Are You Chasing EVH Tone?

JohnnyGtar · Post by **JohnnyGtar** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:13 am

Well for me, I chase it because I've never heard a heavy rock tone that I like better, and...that tone is FUN!!!

It's also a launch pad: I try to do my own take on it, and getting in that range makes it really inspiring for me to play better and search out new things.

Best regards,

Johnny

Post by **Scumback Speakers** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:04 am

My only problem is there are SO MANY tones I like, and it takes a few different setups to get there. Hendrix/BOG is my favorite, Clapton/Cream/WOF, ABB/Live @ Fillmore East, Schenker/UFO Live, Gary Moore/Live... ZZ Top, Johnny Winter And Live... man, I could go on and on about the great tones I like for different reasons.

You can get the notes dialed & nail the hand actions with enough practice, but the tone thing with the amp, speakers, FX, yada yada yada will always have a question mark or two, IMO.

At some point, I have gotten very close to all of these tones, and realize that will likely be the best I can do, considering it's 30 plus years later and I won't be able to reproduce the "age" of the components used back then.

What with guys like WCR Pickups, 12K amps, Celestion tone cloned speakers, NOS tubes, and better FX, you can certainly get very close alot easier now than when I was trying to get there in the 70's

All in all, it's a good thing, and a much more admirable obsession to chase than, say, hard drugs, alcohol and how to screw people over for money, or whatever...

I've done it for years, and been happy with most of my results, so I just keep looking for new tones, whether they're VH or not, as long as they're good tones...I'm happy to chase after them.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:03 pm

Thanks for mentioning michael schenker (a favorite) & also johnny winter, a guy that really inspired me in my early years. still alive & well!

bortz · Post by **bortz** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:13 pm

Yes I am chasing the EVH tone. I've tried many things to try and get it. Why?
Because that early EVH tone has what I like to term "mood'. It's a happy feel good mood it seems to put me in when I listen to VH1. Not the songs themselves but the tone of that amp. That's what I'm after, is that mood the tone puts me in and I think it's his amp that gets 95 percent of that. I heard the Gene Simmons demos and that amp just sounds so harsh and annoyingly thick compared to the magic marshall, so it's not really EVH that puts me in this feel good mood, it's that special amp.

miteymike of this very board has the tone nailed and his unchained demo even has the peteruption video of harmony central message board fame put to shame. There's others on this board who come close but his is really the best at getting the true early brown sound. It's all in the voicing of the mids. Mighties' amp seems to capture that. Now if we just knew what "that" is, someone could make a fortune off it. Is it a special combination of parts and tolerances or what?

It's something to do with the mids and bite along with that clean gain without getting too distorted in Ed's marshall that I'm trying to emulate. I've tried buying a 1987x plexi reissue and that never did the trick- sold it. Tried the custom-custom in a kramer 1984 reissue guitar- that's only a minor part of the picture. Tried the wolfgang special guitar- ditto. Tried Line 6 modeling amps like the vetta 2 and their earlier offering, the ax2. Not even in the ball park.

I'm just glad to hang out here and learn about electronics mainly. As far as being technically minded, I can change out pickups and solder caps into a speaker crossover network but what you guys can do is lightyears ahead of any of those minor things. It's a pleasure just to read through this stuff and try and learn the electrical terminology for the amp components and wonder how you guys do this stuff.

And BTW, is the closest anyone's ever going to come to the early EVH early tone is to buy a 12000 series clone amp and have someone like mike or Mark mod it for them (if they would even be willing to do it?)

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:02 pm

Hey Man, If I was you, I would get the 100 watt barebones kit and see what George can do about swapping out the filter caps and get the voltage dropping power transformer. the lower voltage does what the variac will do, sort of soften the tone and take out some of the harshness.From there all you need to do is get the Ralle schematic to make a few component changes. there are several threads here on the forum's concerning the Ralle spec. What I have just mentioned is what I'm a gonna do. After hearing Ralle and Bainzy in particular it's damn near a sure thing. By the way power tube distortion is desirable when going for the brown sound. Either cranking, scaling or attenuating. I also hear good things about The "Rich" Post Phase Inverter Master Volume (PPIMV) with these plexi build's. 25 watt celestion speaker's in your 4/12 is also a sure thing. I haven't actually done any of this yet but from all that I have learned in these forum's It's as acurate/close as you can get.