Van Halen Tone

[5150]

What pickup would be best for that EVH sound. Would the 78's be good or full shed, etc.


I'm thinking of building a guitar from warmoth and putting a EVH pickup in the bridge and a Alnico pro at the neck for the sound slash plays. I want a very light guitar like a Tele thinline mahogany with maple top and a Floyd Rose Trem if possible. Cream binding and pickguard with controls like a les paul. What do you think.

 

[51501984]

Re: Van Halen Tone

You may be flamed for not using the search function but I love a good ole VH thread. The SD custom shop EVH or Genesis Mr. Browney are to excellent choices as are the 59,Blues Trembucker and Custom Custom , maybe even the C5 and Custom would do it. What amp would you be playing though?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I think the VH tone comes mostly from the amp, being a Superlead with OD type sound.
I've gotten the best early VH tones from a 59, C-5, or EVH. The EVH just sounds like a more open sounding CC to me. I like the C-5 because it's hot enough to drive an amp, but still has a vintage character to it. Better lows than the 59 too.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I'm thinking of building a guitar from warmoth and putting a EVH pickup in the bridge and a Alnico pro at the neck for the sound slash plays.

sounds like a good idea to me for that combination of pickups, as they're both alnico 2, you should get the slash sound with the body woods you mentioned, but the closer you get to a slash sound the further you will get from an EVH sound:

EVH: 25 1/2 scale neck
Slash: 24 3/4 scale neck

EVH: (probably) ash body
Slash: mahogany/maple body

EVH: vintage strat trem, then floyd rose bridges
Slash: gibson hardtail bridge

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Van Halen Tone

but if you end up making your own signature sound, thats even better!

 

[JeffB]

Re: Van Halen Tone

sounds like a good idea to me for that combination of pickups, as they're both alnico 2, you should get the slash sound with the body woods you mentioned, but the closer you get to a slash sound the further you will get from an EVH sound:

EVH: 25 1/2 scale neck
Slash: 24 3/4 scale neck

EVH: (probably) ash body
Slash: mahogany/maple body

EVH: vintage strat trem, then floyd rose bridges
Slash: gibson hardtail bridge

Not to mention set neck vs. bolt on...wood thickness/amount...neck angle...headstock angle.....maple board vs. rosewood.

My suggestion...if you want the EVH sound..get a frankenstart. Want a Slash sound...get an A2 equipped Les Paul. AP will sound very different in a strat than a les paul. It will be more twangy without much low end/low mid emphasis.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I think I'd add Alnico 5 to hammer the amp a little harder. Or at least an Alnico 4...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I agree with Gearjoneser. If you don't have a plexi Marshall you're not going to nail the classic EVH tone because a Marshall is at least 1/2 or more of that tone. But you can get close enough with the 59 or 78 or Custom Custom and a nice amp that has the same tone stack as a Marshall. I mod my Deluxe Reverbs, Vibrolux Reverb and Super Reverb by replacing the .1 and .047 tone caps with a pair of .02's and doing a few other tricks to bring up the gain a little and cranked, they can do an acceptable EVH imitation. But really: you need a Marshall, Celestion speakers, the right guitar and pickup....and lots of talent and technique.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I agree with Gearjoneser. If you don't have a plexi Marshall you're not going to nail the classic EVH tone because a Marshall is at least 1/2 or more of that tone.

+1

i suppose thats a bonus in some respects, because slash used a caswell modded plexi on AFD. if you can get a gain mod like slash's on a plexi thats switchable, you could go between the 2 amp sounds with the flick of a switch

 

[WICKED LESTER]

Re: Van Halen Tone

the best i have heard is the production model Custom-custom
take the time to read this
scott really gives a good, accurate description of the CC and its EVH tone.
http://toneninja.net/cc.htm

 

[5150]

Re: Van Halen Tone

You may be flamed for not using the search function but I love a good ole VH thread. The SD custom shop EVH or Genesis Mr. Browney are to excellent choices as are the 59,Blues Trembucker and Custom Custom , maybe even the C5 and Custom would do it. What amp would you be playing though?

:burnout:

 

[mnbaseball91]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I saw somebody mentioned the Custom, so I'll just put in that I've got a Custom and it doesn't even touch the brown sound. The Custom Custom seems like the best bet of the Duncan production models to me.

 

[zak]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I know its all very subjective, but to my ear the CC does not get close to an early EVH sound, because:
1. The early EVH sound is actually quite bright, much more so than a CC
2. The early EVH sound has considerably less output than a CC.
3. The early EVH sound is more open sounding than you normally get with a CC-ie the CC has too much mids

If anything, the CC is closer to the Carnal Knowledge sound than it is to VHI or VHII.

I have an Ernie Ball Axis Sport which has a maple neck/fingerboard and ash body. I have tried a CC and an EVH in that guitar and the EVH was way closer to the sound.
But I agree with those that say the amp is most important (non-master volume Marshall) and any PAF type pickup will be close enough.

By the way, I have an A2Pro and EVH in my axis sport at the moment, and it works very well as a combination, so i would happily recommend it.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Van Halen Tone

+1 on zak's comments. Especially this: "If anything, the CC is closer to the Carnal Knowledge sound than it is to VHI or VHII." I've been saying that in a few other threads as well.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Van Halen Tone

CC is too hot. It's like a hotter version of Fair Warning.

If you want to do it on the cheap, grab a 59 and replace the A5 magnet with an A2.

 

[BachToRock]

Re: Van Halen Tone

The best pickup I have heard at reproducing that tone is the Custom/59 Hybrid...

The 59 is just a bit too thin in the high notes to nail it... the Custom Shop EVH is like an overwound 59 with an Alnico II magnet at it comes in second to the Custom/59 Hybrid in my book...

The Custom Custom/Custom 5 are just a bit too compressed and lack the note definition that is characteristic of vintage/low output pickups.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Re: Van Halen Tone

Gearjoneser and Lewguitar in no way need my backing, but I humbly agree that it's more amp than pickup. It seems most of the SD pickups that have that PAFish vibe will do the job. Russ Parrish of probably the best Roth era VH tribute band The Atomic Punks has a JB in his Wayne. So does Curt Mitchell (those play like VH videos)

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Van Halen Tone

The best pickup I have heard at reproducing that tone is the Custom/59 Hybrid...

The 59 is just a bit too thin in the high notes to nail it... the Custom Shop EVH is like an overwound 59 with an Alnico II magnet at it comes in second to the Custom/59 Hybrid in my book...

or you could try a custom custom/59 hybrid - take one coil from each and use the Alnico II magnet, I've heard that is essentially the same sound as the CS '78

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Van Halen Tone

I know its all very subjective, but to my ear the CC does not get close to an early EVH sound, because:
1. The early EVH sound is actually quite bright, much more so than a CC
2. The early EVH sound has considerably less output than a CC.
3. The early EVH sound is more open sounding than you normally get with a CC-ie the CC has too much mids

If anything, the CC is closer to the Carnal Knowledge sound than it is to VHI or VHII.

I have an Ernie Ball Axis Sport which has a maple neck/fingerboard and ash body. I have tried a CC and an EVH in that guitar and the EVH was way closer to the sound.
But I agree with those that say the amp is most important (non-master volume Marshall) and any PAF type pickup will be close enough.

By the way, I have an A2Pro and EVH in my axis sport at the moment, and it works very well as a combination, so i would happily recommend it.

+1

 

[Imp]

Re: Van Halen Tone

'59 bridge and an EL34 amp! i'm still shocked at how close my DSL 401 gets with a '59, but an old superlead would be it!