How to Sound Like Van Halen

[Red_Label]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

I was wondering at which point you were going to use this as a platform to pimp your gear.

Meh... that's what gear forums are for. I do it too. I'm sure that it gets old to the guys with more limited means, tastes, and desire to toot their horns. But some guys like Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren, BMW, etc ownership to show their toys off. Some like them because of the excellence/performance. And some like them for all of those reasons. I'm one of the latter when it comes to guitar gear, mountain bikes, guns, watches, motorcycles, and cars. I like to show off my toys, but I'd love them even if no one else cared. It's all cool.

[Securb]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Personally, I would like to pick up some VH groupies and party like VanHalen (curcia 1980 anything), I have no desire to sound like Ed, never had.

[Joey Voltage]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

How to sound like Van Halen: Be Van Halen. There, question solved.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Snort some Ambien & Cocaine while mainlining Nicotine & Heineken will get you in the Ballpark ...

[Joey Voltage]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Isn’t that already implied with the be Van Halen directive?

[El Dunco]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Snort some Ambien & Cocaine while mainlining Nicotine & Heineken will get you in the Ballpark ...

That's his tone for during interviews. No ones ready to go quite that far in pursuit of EdHood.

[LLL]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

A big part of the whole "where did he get all that gain with a stock Marshall" schtick is the fact that in 1968, Marshall was (randomly) slapping a .68uF cap on V2 in their Lead amps from the factory. Apparently they only did this for a year or two. This provides a good boost. I did it to mine when I modded my JTM45RI to '68 Plexi specs.

Used in conjunction with a hot humbucker (SH-5), and there's plenty of gain on tap (pun intended) for Ed histrionics - plugged straight in.

Schematic:

[67Mopar]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

That’s never been confirmed, and is wildly speculation still. It also has been speculated that it is a line out that was added, as EVH used that extensively as well through his career. Even if Jose did mod it, the question is which mod, and how much was changed? It could have been something as simple as the line out or MV added. What people seem to overlook is that Jose did more than just that one diode clipper mod Friedman, Cameron, voodoo, fortin, and everyone under the sun copied. He was known for many different circuits back in his day.

Point is that there’s no way it will probably ever be verified. Even if it were who’d believe it?

Jose did not modify Ed's 68 plexi, per se... He replaced the OEM transformers and capacitors with aftermarket parts. That's it. The first tech to touch Ed's plexi (post Jose) was Guy Hedrick. Guy described to me exactly what he found, and I have no reason at all to doubt his word. Guy rebuilt Ed's plexi to OEM specs using NOS parts. OEM transformers were not available, so he hand-wound a set to OEM specs. In regards to the Brown Eye guy... If Dave actually worked on Ed's original '68 plexi, he would not have found a modified amp. Rebuilt to OEM specs, yes. Not modified.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Jose did not modify Ed's 68 plexi, per se... He replaced the OEM transformers and capacitors with aftermarket parts. That's it. The first tech to touch Ed's plexi (post Jose) was Guy Hedrick. Guy described to me exactly what he found, and I have no reason at all to doubt his word. Guy rebuilt Ed's plexi to OEM specs using NOS parts. OEM transformers were not available, so he hand-wound a set to OEM specs. In regards to the Brown Eye guy... If Dave actually worked on Ed's original '68 plexi, he would not have found a modified amp. Rebuilt to OEM specs, yes. Not modified.

Why was the Potentiometer shaft sticking out the back and the hole later plugged. ?

[RolanTHUNDER]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

The sound heard when listening to an album is rarely (if ever) the sound of the amp on its own. The mic, the effects, the mixer used to record, and in the time of VH1, even the TAPE affected the sound. We are hearing the recording tone after all of those components and the engineer and producer have impacted it.

This is true. I do a lot of recording for my YouTube channel and have heard how the end result (which I try to leave as untouched/unmixed as possible - raw guitar tracks from amp thru mic to Cubase) sound somewhat different to the live sound. With full on studio processing, mixing etc the tone may change vastly. There's also the end listener's hardware/preferences to take into account - are they EQ'ng their audio or not for example...

[RolanTHUNDER]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

I thought Jose admitted they were stock amps serviced as normal, it was the transformer used in different countries that was making the sag?

Anyway VH sound, any old Marshall, a decent cab and a humbucker and you won't be far away.
The early stuff.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

That's true. I get pretty close with my Charvel San Dimas loaded with DiMarzio The Breed bridge/Illuminator neck into my Orange #4 (imagine Ed playing Orange back in the day) or Marshall 6100LM into a 1936 V30/T75 combo. With careful EQ'ng and 80's Zoom FX pedal through the loops it's quite convincing I reckon
I'm missing his signature Phase 90 though

[Joey Voltage]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Why was the Potentiometer shaft sticking out the back and the hole later plugged. ?

He had a line out installed at one point to run effects post amp and re-amp the plexi afterwards essentially he started using the plexi as one big preamp, and stopped somewhere around ou812.

[67Mopar]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Why was the Potentiometer shaft sticking out the back and the hole later plugged. ?

At some point, a MV mod was done, but was subsequently removed. Last I heard, Guy Hedrick was doing builds for John Suhr. I believe the SL-68 is a Guy Hedrick design.

If you're looking for that compressed VH 1 sound, the Guytron GT100 will get you there, as it is based on Ed's early 'Vox AC15 into Marshall' signal chain. The first revision (Rev B, I think) was the best sounding, but its stainless steel chassis really holds the heat!

[LLL]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Do any y'all want to hear Ed's 1st album tone direct from mic - e.g. before the "studio magic"?

[Gtrjunior]

Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Do any y'all want to hear Ed's 1st album tone direct from mic - e.g. before the "studio magic"?

Hell F’IN YES!!