Luca79
Active member
Noticed it some years ago. But though was a Marshall thing to use whatever parts they had at the moment, and not a mod.
M
matttornado
Active member
Think this is bad? Go to the Marshall Amp forum. A couple of poor guys over there are scratching their heads and chasing their tails trying to figure out what pedals were used to get the gain Ed got on the first record. They were told many times that the studio mixing / mastering had everything to do with the guitar's sounds & Ed could have used just about any amp of that type and gotten very similar results, it went in one ear and out the other. Once they hear about this choke thing, they'll go completely nuts for sure.
M@tt C
Well-known member
DanTravis62
Well-known member
DanTravis62
Well-known member
I love how it's been exhaustively analyzed, and all the info is out there on the Internet
And not only that, if you can play guitar at all, and you've plugged into a cranked stock plexi before, you already KNOW how he got the early vh tone
Theres certainly details that can get you that last 5-10%, like 6ca7s and starving it down to 80 or whatever
But in general, the people who swear his amp isn't stock (because of the removed master volume, etc) are just guys who can't really play early VH anyway - so they literally wouldn't know the sound even if they HAD it
It's ironic, they spend years of their lives tone seeking thinking "there has to be a SECRET!"
When the secret is "you have to actually be able to play guitar"
Devin
Well-known member
Attachments
japetus
Moderator
I think it is amusing that people are still chasing that tone when EVH stopped using the tone himself 35 years ago.
RaceU4her
Well-known member
RaceU4her
Well-known member
ive posted this i dont know how many times and it seems to go in one ear and out the other with them, Soldano says "its the most stock 68 plexi ever"
DanTravis62
Well-known member
Yeah but if the marshall is stock
the magical choke or a magical secret jose mod that covers up shitty boomer guitar playing doesn't exist
Cuz God knows Mike Soldano, Friedman, and every other guitar amp guru is a big liar and they're keeping the magical secret from all the crappy boomer hobbyists to gatekeep them from magical EVH tone
jabps
Well-known member
Thank you.
This goes along with the theory of people signing NDA's back then on Ed's amp. I just can't see a bunch of guys high as fuck, downing cases of Schlitz Malt Liquor by the hour even knowing what an NDA was.
That said I applaud @Amp_chaser for his tenacity at over analyzing this stuff. Whatever makes you happy I'm all for.
jabps
Well-known member
Hmm, this could be interesting. So who you got?
Beyond Black
Well-known member
Can you fathom being so Edtarded to still be obsessing over the minutiae of his rig when that motherfucker could have plugged into a Gorilla and still sounded Iike that?
Holy fuck, go play your guitar, man.
Beyond Black
Well-known member
Agreed, please tell us what sounds miles and miles better than a cranked Plexi in the hands of EVH. We’re listening…
LP Freak
Well-known member
I’ve heard Friedman say Ed even got the sound unplugged
L
Lightning
Active member
Each Van Halen album sounds different due to small equipment changes,you know it’s Edward playing due to his style of playing.
PurityS.L.G
Well-known member
Well you just said it...in the hands of EVH. Its his playing that is magical. That tone is great but not that special or holy grail as obsessed guitar nerds make it to be.
And off the top of my head as promised
AC/DC
ZZ Top
Robin Trower
Mick Ronson
Queensryche duo
Accept duo
Lynch
Ok you got me. Don't have 10 off the top of my head but you get my point. Funny because I'm pretty sure that list is all Marshall and with great players.
DanTravis62
Well-known member
Daves obviously being hyperbolic, but this is part of what I was getting at
Like 80-90% of the mythical shidd pant tone is being a passable guitar player, plugging a fairly hot vintage voiced humbucker into a cranked plexi and some greenbacks, and grinding out the G-A "you really got me" thing.
If you aren't really, really close to the tone doing that, you are NEVER going to get close without some woodshedding because the tone isn't the special part.
Inexperienced musicians always confuse and conflate tone and playing style, because they don't have the ability to understand what's actually going on with a recorded guitar sound
Beyond Black
Well-known member
So it wasn’t their playing that also made their tones special?
I’m the furthest thing from an EVH fanboi but his playing/tone was every bit as good as any of those that you listed.
RaceU4her
Well-known member
I went through my van halen phase at about four years old as soon as I could operate a record player, I remember my father buying me the Jump 45 and then putting the albums onto cassette for me so I wouldn’t wear out his vinyl as I listened to them non stop while playing Pro Wrestling, I was over it though by about 5 1/2 when guns and roses came out