Jim, what you call 'Rambling' I treat as gold. There is nothing in any of your brown sound vids that is unnecessary content or in need of edit. This is advanced art history.
@@jegauss I agree with Will! But could you play Ed's licks and melodies for an hour... (It's okay if you repeat phrases) and post it so us Ed nerds could have some non-stop audible bliss? I will pay you! 😉👍
I think I just stumbled onto one of the most informative and best EVH videos about how he played & what he played through EVER!! Thanks Jim for taking the time to put this all together & post it . Sorry it took me a year to find it …🤨. 😆👍. R.I.P. Eddie , & thanks for some really great tunes & memories. May your guitars always be just enough outta tune to be “ Tuned right for you in the hereafter “
Hey Stephen! Thank you and thanks for watching! If you get a chance, check out the VH 1, WACF and Fair Warning videos, too. I've got some additional "addendum" videos that go along with those, also...currently working on 1984, so hopefully, that one will be out sooner than later. Thanks again!
@@1DerekMiracle Thank you Derek! Very kind words! If you haven't done so already, go check out my other Brown Sound Quest videos - you might get a kick out of those, too. Thank you for watching!
You really did it man! Nice work. This is the best most informational educational complete video that covers all the VH inside methods, equipment and little known VH custom modifications and trade secrets on You Tube. How incredibly amazing! Wow man really appreciate you sharing your incredible knowlege and experience with all of us. Thank you for your inspiration and contribution to the world of music and keeping Eddie Van Halen and rock n roll alive and well. How long did it take you get those van halen songs down like that? No easy task. You're awesome! 🤘😎
Thank you Mark! Very, very kind words! As far as how long it took to play this stuff...well, I started trying to learn his stuff back when it first came out in '78. So, it's been a long, long time (of course, I was learning how to actually play the guitar, too). I grew up with Ed's style, and with him at he forefront of guitar playing, so you could probably say that I've been "heavily influenced" by almost all that he's done - I do have other influences, but he's the main one. Thanks again for watching! I don't know if you checked out my Van Halen 1 video, but if not, it's loaded with more good info. Here's the link: ruclips.net/video/9MSs4h0NoH8/видео.html
Nerd level is x1000! Jim this is absolutely fantastic, could watch this series all day. Such a fun look into Ed's magical tone and the ins and outs of achieving it (or any cool tone really). Great stuff!!
Damn man, I haven't heard anyone get as close to the sound and technique as your doing! Excellent job! I've been trying for years off and on to get close to his sound. Obviously miking the cabinet and running it through the mixes is the only way to get it close, pretty much sums it up. I've figured that for awhile now. Wished I could run straight into head and out of the cab get that exact tone, LOL! Again, excellent job man!
Thank you! Very much appreciated! And yes, although there isn't a lot of "studio magic" that happens, in addition to the sum of all of the parts before the signal hits the mics, the way the mics "hear" it, is different than how our ears hear it. Therefore, getting that sound "in the room," can be done, but it you try to play with that sound live, it won't come out of the PA the same way...it's a vicious circle! 😉 Thanks again for watching!
I had major surgery a few weeks ago. These videos have provided a wonderful escape during my recovery. Back in the mid-eighties I lived in central NJ and got to spend a lot of time chatting with the legendary Ken Fischer in his shop. He had some amazing insights into Ed’s sound. I was never a pretender to the Van Halen throne. My playing style went in a different direction. But listening to that amazing tone and his virtuoso playing was always inspiring regardless of what style I was playing. These videos have given all of us the chance to “crawl around” inside of the components that made up Ed’s captivating sound. In the end, though, it’s all in the hands, and that’s what really makes these videos such a pleasure to listen to. Thanks, again, for taking the time to share your research.
Thank you, Bill! I would've loved to hear Ken Fischer's take on Ed and his tones...😉 Pretty cool stuff! Hope your recovery is going well, and thank you for watching!
I subscribe the speculation of it being rewound hot around 14k like the custom Line that Seymour originally offered as the EVH recipe, but with the original magnet from a 61 PAF that would have had a high probability of being a short A5 magnet. The short A5’s have the clarity of the long A5 but warmer and more mids.
Agreed 100%. I didn't want to get too technical (I rambled a lot, but left out some of those details), but that's what I put in that old Dimarzio Super D. It's a rough cast, short A5.
Someone on youtube has a video where they took a photo of the shark guitar. They blew it up to life size and measured the magnet because you could see it. Then they got a gibson chart that measured or showed the length of the different magnets short verse long. The magnet is the long magnet. It may have been an A8 From the super 70 or an A5 . Who knows! Look for the video and if you find it post it here. I hope this helps.
Thanks A.R., I appreciate that! I have to edit these things, so.....let's just say there's a lot of that "rambling" that might end up on the cutting room floor." 😉
@@jegauss Not many tech videos hold my attention this well. With my short span of attention, I was able to stay glued to the content (that is saying a lot, lol). Therese a nice mix of music, and data that keep it entertaining. Keep up whatever you are doing.
Awesome ! Love the deep dive on all of your vids. Your attention to detail and ability to replicate the tones is truly remarkable. It’s good to know I’m not the only Eddie nerd out there, and thank you for making these videos. I bet the toughest one to nail would be 1984!
Very excellent video and skills. I do believe that EVH used a Royer ribbon mic mounted right next to the 57 and then blended the two mics. You’ll get much better low frequency response with the ribbon mic.
Thank you! But.............no Royer ribbon mic used on these early albums. Royer wasn't even a company until 1998 - They did do just what you describe, but I think it was a vintage RCA ribbon, sometime around the Balance album. But, the early albums are just SM57s, with the U87 or U47 in the room. And actually, we're hi-passing the low-end - too much cabinet resonance when you're playing at volume - and, one other fun fact, mastering for vinyl back then, the grooves on the record weren't very good for anything below 300hz. So, I don't disagree, the ribbon is a warm and really good sounding mic, but they aren't necessarily great for sticking in front of a really loud guitar speaker 😉
Much respect for the passion and dedication that went into this series! Tone and playing are phenomenal! I wish someone would do the same thing with Randy Rhoads studio and live tone. Lots of mystery in that department as well.
Thank you, Brett! I very much appreciate that! Randy would be a great deep dive, but he's probably a bit out of my wheelhouse. I knew a lot about Ed and his gear and playing style going in to these videos. You'd need an equal "tone fanatic" to do Randy justice....
@@jegauss I'd be a good candidate, since I have the RR Marshall, and vintage Altec speakers.. but seeing your videos I'd have to quit my whole life and dedicate a solid month to it haha! Thanks again
I cannot believe that there's no studio footage of the boys back in those days, making all this magic! I've been waiting for years to see that! Just like you're doing. This is great man! KEEP IT UP!
Thank you! And, thank you for watching! Fair Warning is coming. I was waiting for a couple of parts to test a theory 😉. I very much hope to have the new video out in the next couple of weeks.
Is there any possibility Ed used the Bumblebee guitar on recording VHII? He did have the guitar in time for the recording of the album as he was given the guitar while on tour in the Fall of 1978, first seen live with it in October and the album was recorded in just one week from December 10-16, 1978. PS For Spanish Fly, Ed used an Ovation Nylon String acoustic, probably the one seen laying on the ground in the "Pickaxe" photo shoot from 1980.
Hi Jim, great content! Saw you on Tone Talk… A couple things that I happen to know just by proximity to Fil from SoloDallas (the Shaffer Replica) and being the chassis manufacturer for his tower units. The transmitter frequencies have since been made illegal to use by the FCC so be careful when you use that and the Solo Dallas version if I understand correctly takes the good part or compression part of the transmitter and adds that to the input section and then immediately send it back through the expander to re-create the magic of the original. I am probably telling you things you already know so forgive me I’m not trying to be a know it all I just dig what you’re doing and wanted to share what I think I know even though I could be dead wrong. Again this is the most authentic Eddie playing and sound I think I’ve ever heard! If you ever need anything made out of metal or laser cut let me know and I’ll hook you up!
Thanks for your input and info! Yep, I'm aware of the "outlaw" frequencies. I've got a pile of wireless units that our now outlawed...and yes, you're spot on about "the magic" of the Schaffer-Vega system. Thank you for watching!
I have been an interested bystander of the Van Halen sound for DECADES. I never wanted it for myself ( it will always be Eddie’s) but… always interested in how it was done. Seriously…. You fuckin’ NAILED it! Nice work!!!
Love your playing, tone, technical ability, and the deep information regarding the pickups. Back in the early 90s, I bought a used dimarzio super distortion for like $15 at a guitar store, and put it in my cheap music store guitar that I learned to play on just a few years earlier in high school. To this day, that pickup does the magical high mids thing and gets that VH tone. I have no idea what year the pickup is or any other details. I might have the guitar tech take a look at it once I take the guitar in to get the cheap output jack replaced. Keep up the great videos!
Thank you, Matt! You know, those are the best "finds" out there...those $15.00 pickups. That's what I had back in the '80 - '81, it came out of a bin of pickups that my buddy had at the music store. It was used, and supposedly came out of a "celebrity owned" guitar. Turns out, or at least I'm pretty sure, it was an early (before you could buy them) version of the Duncan JB...Probably sometime around '76- '77. I used that pickup for years until one of the coils went bad. I used that pickup (and some literature I found about the early JB), to inspire the custom wind I had done for the Fair Warning Video that I did a few weeks ago....anyway, don't let the tech poke and prod it too much! Thanks for watching!
Hey John! Thank you! Hmmmmm....the level on the H910 is kinda hard to relate to something that you can just say "yeah, the knob was at......such and such..." I run it as a send - so it gets it's own effect bus, and then I send the guitar / reverb channels to it. So the "effect" is 100% in the bus, no dry mixed in. I would say the channel send controls are probably set to about -5db and the bus level is probably set to about -18db...I just "feather it in to taste." Too much and it gets to be really, really obvious, and doesn't sound good. Hope that helps?
Hi Jim, thanks for the amazing breakdown and playing! If I was building a kit destroyer, what new market pickups would you recommend to get close? Thanks again!
So far I've only used it on stuff that was purely instrumental and given to a couple of twitch streamers, but there's a strat I have that had this GFS dual rail pickup, and I took the rails out and replaced them with these filed misshaped mutilated A5 magnets from a soap bar. So you have these disc magnet things, that are supposed to be on the bottom of the pickup touching the pole pieces, but they are in the place of the pole pieces instead. My original plan for that guitar was to take the bridge pickup and (RW, RP)middle pickup out of their covers and wire them in series, then just tape them together. They were old school Strat pickups, staggered individual magnetic (A3 I think) pole pieces, and my hope was to almost get a Stag-Mag type of sound but with more output. Anyway, I had so much trouble doing it, they didn't want to stay together, and I didn't realize I needed to put spacers between the coils or that the bobbins would probably need to be trimmed to fit in a humbucker slot and on a standard base plate. I tried to heat the pole pieces up to tap them out, my intention being to use the bobbins from a massively overwound Epiphone pickup, but I had all kinds of problems with that too, and in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't destroy those vintage Strat pickups. Anyway, I found the rails easy enough to take out and the ceramic bar magnets on the bottom of that rails pickup were also very easy to remove, and it was an already wound (extremely hot) standard trembucker size setup that the weird chinese-made P90 disc magnets fit into with relatively minor filing and sanding and little bits of hot glue to fill in tiny, almost invisible, unnecessary gaps. Anyway, the DCR measured 22.4K. I plugged it into a Peavey Classic 30 on the master volume channel with the gain at ,about halfway. Sludge City. Mind you, all this was not to get a Van Halen tone, I was making punk rock because it made me. It's just a story I enjoy sharing, especially since I knew far less about what I was doing back then, and I wouldn't have expected it to come out good at all with the benefit of the last few years experience, but ain't that punk rock? DIY or die. Sometimes both. My God, that shark guitar, it's like a pug. It's beauty is unconventional. That's what we'll call it.
I love the story! Keep on telling it. Sounds like me when I was broke and a kid...I did so much of that kind of stuff with my guitars. I definitely ruined more than one pickup - hell, I still screw them up every now and then! 😜
@@jegauss *sigh* Yeah, the cost of finding those special sounds IS gonna be some occasional accidents, but overall, for me, between pickups and wiring schemes and homemade stainless steel nuts and saddles for a Univox hollowbody and a few real radical strats, it's been well worth it. Not to mention THE AMPS I can find. Hidden inside every 1950's/60's Hammond organ amp and every 40's PA or 50's hifi monoblock lies a screaming guitar amp just *waiting* to be found.
Built my own Frankie 78’ Tribute in white/Black/silver with an epiphone HB-1B pretty hot pickup but I’m thinking of swapping it for the antiquity JB.. and changing the plastic nut for brass
@@TheAkd89 Yeah, I like the smaller headstock, too. They just look better on the guitar to me. But, I built mine to be "authentic," so that black & white striped one has the larger headstock...
Sorry buddy, I just found ya, I know this is an older post but Jim you are incredible if you don't know already. I would kill to have an older Marshall head and cab you have there in the studio. Just saying if you need something done 😂JK. But Jim is awesome. Incredible player and has so much knowledge it's scary.
Great work Jim in the deep dive, playing and recording. Have you tried the Pariah Pasadena hum bucket pick up on your VH demo? I have one in my 76’ Greco strat and it sounds great.
Hey Bill! Thank you! I've only played the Pasadena "white" in a buddy's guitar. I've never plugged it into my rig, or had one in one of my guitars. What I heard, I liked. I know that (or I'm pretty sure) they're using some scatter winding and asymmetric coils in their winds to bring out some brightness - I like that. I'll have to try one.
@@bweeks8869 If only it were that simple! There are MANY different tones within ‘Fair Warning’. There are some basic sounds, but he’s really all over the map on that album especially…
Jim, I enjoy your deep dives into these Van Halen albums. Great work. When I watched this one for VHII I found it amazing that the bumble bee guitar wasn’t played or mentioned. Can you give your thoughts about that please. Thanks, Joseph
Hey Joseph! Thanks for watching! So, about the Bumblebee and VH II - I think it was the April '80 issue of Guitar Player Magazine (Ed is on the cover with the Bee) - he himself states that he got the guitar after the album had already been recorded, and that he "just slapped some pickup in it for the photoshoot." Remember VH II was recorded in December of '78 - they had essentially just completed the first world tour and went right into the studio. But, in typical Ed style, he wasn't quite telling the full story about the Bee. He received the guitar on the last leg of the 1st world tour - you can see a few pictures of him using it during some of the later tour dates. The theory / story goes, that he didn't like the way it sounded, or played - just the way it looked. So, he had to "make some changes" to the guitar, and there's no evidence it was used on the 2nd album. He was probably being truthful about just slapping a pickup in it for the photoshoot, because he was experimenting with pickups for that guitar, also, the back of the neck was painted and he didn't like that, so he sanded that off, and some other changes were made to the guitar before it went out on the WACF tour. But the guitar is close to stock in that VH II photoshoot. Of course we'll never really know, but the guitar isn't even in those famous Sunset Sound (setup) studio shots from when they had just finished recording the album. Those are the shots that all of the cabinets are stacked up, the drum kit is in the corner, etc.....he's got the black & white guitar strapped on, you can see the Shark sitting in a stand, the stratocaster (women in love intro) is there, and the Danelectro is leaning face down on the marshall head....the bumblebee isn't in any of those shots...anyway we'll never really know, but I suspect that it wasn't used for the album. Hope that helps. Thanks again for watching.
Hi Jim. You mentioned EVH using 250 fat cap in V2. Can you better describe the capacitor? Is it 250uf? And / or a decoupling cap, polarized or non-polarized? etc. As always I love your work and appreciate your contributions to the EVH legacy.
Greetings Jim .. do you 'capture/model' these awesome examples of tonal bliss? If not .. please do. THIS is truly worthy of being 'snap-shoted'. I'm not an Eddie 'fanboy', but I did grow up on these tunes and your sound/performance is spot on to my ears. I'd love to have these .. without the the need for all that proper gear. I'd buy a modeler such as a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Kemper or Fractal just to have these sounds. P.s. I have a similar room, full of Mesa's and Diezel's ;)
I've been asked by a few now....I'm going to have to look into seeing how to do that. I really have zero clue. I'm only plugged into a modeler a couple of times. But, I'll look into it, for sure!
@@jegauss looks like the Quad Core is the winner for 'capture'. Considering what I've seen from your videos, you are more than capable. You can do just the head, or the entire rig - variac and all. ;) Check out Rhett's video .. ruclips.net/video/mQ5s9yUGPDo/видео.html ps .. Please keep me apprised.. thanks for replying. Happy Xmas - ROCK on! :)
Closest to Eddie's sound I've ever seen, great playing tool! 🎸 Did you build this plexi clone yourself? I'm in the market for a plexi, but am considering going the clone route Thanks!
Do you think the infamous white switch on the back of the amp seen in the posed VH II recording session might also be a fat cap switch similar to what you have? (My apologies if you address this in the vid, i haven't finished watching it yet!)
Big Jim. Curious if you would check out and compare the Nembrini Audio MRH159 with a Variac and JB speakers in the IR cab. On sale now for 29 bucks. I have no attachment to the company. I got the ADA 1 plugin and was blown away and I have an ADA 1 in my rack. I have a 5150 block letter as well, and their 8180 is pretty great though I need to compare to the Karzog one. I haven't bought the MRH 159 yet, but I am going too.
That might be something I'd do when I find some more time - I've got too many projects on my plate right now - but I would be curious as to the result, for sure....
If you were to recreate his VH1 pedal board, what would the signal chain be? This is the thing I’ve struggled with most. I know he had the flanger, phase, EP delay, EP preamp and the GE-10 EQ all before the amp but is that the correct order?
I actually did that in the first Brown Sound Quest video - but, to answer your question, the signal path is Guitar, MXR Flanger, MXR Phase 90, Maestro Echoplex EP3, and then into the amp. Back in the mid-late 70s there was no such thing as the EP Delay, or DP Preamp. Also, the Boss GE-10 happened at some point on the first world tour - I believe when they went to Japan. That was only used for the long cable runs he had live, and then continued to use it when he started using the wireless systems. The wireless systems were typically really bright (they still are), but he would use the EQ then to cut some of the highs, and take the mud/flub out of the bottom end. Anyway, long story short, no EQ used on the front end of the amp to record the first album.
Amazing - as I mentioned before - 1984 I did talk in 1984 to Seymore Duncan on the phone, if he can wire me the same like EVH did get. I sent him the money and I did get it. I still have it. I can measure / picture or send it to you, if you want for evaluation.
Thank you, Michael! That's pretty cool - I'd love it if you'd measure it with an ohm meter and see what the total resistance is. I'm wondering which pickup / EVH "era" Seymour would've wound for you??? If you're willing, take a photo or two, and measure, and send that back to me in an email at jegauss@me.com I'm really, really curious! Thanks!
Hey Larry, that one is a "full-sized," rough cast A5. I don't know if it's oriented or unoriented - I pulled it out of an old Stew Mac pickup that I had - one of their "Parson's Street" models, from way back when they first starting making those pickups.
Thanks Michael! I appreciate you sitting through my "ramblings" - a lot! As far as the amp, I found that one on ebay. I bought it mostly because it had great transformers in it. I did the rest of the work on it, to bring it to the VH spec. I also pulled out the PPIMV that it came with. So, it's just a stock '68 super lead build, with the fat cap (switchable), and the small "mod" to the NFB circuit. (100k on the 4 ohm tap, instead of 47K on the 8 ohm tap)
This is great. Soldano did an interview a while ago about servicing Eddie's plexi. He said it was bone stock when he serviced it. Do you think it may have been modded then put back to stock between 2 and 5150? Or is there more than 1 of his plexi that's been claimed to the The amp?
Thanks Peter! Nah, I think Ed's amp was always bone stock. Yes, there were a couple of production "anomalies" (50K mid-pot instead of 25K, minor change to the NFB circuit, although that could've been a mod, but it also would've qualified for a "production anomalies"). He did have a "fat cap" mod done at some point, but I believe it was either done very early on (VH II), or not until after 1984 - I lean to later on, for that mod. But the changes you hear throughout the years on the records, is mostly due to guitar changes, pickup changes, mic placements, studio engineering differences, etc. Throughout my Brown Sound Quest video "series." The amp has remained within the stock spec. It's had different tubes, different bias values, and different variac voltages, but for the most part, has remained "untouched." I certainly experiment with certain components, but I always come back to a stock configuration. Oh, also the echoplex colors the sound, and he probably stopped using it in the studio, sometime around Diver Down. I'm not completely sure, but that's also part of the tone change, and his sound getting a little brighter and cleaner. Hope that helps, thanks for watching, and jumping into the conversation.
Not everyone buys into that theory, but Ed mentions how he loved the boost / compression he got out of it - and it shows up in those famous pictures from after the VH2 session - the wireless receiver is hidden in the stack of Marshall cabinets - Angus Young used that same wireless in the studio for Back in Black, and it's been said that it was a core part of that tone....anyway, if I keep the amp and the pickups / signal chain the same as what's on women and children first and Fair Warning , just be adding the wireless unit, I get to the VH2 guitar sound...so, I think he used the Schaffer wireless, but we'll probably never really know.
Thank you for another great video Jim. My ears must respectfully disagree with you on the vh2 tone. I do not hear the jbl's nor do I believe that a JB pickup was used. Both make the sound too bright and Gainey. The record sounds like a low output pickup was used very smooth tone. Appreciate all of your hard work and insight.
Ha! Oh no, a "dissenter." But seriously, that's cool. It's all pretty subjective when I'm listening. The EQ-ing is done strictly by ear, going back and forth from the original vinyl recording and the itunes digital version, and there's so much difference depending on which speakers, earbuds, car stereo, you listen to this stuff on. So, when I mix, I try to compromise between all of those sources - I can get it "dead nuts on" with the studio monitors, but just like when you're really mixing a live project, you're trying to get it to sound even and balanced on all types of speakers...plus, it could be years of listening to wide open Marshall amplifiers, may have dulled a bit of my "high-end hearing capabilities." 😉 But, If you "heroically" made it all the way to the end, you can see in the "recording process" section, that I admit I may have erred to the bright side of the tone spectrum, and then demonstrate dumping about 1db off of the highs...if you didn't get that far, go check that part out. A minor change like that darkens the tone rapidly. Anyway, Thank you for listening, I very much appreciate it!
@@jegauss Don't get me wrong, it was quite close and I enjoyed your video immensely. It just wasn't as close as what you had achieved with the VH 1 tone, where I instantly heard a match! Looking forward to your next video.
@@sleggarri All good! I get it. I did make a last minute mixing decision, that made it a little brighter across all of my reference monitors....we're all just guessing anyway, we'll never really know. But, this kind of stuff is a lot of fun to do. I don't tour / play gigs like I used to - a guy needs a hobby!
Outstanding job. Guitar geek nirvana. The amp…..what is it and where did it come from? What’s the thing about the lower transformer voltage? Did the amp come that way or was it done in purpose? So many questions. But, truly remarkable effort sir.
Thank you, Paul! The amp is a plexi clone that I found on ebay about 10 years ago...the reason I bought it, it had "good bones." Good transformer, and capacitors, resistors, etc...it had been built very well, but it wasn't the spec that it is today. It was built as a Marshall from an earlier era...I did the work / circuit changes to get to the '68 plexi, 12,000 series spec, along with the "known" Van Halen amp "anomalies." The 400 volt mains transformer was with the amp when I got it. Normally, a superlead from the at era would have something closer to 460-470 volts - I believe they make these transformers like this, to sort of simulate the variac, without using a variac...but it doesn't really work, because the "magic" of the variac has more to do with the reduction in bias and the colder heaters for the tube - it's not just about starving the power section to make it sag...hope that helps, thanks for watching!
@@paulpeterson1794 Hey Paul, I haven't looked into it for awhile, but, there are a number of kit companies out there. Ceriatone, makes a great kit, but I'm not crazy about their transformers (although, they may have changed since), Metroamp used to make kits - I don't know if they offer them anymore (they were spectacular), I believe MojoTone makes a kit, Stew Mac makes more of a JTM 45 kit, but that could be easily changed into a "68 style, 12,000 series...so, I would just google and see what you can find for Plexi kits. I'm sure there's still a bunch out there. But, my favorite would be the Metroamp 12,000 series kit - if they still offer it. Good luck!
Love what you're doing on these videos! However, could you re-mix the sound so the voice and guitar parts are equal? I can barely here what you're saying so I turn it up then the guitar part comes in and is WAY too loud.
Thank you, and sorry about that. I don't get that when I listen back...that's kinda weird. I wonder what's causing it...believe it or not, it is something that I paid a great deal of attention to...again, my apologies - and, thank you for watching!
@@jegauss if it helps I am playing it on a fire tv cube into a Marantz 7012 and a pair of klipsch rp280f. And I imagine it is on purpose but the guitar is only in the left speaker. But as everyone else is saying ... great job on the VH sound!
@@wober777 Hmmmmm. still weird. But yes, the guitar is mainly in the left speaker and the reverb should be on the right side (simplified explanation), because that's how the album is recorded. If you're not getting any reverb on the right side, than there's some sort of problem with your setup, or something is getting converted to mono, or cutting out one side completely. But, still weird, because the voice is equal on both sides........strange.....
Ha! Nah, not really my thing...I used to teach when I was a starving musician on the club circuit (I had my fill back then - although, some of the moms were pretty attractive...but, I digress 😉 ).
@@rikshredder Dude, they were - I was in my mid-twenties, I was teaching their 10 yr. olds on Saturday mornings, usually after a Friday night gig - I was probably still a little drunk....ahhhhh, good times.....but I digress.😉
So is the black neck pickup on your shark guitar a dummy or is it hardwired and working? You didn't give any details on it. Do you recommend the Dunlop ep echoplex foot pedal to replace the old oversized echoplex rig? How loud is it it with the variable turned down to 71 volts? I believe you said that and how many watts does it put out at that voltage? Many thanks and keep those Van Halen videos coming.
Hey "Mysterio Marvel," Thanks for watching, and thanks for the questions. So, the neck pickup is wired - it's a just a cheap epiphone stock pickup. The only time I ever use it is live, when I play the intro to Women in love, or the intro / middle section of In a Simply Rhyme. There's no tone control for either pickup - just a volume knob of each. When the variac is turned down to 71 volts, you could probably get away with playing it in a club, as long as the cabinet wasn't directly facing the audience (point it sideways at the drummer 😉). It's actually about the perfect volume for playing with a drummer that hits 'em pretty hard. As far as wattage goes, I've never really tried that measurement / equation with the voltage coming out of the amp, but I'd guess it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-20 watts.
Oh, forgot about the dunlop echoplex pedal. You know, it's not bad. I actually like it better than some of the more expensive ones out there. Although, you need both of them They make the 'echo pedal' itself, and then they make the preamp pedal. So, you need to buy two pedals to mimic the original equipment. But, they do a pretty good job. Although, believe it or not, the pedals are noisier than that old 'analog relic" EP-3 Echoplex. I've also got a 'Chase Tone' Echoplex pedal. It is just the preamp, not any echo functions. It's probably the best one I've ever used. For live gigs, I use the Chase Tone pedal into the Dunlop Echoplex pedal (the one with the delay functions) - it gets me pretty close. Especially for live. For recording, I always use the original.
You hear Eddie had almost the same sound on the early albums. It’s other things like the studio and mixing that makes it sound different. I think you got the tone but yours sounds a bit more distorted. Eddie on VHII sounds kind of distant and clean. Much ambience and almost like the sound is coming from the backside of the cab. Did Eddie saw the Destryoer into being the Shark guitar as early as before recording VHII? I always believed it was for the WACF album. Wasn’t the Bumblebee guitar used on VHII?
Hey Mats! I don't disagree about being a bit more distorted - I didn't quite have the pickup figured out yet - close, but not quite the right formula, and I think my Mercury Magnetics output transformer is responsible for a little of that. I think Ed's amp was just a little bit "stiffer" than mine, and that could be tube quality, transformers, etc....I fight that all the time on this "video series" that I've been doing. I've also since re-thought the way they were EQ-ing to tape, and in post, I think I sent that link to you for a follow up video that I did recently. I started to discover these things as I was doing the Fair Warning video, and then ultimately the WACF video. No, Ed didn't use the Bee on VH II - in fact, it's pretty well documented that he only used the Bee on Everybody Wants Some on WACF. That was because it was the only guitar that had the Floyd Rose on it at the time. He always struggled with how that guitar sounded, so he never recorded with it - just used it live. The Destroyer was "sawed up" in the time after the first album was recorded and before the '78 tour. You see it in all of the '78 tour photos, and the Promo Videos that they shot at the Whiskey for You Really Got Me and Runnin' With the Devil. If memory serves, the Jamie's Cryin' video was shot with the Black & White strat.
@@matsandersson8857 no. It had a standard Fender style tremolo installed when it came from Charvel. You can see it all over the 2nd album cover and sleeve. It didn’t last too long that way, though. Floyd Rose approached him on a very early tour stop on the ‘79 world tour - in Seattle, and Floyd personally installed it on the guitar - that day.
I bought the amp on ebay - it had really "good bones." It's got the best Mercury Magnetics Output transformer you can get for the VH era / style amp. But, having said that, I've made all of the various component changes, to make it the "proper" VH spec, based on some of the written specs of the guys that have actually seen the inside of Ed's amp. So, it's a little bit of both. I bought it, and then "built" some of it myself. But, in all honesty, I can make most of my Super Leads sound really, really close to this one...this "sound" is kind of like a "sum of all the parts" kind of sound...so, as long as you've got a stock, '68-ish build, you should be able to get really, really close. Good luck in the quest! And, thanks for watching.
I will say that there’s no specific evidence that Eddie used the Schaffer-Vega wireless in the studio for ‘Van Halen II’ since the well known studio photos from Sunset Sound were staged after the recording process. It remains a possibility that he used it, but it is not a certainty.
True, true Allen. Definitely subjective & speculative - based on the actual tone of the Schaffer and how the harmonics jump off of the guitar with that particular system (with a relatively low boost setting, I might add). It's really quite a unique wireless unit. Definitely has it's own sound. You'd be amazed when playing the tap part of Dance the Night Away with the Schaffer and without. It's really, really distinct sounding. I should've done the demo (but again, I ramble on and on and on as it is...😏) It's also kind of obvious with the "No Good" solo harmonics / right hand slide down the fingerboard after the first of the repeated phrase at the beginning of the solo. But again, it's one of those "feel things" and how the guitar reacts with the amplifier, that you almost have to play it to recognize. Kinda like how it feels when you play an amp sagging with the variac. You don't necessarily "hear it," but you definitely feel it while playing (that, I know you've experienced...it's one of those "hard to describe things" that go on with your hands / guitar / amp interactions) - - - - if that makes sense...?
@@jegauss Yes indeed. I don't really care all that much about gear in the scheme of things, but I will say that the SoloDallas Shaffer Replica is amazing and I’ve loved it since Fil first demoed it on the MetroAmp forum going on 10 years ago. It's quite remarkable. Another piece of the puzzle...at least for live sounds up until he switched to the Nady system, that's for sure, and possibly for the studio as well. It's one of those little "extra" helpers like the Echoplex pre-amp that make everything sound "better". The tapping parts on "Dance The Night Away" have the Eventide Harmonizer on it, so it's hard for me to hear anything else in those parts, but it certainly is possible that he used the Shaffer there. Or in other places. Or in no places! The fake studio photos aren't a reliable reference for what was used in the studio unfortunately, but they do give a good glimpse as to what was at least available to him at the time!
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun Yep, completely agree. This whole tone is the "sum of all the parts," and most importantly, the hands. And, there's more than one way to get there. I just try to put myself in the mindset / era of what was common, what was available, and what was the simplest path towards that sound. I mean, you can tweak an eq by a db in the upper mids, and you've completely changed the sound - at least to our "critical ears."
Hey I always because of the sound of Van Halen II Thought that Eddie had used the shark guitar with his usual pickup in the knock position is what it sounded like to me but I'm no where near as advanced a player as you guys but just as far back as I can remember that was my thoughts of why it was different and please yal feel free to correct me and tell me how yal knew that wasn't the case ok cause I want to know ok thank yal and mainly you Jim ok
Kneck position sorry about that and I wanted to add Jim you are the most amazing guitar player I've ever heard next to Eddie and I love the way you've reopened thease songs to me again hope yal get it figured out exactly
Thank you very much Steve! I appreciate it! But nope - not the case with the shark / neck pickup, etc...I'm not sure actually even used a guitar with a working neck pickup until 1984...😉
Hey Thomas! You know, I just tried googling it, and couldn't really find anything either...it's one of those common mods - I think "they" say it was one of Jose's go-to mods to fatten up an amp a little - common on the Fender circuits, in various forms, throughout the circuit changes, etc. John Suhr built it into his SL68 amp, etc...Anyway, it's super simple (and, if you don't know what's going on inside the amp, don't go in there. Lots of potential DC voltage in there, even when it's not plugged in, or powered on). The mod is installing a bypass cap (250uF to 330uF) across the cathode resistor on V2a. In most (many) Marshall Super Leads, there's already a .68uF cap that bypasses that 1K resistor (820 ohm in a '68 plexi - depends on what year schematic or build that you have)...so, you just need to add that 250uF or 330uF (don't get too hung up on that, I really don't hear an audible difference between them) as an additional bypass cap - you keep the .68uF in there, and add this new cap in the same position. It gives you a low-mid bump, and maybe just a touch more gain in those lower-mid frequencies. Hope that helps, and be careful!
I love the JB but without a treble bleed it doesn't clean up like any EVH signature pickup does. Fast forward to today and Seymour Duncan now has a version called the Dave Mustaine Thrash Factor. Impedance rating is slightly off from a stock JB and it REALLY nails EVH a bit better
I agree about the JB - that's why I ended up getting a JB-esque pickup wound for the Fair Warning Video that I did. It's more like a PAF on steroids, and cleans up really nicely. I'll have to check out the the Thrash Factor...thanks for the tip.
@@jegauss the JB is definitely a pickup EVH has used over the years. It makes tapping sound soooooo fat and has harmonics for days. It's good features far outweigh its shortcomings and it's definitely deserving of all its popularity. JB/Jazz set is probably the most well balanced set on the market, especially for more aggressive sounds.
Dude! I LOVE this deep dive! Unlike most, you seem to have cracked the code. Lots of people get close, some are just delusional, you are on point! Subscribed and dying for a Fair Warning video.
@@allboutthemojo Thank you! You know, I don't do any of the "how to play" videos. I'm probably a rotten teacher...😉. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll touch on some of this...
Once again Jim, you’ve hit nail on the head with your playing, tone and swing! Ed would be proud. Thus, I really enjoy your videos for the broad sense of information you possess on EVH, his playing, gear and tech. Thank you very much, sir.
There used to be a dude name Ralle from the Marshall forums (or maybe it was the Metro forums) that got the closest that I've ever heard. Then a dude that went by the username rockstah (guitar player for Jefferson Starship) in the Metro forums got obsessed and got really really close as well but unfortunately, he passed away. Jim, this is a level of dedication to tone that I haven't seen in a long time. Congrats, the tone sounds fantastic!
@@robbrooks693 Ah yes Mark abrahmian(Rockstah)was such a talent! That guy had the touch on a guitar! for the old VH tone don't forget a dude Named "STRAT 78" from metro forums. I still have his clips and he got really close.
Definitely the best recreation of the brown sound including of Pete thorn . Too many people think they get one if those new EavH Frankenstein copies and a 5150 amp which isn’t even close
Very impressive! Across the board. Tone spot on My favorite album as well. His darkest vibe and best tone imo. You really nail the feel which , as we all know, is the hardest part! 👏🏽
Thank you for posting these videos.This is the best series I have ever seen on the brown sound. Your playing and feel is spot on. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research !!
HOLY SH*T BATMAN JIM'S DONE IT AGAIN, you sir a true devotee to the Van Halen legacy I just can't thank you enough for all your hard work. Your deserve a great big AWESOME Thank You from us all.
I’ve listen to Van Halen all my life and when you play these riffs my ears light up Edward Van Halen was a master at his craft and when I hear these rifs I hear the real genius in his playing. All the VH albums from 84’ down I love all the songs and love too hear them… Your playing sounds just like him! Hell yeah! Keep up the good work!✌🏽
Hi Jim! I saw you on Tone Talk with Marc and Dave a few days ago. I've never seen any of your videos until yesterday, but man, I gotta tell you, your playing, tone, gear etc is SO on point! For all the VH nerds that have been on the "tone quest" for decades, believe me, we THANK YOU : ). Honestly these have been some of the closest sounds, tones and tips that I have seen! Thank you for doing what you do!
The sound is fkn amazing !! You totally nail the tones in these videos like nobody before. I commend thee for the time and the effort you put into these killer videos and also on cost the that must have gone into your enviable gear collection. Thanks again 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Wow, fantastic Jim - thanks much! The harmonizer truly adds that unique dimension, super cool to hear that effect off and on. I thought Beautiful Girls sounded nearly exact. Did you change the Marshall’s bias for the 71 volts or roll with the same bias adjustment from the VHI videos?
Thanks Tim! Yep, the Eventide H910 is a huge part of the Van Halen Sound, from Van Halen II on. As far as the Marshall bias - no, no change. It stays the same. I do believe that the "cold bias" that the low voltage setting creates, is an integral part of how that amp sounds...thanks again for watching!
Women In Love is such a great song. What your work is showing all of us is how good all of the songs were on the first six albums. Some of the best rock music ever and his tone and sound were very distinctive and unique. What you are doing is such a treat to see and hear. Not sure thank you is enough. Great stuff!
Amazingly accurate playing and tones! I personally think the second album was even darker than the tone you are getting. Almost like Ed was in the mixing room and said "lower the presence more". Just night and day different from the first album. I also wonder if a master volume was added in there (that photo of the amp in the studio recording the second album with that knob on the back), further darkening the tone?
Hey Andy, Thank you! And Thanks for watching...If you made it through to the "recording process" section (I know, that's a big ask - it's at the end of my ramblings, and takes a chunk of time to get there), I address that I might be a bit too bright. I demonstrate approximately a 1db drop on the "high-end" and the tone darkens (in my opinion) considerably, with just that minor change. So much of this is subjective, depends on the vinyl version vs the digital (itunes) version, speakers / earbuds you're listening to, etc...for example, when I listen to this with my apple airpods, it's almost too dark, but in my Sony studio headphones, it's too brite - the flat studio monitors sound about right, and the Klipsch reference monitors I have in the room, sound a little too dark, the car stereo sounds pretty good....anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm really making a compromise and a judgement call...a half inch move in a microphone would achieve the same thing. So, although I always like that theory of the white knob on the back of the amp, I don't think there's any hint (tone-wise) of a MV. I almost think that white plastic "post" sticking out of the back of that amp, looks more like a wall dimmer you'd find in your house. I've always wondered if he was trying to install a dimmer in the amp, to replace the variac. He's stated that he tried a light dimmer before he went to the surplus store to get the variac....but, who knows?! More about the brightness - I sort of touched on why I may have erred on the brighter side - I downloaded some backing tracks (without Ed), and played with them, and in the mix when I was messing with blending my guitar with those original backing tracks, you'd be amazed what that 1db bump in the high-end did to make the guitar fit better in the mix - I should've included that in the video, but I was already getting to that 45 minute mark...and again, all of this is really subjective on my part. But hey, we're having fun, right? I very much appreciate the feedback and your thoughts...stay tuned, I just started messing with the Fair Warning tones...😉
I thought the same...but when I turned my Stylo3 phone pointing away from my ears to the blankets on my bed..the overt brightness and fuzziness went away....just as I thought. Moving the microphone (the author of this vid recommended) achieved the same sonic results. My two cents input to this post that I agreed with...peace
Jim, what you call 'Rambling' I treat as gold. There is nothing in any of your brown sound vids that is unnecessary content or in need of edit. This is advanced art history.
Ha! Thank you, Will!
@@jegausshow do you keep the black and white guitar in tune so well.
@@jamesstewart1794 I actually did a video about that. Here's the link: ruclips.net/video/FgS5gAiQSUo/видео.html
@@jegauss I agree with Will! But could you play Ed's licks and melodies for an hour... (It's okay if you repeat phrases) and post it so us Ed nerds could have some non-stop audible bliss? I will pay you! 😉👍
I think I just stumbled onto one of the most informative and best EVH videos about how he played & what he played through EVER!! Thanks Jim for taking the time to put this all together & post it . Sorry it took me a year to find it …🤨. 😆👍. R.I.P. Eddie , & thanks for some really great tunes & memories. May your guitars always be just enough outta tune to be “ Tuned right for you in the hereafter “
Hey Stephen! Thank you and thanks for watching! If you get a chance, check out the VH 1, WACF and Fair Warning videos, too. I've got some additional "addendum" videos that go along with those, also...currently working on 1984, so hopefully, that one will be out sooner than later. Thanks again!
Your sound is practically identical, the best I heard ever & you can definitely play! Thank you so much for posting!
Thank you! And thanks for watching!
@@jegauss Best down the best tone i've heard anyone recreate! You're a genius Jim!! This is incredible!
@@1DerekMiracle Thank you Derek! Very kind words! If you haven't done so already, go check out my other Brown Sound Quest videos - you might get a kick out of those, too. Thank you for watching!
Great job Jim! I have Ed's tones ingrained in my head and you have gotten very close on analog gear listening through my monitors. Thanks man!
Thank you, Thomas! Thanks for watching and the feedback!
You really did it man! Nice work. This is the best most informational educational complete video that covers all the VH inside methods, equipment and little known VH custom modifications and trade secrets on You Tube. How incredibly amazing! Wow man really appreciate you sharing your incredible knowlege and experience with all of us. Thank you for your inspiration and contribution to the world of music and keeping Eddie Van Halen and rock n roll alive and well. How long did it take you get those van halen songs down like that? No easy task. You're awesome! 🤘😎
Thank you Mark! Very, very kind words! As far as how long it took to play this stuff...well, I started trying to learn his stuff back when it first came out in '78. So, it's been a long, long time (of course, I was learning how to actually play the guitar, too). I grew up with Ed's style, and with him at he forefront of guitar playing, so you could probably say that I've been "heavily influenced" by almost all that he's done - I do have other influences, but he's the main one. Thanks again for watching! I don't know if you checked out my Van Halen 1 video, but if not, it's loaded with more good info. Here's the link: ruclips.net/video/9MSs4h0NoH8/видео.html
Nerd level is x1000! Jim this is absolutely fantastic, could watch this series all day. Such a fun look into Ed's magical tone and the ins and outs of achieving it (or any cool tone really). Great stuff!!
Thank you, Michael! I appreciate it, and thank you for watching!
Damn man, I haven't heard anyone get as close to the sound and technique as your doing! Excellent job! I've been trying for years off and on to get close to his sound. Obviously miking the cabinet and running it through the mixes is the only way to get it close, pretty much sums it up. I've figured that for awhile now. Wished I could run straight into head and out of the cab get that exact tone, LOL! Again, excellent job man!
Thank you! Very much appreciated! And yes, although there isn't a lot of "studio magic" that happens, in addition to the sum of all of the parts before the signal hits the mics, the way the mics "hear" it, is different than how our ears hear it. Therefore, getting that sound "in the room," can be done, but it you try to play with that sound live, it won't come out of the PA the same way...it's a vicious circle! 😉 Thanks again for watching!
I had major surgery a few weeks ago. These videos have provided a wonderful escape during my recovery.
Back in the mid-eighties I lived in central NJ and got to spend a lot of time chatting with the legendary Ken Fischer in his shop. He had some amazing insights into Ed’s sound. I was never a pretender to the Van Halen throne. My playing style went in a different direction. But listening to that amazing tone and his virtuoso playing was always inspiring regardless of what style I was playing.
These videos have given all of us the chance to “crawl around” inside of the components that made up Ed’s captivating sound. In the end, though, it’s all in the hands, and that’s what really makes these videos such a pleasure to listen to. Thanks, again, for taking the time to share your research.
Thank you, Bill! I would've loved to hear Ken Fischer's take on Ed and his tones...😉 Pretty cool stuff! Hope your recovery is going well, and thank you for watching!
I subscribe the speculation of it being rewound hot around 14k like the custom Line that Seymour originally offered as the EVH recipe, but with the original magnet from a 61 PAF that would have had a high probability of being a short A5 magnet. The short A5’s have the clarity of the long A5 but warmer and more mids.
Agreed 100%. I didn't want to get too technical (I rambled a lot, but left out some of those details), but that's what I put in that old Dimarzio Super D. It's a rough cast, short A5.
Someone on youtube has a video where they took a photo of the shark guitar. They blew it up to life size and measured the magnet because you could see it. Then they got a gibson chart that measured or showed the length of the different magnets short verse long. The magnet is the long magnet. It may have been an A8 From the super 70 or an A5 . Who knows! Look for the video and if you find it post it here. I hope this helps.
Had to watch again! This is pure gold. JIM YOU ARE TO BE COMMENDED FOR THIS. You've done Ed proud. Would love to hear Wolf's take on this👍👍
Thanks John! Very kind words...I appreciate it.
Who cares what wolf has to say...he'd pry whine and cry my father's legacy blah blah
@@bls8959 hate bait
killer TONE!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!
Thank you, Tom!
I never thought that you ramble. All of the dialogue was pertinent, and on topic. Well presented!
Thanks A.R., I appreciate that! I have to edit these things, so.....let's just say there's a lot of that "rambling" that might end up on the cutting room floor." 😉
@@jegauss Not many tech videos hold my attention this well. With my short span of attention, I was able to stay glued to the content (that is saying a lot, lol). Therese a nice mix of music, and data that keep it entertaining. Keep up whatever you are doing.
Man you have blown me away. You have captured the tone and the feeling of Eds music. It's beautiful. I'm beaming with ❤😁
Thank you, Tony! Very kind words - I appreciate it.
Love watching your videos! I'm learning lots! Thanks!!!
Thanks, Greg! Thanks for watching!
Awesome ! Love the deep dive on all of your vids. Your attention to detail and ability to replicate the tones is truly remarkable. It’s good to know I’m not the only Eddie nerd out there, and thank you for making these videos. I bet the toughest one to nail would be 1984!
Thank you, Aaron! Yes, you are correct - 1984 is going to be a major challenge!
Most accurate VH sound ever!!!!!!! Great video and playing!!!!!!!
Absolutely brilliant thank you
Thank you!
Very excellent video and skills. I do believe that EVH used a Royer ribbon mic mounted right next to the 57 and then blended the two mics. You’ll get much better low frequency response with the ribbon mic.
Thank you! But.............no Royer ribbon mic used on these early albums. Royer wasn't even a company until 1998 - They did do just what you describe, but I think it was a vintage RCA ribbon, sometime around the Balance album. But, the early albums are just SM57s, with the U87 or U47 in the room. And actually, we're hi-passing the low-end - too much cabinet resonance when you're playing at volume - and, one other fun fact, mastering for vinyl back then, the grooves on the record weren't very good for anything below 300hz. So, I don't disagree, the ribbon is a warm and really good sounding mic, but they aren't necessarily great for sticking in front of a really loud guitar speaker 😉
I’ve really enjoyed watching these. Thank you sir for sharing them with us.
Thank you, Chris! I'm glad you watched!
Much respect for the passion and dedication that went into this series! Tone and playing are phenomenal! I wish someone would do the same thing with Randy Rhoads studio and live tone. Lots of mystery in that department as well.
Thank you, Brett! I very much appreciate that! Randy would be a great deep dive, but he's probably a bit out of my wheelhouse. I knew a lot about Ed and his gear and playing style going in to these videos. You'd need an equal "tone fanatic" to do Randy justice....
@@jegauss I'd be a good candidate, since I have the RR Marshall, and vintage Altec speakers.. but seeing your videos I'd have to quit my whole life and dedicate a solid month to it haha! Thanks again
I cannot believe that there's no studio footage of the boys back in those days, making all this magic! I've been waiting for years to see that! Just like you're doing. This is great man! KEEP IT UP!
I agree! It would be great to see...I doubt that there is any, though...Thank you for watching!
@@jegauss I agree. So sad 😭
This is a superb deep dive with great playing and great tones. Thank you for doing this. Another vote for a Fair Warning deep dive. 👍
Thank you! And, thank you for watching! Fair Warning is coming. I was waiting for a couple of parts to test a theory 😉. I very much hope to have the new video out in the next couple of weeks.
Is there any possibility Ed used the Bumblebee guitar on recording VHII? He did have the guitar in time for the recording of the album as he was given the guitar while on tour in the Fall of 1978, first seen live with it in October and the album was recorded in just one week from December 10-16, 1978.
PS For Spanish Fly, Ed used an Ovation Nylon String acoustic, probably the one seen laying on the ground in the "Pickaxe" photo shoot from 1980.
Hi Jim, great content! Saw you on Tone Talk… A couple things that I happen to know just by proximity to Fil from SoloDallas (the Shaffer Replica) and being the chassis manufacturer for his tower units. The transmitter frequencies have since been made illegal to use by the FCC so be careful when you use that and the Solo Dallas version if I understand correctly takes the good part or compression part of the transmitter and adds that to the input section and then immediately send it back through the expander to re-create the magic of the original. I am probably telling you things you already know so forgive me I’m not trying to be a know it all I just dig what you’re doing and wanted to share what I think I know even though I could be dead wrong. Again this is the most authentic Eddie playing and sound I think I’ve ever heard! If you ever need anything made out of metal or laser cut let me know and I’ll hook you up!
Thanks for your input and info! Yep, I'm aware of the "outlaw" frequencies. I've got a pile of wireless units that our now outlawed...and yes, you're spot on about "the magic" of the Schaffer-Vega system. Thank you for watching!
You read my mind!! I was curious what made the tone difference between VH I and II. Was curious of chorus pedal was used.
I have been an interested bystander of the Van Halen sound for DECADES. I never wanted it for myself ( it will always be Eddie’s) but… always interested in how it was done. Seriously…. You fuckin’ NAILED it! Nice work!!!
Thank you! I appreciate that!
Love your playing, tone, technical ability, and the deep information regarding the pickups. Back in the early 90s, I bought a used dimarzio super distortion for like $15 at a guitar store, and put it in my cheap music store guitar that I learned to play on just a few years earlier in high school. To this day, that pickup does the magical high mids thing and gets that VH tone. I have no idea what year the pickup is or any other details. I might have the guitar tech take a look at it once I take the guitar in to get the cheap output jack replaced. Keep up the great videos!
Thank you, Matt! You know, those are the best "finds" out there...those $15.00 pickups. That's what I had back in the '80 - '81, it came out of a bin of pickups that my buddy had at the music store. It was used, and supposedly came out of a "celebrity owned" guitar. Turns out, or at least I'm pretty sure, it was an early (before you could buy them) version of the Duncan JB...Probably sometime around '76- '77. I used that pickup for years until one of the coils went bad. I used that pickup (and some literature I found about the early JB), to inspire the custom wind I had done for the Fair Warning Video that I did a few weeks ago....anyway, don't let the tech poke and prod it too much! Thanks for watching!
KISS was the first band to use the Schaffer wireless live onstage
Yep, I believe you are correct.
What was the level on the 949 harmonizer on Women in love? Great channel
Hey John! Thank you! Hmmmmm....the level on the H910 is kinda hard to relate to something that you can just say "yeah, the knob was at......such and such..." I run it as a send - so it gets it's own effect bus, and then I send the guitar / reverb channels to it. So the "effect" is 100% in the bus, no dry mixed in. I would say the channel send controls are probably set to about -5db and the bus level is probably set to about -18db...I just "feather it in to taste." Too much and it gets to be really, really obvious, and doesn't sound good. Hope that helps?
@@jegauss yes thanks
Women in Love ,your making tears in my eyes mang,your on a quest to sound like him,I'm on a quest just to play these songs,thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you, Stephen! And good look on your quest! Thanks for watching.
Hi Jim, thanks for the amazing breakdown and playing! If I was building a kit destroyer, what new market pickups would you recommend to get close? Thanks again!
So far I've only used it on stuff that was purely instrumental and given to a couple of twitch streamers, but there's a strat I have that had this GFS dual rail pickup, and I took the rails out and replaced them with these filed misshaped mutilated A5 magnets from a soap bar. So you have these disc magnet things, that are supposed to be on the bottom of the pickup touching the pole pieces, but they are in the place of the pole pieces instead. My original plan for that guitar was to take the bridge pickup and (RW, RP)middle pickup out of their covers and wire them in series, then just tape them together. They were old school Strat pickups, staggered individual magnetic (A3 I think) pole pieces, and my hope was to almost get a Stag-Mag type of sound but with more output. Anyway, I had so much trouble doing it, they didn't want to stay together, and I didn't realize I needed to put spacers between the coils or that the bobbins would probably need to be trimmed to fit in a humbucker slot and on a standard base plate. I tried to heat the pole pieces up to tap them out, my intention being to use the bobbins from a massively overwound Epiphone pickup, but I had all kinds of problems with that too, and in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't destroy those vintage Strat pickups. Anyway, I found the rails easy enough to take out and the ceramic bar magnets on the bottom of that rails pickup were also very easy to remove, and it was an already wound (extremely hot) standard trembucker size setup that the weird chinese-made P90 disc magnets fit into with relatively minor filing and sanding and little bits of hot glue to fill in tiny, almost invisible, unnecessary gaps. Anyway, the DCR measured 22.4K. I plugged it into a Peavey Classic 30 on the master volume channel with the gain at ,about halfway. Sludge City. Mind you, all this was not to get a Van Halen tone, I was making punk rock because it made me. It's just a story I enjoy sharing, especially since I knew far less about what I was doing back then, and I wouldn't have expected it to come out good at all with the benefit of the last few years experience, but ain't that punk rock? DIY or die. Sometimes both. My God, that shark guitar, it's like a pug. It's beauty is unconventional. That's what we'll call it.
I love the story! Keep on telling it. Sounds like me when I was broke and a kid...I did so much of that kind of stuff with my guitars. I definitely ruined more than one pickup - hell, I still screw them up every now and then! 😜
@@jegauss *sigh* Yeah, the cost of finding those special sounds IS gonna be some occasional accidents, but overall, for me, between pickups and wiring schemes and homemade stainless steel nuts and saddles for a Univox hollowbody and a few real radical strats, it's been well worth it. Not to mention THE AMPS I can find. Hidden inside every 1950's/60's Hammond organ amp and every 40's PA or 50's hifi monoblock lies a screaming guitar amp just *waiting* to be found.
Built my own Frankie 78’ Tribute in white/Black/silver with an epiphone HB-1B pretty hot pickup but I’m thinking of swapping it for the antiquity JB.. and changing the plastic nut for brass
Sounds like a cool guitar! Good luck with the pickup swap.
I love it… play it way more than my Les Paul.. went with the 75th anniversary headstock shape like the 50s as opposed to the 70s shape like Eddie’s
@@TheAkd89 Yeah, I like the smaller headstock, too. They just look better on the guitar to me. But, I built mine to be "authentic," so that black & white striped one has the larger headstock...
Sorry buddy, I just found ya, I know this is an older post but Jim you are incredible if you don't know already. I would kill to have an older Marshall head and cab you have there in the studio. Just saying if you need something done 😂JK. But Jim is awesome. Incredible player and has so much knowledge it's scary.
Thank You, This video is so cool. Thanks for being you.
Thank you, Kamie! Very much appreciated!
Great work Jim in the deep dive, playing and recording. Have you tried the Pariah Pasadena hum bucket pick up on your VH demo? I have one in my 76’ Greco strat and it sounds great.
Hey Bill! Thank you! I've only played the Pasadena "white" in a buddy's guitar. I've never plugged it into my rig, or had one in one of my guitars. What I heard, I liked. I know that (or I'm pretty sure) they're using some scatter winding and asymmetric coils in their winds to bring out some brightness - I like that. I'll have to try one.
Really appreciate you
Keep up the great work
Thanks! I appreciate that you appreciate 😉
Amazing Job!
Great video! Had no idea the harmonizer was used this early.
It’s on the first album as well…you can hear it best on the overdubbed harmony leads on “Jamie’s Cryin’”.
Thanks, We are ALL looking forward to a video on the Fair Warning tone😃
@@bweeks8869 If only it were that simple! There are MANY different tones within ‘Fair Warning’. There are some basic sounds, but he’s really all over the map on that album especially…
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun Hi! What do you think of Jim's videos? I think his tone is about as close as you can get.
Thank you Allen. Good to hear from you!
Jim, I enjoy your deep dives into these Van Halen albums. Great work. When I watched this one for VHII I found it amazing that the bumble bee guitar wasn’t played or mentioned. Can you give your thoughts about that please. Thanks, Joseph
Hey Joseph! Thanks for watching! So, about the Bumblebee and VH II - I think it was the April '80 issue of Guitar Player Magazine (Ed is on the cover with the Bee) - he himself states that he got the guitar after the album had already been recorded, and that he "just slapped some pickup in it for the photoshoot." Remember VH II was recorded in December of '78 - they had essentially just completed the first world tour and went right into the studio. But, in typical Ed style, he wasn't quite telling the full story about the Bee. He received the guitar on the last leg of the 1st world tour - you can see a few pictures of him using it during some of the later tour dates. The theory / story goes, that he didn't like the way it sounded, or played - just the way it looked. So, he had to "make some changes" to the guitar, and there's no evidence it was used on the 2nd album. He was probably being truthful about just slapping a pickup in it for the photoshoot, because he was experimenting with pickups for that guitar, also, the back of the neck was painted and he didn't like that, so he sanded that off, and some other changes were made to the guitar before it went out on the WACF tour. But the guitar is close to stock in that VH II photoshoot. Of course we'll never really know, but the guitar isn't even in those famous Sunset Sound (setup) studio shots from when they had just finished recording the album. Those are the shots that all of the cabinets are stacked up, the drum kit is in the corner, etc.....he's got the black & white guitar strapped on, you can see the Shark sitting in a stand, the stratocaster (women in love intro) is there, and the Danelectro is leaning face down on the marshall head....the bumblebee isn't in any of those shots...anyway we'll never really know, but I suspect that it wasn't used for the album. Hope that helps. Thanks again for watching.
Hi Jim. You mentioned EVH using 250 fat cap in V2. Can you better describe the capacitor? Is it 250uf? And / or a decoupling cap, polarized or non-polarized? etc. As always I love your work and appreciate your contributions to the EVH legacy.
Greetings Jim .. do you 'capture/model' these awesome examples of tonal bliss? If not .. please do. THIS is truly worthy of being 'snap-shoted'. I'm not an Eddie 'fanboy', but I did grow up on these tunes and your sound/performance is spot on to my ears. I'd love to have these .. without the the need for all that proper gear. I'd buy a modeler such as a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Kemper or Fractal just to have these sounds. P.s. I have a similar room, full of Mesa's and Diezel's ;)
I've been asked by a few now....I'm going to have to look into seeing how to do that. I really have zero clue. I'm only plugged into a modeler a couple of times. But, I'll look into it, for sure!
@@jegauss looks like the Quad Core is the winner for 'capture'. Considering what I've seen from your videos, you are more than capable. You can do just the head, or the entire rig - variac and all. ;) Check out Rhett's video .. ruclips.net/video/mQ5s9yUGPDo/видео.html
ps .. Please keep me apprised.. thanks for replying. Happy Xmas - ROCK on! :)
@@jegauss ruclips.net/video/1TKZdiK-ClU/видео.html
Great work Jim! I subscribed.
Thank you, Joey!
Closest to Eddie's sound I've ever seen, great playing tool! 🎸 Did you build this plexi clone yourself? I'm in the market for a plexi, but am considering going the clone route Thanks!
Ended up splurging and getting a '71, no regrets!
The equipment in that room is like a play ground. I’d never sleep if I had access to that, and either would anyone else🤪🤣
Love it!
Do you think the infamous white switch on the back of the amp seen in the posed VH II recording session might also be a fat cap switch similar to what you have? (My apologies if you address this in the vid, i haven't finished watching it yet!)
The modified jb and sd is a liittle thin for the vh tone. The un touched /modified super distorion nails the tone
Big Jim. Curious if you would check out and compare the Nembrini Audio MRH159 with a Variac and JB speakers in the IR cab. On sale now for 29 bucks. I have no attachment to the company. I got the ADA 1 plugin and was blown away and I have an ADA 1 in my rack. I have a 5150 block letter as well, and their 8180 is pretty great though I need to compare to the Karzog one.
I haven't bought the MRH 159 yet, but I am going too.
That might be something I'd do when I find some more time - I've got too many projects on my plate right now - but I would be curious as to the result, for sure....
killer! I read that Ed wanted to "hear" his fingerprint on the fretboard.....
Thank you! I actually hadn't heard that, but that sounds about right 😉
You nailed it
Thank you, Stephen!
More cool info, thanks!
Thanks again, Peter!
Amazing video Jim! Enjoyed it a lot. Subbed and liked
Thank You! Very much appreciated!
If you were to recreate his VH1 pedal board, what would the signal chain be? This is the thing I’ve struggled with most. I know he had the flanger, phase, EP delay, EP preamp and the GE-10 EQ all before the amp but is that the correct order?
I actually did that in the first Brown Sound Quest video - but, to answer your question, the signal path is Guitar, MXR Flanger, MXR Phase 90, Maestro Echoplex EP3, and then into the amp. Back in the mid-late 70s there was no such thing as the EP Delay, or DP Preamp. Also, the Boss GE-10 happened at some point on the first world tour - I believe when they went to Japan. That was only used for the long cable runs he had live, and then continued to use it when he started using the wireless systems. The wireless systems were typically really bright (they still are), but he would use the EQ then to cut some of the highs, and take the mud/flub out of the bottom end. Anyway, long story short, no EQ used on the front end of the amp to record the first album.
@@jegauss You’re a legend and I have learned so much through your videos, thank you for sharing your vault of knowledge with the world Jim!
Hi, Jim, sorry but I forgot to ask, aside of the fat cap and mid control, what are the non-stock/unusual specs on the amp. Thank you.
Amazing - as I mentioned before - 1984 I did talk in 1984 to Seymore Duncan on the phone, if he can wire me the same like EVH did get. I sent him the money and I did get it. I still have it. I can measure / picture or send it to you, if you want for evaluation.
Thank you, Michael! That's pretty cool - I'd love it if you'd measure it with an ohm meter and see what the total resistance is. I'm wondering which pickup / EVH "era" Seymour would've wound for you??? If you're willing, take a photo or two, and measure, and send that back to me in an email at jegauss@me.com
I'm really, really curious! Thanks!
That A5 sounds perfect,I think you found "The one!"Hey Jim what type of A5 did you use?Roughcast? Oriented or Unoriented?Long or short?
Hey Larry, that one is a "full-sized," rough cast A5. I don't know if it's oriented or unoriented - I pulled it out of an old Stew Mac pickup that I had - one of their "Parson's Street" models, from way back when they first starting making those pickups.
fwiw the mains on Ed's 220v Plexi was a lay down.
Yep, so is the one the I'm using...I know they say it's supposed to "do something" tone-wise / hum-wise....
Jim
Thank you for sharing so much wisdom , I have played both videos a hundred times. Who made your orange Marshall clone?
Thanks Michael! I appreciate you sitting through my "ramblings" - a lot! As far as the amp, I found that one on ebay. I bought it mostly because it had great transformers in it. I did the rest of the work on it, to bring it to the VH spec. I also pulled out the PPIMV that it came with. So, it's just a stock '68 super lead build, with the fat cap (switchable), and the small "mod" to the NFB circuit. (100k on the 4 ohm tap, instead of 47K on the 8 ohm tap)
This is great. Soldano did an interview a while ago about servicing Eddie's plexi. He said it was bone stock when he serviced it. Do you think it may have been modded then put back to stock between 2 and 5150?
Or is there more than 1 of his plexi that's been claimed to the The amp?
Thanks Peter! Nah, I think Ed's amp was always bone stock. Yes, there were a couple of production "anomalies" (50K mid-pot instead of 25K, minor change to the NFB circuit, although that could've been a mod, but it also would've qualified for a "production anomalies"). He did have a "fat cap" mod done at some point, but I believe it was either done very early on (VH II), or not until after 1984 - I lean to later on, for that mod. But the changes you hear throughout the years on the records, is mostly due to guitar changes, pickup changes, mic placements, studio engineering differences, etc. Throughout my Brown Sound Quest video "series." The amp has remained within the stock spec. It's had different tubes, different bias values, and different variac voltages, but for the most part, has remained "untouched." I certainly experiment with certain components, but I always come back to a stock configuration. Oh, also the echoplex colors the sound, and he probably stopped using it in the studio, sometime around Diver Down. I'm not completely sure, but that's also part of the tone change, and his sound getting a little brighter and cleaner. Hope that helps, thanks for watching, and jumping into the conversation.
So what's the difference between this tone and the tone from first album? Jw
Really ? Ed preferred that wireless thing vs hardwired ? Interesting 😊
Not everyone buys into that theory, but Ed mentions how he loved the boost / compression he got out of it - and it shows up in those famous pictures from after the VH2 session - the wireless receiver is hidden in the stack of Marshall cabinets - Angus Young used that same wireless in the studio for Back in Black, and it's been said that it was a core part of that tone....anyway, if I keep the amp and the pickups / signal chain the same as what's on women and children first and Fair Warning , just be adding the wireless unit, I get to the VH2 guitar sound...so, I think he used the Schaffer wireless, but we'll probably never really know.
Thank you for another great video Jim. My ears must respectfully disagree with you on the vh2 tone. I do not hear the jbl's nor do I believe that a JB pickup was used. Both make the sound too bright and Gainey. The record sounds like a low output pickup was used very smooth tone. Appreciate all of your hard work and insight.
Ha! Oh no, a "dissenter." But seriously, that's cool. It's all pretty subjective when I'm listening. The EQ-ing is done strictly by ear, going back and forth from the original vinyl recording and the itunes digital version, and there's so much difference depending on which speakers, earbuds, car stereo, you listen to this stuff on. So, when I mix, I try to compromise between all of those sources - I can get it "dead nuts on" with the studio monitors, but just like when you're really mixing a live project, you're trying to get it to sound even and balanced on all types of speakers...plus, it could be years of listening to wide open Marshall amplifiers, may have dulled a bit of my "high-end hearing capabilities." 😉 But, If you "heroically" made it all the way to the end, you can see in the "recording process" section, that I admit I may have erred to the bright side of the tone spectrum, and then demonstrate dumping about 1db off of the highs...if you didn't get that far, go check that part out. A minor change like that darkens the tone rapidly. Anyway, Thank you for listening, I very much appreciate it!
@@jegauss Don't get me wrong, it was quite close and I enjoyed your video immensely.
It just wasn't as close as what you had achieved with the VH 1 tone, where I instantly heard a match!
Looking forward to your next video.
@@sleggarri All good! I get it. I did make a last minute mixing decision, that made it a little brighter across all of my reference monitors....we're all just guessing anyway, we'll never really know. But, this kind of stuff is a lot of fun to do. I don't tour / play gigs like I used to - a guy needs a hobby!
Outstanding job. Guitar geek nirvana. The amp…..what is it and where did it come from?
What’s the thing about the lower transformer voltage? Did the amp come that way or was it done in purpose? So many questions. But, truly remarkable effort sir.
Thank you, Paul! The amp is a plexi clone that I found on ebay about 10 years ago...the reason I bought it, it had "good bones." Good transformer, and capacitors, resistors, etc...it had been built very well, but it wasn't the spec that it is today. It was built as a Marshall from an earlier era...I did the work / circuit changes to get to the '68 plexi, 12,000 series spec, along with the "known" Van Halen amp "anomalies."
The 400 volt mains transformer was with the amp when I got it. Normally, a superlead from the at era would have something closer to 460-470 volts - I believe they make these transformers like this, to sort of simulate the variac, without using a variac...but it doesn't really work, because the "magic" of the variac has more to do with the reduction in bias and the colder heaters for the tube - it's not just about starving the power section to make it sag...hope that helps, thanks for watching!
Thank you Jim. Where would you point
Someone who was looking for info on building a Marshall clone? This is inspiring.
@@paulpeterson1794 Hey Paul, I haven't looked into it for awhile, but, there are a number of kit companies out there. Ceriatone, makes a great kit, but I'm not crazy about their transformers (although, they may have changed since), Metroamp used to make kits - I don't know if they offer them anymore (they were spectacular), I believe MojoTone makes a kit, Stew Mac makes more of a JTM 45 kit, but that could be easily changed into a "68 style, 12,000 series...so, I would just google and see what you can find for Plexi kits. I'm sure there's still a bunch out there. But, my favorite would be the Metroamp 12,000 series kit - if they still offer it. Good luck!
Love what you're doing on these videos! However, could you re-mix the sound so the voice and guitar parts are equal? I can barely here what you're saying so I turn it up then the guitar part comes in and is WAY too loud.
Thank you, and sorry about that. I don't get that when I listen back...that's kinda weird. I wonder what's causing it...believe it or not, it is something that I paid a great deal of attention to...again, my apologies - and, thank you for watching!
@@jegauss if it helps I am playing it on a fire tv cube into a Marantz 7012 and a pair of klipsch rp280f. And I imagine it is on purpose but the guitar is only in the left speaker. But as everyone else is saying ... great job on the VH sound!
@@wober777 Hmmmmm. still weird. But yes, the guitar is mainly in the left speaker and the reverb should be on the right side (simplified explanation), because that's how the album is recorded. If you're not getting any reverb on the right side, than there's some sort of problem with your setup, or something is getting converted to mono, or cutting out one side completely. But, still weird, because the voice is equal on both sides........strange.....
Jim! Maan! You're going to have to do some videos of tutorials on how to play the VH stuff!
Ha! Nah, not really my thing...I used to teach when I was a starving musician on the club circuit (I had my fill back then - although, some of the moms were pretty attractive...but, I digress 😉 ).
@@jegauss Haha!! The moms huh, 😉 Lol. Of course! But seriously you're playing the parts right on.
@@rikshredder Dude, they were - I was in my mid-twenties, I was teaching their 10 yr. olds on Saturday mornings, usually after a Friday night gig - I was probably still a little drunk....ahhhhh, good times.....but I digress.😉
@@jegauss Aah yes, good times indeed. I use to teach as well, yeah so I totally understand haha. Good times indeed. Thanks Jim.
So is the black neck pickup on your shark guitar a dummy or is it hardwired and working? You didn't give any details on it. Do you recommend the Dunlop ep echoplex foot pedal to replace the old oversized echoplex rig? How loud is it it with the variable turned down to 71 volts? I believe you said that and how many watts does it put out at that voltage? Many thanks and keep those Van Halen videos coming.
Hey "Mysterio Marvel," Thanks for watching, and thanks for the questions. So, the neck pickup is wired - it's a just a cheap epiphone stock pickup. The only time I ever use it is live, when I play the intro to Women in love, or the intro / middle section of In a Simply Rhyme. There's no tone control for either pickup - just a volume knob of each. When the variac is turned down to 71 volts, you could probably get away with playing it in a club, as long as the cabinet wasn't directly facing the audience (point it sideways at the drummer 😉). It's actually about the perfect volume for playing with a drummer that hits 'em pretty hard. As far as wattage goes, I've never really tried that measurement / equation with the voltage coming out of the amp, but I'd guess it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-20 watts.
Oh, forgot about the dunlop echoplex pedal. You know, it's not bad. I actually like it better than some of the more expensive ones out there. Although, you need both of them They make the 'echo pedal' itself, and then they make the preamp pedal. So, you need to buy two pedals to mimic the original equipment. But, they do a pretty good job. Although, believe it or not, the pedals are noisier than that old 'analog relic" EP-3 Echoplex. I've also got a 'Chase Tone' Echoplex pedal. It is just the preamp, not any echo functions. It's probably the best one I've ever used. For live gigs, I use the Chase Tone pedal into the Dunlop Echoplex pedal (the one with the delay functions) - it gets me pretty close. Especially for live. For recording, I always use the original.
Keep them rolling 🙏
I'm sure there will be a couple more. Thank you for watching!
It's saldano and Eddie hands and his ear that make the sound and he was at the right place and the right time
Nope. The Soldano SLO100 wasn't even invented until 1987 - so that wasn't used until the F.U.C.K. album.
Wow. That sounds identical. 👍
Thank you, Phillip!
You hear Eddie had almost the same sound on the early albums. It’s other things like the studio and mixing that makes it sound different. I think you got the tone but yours sounds a bit more distorted. Eddie on VHII sounds kind of distant and clean. Much ambience and almost like the sound is coming from the backside of the cab. Did Eddie saw the Destryoer into being the Shark guitar as early as before recording VHII? I always believed it was for the WACF album. Wasn’t the Bumblebee guitar used on VHII?
Hey Mats! I don't disagree about being a bit more distorted - I didn't quite have the pickup figured out yet - close, but not quite the right formula, and I think my Mercury Magnetics output transformer is responsible for a little of that. I think Ed's amp was just a little bit "stiffer" than mine, and that could be tube quality, transformers, etc....I fight that all the time on this "video series" that I've been doing. I've also since re-thought the way they were EQ-ing to tape, and in post, I think I sent that link to you for a follow up video that I did recently. I started to discover these things as I was doing the Fair Warning video, and then ultimately the WACF video.
No, Ed didn't use the Bee on VH II - in fact, it's pretty well documented that he only used the Bee on Everybody Wants Some on WACF. That was because it was the only guitar that had the Floyd Rose on it at the time. He always struggled with how that guitar sounded, so he never recorded with it - just used it live.
The Destroyer was "sawed up" in the time after the first album was recorded and before the '78 tour. You see it in all of the '78 tour photos, and the Promo Videos that they shot at the Whiskey for You Really Got Me and Runnin' With the Devil. If memory serves, the Jamie's Cryin' video was shot with the Black & White strat.
@@jegauss Did the Bee have a Floyd Rose from the start? I think i’ve seen some pic with some other bridge but i could be wrong.
@@matsandersson8857 no. It had a standard Fender style tremolo installed when it came from Charvel. You can see it all over the 2nd album cover and sleeve. It didn’t last too long that way, though. Floyd Rose approached him on a very early tour stop on the ‘79 world tour - in Seattle, and Floyd personally installed it on the guitar - that day.
That amp sounds awesome. Did you build it yourself or can you buy a kit somwehere?
I bought the amp on ebay - it had really "good bones." It's got the best Mercury Magnetics Output transformer you can get for the VH era / style amp. But, having said that, I've made all of the various component changes, to make it the "proper" VH spec, based on some of the written specs of the guys that have actually seen the inside of Ed's amp. So, it's a little bit of both. I bought it, and then "built" some of it myself. But, in all honesty, I can make most of my Super Leads sound really, really close to this one...this "sound" is kind of like a "sum of all the parts" kind of sound...so, as long as you've got a stock, '68-ish build, you should be able to get really, really close. Good luck in the quest! And, thanks for watching.
what was the first VH tune that you used?
That's the solo from You're No Good - first song on the album
Jim, is the 'fat cap' just a big bright cap? As seen in later 70's Marshall leads and there's a huge one in my JTM50 build.
Nope. The fat cap goes on V2a. It “piggy backs” the .68uF cap/820ohm resistor that are already there.
@@jegauss Oh, had no idea about this mod. Did you talk about it in VH1? I don't remember.
@@willdenham I “think” it was done after that first tour, as they were going into the studio for VH II
@@jegauss Does it provide more brightness?
@@willdenham no. It’s actually a little bit more gain in the low mids.
do you provide consulting services?
I haven't, but I certainly could....
I will say that there’s no specific evidence that Eddie used the Schaffer-Vega wireless in the studio for ‘Van Halen II’ since the well known studio photos from Sunset Sound were staged after the recording process. It remains a possibility that he used it, but it is not a certainty.
True, true Allen. Definitely subjective & speculative - based on the actual tone of the Schaffer and how the harmonics jump off of the guitar with that particular system (with a relatively low boost setting, I might add). It's really quite a unique wireless unit. Definitely has it's own sound. You'd be amazed when playing the tap part of Dance the Night Away with the Schaffer and without. It's really, really distinct sounding. I should've done the demo (but again, I ramble on and on and on as it is...😏)
It's also kind of obvious with the "No Good" solo harmonics / right hand slide down the fingerboard after the first of the repeated phrase at the beginning of the solo. But again, it's one of those "feel things" and how the guitar reacts with the amplifier, that you almost have to play it to recognize. Kinda like how it feels when you play an amp sagging with the variac. You don't necessarily "hear it," but you definitely feel it while playing (that, I know you've experienced...it's one of those "hard to describe things" that go on with your hands / guitar / amp interactions) - - - - if that makes sense...?
@@jegauss Yes indeed. I don't really care all that much about gear in the scheme of things, but I will say that the SoloDallas Shaffer Replica is amazing and I’ve loved it since Fil first demoed it on the MetroAmp forum going on 10 years ago. It's quite remarkable. Another piece of the puzzle...at least for live sounds up until he switched to the Nady system, that's for sure, and possibly for the studio as well. It's one of those little "extra" helpers like the Echoplex pre-amp that make everything sound "better". The tapping parts on "Dance The Night Away" have the Eventide Harmonizer on it, so it's hard for me to hear anything else in those parts, but it certainly is possible that he used the Shaffer there. Or in other places. Or in no places! The fake studio photos aren't a reliable reference for what was used in the studio unfortunately, but they do give a good glimpse as to what was at least available to him at the time!
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun Yep, completely agree. This whole tone is the "sum of all the parts," and most importantly, the hands. And, there's more than one way to get there. I just try to put myself in the mindset / era of what was common, what was available, and what was the simplest path towards that sound. I mean, you can tweak an eq by a db in the upper mids, and you've completely changed the sound - at least to our "critical ears."
Hey I always because of the sound of Van Halen II Thought that Eddie had used the shark guitar with his usual pickup in the knock position is what it sounded like to me but I'm no where near as advanced a player as you guys but just as far back as I can remember that was my thoughts of why it was different and please yal feel free to correct me and tell me how yal knew that wasn't the case ok cause I want to know ok thank yal and mainly you Jim ok
Kneck position sorry about that and I wanted to add Jim you are the most amazing guitar player I've ever heard next to Eddie and I love the way you've reopened thease songs to me again hope yal get it figured out exactly
Thank you very much Steve! I appreciate it! But nope - not the case with the shark / neck pickup, etc...I'm not sure actually even used a guitar with a working neck pickup until 1984...😉
Are you going to do the tone for fair warning?
Yep. Lots of good stuff coming out on that video.
Wanna build a WACF Explorer with the one pickup in the bridge
Yeah, it's a cool setup.
Very simple and fun
What is this fat cap install for the amp ? Can you provide a link to that ? I’m not finding any info on it.
Hey Thomas! You know, I just tried googling it, and couldn't really find anything either...it's one of those common mods - I think "they" say it was one of Jose's go-to mods to fatten up an amp a little - common on the Fender circuits, in various forms, throughout the circuit changes, etc. John Suhr built it into his SL68 amp, etc...Anyway, it's super simple (and, if you don't know what's going on inside the amp, don't go in there. Lots of potential DC voltage in there, even when it's not plugged in, or powered on). The mod is installing a bypass cap (250uF to 330uF) across the cathode resistor on V2a. In most (many) Marshall Super Leads, there's already a .68uF cap that bypasses that 1K resistor (820 ohm in a '68 plexi - depends on what year schematic or build that you have)...so, you just need to add that 250uF or 330uF (don't get too hung up on that, I really don't hear an audible difference between them) as an additional bypass cap - you keep the .68uF in there, and add this new cap in the same position. It gives you a low-mid bump, and maybe just a touch more gain in those lower-mid frequencies. Hope that helps, and be careful!
@@jegauss wow !! Thank you so much for your reply and detailed information. I’ll have to mod my amp with this fat cap :) the results sound awesome!!
@@thomasm934 Good luck!
I love the JB but without a treble bleed it doesn't clean up like any EVH signature pickup does. Fast forward to today and Seymour Duncan now has a version called the Dave Mustaine Thrash Factor. Impedance rating is slightly off from a stock JB and it REALLY nails EVH a bit better
I agree about the JB - that's why I ended up getting a JB-esque pickup wound for the Fair Warning Video that I did. It's more like a PAF on steroids, and cleans up really nicely. I'll have to check out the the Thrash Factor...thanks for the tip.
@@jegauss the JB is definitely a pickup EVH has used over the years. It makes tapping sound soooooo fat and has harmonics for days. It's good features far outweigh its shortcomings and it's definitely deserving of all its popularity. JB/Jazz set is probably the most well balanced set on the market, especially for more aggressive sounds.
@@rickcrotts6673 Completely agree...It's a great pickup, and Ed definitely used it - often!
"the brown sound" is a stock plexi properly driven.
By george i think jim's got it😊😊👌👍
Dude! I LOVE this deep dive! Unlike most, you seem to have cracked the code. Lots of people get close, some are just delusional, you are on point! Subscribed and dying for a Fair Warning video.
Thanks Donnie! Fair Warning is in the works. Lotsa new stuff to go over with that one...
@@jegauss you play EVH's stuff so well. Do you do " how to play instructional video's "?
@@allboutthemojo Thank you! You know, I don't do any of the "how to play" videos. I'm probably a rotten teacher...😉. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll touch on some of this...
Once again Jim, you’ve hit nail on the head with your playing, tone and swing! Ed would be proud. Thus, I really enjoy your videos for the broad sense of information you possess on EVH, his playing, gear and tech. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you, John! Thanks for watching my "stuff." Very much appreciated!
Jesus dude this is as close as I've ever heard. Playing and tone. Spot on. Incredible man. I love your stuff.
Thanks Carlo! I really appreciate it. And, thanks for watching!
There used to be a dude name Ralle from the Marshall forums (or maybe it was the Metro forums) that got the closest that I've ever heard. Then a dude that went by the username rockstah (guitar player for Jefferson Starship) in the Metro forums got obsessed and got really really close as well but unfortunately, he passed away. Jim, this is a level of dedication to tone that I haven't seen in a long time. Congrats, the tone sounds fantastic!
@@robbrooks693 Thanks Rob! very much appreciated.
@@robbrooks693 Ah yes Mark abrahmian(Rockstah)was such a talent! That guy had the touch on a guitar! for the old VH tone don't forget a dude Named "STRAT 78" from metro forums. I still have his clips and he got really close.
Really close
Great job!You've obviously spent thousands of hours on this stuff,which is appreciated.EVH fanatic since 78'.
Thank you, James!
I think Jim could use a few thousand hours in therapy...
I think this is clearly the Holy Grail of recreating the brown sound. You've done an outstanding job and I can't thank you enough.
Thank you, Mike! Very much appreciated, and thank you for watching!
Nice gt40 pfp
Definitely the best recreation of the brown sound including of Pete thorn . Too many people think they get one if those new EavH Frankenstein copies and a 5150 amp which isn’t even close
Glad I found this channel! You are a genius on getting his tone and an awesome player. Sounds exactly like the original recordings !
Thank you! Very, very kind words. Thank you for watching!
Very impressive! Across the board. Tone spot on My favorite album as well. His darkest vibe and best tone imo. You really nail the feel which , as we all know, is the hardest part!
👏🏽
I meant the fair warning post you did! Duh. Sorry, I dig all the deep dives !
I just love that soft interlude on 'Light Up the Sky'. I used to pick up the needle on my vinyl copy and replay it over and over.
Me too!
I played that part so wrong when I was a teen.
Thank you for posting these videos.This is the best series I have ever seen on the brown sound. Your playing and feel is spot on. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research !!
Thank you! And, thanks for watching!
Amazing, You’ve found the tone at the end of the Rainbow! Fascinating to say the least..👍
Thanks, Scott!
HOLY SH*T BATMAN JIM'S DONE IT AGAIN, you sir a true devotee to the Van Halen legacy I just can't thank you enough for all your hard work. Your deserve a great big AWESOME Thank You from us all.
Thank you, Jamie! Very kind words - I appreciate it!
I’ve listen to Van Halen all my life and when you play these riffs my ears light up Edward Van Halen was a master at his craft and when I hear these rifs I hear the real genius in his playing. All the VH albums from 84’ down I love all the songs and love too hear them… Your playing sounds just like him! Hell yeah! Keep up the good work!✌🏽
Thank you, Steve! Very much appreciated!
The most enjoyable class I've ever taken. Sincerely, thank you, Professor "Tone."
Ha! Love it! "Professor Tone." Thank you for attending class!
Hi Jim! I saw you on Tone Talk with Marc and Dave a few days ago. I've never seen any of your videos until yesterday, but man, I gotta tell you, your playing, tone, gear etc is SO on point! For all the VH nerds that have been on the "tone quest" for decades, believe me, we THANK YOU : ). Honestly these have been some of the closest sounds, tones and tips that I have seen! Thank you for doing what you do!
Thank you, JJ! Thanks for checking out all of the videos...that's a lot of my rambling to sit through 😉 !
The sound is fkn amazing !! You totally nail the tones in these videos like nobody before. I commend thee for the time and the effort you put into these killer videos and also on cost the that must have gone into your enviable gear collection. Thanks again 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Wow, fantastic Jim - thanks much! The harmonizer truly adds that unique dimension, super cool to hear that effect off and on. I thought Beautiful Girls sounded nearly exact. Did you change the Marshall’s bias for the 71 volts or roll with the same bias adjustment from the VHI videos?
Thanks Tim! Yep, the Eventide H910 is a huge part of the Van Halen Sound, from Van Halen II on. As far as the Marshall bias - no, no change. It stays the same. I do believe that the "cold bias" that the low voltage setting creates, is an integral part of how that amp sounds...thanks again for watching!
Thanks for asking about the biasing. I was going to ask the same question. 👍
Women In Love is such a great song. What your work is showing all of us is how good all of the songs were on the first six albums. Some of the best rock music ever and his tone and sound were very distinctive and unique. What you are doing is such a treat to see and hear. Not sure thank you is enough. Great stuff!
Thank you! Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback. I very much appreciate it!
Beautifully done and the closest anyone that I've heard get so close to Ed's sound. Nice one mate!
Thanks, Ronnie!
Amazingly accurate playing and tones! I personally think the second album was even darker than the tone you are getting. Almost like Ed was in the mixing room and said "lower the presence more". Just night and day different from the first album. I also wonder if a master volume was added in there (that photo of the amp in the studio recording the second album with that knob on the back), further darkening the tone?
Hey Andy, Thank you! And Thanks for watching...If you made it through to the "recording process" section (I know, that's a big ask - it's at the end of my ramblings, and takes a chunk of time to get there), I address that I might be a bit too bright. I demonstrate approximately a 1db drop on the "high-end" and the tone darkens (in my opinion) considerably, with just that minor change. So much of this is subjective, depends on the vinyl version vs the digital (itunes) version, speakers / earbuds you're listening to, etc...for example, when I listen to this with my apple airpods, it's almost too dark, but in my Sony studio headphones, it's too brite - the flat studio monitors sound about right, and the Klipsch reference monitors I have in the room, sound a little too dark, the car stereo sounds pretty good....anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm really making a compromise and a judgement call...a half inch move in a microphone would achieve the same thing. So, although I always like that theory of the white knob on the back of the amp, I don't think there's any hint (tone-wise) of a MV. I almost think that white plastic "post" sticking out of the back of that amp, looks more like a wall dimmer you'd find in your house. I've always wondered if he was trying to install a dimmer in the amp, to replace the variac. He's stated that he tried a light dimmer before he went to the surplus store to get the variac....but, who knows?! More about the brightness - I sort of touched on why I may have erred on the brighter side - I downloaded some backing tracks (without Ed), and played with them, and in the mix when I was messing with blending my guitar with those original backing tracks, you'd be amazed what that 1db bump in the high-end did to make the guitar fit better in the mix - I should've included that in the video, but I was already getting to that 45 minute mark...and again, all of this is really subjective on my part. But hey, we're having fun, right? I very much appreciate the feedback and your thoughts...stay tuned, I just started messing with the Fair Warning tones...😉
I thought the same...but when I turned my Stylo3 phone pointing away from my ears to the blankets on my bed..the overt brightness and fuzziness went away....just as I thought. Moving the microphone (the author of this vid recommended) achieved the same sonic results. My two cents input to this post that I agreed with...peace
My favorite VH album. As a fellow guitar player, I'm really digging your videos man. Super accurate (sonically speaking).