Originally Posted by
Terry
I can get an Eddie Van Halen "brown sound" just fine with either my Ibanez Edge III or my Charvel San Dimas, both of which have stock pickups, along with a Pro-Co Rat distortion pedal and a Peavey 15 Watt amp which was bought off the shelf and hasn't been modified. No diddling around with voltage, nothing.
Truth be told, when I saw Eddie in 2008 and 2012, his live sound wasn't all that distinctive to my ears. Am assuming he was playing with his own line of signature guitars and amps for both of those tours. It sounded fine but didn't particularly stand out to me as something all that unique in terms of tone or sonics...his tone and more so the way he played on those CVH albums WAS something that stood out, to be sure. But Ed playing through his signature gear in the 2000's...I tend to doubt concertgoers were picking up much by way of nuanced tones at the volumes the band were playing at anyway.