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.
