EVH pickup rabbit hole

[BYTOR]

Yeah, I watched this yesterday. A little bit over the top & long, but still fun


I'm a sucker for all classic VH, plus Edward's playing & tone, so I watched all of it of course


Pete's a good guy, great player, and a self described Eddie fanboy. No complaints from me at all

 

[rm5153]

So that's the custom and not the custom custom .. custom custom SH-11 is missing bite for me. But i think it is a good point about bedroom volumes vs insane volumes..and plexis.

You are correct. I have a EVH custom and it sounds lush. I picked up a few Custom Custom SH-11 thinking they were the same but sadly they were not. DOH!!!! The Custom Customs still sound nice just not as lush as the EVH Custom that SD put out. I have EVH Fender pickups in most of my guitars as for my tastes they were pretty balanced.

 

[Samhain]

Custom. Pretty obvious when VH sends a ‘cease and desist’ to Seymour when he ran that ad.

Just like Marshall UK sent Friedman a cease & desist about "Marsha" amps.

 

[Nigel]

SD EVH “78 Model” review.

 

[PDC]

So, watched it all - enjoyed every minute. Could have been about 30 min with about 6-8 pickups, but I’m not complaining. FWIW - I tossed a SH-18 ‘Whole Lotta Humbucker’ in a hard ash Musikraft Franky body and thought it did a fantastic job of copping that early VH vibe. I also swapped a rough cast UOA5 mag in a Duncan ‘Custom’ wind pickup and it just sounds great in every guitar I’ve tried it in: swamp ash, hard ash, alder, Floyd, 6-screw Trem, the RCUOA5 ‘Custom’ just does not disappoint.

 

[Chubbs]

Call me crazy but I'd argue that using the correct pick, string gauge, and super light touch will get you way closer to the evh tone than any evh specific pickup will.

 

[Samhain]

SD EVH “78 Model” review.

SD sez in the video "pickup should really not be associated with any specific artist" yet the demo plays all Van Halen songs & licks LOL.

 

[paulyc]

I think the problem nowadays is with gear and technology that allows us to play quiet and since many of us are bedroom/basement rockers that play quiet most of the time and the 7-8k pickups just do not sound "hot" enough when playing quiet.

Except go read the Bandmaster thread where he’s playing in his bedroom whisper quiet...

 

[Nigel]

Call me crazy but I'd argue that using the correct pick, string gauge, and super light touch will get you way closer to the evh tone than any evh specific pickup will.

Pure nickel Fender 150’s or the like, and they have higher tension so a 42 is going to feel like a nickel plated 46. Big difference in the musicality of the highs. Smaller bass strings mean less bass flub too, really tightens things up and lets you dime the controls like on a ‘59 Bassman type circuit.

 

[Nigel]

Except go read the Bandmaster thread where he’s playing in his bedroom whisper quiet...

If you mod the Orange Terror amps with a 100 ohm cathode resistor and some 6n14n’s, run the bedroom switch at half power (.5W) and dime the eq, it gets a convincing and utterly infectious VH tone, combined with the 8 ohm jack into a 16 ohm Celestion. Might even add a resistor to a new switch to get the tubes even hotter at the lowered voltage.

 

[hammered]

Imho, as long as your amp can cover those territories, your cab has proper speakers and your playing is good, pickups are not that much relevant, more like details and nuances.

This

 

[matttornado]

Cool video for marketing pickups for sure!
For VH tones I just adjust my EQ pedal. Done. Doesn't matter what pickup I have as they all have enough output, especially for the older VH stuff done with his Plexi.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I gotta think even with the variac that EQ pedal is key to combat all that woofy bass being put out by everything on 10.

 

[SpiderWars]

I gotta think even with the variac that EQ pedal is key to combat all that woofy bass being put out by everything on 10.

It depends on the amp. I recently built a '69-ish Superlead and it sounds really good variac'd and everything dimed with no boost. It's not tight on the low E (neither was Eddie's early tone) but it's not a big fart either. And the amp comes across as bright instead of woofy/woolly. But yeah, the EQ just takes it to that next level.

I've noticed that if I have the Treble dimed I need to crank the Bass and if I have the Bass way up I need to crank the Treble. I can def see why Eddie may have liked that. As soon as I reduce any of the knobs it sounds like something is missing.

 

[Fiesta Red]

It's funny how a simple Duncan 59 at the end of the testing sounded so good. I love the 59.

 

[PDC]

It's funny how a simple Duncan 59 at the end of the testing sounded so good. I love the 59.

Yes. Cannot go wrong with the simple ‘59 or the ‘Whole Lotta Humbucker.’ If you are a trem guy, lower output pickups do sound better with traditional 6-screw trem bridges than 2-point floating trems. Get a mid heavy, not too compressed tone a-la boosted 4-hole or JCM and the rest is all pure physical ability: swing, feel, attack and phrasing have more to do with selling the early EVH ‘experience’ than all the gear in the world.

I will also say, the dudes who really pay attention and punch the phase and flange in for isolated fills always sound far more convincing than the folks who run the same effects through the whole darned riff. Style and attention to detail - not gear - sells the early EVH vibe.

 

[PurityS.L.G]

EVH has said it himself on the launch of his own EVH brand years ago. Tone is in the fingers.

 

[Nigel]

EVH has said it himself on the launch of his own EVH brand years ago. Tone is in the fingers.

The complexity of the chain is profound yet delivers such divine expression. Ed said on that video of him at Jason Becker’s that it just comes through him from God, basically. Chain serves the host.

 

[Philhouse]

An artists tone is mostly in the players fingers, but thats not to say gear is irrelevant.
VH1 and ADKOT don't sound the same, but the fingers are.

 

[changeofaseason]

Following the big EVH rabbit hole on metroamp about a decade ago, Super Distortion into a 4 gain stage (a la JCM 800) with 68 plexi filtering later come to be known as the Rockstah Mod 5 seemed to be it for me.

In Pete’s videos the SD also seemed to ring the bell for me. I’m sure there was a mix of a few pickups on albums, but the SD gets that iconic sound, for me. I bet there is 8k pickup (super 70?) in spots of cleaner sections/takes.

At some point you have to say you’re close enough and move on. The chase is still fun though.