nitro":112ycoye said:
When Bob Bradshaw built Edwards first rack(large rack) which was in 86,Bob even said that Edwards plexi was modded by Jose Arrenedondo.Eds amp was modded by Jose toward the end of the 78 tour also Ed did use a overdrive-distortion unit during the recording of van halen 1 this came right from Jose arrendondo's mouth as he explained it to me,swear to God.Jose wasnt sure what type of Distortion unit Ed used.(jose just did not know).
I don't ascribe to the VH1 distortion pedal thing, but that's cool if you do; b/w the Urei LA-4, MXR 6 band, EP-3 with the built in compressor board and Phase 90, it's a cumulative effect that for all tense and purposes IS a distortion pedal. Like I said though; that's just me.
It's all pissing up a rope really to say what Ed did or didn't do, because it's just about what sounds good to you, and there's so many more options to choose from than there were back then. It really doesn't matter, unless you're a historian doing a documentary on Ed's gear. It's all just fun stuff to play with. To my knowledge Jose added a master volume, paralleled a 440uf cap over the .68uf/820 C/R at V2, changed the NFB loop to 100k/4ohms and did one other thing minor gain altering mod. What I hear from VH1 on is the V2 fat cap.
What I'm finding is that the raspiness of VH1 comes from the bass being dimed when there's no V2 fat cap...just an 820/.68uf. I think he addressed the "brightness" of VH1 with that 440uf cap that was installed at V2. That makes the amp sound more VH2 to me, and from what I hear, thickens it up enough, that you have to bring the bass down. That's when you loose some gain and assymetrical clipping that gave VH1 it's raspy, toothy edge and the sound get's smoother.
Here's strat78 over at the Metro Forum laying it down again.
https://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... i&newref=1
This is the VH1 raspiness you get with the bass dimed; when you parallel the fat cap at V2 with a big value like 440uf, you have to bring the bass down and you loose that assymetrical clipping and added gain. People think it comes from a distortion pedal, but it doesn't; it comes from diming the bass, and you have to have the right specs in order to be able to do that. There's nothing goosing the front end other than an EP-3 Echoplex. Add all of the gear and the Stuido magic from Templeman and Landee and IMHO, you've got VH1.
IMHO, Mark has a Mod that is almost "all inclusive"; plug in and play...done. I mean, maybe there is that last 5%, but could your average Joe really live with a dimed Plexi munching it's way through a $300 quad of Sylvania 6ca7s every month or so?
