Van Halen 1984 Tone

Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Perhaps a little saturated, but awesome job! This is certainly one of if not the closest I have heard!
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Okay and now what? I don't undersand this endless twaking and experimenting to replicate someone's tone. Kinda distracts from the original mission of picking up the guitar.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Okay and now what? I don't undersand this endless twaking and experimenting to replicate someone's tone. Kinda distracts from the original mission of picking up the guitar.

Who are you to decide what "the original mission of picking up the guitar" is? My guess is that an awful lot of kids picked up the guitar because they wanted to be like Eddie van Halen. ;) As for copping tones, that can be useful for cover bands, training one's ears, or for the pure fun of it.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Triple L, if you are into tone copping so much, there is a guy at Gearslutz who ran a contest last year on replicating Steve Vai's tone in Passion and Warfare. He offered cash money from 7 dollars to 700 dollars based on how close you manage to cop up Steve's tone.

He actually went out and bought Ibanez Universe reissue and a bunch other pricey gear for this project. I don't know if the contest has ended, you might want to check it out.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Great start as always!

OC - What he's doing is fun for him, so who gives a ****? ALSO I used one of his videos for the VH 1 tone when I was recording two tracks off that album for a karaoke company...so rather useful actually.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Okay and now what? I don't undersand this endless twaking and experimenting to replicate someone's tone. Kinda distracts from the original mission of picking up the guitar.

That's what i was wondering but than i thought ULTIMATE EVH COVER BAND *****ES!!!!

I wouldn't even know where to start trying to replicate someones tone. Obviously besides buying all the gear to match i just don't think i would have the patients. On the other hand i can see myself building some replica guitars.
 
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Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Who are you to decide what "the original mission of picking up the guitar" is? My guess is that an awful lot of kids picked up the guitar because they wanted to be like Eddie van Halen. ;) As for copping tones, that can be useful for cover bands, training one's ears, or for the pure fun of it.

I think you confuse 'playing like Eddie' with 'sounding like Eddie'.

I don't know, to me someone who spends his/ her time trying out gear, tweaking controls, tinkering with pickup, modifying gear, etc. is not a guitar player (let alone a musician), but an engineer.

That's my opinion, so who gives a f**k, right?

Me I have no interest in tweaking. My setting change is pretty much cutting/ boosting the 4khz slider on my dbx. But again, that's just me, you can agree or disagree.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Thanks all - still tweaking to do but I'm in the ballpark.

Fun fact: there's Eventide all over this record.

In fact, there's Eventide even going all the way back to VH2... and probably a little on VH1 in select spots.

I used my favorite Swiss Army Knife "amp" (BIAS) preamped with my UA 2-610 loaded with NOS Mullard CV4004+CV4024.

Added studio FX, eq, etc in DAW except the Eventide-ing came from an actual Eventide Pitchfactor.
 
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Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Okay and now what? I don't undersand this endless twaking and experimenting to replicate someone's tone. Kinda distracts from the original mission of picking up the guitar.

It's part of tweaking your own tone by disseminating someone else's.

It's also part of adding another tone to your repertoire.

Plus, the knowledge you gain when you find out "so *that's* how he did that!".

To learn tone (others') is to know tone.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

Triple L, if you are into tone copping so much, there is a guy at Gearslutz who ran a contest last year on replicating Steve Vai's tone in Passion and Warfare. He offered cash money from 7 dollars to 700 dollars based on how close you manage to cop up Steve's tone.

He actually went out and bought Ibanez Universe reissue and a bunch other pricey gear for this project. I don't know if the contest has ended, you might want to check it out.

Not a fan of Vai's tone... way too compressed.
 
Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

I don't know, to me someone who spends his/ her time trying out gear, tweaking controls, tinkering with pickup, modifying gear, etc. is not a guitar player (let alone a musician), but an engineer.

Exactly - not only am I a guitarist, I am also a sound engineer (hobbyist). I'm very interested in "how did they get that killer guitar tone on such-and-such album"?

And yes, you can be both.

In fact, lots of the legends were a combo of both; always futzing with this and that. Very particular about certain things.

EVH for example designed his very own studio ("5150") with the help of Don Landee (IIRC). This is a legendary guitar player we're talking about - building his own studio.


Me I have no interest in tweaking.

You should if you want to sound good... and not like every other clueless schlub who plugs into a (insert your amp brand/model) and sticks an iphone there and hits "record".

Knowledge is power. Period.
 
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Re: Van Halen 1984 Tone

I think you confuse 'playing like Eddie' with 'sounding like Eddie'.

I don't know, to me someone who spends his/ her time trying out gear, tweaking controls, tinkering with pickup, modifying gear, etc. is not a guitar player (let alone a musician), but an engineer.

That's my opinion, so who gives a f**k, right?

Me I have no interest in tweaking. My setting change is pretty much cutting/ boosting the 4khz slider on my dbx. But again, that's just me, you can agree or disagree.

I agree, your opinion is irrelevant here, as long as you're not being an arse about it. You are. Oh, and I think you just suggested that EVH (who was certainly into "time trying out gear, tweaking controls, tinkering with pickup, modifying gear, etc.") isn't a guitar player.
 
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