Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

[whatshisname]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

I'd have to agree, Ian. Ed always said that he liked to make the amp do all of the work.

 

[revolution]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

hmmmmm...interesting stuff.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

I could build a "1978" guitar with a hard ash Boogie Body, maple neck, vintage Fender bridge, brass nut, etc, etc and put a GFS VEH or even a Parsons Street Golden Age pickup ($40-50) in there, plug it into a Metro 12xxx Super Lead replica and you'd probably not tell a huge difference with Ed playing it, if it had a Duncan 78 ($160) instead.

IMHO not so true, I mounted a Gfs VEH in my hard ash strat body through my jcm 800 and the tone wasn't exactly VH. Ok, it's a good approximation but definitely not really on the spot.
BTW actually the guitar of mine more similiar to what I perceive as the VH sound is my poplar tele with maple neck and a GFS classic II at the bridge, that I think it's simply a cheap PAF type with an A2 magnet. My complain is about the bass side, it lacks some mid-bass force, but overally it's a very good VH tone.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Wasn't original Van Halen strat made of basswood?

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

No, it was hard Northern ash. The same factory that cut bodies for Boogie, also made baseball bats. That was one of the head-scratchingly stupid oversights Fender made with their Frankie "replica"... they used Swamp Ash, which has a totally different tone. He said in an interview in 1980 that Frankie was as heavy as a Les Paul. Obviously swamp bodies don't weigh that much, nor do basswood bodies. The 5150 may have been basswood... but nobody will ever know for sure, unless Ed auctions it off.

As far as the pickups go, I think it's snake oil to put products out there (including the "official" Frankie pickup) that are supposed to replicate the VH sound. He used a Les Paul... he used a Flying V... he used Frankie... he used the Destroyer... the mini Les Paul... all of them sound like Ed. Unless Seymour wound a bunch of pickups and he put them in all of his guitars, it's a little assumptive that the pickups were "the key" to the sound.

 

[whatshisname]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

One thing that people always overlook are the strings that Ed used. He used pure nickle 9-40. It makes a much bigger difference than most people seem to realize.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Unless Seymour wound a bunch of pickups and he put them in all of his guitars, it's a little assumptive that the pickups were "the key" to the sound.

I totally agree. That said, of all my pickups, the one which let me get closer to that sound is a Paf like with an A2 and I think this is not a pure coincidence.

 

[Khriss Bliss]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

I like this question, in fact I first heard about the Seth Lover bcuz someone used it to get a brown sound. Now that I've tried the EVH Frankenstein pickup, I might have to say I prefer a pickup that covers up my mistakes! If I had to pick a favorite, ... Well, really, if it is going to have just as much clarity as Eddie, very little preamp type fizz or fuzz, and have chords sound chunky with palm muted and purr... Definitely the Evh Frank. As versatile as Eddies sound may seem, its hard to get it all and still have it so clear on top. Anytime I try to dial up and jam next to Vh CDs, his tone has more clarity. I think if play a clean strat sound you're half there now you need hot pwr tubes that purr only around the wound strings. In fact the low E has a clean Fender strat tone to it.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Yeah, the Frankie pup is nice. But I think that pickup is supposed to represent the final pickup in that guitar, coupled with his current preference for hotter pickups. That way, he can play it on stage with it and the tonality will roughly match his Wolfgangs.

 

[Desert]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

No, it was hard Northern ash. The same factory that cut bodies for Boogie, also made baseball bats. That was one of the head-scratchingly stupid oversights Fender made with their Frankie "replica"... they used Swamp Ash, which has a totally different tone. He said in an interview in 1980 that Frankie was as heavy as a Les Paul. Obviously swamp bodies don't weigh that much, nor do basswood bodies. The 5150 may have been basswood... but nobody will ever know for sure, unless Ed auctions it off.

As far as the pickups go, I think it's snake oil to put products out there (including the "official" Frankie pickup) that are supposed to replicate the VH sound. He used a Les Paul... he used a Flying V... he used Frankie... he used the Destroyer... the mini Les Paul... all of them sound like Ed. Unless Seymour wound a bunch of pickups and he put them in all of his guitars, it's a little assumptive that the pickups were "the key" to the sound.

Very true.

I believe they went with the lighter wood to offset the Floyd.

Personally, I think they should have built it using the Northern ash and vintage trem, as that guitar sounded like a rusty bicycle (imo) after he put the FR on it.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Very true.

I believe they went with the lighter wood to offset the Floyd.

Personally, I think they should have built it using the Northern ash and vintage trem, as that guitar sounded like a rusty bicycle (imo) after he put the FR on it.

Well, there's always the option of building your own pre-Floyd Frankie.

Ed did say (whether it's true or just a sales pitch we'll never know) that he preferred the Fender guitar over his guitar and I would guess it's the wood. Swamp ash is a better tone wood, by most opinions I've heard and it likely warmed up the tone a bit, coupled with the hotter, thicker pickup. Of course if I had a FR guitar, I'd put loose vintage springs (all 5 of them) on it and that thickens the tone up quite a bit. There's a company called Raw Vintage that makes trem springs that are vintage spec and you can put 5 on and it has similar tension to 3 modern springs and the tone is supposed be amazing.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

the '59/Custom hybrid would probably get a good average.

I've just made it today, with a A2 magnet, it works GREAT in my strat, a bit noisy but great.

 

[Desert]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Well, there's always the option of building your own pre-Floyd Frankie.

Ed did say (whether it's true or just a sales pitch we'll never know) that he preferred the Fender guitar over his guitar and I would guess it's the wood. Swamp ash is a better tone wood, by most opinions I've heard and it likely warmed up the tone a bit, coupled with the hotter, thicker pickup. Of course if I had a FR guitar, I'd put loose vintage springs (all 5 of them) on it and that thickens the tone up quite a bit. There's a company called Raw Vintage that makes trem springs that are vintage spec and you can put 5 on and it has similar tension to 3 modern springs and the tone is supposed be amazing.

Raw Vintage, right on...I will check this out.

 

[ZeroCool]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

VH1/F.U.C.K. tones. I've only tried the half air mod tone zones in a Les Paul and PRS through a DSL and Plexi reissue. The modded TZ seems to give that basic tone. Also 9's[strings]/Eb tuning seem to play a role in the tone also.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Yeah, there's definitely more than one reason why he chose a flat tuning and one of them may have had to do with the ice-pick brightness of a cranked Marshall. Unfortunately and for some odd reason, my guitar hates E flat; I can never get the intonation right.... tune it back up to concert A and it's fine. Oh well...

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

What? No love for the 5150/OU812 tones? LOL!

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

What? No love for the 5150/OU812 tones? LOL!

yes, the Oberheim sounds good

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

LMAO!!! Agreed!

 

[IanBallard]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

Another point, that applies to my thread on "pickup position", is how and where he placed the pickup in his early guitar. Putting a pickup at an angle will produce different harmonic characteristics than mounting it in the conventional way. Yet another factor in his early sound, separate from the actual pickup itself.

 

[marcello252]

Re: Your favorite VH tone, and what pickups you feel achieve it best?

I think if you want "both" of the major tones during the Roth era, the '59/Custom hybrid would probably get a good average. From what I understand, an UOA5 has some of the A2 characteristics with more clarity and magnet strength

I built it, a CC/'59 hybrid with UOA5 magnet: the pickup is wonderful and it's perfect in my ash strat/rw neck for what I play, but I think I got closer to vh sound with the A2 magnet I had before.

my .02