Vasshu the humanoid typhoon
Unseen
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Plywood
Plywood
A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
- Thread starter jerryjg
- Start date
kramer.geetar
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Particle board:laugh2:
Original Frankenstrat - ash
Kramer 5150 - poplar
Particle board:laugh2:
Original Frankenstrat - ash
Kramer 5150 - poplar
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
it's amazing that they used the cheaper poplar in the 5150.... i've heard that before... i've made some strat and tele bodies out of local poplar before... this Ontario Canada local stuff is pretty warm sounding.... it's not as green looking as the poplar i see on Warmoths site... but the lumber store told me there is many types of trees all over North America called poplar so there you go...
one of the biggest tone adjustments i have found in trying to nail Eddies recorded sounds is really fine tuning your strings to the recording... forget the electric tuner... sit down and tune your guitar to the cd track you are trying to copy... often you will find that from track to track on each early VH album you will need to adjust the tuning slightly... not as bad as early ACDC albums but the same goes there as well... Running with the Devil is ever so slightly different then You Really Got Me and so on...
it's amazing that they used the cheaper poplar in the 5150.... i've heard that before... i've made some strat and tele bodies out of local poplar before... this Ontario Canada local stuff is pretty warm sounding.... it's not as green looking as the poplar i see on Warmoths site... but the lumber store told me there is many types of trees all over North America called poplar so there you go...
one of the biggest tone adjustments i have found in trying to nail Eddies recorded sounds is really fine tuning your strings to the recording... forget the electric tuner... sit down and tune your guitar to the cd track you are trying to copy... often you will find that from track to track on each early VH album you will need to adjust the tuning slightly... not as bad as early ACDC albums but the same goes there as well... Running with the Devil is ever so slightly different then You Really Got Me and so on...
wanmei1
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Not entirely true !
You will need his exact picks, strings, guitar/amp lead and perhaps most important of all.....
"The EVH look- a- like dress up kit."
It just so happens I can supply a complete "EVH look- a- like dress up kit" comprising:
1 x EVH wig
1 x EVH body shirt
1 x EVH flared jeans
1 x EVH belt buckle
1 x EVH cowboy boots
2 x EVH temporary transfer tatoos.
All this for just $1500 !
Order now and receive a full life size color poster of EVH at no additional cost !
Don't just sound like EVH........look like him too !
(Other guitar heroe "look- a- like kits available on request.")
Not entirely true !
You will need his exact picks, strings, guitar/amp lead and perhaps most important of all.....
"The EVH look- a- like dress up kit."
It just so happens I can supply a complete "EVH look- a- like dress up kit" comprising:
1 x EVH wig
1 x EVH body shirt
1 x EVH flared jeans
1 x EVH belt buckle
1 x EVH cowboy boots
2 x EVH temporary transfer tatoos.
All this for just $1500 !
Order now and receive a full life size color poster of EVH at no additional cost !
Don't just sound like EVH........look like him too !
(Other guitar heroe "look- a- like kits available on request.")
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
you can get the EVH look-a-like stuff from the Atomic Punks tribute act.... www.theatomicpunks.com
you can get the EVH look-a-like stuff from the Atomic Punks tribute act.... www.theatomicpunks.com
Last edited:
kramer.geetar
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Poplar is a cheaper wood but I wouldn't necessarily call it cheap in terms of not worthy. My '83 Pacer Special is poplar and is one of the best sounding guitars I've played. I guess it really depends on what type of quality poplar it is like you said. Basswood is considered cheap also but is used quite a lot especially in expensive ESP guitars by 'shredders' because they like it for its tonal properties, even the $2500 EVH Charvel Art Series is basswood which some snobs turn their nose up on and say pff basswood its cheap crap. Then again I'm sure the type they use is of higher quality then the basswood you find in cheap guitars. Same goes for alder.
The tuning thing is interesting and I agree with you. He also tuned his B string a tad flatter I heard then the rest.
Its interesting to think about all this stuff and its becoming a tad cliche cause everyone wants to know and people just get sick of hearing about his tone all the time. You don't get that as much as with other artists. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, Gilmour is the one that got me into guitar playing. Anyways theres a site called Gilmourish.com and its a great site with lots of info but when you think about it its f*cking geek central :laugh2: getting right down to the exact type of Big Muff pedals he used on certain recordings and if his Fuzz Face was silicon or germanium transistors. A tad overboard on certain things but anyways still a good site to read.
Poplar is a cheaper wood but I wouldn't necessarily call it cheap in terms of not worthy. My '83 Pacer Special is poplar and is one of the best sounding guitars I've played. I guess it really depends on what type of quality poplar it is like you said. Basswood is considered cheap also but is used quite a lot especially in expensive ESP guitars by 'shredders' because they like it for its tonal properties, even the $2500 EVH Charvel Art Series is basswood which some snobs turn their nose up on and say pff basswood its cheap crap. Then again I'm sure the type they use is of higher quality then the basswood you find in cheap guitars. Same goes for alder.
The tuning thing is interesting and I agree with you. He also tuned his B string a tad flatter I heard then the rest.
Its interesting to think about all this stuff and its becoming a tad cliche cause everyone wants to know and people just get sick of hearing about his tone all the time. You don't get that as much as with other artists. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, Gilmour is the one that got me into guitar playing. Anyways theres a site called Gilmourish.com and its a great site with lots of info but when you think about it its f*cking geek central :laugh2: getting right down to the exact type of Big Muff pedals he used on certain recordings and if his Fuzz Face was silicon or germanium transistors. A tad overboard on certain things but anyways still a good site to read.
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
i've used both basswood and poplar in my own bodies that i've cut... it's easier for me to find it here around the Toronto area then most other woods.. i can sometimes find Mahogany but there is some other woods being passed off as mahogany by some dealers around so you have to be careful... and i am not a wood expert at all so i could get ripped off... i think one board i bought is not mahogany at all... A&M wood in Cambridge carries lots of guitar woods and oneday i'll have to take a drive out there and score some ash and alder when i get back into making guitars... for now i don't have a shop or the tools at home... i hold hope of making axes again... and my home made axes are EVH inspired in a way... not that i copy his guitars. just i cut a body and neck and finnish it thin with some car paints and call it a guitar...
i hope to make a router template of my 1987 Striker i have here... it's the only reason i hold onto that plywood body... i have always liked that Striker modded strat shape... Except that funny indent in the upper horn that is on all Strikers of that era... it's a weird little indent in the upper body horns inside shape.. i hear the striker body is different then the 5150's Pacer body shape but it is close enough for me... and by hand i made a templete of the 5150's weird over sized headstock, again close enough for me and it works... oneday i'll make a VH style axe just for giggles....
plus oneday with that body as a template i'd love to build a real wood Striker like i had in Highschool in the 80's... with a real FRO.... i have the neck off my original but it was smashed up in a few Who style endings so it's pretty rough... but i could get a local paint store to make me a can of paint by scaning the strikers colour on the headstock of this old neck...
i've used both basswood and poplar in my own bodies that i've cut... it's easier for me to find it here around the Toronto area then most other woods.. i can sometimes find Mahogany but there is some other woods being passed off as mahogany by some dealers around so you have to be careful... and i am not a wood expert at all so i could get ripped off... i think one board i bought is not mahogany at all... A&M wood in Cambridge carries lots of guitar woods and oneday i'll have to take a drive out there and score some ash and alder when i get back into making guitars... for now i don't have a shop or the tools at home... i hold hope of making axes again... and my home made axes are EVH inspired in a way... not that i copy his guitars. just i cut a body and neck and finnish it thin with some car paints and call it a guitar...
i hope to make a router template of my 1987 Striker i have here... it's the only reason i hold onto that plywood body... i have always liked that Striker modded strat shape... Except that funny indent in the upper horn that is on all Strikers of that era... it's a weird little indent in the upper body horns inside shape.. i hear the striker body is different then the 5150's Pacer body shape but it is close enough for me... and by hand i made a templete of the 5150's weird over sized headstock, again close enough for me and it works... oneday i'll make a VH style axe just for giggles....
plus oneday with that body as a template i'd love to build a real wood Striker like i had in Highschool in the 80's... with a real FRO.... i have the neck off my original but it was smashed up in a few Who style endings so it's pretty rough... but i could get a local paint store to make me a can of paint by scaning the strikers colour on the headstock of this old neck...
kramer.geetar
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Whofan, I live in southern Ontario, KW area actually. I'm not good at identifying wood either man, unless its my own :laugh2: ...... ok bad joke. Anyways if you want an exact copy of an early 80's Kramer Pacer for a future 5150 project check out Southeast Guitars and he'll make you one, no CNC machines used either.
Whofan, I live in southern Ontario, KW area actually. I'm not good at identifying wood either man, unless its my own :laugh2: ...... ok bad joke. Anyways if you want an exact copy of an early 80's Kramer Pacer for a future 5150 project check out Southeast Guitars and he'll make you one, no CNC machines used either.
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
ya i've seen that Southeast site before.... i'd just love the excuse to make my own even if it will be ever so slightly different... maybe in the summer when i can do wood working outside... i tried cutting and sanding bodies and necks in the basement but the dust went thru the house... hanging bodies to dry after finnishing them in the back yard they stank up the house!!! For months they were hung in the basement to cure before final sanding and they smelled up the whole basement the whole time....
my dream is to have a heated garage that is not attached to a house to make as much dust and fumes as i want.... including my own fumes...
ya i've seen that Southeast site before.... i'd just love the excuse to make my own even if it will be ever so slightly different... maybe in the summer when i can do wood working outside... i tried cutting and sanding bodies and necks in the basement but the dust went thru the house... hanging bodies to dry after finnishing them in the back yard they stank up the house!!! For months they were hung in the basement to cure before final sanding and they smelled up the whole basement the whole time....
my dream is to have a heated garage that is not attached to a house to make as much dust and fumes as i want.... including my own fumes...
MattPete
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
I used to be interested in the guitars that made up the mythical EVH tone. Then a couple of revelations hit me.
(1) The mythical EVH tone (Vh1 through FW) came from several guitars. His two main guitars, Frankie and the Destroyer, were radically different. One was a long-scale, maple necked, ash-bodied trem guitar. The other was a short-scale ash (not korina) with a fixed bridge. Not to mention the odd Les Paul or Flying V (short scale mahogany guitars). Many different guitars, but the tone is very consistent.
(2) I built a Metropoulos Plexi with greenback-style speakers. That nails the tone. The main part of the tone is the greenbacks. The plexi circuit affects the dynamics of the distortion, and allows Ed to back off on the volume control to clean up. Heck, it does a great job of copping ZZ Top tones (compare La Grange to EVH, and they sound a lot alike). I'm using Scumback M75s, but the Weber 1225s really nail the tone. The Celestion greenback Heritages (the ones used in his new amp) also sound really great.
#1) Speakers and amp (50-75%)
#2) The hands
#3) The guitar (including pickup).
I've got several guitars that come really close, and all are built differently.
(1) mahogany Warmoth strat, maple/rosewood neck, floyd, Duncan Custom
(2) swampash hardtail strat, maple/rosewood neck, 59/Custom A2 hybrid
(3) mahogany/maple Warmoth PRS-style guitar, short-scale mahogany neck, Brobucker.
(4) Strat like #2, but with a Twangbanger(!)
(5) Some days, my SG with a stock 490t can get in the ballpark. The sound can be bit too flabby and nasally at times.
As far a pickups go, the only thing I can be sure of is that he didn't use a hot pickup. Custom, CC, & JB are too hot, as is the hybrid. The brobucker is on the edge of being too hot. You really need a good neutral PAF-type humbucker. The rest of the guitar, frankly, I wouldn't worry about. Heck, I've never tried it, but I have this hunch that a korina strat with a Floyd might make a great EVH guitar.
Oh, and the guitar does matter to an extent. There are some guitars of mine that don't work.
- Kramer Pacer - alder/floyd/JB. Maybe with another pickup it could work, but the JB is all wrong.
- PRS Soapbar SE: cool guitar, but the tone is all wrong.
I used to be interested in the guitars that made up the mythical EVH tone. Then a couple of revelations hit me.
(1) The mythical EVH tone (Vh1 through FW) came from several guitars. His two main guitars, Frankie and the Destroyer, were radically different. One was a long-scale, maple necked, ash-bodied trem guitar. The other was a short-scale ash (not korina) with a fixed bridge. Not to mention the odd Les Paul or Flying V (short scale mahogany guitars). Many different guitars, but the tone is very consistent.
(2) I built a Metropoulos Plexi with greenback-style speakers. That nails the tone. The main part of the tone is the greenbacks. The plexi circuit affects the dynamics of the distortion, and allows Ed to back off on the volume control to clean up. Heck, it does a great job of copping ZZ Top tones (compare La Grange to EVH, and they sound a lot alike). I'm using Scumback M75s, but the Weber 1225s really nail the tone. The Celestion greenback Heritages (the ones used in his new amp) also sound really great.
#1) Speakers and amp (50-75%)
#2) The hands
#3) The guitar (including pickup).
I've got several guitars that come really close, and all are built differently.
(1) mahogany Warmoth strat, maple/rosewood neck, floyd, Duncan Custom
(2) swampash hardtail strat, maple/rosewood neck, 59/Custom A2 hybrid
(3) mahogany/maple Warmoth PRS-style guitar, short-scale mahogany neck, Brobucker.
(4) Strat like #2, but with a Twangbanger(!)
(5) Some days, my SG with a stock 490t can get in the ballpark. The sound can be bit too flabby and nasally at times.
As far a pickups go, the only thing I can be sure of is that he didn't use a hot pickup. Custom, CC, & JB are too hot, as is the hybrid. The brobucker is on the edge of being too hot. You really need a good neutral PAF-type humbucker. The rest of the guitar, frankly, I wouldn't worry about. Heck, I've never tried it, but I have this hunch that a korina strat with a Floyd might make a great EVH guitar.
Oh, and the guitar does matter to an extent. There are some guitars of mine that don't work.
- Kramer Pacer - alder/floyd/JB. Maybe with another pickup it could work, but the JB is all wrong.
- PRS Soapbar SE: cool guitar, but the tone is all wrong.
Captain Tightpants
New member
wanmei1
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
I think your being a bit unfair to Smeagel !
Personally I think Smeagel looks to be in better shape than Eddy.
(great pic. incidentally )
=
???
I think your being a bit unfair to Smeagel !
Personally I think Smeagel looks to be in better shape than Eddy.
(great pic. incidentally )
Captain Tightpants
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Yeah, yer probably right. Sorry Smeagol!!!
Yeah, yer probably right. Sorry Smeagol!!!
bldrst
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Thought he said that was a mahogany body (B/Y VH2 GTR) in his GP interview... oh well...
Thought he said that was a mahogany body (B/Y VH2 GTR) in his GP interview... oh well...
LLL
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
Old thread (and sheesh, what a trainwreck) but I'm gonna say it:
The mythical EVH early album tones comes from Ted Templeman, Don Landee & lots of expensive studio gear like an EMT140.
If you listen to the pre-production ISO'd guitar track snippets floating around out there, Ed's tone is pretty "meh, decent cranked Plexi tone".
Old thread (and sheesh, what a trainwreck) but I'm gonna say it:
The mythical EVH early album tones comes from Ted Templeman, Don Landee & lots of expensive studio gear like an EMT140.
If you listen to the pre-production ISO'd guitar track snippets floating around out there, Ed's tone is pretty "meh, decent cranked Plexi tone".
NegativeEase
New member
Re: A bit more Info I found on EVH early guitars
I kind of agree,
I like EVH tone for the big rock chords and rhythm progression note walking -but much of that that is a function of multi tracking, mixing and mastering processing and equipment.
I like his sultry tones like on the Panama breakdown -but he doesn't often use that style.
I find his notey and tapping tone pretty regular and even annoying at times. Some of the tone warbles and honks with his tapping style -not my favorite.
I think a lot of EVH tone is just myth -perpetuated by an exploding parts and custom market for super Strats in the early 80s in the LA basin.
That said TS, it's fine to nerd out on this stuff -I don't mind the info -I respect Eddie and am always curious to try and piece together his tone history and process.
I kind of agree,
I like EVH tone for the big rock chords and rhythm progression note walking -but much of that that is a function of multi tracking, mixing and mastering processing and equipment.
I like his sultry tones like on the Panama breakdown -but he doesn't often use that style.
I find his notey and tapping tone pretty regular and even annoying at times. Some of the tone warbles and honks with his tapping style -not my favorite.
I think a lot of EVH tone is just myth -perpetuated by an exploding parts and custom market for super Strats in the early 80s in the LA basin.
That said TS, it's fine to nerd out on this stuff -I don't mind the info -I respect Eddie and am always curious to try and piece together his tone history and process.
