Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

WICKED LESTER said:
it was NOT bone stock :smack:
put on ERUPTION and really listen to that tone or the last F# chord in "atomic punk" when that marshall is begging for mercy and THEN try to still tell me it was BONE STOCK! :rolleyes:
I now for a fact that it was modded.
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Hilarious. You've got a great handle/name, by the way.

Anyway: yes, his amp is made of vintage/stock parts, albeit mixed & matched from replacement parts/caps/resistors/etc. from that era.

Everyone and their mom knows that Templeman HEAVILY altered Ed's tone at the mixing board, which was supposedly a friggin' nightmare. The board-mix treble is ALL Templeman's idea.....much to Eddie's chagrin. He hated the tone, which is why he never used it again.

This is obvious by VHII, when Templeman caved to Ed's wishes, and voiced his Marshall the way Eddie intended.

The "mysterious" distortion/boost pedal that was always on Ed's orginal crap pedal board was almost definitely used on many/most of the tones on VH1, and later on "Fair Warning", albeit in a different form.

VH1 is by far his most trebley and jangly tone, and it's due to Ted Templeman. Not a "modded" Marshall.

While it may be inaccurate to say that it's "stock", it certain isn't "modded".

More like, "replaced" or "mixed".

Anyway, use common sense. You don't send your d*mn amp to Denmark back in 1994 when you want it cleaned/fixed, and it's a modded Marshall. There are 50 techs in every major US city who can do that.

It was sent there to be dealt with by a master of stock amps. Period.

If it was a d*mn modded or "hot-rodded" Marshall, Matt Bruck would've cleaned it up/refurbished it himself.
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

It's always interesting to read the different version's on Ed's pickups, gear, etc.

Love it :D
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Majestic said:
The "mysterious" distortion/boost pedal that was always on Ed's orginal crap pedal board was almost definitely used on many/most of the tones on VH1, and later on "Fair Warning", albeit in a different form.
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That's probably the most interesting post here so far. Ed used his MXR Phase 90 on pretty much every solo on the first album, he said it didn't do much phasing, he preferred to use it for a boost (and obviously Atomic Punk effects).
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Majestic said:
Everyone and their mom knows that Templeman HEAVILY altered Ed's tone at the mixing board, which was supposedly a friggin' nightmare. The board-mix treble is ALL Templeman's idea.....much to Eddie's chagrin. He hated the tone, which is why he never used it again.
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Any idea how to get that trebly sound with an eq? Like what frequencies to boost, eg. 3000Hz?
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

I'm not an authority on getting the "sizzle" he had on a few of those tracks.

All I know is that he's famously maxed-out his powertube distortion, so to get a tone w/ that type of sizzle AND have that mushy powertube distortion, the engineer likely did something on the back-end. Nowadays, I'm sure players would use the "treble-correctors" that are built in on some of their powersoaks.

You don't hear that same tone EVER again in any VH track, although the dark, growling, almost "muted" powertube tone is still there until 1991.

I don't think using a treble boost pedal is going to effectively simulate whatever board-work was done by Templeman. I could be very, very wrong.

And I didn't mean to sound like I was "spouting off", or whatever. I like Wicked Lester, I like his name, I like his Avatar, and I like his messages.

I have no doubt that Eddie's supposed "stock" amp has many replacement parts, goofy caps, and goofy filters in it, but I interpret them as just that.....REPLACEMENTS. Not some goofy, late-70's era hot-rod cascading gain mega booster Marshall mod.

In other words, I don't believe, based on the more recent truthful interviews Eddie has given, that he's taken an old car, and beefed it up with new car parts.

I think he's taken his old car to the junk yard, and found replacement parts that either WERE from the same era, or are built to FUNCTION like parts from the same era.

Again, if he had some lame-azz early-80's hot-rodded Marshall, he could take it a half mile down the road and have Steve Vai or Dweezil fix it. He sent it to Denmark for a reason.

That said, I should state that I firmly (and maybe incorrectly) believe that whatever filters, caps, resistors, etc. that are in his Marshall, are very important to getting his smokey, warm tone. In other words, I believe the "recipe" is certainly relevant, but I think it would be easier to achieve if we just all knew the damn combination, and could also play like Eddie.

Ed's playing style is sneaky-violent. He's able to play a low output pickup into an old-a** amp BECAUSE his left hand technique is so articulate and thorough (his fingers "micro-pluck" during pulloffs, etc.), and his right-hand technique can switch from silky to violent with the flick of the wrist.

Go ahead and try to play that scrambling, violent intro lick on "I'm the One" that's about 10 seconds into the tune at ALBUM SPEED, with ALBUM CLARITY. You could plug right into Ed's exact rig, but if you don't can't cross-pick like that, you're gonna sound like an a**-clown. :smack:

Even Curt Mitchell and VHaholic are a step slow on that one. Although they've both come the closest to nailing that lick. Hell, EDDIE couldn't even play it when he was rehearsing during the VH III tour, and HE WROTE IT. Took him a week to get it right.....those were were his words.
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

......more gain, less mids. A tighter, "narrower" sounding tone.

The easiest to simulate, IMO. You can do that with any Marshall-style combo and a boost pedal. Turn up the chorus and the "gain" knob on the boost pedal, though, if you're simulating the last track on the album.
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

I agree about VHoholic and a few others comin damn close to the EVH tone.
and i also agree with majestic that eddie himself cannot get that tone again
yes ted had a LOT to do with ed's actual studio tone for sure
if you guys want to hear a more "stock" eddie tone listen to the older boots from '78-'84
where ed is own his own :laugh2:
it is still a monsterous tone but not quite as great as the studio tones.
his latest tone is the easiest to mimic, i know a guy who has a stock 5150 and a ebmm evh sig axe and all he uses with it is some chorus and a slight delay, sounds real good for the latest tones
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

if VH tone you are looking for try a Custom or a Custom 5 with a Soldano and a Plexi Variac in you gear...
PD
the neck and fretboard are birdseye maple and basswood body , just a thought
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

VHoholic said:
My goodness this thread is getting Huge! :eek: LOL
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VH, what did you expect when the thread is about probably the greatest guitarist ever :)
when the talk is about EVH it is always a huge thread! :laugh2:
the guy is just UNREAL on a axe :cool3:
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Thanks. it took me about a week to complete. For the taping for the stripes, that took me about 2 days just to complete. because i was trying to get as close as possible to the paint job on eds
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

WICKED LESTER said:
VH, what did you expect when the thread is about probably the greatest guitarist ever :)
when the talk is about EVH it is always a huge thread! :laugh2:
the guy is just UNREAL on a axe :cool3:
Click to expand...
:D
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

80sFan said:
Thanks. it took me about a week to complete. For the taping for the stripes, that took me about 2 days just to complete. because i was trying to get as close as possible to the paint job on eds
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That's pretty good. I know it's hard work. It took me nearly that long to paint my EVH shoes, and I wasn't that concerned with detail. Of course, I'm not the most artistic person in the world.
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

WICKED LESTER said:
VH, what did you expect when the thread is about probably the greatest guitarist ever :)
when the talk is about EVH it is always a huge thread! :laugh2:
the guy is just UNREAL on a axe :cool3:
Click to expand...

Oh PLEASE! This thread needed to die a while ago...(but VHolic is the man!)

Ed hasn't played anything vital since 1984. And have you noticed his song writing is only decent when Hagar is in the room? I mean, the guy has about five tricks: Fast pentatonics, Whammy, Harmonics, Tapping and the odd funky chord voicing. He no doubt inspired super-strats (by accident!) and kicked the bar up a notch (or 2). But back in the day (and I was there!) you could find a VH clone on every corner. Flattering, yes. But impressive - no. Why? Because it was that easy to copy!

Now - just so I don't get totally flamed, I will say this: I think the coolest, deepest, most fascinating thing Ed brought to the guitar was the piano influence. And I don't mean keyboards on 1984. You can tell that Ed played piano. He has keyboard licks all over VH (in between guitar craziness), and a really cool approach to chord harmony that very hip. But to notice that stuff, you have to get past the flash and crap (and which pup he uses).

Don't even put him up there with Jimi, Stevie Ray, etc. For every thousand people who can cop Mr. VH's tone and chops, there might be (stress MIGHT) be one who is even close to Jimi or Stevie Ray's sonic mojo!
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Aceman said:
Oh PLEASE! This thread needed to die a while ago...(but VHolic is the man!)

Ed hasn't played anything vital since 1984. And have you noticed his song writing is only decent when Hagar is in the room? I mean, the guy has about five tricks: Fast pentatonics, Whammy, Harmonics, Tapping and the odd funky chord voicing. He no doubt inspired super-strats (by accident!) and kicked the bar up a notch (or 2). But back in the day (and I was there!) you could find a VH clone on every corner. Flattering, yes. But impressive - no. Why? Because it was that easy to copy!

Now - just so I don't get totally flamed, I will say this: I think the coolest, deepest, most fascinating thing Ed brought to the guitar was the piano influence. And I don't mean keyboards on 1984. You can tell that Ed played piano. He has keyboard licks all over VH (in between guitar craziness), and a really cool approach to chord harmony that very hip. But to notice that stuff, you have to get past the flash and crap (and which pup he uses).

Don't even put him up there with Jimi, Stevie Ray, etc. For every thousand people who can cop Mr. VH's tone and chops, there might be (stress MIGHT) be one who is even close to Jimi or Stevie Ray's sonic mojo!
Click to expand...

Jimi's noise mojo to be more accurate.
 
Re: Best Pick up for EVH tone?

Aceman said:
Oh PLEASE! This thread needed to die a while ago...(but VHolic is the man!)

Ed hasn't played anything vital since 1984. And have you noticed his song writing is only decent when Hagar is in the room? I mean, the guy has about five tricks: Fast pentatonics, Whammy, Harmonics, Tapping and the odd funky chord voicing. He no doubt inspired super-strats (by accident!) and kicked the bar up a notch (or 2). But back in the day (and I was there!) you could find a VH clone on every corner. Flattering, yes. But impressive - no. Why? Because it was that easy to copy!

Now - just so I don't get totally flamed, I will say this: I think the coolest, deepest, most fascinating thing Ed brought to the guitar was the piano influence. And I don't mean keyboards on 1984. You can tell that Ed played piano. He has keyboard licks all over VH (in between guitar craziness), and a really cool approach to chord harmony that very hip. But to notice that stuff, you have to get past the flash and crap (and which pup he uses).

Don't even put him up there with Jimi, Stevie Ray, etc. For every thousand people who can cop Mr. VH's tone and chops, there might be (stress MIGHT) be one who is even close to Jimi or Stevie Ray's sonic mojo!
Click to expand...

I`ll put him up there with Jimi and Stevie , and I think those guys are the greatest! I mean if your gonna say that why not say don`t put Stevie Ray up there with Johnny Winter! But hey , not everyone has to like EVH . I just had to make a statement :D
 
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