SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Evan Skopp said:
I know the book you're talking about. Actually, it's just a bunch of loose papers held together with a binder clip. But if you look closely at it, all of the specs have been whited out. The one she showed you is the one that's used for show and tell purposes. The actual specs are located in a cardboard Banker's box in-- oh crap. You almost made me give it away! :oops:
Click to expand...

Sooooo close! Back to the drawing board...
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Myaccount876 said:
Here's an honest question:

Why should I care? Not trying to be a ****, but why is there such an obsession over one dude's tone? So many people have tried to copy it by now, many times close enough with so many different pieces of gear I might add, that the copied sound of EVH has become cliche.

I'd personally just want to hear something new and interesting.
Click to expand...
I'll be honest... I might be just a little obsessed with his tone myself.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

I'm probably the biggest Eddie Van Halen head on this forum, and I've never really tried to chase his tone. I've always been more about his riffs, licks, songwriting, and use of effects. To each his own.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Realistically, a pickup isn't going to get you anywhere near Eddie's tone.

Look, you can waste as much money as you want on vintage Plexi amps and Duncan Customs but you don't have his hands. I saw a video that Jolly shared on FB the other of Eddie playing through his new amp upgrades. He was using a wolfgang with wolfgang pickups and guess what, he sounded EXACTLY like Eddie.

Approximation and Imitation are fine if it makes you happy, but wasting time and money trying to "nail" his tone is futile.

I respect a lot of musicians and have heard guitar tones from professionals as well as members of this forum that I have great respect for and thought "Man, that's a smoking tone." but no matter what guitar or amp they use, they always sound like themselves.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Big Flannel said:
Realistically, a pickup isn't going to get you anywhere near Eddie's tone.

Look, you can waste as much money as you want on vintage Plexi amps and Duncan Customs but you don't have his hands. I saw a video that Jolly shared on FB the other of Eddie playing through his new amp upgrades. He was using a wolfgang with wolfgang pickups and guess what, he sounded EXACTLY like Eddie.

Approximation and Imitation are fine if it makes you happy, but wasting time and money trying to "nail" his tone is futile.

I respect a lot of musicians and have heard guitar tones from professionals as well as members of this forum that I have great respect for and thought "Man, that's a smoking tone." but no matter what guitar or amp they use, they always sound like themselves.
Click to expand...

+1000

/thread
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Beyond that, I think your ears are colored by your preconceptions of a certain piece of equipment. I used to put JBs in everything and thought they sounded great. It wasn't til I got here I was told they didn't sound good in mahogany. I never had that problem.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

formula73 said:
Beyond that, I think your ears are colored by your preconceptions of a certain piece of equipment. I used to put JBs in everything and thought they sounded great. It wasn't til I got here I was told they didn't sound good in mahogany. I never had that problem.
Click to expand...

And to take it a bit further... The ED heads are chasing a recorded tone. They are using their equipment to duplicate the sound of the post processing. The sound of the mic, the room, the compression the engineer added, the sound imparted by the board, everything.

I can tell you this for almost certain the Ed heads wouldnt be so impressed with that tone if they were standing right in the room with the 4x12 blasting them in the knees.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

If we all spent half as much time just playing and learning as we did trying to copy whats already been done, we'd all be a hell of a lot better guitar players lol
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

And then there's the whole Echoplex EP-3 aspect.

The Echoplex EP-3 is more than just a tape echo machine; it's also a preamp.

It uses a TIS58 FET running at ~22-24V.

What this does to the guitar is hard to describe; but it shapes the tone.

It gets a little fatter, slightly scooped on the midrange and puts this nice grind
on the treble.

So, when you use this in conjunction with a variac'd plexi style amp, it gives up
the goods.

There's no real way to experience it unless you have a variac'd plexi style amp with
the TIS58 @ ~22-24V.

BTW, don't bother with all the fake EP stompboxes out there (Dunlop's, xotic's for example)

If it doesn't use a TIS58 (which aren't made anymore) running at 22-24V, then
it ain't the real deal.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Christopher Caruana said:
If we all spent half as much time just playing and learning as we did trying to copy whats already been done, we'd all be a hell of a lot better guitar players lol
Click to expand...

I wouldnt say that is true for everyone... For some to imitate is as good as they will ever get. Not everyone has a mind for originality
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Edgecrusher said:
And to take it a bit further... The ED heads are chasing a recorded tone. They are using their equipment to duplicate the sound of the post processing. The sound of the mic, the room, the compression the engineer added, the sound imparted by the board, everything.

I can tell you this for almost certain the Ed heads wouldnt be so impressed with that tone if they were standing right in the room with the 4x12 blasting them in the knees.
Click to expand...

This is true.

Regardless of Ed (or Page or Hendrix or whomever), the tone coming off the speaker is always going to be different than what's on record because of the studio magic.

I should add that a lot of "Ed heads" are chasing the album tone but (mistakenly) only going so far as the tone coming off the speaker cabinet. They'll post a clip/vid of them playing in the room and claim it's the sound. Not many put their tone side by side with Ed's tone. Like I've said before, Pete Thorn (great player, classy guy) is one I've heard who gets really close, and he puts his tone side by side so you can verify (as do I).
 
Last edited:
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

I find it interesting all the different ways different people use to approach the same sound.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...ack-and-Blue&p=3808552&viewfull=1#post3808552
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQZ8g_JqGk

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...-Tweaker-PG8&p=3580152&viewfull=1#post3580152
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcaTtAFnpWE

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...y-and-the-78&p=2449666&viewfull=1#post2449666
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvdQX7ECX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiD08-ZslSc

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...AHB1-s-Video&p=2189707&viewfull=1#post2189707
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcwpTBqrJs4
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...uption-Video&p=2053242&viewfull=1#post2053242
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1KqxqN3USg&fmt=22

Russ Parrish (Satchel) from Steel Panther plays Eruption/Spanish Fly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fo7BD35o4I

And an appropriate homage to the 80s blonde mullet
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

To show just how much studio work was done (this is a great example), here's the raw tone
coming off the speakers & (supposedly) SM57s. Two tracks came from the "vaults", one
brighter, one darker.

RWTD "Celestion"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fVBUL3SmFiNV92NDVnOXpaWEU/view?usp=sharing

RWTD "JBL"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fVBUL3SmFiMS1NMDZUNFk2LTg/view?usp=sharing

Now when you listen to these snippets and compare them to the studio processed versions (which I also have), you can hear the difference.

The dry tone is full, thick with bite and one single EP repeat set lower in volume. But otherwise nothing special. It's good, but nowhere
near mind-blowing as on the fully-formed album.
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

LLL said:
This is true.

Regardless of Ed (or Page or Hendrix or whomever), the tone coming off the speaker is always going to be different than what's on record because of the studio magic.
Click to expand...

Which can really vary from record to record. I read an interview once where J from White Zombie was having the engineer pump in tons of EQ on the board. Which is something most engineers cringe to do.


Out of curiosity are your clips processed at all or just straight from the SM57 into your computer?
 
Re: SD SH-5 Custom Is The One

Edgecrusher said:
Which can really vary from record to record. I read an interview once where J from White Zombie was having the engineer pump in tons of EQ on the board. Which is something most engineers cringe to do.


Out of curiosity are your clips processed at all or just straight from the SM57 into your computer?
Click to expand...

Which ones? Any of the ones I did with the SH-5, there's a completely dry one (the Ed on L, me on R one), and two with just echo chamber (OF and wank). That's the only processing and (suprisingly to me) zero EQing.

EDIT: The other ones (with BK VHII pickup) I posted in this thread do have studio (DAW) processing.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

hamerfan
The Mag - a Q for SD historians.
Replies
14
Views
122
hamerfan
hamerfan
Mincer
Seymour Duncan Announces The Joe Bonamassa "Bolin Burst" Humbucker Set!
2 3
Replies
40
Views
333
Masta' C
Masta' C
Butch Snyder
Custom Custom vs Hades Gates
Replies
9
Views
156
Mincer
Mincer
T
Is the SH-5 Custom with an alnico 5 magnet EXACTLY the same as a Custom 5? (SH-14)
Replies
4
Views
161
twannieguitar
T
S
Modified Blaze Neck in bridge position is awesome!
Replies
4
Views
93
Shooweri
S
Back
Top