court than to simply take it to a qualified tech. I found an actual fender/EVH tech who was an absolutely solid dude who actually got in contact with fender and replaced numerous things and did in fact fix the other disasters the previous "tech" created and did for a time fix the original second channel issue. I have during all of this bought a new amp and cab to tide me over (Peavey 6505 mh and 212) so I am not dependent on this amp. I have only today discovered the original issue has started again (months after getting it back from the actually qualified tech (and from just sitting there it independently developed the issue all over again)). I am done sinking money into this goddamn thing. I want to sell it and get it out of my face and I have put it at $1000 CAD and advertised the complete issue as I see it and said selling AS IS. Does this seem like a fair price for an otherwise functional amp? It's basically a two channel EVH being sold for less than a new two channel 6505 peavey...

 

[jarledge]

Well I think you probably have to write off the costs and time of repairs (or lack thereof). The right thing would be to fix it 100% then try and sell it. Selling it with a known issue is going to bring your sell price down considerably. It may be 300 to fix but you may only get 500 or 600 for it broken. I am not sure what the issue is. It seems like there should have been a warranty on it if you bought it new. If an unauthorized tech was in there ratf!king it, then you probably voided the warranty. You still may be able to just send it in to Fender and see if they can get it 100%. Either way, it is a tough call because of how much time and money it has already cost you. You'll take a loss no matter what, it just depends on how ready you are to be rid of the amp.

 

[Stellar Sepulchres]

Well I think you probably have to write off the costs and time of repairs (or lack thereof). The right thing would be to fix it 100% then try and sell it. Selling it with a known issue is going to bring your sell price down considerably. It may be 300 to fix but you may only get 500 or 600 for it broken. I am not sure what the issue is. It seems like there should have been a warranty on it if you bought it new. If an unauthorized tech was in there ratf!king it, then you probably voided the warranty. You still may be able to just send it in to Fender and see if they can get it 100%. Either way, it is a tough call because of how much time and money it has already cost you. You'll take a loss no matter what, it just depends on how ready you are to be rid of the amp.

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking that the more time I invest in this thing the more miserable I'm going to be. My options for ensuring that it is truly fixed seem to be exhausted right now (I live in the interior of BC with few music stores or technicians) and sending it to fender and back I can only imagine to be extremely expensive. I will probably just get whatever I can for it and be done with it. Definitely turned me of EVH for good I think though. The second tech I brought it to demonstrated how they designed the pots so that the would eventually get ripped apart if you tightened them against the plate (which wasn't even my issue) and my experience with the amp just breaking from sitting there. These amps seem to be under-built for something that costs $2300+ CAD new.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I think I could find a working 5153 head for 1k, so I don’t think that’s going to fly off at that price

Story sucks though
Since your CA, I’d ask Fortin or Peters

 

[Stellar Sepulchres]

I think I could find a working 5153 head for 1k, so I don’t think that’s going to fly off at that price

Story sucks though
Since your CA, I’d ask Fortin or Peters

I think you're right there unfortunately...I'm just going to offer it at whatever price someone will give me for it and be done with.

 

[KailM]

I think you're right there unfortunately...I'm just going to offer it at whatever price someone will give me for it and be done with.

I've been in your shoes with this type of situation -- it sucks! Sorry man! I think the main problem is you live in a location that is too isolated to have any real amp techs (I've been to Kamloops, nice town BTW -- but dang it's a long way from anything else). I live in a similarly isolated location, and have a 6505+ 112 that has been plagued by numerous problems. Nobody in my town could fix it, even after paying them to do so.

What it finally led me to do is research, research, and research how to diagnose and fix my amp -- which I finally did. It is now in 100% working order and sounds great, and cost me only time and a few dollars. I'm sure the right person could get your amp back to tip-top shape. But I understand the need to just wash your hands of it.