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As with all new products associated with Edward Van Halen, this amp made a big splash when it launched at the NAMM trade show in 2007. Like Van Halen's replica Frankenstein guitar, the amp was put together by Fender but appears under Edward's own EVH brand.

In fact the amp was designed at Fender's Scottsdale, Arizona, HQ and built at the facility in Ensenada, Mexico. But it has been produced to Van Halen's exact specifications and requirements: no small recommendation.

Although two previous incarnations of the amp were released by Peavey (along, of course, with the Wolfgang guitar) it's actually Edward Van Halen himself who controls the 5150 name. And this is no reissue under a different brand - there are several features that are all new.

The amp features a full octet of 12AX7 preamp valves alongside a quartet of 6L6 power valves and produces 100 (rather than 120) watts of output - the three channels each have their own presence control. Such things as both top and side-mounted handles can make all the difference when lugging the amp in and out of venues, and the slightly oversized associated 4 x 12 cab is loaded with four Celestion G12EVH speakers, designed from the ground up in the UK.

Sounds
Initially opting for a quick switch around the channels immediately shows that the three on offer can give very different styles and intensities of tone. We'd hesitate to call channel one 'the clean channel', but it's here that the best non-overdrive tones are found: channels two and three have little or nothing in the way of clean tones.

To be honest, it's an unremarkable clean tone in that it lacks the sparkle, open-back presence and 'roominess' of a quality 2 x 12 combo, for example. Also, while there's a lot of volume on tap, there's also a lack of clean headroom once you hook up to the 100-watt cab: these aren't super loud, clean sounding speakers, designed instead to give their own break-up and colouration to the tone. That might prove to be restricting for certain uses but, let's be honest, if you want an amp primarily for clean tones you're reading the wrong review.
Flicking to channel two and turning both gain and volume controls all the way up, you have a tone that's full of drive and body aplenty. The provision of independent presence controls for each channel comes into its own here, because different gain settings require different presence settings, such is the interactive relationship between the gain, treble and presence pots. Being able to cut treble and boost presence, or vice versa, is a quick route to fine-tuning your tone without any compromise between channels.

Back off the gain to around four and reset the EQ and the tone cleans up enough to be almost Fender-y in nature - albeit akin to a Blackface fit to burst. The amp is very responsive to manipulation of your guitar's volume too, so make sure you ride that volume pot to get the widest tonal and dynamic range from the amp.