EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

51501984

51501984

New member
Anybody going after the EVH tone and using a pedal? I know Ed always cranked his Marshall to get his tone but that`s not very practical in my house nor his spending a wad of cash on a Marshall Plexi!
 
a lot of van halen's tone centres on poweramp gain. as far as i know, the champ dosen't have a master volume knob, meaning you have to crank the amp quite hard to get the power stage sweating..

look at the marshall powerbrake. this acts (sort of) as a master volume if you use an external cab. Lets you crank the amp as hard as you like whilst still keeping the volume down.

failing that, if theres a seperate 'gain' and 'volume' knob, turn up the volume whilst decreasing the gain to compensate for louder volume, giving a very nice vintage tone in most cases. this is a bit non-specific, but its a start heh
 
I think the best way to go would be with a tube pedal, which should go well with your Champ. It'd also be best if it had an EQ on board, to compensate for your amp's natural fat tone. Have a look at something like the Mesa preamp pedal. As you said EVH has ear-splitting power amp gain to get his sound, so it won't get quite there.

You could also try adding a bit of compression, so you can keep the signal cleaner without losing sustain - people often overlook this when dealing with overdriven sounds, but it can work quite well.
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

51501984 said:
Anybody going after the EVH tone and using a pedal? I know Ed always cranked his Marshall to get his tone but that`s not very practical in my house nor his spending a wad of cash on a Marshall Plexi!
Click to expand...
some swear he used a MXR distortion plus
back in the club days?
all i know is that he has relentless drive on those early records so if he did not use a pedal of some sort he had the most furious marshall i ever heard!:eek:
 
I asked this same question a week or so ago and I got three pedal recommendations:

Toadworks Mr. Ed(duh!)
Sansamp GT-2
Tonebone Hot British or Classic

I haven't tried any of them yet, but the Mr. Ed certainly sounds like it is going for that vibe. It seems like anything going after a cranked Marshall sound is probably gonna get you in the ballpark. As a Mesa and Fulldrive 2 owner, I wasn't even getting in the ballpark, so this is a start for me!

Mike
 
msawitzke said:
I asked this same question a week or so ago and I got three pedal recommendations:

Toadworks Mr. Ed(duh!)
Sansamp GT-2
Tonebone Hot British or Classic

I haven't tried any of them yet, but the Mr. Ed certainly sounds like it is going for that vibe. It seems like anything going after a cranked Marshall sound is probably gonna get you in the ballpark. As a Mesa and Fulldrive 2 owner, I wasn't even getting in the ballpark, so this is a start for me!

Mike
Click to expand...

Yeah the MR ED:D now that is funny!:lmao: gee i wonder what ED they mean? could it be ED KING from LYNYRD SKYNYRD?:doh: :D
at least that pedal is going after a specific tone that 51501984 asked about ,most OD units really are not designed with MR ED's UH, I mean EVH's brown sound in mind;)
 
Last edited:
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

51501984 said:
Anybody going after the EVH tone and using a pedal? I know Ed always cranked his Marshall to get his tone but that`s not very practical in my house nor his spending a wad of cash on a Marshall Plexi!
Click to expand...

pedals? never could find a good one! but try a PODxt on the variac marshall setting:eek:
i use one for the late night jammin,direct recording and it is godly for his older tones:cool:
with my band "ON FIRE" i use a old rodded '68 marshall 100 SLP and love the PODxt so that is saying something bout the PODxt;)
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

Carl Martin Plexitone.... VH sound in spades.
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

i don't use 1 pedal, but rather 3... i could just use my metal zone, but yea..:
boss ds-1 distortion with low-mid gain, high(not dimed) level and slightly rolled back tone, boss ge-7 equalizer with low mids pumped up, slight treble increase, high mids decrease, and my mxr classic distortion with dimed level, tone set about 2:00, and distortion about halfway. through my peavey stack with the volume pretty low and set up for a clean sound, it gets me into VH territory pretty well for being what it is.
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

TS set for clean boost > GE7 Mids ^
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

Original Marshall Guv'nor into a plexi works for me.
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

shreddin_ED said:
pedals? never could find a good one! but try a PODxt on the variac marshall setting:eek:
i use one for the late night jammin,direct recording and it is godly for his older tones:cool:
with my band "ON FIRE" i use a old rodded '68 marshall 100 SLP and love the PODxt so that is saying something bout the PODxt;)
Click to expand...

Exactly!
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

i'll 4th the bit about the pod. i used to have a pod xt and i was amazed the first time i played around with the marshall variac setting. very convincing.
 
Re: EVH tone using a overdrive/distortion pedal?

POD's suck. Period. I spent years trying to get them to sound good (v2 and the XT) and I will never record with one again.
 
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