Hendrix Amp vs. EVH Amp

[Lefty Lou]

I was fairly surprised at the revelations Cesar Diaz made of SRVs amp modifications in an interview with The Tone Quest report prior to Cesar's untimely death. It was the article where SRVs tranny swaps were discussed. Cesar and SRV wanted more headroom thus the larger OTs in SRVs Fender amps. Cesar swapped Twin OT's into the Super Reverbs and Bassman OTs into the Vibroverbs.

Regarding BTO, I saw them on 2/25/76 headlining with ELO as special guests. Both performances were memorable. One song I really like is the Les Paul infused guitar intro to Roll Over Beethoven played by Jeff Lynne the sound is so clear, precise, and cutting w/o the edge all at the same time.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iehhNUr754I[/youtube]


ELO was on a nationwide 75/76 tour supporting their new, "Face The Music" album http://www.jefflynnesongs.com/ftmtour/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lefty Lou]

Here's the link to the complete Cesar Diaz interview with The Tone Quest Report regarding SRV.


http://www.blueguitar.org/new/text/cdiaz_tq.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[parkhead]

Thanks that's a killer article , However I think there is some intentionally misleading stuff there amongst the revelations.
Same old EVH, Billy Gibbons style tall tales stuff


P

[yladrd61]

there should be a section on these amp forums for documented celebrity /touring pro/ or historic amp mods

on the other hand I probably wouldn't share everything I have in my files if the section were to exist

anyhooo ... I sure would do a lot of lurking

p

I'm sure that it's often only discussed between the guitarist's amp techs and the manufacturers and that's how the mods/upgrades happen to specific amp models. I wrote an email to Randy Hansen's management about Randy's Marshall amps and any mods that he has performed to his Marshall amps used for live, and recorded events, but I really don't expect Randy to divulge that information although it would be nice if he could.

Randy uses 2 stock RI 1959SLP and a '71 Metal Face SL. And his main guitars are a black, and a white Fender Jimi Hendrix strats both are non modded.

[Tone seaker]

there should be a section on these amp forums for documented celebrity /touring pro/ or historic amp mods

on the other hand I probably wouldn't share everything I have in my files if the section were to exist

anyhooo ... I sure would do a lot of lurking

p

I'm sure that it's often only discussed between the guitarist's amp techs and the manufacturers and that's how the mods/upgrades happen to specific amp models. I wrote an email to Randy Hansen's management about Randy's Marshall amps and any mods that he has performed to his Marshall amps used for live, and recorded events, but I really don't expect Randy to divulge that information although it would be nice if he could.

Randy uses 2 stock RI 1959SLP and a '71 Metal Face SL. And his main guitars are a black, and a white Fender Jimi Hendrix strats both are non modded.

That's not what he is using here and his tone is amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A28-urx ... 7jUgoMA-3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqpYGJ0g ... 7jUgoMA-3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JimiJames]

I watched the beginning of this vid again to see if he tweaked Vol. 1. I did notice that he turned up PBM and turned down the Treble...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E1qCAPJJPE[/youtube]

[sixpakldp]

If you listen to Henrix live at Monterey, especially Foxy Lady, you can hear what I perceive him to be clicking the fuzz face off during the verses and then back on for the chorus/solo.

The other thing to consider is many will tell you that using a fuzz face with a strat you should always have your guitar volume on 9 rather than 10, due to the fact the fuzz is overwhelming if your volume is on 10.

The Monterey recording to me, indicates he had his amps set probably around 7 or 8 with the guitar volume backed off to 9 which yielded a cleanish marshall tone and then kicked in the fuzz face when he needed to rock out.

My two cents.

[yladrd61]

Randy uses 2 stock RI 1959SLP and a '71 Metal Face SL. And his main guitars are a black, and a white Fender Jimi Hendrix strats both are non modded. [/quote]

That's not what he is using here and his tone is amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A28-urx ... 7jUgoMA-3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqpYGJ0g ... 7jUgoMA-3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[/quote]

Yes I know I have this video, when he travels to Europe he has a different band and he uses a rented backline and sometimes rental guitars with his effects. He can get awesome Jimi tones outr of whatever he has But he sounds the best with his 3 Marshall Super Leads.

[yladrd61]

http://youtu.be/0EyIrDgYn8E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Check this out 1983 A Merman I should Turn To Be !!!!! WoW !!!!

[yladrd61]

If you listen to Henrix live at Monterey, especially Foxy Lady, you can hear what I perceive him to be clicking the fuzz face off during the verses and then back on for the chorus/solo.

The other thing to consider is many will tell you that using a fuzz face with a strat you should always have your guitar volume on 9 rather than 10, due to the fact the fuzz is overwhelming if your volume is on 10.

The Monterey recording to me, indicates he had his amps set probably around 7 or 8 with the guitar volume backed off to 9 which yielded a cleanish marshall tone and then kicked in the fuzz face when he needed to rock out.

My two cents.

Jimi used his guitar volume a lot to control the Fuzz he would roll it way back to clean it up then turn it up when he wanted more dirt.

[Xplorer]

+ 1000

This gave him some special cleans, like little wing, castle made of sand etc , in the studio. And the bog cleans, etc.
Very different sounding from a pure clean without the fuzz on.
He could pilote his sound while doing wild stuffs, without the need to click the fuzz on and off. + this gave him more volume, for cleans

[matriarch]

If you listen to Henrix live at Monterey, especially Foxy Lady, you can hear what I perceive him to be clicking the fuzz face off during the verses and then back on for the chorus/solo.

The other thing to consider is many will tell you that using a fuzz face with a strat you should always have your guitar volume on 9 rather than 10, due to the fact the fuzz is overwhelming if your volume is on 10.

The Monterey recording to me, indicates he had his amps set probably around 7 or 8 with the guitar volume backed off to 9 which yielded a cleanish marshall tone and then kicked in the fuzz face when he needed to rock out.

My two cents.

The fuzz is ON the entire show, back by the amps

[yngwie308]

I think a couple of key point emerge setting aside most speculation

Facts
Jimi went through a lot of Marshalls
Many of these amps were subject to field repairs
Roger Mayer and Jimi's technical support people were no slouches, building custom stuff and modifying Fuzz faces
for specific sounds
why wouldn't the amps be modded for reliability, or stability (6550's) with just as much enthusiasm as a fuzzface

While I would be 99.999% certain they would never add a gain stage or extra tube, there are multiple ways
to work within the stock layout circuit and tweak parts values and adjust gain or headroom
Marshall was doing this to evolve their stock amps during this period.

Considering this forum is populated by a group of people who are into building, and tweaking amps
I think it is fair to suggest that some of Jimi's sounds are from amps having unique combinations
of plexi circuits and parts ... as the EVH amp has been described

Given that there is a history of missing and stolen amps involved... and given that most high level touring bands of the late 60's were preyed upon by thieves ... I wouldn't be surprised to find out that EVH's 230volt early Marshall was someones "prepared" touring head that had gone missing ... the give away is the fact that it was only set up for 230 volts
so the seller was not playing or possibly even able to turn it on

All of which brings the discussion around to the reasons why I read every detail of the EVH setup even though I am more of a super bass player.

Both players shared a warm Huge Marshall tone that prints to tape very well... I think the trails of breadcrumbs converge
at the same point

whatever you want to call them they were
Prototype heads
Transitional builds
Prepared touring heads for large venues
highly tweaked amps using the "mod" technology of the period

Though the sounds are different I believe there is Gold to be found in some of these early amp prep techniques

FWIW I always use multiple amps (two) and select them separately based on A: distortion Quality when run hard B: headroom & Bass response when run part way up ... run the two together and you have big bottom end & great overdrive
this is still the #1 touring technique most people do not understand ... multiple amps are used for frequency coverage as much as volume production ... & thats why you see some showman heads at Monterey


P

You see Showman amps at Monterey because they were the backline there

I beg to differ the Who were using the Fenders and Pete Townshend was upset that JImi used his JTM 45/100 stack at Monterey as Hendrix sounded superior.
yngwie308

[Tone seaker]

Hendrix had his marshall's chained into the showman back line. I have heard

[bobtec]

I have a 1963 Fender Bandmaster that Hendrix used at the Hollywood Bowl,It was moddedwith higher cap at the PI, 2 extra 380PF domino caps and 2,220K resistors going from the filter cap at point B on schematic... West Coast amp repair did alot of work on everyones amps back in the 1960;s(Eric Barret met JH working there) It was across the street from my High School on Highland and Sunset blvd...I was really lucky to meet and to hang with him..First at Music City,he was buying guitars..What he would do is try out 4-5 different strats,buy them take the best bits,and give the others away to pals...Peter Tork of the Monkees,was a pal of mine and Hendrix would come and hang,PT had all these girls at his house most just had a tee shirt on..Really cool guy..In 1971 the Hollywood bowl remodeled the place and I bought a 65 bassman and this 63 bandmaster,Rodger Lynn got a 65 Deluxe..Like VanHalens Plexi they were house amps..Hendrixs could play a Pignose with a wha and it sounded great,Jimi Live and Jimi in the studio are two way different beast... soft spoken nice guy who listened to some stupid high school kid....