Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

Not bad, but not nearly enough air around the notes. A PAF-style pickup will be more open, as will a good amp. What are you playing thru?
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

WoodyTone said:
Not bad, but not nearly enough air around the notes. A PAF-style pickup will be more open, as will a good amp. What are you playing thru?
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You sure that's air and not reverb/correct delay that's missing?

There are a lot of ways to get VH sound - glad you found one!
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

I don't think the limiting factor is the pickup so much...Amplitube2 anyone? Sounds a bit boxy, compressed and uni-dimensional in the high-end (lacks air in the highs), kinda reminds me of a Line 6 POD and other low-cost modelers (the VOX Tonelab being the best of 'em all IMO).
 
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Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

WAYYYY compressed, however I think tht if it was a real Marshall it would be much better...
Regardless, it sounds good...

And FWIW I think it's pretty tough to get a good EVH with an ash bod/FR equipped strat, never sounds fat enough. The best EVH tone I have ever heard was a 59 Les Paul reissue, into a Orange Rockerverb 50 with a vintage MXR phaser and a Boss delay in the middle
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

yeah that EVH 'brown sound' is easy to do with a mahogany guitar...it's basically the Les Paul into a Marshall tone with extra gain and phase and delay and whatnot...never understood what the big deal was, i get in the ballpark by combining a Big Muff and a DS-1 into an old Fender with an SG...
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

Were for Eddie's Roth-era sound or his Hagar-era sound?

I'll be honest... the tone in the clip is kinda cool and reminds me of a Maiden/Priest type thing but it doesn't remind me of a Van Halen tone per se.

I will agree that you can ballpark a VH tone with a mahogany bodied guitar and a decent medium-output humbucker, though.

As far as the amp goes, I've found that for VH tones, less gain and more volume tends to work best, along with getting an old Marshall-type sound and cranking it and letting it bloom. The tone in the clip is a little too scooped and compressed, but cool nonetheless.
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

classic.rocker978 said:
Well I'd been searching for a Van Halen type pickup and I had tried several pickups...

Just got done recording a clip of an Evo2 in my Mahogany Schecter with 500k pots. I know its not a duncan.. Just wanted to let you Van halen tone chasers know that you can get a Van Halen type tone without the paf/Ash body.. etc
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Got that tone tonight with a Schecter.....with Duncans....but I can get that EVH tone with my LP with Duncans......it's in the amp, and mixing the PUs in the mid-pos for tone........for the amp/effects, mix chorus, reverb, and delay/flange/phaser whichever floats your boat.

I'm a big fan of the EVH tone/style.
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

The dean usa time machine pick ups really help me get the evh tone. I have a dean split tail and I can get it really easy.
 
Re: Van Halen Tone in Mahogany!!!

I think this points to the fact that everyone's ears (and hands) are different. To my ears, you can't get the ultra-important high-mids with anything but a plexi-style amp, and you need the vintage pickup -- but, whatever. That's like saying I like more salt than you on something.

Scott Splawn of Splawn amps once likes mahog-bodied super strats for Fair Warning-era tone (which is darker than all the other VH albums). He played it for me once through one of his amps and it sounded great.
 
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