Van Halen Tone

[slash857]

Re: Van Halen Tone

im thinkin of gettin a guitar with that EVH pickup... but i definitely agree his tone is more in the amp, and of course in his playing

 

[5150]

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.

What SD pickup would be closest to a musicman Axis and then the wolfgang which has a darker tone.

 

[Mephis]

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.

I've gotten the EVH tone with almost every single guitar I've played, and amp, well, not a solid state, haha. (I can't get the quack out of most guitars, like his had tho.)


90% of the equation is a marshally sounding amp. My peavey sounds very very much like a marshall, has that great harmonic distortion.


As far as i've read for the bridge he used a bridge pickup out of an old gibson 335, so that right there tells me a 59 would do the trick. I think a 59 or CC would be best unless you have stupid amounts of money to spend. I really don't think the pickup he used had much output.

 

[zak]

Re: Van Halen Tone

5150,
Dimarzio have said that the closest stock pickups they make to the axis pickups are the air norton neck and the tone zone bridge. As they made the axis pickups, we should probably take their word for it. One thing is for sure - the axis pickups have big bass and mids and less top end. SD dont really make a pickup like this, but Dimarzio do - the air zone, tone zone and breed all have this kind of EQ.
As far as SD pickups go, there isnt one that is close. The CC doesnt have the bass response of the axis, but it still may be the closest. The C5 has nowhere near enough midrange and is a bit on the bright side, and the Custom is just too bright. Perhaps a C3 (custom with alnico 3 magnet) would be closet of all, or maybe a C5 that has been overwound so it sits somewhere between a normal C5 and JB. The JB has its mids all in the wrong place, though the output is about right.
I know this is a bit of a stereotype, but a lot of higher output dimarzio pickups are modern rather than vintage sounding, have big mids and lack a little bit in the subtelty stakes - the tone zone is a good example of this. A lot of the SD higher output pickups still have a vintage element to them, often with more top end and often retaining a bit of subtlety. It just happens that the axis pickups are closer to the dimarzio type.
Compare the JB, C5, CC with the Tone Zone and Evolution.
The air zone, on the other hand, is a good compromise between the two types - it has the mids/bass of the dimarzios but somehow has some of SDs vintage flavour.

Really not sure about the wolfgang as i dont have one.

 

[WICKED LESTER]

Re: Van Halen Tone

the tone zone or even better yet the air zone is a good sub for the axis bridge pup
and the air norton is very,very close to the axis neck
the tone zone is exactly the same except for one thing it has domarzio's "dual resonance" design(one coil is wound different than the other) and the axis bridge pup does not it has two matched coils.
this is the ONLY difference between the two

 

[WICKED LESTER]

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.

yes i agree but IF you use the CC and set is far from the strings
it will do the early EVH tone trust me
By lowering it far from the strings it loses much of its compression and really opens up like a older hot P.A.F :dance:

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Van Halen Tone

You can tell that his pickup sits a little ways from the strings because its direct mounted. THe tabs on the 59 arnt very tall either.