EVH mods

[servant]

Yikes! Anyone care to take a stab at this one?

http://64.224.126.160/Boards/cgi-bin/ul ... 3&t=002927

How would this work on the 18?

Dean

[Plexi]

i like this question...

""WWOTS - does anyone know where Clapton got the name "Woman Tone"??"""

the woman tone is just turn the tone control to 0 on the guitar.. he even showed that on an old interview.. So maybe thats where it came from.. And i believe he got it from the old blues players.


As for the 18 and EVH brown sound.. you may read more or delve into it a bit. Its not good on the amp. Theres round about ways of doing this. But the 18 may still not sound like what your asking. Its a different amp and circut and tubes.. Explaining it is a little different. Plus he could afford changing transformers.

Maybe someone good at math could figure out the equavilent of dropping the amp to 90v supply. It would maybe put the tubes in the preamp to a close to starved plate. It would also drop the heater voltage.Which you really wouldn't want to do. Well all voltages would drop..
So if you could figure the voltage on all sections,you could also figure out a power supply that you could match,and run safely. Its still probably not all that easy to do..or have it come out right. Voltages on tubes do make for the way the amp sounds or reacts to playing.
And theres alot of debate of his amp being modded..and also it not being modded. EVH could probably throw a pedal in front of an 18..and still sound like Eddie. theres also some recording things going on on the albums they talk about. Reverb and phasing etc..

Richie

[Plexi]

I guess i should have read all the 6 pages or so of the mod..LOL
I guess one could only try it and see or hear.. not much to it.
Still doesn't sound like a healthy thing to do to an amp.


Richie

[zaphod_phil]

For a very interesting insite into one factor in EVH's sound that's been much overlooked, read www.legendarytones.com/edward_van_halen.htm
This is a really fascinating article about the whole hi-gain amps thing, as well as usage of the variac.

"Part of what made Edward’s tone on the early Van Halen albums so great was the fact that the overdrive was gotten from his aggressive attack on the strings – the corresponding harmonics brought forth a lively aggressive sound. It was a heavy sound too, but the Marshall plexi Edward used certainly wasn’t considered a super high gain amplifier."

Now read on....

[servant]

All very interesting... I should have been more clear in my post here. I am not interested in sounding like EVH. My angle is simply that I have heard these rumours for years about how he achieved "that" sound. The whole debate came back to my mind after getting my PODxt. I think Line6 got it wrong... They state that they modeled a Variac'd Marshall, but with the line voltage at something like 140VAC. That didn't sound right to me (even on paper). My recollection from years ago was that he wanted that dimed tone but the club managers always complained about the volume.

Then I read this mod about all the resistors and all. Totally off the wall said I...

Also note that, although my original post over at Line6 was about the EVH/Variac tone, I didn't even see the EVH article over at legendarytone.com. A reference to David Gilmour's tone took me there, but all I read was the PODxt review. Too funny! Thanks for the URL to the EVH pickup. I'll tell my son.

[zaphod_phil]

I agree. Line6 got it all wrong, the voltage had to be adjusted down to get distortion with reduced headroom. However, it's not too good for the tube cathodes, unless you power the filaments from a separate transformer running from the regular mains supply. Still I thought that the thing about EVH's palying dynamic and pickups was very enlightening. I had also read somewhere that he had been seen at a party playing some of his fast tapping stuff on an acoustic guitar and it sounded just as good. So a lot of it is in the fingers....

[servant]

I agree. Line6 got it all wrong, the voltage had to be adjusted down to get distortion with reduced headroom. However, it's not too good for the tube cathodes, unless you power the filaments from a separate transformer running from the regular mains supply.

Yes! I just remembered a missing piece to my memory (this happens more and more since I hit 40... five years ago). Apparently because Eddie did what he did with the Variac, he supposedly had to retube the amp every few nights! I'd say that constitutes "not too good for the tube cathodes!"

[zaphod_phil]

Yup! At least he could afford it...