"Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Ian Ballard you said that the pickups in the peavey wolfgang were ceramic,their not they are alnico V.Also when Ed was designing the Ernie Ball EVH guitar, Dimarzio had the contract to make the pickups, the pickup that dimarzio used as a referance which was in the original frankie at that time(89-90) was a duncan JB.That was explained to me by Steve Blutcher at Dimarzio.

the EVH wolfgangs are ceramic , the peavey's were alnico 5, i had 3 sets of those.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

If you watch the demo clip from '96 that linked to, somebody asks him if the guitar and amp that are in production, are the same as he uses... and he dodges the question and just tells the guy to come try them out. Well.... duh, obviously Eddie tweaks everything he has and it's doubtful he uses a Mexican-made amp bone stock. I definitely believe his amps and guitars are custom and not exactly what are sold in stores. He was first in line to buy the "Floyd Rose Titanium" at Ed Roman's NAMM booth a couple years back and I would not be surprised at all, if he was sporting some Zephyr pups in a couple of his guitars. Rust never sleeps.

yeah that whole you buy at the music store is exactly the same as i use BS never got me. the only instrument were this may have been true was with the EBMM sig guitar. that guitar is as good as it gets out of the box!
when he left EBMM and went to peavey then i knew he was on drugs!
His tones these days are nothing special at all. you can go to a music store and play a EVH wolf and plug it into a 5153 and get his tone now.

[pittbull]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

The Fender EVH wolfgangs are ceramic ?? I was told by Fender that they are alnico V.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

The Fender EVH wolfgangs are ceramic ?? I was told by Fender that they are alnico V.

everyone that owns them says they are ceramic i personally dont know since i dont own any, but the peaveys were A5, i have mag swapped those.

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

It's not impossible that they are alnicos. Dimarzio gets amazingly thick mids with alnico V (Tone Zone/PAF Pro/Fred/MoJo/etc) and with some creative winding and the brass baseplates, you certainly can get tones that are not "the typical scoop" of what we usually associate with alnico V tones.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I just bought a dimarzio super d to try for the 1st record tone in my charvel. should have it in a few days. i am confident it will get that tone just as the custom sh5 does, both are ceramic 14K pu's, the last time i tried the super d from 51501984 i had a different amp and was not impressed. it really is more amp than pup imho.

[pittbull]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Would the duncan custom sh-5 have a more open sound then the dimarzio super distortion.

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

http://guitarinternational.com/2010/08/20/edward-van-halen-at-play/

“I didn’t use the Soldano this time, I used my Marshall, the one I’ve used on every record, and my [Peavey[ 5150. The Soldano was just a little too fuzzed out, too high-gain for what I wanted on this record. I’m not knocking the amp, they're great and they serve a purpose. But it wasn't right for me on this album. So I went straight from the guitar to either the 5150 or the Marshall amp with one cabinet in the room."

There it is. He probably used it on VHIII too which I think was tone-wise an AWESOME record. He'll probably use it again. Yay!

Sorry to derail the topic, but I found that little gem from a Balance-era interview.

[pittbull]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

You really cant believe Eds interviews,especially when it comes to his equipment and what Ed uses.

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

You really cant believe Eds interviews,especially when it comes to his equipment and what Ed uses.

In the early days because the LA scene was so full of copycats and competition, Alex was always telling Ed to BS the interviewers but I don't think he made up using his Marshall for certain things after it was worked on by John Suhr prior to F.U.C.K. There are some parts in Balance that definitely have that Marshall quality, same with lots of VHIII and the Peaveys lacked that in spades. His new amps are supposed to be "Marshalized" on Ch.2, but who knows?

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

In the early days because the LA scene was so full of copycats and competition, Alex was always telling Ed to BS the interviewers but I don't think he made up using his Marshall for certain things after it was worked on by John Suhr prior to F.U.C.K. There are some parts in Balance that definitely have that Marshall quality, same with lots of VHIII and the Peaveys lacked that in spades. His new amps are supposed to be "Marshalized" on Ch.2, but who knows?

his new amp is real good,but i dont think it has that marshall tone that he had on the early records. There is one guy named stan (bmf5150)that has the 5153 and he demo'd many pu's through it with a ash strat and none sounded like the plexi. here is two of em

http://www.youtube.com/user/bmf5150#p/u/11/wxzphBWBFGQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/bmf5150#p/u/13/DzfKBB4ubAA

here is a paf type with a plexi

http://www.youtube.com/user/bmf5150#p/u/10/BZL4JQQ21Qs

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

You really cant believe Eds interviews,especially when it comes to his equipment and what Ed uses.

the best thing you can do is use your ear,even if you wind up using a pu that VH never used and you love the tone thats all that matters! I liked the sh5 custom more than the official EVH pup for the EVH tone!

Would the duncan custom sh-5 have a more open sound then the dimarzio super distortion.

depends? through a high gain amp or a plexi?

[WhoFan]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

i've been tempted to pick up a EVH Frankie PU just to try out for myself... but i keep talking myself out of it... I have various strats, super strats, parts strats, all with all sorts of different humbucker models in them, i have a few Marshall heads... and a early Peavey 5150 stack that i use a Wolfgang or Charvel thru... in the end i find i can play Van Halen type sounds just fine with what i got...

that being said if i was really going to try and be a Van Halen I tone completist i'd be more concerned of finding a Marshall Plexi i was happy with... and finding a place to crank the snot out of it without getting arrested... LOL...

when i try to play early VH sounds i find what works well one of my strats with a non-locking trem, a JB or a Custom in the bridge, and my JCM 800 2204, plus a few MXR and Boss Pedals... oddly my mid 90's Jackson with an old 1987 era JB in it and a Schaller Floyd works real well on the Fair Warning-1984 era stuff...

when i'm trying to get later 90's era VH sounds my 5150 and the Wolfgang work for me... again the same MXR and Boss pedals in there... maybe a little delay as well...

i was a massive VH fan and still am... but i can't see myself building copies of his exact rigs anymore...

i wonder how many fans run around endlessly searching for the magic Brown Sound PU's and end up using it thru a Pod in an Appartment?

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

i've been tempted to pick up a EVH Frankie PU just to try out for myself... but i keep talking myself out of it... I have various strats, super strats, parts strats, all with all sorts of different humbucker models in them, i have a few Marshall heads... and a early Peavey 5150 stack that i use a Wolfgang or Charvel thru... in the end i find i can play Van Halen type sounds just fine with what i got...

that being said if i was really going to try and be a Van Halen I tone completist i'd be more concerned of finding a Marshall Plexi i was happy with... and finding a place to crank the snot out of it without getting arrested... LOL...

when i try to play early VH sounds i find what works well one of my strats with a non-locking trem, a JB or a Custom in the bridge, and my JCM 800 2204, plus a few MXR and Boss Pedals... oddly my mid 90's Jackson with an old 1987 era JB in it and a Schaller Floyd works real well on the Fair Warning-1984 era stuff...

when i'm trying to get later 90's era VH sounds my 5150 and the Wolfgang work for me... again the same MXR and Boss pedals in there... maybe a little delay as well...

i was a massive VH fan and still am... but i can't see myself building copies of his exact rigs anymore...

i wonder how many fans run around endlessly searching for the magic Brown Sound PU's and end up using it thru a Pod in an Appartment?

you bring up many great points here!
as far as the POD thing i guess many use em cause i dont know how anyone can get away with a 100 or 50 watt plexi cranked to ten in their house!
thats another real often overlooked factor, VH turned his plexi to 10 when he got that tone. everyone else is using a powerbrake or a master volume,etc.
you got to push those celestions into submission, Ed was getting breakup from the pre/power amp and the celestions as well. he dimed that friggin thing!
this kid cracked me up,
he has a $150 pup and a $90 amp!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBuSE_LFOw

[WhoFan]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

ya i have many loud heads... and i'm playing thru some SS and modelers in my bedroom 90% more often then the tube heads i've collected along the way... hell i didn't even use these loud heads towards the end of my bar band days and used a C30 combo a lot... most of the bands around here are using low wattage 1x12 combos... lots of local bar bands i've been seeing lately around here you can still talk over their music...

but once in a while i turn these heads up just to shake the dust off them!