How to Sound Like Van Halen

C

Chistopher

malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I thought since the EVH bug has been going around, I might as well put this video on our forum. This guy has loads of other good videos about tonewood, speakers, and other things if anyone cares to look.

 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

2nd79.jpg


Ed's amp was Jose modded no matter what John Suhr sez.

Dave Friedman admitted it was modded and has overhauled that amp back to stock.

You can see the MV pot stem in photos for yourself.

Its not Astrophysics, its an amp.

"Many guitar players first became aware of amp mods from Eddie Van Halen. Everything Eddie touched turned to gold at the time, and when he mentioned in an interview that his Marshalls were modified by the Jose Arredondo, Arredondo’s business exploded. That helped break modding into the mainstream, and gave Arredondo’s contemporaries a bottom line to launch their businesses from."

https://reverb.com/news/how-4-high-gain-pioneers-got-their-start-with-mods

The real story isn't EVH but the Men who builts the amps we all love.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

kinda think...like...if you can play like Van Halen then you can pick your sound....if you can't play like him then what's the point???
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Those in the know figured out that Ed did have a pair of JBL D120s in his cab (1st album, anyways).

This contributes to the high end "sizzle" (ceramic mag'd SH-5 as well) found only on the 1st album. This album tone is actually
pretty bright by comparison to the rest.

First clip (Runnin' With The Devil) is using JBL D120 iRs.

Second clip (Panama - different era of course) is using Greenback iRs.





I have snippets of the actual pre-production RWTD (tapped off the speaker cab); one clip JBL and one clip Celestion.
Anybody interested let me know.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

JMP/HBE said:
2nd79.jpg


Ed's amp was Jose modded no matter what John Suhr sez.

Dave Friedman admitted it was modded and has overhauled that amp back to stock.

You can see the MV pot stem in photos for yourself.

Its not Astrophysics, its an amp.

"Many guitar players first became aware of amp mods from Eddie Van Halen. Everything Eddie touched turned to gold at the time, and when he mentioned in an interview that his Marshalls were modified by the Jose Arredondo, Arredondo’s business exploded. That helped break modding into the mainstream, and gave Arredondo’s contemporaries a bottom line to launch their businesses from."

https://reverb.com/news/how-4-high-gain-pioneers-got-their-start-with-mods

The real story isn't EVH but the Men who builts the amps we all love.
Click to expand...

That’s never been confirmed, and is wildly speculation still. It also has been speculated that it is a line out that was added, as EVH used that extensively as well through his career. Even if Jose did mod it, the question is which mod, and how much was changed? It could have been something as simple as the line out or MV added. What people seem to overlook is that Jose did more than just that one diode clipper mod Friedman, Cameron, voodoo, fortin, and everyone under the sun copied. He was known for many different circuits back in his day.

Point is that there’s no way it will probably ever be verified. Even if it were who’d believe it?
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Not commenting on the Van Halen argument right now, but Johan Segeborn's videos are very thoughtful and informative. The guy is one of my fave's.
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

ICTGoober said:
Not commenting on the Van Halen argument right now, but Johan Segeborn's videos are very thoughtful and informative. The guy is one of my fave's.
Click to expand...

His mass versus sustain video has got to be the most informative video on the subject.
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Man, those JBL's sound atrocious on their own, but they mix great with the GB's.
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Kamanda~SD said:
Tell that to Mike Soldano too (Start at around 8:30 if the embedded doesn't):


https://youtu.be/UBIcicqIfCM?t=8m33s
Click to expand...

edamps.jpg


evh_78_amp_echoplex.jpg


big_EVHandhisSoldanoSLOs-1.jpg


Ed has had ALOT of amps, many of which were anything but stock. On their first VH Tour of Japan, Pan Am Airlines lost ALL OF ED'S AMPS COMING BACK FROM JAPAN. Eddie would love you to believe there were nothing more than stock amps on the records but we all no different. Next you're going to tell me he plugs straight into the front with no pedals.

Don't forget ed has been on a steady diet of Nicotine, Heinken & Cocaine for about 45 years.

If you read Sammys book Sam sez the defining moment for him was when Ed tried to bash out a window in the cabin of their Privte Jet @ 30,000 feet in a drunken rage.

I take very little of what Ed sez as the truth.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

No doubt Eddie has been a well known bull****ter, nobody is arguing that, but a lot of the accounts don’t come from Eddie. There have also been numerous people who have played through his rig, like Steve vai and I believe both dweezel and Nuno as well, and they all seem to have a similar account. Also the biggest thing to keep in mind is that, THAT tone or sound wasn’t very important even to the man himself. He went out of his way to ditch it after the first album. Chances are it probably didn’t sound as good in person as it did after the studio worked it’s magic on it.
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

A big part of the whole "where did he get all that gain with a stock Marshall" schtick is the fact that in 1968, Marshall was (randomly) slapping a .68uF cap on V2 in their Lead amps from the factory. Apparently they only did this for a year or two. This provides a good boost. I did it to mine when I modded my JTM45RI to '68 Plexi specs.

Used in conjunction with a hot humbucker (SH-5), and there's plenty of gain on tap (pun intended) for Ed histrionics - plugged straight in.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Joey Voltage said:
That’s never been confirmed, and is wildly speculation still. It also has been speculated that it is a line out that was added, as EVH used that extensively as well through his career. Even if Jose did mod it, the question is which mod, and how much was changed? It could have been something as simple as the line out or MV added. What people seem to overlook is that Jose did more than just that one diode clipper mod Friedman, Cameron, voodoo, fortin, and everyone under the sun copied. He was known for many different circuits back in his day.

Point is that there’s no way it will probably ever be verified. Even if it were who’d believe it?
Click to expand...

Its no line out its a single pot, no jack. Get real man. Hmmm now why would anyone put a Pot on the back of a NMV Marhall ? Hmmmm I wonder why ... Hmmmm ????

Everything about EVH is Folklore & Conjecture and thats the way he likes it cuz it sells his Products.

I believe thats called MARKETING.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

The sound heard when listening to an album is rarely (if ever) the sound of the amp on its own. The mic, the effects, the mixer used to record, and in the time of VH1, even the TAPE affected the sound. We are hearing the recording tone after all of those components and the engineer and producer have impacted it.
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

40 years later.....and I still don't care.....I just like the record...what is the big deal with the rest??
To get a bite of the cake??
Play in a bleeding coverband?
Recorded sounds are not how amps sounds^(agrees).....
 
Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

LesStrat said:
The sound heard when listening to an album is rarely (if ever) the sound of the amp on its own. The mic, the effects, the mixer used to record, and in the time of VH1, even the TAPE affected the sound. We are hearing the recording tone after all of those components and the engineer and producer have impacted it.
Click to expand...

Yes; the "studio magic".

Which can all be re-created. And has been.

Those of us who really, really love tone study and geek out on these things.
 
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Re: How to Sound Like Van Halen

Vasshu the humanoid typhoon said:
40 years later.....and I still don't care.....I just like the record...what is the big deal with the rest??
To get a bite of the cake??
Play in a bleeding coverband?
Recorded sounds are not how amps sounds^(agrees).....
Click to expand...

Because -

The majority of the time, when "you" heard a killer guitar tone, it was off an album (record, tape, 8-track, CD, MP3, FLAC, etc)...

Some of us out there (myself included) want to know "how did they get killer tone???". It fascinates us... it's a mystery to be solved.

So, we do lots of research, studying, gear combining, testing... not only with guitars, amps & pedals, but
also studio equipment, mixing and recording techniques. The latter is just as important, if not more so, as the former - it
is an instrument to learn unto itself... and can be the most expensive aspect.

Once we figure out a tone, we can use that (or a variant of it) for our own stuff, or just for fun.

For example: I used my EVH 1984 tone settings on my solo in this SD collaboration recently; came out great:



Of course, this "phenomenon" (not really) is quite common with recording studio types of persons and the like... which prolly
makes it seem alien to people who just like to plug in and play guitar but not take things any further.

If you want to sound good on "record" with a polished effort, you either have to pay somebody (recording studio type) or figure it out yourself.

Tone Forensics, if you will.
 
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