The Sad State Of The Van Halen Wannabe

Bad Kitty · Post by **Bad Kitty** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:27 pm

I used to boil my strings all the time. Of course that was 25 years ago and in Saudi Arabia were I couldn't get any so I was trying to get them to last longer.

JD · Post by JD » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:19 pm

Boiling the strings would have an effect on the wrapped wire, and lessen the new string break-in stretching...and also might clean some grime out LOL.

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:10 am

Bad Kitty wrote:I used to make my picks out of broken cymbals. One big ride cymbal with a crack in it was good for thousands. Did that in the 80's. The bell made the best ones because of the curve. Still use them sometimes whenever I come across on in a drawer or in the couch. Notes just explode off your pick. And after you wear them down a little they stop tearing your strings apart and get really smooth.

Plus if you drop it on a hard floor you can hear wear it goes.

Interesting - back in 83-84 me and a buddy made them. used them and sold quite a few of them. I was at GIT in hollywood at this time. had don mock and other teachers there using them as well!
kewl picks - hard on strings

guest · Post by **guest** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:54 am

Something I noticed about EVH tone that doesn't get any attention is his real raw tone. It's like everyone is trying to cop his studio tone. Even the modelers all sound like processed brown sound. If you ever get a chance to listen too bootlegs of early van halen live listen to the tones ..they don't sound anything like the pro recorded versions. They are extremely thick with endless sustain and reverbless. In one case I thought I was listening to hendrix there was so much growling and rumbling and feedback. nevertheless he played flawlesly at high speed yet and was jaw dropping!

I'll bet a lot of people have acheived it without knowing it. I do think guitarists are on the right track when they look at vh1 as there target wannabe tone however. Even then the list of gear besides the magic marshall is ridiculous. After that period it really gets out of hand with the addition of compressors and harmonizers and other rack mounted equipment needed to achieve it.

I did get to see him live many years ago when he wasn't a headliner promoting there first album at an outdoor rock festival. I didn't know van halen from a hole in the ground but I do remember he was a master of what he played and his amp didn't sound "special" but his technique was.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:40 pm

JD might be a bonehead I suspect. The fact that he is agitated by this thread and can't control his anger makes me sad for him. Ah, the sad state of JD. My RX is this. Spend less time responding to idiots like myself who just squirt back what they've read (he thinks), and spend more time with your Ibanez ak.a. "Ibeenhad."

I think I'm kidding this time, but I can't be sure! What do you think JD? Pray tell!

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:49 pm

i have been saying it all along. and personally have not been going for the studio sound of ed's amp to come out of my cab. for me its all in listening real close and trying to figure out what it sounded like standing in front of it. ( being a guitar player for 30 years i can begin to understand how its ounds and how it responds by listeing to it... real closely. ) i have going for the amp that used in the studio not his live amp sounds from early bootlegs. - those were your basic marshalls and i can get that sound out of a basic plexi/metalface marshall all day long. i believe there was nothing special about those, other than how he actually played the amps. now there was a special marshall or two on at least the first few albums.
Mark

5150loveeddie · Post by **5150loveeddie** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:12 pm

Hey Mark ask Terry Kilgore he played Ed amp 100 of times and he said that the amp was maybe over the average 12 serie soundwise, it wasn't so special either.....Tubetramp grew with the VH brothers....

NitroLiq · Post by **NitroLiq** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:20 pm

I don't know...any Marshall plexi drenched in reverb, echoplex, and phase...it's amazing anyone can discern what the real tone was, other than the fact that it was coming from ed's fingers. I think his tone is great for what it was and definitely sounded different but for myself, not something I'd be getting all apey about re-producing down to the input resistors, especially since it seems to be a one-trick pony tone. Just my opinion though so have at it if that's yer thang....and do a clip of the "mean streets" intro next time you feel at one with the EVH-ness

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:34 pm

5150loveeddie wrote:Hey Mark ask Terry Kilgore he played Ed amp 100 of times and he said that the amp was maybe over the average 12 serie soundwise, it wasn't so special either.....Tubetramp grew with the VH brothers....

i fully agree with that - wanst so special indeed- it did have a sound to it and like i said even through the effects/production etc. if you listen close enough you can hear it. for me ill know when i have it. but it maynot be a sound thats so freindly or as freindly as one might think it is to play but its will be the sound.
further more i understand whats in the finegrs - just cause you played hendrix's amp doesnt mean you would sound like him either - the sound and how you play the sound is just as important. with that said, im having fun with it and thats all that matters.
i love the smell of solder in the morning and im a freak without warning,
Mark

carson5150 · Post by **carson5150** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:00 pm

rockstah wrote: just cause you played hendrix's amp doesnt mean you would sound like him either - the sound and how you play the sound is just as important. with that said, im having fun with it and thats all that matters.

That's what I'm talkin' about, I love seeing somebody rippin' on the guitar with a big ol' grin, gotta love it.

guitar007 · Post by **guitar007** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:04 am

I tend to believe that his #1 Marshall was special. How many other players were getting that tone (Club days, Warner Bros Demos, VH1) at that time. How many players are getting it now? Why is it so elusive? Sure...no one is going to play exactly like Ed...but if his amp was nothing special why isn’t everyone interested in coping that tone getting it? I believe it’s the amp, not the fingers. Compare the Gene Simmons demos to the WB demos…BIG difference. No one’s trying the get the Gene Simmons demo tone.

Although I can’t verify this…rumor has it that the VH bros played KISS’s gear for that demo session. This may explain why the tone is not typical Ed. Maybe Tube Tramp can verify this.

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:09 am

it is a combination of the two - without ed's fingers driving that amp i believe it wouldnt sound like anything but a nice marshall.

Bainzy · Post by **Bainzy** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:46 am

The story of a "magic amp" that's unique gets everyone going, it's like a good detective story that you can join in with. That's why tagging any product with "EVH" makes it sell like hotcakes, and why there was so much interest in that Caswell modded AFD amp. It's the discovering, not the resultant tone that's the fun part!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:30 pm

This is my first post, but I check out this forum all the time and think it is full of great advise. There are many great players on it as well. Then this guest boy comes along making fun of what people LOVE to do. By the way, he seems to know a lot of Eddie type tube stuff. Maybe he's a VH boy too, but can't accept that he can't play it and others here can. Its none of his damn business if Rockstah wants to find the elusive brown tone. I keep listening to the clips waiting for the day he hits the magical combo and nails it. When he does, I'll be first in line to have him build me one. Guest...mind your own business. You don't have to look at these posts. Keep on going Rockstah!!!

Jeremy or J-Mart in some forums

MacGaden · Post by **MacGaden** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:59 pm

You´re right, J-Mart:

It reminds me of the musicians joke:

"How many guitarplayers does it take to screw in a light bulb ?

10. One to actually get up and do it, and 9 at the bar in the back saying "I could do that, looking cooler, and do it better, faster and louder! "

We´ve all done it. I know I have, until it dawned on me that I was NOT the the one doing it. Somebody else was up there sweating, maybe not liking his tone, the monitors stunk, the soundguy have told him to turn it down too far, .. etc. But he was doing it !

Then I started enjoying it more every time I saw live music: They were actually up there doing it, and though the playing may not allways be that good, or what I would have done, there is almost allways something to enjoy when somebody is doing their best. And any live music is exciting.

The same with Rockstah and the other "Wannabe´s" ! They are actually doing it, they play and build, discuss and modify, and work at something the love, and get a kick out off. Whereas mister Guest may know it all, though I doubt it, but can´t do it. And if you´re actually doing something, then you´re not a wannabe....

I used to play with a very rude, fat and ugly singer. He would allways get in fights with hecklers. I asked him if he did´nt get tired of it. He said: "No ! I have a stage, a mike, and 5000 watts of PA. Who do you think will win in a shouting match?

So Guest...Go stand in some other Bar. We actually do it. And: We have bigger amps. And the balls to show them.