when did ed get the floyd?

[Bronco]

...the two best sounding Kramer guitars I ever owned were actually Tom Anderson designed - the Elliot Easton model Kramer was a killer bolt on super strat......and the Paul Dean model - Loverboy's guitarist had a model that is well worth seeking out for cheap IF you can find one. they are solid honduran mahogany both body and neck - set neck design - Seymour Duncan pickups - and a Floyd Rose....one of the best sounding Floyd equipped guitars I have ever heard...

Wow I totally forgot about that Easton model...always wanted one of those -- didn't know that Anderson designed it, but looking back it makes perfect sense. That body is basically a dinky strat, which he pretty much has always used in most of his guitars.

 

[zoom club]

Wow. Awesome info, thanks.

I was never into trem guitars during the 80s, so didn't pay attention to the evolution.

 

[Stradazone]

Most likely on Everybody Wants Some

and don't forget Tora Tora! on the record it was played in reverse, here it is the way it was actually recorded before they reversed the audio

you can hear the signature EVH picking behind the nut as he lowers the whammy bar down, a fender bridge will not get this sound..

 

[Rick Lee]

When my VH tribute plays EWS, I use a metal pick and scrape the low E just ahead of the saddle. Sounds right on. Then I switch back to a regular pick.

 

[charvelstrat81]

Actually regarding the Frank he didn't use the Floyd on WACF. That was FW, but on that record he used his Les Pauls quite a bit as he didn't like the tone he was getting. You can hear the Frank with the Floyd on Sinners Swing. Before that I'm not sure.

I thought the majority of WACF was the borrowed destroyer from chris holmes???

 

[charvelstrat81]

in most of his early interviews, EVH pretty much LIED. he initially told people the "magic" brown sound amp was a 50 watt plexi (it really was a 100 watter) and that he would use a Variac to "crank UP the voltage to get that brown sound".....which led to quite a few Marshall heads getting FRIED because dudes wanted to sound like Eddie.....
.

Ed NEVER mentioned a 50 watter, always 100 watts. in every interview i have read since 1979 he talked of his old Plexi100 watter(SLP12301) in the studio and live he used whatever like newer marshalls,music man,laneys, after his great almost was lost for good by Pan am.
In some early club pics there is a 50 watter. along with his 100 watters.
I was always suspect that VH I was a 50 watter though. sure sounds like it!
He has always said all records back then were done with his No.1 main 100 watt super lead plexi. the amp he should have had freidman or metro amps make him for his sig amp!

 

[Schaf]

Weird aside......I had always been told that Kramer and Dennis Berardi were partially funded by Mafia cash.

I agree. Dennis lived im Deal, NJ and my mom always told me that was the safest place in NJ because the mob kept all the petty criminals away. And Henry Vaccaro was Kramer's main money guy. Andy Pappacio now runs US ops for Floyd Rose. I got to tour the Kramer factory when I was 15 around the 5150 tour time. Got to meet them all.

that's cool! My old Kramer Pacer, serial #B0149, is now owned by Andy Pappacio - he was the one that did the Floyd install on it back in 1983 when it was shipped back to Kramer - I played it for a decade on the road, then sold it to a good friend who basically put it under the bed and left it alone for about 20 years. I ended up buying it back from him, and later put it up for sale, and it was Andy who wanted it back!

I have an 87 Pacer Custom II that I bought that year from a buddy for $550. I'm pretty sure it's one of the ESP made. Best sounding guitar I have and I have some pretty nice ones. I still gig it regularly.