Mike Soldano talks about EVH's Marshall

[Rocksoff]

And please stop refering to Sunset Sound's echo chember, it's an EMT Plate reverb... he bought one for 5150 when he built it, in fact he bought ALL the same studio gear they had at Sunset trying to duplicate the sound of VH1, even HE can't/couldn't do it...

It's the echo chamber at Sunset Sound Studio 1.

Studio 1 has an associated echo chamber and Studio 1 was where VH1 was done http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun13/a ... e-0613.htm

I think VHII was done in Studio 2 and might have had plate.

http://www.vhnd.com/2013/12/13/former-v ... van-halen/

"To compensate for the band’s one-guitar approach, Landee placed Edward’s guitar track slightly off-center in the mix, with a splash of delayed echo from Sunset Sound’s extraordinary live chamber filling up the opposite channel. “It made sense, because we didn’t want to overdub guitars,” says Landee. “If you put the guitar right down the middle with everything else, you’d wind up with the whole band in mono! So it seemed like a reasonable idea.”

 

[charvelstrat81]

The Ibanez Destroyer with a 13k Mighty Mite (Super Distortion clone) for VHII.

It's right up near the strings.

Right and many including myself believe a duncan custom was in the strat for VH I
that is it the "rewound PAF" he was talking.
I remember many saying the destroyer had it's stock super 70's but i dont think so.
the strat and destroyer sound very similar on VH I,so much so many did not even know that two guitars
were on it and used for different tunes.

 

[Iskra68]

I had a '79 Super Bass converted to 12000 spec (Ed spec) at 90 volts on the Variac with NOS 6CA7s in it and didn't get anywhere near it...I fooled with cathode resistors too...couldn't get there...this was through greenbacks, Alnico Blues, V30s, and a mix of greenbacks/ JBLs...I've tried different pickups, bridges, volume pot values (in the guitar), OD/boost pedals...no dice.

Your right, the discussion on Ed's 12 series ended a couple years ago if you were paying attention over at Metro, we got that part of the equation. Ron's clips show this plainly and the Letterman vid tone if you will etc.... You should have left your bass head alone, or at most converted it to a 69 1959 lead. Then build yourself a nice squishy 12xxx. Rasp and squish, not distortion. You put the rest together

 

[paulyc]

The Letterman vid clips sound like it's being attenuated to shit...I think those sound awful. As for Ron's clips, as I said earlier, I think they sound great...for 1984, and do not sound like VHI TO ME at all...

 

[Rdodson]

Oh, just one more thing...that Unchained clip was done with my old Frankenstein replica I built in '89 and has a Gibson '57 Classic + in it at 8.7dc resistance. No crazy output pickup...just a good ol' spanky PAF.

So you are saying he did not go to the 14K frankenstein style pu that they sell out of the replica's?
why are they selling that pu as the one that is in the frankenstein in the later years(fair warning,1984)?

I think the higher output pickup came later after Anderson relocated the Floyd so the guitar would intimate properly. Suddenly the '61 PAF was too weak and trebly because it was closer to the bridge.

So no 13K ceramic on VH I in your opinion?
Seems to be split down the middle 50% think it is a ceramic and 50% say rewound PAF like the duncan 78?
Your 68 spec' 12XXX sounded really nice, that was just the head? no outboard gear like a ep3?

I think the Charvel strat might be a ceramic on VH1, and the Ibanez shark was an A8 (Super 70). Then he went back to the PAF.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Any chance the VHI tone is the result of a damaged or almost damaged speaker?

 

[Rocksoff]

Any chance the VHI tone is the result of a damaged or almost damaged speaker?

Here is a boot from around the VH1 time and the studio doesn't enter into it, so studio whatever is eliminated.

http://www.themightyvanhalen.net/1977/1 ... -mountain/

It's an ok quality boot, and I don't know what others will make of it but it basically sounds like a hotter ceramic pickup slamming into a non master Marshall to me and it's a biting tone with Strat overtones (Strat bridge, springs etc) and sustain for days and there is no real warmth about it and EVH is loud even with the variac, so this isn't a tone that someone is going to stumble on in their bedroom.

The Echoplex is all over it and also the Phase for solos and they alter a lot of things, tone wise.

A PAF with a A2 or a EVH78 is not what I hear and some might say that they are used with an EQ boost, well ok, but I just think it's a hotter ceramic sort of deal myself.

 

[JB6464]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

 

[Rocksoff]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

How do all of the other bands do it on Letterman?

I doubt that Slash and the band are quiet.

It is a theatre space in the Sullivan studio and I know EVH is in the older Dave studio but Dave still had loud acts on in that studio and just the horn section of Paul's band is loud.

I don't have any issue with EVH slaving on Dave's show (EVH was probably doing live slaving after hooking up with Bob Bradshaw) but plenty of loud acts were not slaving anything.

Dave is right next to Slash's band.

 

[JB6464]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

I don't have any issue with EVH slaving on Dave's show (EVH was probably doing live slaving after hooking up with Bob Bradshaw) but plenty of loud acts were not slaving anything.

I actually like the slaving tones EVH gets on the LWAN live tour video.

 

[CP5150]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

How do all of the other bands do it on Letterman?

I doubt that Slash and the band are quiet.

It is a theatre space in the Sullivan studio and I know EVH is in the older Dave studio but Dave still had loud acts on in that studio and just the horn section of Paul's band is loud.

I don't have any issue with EVH slaving on Dave's show (EVH was probably doing live slaving after hooking up with Bob Bradshaw) but plenty of loud acts were not slaving anything.

Dave is right next to Slash's band.

Ed was using the H&H power amps. So the amp is dimed and the power amp controls the amount of volume.

 

[Philo Beddoe]

Huge sounding..

 

[paulyc]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

How do all of the other bands do it on Letterman?

I doubt that Slash and the band are quiet.

It is a theatre space in the Sullivan studio and I know EVH is in the older Dave studio but Dave still had loud acts on in that studio and just the horn section of Paul's band is loud.

I don't have any issue with EVH slaving on Dave's show (EVH was probably doing live slaving after hooking up with Bob Bradshaw) but plenty of loud acts were not slaving anything.

Dave is right next to Slash's band.

Ed was using the H&H power amps. So the amp is dimed and the power amp controls the amount of volume.

I doubt he halled that much shit to NY with him for one appearance , it's a Marshall into some kind of attenuator, maybe a Power Soak or something similar...and it sounds like a Marshall with more gain to me, from exactly what I don't know, but it ain't from a high output pickup or an Echoplex...or an MXR Micro Amp for that matter...I'm guessing amp mods.

 

[JB6464]

And you think they (the television people) let him dime that amp ? No way in hell...

Yes if it's loaded down , then re-amped back at a lower volume -
My guess is that is what's happening on that small stage.
His tone in that clip does not sound like a pedal in front of a amp to me , it sounds like a dimmed NMV plexi amp .

How do all of the other bands do it on Letterman?

it is a theatre space in the Sullivan studio and I know EVH is in the older Dave studio but Dave still had loud acts on in that studio and just the horn section of Paul's band is loud.

I don't have any issue with EVH slaving on Dave's show (EVH was probably doing live slaving after hooking up with Bob Bradshaw) but plenty of loud acts were not slaving anything.

Ed was using the H&H power amps. So the amp is dimed and the power amp controls the amount of volume.

I doubt he halled that much shit to NY with him for one appearance , it's a Marshall into some kind of attenuator, maybe a Power Soak or something similar...and it sounds like a Marshall with more gain to me, from exactly what I don't know, but it ain't from a high output pickup or an Echoplex...or an MXR Micro Amp for that matter...I'm guessing amp mods.

If he was using a attenuator , where is it ? Why would he hide it for a quick guest appearance ?
I doubt he ever used an actual attenuator , he was known for having a custom made loadbox for re-amping in mid 80's .
He doesn't need a multiple rack setup full of shit for a guest spot on TV .
A simple variac , Loadbox and small power amp can easily sit behind the cabinet out of site and get the job done .

 

[paulyc]

Because it's a known fact that Eddie didn't like Tom Scholz after VH opened for Boston on some dates ? What small power amps were available back in that time ? You're talking Carver and H&H and some other big PA type amps, so where's the load box and power amp ? Why would he hide those behind the cab ?

 

[JB6464]

Because it's a known fact that Eddie didn't like Tom Scholz after VH opened for Boston on some dates ? What small power amps were available back in that time ? You're talking Carver and H&H and some other big PA type amps, so where's the load box and power amp ? Why would he hide those behind the cab ?

You could get two space SS power amps all day long in the 80's from Carvin to whatever , and his loadbox was a simple unit as well.
We are talking a quick guest spot with other pro players who already has plenty of equipment setup and ready for use.
Then all he would have to do is bring his variac if one was'nt available and his amp .
Bam , easy quick setup and have his signature brown sound too.

 

[Rocksoff]

EVH said he stumbled onto the variac thing by accidentally buying a Euro Marshall (220v) and plugging it into the 110v wall socket US voltage.

The clip below gives a demo of a variac used with a Euro voltage amp and he goes from 230v down to 200v and then down to 180v and then down to 150v, and the 150v variac setting is getting down near where EVH's Euro voltage Marshall would have been (110v) and compare the volume drop from the 230v variac setting to the 150 volt variac setting (a voltage drop of 80 volts), the volume drops quite a bit, so that's what EVH used to do.

EVH dropped the voltage down (on a US Marshall) according to the venue and sometimes it would be down to 90v but he could drop it down further, like down to 70v and maybe less.

So EVH had all knobs dimed on the amp and the variac was used as a sort of master volume.

EVH didn't slave anything in the early days and he didn't need to because he had his variac, and it wasn't until around the mid 80s that EVH hooked up with Bob Bradshaw (via Steve Lukather) that he went to slaving for live shows (not the studio), because it had advantages for live shows.

There isn't a huge tone or gain difference at different variac voltages (some tone and gain differences) but the volume can be reduced quite a bit the more the variac voltage is reduced.

--------------------------------------------

ESQ: You used a light dimmer on what?

EVH: I bought an English version, I had my 100-volt Marshall. I bought one through the recycling or the newspaper that was from England, and it was set on 220 volts. I didn't know. So I plugged the thing in, but I'm going, "Fucking thing doesn't work. I got ripped off." I just let it sit there. After about an hour, there's sound coming out, but it's really quiet, cause it's running on half voltage. So I go, "Hey, wait a minute. It sounds exactly like it's supposed to all the way up, but it's really quiet." So we had a light dimmer in the house, and I hooked up the two leaves from the amp to the light, so I did it backwards, blew out the fuse box. Then I went down to DOW Radio and asked, "Do you guys have any kind of super duper light dimmer?" They go, "Yeah, it's all Variac, variable transformer, you know." And on the dial you could crank it up to 140 volts or down to zero. So I figured, if it's on 220 and it's that quiet, if I take the voltage and lower it, I wonder how low I can go and it still work. Well, it enabled me to turn my amp all the way up, save the tubes, save the wear and tear on the tubes, and play at clubs at half the volume. So, my Variac, my variable transformer was my volume knob. Too loud, [makes knob turning sound] I'd lower it down to 50.

ESQ: That's amazing. But still, that was it? That was the only modification you did?

EVH: Just out of necessity. I need an amp I could play in clubs. We wouldn't get hired, I would play so loud, you know, I'm going, what can I do? What can I do? Okay, I turned the voltage, the wall voltage into my volume knob.

-------------------------------------

 

[JB6464]

But in the mid 80's when Eddie did the David Letterman guest spot he was slaving with a power amp.
He was still using the variac and custom made loadbox as well.

 

[paulyc]

You were there ?

 

[Rocksoff]

David Friedman

Well here is what i was told by Rudy Leiren his long time tech. This was just last week. His setup was flanger phaser echoplex amp. His main 100 watt was used on everything. The bias was turned all the way up and the variac was set to 91v. into only 1 cab. There is a pic of the early days with a 50 watt and a vox. He told me the 50 was a back up to the 100 and the vox was a last ditch back up. He often borrowed amps for his back ups. In fact he told me a story that at a party they were playing ed blew a fuse in his main amp and did not have a backup and had to rum home to get a fuse while the band was playing. After this he always made sure he had a backup. Now Rudy said the eq pedal was used only for certain guitars or sometimes when he used rental gear that sounded bad. Also the univox echo was patched in by hand for eruption only and then was taken out of the chain after. Later there was another cab on Mike side that was driven from another amp they used a splitter to do this. As time went on more cabs where used and so where more amps. The amps would only drive one cab though. Now he did say ed was always trying shit but would always come back to this set up. This info follows everything ed has ever said to me personally. Also when 84 hit he changed his set up to H&H power amps and some different effects etc. He still used a cab off the head though no load resister. The Load resister came for the 5150 tour (Bob Bradshaw).

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Bob Bradshaw

When we were developing that whole thing, we used load resistors. Load resistors were padding the signal down and loading the amplifier [so it could] act as a pre-amp. We went that way for the longest time. The Boogies were some of the first amps that we started doing that with. They were much more forgiving (having a load resistor on them) than, say, Marshall amps. As soon as we put a speaker on the amplifier it was like night and day: the amps were breathing properly. The Marshalls were the most sensitive to that. So I thought "Okay, I'll put a 16-Ohm cabinet on my Marshall amp." Suddenly people were carrying around these [closed] boxes with a speaker in them. Those are the load boxes so you can have a reactive load. When I first did Van Halen's rig, I built him a load box that would allow him to switch different heads into the same bank of load resistors. For years – starting with the 5150 tour on through OU812 – I realized that we shouldn't have this load resistor on his Marshall amp, we should have a speaker. I was all excited to hip him to this revelation, you know! And I got up there, man, (they were in rehearsals) and said, "Look at this Ed, you've got to have a speaker on there!" (I wasn't even talking about incorporating that dry speaker into the overall sound, I was just talking about hooking up a speaker and burying the thing so that it is just a reactive load.) He heard it and he just went, "Nope, it ain't happening." I was crushed, man. He was like, "I didn't like it. It didn't work well with my wireless." I was just like, "What are you talking about, are you nuts? You ****ing idiot, I can't believe you're saying this." He went back out on tour with his normal load-resistor thing. It took another year or so before we incorporated the speaker. Finally, somehow, it clicked with him. That's when we started thinking, "Why are we burying the speaker?" Then he went to the [left wet - center dry - right wet] configuration." The main thing is to preserve the pure tone of amp straight into speaker, whilst having (mostly time based stereo) effects at the same time. some people also run mono wet/dry setups. The key thing is to preserve the tone of your amp reacting a cab like it would if you had just a amphead and a cab. Most people run their pedal effects OD/fuzz/octafuzz/wah etc. before the amp so those will affect both the dry and wet cabs.

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Bob Bradshaw

I can remember you were in the magazines all over the place for a while.

This business is all about what's hot and what's new, bla bla bla you know. But yeah,I got my name going out there with Rocktron and along with Buzz Feiten comes Mike Landau, from him comes Steve Lukather, from Steve comes Ed Van Halen, from Ed comes Steve Vai, it's all word of mouth. And in between there were many, many others. Studio/session guys to …Poison for example.

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