Metropoulos Forum

I mean other than on Hot for teacher and Top of the world were he played his stock 58 Gibson V and obviously any time he played a stock strat or a steinberger.
I find it is little more than Odd that every "official" sig pickup of his is 13.5K or higher?
1.The EVH frankenstein (13.7K)
2.PV wolfgang (13.5K)
3.EBMM custom dimarzio (17.8K)
4.the p'u in the Charvel art series (16.8K)
5.His EVH wolfgang pu with fender (14.5)
All of these are at least 13.5K
Just do not see any evidence he was using a lower output PAF like has been rumored all these years.
He himself said he ALWAYS had the PAF's rewound. that alone tells the story if you really think about it and here is why,
if you have ever owned/played on a real PAF it is pretty pointless to take a 8K PAF
and have it wound to 9K(rumored Duncan 78) it does not change all that much.
Not to mention some PAF's were 9K to begin with.
Since they were very inconsistent Gibson was putting all kinds of different resistances in their guitars.
from 7K all the way to 10K.

I've always liked...and continue to like, the Duncan Custom and MM 1300. Both 13k +

He lied. You have all the evidence needed. None of his sold to the public pickups are anything close to a "low output PAF" style he claimed to use. I hear Super Distortion type pickup in the early albums. He used one as well as the Mighty Mite copy of a SD.

His rewound pickups I think is a mystery I've solved. According to Seymour Duncan Ed liked the "JB wind". So I'm guessing any PAF type pickup Ed had was rewound to JB specs.

I love seeing guys who still think Ed used low output pickups and trumpet this as a must have for a VH type tone. So wrong!

Ed lied about just about every part of his signal chain. From turning his variac up increasing the voltage to not using any distortion type boxes before the amp. He had an MXR Micro Amp in his board for years and especially 1984 tour bootleg vids he clearly steps on something that boosts his gain for solos.

Anyway your measurements. My ears. And his first official pickup sold (EBMM) all say he liked high output pickups. And I know resistance isn't output. Before someone mentions that. I've played a Duncan '59 which he claimed to also use. Didn't sound like VH to me. I'll bet that's the starting point for the JB wind. So literally a hotter '59. Makes sense to me.

I'm a fan of the JB, however it does not clean up very well when backing off the volume, which is something Ed did a lot.

As for distortion boxes, obviously there's a difference between something that boosts the input signal, and something that adds overdrive distortion before the pre-amp.

rgorke wrote: I've always liked...and continue to like, the Duncan Custom

Same here and there is at least evidence it is what he used, cannot say that about the duncan 78.
Makes sense that back in 76-77 all that was available was stock gibson pu's, dimarzio super distortion and the mighty mite clone of it the MM1300.
Since both the Dimarzio and MM both had that easy to distinguish look(hex poles) i think eddie wanted that same basic pu
in a more traditional looking format. ENTER duncan custom.
13.5K ceramic magnet. the duncan custom used a smaller ceramic bar for it's magnet and
that can be explained by eddie's complaining that the dimarzio' was "too distorted"
By using the smaller magnet the output can be reduced and the tone kept intact.
The pu would breath more like a regular PAF.
So in essence eddie did not really lie, he DID SAY i use "rewound PAF's".
Where that whole he used a 9K alnico 2 pu came from is anyone guess?

Santino wrote:He lied. You have all the evidence needed. None of his sold to the public pickups are anything close to a "low output PAF" style he claimed to use. I hear Super Distortion type pickup in the early albums. He used one as well as the Mighty Mite copy of a SD.

His rewound pickups I think is a mystery I've solved. According to Seymour Duncan Ed liked the "JB wind". So I'm guessing any PAF type pickup Ed had was rewound to JB specs.

I love seeing guys who still think Ed used low output pickups and trumpet this as a must have for a VH type tone. So wrong!

Ed lied about just about every part of his signal chain. From turning his variac up increasing the voltage to not using any distortion type boxes before the amp. He had an MXR Micro Amp in his board for years and especially 1984 tour bootleg vids he clearly steps on something that boosts his gain for solos.

Anyway your measurements. My ears. And his first official pickup sold (EBMM) all say he liked high output pickups. And I know resistance isn't output. Before someone mentions that. I've played a Duncan '59 which he claimed to also use. Didn't sound like VH to me. I'll bet that's the starting point for the JB wind. So literally a hotter '59. Makes sense to me.

A hotter duncan 59 is the custom sh-5(Beefed up PAF tone with a distinct midrange with added output is how it was described after the VH name was removed and duncan ran a ad for the custom by itself).
the JB is not really PAF at all. it has a more modern eq and output.
The custom stays with the basic eq of a old PAF but drives the amp harder.
as far as seymour saying "eddie opted for my JB wind" i think he was mistaking and meant to say my custom wind.
The custom was listed as the Van Halen pu not the JB.

Did Ed use a JB in his Kramer "5150" guitar at some point?

The guy who designed the peavey Wolfgang told me when he he looked at the Frankenstein guitar and pickup that is was a shorted out early version of the Seymour Duncan jb..

Ed used and swapped many pickups. Buy them all.. Try them all. I kind of like the lower output for the Reggie, the Higher output for the Franky, and remember the Super 70 in his Destroyer was 8k tops.

Strat78s On Fire Clip ....... SUPER 70 = 8k PAF style wind with a8 magnet

Ralle's old clips ...... JB

Mark .... Super Distortion


Some great clips recently with a rewound OT and Custom 78 which is 9k

Lots of different tones on each album. Lots of pics with different pups.
Experiment like he did. I see uses for them all

mightymike wrote:Ed used and swapped many pickups. Buy them all.. Try them all. I kind of like the lower output for the Reggie, the Higher output for the Franky, and remember the Super 70 in his Destroyer was 8k tops.

Strat78s On Fire Clip ....... SUPER 70 = 8k PAF style wind with a8 magnet

Ralle's old clips ...... JB

Mark .... Super Distortion


Some great clips recently with a rewound OT and Custom 78 which is 9k

Lots of different tones on each album. Lots of pics with different pups.
Experiment like he did. I see uses for them all

This probably sums it up best.

T.L. wrote:Did Ed use a JB in his Kramer "5150" guitar at some point?

He said a few times he was using a Duncan '59. I have one and it doesn't sound like LWAN. Guess it does sound like it could have been on OU812 to be honest. But my guess still is he used a '59 rewound by Seymour. Probably that "JB wind" Seymour mentions doing for Ed. As I'm typing I'm remembering. Isn't the JB wind one of the first things Duncan did? Besides repairs. I think it was. I could be wrong though.

I never heard that the Franky was used in any way when working on the Peavey Wolfgang. I always assumed they just took an EBMM and changed a couple things to avoid getting sued. I did a comparison of the three Ed guitars, EBMM, PV Archtop Wolfgang, and an EVH USA Wolfgang Stealth not long ago. My first impression years ago hasn't changed. The EBMM sounds closest to old VH. Bottom line any of the three can do VH well and could be your(mine actually) only guitar and you could get good VH sounds. But I keep noticing from time to time how good the PV does some songs better than the other guitars. Like of the three I think it does Panama the closest. Sometimes I hear things coming out of that guitar and I'm suprised by it. Again I assumed it was a modern interpretation of Ed's pickup. A second generation. Maybe it's closer to old VH than I thought? And for the record it's my least favorite of the three.

So I've always been on the team that thought a 9k PAF was totally doable, and have sworn by it for quite some time. Yesterday I installed a Duncan Custom in a guitar that had had a 9k PAF and was pretty damn impressed with it. It is exactly what it says it is, a higher output PAF. It cleans up nicely and despite the high output, doesn't sacrifice the dynamics of a PAF styled pickup which is what I've always loved about that style.

The Custom really let me get that extra edge to hit the plexi really hard, so i'm definitely convinced Ed really could have been using one or something similar.

As far as the pickup in the 5150 guitar during it's heyday-1983 through 1988...Eddie has always said that he used a rewound Seymour Duncan '59 pickup.

To me 1984 and some live stuff from around then certainly sounds like could be a 59. I've tried a 59, did not like it one bit in the bridge, but a very good neck pickup imo.

The 5150 guitar was not used on the 1984 album. The original Frankenstein (likely with the Kramer "beak" neck) was the main Floyd Rose guitar you hear on the "Jump" solo, "Panama", "House of Pain" and the rest of the album except for the mystery Floyd Rose guitar with the neck pickup sound you hear for the solo in "I'll Wait". The vintage '58 Gibson Korina Flying V was used on "Girl Gone Bad", "Hot For Teacher" and the main guitar track on "Drop Dead Legs" (the Frankenstein was used for the lead Floyd Rose guitar overdubs on the vamp at the end). "Top Jimmy" used one of the Tele style prototype Ripley stereo guitars for the main guitar track with the Frankenstein or the mystery "I'll Wait" solo guitar used for the overdubbed Floyd Rose lead guitar again.

The 5150 guitar was not completed and given to Eddie until the 1984 tour.

Also, remember that Eddie has always maintained that it was a REWOUND Seymour Duncan '59 pickup in the 5150.