Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

[ErikH]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

We both know that a search will find anything you need to know about the VH tone past,present and even future but a lot of new guys dont bother searchin and just ask on a thread. I have no prob rehashing the info to help em out
Oh and i was never under it to have to get over it! LOL!

I have no problem helping new folks here either. I do it all the time. However, when it comes to said subject, I will say just a few words and gladly point them in the direction of the search function for more detail to answer the question. Simple as that.

No harm no foul. Was just having fun with Frank's post is all.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I have no problem helping new folks here either. I do it all the time. However, when it comes to said subject, I will say just a few words and gladly point them in the direction of the search function for more detail to answer the question. Simple as that.

No harm no foul. Was just having fun with Frank's post is all.

yeah its all good and i have to admit even i find it amusing that i am even interested in his tone anymore?
he has not used the tone i liked the best for many years now! LOL! new disc is decent though

[ErikH]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

yeah its all good and i have to admit even i find it amusing that i am even interested in his tone anymore?
he has not used the tone i liked the best for many years now! LOL! new disc is decent though

I've just enjoyed listening to him more than anything anymore. There are times where I'm playing and might do something in a certain way where it might sound like him, but of course it's not. To be honest, the best pickup I used to get his tone of the early days was the '57 Classic. When it came to later stuff, mostly the 90's, the Air Zone worked best for me. I actually came on to that by accident because I wanted to try the AZ and next thing I knew my Strat was coping the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tone. I never set out a hunt. Ballpark is good enough. The rest is up to me as a player to inject the vibe to make it work if I want to do that.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I've just enjoyed listening to him more than anything anymore. There are times where I'm playing and might do something in a certain way where it might sound like him, but of course it's not. To be honest, the best pickup I used to get his tone of the early days was the '57 Classic. When it came to later stuff, mostly the 90's, the Air Zone worked best for me. I actually came on to that by accident because I wanted to try the AZ and next thing I knew my Strat was coping the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tone. I never set out a hunt. Ballpark is good enough. The rest is up to me as a player to inject the vibe to make it work if I want to do that.

Nothing wrong with any of this!

[WhooHoo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Ed's early pickup is interesting from a historical point of view.
If someone thinks that using the same pickup Ed had will give them some Ed magic or whatever then they need to think again.
There is the player and amps and speakers etc involved as well.


Ed and ~13-14k ceramics are part of a long winding road.


In the early 70s, the DiMarzio Super Distortion was released with a ceramic magnet and a ~13-14k wind.

There was also a ceramic magnet kit available in the early 70s that replaced alnico PAF magnets and gave PAF's more output.

Around the mid 70s, Mighty Mite started cloning DiMarzio Super Distortions but they were made in a bit of a different way and used a ceramic magnet and a ~13-14k wind and had bondable wire which prevents microphonics just like potting.

Seymour was involved in Mighty Mite pickups before Seymour started releasing his own pickup line.

Ed used a Mighty Mite Distortion in photos from 1977.
One of the reasons Ed might have used the Mighty Mites is because they didn't need to be potted because of their bondable wire design.

Ed also had a DiMarzio Super Distortion that he took to Wayne Charvel to wax pot as Wayne Charvel tells it.

Ed had been going to Seymour before June 1978 because he mentions going to a pro in Santa Barbara in an interview from June 1978.

From the Seymour Van Halen ad, the Duncan Custom pickup looks to have been one of the pickups Ed got off Seymour before late 1979.

The Duncan Custom is another ceramic ~13-14k wind design.

The Dimarzio Super distortion and the Mighty Mite Distortion and the Duncan Custom are all ~13-14k ceramic pickups.

They are not the same as each other but they basically share the same basic design template ie ceramic magnet and ~13-14k wind ie overwound ceramic based pickups.

They are all made to have a higher output than a PAF and drive a stock amp well into overdrive.

But what seems to have happened is that Ed moved away from overwound ceramic based pickups to overwound alnico based pickups in 1978 after recording the first album in mid/late 1977.

[Albion9]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Here is VH's amp with a stock super 70, thats a lot of gain going on there from a super 70? something is in that signal chain other than guitar/super 70/marshall plexi.

Don't forget the preamp of an Echoplex EP-3, natural analog tape saturation, a lot of reverb, and the possibility of an out from his amp being fed into a preamp on the board directly and then mixed with his amp signal. Remember, you are hearing a finished product...an engineered and produced guitar sound. Also, his right hand technique of muting and picking is very important to his sound. That is just an isolated track from the finished album, not the original guitar signal that went to tape. That also sounds like a ceramic magnet pickup to me... something like a DiMarzio Super Distortion. The most popular aftermarket replacement humbucker ever...and the one that was most available at the time. I can't believe he rewound pickups, if he couldn't wire up a tone pot. Really though, we will never know for certain.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Sorry dude but your like 3 years late to a party for a very very dead horse.

[darthphineas]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

[JeffB]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

This thread needs to be nuked from orbit.

[Ayrton]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Are you fookin' kidding me?

If I NEVER see another VH thread again, it will be too soon.

[Rockstar216]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

People love to open up Pandoras box don't they?

[Masta' C]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

[Metalblaze]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

pitbull is EVH himself trolling around...

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I think it's silly to assume that no one should discuss Edward tone anymore...

The reason most people get so short with it is cause it never goes anywhere and there is nothing new. Its just a circle... the only thing that changes are new people saying the same 30 year old rumors and speculation. And there is something about Ed fans that seems to make them especially fervent and zealous and always quick to go full retard. There was a time a couple of years ago when there would be 2 or 3 Ed tone threads going at once here so now when many around here see it it just like... uggghhh not this again.

[Metalblaze]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I also can't understand the madness with the VH1 album tone. I like Ed's tone on the 5150 album a lot more. After Hangar's "Hello baby!" the guitar tone which kicks in is godly!