Van Halen Panama tone

[mooncobra]

1985 is an epic album. To me, the best VH ever released. I too wore it out on my Walkman but also bought it on vinyl.

girl gone bad!!! My favorite song on the album. So bad ass!!

great tone bro!

 

[jape23]

Yep, Girl Gone Bad is definitely bad ass! The whole record is a tone fest. I know some guys on the gear forums get annoyed sometimes by all the VH tone chasing, but it's just so damn fun. Some of us just can't help ourselves.

Lately, I've been spending some time listening to some isolated tracks from Women and Children First, and it's incredible how vicious the tone (and EVH's playing) is on that record. The tone on Diver Down is totally killer too. That record (regardless of the number of cover songs or how rushed they were in releasing it) would actually be my pick for THE tone I'd want to chase.

 

[panhead]

View attachment 73674
Look at that pickup!! This was posted on FB in the Charvel group.

That pickup in Frankie is the answer to all these questions and no that is not a mighty mite or an SD

 

[Rdodson]

Girl Gone Bad...1958 Gibson Flying V with original lower-wind A2-equipped PAFs. Original '68 Marshall, Echoplex in, slight 910 effect, and a glorious abundance of EMT.

To me, that is the pinnacle of tone. Full stop. And it is pretty low-gain.

 

[RedPlated]

That pickup in Frankie is the answer to all these questions and no that is not a mighty mite or an SD

Never seen a covered pickup in the Frankie before. I’m assuming a Gibson PAF?

 

[jape23]

Michael does awesome VH tone mods.

He sure does. I heard what he did to his Marshall Major years ago and I had to have one. The master volume works amazingly well.

Got excited yesterday to create some of my own EVH-inspired tones and fired up the Marshall.

 

[harddriver]

Girl Gone Bad...1958 Gibson Flying V with original lower-wind A2-equipped PAFs. Original '68 Marshall, Echoplex in, slight 910 effect, and a glorious abundance of EMT.

To me, that is the pinnacle of tone. Full stop. And it is pretty low-gain.

Quite possibly Ed pulled the pickup from the 58V and slapped it into Franky, hence it's appearance in that picture. Anything is possible with EVH.

It appears that the picture Rdodson posted looks to be from the 1984 era judging from Ed's attire.

I've seen alot of pics of Franky but that is the first one that I have seen with a covered humbucker.... very cool!

 

[RedPlated]

He sure does. I heard what he did to his Marshall Major years ago and I had to have one. The master volume works amazingly well.

Got excited yesterday to create some of my own EVH-inspired tones and fired up the Marshall.

Wow, that sounds fantastic!

What pickup are you using?

 

[RedPlated]

Found this video today. Any ideas on what pickup is in this one??

Looks like a Duncan. The slug coil bobbin has those three holes in just the right places. The cream color is consistent and the baseplate appears to be the right shape. Maybe it's a 59. The plain string pole pieces are pretty high too.

 

[Rdodson]

Probably a JB. Unkert would know.

 

[jape23]

Wow, that sounds fantastic!

What pickup are you using?

Thanks man. Arcane Luxxbucker Hot is the bridge pickup in that guitar. I'm not too sure on the specs, to be honest. It's what came stock in the Luxxtone. I love the pickup though. Going to order another to install in one of my other guitars.

 

[SpiderWars]

Found this video today. Any ideas on what pickup is in this one??

Looks like a Duncan. The slug coil bobbin has those three holes in just the right places. The cream color is consistent and the baseplate appears to be the right shape. Maybe it's a 59. The plain string pole pieces are pretty high too.

And notice how he has it crammed as far back towards the bridge as possible. I noticed the spacing between bridge humbuckers and the bridge when I built a Warmoth. Some brands (like Warmoth) have the pickup farther away from the bridge which has a more Tele like twang while others (like the WD I luckily ordered and had the body routed for) have it closer to the bridge which sounds more Les Paul like.

 

[NewWorldMan]

I’m not an EVH aficionado, but this may be of interest to this crowd. It’s from a really old interview with EVH:


Did you make another guitar for your second album?

EVH: I made the yellow-and-black Strat. It has an ash body by Charvel. It was my idea to have it rear-loaded so I wouldn’t have to have a pickguard, and Charvel routed it for me. The pickup that’s on the photo is not really what I use — I had just finished slapping it together and painting it when they shot the album cover, and just stuck some garbage pickup in it to look like a complete guitar. Then I took the pickup out of my first guitar and stuck it in there, but it didn’t sound too good. I don’t really go for DiMarzio pickups, because they’re real distorted. I like a clean sound with sustain — I hate the fuzz box, real raspy sound. So I put a PAF magnet in a DiMarzio pickup and rewound it by hand, which took a long lime. I actually ruined about three pickups, and by the fourth time it worked. I didn’t count the windings — I just did it by sight.

 

[NewWorldMan]

Also this from a ‘78 guitar magazine:

“Eddie assembled his main guitar with parts he bought from Charvel. “It is a copy of a Fender Stratocaster.” He says. “I bought the body for $50 and the neck for $80, and put in an old Gibson PAF pickup that was rewound to my specifications. I like the one-pickup sound, and I’ve experimented with it a lot. If you put the pickup really close to the bridge, it sounds trebly, if you put it too far forward, you get a sound that isn’t good for rhythm. I like it towards the back-it gives the sound a little sharper edge and bite.”

This was also noteworthy:

“On a recent return flight from Japan, Eddie’s original 100-watt Marshall amps were lost in air freight, and he’s replaced them with Music Mans, Laneys, and new Marshalls.”

 

[Rdodson]

Yeah, for us Ed guys (I did some work for the band in the 90s) that’s all old hat. Good stuff though.
I highly doubt he hand wound a side-by-side though.

 

[Briman24]

He sure does. I heard what he did to his Marshall Major years ago and I had to have one. The master volume works amazingly well.

Got excited yesterday to create some of my own EVH-inspired tones and fired up the Marshall.

That is the shit right there! Michael and your vids are vh1 tone 100%.

 

[Racerxrated]

That is the shit right there! Michael and your vids are vh1 tone 100%.

Sounds good..but for true perfection you need to add the JBLs. Then you are set.

 

[jape23]

That is the shit right there! Michael and your vids are vh1 tone 100%.

Thanks man. For my clip, I wasn't trying to nail any specific early VH album tone. I was just shooting for an overall early VH vibe. It's just so much fun to play with that kind of sound. Michael's mods worked some magic on this amp for sure though. And his playing gets him closer than I can get. Everything matters though. The amp, the speakers, the mics, the pickups etc. etc. When I play some of my other guitars with those same amp settings, I get a pretty different tone. That guitar and that particular pickup play a big part in the sound in that clip.

Racerxrated mentioned the JBLs, and yeah, the speakers and of course mic placement are big factors too.
On the chance that some VH fans haven't seen this, here's an interesting discussion starting at about the 8:00 mark regarding mics and speakers.

 

[SpiderWars]

Chip Kinman of The Dills, that punk band the guys used to go see mentioned in the video above.

 

[panhead]

Same ole story though, his live tone was good but not like the recordings. At sometime he was using an ADA MP-1, I know because I saw it with my own eyes. He used all kinds of shit, the marshall is just part of the folklore/ history. All in all just one badass guitar player, the equipment was secondary..