Has Ed been playing his "magic" Marshall?

[indeedido]

I saw this over at vhnd and had to pass along. They've a pic posted of Zakk holding Ed's Plexi stating, it is getting an overhaul. Could it be that Ed has been using it or will be using it to record the new album with to get those classic tones? Let's hope so. :hitch:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/indeedido/d179ae9ddb48665195d161e5ed3a51d6_view.jpg



Zakk posted this on his Twitter Sunday:

” THIS IS “THE HEAD OF DOOM” !!! Eddie’s ORIGINAL MARSHALL from ERUPTION til’ 1984!!!!!! Serious MOJO !!!!!! ”

” I DON’T OWN ED’s Original Baby…. She’s Getting some TLC right now…”

” ED’s ORIGINAL HEAD is Being Overhauled…. This is the GRAIL though…. ”

-Zakk Wylde

[jhale667]

Nice!!

[twonabomber]

as long as they're not going to retrofit the new Fender guts into it...

[jhale667]

as long as they're not going to retrofit the new Fender guts into it...


Perish the thought...lol. I thought he'd had it restored to the original specs a few years back, though...there was a GW article about it...

[VAiN]

Perish the thought...lol. I thought he'd had it restored to the original specs a few years back, though...there was a GW article about it...

Yeah, I remember that article as well... Maybe they're giving it the once over so it's nice & clean for recording... damn that would be awesome to get the Marshall sound back!!

[jhale667]

Yeah, I remember that article as well... Maybe they're giving it the once over so it's nice & clean for recording... damn that would be awesome to get the Marshall sound back!!

It would indeed...he's never really surpassed that tone...

[jhale667]

dupe post..

[GAR]

Perish the thought...lol. I thought he'd had it restored to the original specs a few years back, though...there was a GW article about it...

Oh yeah, the guy in Holland who offered to do a labor of love for no money, then EVH as always bitched about it saying he wrecked it?

Ed isn't happy with anything anyone does for him, he'll bitch about this guys' shop after it leaves like he does all of 'em. BTW what shop did Zakk say he's hanging in this pic?

[GAR]

Also, unless Ed had the "original" circuit templated on paper in algebraic reduction format, there is no physical way in the universe that amp is going to be made to sound like it originally did.

Board-level components were changed, transformers were changed, caps were changed.. change one or two things here or there and the whole equation result is different.

However the one thing Ed could do to effect the older tones is, and if he's held onto some of those original transformers, is to rewind them. And if he did that, they could be blueprinted and duplicated exactly as a guitar pickup wind is duplicated.

Those plexi-era Radio Spares transformers were handwound, so its' a common thing to do if given to a shop skilled in de-winding, documenting the result and rewinding exactly the same such as Mercury Magnetics over iin Northridge do all the time.

[Diamondjimi]

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/indeedido/d179ae9ddb48665195d161e5ed3a51d6_view.jpg

This picture says a lot. Jeff Weidland is a lucky fucker. He probably got to give this Plexi a go, plus he owns some of Randy Rhoads's personal items..

Could it be Vh is working with Templeman again? Maybe the EVH heads ain't cuttin it for recording...

[sadaist]

Also, unless Ed had the "original" circuit templated on paper in algebraic reduction format, there is no physical way in the universe that amp is going to be made to sound like it originally did.

Board-level components were changed, transformers were changed, caps were changed.. change one or two things here or there and the whole equation result is different.

However the one thing Ed could do to effect the older tones is, and if he's held onto some of those original transformers, is to rewind them. And if he did that, they could be blueprinted and duplicated exactly as a guitar pickup wind is duplicated.

Those plexi-era Radio Spares transformers were handwound, so its' a common thing to do if given to a shop skilled in de-winding, documenting the result and rewinding exactly the same such as Mercury Magnetics over iin Northridge do all the time.

I had no idea amplifiers were such complicated beasts. I rebuild & refurbish old classic arcade game monitors, and most of that is installing cap kits. Same premise it seems like. Just capacitors & such of different values. But they have to be spot on for that crisp picture. Never had to fix a sound board yet other than a simple volume pot. But I do have a pinball machine where the soundboard needs an overhaul. Once I get motivated to do it, I'll make a thread. I would bet you guys could probably guide me with most of it.

[VanHalenFan5150]

Let's hope to the lord that something productive comes out of this...

[GAR]

I had no idea amplifiers were such complicated beasts.

They're pretty simple, operationally. However they become musical instruments in themselves once they enhance the harmonic overtones of the pleasing tones you want, and de-emphasize the smoothing of harsher-range tones you don't. Also, because the guitar strings are pretty thin and unsustaining (compared to other string instruments lke piano, or bowed lke violin) in themselves, the saturation-effect of HOW the amplified harmonic structure can grow exponentially - the sustain, compression - really affects the attack signal of the guitar output that in trying to recreate those qualities in consistent fashion at the manufacturer's production level such assembly becomes really difficult.

Just kidding! I am talking out of my ass as usual. I know nothing NOTHING about amplifiers ask anyone here.

[jhale667]

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/indeedido/d179ae9ddb48665195d161e5ed3a51d6_view.jpg

This picture says a lot. Jeff Weidland is a lucky fucker. He probably got to give this Plexi a go, plus he owns some of Randy Rhoads's personal items..

Could it be Vh is working with Templeman again? Maybe the EVH heads ain't cuttin it for recording...

Oh, yeah betting he got to give it a run-through. Sounds like he wasn't kidding around about the MOJO...:killer: Doubt even Templeman could make the King switch amps if he didn't want to; but hey, maybe he's just feeling nostalgic. I'd love to hear it make a re-appearance on the new material...holy crap. I've heard mere mortal Plexis restored that sounded god-like, so one can only imagine...



:guitar:

[GAR]

Let's hope to the lord that something productive comes out of this...

Did you know: if you push a bag of Cheetos individually one by one up your rectum that in a half-hour you'll have Cheetobreath?

[GAR]

Oh, yeah betting he got to give it a run-through.

I'll take that bet? Any amp tech worthy of respect will tell you to fuck off asking to test somebody else's amp.

Anathema. Absolute nono. He might let the guy take a pic with it, knowing he and Ed are freinds, but I betcha Ed's gonna be pissed if he sees that pic regardless of friendship.

[twonabomber]

like Ed's never been pissed. he'll just have to get over it.

[jhale667]

Something interesting regarding the Grail from the Splawn board (via the VHT board):

"Having worked on the supposed IT amp on more than one occasion, I can speak first hand on some of this.

First of all, hate to blow anyone’s bubbles, but there’s not a thing especially outstanding or unique about this amp. Matt Bruck brought what he said was Eds main amp to me in 1990/1 to “bring it back to life” He said Ed felt it just wasn’t the same as it once was and thought the output transformer was “getting weak”. I told him OT’s don’t get weak, but went ahead and checked it out from top to bottom and found not a thing wrong with it at all. In fact it was bone stock and rather clean inside. It sounded like a stock Marshall, put out full power and all of the caps were in good shape. I might add, and this is just from memory, but I recall that the circuit was actually closer to a 70 JMP than it was to a plexi, something I attributed to this possibly being a transition model, seeing as how it had a plexi panel, but apparently the newer input and feedback configuration. All that aside, Matt insisted that something needed to be done so I gave it a complete once-over and I then took the liberty of installing a Pittbull Classic output transformer into it to see if anyone would notice. Upon getting it back, Matt told me that they noticed no difference in sound and they still thought it sounded weak. I just presumed that something else was amiss or had changed and thought no more about it. I still have the receipt and copy of the check for the work signed by Ed, in case anyone wants to try to discredit this claim. I don’t usually talk about it, because frankly Scarlett…but since you went to the effort of posting this here, I though it might be fun to respond to some of the idiots history items:

“Eddie would keep it loaded with four Sylvania 6CA7 power tubes (Ed used this American brand because they run slightly cooler than their European counterpart).”

In the mid to late 70’s most available EL34’s were horribly unreliable and the Sylvania 6CA7 was king because it was the only available reliable replacement. It was well known at that time that if you had an EL34 amp you either used the Sylvania 6CA7 or in the case of Marshall, the popular thing to do was swap it over to 6550, which Marshalls US distributor was doing to cut down on warranty claims for failed European EL34s – you know those coveted NOS ones people pay big bucks for now…and by the way, the back was off because tubes got replaced frequently and everybody at that time left the backs off or lost them.

(Although he did crank the Variac up to 140 volts in the studio for Van Halen I)!

Anyone who has ever tried this knows it's BS and the reason you know it’s BS is because after you tried it the guy who replaced your blown power supply capacitors or transformers told you it’s BS. When the first interview where this appeared came out I was a repair tech at Valley Arts Guitars, and I can tell you that article made me a lot of money. But I lost a lot of respect for the big E for being so thoughtless as to say such a thing in print and potentially help people put their lives in danger, or at the very least sacrifice their gear over such a stupid comment.

"Early in Van Halen's career, Ed used to say that his amps were heavily modified by Jose Arrendondo of Arrco Electronics to throw people off that were trying to imitate his sound."

And if it ended there, I would have thought fair enough, but it didn’t end there. He allowed Jose to promote and sell “Eddies Mod” to anyone with cash. As a result, legions of guys got reamed and their amps butchered with a bunch of terrible sounding and horribly executed mods (some now considered desirable as “Cameron Jose mods”) which caused lots of noise, hum, output transformer failures, etc, etc. I had lots of players coming to me wanting to find out why their amps with the blessed Jose/Eddie Grail were giving them so much grief. In most cases it went something like “fix the problem with the amp but don’t touch the mod”. Response: “The mod is the problem, so I either dump the mod or you take it back to Jose”."

[GAR]

I had a 74 jmp 100 with a lite Jose mod, pull-pot on one of the four inputs as master vol channel-tie.

Wasn't all that gainey.

I had another JMP I talked about with all the bells and whistles, very gainey and hissey - I heard the same suggestions "take the mod out if you want the hiss gone" yeah whateever.

You can't make an omelette without busting a few eggs.

[GAR]

Another thought is: this amp supposedly is a 68 plexi, but then what does the tech say on the board about the components being steel-panel transistion era?

That didn't start till late 69 through 70. That doesn't describe the VH1 amp, and in fact if I googled it I know I've seen the serial number cited in print before.

Itd be hilarious if Ed just wanted to test a tech to see if he'll be honest and say something about switching a steel panel era chassis in the plexi head case.

[indeedido]

Something interesting regarding the Grail from the Splawn board (via the VHT board):

"Having worked on the supposed IT amp on more than one occasion, I can speak first hand on some of this.

First of all, hate to blow anyone’s bubbles, but there’s not a thing especially outstanding or unique about this amp. Matt Bruck brought what he said was Eds main amp to me in 1990/1 to “bring it back to life” He said Ed felt it just wasn’t the same as it once was and thought the output transformer was “getting weak”. I told him OT’s don’t get weak, but went ahead and checked it out from top to bottom and found not a thing wrong with it at all. In fact it was bone stock and rather clean inside. It sounded like a stock Marshall, put out full power and all of the caps were in good shape. I might add, and this is just from memory, but I recall that the circuit was actually closer to a 70 JMP than it was to a plexi, something I attributed to this possibly being a transition model, seeing as how it had a plexi panel, but apparently the newer input and feedback configuration. All that aside, Matt insisted that something needed to be done so I gave it a complete once-over and I then took the liberty of installing a Pittbull Classic output transformer into it to see if anyone would notice. Upon getting it back, Matt told me that they noticed no difference in sound and they still thought it sounded weak. I just presumed that something else was amiss or had changed and thought no more about it. I still have the receipt and copy of the check for the work signed by Ed, in case anyone wants to try to discredit this claim. I don’t usually talk about it, because frankly Scarlett…but since you went to the effort of posting this here, I though it might be fun to respond to some of the idiots history items:

“Eddie would keep it loaded with four Sylvania 6CA7 power tubes (Ed used this American brand because they run slightly cooler than their European counterpart).”

In the mid to late 70’s most available EL34’s were horribly unreliable and the Sylvania 6CA7 was king because it was the only available reliable replacement. It was well known at that time that if you had an EL34 amp you either used the Sylvania 6CA7 or in the case of Marshall, the popular thing to do was swap it over to 6550, which Marshalls US distributor was doing to cut down on warranty claims for failed European EL34s – you know those coveted NOS ones people pay big bucks for now…and by the way, the back was off because tubes got replaced frequently and everybody at that time left the backs off or lost them.

(Although he did crank the Variac up to 140 volts in the studio for Van Halen I)!

Anyone who has ever tried this knows it's BS and the reason you know it’s BS is because after you tried it the guy who replaced your blown power supply capacitors or transformers told you it’s BS. When the first interview where this appeared came out I was a repair tech at Valley Arts Guitars, and I can tell you that article made me a lot of money. But I lost a lot of respect for the big E for being so thoughtless as to say such a thing in print and potentially help people put their lives in danger, or at the very least sacrifice their gear over such a stupid comment.

"Early in Van Halen's career, Ed used to say that his amps were heavily modified by Jose Arrendondo of Arrco Electronics to throw people off that were trying to imitate his sound."

And if it ended there, I would have thought fair enough, but it didn’t end there. He allowed Jose to promote and sell “Eddies Mod” to anyone with cash. As a result, legions of guys got reamed and their amps butchered with a bunch of terrible sounding and horribly executed mods (some now considered desirable as “Cameron Jose mods”) which caused lots of noise, hum, output transformer failures, etc, etc. I had lots of players coming to me wanting to find out why their amps with the blessed Jose/Eddie Grail were giving them so much grief. In most cases it went something like “fix the problem with the amp but don’t touch the mod”. Response: “The mod is the problem, so I either dump the mod or you take it back to Jose”."


Someone needs to tell Ed that EL34s these days are reliable. He is living in the past. If someone could get that through to him, maybe he would stop developing gainy amps with 6L6s and the next amp may have nice crunchy power amp tube distortion.

[jhale667]

Someone needs to tell Ed that EL34s these days are reliable. He is living in the past. If someone could get that through to him, maybe he would stop developing gainy amps with 6L6s and the next amp may have nice crunchy power amp tube distortion.

I'd be interested to hear what the "Grail" sounds like put back to stock (which was already done 15 years ago, verified per reliable sources) and running EL34s.


And interesting about the thread that came from -they're totally ripping on mods by Jose and Cameron (in his case both his mods and his business practices), without name-dropping - another well-known player that uses Plexis modded by Cameron is mentioned.
The one time I worked for him, his (amazing sounding) Cameron- modded Plexi blew a transformer during the set. We switched to the rented back-up JCM800, and he laughed it off later - "Meh, happens every six months or so, but SO worth fixing it when it does..." :D

[VanHalenFan5150]

I'll be honest. I hate how Ed's new amps sounds. They only sound good when they are PROPERLY and PROFESSIONALLY mic'ed up... Those GW demos of the Wolfgang and 5150III sound pretty clean. I hate the super-high gain and obnoxious feedback his recent amps put off. We're playing Van Halen, not fucking Pantera here...

[Diamondjimi]

I'll be honest. I hate how Ed's new amps sounds. They only sound good when they are PROPERLY and PROFESSIONALLY mic'ed up... Those GW demos of the Wolfgang and 5150III sound pretty clean. I hate the super-high gain and obnoxious feedback his recent amps put off. We're playing Van Halen, not fucking Pantera here...

Good point. His classic tones were based on a much cleaner gain setting. It seems that the weaker his chops have gotten over the last number of years, the higher the gain has gotten.
Most of the music I write/play with my band is a lot "heavier" than VH, yet I use HALF the amount of gain.
Ed seems to no longer be able to squeeze, work and pull notes out of his guitar. He's simply turned into a lazy player relying on high gain to do the work for him.

His amps sounded like fucking buzzsaws on the last tour.:shiznit:

[indeedido]

true dat

[GAR]

Who here doubts Ed's acting to refurb his old head has more to do with outside suggestion rather than an idea of his own?

I think if he'd come to the conclusion on his own he'd have done so by now.

[VanHalenFan5150]

Ed sounds like a twelve year old trying to play licks from Eruption. It's sad, considering he wrote the damn song, and the song itself changed guitar forever. I have no sympathy for that however, it's his own fault. Why can't he play CVH like he did in 1998, 1995, or previously? Because he is lazy. He's one of the laziest guitar players in the history of guitar players. If he actually got off his ass, he'd be able to recuperate and sound like Edward again, not a new student of the guitar....

Lord give you strength, Ed...

Let's hope the new album is noteworthy for his technique.

[GAR]

That's a little harsh. First of all, he smashed his Porsche and broke his hand in 82.

Then he's had to deal with alcoholism meth and coke. Then a few other medical issues like the hip, cancer, CTS, dental and now plastic surgery with a dollop of old age - it's a lot of water under the bridge.

To retain skillful execution of that 1978 EVH technique 40 years later with the same gusto would be difficult for anybody without all the above issues.

[jhale667]

Actually, ....agree. :duh:

...not completely his fault - personal demons and car accident hand-smashings aside - Arthritis is a bitch. Google "Arthritic hands" images.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7YSO2Zpr84FUAQnw3_Q2lmWAZ2Wa3z Ypaq3cpcvnIVZSB2s8&t=1&usg=__EM12xjrJXWeV5vVCvtFBI_A-yPM=


Not like he was anywhere near that bad off yet, but I believe it was Terry(?) that posted when he saw VH, he was close enough to see Ed's knuckles were swollen. That can't be conducive to being as fleet-fingered as he was at say, 23...and damaged joints get arthritic first.

Hope the recent surgery helped - who knows, he may yet surprise us all. Might be noteworthy for sound and fury. :baaa:

[GAR]

I believe the surgery was over CTS - they open restrictions of the tendon in the wrist so it can move in and out of the bone opening.

How do you like the idea of slitting each bone behind the knuckle open then pulling the tendon back and shaving any bumps on it?

Mmm.. yummy

[jhale667]

Van Halen's Hand Surgery a Success

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.spinner.com/media/2009/07/eddie-van-halen-200-061009.jpg
http://www.spinner.com/2009/07/24/van-halens-hand-surgery-a-success/

Eddie Van Halen is recuperating from hand surgery that was needed to alleviate increasing pain in his left hand. The world famous rock guitarist reveals he began to sense pain in his pinky and thumb on the final dates of Van Halen's 2007-2008 tour, but after an initial treatment for arthritis, the operating table was deemed his only option.

"It got progressively worse to the point that about three months ago I wasn't able to play at all," Van Halen told Rolling Stone. "My pinky and my thumb were totally locked up and felt like there was something broken."

Specialists in Düsseldorf, ruled out arthritis after discovering a bone spur, twisted tendon and a cyst in the joint of his left thumb. Van Halen -- who had hip replacement surgery ten years ago and also had a portion of his tongue removed being fter diagnosed with mouth cancer -- says wasn't exactly stoked to go under the knife again. "[It] scared the s--- out of me," he said. "But I was told it was the only way to fix it."

Doctors tell Van Halen -- who's made a living with his finger-tapping guitar-playing technique -- that the surgery is a success. Once his stitches are removed in a few days, he can resume playing the guitar. "I am totally jazzed that they found the problem," he added. "In about four months my hand will feel like I am 18 again."


If the bone spur is gone and the tendon un-twisted and correctly re-attached? Hopefully he's feeling and playing better.

It's been well past 4 months...hey, maybe his left hand does now feel like it's 18 again, and of course it would then want it's old amp back...! :hee:

[VanHalenFan5150]

We can only hope...

[Diamondjimi]

It's been well past 4 months...hey, maybe his left hand does now feel like it's 18 again, and of course it would then want it's old amp back...! :hee:

Well lets hope the hand is 18 again. Now, what about that brain of his???

[GAR]

Anyone who plays tapping style and fanpicking guitar styles feels these things. They don't go away, there's not going to be any "play like I'm 18 again" that's so wrong.

It's deliberately misleading. Maybe he lasts another tour, maybe not.

(I thought it was CTS! I was right..)

[Nitro Express]

Someone needs to tell Ed that EL34s these days are reliable. He is living in the past. If someone could get that through to him, maybe he would stop developing gainy amps with 6L6s and the next amp may have nice crunchy power amp tube distortion.

High gain pre-amps don't sound good with EL-34 tubes in the power amp section. Mike Soldano himself said this. EL-34's are at their best pushed into clipping in the power section. On a high gain amp the power tubes don't clip, the pre-amp tubes do. This is how you get the better reliability because there is less heat and less strain on the output transformer. Old Marshalls sound good cranked but it comes at a price of shortened tube and transformer life.

[GAR]

I disagree, it all depends on the engineer who designs the mod. When I say "design" I don't mean playing ticky-tack with "real" carbon comp resistors, I mean doing the actual differential computation (if I substitute one value for a different one = how the measurement after that component changes after each consecutive component).

If you can't predict those mathematical values after changing one resistor value for another, you're not an engineer.

I can't say if Soldano is an engineer or how much of one he is, but increasing the preamp gain stages to sound good before the power amp section to sound any good really depends on how it's done and what method is used.

I've had amps with one, two and up to ten added tube gain stages modded to JCM stock Marshalls and have found you actually have more control with more gain added - but not if you use it all. Of course if you ten everything it's gonna sound like mud with any amp.

[indeedido]

High gain pre-amps don't sound good with EL-34 tubes in the power amp section. Mike Soldano himself said this. EL-34's are at their best pushed into clipping in the power section. On a high gain amp the power tubes don't clip, the pre-amp tubes do. This is how you get the better reliability because there is less heat and less strain on the output transformer. Old Marshalls sound good cranked but it comes at a price of shortened tube and transformer life.

Right on. That is what I meant by him developing some nice power amp distortion and not this gainy tone from his current amp. He has become lazy and doesn't want to work an amp and guitar like he used to so he is relying on hi gain preamp distortion. He's never going to get that magic classic tone with 6L6s and preamp buzz. Good old fashioned EL34 crunch baby!

[VanHalenFan5150]

I think that Ed, being a father of present day technical metal, is trying to keep up with the times and sounds of heavy metal... He just can't keep up. Van Halen will be Van Halen forever. Unless it's Spammy

[GAR]

I wouldn't go so far to call Ed "father" of technical-sounds in metal. That desrip definately belongs to Yngwie Malmsteen, and if not him, Alan Holdsworth OR Al Di Meola..

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These three guys don't have to show up drunk for work, to enable them to work. They just do what they're supposed to do, they write all the time, and have struggled alot harder than EVH.

Roth could have hired any of these guys when he had the money and probably eclipsed Van Halen but he didn't and that's all hindsight - except the fact that Van Halen is nothing without Roth because the songs and material are predominantly blues-based Myxolidian with the rare Harmonic minor riffs once in a blue moon, snagged from Ritchie Blackmore.

Ed by no means was "father of technical metal" or rock, and for these 3 predecessors that DID make it, you better know there were hundreds more like them in the mid- to late 70's who didn't make it.

[vanhalen1r2]

I wouldn't go so far to call Ed "father" of technical-sounds in metal. That desrip definately belongs to Yngwie Malmsteen, and if not him, Alan Holdsworth OR Al Di Meola..

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These three guys don't have to show up drunk for work, to enable them to work. They just do what they're supposed to do, they write all the time, and have struggled alot harder than EVH.

Roth could have hired any of these guys when he had the money and probably eclipsed Van Halen but he didn't and that's all hindsight - except the fact that Van Halen is nothing without Roth because the songs and material are predominantly blues-based Myxolidian with the rare Harmonic minor riffs once in a blue moon, snagged from Ritchie Blackmore.

Ed by no means was "father of technical metal" or rock, and for these 3 predecessors that DID make it, you better know there were hundreds more like them in the mid- to late 70's who didn't make it.

Wow that is a great group of guitarists

[GAR]

Wow that is a great group of guitarists

I just wanted to show that EVH isn't really a "father" of any technical trend per se, as these three examples clearly show striking advancements in the technical playing styles - and that they are considered initiators of that style even if Malmsteen would be the final refinement of it.

Eddie Van Halen's style is more bues-based and jazz-riff oriented and not too technical considering DiMeola and Holdsworth's contributions.

[vanhalen1r2]

I just wanted to show that EVH isn't really a "father" of any technical trend per se, as these three examples clearly show striking advancements in the technical playing styles - and that they are considered initiators of that style even if Malmsteen would be the final refinement of it.

Eddie Van Halen's style is more bues-based and jazz-riff oriented and not too technical considering DiMeola and Holdsworth's contributions.

When you listen to Fair Warning you can clearly hear the Holdsworth influence on Ed's playing.

[jhale667]

When you listen to Fair Warning you can clearly hear the Holdsworth influence on Ed's playing.

He was hugely into Holdsworth back then...

[vanhalen1r2]

He was hugely into Holdsworth back then...

I know he was a big fan of his Jedi guitar Master, Allan is a great player. EVH was really pushing his playing to new heights around that time frame, too bad FW did by VH standards poorly in sales.

I love the boots of Jeff Berlin AH and EVH playing

[jhale667]

Agree, too bad FW is considered one of their "weaker" efforts (especially sales-wise at the time), it's one of my favorites of the 6-pack.

[jhale667]

Seems like the new EVH head is a little more metal than "brown"...

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[Coyote]

Pretty much every EVH amp has been subjugated by metalheads...

[vanhalen1r2]

Agree, too bad FW is considered one of their "weaker" efforts (especially sales-wise at the time), it's one of my favorites of the 6-pack.

I agree, its a killer record.

I think it actually hurt Ed that it did poorly sales wise because he played his ass off and put his heart and soul on that record, it might be a big reason he seemed to stop growing as a player, just my two cents.

[jhale667]

He didn't make the "I'm tired of being a guitar-hero" statement until the Hagar-era.

If you can overlook the Ed hawking his new amp part of this piece, it's actually an interesting tonal discussion...

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[vanhalen1r2]

He didn't make the "I'm tired of being a guitar-hero" statement until the Hagar-era.

If you can overlook the Ed hawking his new amp part of this piece, it's actually an interesting tonal discussion...

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I get what you are saying about the Fagar time frame, what I meant was, EVH really was pushing his playing in the time frame of Fair Warning, the album Ed put his heart and soul then it is not very commercially successful, then a half-ass filler follow up album DD smokes it with commercial success, so it looks like EVH stayed or was trapped in the VH success formula box, I wish Ed would have done more stuff like Blues Breakers with Brian May and kept pushing his playing even if the masses didn't get it, the guy was a one in a million talent, damn shame that we did not get more of him at the height and peak of his ability.

[Diamondjimi]

damn shame that we did not get more of him at the height and peak of his ability.

True...

[GAR]

".. if you got no concept of tone, out comes 'bleahh.' "

That's about the only truth he's provided in that clip.

[GAR]

Who Knew?

.. that what, it sounds tinny and sucks ass unless you detune it like this dummy?

Sounds like a Fender because it's a fucking Fender.

[Nitro Express]

Right on. That is what I meant by him developing some nice power amp distortion and not this gainy tone from his current amp. He has become lazy and doesn't want to work an amp and guitar like he used to so he is relying on hi gain preamp distortion. He's never going to get that magic classic tone with 6L6s and preamp buzz. Good old fashioned EL34 crunch baby!

The EL-34 is a European tube developed by Phillips. I have an old brochure and it's funny because they are bragging that the new slimmer EL-34 tubes allow for smaller electronics. They were cheap, consumer grade tubes meant to go in a smaller space than a 6L6. When pushed these tubes got that warm, raunchy sound that the more heavy duty 6L6 couldn't.

[paulscape]

I love the way Zakk talks about his hero's 'The Grail', 'Father Edward', 'Father Jimi'. It would be very cool if Ed went one step further and just used Dave Friedmans Marsha amps instead of those gainy bussy 5153's.