The secret EVH amp part

[awangotango]

stef, that's sweet tone man! nice pitch! Lick it up never sounded so good!

have you listed your rig and amp circuit somewhere? If not, care spell it out ? sounds like stockish 2 stage plexi to me? speakers?

[Tone Slinger]

Nice tone and phrasing there Stef Lets hear more, you never play long enough

[vh junkie]

[awangotango]

Isn't it great... first we all hear that there some things going on with Ed's amp; speqs, acouple of mods, secret parts... and everyone just NEEDS to find out EXACTLY what that was... icluding my self... just to find out ( years later ) that it didn't quite work in "my" amp... then we all go and experiment with all kinds of stuff... wich leads us all back to what we did here in the first place; exchanging ideas on how to get a real good sound ( with Ed's sound as a model )... that's how it should be...
Why didn't we think of that from start?

as far as rock 'n roll is concerned, breaking the rules and building a unique sound is imo, the whole point. if rock n roll is : punk, rock, metal, blues, r&b,. Having a generic sound is not art. This is one of many reasons why most music nowadays is not really art. It's imitation. Imitation in the sense of copying others, but also in the sense of being fake. Imitation is flattery only for the one being imitated ! For the one doing the imitating, it should be embarrassing. We should all aspire to be artists in life even if you don't feel like one. Art comes about in two ways, unconscious 'divine' inspiration, or intentional imagination. So some are 'born musical', that's sort of the divine path. But those who aspire to live artistically, can become artists, by imagining it first and then it will realize itself. It's the backdoor path to being divinely inspired or naturally gifted. That's why the creator gave us people the extraordinary power to be self conscious with the ability to imagine. It's what separates us from every other creature it seems. If you don't use it, you are spitting in the face of the most high. Creation and bringing a unique perspective to the world is not only our birthright, it is our duty and main task while down here. We're hanging off a giant spinning rock in outerspace man, held on by some strange concept known as gravity, and some want to copy another guys guitar tone, Exactly? A very peculiar behavior and it never made any sense to me, from the start. Ed's tone is one of the cooler one's though, to use as inspiration and reference.

[JimiJames]

Found myself hittin' the rewind on that one, Stef
BTW that is a great way to Metro-demo an amp with chunk, open chords & singlenote leads. bravo

[JimiJames]

"...Art comes about in two ways, unconscious 'divine' inspiration, or intentional imagination. So some are 'born musical', that's sort of the divine path. But those who aspire to live artistically, can become artists, by imagining it first and then it will realize itself. It's the backdoor path to being divinely inspired or naturally gifted. That's why the creator gave us people the extraordinary power to be self conscious with the ability to imagine. It's what separates us from every other creature it seems. If you don't use it, you are spitting in the face of the most high...."

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

[awangotango]

right, first comes imagination. knowledge is imagination manifested. I live in a cave and want to warm up. How the ef can I get warm. I figure out fire and then that act becomes 'known'. knowledge. Life really is simple to understand if you look at it like a 5 year old. I'm sure Einstein has agreed with this sentiment. Which scientist's method did he try and copy exactly? Did he try and replicate exactly, how newton figured out that billiard ball thing? If he approached it that way, he never would have found a theory that contradicted newton's particle physics and if we obsess over ed's tone too much, we never find our own tone. Is one way to look at it anyways. who cares, an asteroid is comin' and it's got our planets return address on it.

[stef]

Thanks guys!!! The amp never sounded better thanks to this forum

Ralle, the stock mid pot from 1978 was in fact 17k, NFB is 27k on the 8ohm tap

Wango, the amp is a 1978 Marshall SL, original mustards and mix of iskra and piher resistors -
12xxx spec (v1b cathode is 2k7 // .68uf) everything on 10 (bass off) and attenuated (-16db), running on a pair of abused
EH 6CA7's and some nice preamp tubes.
G12C 25watt speaker (marshall 425b cab), one shure SM57, no post production except some reverb
KnE Azusa/Warmoth DSD

Jimi and Andy, here's another quick "Metro-demo". That's a stock Epi SG straight in (all on full), a touch of reverb added after the fact
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... i&newref=1

[Ralle]

Ahh... see, that sweet NFB... 27k/8 ohm... that's a real nice combo... I still keep coming back to that sometimes... it's either that or 47/16... can't make up my mind...
Sounds great, man

[stef]

Ralle, you were the reason I decided to stick with higher NFB (27k). While the majority of members were following the "DF spec" (low NFB, fat caps etc) you were the only one on the right track. Thanks man!

[Tone Slinger]

Stef, damn brother, that sounded INCREDIBLE That is PURE & SWEET TONE right there..... tremendous warm, brown crunchy mid range ! Damn Nice playing too

Awangotango & JimiJames, I'm with you guy's all the way on how "Everyone should pursue an individual/artistic life".

Just like how a person uses their words with care and articulation when speaking to a loved one (spouse, child, sibling, close friend, etc) when a 'certain' situation is happening (like what you say to your kid before they leave on a camping trip without you, or what you write in your wife's anniversary card, etc).......THAT is what you MEAN ! Every aspect of our lives should represent who we are.

[awangotango]

stef, What preamp tubes?
suspended 5th chords ala unchained/aerosmith etc. If an amp is too preampy or gainy that chords just does not work. this low rent raunch tone only works with amps that have the right amount of power to preamp gain.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRwOdQAnFzo[/youtube]

[stef]

stef, What preamp tubes?

V1 Phillips Miniwatt
V2 China 12ax7B
V3 Telefunken

One more thing, the amp sounds much much better (brighter and tighter, more open sounding) with less attenuation. -16db, as in these clips, kills lots of high end and the bass gets muddier. I usually gig with the amp on -8db setting

[YMI5150?]

really nice Stef.

i agree on the amp's behavior is being neutered by the attenuator, and possibly the variac too. i watched the 79 Fresno show last night and the amp was begging for mercy. went downstairs and plugged into the slave rig and it does first album well but nothing like that live tone Ed had in the early days.

+1 on heading in the tighter NFB range as well. Ralle, if you cant decide, drop a pot in to tweak a bit. i do that to my amps an its the only extra adjustment that i think is valuable.

[AndyK]

Love the ATBL tone Stef!

I have a 100k NFB resistor on the 4 ohm tap on my Metro 12,000 kit head (w/ virtual variac). If I move the tap wire to the 8- ohm, then the 16-ohm, without changing my 100k resistor, will this effectively increase NFB? According to this sticky, my theory makes sense...

Starting with the ubiquitous 100k/4ohm tap, this yields -7.5db if NFB, then extending to different values to achieve the same result:
-7.5db can be 100k/4ohm tap
-7.5db can be 150k/8ohm tap
-7.5db can be 212k/16ohm tap
These are all equivalent... and very loose

Tighter (more FB):
-10db can be 64k/4ohm tap
-10db can be 92k/8ohm tap
-10db can be 134k/16ohm tap

Tighter still (yet more FB):
-12db can be 45k/4ohm tap
-12db can be 66k/8ohm tap
-12db can be 95k/16ohm tap