SIAP Esquire Interview with ED!!!

[Bore Em at the Forum]

Great interview and great man ....

Still can't wrap my head around his marshall story tho as ....many years ago on this forum I mentioned you can run your power tubes in a marshall all the way down to 80vdcB+ yep eighty and crank the living hell out of it and you still don't get that vh1 sound ..there has to be a box..go ahead try it you'll see..and all that crap about headroom goes out the window too as it's all relative..you just need massive voltage for massive power...cold plate distortion it can only get so cold..still no EVH...

6ca7's will last forever running yer marshall like that and nothing we heard adds up ..like the boxs of transforners required and tube that needed weekly replacement..something doesn't add up. Can't believe his amp story. gad he must belaughing his head off...

Well, how do we know we've ever heard Ed play a Marshall with a Variac? Ed liked the Variac because it gave him the tone he wanted at a lower volume. Great for club gigs or a PA that couldn't keep up with his volume.....or even rehearsals before recording with the band.....

But why would he need a Variac in the studio? He'd just turn up to the volume he wanted and the engineer would deal with it.

[Good Guest]

Great interview and great man ....

Still can't wrap my head around his marshall story tho as ....many years ago on this forum I mentioned you can run your power tubes in a marshall all the way down to 80vdcB+ yep eighty and crank the living hell out of it and you still don't get that vh1 sound ..there has to be a box..go ahead try it you'll see..and all that crap about headroom goes out the window too as it's all relative..you just need massive voltage for massive power...cold plate distortion it can only get so cold..still no EVH...

6ca7's will last forever running yer marshall like that and nothing we heard adds up ..like the boxs of transforners required and tube that needed weekly replacement..something doesn't add up. Can't believe his amp story. gad he must belaughing his head off...

Well, how do we know we've ever heard Ed play a Marshall with a Variac? Ed liked the Variac because it gave him the tone he wanted at a lower volume. Great for club gigs or a PA that couldn't keep up with his volume.....or even rehearsals before recording with the band.....

But why would he need a Variac in the studio? He'd just turn up to the volume he wanted and the engineer would deal with it.

We figure he used a variac cause we see it and we hear it but we don't get his tone when WE use it...So maybe he isn't using it the way we think..hence all the speculation. I find it hard to believe he used it for volume control because the difference between 50 watts and 100 watts in power might look drastic but in reality(+3db...3db represents a doubling of power) it's still ear splitting so that theory is crappola.

Now if he was using his variac as a safe way of providing a variable reluctance to his OT that would be different , more believable and actually pull off the C mod reliably and give him the power to adjust his volume to any level while achieving the tone..That I would buy and he would have to do it in a studio also to get his tone as no studio trickery is going to produce the internal feedback of the power tubes interacting with the OT and the harmonic richness and distortion and sustain.

Believable also as he would not be able to explain what is going on as it's too technical...also explains all the slaving and power soaking that we do cause we know the damn thing is on 10 to get in the ballpark of the tone...I think the closest were all going to get is his new amps they have a pretty doctored up feedback circuit in them designed to mimic all the resonances he likes and the voltage levels are pretty well maxing out the tubes like a 140 volt variac would do..except done safely ...this explains the use of two variacs also...but yeah it's still not the real deal ..and were all just speculating anyways...

I can see how he wouldn't come clean on this as it's too dangerous to encourage and it sounds like he already got shit for saying he cranked his variac to 140vdc ..some bozo is going to fry his original prized 12 series and ruin it ...now that the amp builders have figured out that you can hard wire any voltage in an amp and make it switchable , that problem has been solved . ..buy a Suhr amp or build a 12 series...and an isolation booth

[dirtycooter]

I say variac always-anything to save on speakers. Who here rags on a set of nice greenbacks with their uncorked plexi unattenuated?? I know I wouldn't want to myself-------------eeeeeek! And who could stand it? Its insane volume! He definitly always variaced in my mind and even then it had to still be attenuated somehow further I feel.

[hammered]

This interviewer again does not know the right questions to ask Edward..

I'm surprised they even asked about the amp! What does Esquire know or care about modified plexi's?

We should start a serious thread of questions we would like an interviewer to ask and send them out to all the mags.

Great idea but I think most guys here have theories on what gear Ed used so I doubt anyone would believe what he had to say.

[Rich_D]

Maybe his new lifestyle will afford him to loosen up and talk more straight dope about guitars and amps. Imagine something like this with Eddie Van Halen happening:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVqQNJUHNQ[/youtube]

[Tone Slinger]

100 watter and 50 watter are different. Ed may have used a 50 watter sometimes (possibly for less volume, OR that it was OLD (late '60's model ?). Either way he PREFFERED this one head (The 12xxx series). A 100 watter can absolutly SWALLOW a 50, in terms of "Lets walk out of this room and see which one is louder" is concerned. The size, width and headroom of the 100 watter is noticably MORE.

A variac can tame a little volume and abrasiveness for sure. A mellow pot.

[rgorke]

Maybe his new lifestyle will afford him to loosen up and talk more straight dope about guitars and amps. Imagine something like this with Eddie Van Halen happening:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVqQNJUHNQ[/youtube]

That was pretty cool. I always loved George Lynch as an artist and people who have interacted with him says he is a great guy.

Their tone made the video difficult to listen to. Dave and George need some Metro help.

Also, "I don't know a C major scale to save my life" but I can throw a b5th and major 3rd at you at will.

[dirtycooter]

It would be awesome to see Ed do something like this for sure-but its just not him or something I think he can do. Ever notice how actually little Ed ever was seen on t.v. or doin one on one interviews being video'd for as big an icon and legend he is???
I would like to have a seen a behind the scenes documentary of them recording this last record-like Metallica did with a year and half and some kinda monster-now that would be thee cats ass right there. But he is always very private and shy as he has said before.

[vanhalen5150]

Where do I get a cool shirt like Dave Navaro's?

[rgorke]

Where do I get a cool shirt like Dave Navaro's?

local flea market

[rgorke]

It would be awesome to see Ed do something like this for sure-but its just not him or something I think he can do. Ever notice how actually little Ed ever was seen on t.v. or doin one on one interviews being video'd for as big an icon and legend he is???
I would like to have a seen a behind the scenes documentary of them recording this last record-like Metallica did with a year and half and some kinda monster-now that would be thee cats ass right there. But he is always very private and shy as he has said before.

The closest we will get are those "interviews" Dave does with Ed and Al.

[zz666]

Where do I get a cool shirt like Dave Navaro's?

Any female workout clothing store should have them

[Marshall SL12301]

A good sounding 100 watt Marshall ('68-'73 type preamp circuit, probably '68 filtering,etc), bias possibly set a little hot, a ohmite Variac, a 4/12 cab with some old greenbacks, a hot ceramic pu. Thats what the 1st album was. That tone has been captured here and abroad lots of times.

The two parts to the equation that are missing are,

1) Only Eddie is Eddie

2) The recording gear/process at Sunset Sound.

Imo, on more than a few occasions Ed's early live sound (minus Sunsets studio magic obviously) has been captured by members here, and in many ways possibly bettered by some here.

That first record is an anomally.

I completely agree with this whole reply!

[Mr_Pink]

Are you guys reading into this that his marshall was 220? I'm not so sure that is what he said. It sounded like he bought some mystery "light dimmer" from the recycler, it was english (220), plugged in his "100 volt marshall", and it didn't work, so he went out and got a variac.....Who was using variacs at the time that he wanted to copy? I wish mine worked like a giant master volume, it does not lower the volume all that much, and at 50volts sounds really bad. I play rock covers in bars now, and have to turn my cab around to crank it up, that works pretty good, I don't see why you would have to do anything else.

[cary chilton]

Navarro sux