The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

OlinMusic said:
I
Although EVH invented it, I think a lot of guys got the tone with basswood and a JB or a PAF Pro.
Click to expand...

Careful!! Don't give EVH any credit for 'inventing' anything.....2 weeks from now, he's going to have a fleet of lawyers suing Ibanez and every other basswood builder for using basswood...

Seriously, Ibanez and plenty of other guitar builders had been using basswood long before musicman came out with the evh model. Prior to that, EVH's guitars were alder or ash.

EVH tends to lay claim to designing or inventing way too many things....it wouldn't surprise me if some day he tries to convince the guitar public that he invented the syncronized tremolo on the strat and the humbucker pickup.
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

Hmm, I don't recall him ever taking credit in any interview for anything.

He had a hand in the Wolfgang and had a hand in the EBMM model, now Axis (more the neck and pickups than anything). I'm sure there was a say in the amp from a tone standpoint too.

I wouldn't necessarily say he "designed" those things totally, but more likely it was just his word of "this sound is what I'm looking for" and let the actual engineers do the work.

And the tapping thing was done well before him (as already mentioned), just with open strings. What he brought in was using the left index finger to move the position up and down the neck (as we know it today). He claimed that he got the idea from Jimmy Page.
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

ErikH said:
Hmm, I don't recall him ever taking credit in any interview for anything.
Click to expand...

He's claimed to be the idea generator behind the floyd rose tremolo and the subsequent fine tuners of the floyd. He's even stated in a few back issues (of guitar mags), after a falling out with Floyd, that Floyd owed him money for the darn thing.

He's made similar complaints about Seymour regarding the design of the Custom Custom.

His claims of inventing two hand tapping, which *was* done by others prior to him...and not just with open strings, is legendary.

He's lied to the guitar press numerous times regarding his rig...in some cases, stating procedures on amplifiers beyond his knowledge.

He claims he was solely responsible for designs of the neck contour and pickups of the EBMM evh...Steve Blucher will tell you otherwise, regarding the pickups...and I have a sterling ball interview here where he mention specifically how the contour was developed...and the only thing evh contributed to the process was handing EBMM his old striped kramer so they can laser scan the neck.

He also claims that he designed the pickups on the wolf, although I have no proof of the contrary, if I robbed a bank twice and the third time, I claimed I didnt, would you believe me?


In fact, the only thing that EVH actually holds a patent for is the D-Tuna...and I wouldn't be surprised if the guy got the idea from someone and evh's lawyers just beat the guy to the patent office.


Sorry, I don't mean to sound down on the guy....but the fact of the matter is that if there's anyone out there in music land that takes credit for other's hard work, it's EVH!
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

That's where we differ. I never read him claiming anything. I have lots of back issues too. We all know that part of the EBMM contour came from the Kramer. The story I have is he wanted a neck that felt like it so EB scanned it, nothing more. By the pickups I mean he just said whether he liked them or not or felt they needed more of this or that, not that he actually designed them.

The CC was made for him by Seymour and he wanted to put EVH's name on it, a sig model, but EVH would not have it. That's what I've heard for the past 15 years and read on this very board. What complaints has he made?

Read my part above on the two-handed tapping again. That's in every mag I've read that he's been asked about it. Not saying he's never lied about it, but I haven't read anything different.

Never knew about the Floyd thing. Makes you wonder sometimes though how much of all of it is actually BS on the magazine's part too.

I'm starting to feel like everyone wants to kick him while he's down all of the sudden (and he is down, broken marraige, broken band, etc.).
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

ErikH said:
I'm starting to feel like everyone wants to kick him while he's down all of the sudden (and he is down, broken marraige, broken band, etc.).
Click to expand...

Not true at all. Eddie was a hero to me for pretty much my entire guitar playing life. I started playing because of him and practically everything I did on guitar between 1986 and 2001 was done to sound, play or smirk like him. I do think EVH is in a bad way right now due to nobody's fault but his own, but he will always be tops in my book. I've got practically every print or video interview with the guy since 86...Some, I've almost memorized.

However, having said all of that, the one thing that always put me off about EVH was his failure to give credit where credit was due. He never could say 'Floyd Rose had a great product'...instead, he had to claim he designed the thing. Perhaps it's the fact that he's been bowed to for so long, he's screwed up.

Please don't take offense to this, but if you haven't read interviews where evh has either taken inapropriate credit for designing something (like the 5150 or one of his 90's guitars) or flat out accused someone of stealing a design from him....then you haven't read that many interviews of the guy.

Now, this is my last word on the subject in this thread. I've contributed to the complete hijacking of this thread and to the original poster, Please accept my apologies!
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

Very informative post! I'm thinking of putting in my 12.7k Alinico II Aero Instrument in the bridge position. If EVH played with a standard space on a Floyd the I surely can. Excellent!
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

You know, I think the pole spacing is more a visual thing than a sonic thing. I played for years, with a JB in the bridge of a floyd loaded guitar. The JB was normal spacing...it sounded fine...

But it bothered the heck out of me every time I looked at it!
 
Re: The quissential "Super Strat" tone?

strangegrey: I don't take offense to that. There's lots that I haven't read, I know that, but from what I have read, it's what I've stated already. And they were from the beginning to the present.

I'm in the same boat as you about him. He's been my hero from the get go, although he wasn't the one that got me to play. Ace Frehley got me interested, Eddie wowed, but seeing Richie Sambora play live in 1987 made me want to play. Sure, he's no Eddie, but it was my first rock concert and that just sealed the deal.

In the beginning I did everything I could to try and learn his stuff but could only get so far. At one point I just decided to do my own thing, but roll what I learned from playing old KISS, VH, Dokken and everything else I played in to my style. So now, there's a little bit of everything. I don't strive anymore to nail anything exact, unless I feel I have to.

It's all good though. We at least can meet on some common ground. :beerchug:

And now, back to our originally posted topic.

My quissential "Super Strat" tone: alder body/maple neck/maple board, vintage-style bridge, PAF bridge pickup (it let's the wood sing).

The PAF in my frankenstrat is standard spaced. Could care less really. It works and it sounds good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top