Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Definitely. He had an active EQ and probably gave it a good full boost for the mids, etc to pump those preamp tubes up. Not much is said about which PRE-amp tubes he used either. There were new higher gain 12AX7's coming out in the 70's and may have replaced the Mullards or whatever was stock.

There is a certain feel to a PAF that a Super Distortion or even the CC can't really produce. I had a Super D hard-mounted in my Strat and it wasn't at all "Van Halen" to me... more like Randy Rhodes. But I've also had a '59 and currently a CC in it and I can tell you they are much closer to pre- and -post Floyd tones in a Marshall voiced amp. You can fake it with EQ maybe a sparkly compressor, but I have to agree that it was something in the PAF category. The "78", if he used it at all, would have been the album recorded in '78, which was VH2. Who knows?

Maybe instead of banning it, just put a sticky thread at the top, "OFFICIAL VAN HALEN TONE ARGUMENT THREAD" or something.

if we did, that thread would go on forever! haha

 

[pittbull]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Van halen II was released in 79,as for Eds preamp tubes he did use sylvania 12ax7 and he used the sylvania big bottle 6ca7 power tubes which is the American version of the european EL34.

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Pittbull, with the CC i had trouble gettin it to clean up for softer parts of vh1 like the mid section of ATBL and the verses of RWTD? How is ur CC and rig handling those parts? I did love the CC's mid hump. Same eq shape ed used on his mxr 6 band and ge-10

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Pittbull, with the CC i had trouble gettin it to clean up for softer parts of vh1 like the mid section of ATBL and the verses of RWTD? How is ur CC and rig handling those parts? I did love the CC's mid hump. Same eq shape ed used on his mxr 6 band and ge-10

I would turn it really low and pluck hard.

 

[JB6464]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Van halen II was released in 79,as for Eds preamp tubes he did use sylvania 12ax7 and he used the sylvania big bottle 6ca7 power tubes which is the American version of the european EL34.

Not exactly.
The Fat Bottle 6CA7 tube is a tetrode designed tube and the EL34 is a pentode designed tube.
A true Fat Bottle 6CA7 has a glassy tone like a 6L6 tube but with the compression of a EL34 tube.
But they are completely interchangeable without any mods needed to the amp.

 

[pittbull]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

JB6464,thats what i ment,Its interchangable with a EL34,the reason why Ed switched to the American 6ca7 was that the quality of the EL34s in the 70s was horrible and not relyable,Thats the reason why Marshall in the 70s started to use 6550 tubes because of that. Ed Hunter as for getting cleans out of the cc i just roll my volume knob all the way down(like Ed would do) and its clean enough for me,i wouldnt worry to much about clean when playing early van halen Eds tone in the early days wasnt crystal clean.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

JB6464,thats what i ment,Its interchangable with a EL34,the reason why Ed switched to the American 6ca7 was that the quality of the EL34s in the 70s was horrible and not relyable,Thats the reason why Marshall in the 70s started to use 6550 tubes because of that. Ed Hunter as for getting cleans out of the cc i just roll my volume knob all the way down(like Ed would do) and its clean enough for me,i wouldnt worry to much about clean when playing early van halen Eds tone in the early days wasnt crystal clean.

I think it was actually in the 80's that marshall started shipping with 6550's. Most of the JCM800's shipped to the US had 6550's.

 

[razmataz]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

I think it was actually in the 80's that marshall started shipping with 6550's. Most of the JCM800's shipped to the US had 6550's.

I can't remember offhand but there was a reason for that. I think it purely for shipping purposes if I remember correctly.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

JB6464,thats what i ment,Its interchangable with a EL34,the reason why Ed switched to the American 6ca7 was that the quality of the EL34s in the 70s was horrible and not relyable,Thats the reason why Marshall in the 70s started to use 6550 tubes because of that. Ed Hunter as for getting cleans out of the cc i just roll my volume knob all the way down(like Ed would do) and its clean enough for me,i wouldnt worry to much about clean when playing early van halen Eds tone in the early days wasnt crystal clean.

I definitely dig the furry-clean sound.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

I can't remember offhand but there was a reason for that. I think it purely for shipping purposes if I remember correctly.

It's because the quality of the EL34's marshall was using in the 80's were not reliable enough to use in the 800's and such that were being shipped to the US. So, marshall switched to 6550's for the US models because they held up better in the shipping process

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

http://thetubestore.com/el34review.html

Review for the 6CA7-EH: "If you want early Van Halen, these are not the tubes for you." Kinda odd, since I thought those were the ones he used. I don't know how close the Russian ELX tubes are to the originals though and this guy's test amp wasn't a Plexi. I'm seriously considering these tubes, mainly for their fortitude and voltage handling. Interestingly this site recommends the Svetlana EL-34 for the "Van Halen and ZZ Top" sound... whatever that means.

 

[Desert]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

http://thetubestore.com/el34review.html

Review for the 6CA7-EH: "If you want early Van Halen, these are not the tubes for you." Kinda odd, since I thought those were the ones he used. I don't know how close the Russian ELX tubes are to the originals though and this guy's test amp wasn't a Plexi. I'm seriously considering these tubes, mainly for their fortitude and voltage handling. Interestingly this site recommends the Svetlana EL-34 for the "Van Halen and ZZ Top" sound... whatever that means.

Man, those Svets are too bright for me. They don't remind me of VH or ZZ at all.

 

[pittbull]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

The EH 6ca7 dont compare to the American sylvania 6ca7 tubes,as for the tube store they are not indepht to the van halen sound,like myself or others who know that sound very well.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

The EH 6ca7 dont compare to the American sylvania 6ca7 tubes,as for the tube store they are not indepht to the van halen sound,like myself or others who know that sound very well.

dude...give it up....you dont know what you're talking about....:sword:

 

[pittbull]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

Then believe what you want,it doesnt matter to me...........

 

[marcello252]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

In my Unicord Marshall schematic copies, dated june and july 1970, it's clearly stated that Usa models mounted 6550. EL34 and KT77 elsewhere.

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

you're all completely wrong

everyone who's really into EVH knows that he wound it himself using keith richards' dental floss, a piece of volcanic rock, 2 bottle tops and a cigarette lighter.
it was potted in a mixture of lemmy's spit and tony iommi's blood (70/30 ratio; use 80/20 for the VHII tones)

 

[JB6464]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

you're all completely wrong

everyone who's really into EVH knows that he wound it himself using keith richards' dental floss, a piece of volcanic rock, 2 bottle tops and a cigarette lighter.
it was potted in a mixture of lemmy's spit and tony iommi's blood (70/30 ratio; use 80/20 for the VHII tones)

LOL pcorn:

 

[Desert]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

you're all completely wrong

everyone who's really into EVH knows that he wound it himself using keith richards' dental floss, a piece of volcanic rock, 2 bottle tops and a cigarette lighter.
it was potted in a mixture of lemmy's spit and tony iommi's blood (70/30 ratio; use 80/20 for the VHII tones)

HAHA You know, sooner or later in these Eddie threads, there is eventually a post like this, lol.

Now I'm just gonna have to mess you all up.

I do know factually that here is one specific thing that Ed had done to all of his main amps, that give them that funky sound, and I've never seen it posted anywhere to this day.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Seymour duncan custom custom Van halen sound

the fact about putting the output to a PA input, destroying an output transformer once a month?