Re: Anyone else sick of all the relentless pursuit of VH's tone?
So, do you think the first album used a:
1] PAF/'59style mixed to make it sound heavier?
2] Super Distortion/ Might Mite cermamic pup?
3] PAF/'59 with a boost pedal?
PAF, wax potted, and the Marshall with the Variac through Eddie's home-made L-pad attenuator into H&H 400 solid-state power amps into Eddie's basketweave Marshall cab loaded with Greenbacks.
Most people really have no idea what the Variac is for and what it actually does. Sure, it drops the volume, but it also kills the clean headroom on the amp, if you set it to 90VAC like Eddie did (he lied about setting the voltage higher, because that would just make the amp CLEANER!).
Dropping the plate voltage reduces the ability for the tubes to accurately amplify the sound without clipping. A higher plate voltage has the opposite effect.
Now this not only affects the the 6CA7 power tubes he used (yes, he used US-design 6CA7s which were the US-made Tetrodes made to be the electrical equivalent of the British-made EL34 Pentodes that the Marshall was designed for) but also the 12AX7s in the preamp and even the phase inverter. This created a situation were it was distorted signal that was repeatedly redistorted because none of the tubes could cleanly reproduce the signal.
However, since it wasn't a situation where Eddie was slamming the input gain stage like most people do (either through a hot pickup or a booster), it was a softer-sounding distortion without the buzziness usually associated with preamp distortion, but it was still saturated. Usually when you smack the snot out of the first gain stage, a good deal of the distortion happens there, and THAT is reproduced by the later gain stages without those stages introducing as much distortion, hence the buzziness.
Honestly, I think you could reproduce Eddie's GUITAR sound with an Ash Strat with a Floyd, a very SLIGHTLY overwound PAF with mismatched coils, and any amp circuit based on the '59 Fender Bassman loaded with 6CA7s and the mains voltage dropped to 90VAC.
However, you're still not going to reproduce his feel, as IanBallard has said a few times in this thread. This is why you can hand your buddy your guitar without touching a control and he'll sound completely different.
Eddie has a unique pick attack (hell, look at how he holds his picks, not even using his index finger). He has very, very strong hands, but he also has a very relaxed grip on the guitar and a very fluid way of playing. Most people trying to cop Eddie's tone tend to grip the guitar like they're trying to kill it and play very stiffly, and this also translates to a slightly more brittle tone since they're smashing the strings into the frets in a way unlike Eddie.
I think the biggest clue to copping Eddie's tone is found in his face. Just look at all the pictures of him playing. He's smiling. He's having fun. He's relaxed. He's not playing so hard that it looks like he's trying to push out a turd.
Enjoy yourself while playing and you'll find yourself a bit closer to Eddie.
