"Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

pittbull said:
So let me ask this,the first time you heard Van halen 1(first album),and your trying to analize his sound,pickup wise,what would be your first thought and what pickup would you have used to achieve that sound.For me the first time I heard van halen 1 if I had to guess pickup wise it wouldnt be a vintage type of pickup thats for sure.
Click to expand...

honestly? i heard a dimarzio super distortion.
Back in 77-78 the tone was not very gainy coming from most players and the ONLY guy i heard that had a huge, higher gain tone was tom scholz and guess what pup he used? LOL!
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

does any of this really matter?
Overwound paf will put anyone in the ball park. The right marshall crunch and you are good to go.
None of us work in a museum, why cant we just get on with making music?
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

gibson175 said:
does any of this really matter?
Overwound paf will put anyone in the ball park. The right marshall crunch and you are good to go.
None of us work in a museum, why cant we just get on with making music?
Click to expand...

I personally enjoy discussing This stuff. a overwound PAF is great but not till the second record tone. you need more OOMPH from the pup to push the front of the plexi more.
Pittbull, lets use eruption as a example since it has just guitar in the studio mix for most of the track, if you listen to this with BOSE phones and a good system you can hear his guitar pushing the plexi from the front. this was either a hot ceramic or some tweaked PAF with another boost before the input of the plexi. some swear he used a OD box of some sort? who knows for sure? it is more likely that eddie used what every other player used back then to push their marshalls harder,
the dimarzio super distortion pup. I like the duncan sh5 more for tone reasons and to me it is just a better pup than the dsd is. thats my opinion not actual fact.
 
Last edited:
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Edgecrusher, I didnt say I hear vintage on the van halen 1 sound.As for the recorded sound,yes thats what Im going for so are many other guitarist that want that sound.So I do use my ears to what I need to add to my sound to achieve that.
 
Last edited:
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

pittbull said:
Edgecrusher, I didnt say I hear vintage on the van halen 1 sound.As for the recorded sound,yes thats what Im going for so are many other guitarist that want that sound.So I do use my ears to what I need to add to my sound to achieve that.
Click to expand...

listen to other guys of that era that used a PAF and compare, they sound NOTHING like VH did!
try the custom, if you already own a CC it is only a $5 mod and if you have to buy a custom it is a $50 mod and either way you wind up with a great duncan pup! LOL!
 
Last edited:
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Ed,how true is that.Also Eddie did wind his(experimenting)own pickups before Seymour did,so van halen 1 was recorded in 1977 and released in 1978.Seymour didnt wind pickups for Ed until after van halen 1 was recorded so Ed could have wound the pickup very hot.
 
Last edited:
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

...or a variac....apart from what is quite obviously the guys fingers, its his amps that make the biggest difference. Unless you are prepared to run your marshall on ten running way hot with a variac the rest of this stuff about magnets etc is a waste of time. Why do players feel the need to clone some dudes sound so badly? Why especially do ppl over analyze the little details when the sound hes getting is pretty obviously from his custom hot rodded amps anyway? If you want a van halen type tone then look at the big picture....amps, speakers etc first. Then get the pickup you like the best and stop stressing over minor stuff...forget about digging up some long lost piece of guitar history about a piece of wire or a magnet. How many threads have we had on this stuff recently?

...when he was playing with David Lee Roth and playing old VH numbers, do you think Steve Vai gave a toss about what magnet eddie might have used?
 
Last edited:
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Gibson175 Ive been though the cranked marshall plexi variac thing and modded marshalls so-on and so-on with no cigar,many guys have tried this.I believe the missing item is the correct pickup.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

How does the Duncan custom sh-5 compare to the dimarzio super distortion.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

pittbull said:
How does the Duncan custom sh-5 compare to the dimarzio super distortion.
Click to expand...

well the dimarzio has more output and is not as "PAF" like as the custom
the custom stays truer to a gibson PAF in that it has pulled back mids and balanced treble and bass and it's construction is way closer to a gibson PAF(nickle baseplate,glossy bobbins,overall look) the dimarzio has boosted mids,bass and treble.
the duncan custom has more of the V shape EQ to it,but it is not a drastic V it has mids that punch you in the chest! LOL!
the super d will push your amp harder for more gain but i prefer the tone of the duncan.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

I still think it's silly to have it pegged what magnet was in a particular pickup, when there are so many factors in getting sound, primary of which is the amp. The tiny little signal coming from the guitar can be changed quite a bit once it's been run through dozens of caps, resistors, preamp tubes, power tubes, etc, etc, etc and then through speakers, which in themselves can change tone dramatically.

Magnet, shmagnet!
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

pittbull said:
Gibson175 Ive been though the cranked marshall plexi variac thing and modded marshalls so-on and so-on with no cigar,many guys have tried this.I believe the missing item is the correct pickup.
Click to expand...

Nah there are many variables in the chain that make a bigger difference than the pickup does. The biggest difference ive ever heard anyone make in VH tone was practice their eyeballs out to cop his chops. If you dont play like Ed its hard to sound like him.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

Ed Hunter said:
it has been said the custom was a result of a request from elliott easton of the cars who wanted a bigger hotter PAF for his dean
Click to expand...
I thought I was the only person that had read that years ago.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

It's 75% the amp and speakers….

Having said that, it would surprise me if the original mystery pickup was a Custom and not a 78.
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

JOLLY said:
I thought I was the only person that had read that years ago.
Click to expand...

No i read it too,I remember elliott saying in a interview that he went to seymour and asked for a 59 times two! that pretty much describes the sh-5. lol! He wanted a bridge pup for his dean that had a hotter PAF tone.
The main thing is i wanted the OP here to know that the SH-5 did not have edward van halen in mind when it was created,even though it will do a mean VH tone nonetheless:naughty: maybe elliott easton was a VH fan? LOL!!!
 
Re: "Seymour Duncan Special Van halen pickup 1979"

IanBallard said:
I'm sure it was much like the "78 Model". That was (supposedly) the pickup Seymour rewound for Eddie around that time, which likely was the pickup that was in Frankenstein.
Click to expand...
Van Halen I didn't come out until 1980, EVH wasnt popular yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom Special Van Halen pickup 1979
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
pittbull
P
P
Custom shop 59 made for Karl Sondoval pickup box signed by Seymour and Karl
Replies
2
Views
103
pittbull
P
T
Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Jazz Bridge(Trembucker)Pickup 4sale!
Replies
5
Views
103
jeremy
jeremy
Mincer
Seymour Duncan Announces The Joe Bonamassa "Bolin Burst" Humbucker Set!
2 3
Replies
40
Views
349
Masta' C
Masta' C
K
Seymour Duncan SH-5 to replace pickups in Jazzmaster?
2
Replies
23
Views
266
Mincer
Mincer
Back
Top