Have you ever played a true 68 plexi or 69-72 Superlead or a kit plexi 100 watter with all NOS parts, Sylvania 6ca7's and Sylvania 12ax7A's with the exact setup that Eddie publicly used?
If you had you probably wouldn't be making the argument put forth as gospel. I accept that a good 2203 sounds great, I own a 79 2203 when it was 100% bone stock and it was a killer amp..... but it lacks everything my 68 plexi has with the exact same signal chain when it comes to accurate Ed tones IMHO.
Variac, EP3 echoplex, MXR flanger, MXR phaser, greenbacks of you choice. Not to mention the possible use of 55HZ and 75HZ M or H30 Celestions.
If you ever dig through the old Metro amp EVH forums you will find I have played every setup that was ever speculated and the heavily variaced 68 plexi with the exact ED signal chain that is known from public pictutures is the clear winner for my ears. So far nothing out there on YT of a Jose or modded 2203 nails everything quite like Jim Gaustads and other videos like that Suhr SL68 video into the OXBOX. Al Estrada Slaves his SUhr SL68's into Matrix power amps and he has killer VH1 tones and then some.
This argument you continue to put forth was settled with Jim Gaustad's famous Brown Sound video, period end of story, if someone cannot acknowledge how good that sounds then they are being intellectually dishonest. It just has ust about everything VH1 was famous for and he did it with a stock 68 Metro kit plex with a variac and Ed's known signal chain,( minus the MXR 6 band EQ) on video for the world to see.
My advice to you is to buy a Suhr SL68/SL67 or Friedman Plex, get Ed's exact signal chain, EP echoplex(clinch ep-pre's work nicely), MXR phase 90, MXR flanger(old if you can find one), MXR 6 Band(old blue one), PAF of your choice, a Variac and either a Fryette PS2 o PS100 or a UA Ox box for recording and I bet you won't be able to stop grinning with all your Ed tone.
1. Where do I say that the Settups I suggest are gospel ?
2. Eddie didn’t use any sylvania tubes until vh2. It was erie tubes and Mullard for the preamp. We got even picture confirmation from the 1978 Japanese tour and from Dave Friedman who says eddies favorite tubes were telefunken.
3. For the argument I’ve heard the suhr sl68 and sl67 and It lacks something for vh1 the pick response isn’t as bassy as the original records. If it’s hot it’s not bassy. I offer you to prove yourself with some records of your sl68 with feel your love tonight and let’s compare it to this :
Each time eddie picks you can hear a bassy sound pound on your face or chest. At the same time you have a very hot and articulated sound. I doubt any stock single Marshall can do to the two at the same time. Perhaps 2 Marshall amps yes but not 1.
4. Gaustaad got very close but he still lacks some tonalities. There is a reason why Dave Friedman said in his recent tone talk with Ossie Ahsen that he doesn’t know what’s going on during the first record. Both of them agree on or the Marshall wasn’t stock or there was something special made to the way it was recorded. They also suggest it could have been the work of the studio.
Now you and I aren’t the creator of the universe there are no way to say you are correct or either I am. One thing is for sure there we can’t go back in time and there are tons of nda concerning Eddie which speaks a lot for itself.
5. David Lee Roth said many times to many people that Eddie used hot rod Marshall’s live. was it during the records too ? I don’t know. He said it to Steve Vai and to a lot of other artists. He even said it to a Guy whose father renovated his house. He gave him a plexi modded by Jose as a supplement as a payment. That’s the guts of the plexi I posted recently.
The Steve vai dlr era Jose that Friedman serviced sounds very close to what the early vh sound. In fact Pete Thorn never sounded as close as having the early sound than when he played vai’s Jose. Just listen to it around min 27 :
6. There are many testimonies and guitar magazines that said that there were 2 amps used on the record if vh1. Some people even said that what they’ve done is something ridiculous. So there might have been something unusual done this day.
7. Finally Jose told us that he modded eddies plexi amp in the book made by journalist photograph Neil zlozlower. If you didn’t know Neil followed Eddie a lot of years he is the one who took most of the picture we got today like the one of the vh2 studio record. He interviewed Jose and that’s what Jose said some time before dying :
The guy was at the end of his life he even stopped modding amps. Why would he lie at the end of his life ?
When the book was published Eddie was alive and he never asked for this claim to be removed. Why ? Yeah perhaps that’s the whole truth.
But the truth for all of us is that we will probably never know.
The vh1 could have been a stock 68 with a modded Jose amp. Or even neither of those. We will never know until Ted templeman, Don landee or Alex or Michael Anthony decide to open their mouths. But they will probably never do it. They promised Zappa to give him answers he tried to interview them about the first album after eddies death and they didn’t came to answer him. Isn’t this weird ?
I mean yes it’s possible there was a stock 68 in the lot but I and many believe it wasn’t enough. It could have been the studio but was it really only the mixing ? Are we right ? No, no one can know until those above open up and that’s the issue. Because of that open speculation is permitted.
But my bet is : If they don’t come to speak it’s that they don’t want to speak if they don’t want to speak it’s probable that there are some things that someone told them to keep as a secret… and they probably still respect him. If they had nothing to hide they would come to zappa’s interview.
