Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I had a tone years ago that i thought was IT for me from a laney AOR pro tube,'81 san dimas charvel with duncans and a few outboard pedals that sounded exactly like chriss from savatage on "hail of the mountain king" after playing that tone for a while i switched up, went to marshalls,put dimarzios in the guitar,etc.
anyway point is that i wanted THAT TONE back and bought another laney AOR,replaced the dimarzios with the same duncans i had before and got the same pedals. I could not get that tone again. so even if eddie was to use the SAME gear down to the brand of strings he did back then he would not get that tone again

[ZeroCool]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Seymour humbucker

[Barron1]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Is Ed supposed to keep a gear diary dating back to 1976?

Give Ed a break.

Ed changed gear a lot in the early years and to remember exactly what he used in what week with all of the gear changes and drinking etc, well.

Some of Ed's interviews can be a bit vague and skip over details but so what, they are only rock interviews and not an inventory of gear used when and why.

Ed was just trying to get the job done at clubs and happened to record VH1 in between playing club dates and experimenting with gear changes.
Ed wasn't perfecting a VH1 tone to use for his whole life otherwise he would be using it now.

Don't let Ed fool you. That whole "I forgot what I did yesterday because I was drunk" routine is just part of his rock and roll image. Don't forget Ed is a genius. All geniuses from Edward Van Halen to Mark Zuckerberg all know what they are doing, and at the same time they are decietful.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Don't let Ed fool you. That whole "I forgot what I did yesterday because I was drunk" routine is just part of his rock and roll image. Don't forget Ed is a genius. All geniuses from Edward Van Halen to Mark Zuckerberg all know what they are doing, and at the same time they are decietful.

I dont know? i really dont think eddie was all that concerned about certain things like what exact pu's were in what guitar.
I say this because he went more by the final results and not so much as what got him there.
I dont think he is BS'ing anyone, he just does not remember every little detail of his gear through the years.
The first album tone is one he was not even very happy with or liked a whole lot, so it is likely he did not worry too much about what pu was in that charvel at the time.
people read his interviews and misinterpret what he actually saying.
when he said "i dont really go for dimarzio pu's" that does not mean he never used them,but he was not all that nuts over them.

[pittbull]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

The Seymour Duncan Guitar Player magazine 1979 ad on the "Customized Van halen Pickup" has been found.Go to the Metro amp site and then Eddie van halen section, go to a thread called "Leadguy and whoever is interested".View the ad very carefully.The Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5 was the customized van halen pickup,case closed...............

[IanBallard]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

The bridge pickup in his new guitar are around 14k, but not sure about magnets. I don't know if anybody has taken one apart and examined the magnet. Some have claimed it's an A5 like the EBMM pickups, but it could be ceramic being that it's designed to be "full-range" and you can pull more EQ out of a ceramic, depending on how you wind it.

I'm pretty impressed with his new tone on the new record, so if you're looking for something similar and don't have $120 to blow on a pickup, the Custom would work great.

[frankfalbo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

The Seymour Duncan Guitar Player magazine 1979 ad on the "Customized Van halen Pickup" has been found.Go to the Metro amp site and then Eddie van halen section, go to a thread called "Leadguy and whoever is interested".View the ad very carefully.The Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5 was the customized van halen pickup,case closed...............

It's been "found"? HAAAAHAHAHA I posted it here on our forum predicting it would drive some people crazy. The pic he posted is from my photobucket account just a few hours prior. LOL It doesn't mean anything. Those guys on the Metro Amp forum are going nuts. All in good fun...

[IanBallard]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Frank, it was marketing. I mean, Dave uses the term "flavor of the week" at that point in their early history and all kind of guitar parts folks were cashing in on Eddie. How can you blame anybody? Eddie was always swapping pickups and even said he carried a suitcase full of parts on tour and changed stuff even between shows to suit is current tonal desires. It would not surprise me if he used some 14k/ceramic Seymour invention at some point. I mean... the Frankie pup is 14k, the IM1 used on the Kramer was 14k and his current guitar uses a 14k wind. He likes that output level at the bridge! It's not a conspiracy... you guys are just trying NOT to get sued!

You mentioned that you guys produced some prototypes for the Wolfgang... any insight on the formulas (wind/magnets) you tried? Any plans on offering some of those brass baseplates for sale? I'd love to try a brass Trembucker plate on my hybrid!

[WhooHoo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

Thanks for posting the ad https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...=233435&page=2

If the Duncan Custom was associated with EVH back in 1979 then WTF is the later EVH78 (or whatever it's called now) about?

Then there is the interview with Seymour saying Ed had a JB from what he could remember.

Seymour has certainly got the EVH thing covered across his model range LOL.

I can believe that EVH had a Duncan Custom because of the early ad and also because Ed just sounds like a Ceramic pickup/no MV Marshall combo early on to me but the other pickups are maybe associated with a later EVH period or are just conjecture.

The Duncan Custom could have been used by EVH in 1977 and also for the first album and the EVH78 could have been used by EVH in 1978 and also for the second album and the JB could have been used by EVH around the mid/late 80s.

Then it makes some sense to me.

Maybe Seymour thought it was ok to sell the Custom with EVH's name in 1979 because EVH had already moved on to the EVH78 in 1978.

[IanBallard]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

The description of the pickups in that ad are in parentheses. The JB says (Harmonics), The Mag (Strat sound) and the Custom (Van Halen), etc. That doesn't mean THAT was the pickup he wound for Eddie. That, to me, was their attempt to market the SOUND. Eddie had a "PAF on steroids" tone and they were the hottest band around in 1979, so it makes sense from a marketing standpoint. Eddie stated in an interview with Jas Olbrecht, that Seymour tried to market a pickup in his name and he had to sick the lawyers on him, hence the removal of the name in the latter ad. It happens.

The market was demanding higher output models, so it didn't make sense to Seymour (I assume) to market the '78 model when everybody wanted a Super Distortion type pickup.

[WhooHoo]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

I think the PAF thing is a red herring.

I can see an overwound PAF being used in 1978 because EVH's tone changed in 1978 (check 1978 world tour boots and videos) but not really before then.

EVH was using Ceramic Mighty Mite DiMarzio Distortion clones in early/mid 1977 and this is more of the cutting club tone that seems to be on the first album recorded in 1977.

This video shows the differences between driving a EVH like Plexi with different pickups.

[LtKojak]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

It's been "found"? HAAAAHAHAHA I posted it here on our forum predicting it would drive some people crazy. The pic he posted is from my photobucket account just a few hours prior. LOL It doesn't mean anything. Those guys on the Metro Amp forum are going nuts. All in good fun...

Never underestimate the POWER OF FANBOISM!!!!!!!!!!!

[jmh151]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

The description of the pickups in that ad are in parentheses. The JB says (Harmonics), The Mag (Strat sound) and the Custom (Van Halen), etc. That doesn't mean THAT was the pickup he wound for Eddie. That, to me, was their attempt to market the SOUND. .

THIS makes the most sense to me

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

NOT to sound like a smart ass but a lot of this S**T could be resovled if SEYMOUR himself or CATHY answered to it?
Was it wound for eddie on request or was it a take on eddies tone and eddie never actually used it? yes or no? i dont see the big deal with clearing this up. it has been over 30 years!

[ErikH]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5 Special Van halen pickup

It's been "found"? HAAAAHAHAHA I posted it here on our forum predicting it would drive some people crazy. The pic he posted is from my photobucket account just a few hours prior. LOL It doesn't mean anything. Those guys on the Metro Amp forum are going nuts. All in good fun...

Frank went fishing and caught a WHOOOOOOOOLE boatload of gooberfish....LOL.