Re: Van halen 1 sound Duncan Custom SH-5 or Dimarzio Super Distortion
The Mighty Mite Screamer was basically a clone of the Super D. Allegedly Eddie used them live for a while in the club days. B. A hot pickup and Ed was lying about preferring PAF's and 'hating DiMarzio Distortion pickups'...
actually in ed's defense he said QUOTE,
"So I got a DiMarzio pickup, and I don't really go for those, because they're real distorted. See, I like a clean sound, but with sustain. I hate the fuzz box, real raspy sound. I don't particularly go for that. The DiMarzio pickups have real big magnets that's how they get their power"
here is what he said in regards to the P.A.F's
"I'd do anything to get an old P.A.F. They're the best. They go for 100, 200 bucks apiece, but that's what I use, that's what I like. A lot of people don't like them. See, with my setup, it's matched. Like if I play my guitar through someone else's setup, it won't sound right. And if I use someone else's guitar through my setup, it won't sound right."
The pickup, it turned out, was a Gibson P.A.F. extracted from a 1961 Gibson ES-335. “I had the coil rewound to my specifications,”
This last comment i gather is referring to the seymour rewind that became the 78?
These comments were made AFTER the recording of the 1st record was already finished and being sold and Van halen was just starting their frist world tour so who knows,
Me personally I think eddie used the hotter MM and dimarzio ceramics until he started rollin in some cash then found a way to make the P.A.F work for him starting on the first tour and second album. you can hear the P.A.F on VH II no problem. it doesnt have that high end fizz any longer that ceramics typically get.
what strikes me as odd is the comment about dimarzio's being distorted??? a pup is not distorted,if it is a high output model it will hit the pre amp section harder causing more breakup,but the pup itself is not sending distortion? i guess he meant when he tried to roll off the volume knob and it stayed dirty?
anyway by the time they started the first tour eddie had a P.A.F in the frank like here, this pic is from the day on the green 1978 with aerosmith,pat travers,ted nugent,etc
