Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

[IanBallard]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

But it isn't THAT different from VHII. The differences are subtle and he was using the "hot" PAF exclusively in his Charvel Strat in 1978. The echoplex also provides some boost and many have said that was the "secret". Heck, they make pedals that are designed to simulate the preamp response of an echoplex without the reliability issues of the original unit, because so many players used it as a subtle boost pedal. I think that was key. Maybe the pickup was the difference. He didn't need a TS9 or anything like that to get that tone.

[Ayrton]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Ayrton you believe john suhr and friedman,woooooooooowwwwwwwww.

lol... Hard to believe that I would take both John's and Dave's (as I happen to know both) word over yours, I know.

What was I thinking?

I guess I can look at this subjectively because I have no desire to achieve the "VH 1" sound (or think it is all that to begin with).

You keep on chasing rainbows my friend, I will go back to playing my own tune.

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Maybe Ed's plexi was stock at the time of VH1.......Marshalls back in the day were very inconsistent (plexi's, JMP's, 800's) you never know. Maybe it was all stock and just had some subtle parts in it that gave it more gain that others.

Wasnt DeMatini's (sp?) plexi all stock back at on the early to mid RATT stuff? I heard him say it got more gain that your average plexi and it was 100% bone stock and had a high(er) resister plate reading....or something like that. You never know

Honestly, if everyone spent as much time improving their playing as they spend on going crazy about trying to get Ed's tone......we all would be shredding like Edward

[jimo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

How about a treble-booster? Could he have used a Rangemaster or whatever?? Just speculating here......

[IanBallard]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

How about a treble-booster? Could he have used a Rangemaster or whatever?? Just speculating here......

An echoplex can do that and his Phase 90 was modded by Jose to boost treble. The signature EVH Phase 90, when you switch on the "EVH mode", bumps the treble up.

[jjimi1647]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Clearly different people wrote these posts, they share NO similarities!!!

CLEARLY!

[pittbull]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Myself and others like the entertainment here,please continue.......

[51501984]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Just checking to see how my lastest avatar looks

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Just checking to see how my lastest avatar looks

you need no excuse to post IRON MAIDEN bro!

[51501984]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

you need no excuse to post IRON MAIDEN bro!

How's your weekend going Ed?

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

How's your weekend going Ed?

Cool i got a demon to install yet and give a run, been playing a lot more, how bout you bro?
saw this and traded a JB tb4 for a TB12,i really like that attack and scream he gets there! he is using the plexi,the soldano's are not even on!

[51501984]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Cool i got a demon to install yet and give a run, been playing a lot more, how bout you bro?
saw this and traded a JB tb4 for a TB12,i really like that attack and scream he gets there! he is using the plexi,the soldano's are not even on!

Cool , just getting my lazy a$$ off the couch to go run some errands. That Lynch vid is smokin. I think I`m gonna get that cheap Duncan Desgined pickup thats a cross between the Demon and Distortion to throw in cheapy beater Strat , just saw that thread on it last night.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Cool , just getting my lazy a$$ off the couch to go run some errands. That Lynch vid is smokin. I think I`m gonna get that cheap Duncan Desgined pickup thats a cross between the Demon and Distortion to throw in cheapy beater Strat , just saw that thread on it last night.

Rich i had one of those out of a ibanez a guy sold me for $15 and it smokes! why i got rid of it i will never know? If you swap mags to a 5 it becomes a JB with hex poles, or a A2 for JB2 with hexpoles, i put a large ceramic in mine to get a DD and due to the one coil with the hex poles it had a tighter low end and a touch less output, that one sounded really good.

[jimo]

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.

This is a unique tone...I think he is using his vol. knob to to get fuzzier/ cleaner...along with , somekind of treble booster ( which actually does more than just boost the treble...more of a gain increaser)

[WhooHoo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

For some of the BS you hear that "Its just a stock cranked plexi using a variac to lower the voltage to 90 volts and the 6ca7 tubes",My ass........Many guys have tried that including me your not going to achieve that type of distortion.I remember reading some of Nitro's post at the metro site and the Rockstah amp site that he had conversation with Jose Arrendondo(Eddie early amp tech) and that Jose did explain to him that Eddie did use some type of overdrive-distortion pedal for that recording of van halen 1 and then for the recording of van halen II Ed did use a master volume that was installed by Jose on his plexi.The overdrive-distortion unit was not used for the recording of van halen II.You can hear the difference from van halen 1 to Van halen II,Van halen 1 is much more aggressive then van halen II,you can hear it.

We all know Pitbull = Nitro so why bother talking about yourself in the third person.

If a 12 series Plexi with mid emphasizing 820 ohm/0.68 uF resistors and caps on the V1 and V2 cathodes but especially on the V1 cathode is driven by a high output ceramic pickup with some other things thrown in like the 60s or 70s 25 watt Celestions and a Echoplex, then that should be able to get to Ed's VH1 gain level but there might be other things involved as well such as a compressor.

LOL. Its on everytime the chorus comes in.

The whole ALBUM has the Phase 90 all over it- sometimes blatantly, sometimes very subtle.

That's the Echoplex that is on in the Chorus and the guitar volume is maxed for the chorus and the Echoplex is also on for the whole song but Ed turns down the guitar volume for the verses and so the Echoplex effect sounds milder for the verses.

The Phase 90 is on for the solo in Running With The Devil.

I wasnt going to post this on the other thread.(what year did the custom come out).I believe seymour knew that Ed used Mighty Mite distortion pickups(seymour wound those pickups mighty mite) and Dimarzio super distortion pickups that this was seymour's version of that type of pickup that he knew that Ed would like so seymour made that pickup and wanted to sell it as the van halen pickup.Ads in guitar player magazine for seymour duncan pickups date back to 79 and the Duncan custom was on the list of pickups that seymour made.

Ed used Mighty Mite ceramics in 1977 but Seymour Duncan was only working OEM for Mighty Mite and Seymour did not make Mighty Mites especially for Ed, the Mighty Mites were off the shelf DiMarzio Super Distortion Clones.

Seymour started advertising rewind services in late 1977 in magazines and it looks like Ed saw the ads and went to Seymour to have a PAF rewound IN LATE 1977 PROBABLY AFTER THE RECORDING OF VH1.
Seymour apparently tried to sell a EVH pickup when Seymour launched his pickups in late 1978 and it looks like the Seymour EVH pickup was modeled on Ed's rewound PAF and Ed got wind of it and stopped it.
Seymour seems to have brought back Ed's rewound PAF sometime later as the EVH78 ie 1978 when Ed had a pro in in Santa Barbara rewind a PAF, Duh! Seymour Duncan.
Ed didn't get a Mighty Mite rewound, it was a PAF according to Ed.
Mighty Mites are very hard to rewind anyway as they used bondable wire that is hard to remove.

Until I hea these words from seymour's mouth, Im callin BS on this one

As Ed put it

EVH: Like the other guitars, I took it to a pro in Santa Barbara and had the pickup rewound. So it is custom-made and gives me an original sound.

from Young Guitar - June 1978 (reprinted and translated for The Inside - Issue 14)


and

The Best Of Guitar Player (December 29, 1979)

There's another guy too...See, I've rewound my own pickups before, and a guy named Seymour Duncan, I got pissed at him too. He called me up and said, "Can we use your name for a special pickup?" And I said no. Next time I pick up Guitar Player magazine, there's a special Van Halen model customized Duncan pickup. I called him up and said, "What the hell's goin' on?" So he stopped finally. It's just kind of weird you know.