Van Halen Catalog

Rick Lee said:
Crazy thing about FW is that they had to pay radio stations to play it and it still was a slow seller. Such a fantastic album and it will still hold up 50 yrs from now.
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Ya it’s just a coked up hard jam that’s made into a perfect mad album
 
I only got one VH track on my flash drive in my vehicle these days. ‘I can’t stop loving you’
It is so crisp clear punchy’ thru my stereo in my truck. Probably sounds the best tone wise recording thru it. Think it’s Balance album. I own them all. Every couple months I swap out songs on the flash drive. This one has been on there the longest.
 
I love all of EVH's tones (except for Different Kind of Truth). I feel they mailed that album in more or less. I also dug his Eventide W/D/W era as well. It was a cool change from his rawer sounds and back then guys evolved and the bands sounds changed from record to record. 5150 knocked me on my ass in terms of how big his guitar sounded and the beautiful tones of Best of Both Worlds and 5150. Gorgeous sounding guitars. I wish he would have went back to the old amps for Different Kind of Truth. It would have given it more balls. I found that record to be somewhat toothless in the guitar tone dept.
 
legend71 said:
I love all of EVH's tones (except for Different Kind of Truth). I feel they mailed that album in more or less. I also dug his Eventide W/D/W era as well. It was a cool change from his rawer sounds and back then guys evolved and the bands sounds changed from record to record. 5150 knocked me on my ass in terms of how big his guitar sounded and the beautiful tones of Best of Both Worlds and 5150. Gorgeous sounding guitars. I wish he would have went back to the old amps for Different Kind of Truth. It would have given it more balls. I found that record to be somewhat toothless in the guitar tone dept.
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I thought I had read that he did use the old Marshall on some of ADKOT. But it mostly sounds like the 100w 6L6 Stealth. I had one of those and it sounded so awesome. But it was just more gain and knobs than I was ever going to use. I also recall reading something about that album getting mastered twice, once at Henson Studios and then, when they didn't like it, it was redone at 5150. Either way, the guitar tone is lacking on that album. Playing is great as always, but some of the older tones would have helped a lot.
 
Mailman1971 said:
I only got one VH track on my flash drive in my vehicle these days. ‘I can’t stop loving you’
It is so crisp clear punchy’ thru my stereo in my truck. Probably sounds the best tone wise recording thru it. Think it’s Balance album. I own them all. Every couple months I swap out songs on the flash drive. This one has been on there the longest.
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The production on Balance is god-like IMO
 
legend71 said:
I love all of EVH's tones (except for Different Kind of Truth). I feel they mailed that album in more or less. I also dug his Eventide W/D/W era as well. It was a cool change from his rawer sounds and back then guys evolved and the bands sounds changed from record to record. 5150 knocked me on my ass in terms of how big his guitar sounded and the beautiful tones of Best of Both Worlds and 5150. Gorgeous sounding guitars. I wish he would have went back to the old amps for Different Kind of Truth. It would have given it more balls. I found that record to be somewhat toothless in the guitar tone dept.
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Yep, I agree with a lot of this. I don't mind that EVH experimented with different tones over the years. I like the first six records the best, but I was also okay with the increasing use of the eventide and other experimentation. I thought there were some really good tones on VHIII as well. But A Different Kind of Truth was a total turn off for me. I like some of the songs and the band plays great, but the guitar tones and overall production ruin it for me.

The guitar is so over saturated... just gained out and compressed. Outta Space, Beats Workin, Big River... I hate the guitar sound on that stuff. And then you add an overdriven bass guitar tone on top of that gained out amp, and it just doesn't work for me at all. (Roth singing at the top of his range and often straining out of his range doesn't help matters either).

People love to say that tone is all or mostly in the fingers, but if that's really true, then I should love hearing EVH on A Different Kind of Truth. Edward plays great on those songs, so his fingers are not the problem. I think I'd enjoy that record a lot more if he had used different amps and/or dialed in something closer to his old school tones.
 
VHI
Fair Warning
VHII

That's pretty much it for me in terms of "this is the tone". Next would be in no particular order...

WACF
1984
5150
Diver Down

Next for me would be FUCKnowledge. Thought that was a good transition tonally. Where as Balance, yeah I just never have understood all the hype that gets.

I was never enamored with Balance, or VHIII. Oddly enough I enjoy DKOT but not tonally, it's just full on saturation. Then again that album to me it's like it's not really a part of the official catalog. I personally kinda look on that album as something where bands release demo's etc... And in essence that's what they are. It certainly was the worst production they ever released.

As an aside, Me Wise Magic/Hits era was the "the time" for the return of Roth, that would have exploded at that time. Roth's voice wasn't totally shot and "everyone" was ready for it including the grunge era bands and fans of that genre. Ed and Al missed a great opportunity there and in reality VH never recovered in terms of being a "relative" band. Yeah they could tour with Hagar and later Roth but creatively there were pretty much done. Just a huge miss by those guys.
 
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Mailman1971 said:
I only got one VH track on my flash drive in my vehicle these days. ‘I can’t stop loving you’
It is so crisp clear punchy’ thru my stereo in my truck. Probably sounds the best tone wise recording thru it. Think it’s Balance album. I own them all. Every couple months I swap out songs on the flash drive. This one has been on there the longest.
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Balance is great . Don’t tell me tone is up there with his best tones
 
jabps said:
VHI
Fair Warning
VHII

That's pretty much it for me in terms of "this is the tone". Next would be in no particular order...

WACF
1984
5150
Diver Down

Next for me would be FUCKnowledge. Thought that was a good transition tonally. Where as Balance, yeah I just never have understood all the hype that gets.

I was never enamored with Balance, or VHIII. Oddly enough I enjoy DKOT but not tonally, it's just full on saturation. Then again that album to me it's like it's not really a part of the official catalog. I personally kinda look on that album as something where bands release demo's etc... And in essence that's what they are. It certainly was the worst production they ever released.

As an aside, Me Wise Magic/Hits era was the "the time" for the return of Roth, that would have exploded at that time. Roth's voice wasn't totally shot and "everyone" was ready for it including the grunge era bands and people. Ed and Al missed a great opportunity there and in reality VH never recovered in terms of being a "relative" band. Yeah they could tour with Hagar and later Roth but creatively there were pretty much done. Just a huge miss by those guys.
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Vh2 to Diver Down is my fav period
 
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