EVH Balance tone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SkyhighRocks
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MYLILSS":2aufunej said:
quinnethan":2aufunej said:
Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do) was my favorite on that album. Love the tone on the opening riff.
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that is a killer song as well .... for as simple as that opening riff is, the tone makes it a totally badass riff ... :rock:

i need to go dig out this album, all this talk about it has me in the mood to listen to it
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Sometimes the simple is better. The tone definitely makes that riff.
 
Digital Jams":3e245vw7 said:
sah5150":3e245vw7 said:
That sound is all Eventide H3000 micropitchshifting and lots of gain in a W/D/W setup. +9/-9 cents micropitchsift left and right, 500 ms delay R, 250 ms delay L. If you do this and set the amp right, it IS the Balance tone. Axe does it fine with that pitchshifting...

Steve
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Isn't this just a fancy way of saying he used chorus? :D
 
nevusofota":24lh26y4 said:
Digital Jams":24lh26y4 said:
sah5150":24lh26y4 said:
That sound is all Eventide H3000 micropitchshifting and lots of gain in a W/D/W setup. +9/-9 cents micropitchsift left and right, 500 ms delay R, 250 ms delay L. If you do this and set the amp right, it IS the Balance tone. Axe does it fine with that pitchshifting...

Steve
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Isn't this just a fancy way of saying he used chorus? :D
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I'm curious...what's the difference between micropitchshift and chorus? Or is it the same thing?
 
I know this thread is old, but I also know there will be guitarists for years to come searching for the EVH Balance tone so I thought I would post how I get mine-

-Evh 5150- 6L6 version 50w or 100w
-Stereo power amp- I use Seymour Duncan or vht
-green back loaded 212 or 412 for dry center cab
-green back or v30 loaded 212 or 412 for L/R wet cabs
Run guitar direct into head. Take either pre out or effects send into eventide pitch factor then a stereo delay. Set the pitch factor on micropitch, then -8/+8. Run left and right outputs into stereo delay- set delay at 250/500 stereo delay or u can use dual mono at 1/8 note delay (depends on song). Out of delay run into left and right input of stereo power amp. Power your left and right wet speakers with the stereo power amp speaker outputs. Power your center dry cab with 5150 head speaker out. Set volume on power amp then the master vol on head will increase and decrease wet speaker volume along with dry cab. Guitars I use- EBMM evh or axis and peavey Wolfgang USA models - I mostly play the rhythms sections with blue channel of 5150 amp and footswitch to red channel for leads- here are those settings-
Blue channel- gain- 1 o’clock, low 1-130, mid 9-930, high noon, presence 1, resonance 1-3
Red channel- gain 11, low 1-1:30, mid 9-10:30, high 11:30-12, presence 1-130, resonance 1-3-
You can lower your gain even more on the amp if you use a slight boost on your guitar input going into head but add a noise gate- works great for balance tone
 
The OP was a good Rig Talker. Havent seen him in a while. I hope he is well
 
Interesting that many years ago the OP felt the early albums had razor blade like tones . Listen to that intro on Don’t Tell Me it literally sounds like Ed is scraping the strings with a razor blade LOL. Balance did have some great tones and songs
 
Balance is my fav Eddie tone. MUCH prefer it to his earlier tone (which hurt my ears). Don’t Tell Me intro riff is my ring tone
 
Mr. Willy said:
I'm curious...what's the difference between micropitchshift and chorus? Or is it the same thing?
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Chorus is a form of very short delay that dynamically speeds up and down depending how fast the rate is set; this is the Doppler effect, similar to a train horn where the sound wave decreases in pitch the farther away it gets or increases the closer it gets. A Chorus pedal blends the two (or three) signals together with the base signal.

Micropitch, detune etc I've always thought of as a "dry chorus" or "static chorus" -- the second (or third) signals are pitch-altered at a set tuning (i.e. +9 cents / -9 cents) from the base signal and do not change. Hence, no oscillation or swirly effect.

Short story long, pretty much the same effect, but chorus oscillates dynamically based on the rate (hence the wet underwater swirly effect) and detune sounds almost dry, but with two or three guitars playing the same notes but barely out of tune, giving it a fatter sound.
 
Rev said:
Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do) was my favorite on that album. Love the tone on the opening riff.
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And the outro

I always assumed that intro was organ based - like on And the Cradle Will Rock
 
messenger said:
Balance is my fav Eddie tone. MUCH prefer it to his earlier tone (which hurt my ears). Don’t Tell Me intro riff is my ring tone
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I think don’t tell me and humans being are his most slamming tones . My favs
 
Balance sounded great overall, but I would've liked it better if the pitch shifting was blended in a bit less. The EVH tone I like best on that record is on Take Me Back (Deja Vu). If you listen to the chorus part of that song, the guitar tone is more raw and aggressive. It would have been cool if EVH had used more of that tone on Balance.
 
littleguitars said:
Balance sounded great overall, but I would've liked it better if the pitch shifting was blended in a bit less. The EVH tone I like best on that record is on Take Me Back (Deja Vu). If you listen to the chorus part of that song, the guitar tone is more raw and aggressive. It would have been cool if EVH had used more of that tone on Balance.
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I think I can agree with that. I love the Balance album. Sits probably right behind 5150 for me from the Sammy era. I would guess it was in Ed's mind, the top of his game tone wise.

For me though Fair Warning and 1984 had the best guitar tone for ME. Fair Warning in particular really connected with me as a very young man and I appreciate the more stripped down approach back then.
 
311splawndude said:
I think I can agree with that. I love the Balance album. Sits probably right behind 5150 for me from the Sammy era. I would guess it was in Ed's mind, the top of his game tone wise.

For me though Fair Warning and 1984 had the best guitar tone for ME. Fair Warning in particular really connected with me as a very young man and I appreciate the more stripped down approach back then.
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You can’t forget that Bruce Fairborn got monster tones . The tones on AC/DC Razor edge was great . And he got them to use Mesa for once
 
I remember when that came out I went from a huge Van Hagar fan to not caring much. Music was changing so much then. I was clueless about tone as well. @marvcus I will have to listen to the left and right for the wet dry thing which I am clueless about

What is the purpose of wet dry -very wet on one side and keep more articulation on the other, or?
 
VH I and Fair Warning = Best Van Halen guitar tones.
 
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