Partial new update on Melodicrock

[jhale667]

Originally posted by eddie78
This is a great & informative post!

Yeah, this from the guy you try to call "wannabe guitar tech"...I DO know my shit, see?

I often wondered why Ed chose Basswood, after he had such great tone, previously, using ash bodies.
It is true that Vai sort of started the Ibanez/Basswood craze, and i figured only because this type of wood offered a lighter & more comfortable instrument onstage.

What were the Kramers made from?
My info is limited to Ed's Charvels & early guitars, something i find myself obsessed with.

It's partly that, and also because it's CHEAP from a manufacturer's standpoint...plus, people like Vai postulated the (wrong, IMO) theory that the wood should be neutral sounding and the pickups should do the work. Completely ass-backwards thinking if you ask me...
The tones we all love were made by guys playing SLABS of cool wood.

Oh, and check out www.vintagekramer.com for info on those guitars...turns out some of them were POPLAR, another "so-so" wood...it was all downhill from there, wood-wise...

As for amps, i only wish EVH had gone the Marshall route.
I think they do some great signature amps, especially hearing the new RR model.
I always associate Ed with that plexi, man.
That 78 tone was as good as it gets, imo.

I agree with that...seems like it would have made more sense to go back to Marshalls...probably was so it could ALL fall under the 'EVH' brand, though not sure why he couldn't have done a deal with THEM too like he did with Dunlop for the pedals...
maybe because Fender isn't much into the pedal market, but since they do make amps?

[eddie78]

I was wrong about you, brother. Your good.

I think your right about the EVH brand thing, regarding Marshall.
Ed seems unlikely to completely give himself over to a manufacturer, at this point. It's kinda all about him.

Another thing i often wondered was why Ibanez never made on offer or got involved with Ed, considering his claims that the Ibanez Destroyer (the shark) sounded slightly better than his frankenstrat.
He used that guitar often n the early days & on those great, early records.
You'd think Ibanez, especially with their alliance with Vai & Gilbert, could have gotten Ed as their crown jewel.

I know i'm way off topic, here, but Jhale what's your take on Kramer guitars & the rumors that Ed might have just slapped a Kramer decal on custom built guitars?
I've never been a fan of Kramer, in general, but i'd respect your opinion on this.

[jhale667]

Apology accepted.
I was never a big fan of the Kramers (though in High School I owned on of their "Star" bodied ones that were based off the Ibanez Shark - still have the body), I got it because I was too poor to get a real Charvel...
but if you look on that Vintage Kramer site, they're pictures of Ed at the Kramer factory in Neptune, NJ...A guy named Paul Unkert that worked there made a bunch of necks and bodies for Ed...

[DLRISVH7884]

Shouldn't this thread be in the " Non VH/DLR Related Stuff" Forum or something?

[Nickdfresh]

Just tie Ed to a rope, drop him down, and turn up the backing track...

[eddie78]

Originally posted by jhale667
Apology accepted.
I was never a big fan of the Kramers (though in High School I owned on of their "Star" bodied ones that were based off the Ibanez Shark - still have the body), I got it because I was too poor to get a real Charvel...
but if you look on that Vintage Kramer site, they're pictures of Ed at the Kramer factory in Neptune, NJ...A guy named Paul Unkert that worked there made a bunch of necks and bodies for Ed...

I was the same, man.

I was all about the Charvels, as a kid, and the Kramer Barettas & Pacers never turned me on.

I noticed Unkert designed a new guitar, that is pictured backstage in the Ed & Wolfgang Guitar World (now, last months, as a newer GW arrived yesterday).
I'm just not a fan of his designs.

Alright....
back to the topic at hand!

[Nitro Express]

I still think a Peavey 5150 II with a set of good tubes and biased so the the slope of the sine wave barely has a hint of crossover distortion, sounds better than Ed's new amp.

The crunch channel can get a pretty good classic VH sound if everything is dialed in right and the high gain sound is warm and monsterouse. If you liked how Me Wise Magic and Can't Get This Stuff No More sounded, that was the amp Ed was using with a Peavey Wolfgang.

Those sounded good. The Fender stuff sounds thin, but they did coax a pretty good classic VH tone on the middle channel.

[Nitro Express]

I don't care if it's Saint Louis Music, Fender, Peavey, Mesa Boogie, Carvin or whoever. All these companies are capable of building a good amp. It's all in the engineering team and if marketing has a clue.

[Nitro Express]

It's almost like Ed wanted a beefy chunk of wood that was lightweight. I agree. Swamp ash is the way to go. It just resonates and adds more color to the tone than poplar or alder do. Those woods are unmusical for guitar frequencies. The seem to work fine for bass guitar but for regular guitar, they lack the magic.