They do seem to be the best of both worlds but it depends of course on what you are going to use it for. You do pay for their stuff being bombproof. At 84 lbs I'm at an age I just couldn't face carrying that up a flight of stairs every other week, at least with the amp head and separate 2x12 I get to do it in two journeys.Originally Posted by Nitro Express
So I’m not confused, are you referring to the ones 5150 Iconic Series with the big 5150 logo?
I’m referring to the all tube powered 5150 amps in the beginning of my post. The 50 watt heads are popular and are almost as loud as a 100 watt but smaller and lighter. The EL34 head has a darker voiced crunch channel than the 6L6 head.
I did mention the Iconic because it’s cheaper and I hear good things. It’s not all tube. It has a solid state preamp and a tube power amp.
No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!
I assume the Iconic is pretty good because Ed did sign off on it and James Brown designed it. I have some pedals James handmade and they are fabulous. He really can do a good job voicing solid state circuits. Mike Soldano told me he was having a real problem finding non-microphonic preamp tubes these days. That’s why he designed the new amps with DC heaters. The Iconic would eliminate the noisy tube problem by going with a solid state preamp.
That’s what I like about my FUCHS amps. They have DC heaters in a Marshall style circuit and the amps are lighter. I have a nice Marshall small box Dave Friedman modded for me but I use my Train 45 most the time. It’s lighter, quieter and better touch response.
If I was looking for something to get the classic VH sound with in the 5150 price range I would get a Friedman Runt 50. Those amps are built right. Better construction and components than a 5150. It does not do the really high gain. If you like rediculous amounts of gain with a decent crunch channel the 5150 is good.
I hear you. Big combos are no fun to haul. That’s why I started using a 50 watt FUCHS head and a FUCHS 2x12. Andy FUCHS uses a special lightweight plywood and an aircraft aluminum chassis. His stuff is pretty light weight but still sounds great. His 2x12 has an offset baffle so the two speakers don’t cancel each other out. It sounds like a 4x12.They do seem to be the best of both worlds but it depends of course on what you are going to use it for. You do pay for their stuff being bombproof. At 84 lbs I'm at an age I just couldn't face carrying that up a flight of stairs every other week, at least with the amp head and separate 2x12 I get to do it in two journeys.
The worst things to haul around are a Ampeg SVT head and the 8x10 cab.
NITRO...
I like to keep some random gear in my studio for multiple purposes.
I have a pretty cool guitar amp even though I don't play guitar, really. I do have some cool pedals/gear for vocals. My studio actually has a nice vocal booth...I sometimes send the vocal mic (one of those big, bulky circular vocal mics) out from the booth to one of my vocal pedals or even into my amp, put some distortion and effects on it...and then send the amp signal out to the multi-track board.
If I wanted to put an EVH-gear amp in my studio (for one of the guitarists to use if they're doing a quick visit/quick overdub session...or even to get a loud, distorted, punchy vocal sound), is there a reasonably-priced Eddie-endorsed amp I could get for my recording studio? I'm not looking to spend a fortune, necessarily. Just a nice, all-purpose Eddie-endorsed amp.
Roth Army Militia
Originally posted by WARF
Rikk - The new school of the Roth Army... this dude leads the pack... three words... The Sheep Pen... this dude opened alot of doors for people during this new era... he's the best of the new school.
Also, NITRO...
Believe it or not, I've only ever used my Leslie rotating-speaker for my Hammond B3 (sounds great). I've never actually bothered plugging a guitar into the Leslie (people think it's just a standard "plug your guitar in" set-up...but there are actually a few connections...you gotta fuck around).
Have you ever played around with a Leslie rotating speaker? If so, is it hard to get a nice sound for guitar with a real rotating speaker? (I know Clapton & George Harrison used to do that a lot back in the day...but I've just never fucked around with it. I know they have pedals which can simulate the sound really well...but it's just something I want to try myself.)
God, I’d love a Leslie pedal for the shear simplicity of it, but they just haven’t found the way to properly replicate the sound of a spinning speaker yet. The pedals I’ve heard usually sound too digital. I’m open to recommendations.
That sound on Badge that Clapton got (or was it Harrison?) sounds awesome, but I really dig the Leslie at the halfway point of No Matter What by Badfinger.
My home studio is in the basement (the studio is maybe 400 square feet...but that includes the vocal booth and an equipment storage area)...and to get to the basement, there's a pretty steep staircase. (The basement is about 2000 square feet finished...and I wanted to save some space for the home theater, pool table, fireplace area in the middle, playroom, spare bedroom...so I didn't want to make the studio too big.) ANYWAY, I'm rambling, sorry...when the B3 organ & Leslie got delivered, the guys who drove it from Pennsylvania had to get it down the steep staircase...and I was scared shitless. It's not too wide and I was worried they were going to not handle it and it would go crashing down. I have a seriously bad back from my accident (had surgery for it in 2022) and I couldn't really help them. But those two guys were the two strongest fuckers I've ever known. I don't know how they did it. They got it down those stairs and into the studio (I put it in a sort of corner area with a little nook that goes off to the side). But the B3 and the Leslie are so, so fucking heavy. I can't even describe how heavy they are. The Leslie makes any normal amp feel lightweight.
I really should post a picture or two of the studio. It's fucking awesome. I basically spent 20 years dreaming it up.
One of these days, I'll try and plug a guitar through the Leslie...but it's not as straightforward as some people think.
And...YES! That is Clapton playing the riff on the middle eight of BADGE. Harrison plays on BADGE too...he wrote the simpler music for the first half of the song. But Clapton plays that amazing, ringing riff in the middle part. (It was all he had for the song, so Harrison wrote the first part and they were off!)
Harrison plays a lot of Leslie guitar in later Beatles stuff (like in LET IT BE...and in a couple of tracks on ABBEY ROAD)...and I believe he also dug it out for stuff on ALL THINGS MUST PASS.
Clapton also plays Leslie'd guitar on the Cream track DOING THAT SCRAPYARD (also on their GOODBYE album) and other tracks after...I think he uses it on the BLIND FAITH album, but I'd have to check.
It's just a killer sound that ended up really in fashion around 1969/1970.
Never messed around with a Leslie. I’ve messed around with a Uni-Vibe that simulates the rotating speaker effect. They got some great effects now and I don’t even mess with a tape echo anymore because the analog delays now are so good.
For studio use I would look into the EVH 15 watt LBX head.
We have a Bossendorfer grand piano in the living room. It’s a heavy beast to move. Lots of iron in that thing.
The FUCHS is 40lbs compared to the EVH 60lbs. Looks like they are expensive and hard to find in Europe though.
I know someone who uses one for band rehearsals and says they are loud enough to play with an acoustic kit with a hard hitting drummer and they only weigh 15lbs.
Damn, the place sounds amazing. I recall you mentioning a home theater the other day. Sounds like a fair amount of space. Congrats on bringing that dream to fruition!
Yeah they are a boutique brand but great people to deal with. Andy Fuchs has a repair business as well. He does warranty work for Soldano, Friedman and others. I found the guys who design the best amps spent a lot of time repairing them. Easy as hell amps to work on. Not a nightmare like a Mesa Boogie.
They are EL 84 powered which are going to clip sooner than bigger tubes and 15 watts can be plenty loud. What you will lose is head room but for rock you really don’t need that.
But you are going to get good tone at lower volumes.
The 6505 MH are decent too. USB out, shows up as an audio interface in a DAW.
I've been playing this Katana Artist I picked up a couple years ago. It's versatile. The 6505 MH doesn't like single coil guitars but the Katana likes them all.
Writing In All Proper Case Takes Extra Time, Is Confusing To Read, And Is Completely Pointless.
Wolfgang Van Halen Says He Was Saving Eddie From Messing Up In VH Shows
"I think between locking in with Al and just jamming with him and then also, because my dad was bad
at counting, so he’d come in early or come in late. And Al and I would like to swoop in and save him. He’d have no idea. So locking with Al but at the same time being that safety net for Pop if he ended a solo early
or went a little long or something like that."
Whew. Pity he wasn't on all the VH tours...
Full story at:
https://rockcelebrities.net/wolfgang...p-in-vh-shows/
Really? Well, Eddie's kid wasn't helping him from messing up at the show I saw in 2008.
The statement also makes no sense considering how many of the CVH songs start off with just guitar, thus Eddie couldn't come in early or late.
Is Wolfgang's strategy nothing other than these lame stabs at Mandela Effect gaslighting he has been propagating for the last three years?
It seems likely Eddie eventually agreed to work with Roth because Eddie's kid had enough common sense to realize come 2006 that that was what the majority of rock fans wanted to see, and Eddie did the Roth reunions probably more because he enjoyed playing with his kid than necessarily wanting to play with Dave again. All of that stuff I can buy into.
The rest of what Eddie's kid has to say publicly comes across as dubious/specious as the more egregious porky pies Hagar has cooked and served up over the years.
Scramby eggs and bacon.
Thanks, buddy! Yes...it's a dream mancave. Just so freaking awesome and planned out. I should post some pics at some point.
Jesus Christ.
This fuckin' "kid."
I'm so sick of his fucking shit. He just talks and talks...
...now he "saved" his dad from fucking up live?
Well, yes...Terry is right. Apparently the band were complete fuck ups from 1974-1984. They were a notoriously live band, with Eddie always fucking up.
Thank God Wolfgang came in to "fix everything up."
Mother fucker. Seriously.
I'll give Ed's kid credit for being bright enough circa 2006 to realize that the only real work 'Van Halen' was gonna get at that point (diddling on porn soundtrack not being an example of real work) was a Roth reunion. And, really, how 'bright' did one need to be circa 2006 to realize the Roth option was the only real option left to pick if the band wanted to play big arenas again?
Ed didn't get his mojo back 100% until the ADKOT tour. Ed got a buff and shine rehab stint (along with some dental work) for the 2007-2008 tour, but Ed couldn't manage to make it through the entire tour without relapsing.
And I've seen enough clips of the 2015 tour to determine that Eddie was playing just fine and playing off the drums as opposed to the bass. Wolfgang was in the band because Eddie wanted to play with his kid. None of the paying fans particularly wanted to see Eddie play with his kid. That situation was tolerated because seemingly it was the only way we could get Ed and Dave onstage together.
I mean, who the fuck knows? Maybe Eddie's kid really believes the shit he is saying. Eddie used to spout quite a bit of bullshit in interviews himself.
Wolf did fine. He even was in better shape on the reunion tour than he is now. Dave’s voice was shot. The Van Halen’s sounded good but Dave sounded like an old windbag.
Ha! Ha! I’m glad Wolfgang is on the planet making it rotate at the perfect speed so time and the calendar don’t get thrown off.
LMFAO How was Wolf "saving" the shows in 2008? Triggering backing tracks FFS?
Who is going to save Wolf from being a self-serving fat fucking liar ape?
Last edited by Nickdfresh; 03-10-2024 at 04:02 AM.
Dave pulled it off on the first reunion tour, vocal-wise.
The last two tours Roth was terrible. No pleasure or snark or whatever in saying that, but it's true.
I never would call Dave a singer. He was a great frontman and brought the element to Van Halen to make it entertainment and not just some musical hot shots. But you have to sing to a respectable level. Live Dave had Mike and Eddie singing background helping Dave out and Dave would do his famous screams. VH hit you with so much stuff at once you went holy shit!
So with Dave no longer able to scream and having lost what little he had all he had left was dancing and props. So I got to watch the old windbag dance and play with flags and poles for two hours.
Last edited by Nitro Express; 03-10-2024 at 02:01 PM.
But Sammy’s voice always annoyed me. Nothing aesthetically pleasing there. He can hit the high notes but when you have no balls that is easy.
Probably too much pot smoking.
Dave was never just about the singing far as live performances went, even back when CVH was at their peak. As you say, it was the whole frontman persona, with Roth's take on it including those famous Roth screams along with the leaping around onstage, the jumping from the drum riser, the in-between song raps getting the crowd riled up...all that stuff.
Eventually, Roth just plain got old enough to the point where he couldn't do all the physical stuff onstage. Couldn't do the screams. While I'd agree he was a better frontman than singer live at least back in the day he could sing the tunes live more or less in key with how they were recorded. Come the ADKOT tour, Roth couldn't even sing the tunes in key live. Couldn't jump. Couldn't scream. He could disco shimmy on his center stage dance mat and proffer a strained yelp.
I just got to the point where I made all the allowances I could for age and downgraded my expectations as low as I could re: acceptability and reached the point where it wasn't worth paying to see Van Halen anymore because Dave couldn't cut it.
Hagar started trying to pull a Roth once he joined Van Halen in terms of attempting to replicate Roth's attitude. Even on the band's first record with Hagar on the first track, where Hagar is doing that spoken word stuff in the middle of Good Enough trying to cop an Everybody Wants Some vibe (the 'line back up the stockings' Dave rap) ...mannerisms and vocalisms that I'd never heard on any of Hagar's solo stuff prior to him joining Van Halen. All of which came off even more silly because Hagar was right there front and center joining in with the Van Halens via his own comments about Roth in the press: simultaneously slamming Dave while trying to cop his style and attitude.
Even farther down the line during his tenure with Van Halen, Hagar was trying to cop a stud attitude on record. Like, say, on Finish What You Started or Runaround where Hagar is still trying to do those bits in a lower spoken voice register like Roth used to do. Problem being Hagar didn't have the lower range nor was Hagar ever known for being a sex symbol, so it sounded terrible and came off as ridiculous.
First up the 'Hello Baby' is and always was lame.
As a teenager at the time I remember thinking this old married man (39 years old) could be my Dad and he's trying to do these lame raps about picking up girls.
"U.S. Prime, Grade A
Stamped guaranteed"
Calling girls meat hasn't so much aged badly because it was fucking tacky at the time.
Also it just occurred to me that there are 9 songs on 5150 so I bet that at least one song didn't make the album. That means that even at the very start of the Van Hagar thing - the top selling one although half the sales of the previous Dave album of course, there was a song that was even worse than 'Inside'.
I'm saying all this while watching the Oscars where this lyric has been nominated for best song.
The Fire Inside Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Oh, oh, you got places to go
You're not going there slow
Oh, no, no, no, no, no
They will tell you you're crazy
They will call you a fool
They will think they can stop you
But there's no stopping you
The only meat to be found was between Sammy’s ears.
Wolfie performing at the Oscars last night. Well, right there behind Slash who's playing the lead.
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