EVH's amp - Guitars101

Valmar · 12-01-2003, 02:50 PM

Hey i was wondering if you guys know what amp eddie used during the dave era while on the road, some people told me he used a super lead 100 and other say a jcm 800. Some say it was hot rodded other say it wasnt. I dont know who to believe! HELP! [img]images/smilies/headscratch.gif[/img]

**EddieMan2003** · 12-01-2003, 04:39 PM

i think he had a few 100 watter super leads and saved the good one for recording. but i could be wrong all i know is he is one hell of a guitar player [img]images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif[/img]!!!!!!!

**Scott Parnell** · 12-01-2003, 04:58 PM

what i wanna know is why its so hard for me to duplicate his sound.. no matter how hard i try,, i cant do it and i have tried.... i believe his amps were tweaked cause i think in my curt mitchell guitar video,, he does say i think that his amps were tweaked to his specs. I dont know how and all exactly,, but i think they were. well,, I'm still in search of trying to achieve his tone with what gear i have.. maybe some day i'll be able to.

Dave G 5150 · 12-01-2003, 05:24 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Scott Parnell said:
what i wanna know is why its so hard for me to duplicate his sound.. no matter how hard i try,, i cant do it and i have tried.... i believe his amps were tweaked cause i think in my curt mitchell guitar video,, he does say i think that his amps were tweaked to his specs. I dont know how and all exactly,, but i think they were. well,, I'm still in search of trying to achieve his tone with what gear i have.. maybe some day i'll be able to.

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm barely a newbie at playing, but i have a friend who's been rockin' for over 20 years, and has even played several EVH tribute shows, so i believe what he says when he says well over half the tone is in the fingers and technique... but there is still the fact that you have to be in "the ballpark" with the equipment...
he can take my frankenstrat or my shark and make em sound just like evh!!!

...Dave (but what do i really know??? LOL)

**Scott Parnell** · 12-01-2003, 06:07 PM

well,, I have a good ear for music and and I been trying to acheive his tone,, granted I'm not gonna go out and buy all this gear that eddie used,, so I'll have to do with what I have.. I agree with you dave on the technique also. well,,, I hope this helps out your answer valmar.. this was taken right from my curt mitchell video and this guy can do vh dam good justice. hope this helps...

wahwah · 12-01-2003, 09:37 PM

In the VHI days he used old Marshall 100 watt Superleads and a home made variac which allowed the amp to be cranked and achieve the tone. However, it came at a cost and he would go thru valves PER GIG! They would simply burn out. The newer versions of variacs are like the Marshall Powerbrake...there are others but I can't think of the names (Hotplate, is one I think). They just mean you can run the amp on 10 and then adjust the master with the brake...great tone from a valve amp is more likely to come when the amp is balls to the wall max volume. Hope this helps.

12-02-2003, 08:33 AM

Hey Valmar and Scott,

Check these out:

Beautiful Girls
You're No Good

I have been concentrating on the VHII tone since it is my favorite of the Classic VH era. I think these are pretty close to the original record tones...

Here is exactly how I recorded these:

"I played an '82 Pacer that has been modified with a Seymour Duncan EVH custom shop pickup, new Warmoth flame maple neck and original Floyd. From there into a script MXR Phase 90 and old MXR Flanger (both are attached to a true bypass system called a Looper - when the effects are off, they are out of the loop, completely bypassed) then into the front of the Mojave PeaceMaker (high sensitivity input). Settings on the PeaceMaker (Bass - 6.2, Low Mid - 4, High Mid - 10, Treble - 10, Bass Volume - 0, Treble Volume - 10). Output of the PeaceMaker goes into a Hotplate set at -12db. Output of the hotplate into 1/2 of a Mojave 4x12 cab wired in stereo. This is the dry signal. I then run the line out of the HotPlate into a H&K Replex set for single head delay, no repeats, vintage factor maxed and low gain and output. Output of the Replex into 1 side of a Peavey Classic 50/50 Power Amp and then out to the other 1/2 of the Mojave 4x12. I used the Flanger only on Unchained and the Phase 90 only on the Bottoms Up! solo.

I used 2 SM57's to mic the amp. One on a dry speaker and the other on a wet speaker. The mics output went into 2 channels of an Oram Octasonic mic preamp and then into my Pro Tools TDM setup via an 888/24 I/O (D/A converter).

I recorded two tracks (dry and wet) in Pro Tools, panned the dry signal hard left and the wet signal (-5 db lower) hard right. Each track was run through the DUY Tape plugin to give the guitars an anolog tape sound. I then ran both signals into a stereo plugin called SoundBlender that I added stereo micropitchshift to the mix with (-9 and +9 cents left and right). It is like an Eventide harmonizer, however I mixed it pretty low - you can barely hear it. It just thickens the sound a bit. Panned this effect hard left and right. I also ran the dry signals into a stereo reverb plugin called LexiVerb that I used to add a bit of plate reverb. Panned this hard left and right as well. I then bounced the resulting mix to an MP3 file on disk. No EQs or compressors were used, I just felt it wasn't necessary. Maybe I'll try EQ/Compression if I remix later just for the hell of it...

That was it... but I must point out that everything but the guitar and amp is really just icing on the cake. Of course, Eddie had lots of outboard gear (delays, harmonizers, compressors, EQs, etc) available to him at Sunset Sound and it was used and contributed to the overall sound. However, you can get *damn* close to the old VH tone with just this amp, a good guitar and your computer sound card. The Mojave PeaceMaker is really an incredible sounding amp. I couldn't believe I didn't need to EQ it.
"

Seems like a lot of stuff, I know, but it is mainly the Mojave PeaceMaker amp that is responsible for this tone. Check one out!

Steve

12-02-2003, 09:30 AM

[ QUOTE ]
wahwah said:
In the VHI days he used old Marshall 100 watt Superleads and a home made variac which allowed the amp to be cranked and achieve the tone. However, it came at a cost and he would go thru valves PER GIG! They would simply burn out. The newer versions of variacs are like the Marshall Powerbrake...there are others but I can't think of the names (Hotplate, is one I think). They just mean you can run the amp on 10 and then adjust the master with the brake...great tone from a valve amp is more likely to come when the amp is balls to the wall max volume. Hope this helps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, bro, this is totally untrue and an example of Edward bullshitting people to keep them off the track of his tone. He used the variac to lower the voltage (to 90 VAC), not raise it. This would have minimal effect on tubes and truthfully, only minimal effect on volume of the cranked amp as well. It appears to have some enhanced compression and perceived gain, but mostly people do use the variac to assure constant voltage to save older transformers, etc. The Powerbrake, Hotplate, etc. attenuators are not voltage regulators at all, they absorb output power to reduce the volume of a cranked (non-master volume) amp. The variac Ed used to reduce voltage did not melt tubes per gig and has nothing to do with what attenuators do...

Steve

wahwah · 12-02-2003, 11:41 AM

Thanks for that Steve...I remember an old interview with Eddie where he said that Neal Schon and Ted Nugent finally got to meet him pre gig back in the early days with his gear set-up on stage and Ted said 'Lemme have a look at this bag of tricks ya got to make that sound'! He plugged in and said, 'Hey, that sounds like me' and Ed said, 'Well who did you fuckin' expect???'!

ericgtr · 12-02-2003, 11:46 AM

[ QUOTE ]
wahwah said:
Thanks for that Steve...I remember an old interview with Eddie where he said that Neal Schon and Ted Nugent finally got to meet him pre gig back in the early days with his gear set-up on stage and Ted said 'Lemme have a look at this bag of tricks ya got to make that sound'! He plugged in and said, 'Hey, that sounds like me' and Ed said, 'Well who did you fuckin' expect???'!

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL I remember that [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

**Scott Parnell** · 12-02-2003, 06:49 PM

man vhpsycho! awesome tone you have! sounds pretty much dead on! wow wtg man [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

12-02-2003, 07:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Scott Parnell said:
man vhpsycho! awesome tone you have! sounds pretty much dead on! wow wtg man [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, bro! I'm tellin' ya, that Mojave PeaceMaker amp is the shit for the early VH tones...

Steve

Dave G 5150 · 12-03-2003, 08:22 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[b][i] i have a friend who's been rockin' for over 20 years, and has even played several EVH tribute shows...

[/ QUOTE ]

here's a recording of my friend (Eric Denton) and his band "tung 'n gruve" playing their version of "beautiful girls" recorded live... considering that it's live, i think he really nailed the tone...

BEAUTIFUL GIRLS live, performed by "Tung 'N Gruve"
taken from www.tungngruve.com

[img]images/smilies/icon_jam.gif[/img]
...Dave

ericgtr · 12-03-2003, 08:54 PM

Sounds great man that guitar player kicks ass [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img]

Dave G 5150 · 12-04-2003, 04:01 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Dave G 5150 said:
[ QUOTE ]
[b][i] i have a friend who's been rockin' for over 20 years, and has even played several EVH tribute shows...

[/ QUOTE ]

here's a recording of my friend (Eric Denton) and his band "tung 'n gruve" playing their version of "beautiful girls" recorded live... considering that it's live, i think he really nailed the tone...

BEAUTIFUL GIRLS live, performed by "Tung 'N Gruve"
taken from www.tungngruve.com

[img]images/smilies/icon_jam.gif[/img]
...Dave

[/ QUOTE ]

hey guys, i talked to Eric this evening and found out a couple of things about the clip here... [img]images/smilies/jot.gif[/img]

it was recorded live...
he played a white wolfgang usa standard...
the amp was a 50 watt marshall, but i don't remember exactly which one...
and he's actually been playing for 28 years and is 36 years old...

...Dave