"Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

[MetalManiac]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I thought about this,what if Ed did the opposite, he said,in the early days that he took the ceramic magnet out of a dimarzio super distortion and replaced it was a PAF magnet, what if he took the PAF magnet out of the PAF pickup and replaced it with a ceramic magnet.

ed couldnt take the pickup magnet out of anything. trust me. if a person can't wire up a neck pickup, then they can't change a pickup magnet.
Ed had Seymoure rewind his Gibson Paf out of hos 335 and thats what the '78 is.That came somwhere later than VH-1 idk..

The genuine sound we hear on VH-1 is a Mighty mite Screamer through a cranked Plexi and most of the magic was templemans ability to get the full marshall stack on record at live volume..
Again, for the umpteenth time, its all about the wood- a heavy north ash body with a bright Maple neck,,add the obligatory fender trem, and then put in your Duncan 78, and a tube screamer with a marshall JCM80) cranked and thats as close as many of us will get.
You cannot get the sound of the VH-1 with a SuperD , too thick, fat, and too round on the top end..so in my opinion thats out!

 

[pittbull]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I agree the Van halen 1 sound is a ceramic magnet pickup.I tried the 78 pickup and its not Van halen 1 sounding at all.I believe that the 78 pickup is a marketing pickup for duncan, also that pickup is a assumtion of the BS that Ed talked about in the early(70s-80s)interviews.I believe thats why that pickup was made.The 78 is a alnico II magnet pickup which I dont here on Van halen 1.

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

.
The genuine sound we hear on VH-1 is a Mighty mite Screamer through a cranked Plexi.
You cannot get the sound of the VH-1 with a SuperD , too thick, fat, and too round on the top end..so in my opinion thats out!

this completely contradicts itself?
the Mighty mite screamer and the Super d are the same pup!:smack:

 

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I call BS on Eddie dislike of the TONE of Dimarzios. He was just mad because they melted when he tried to wax-pot them.

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I call BS on Eddie dislike of the TONE of Dimarzios. He was just mad because they melted when he tried to wax-pot them.

yeah and for a pup he hated so much he had them in his guitars a LOT!
his shark had one,the black/yellow, the frankie had one for a bit. and others

 

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

His custom pickups are a case study in "the paradox of output". Despite the resistance ratings of the pickups (Kramer, EBMM, Peavey, Fender, etc) they are smooth, balanced and have very nice clean tones. I think he challenged these pickup makers to make pickups that produced crazy harmonics, but were not overly hot-sounding. It proves that a little innovation and creativity can yield "the best of both worlds".... no pun intended.

 

[pittbull]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

+1 Ed H and Ian.......

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

His custom pickups are a case study in "the paradox of output". Despite the resistance ratings of the pickups (Kramer, EBMM, Peavey, Fender, etc) they are smooth, balanced and have very nice clean tones. I think he challenged these pickup makers to make pickups that produced crazy harmonics, but were not overly hot-sounding. It proves that a little innovation and creativity can yield "the best of both worlds".... no pun intended.

I completely agree. his does indeed have unusual hot pu's? like the axis bridge pup,it is at 17K but will clean up when you roll off the volume control and even when on full it has a clean yet powerful tone with the occasional reminder of a single coil when you really dig in to the notes.
I have one of these in my axis and it is my favorite dimarzio,his neck pu's are unusal as well it has a P-90 on steroids type tone.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

this completely contradicts itself?
the Mighty mite screamer and the Super d are the same pup!:smack:

oh. are you sure? I guess the SuperD can be pretty bright as well, especially with cranked Marshalls, and I guess they could've controlled the vague low end of the SuperD with tight Eqing of the lows and I also think he ran a cross of jBL's/ G12m-20's which would tighten the bass up ,but dont know for certain.

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

oh. are you sure? I guess the SuperD can be pretty bright as well, especially with cranked Marshalls, and I guess they could've controlled the vague low end of the SuperD with tight Eqing of the lows and I also think he ran a cross of jBL's/ G12m-20's which would tighten the bass up ,but dont know for certain.

yes the two are the same wire gauge and type,magnet,resistance
here is a MM taken apart it will look familar to anyone that has taken a DSD apart.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Didn't Seymour do winding for Might Mite in the 70's?

 

[Jakek5150]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Here's something to consider: If tone is in the fingers, how does one go about getting EVH's fingers?

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Here's something to consider: If tone is in the fingers, how does one go about getting EVH's fingers?

Tone isn't in the fingers. the fingers can't put anything in the equipment that isn't already there. Of course, someone can utilize that tone more effectively or at least differently than someone else does by the way they play. If you wanna use that foolish extrapolation of sound theory "tone is in the fingers" , you might as well just say "tone is in the stones".

 

[IanBallard]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

FWIW, I've heard a GAZILLION attempts at playing EVH licks and songs on YouTube from every Boo-teek guy who builds a Plexi clone or people trying every "VH" pickup out there. Many of them sound great and are DAMN close. The best ones, are people who "get it" when it comes to the way he mutes, releases and picks. Whether they are using a '59, a '78, Super Distortion or whatever, all those pickups can get you in the ballpark, if you are playing the songs correctly and getting close to the way he approaches it, technique-wise. This is why the "which pickup did he use on VH1" argument is silly.

Honestly, I can only play a handful of Van Halen riffs and ZERO songs all the way through... maybe "Ain't Talkin'..." but that's only two chords. But getting THAT sound, requires some serious attention to palm muting and proper release of the notes. This is particularly true with "Somebody Get Me a Doctor". The riff is simple... just A pentatonic stuff with a little "sus" in there. But getting THAT tight mute/release after the scratching in between chords is HARD. That's what is so cool about Eddie. He's not doing rocket science, Berklee theory acrobatics up there... most of the Roth stuff is just pentatonic licks but getting that stuff to sound like Ed... fogettaboudit!!!

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

F
Honestly, I can only play a handful of Van Halen riffs and ZERO songs all the way through... maybe "Ain't Talkin'..." but that's only two chords. But getting THAT sound, requires some serious attention to palm muting and proper release of the notes.

Thats actully the best argument for "tone is in the fingers" Ive heard; when you put it that way, tone IS in the fingers sort of..not really, I mean not literally, the tone is all there in the instrument and amp, but figureatively, yeah,

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Didn't Seymour do winding for Might Mite in the 70's?

that has been said but never confimed?

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

FWIW, I've heard a GAZILLION attempts at playing EVH licks and songs on YouTube from every Boo-teek guy who builds a Plexi clone or people trying every "VH" pickup out there. Many of them sound great and are DAMN close. The best ones, are people who "get it" when it comes to the way he mutes, releases and picks. Whether they are using a '59, a '78, Super Distortion or whatever, all those pickups can get you in the ballpark, if you are playing the songs correctly and getting close to the way he approaches it, technique-wise. This is why the "which pickup did he use on VH1" argument is silly.

Honestly, I can only play a handful of Van Halen riffs and ZERO songs all the way through... maybe "Ain't Talkin'..." but that's only two chords. But getting THAT sound, requires some serious attention to palm muting and proper release of the notes. This is particularly true with "Somebody Get Me a Doctor". The riff is simple... just A pentatonic stuff with a little "sus" in there. But getting THAT tight mute/release after the scratching in between chords is HARD. That's what is so cool about Eddie. He's not doing rocket science, Berklee theory acrobatics up there... most of the Roth stuff is just pentatonic licks but getting that stuff to sound like Ed... fogettaboudit!!!

yeah no one will ever sound exactly like him, he could play any pup,amp,guitar and it is always going to be the trademark VH style.
ed was/is a tone chaser but that never stopped him from playing his guitar as much as he could. back when he was first starting it has been said he played as many as 12 hours a day. i dont know many that can say that they play that much each day. but unless you are a prodigy thats what it takes. not what pup or amp you use:14:

 

[Ed Hunter]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Here's something to consider: If tone is in the fingers, how does one go about getting EVH's fingers?

by playing 12 hours a day every day! the guy i posted playing a$99 squier bullett loaded with a POS pup should be a lesson to us all that it is not the gear it is the player:cool2:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

you guys should read the little article in the new Guitar World on Van Halens Ibanez Destoryer and VH1.... it's the issue with Randy Rhoads on the cover... shows a photo of the Destroyer from the Starwood December 1977 after Ed had painted it white... this was before he cut the piece out and painted silver and red...

it has strat knobs on it... they say in the article the chrome covered humbuckers look stock Ibanez... the end result of the article is they say half of VH 1 was recorded with this guitar and the tone on the album is not the result of a magic PAF in the Frankie...

of note in that mag they also talk about Randy Rhoads using a Variac on his Marshalls as well to lower the voltage to 92...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

another article i was reading on Marshall was interesting... they say the JCM 800 line was a result of watching what various mods were being done to Marshalls... and then the 900 line was again watching what more popular mods players were doing to the 800's... LOL... makes me wonder if any of these mods were from the VH camp...