EVH/AVH love

Dino 939

Dino 939

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Well-known member
I had someone ask me one time,
“So what’s this “brown sound” people associate
with Van Halen all about?”…
Now I had to exercise a bit of patience here ‘cause we’re talkin’ about the man here,
Me: “Go blast the song “Ice Cream Man” and when the distortion kicks in, that’s a great starting point”.
My buddy: “word”.

I know it’s a cover song-Blah.,blah
But this is an extremely difficult song to make credible without sounding like f’n Mustang Sally
the whole night, that stock blues shuffle just got
browned the fuck outta’ Dodge.

This is my absolute favorite EVH guitar solo.
Big Alex Van Halen winding him up for the solo
and those fat stops which normally would fuck ya up,
-but Eddie is WICKED and slices & dices it to shards,
-this solo really shows his magical depth on the fretboard.
The heavy ass blues outro’ and
that classic EVH f’n molten stab….
I’m fired up up now man.

 
Great example and def one of my fave VH solos/moments. I'll stick my neck out and say they made this cover song their own.
Also, Alex doesn't get enough mention. What a great musician.
 
I didnt grow up in the 70s and 80s so pardon my ignorance, but was his tone just not possible to get without modding anything?
 
I remember me and my guitar playing friend arguing over whether the beginning of ICM solo was tapping on not. I insisted it was not tapping and he insisted it was…neither of us could play it.

His early playing just had that full-of-piss-and-vinegar-aggression that made it jump off the record. And I agree about Alex, he doesn’t get credit for the musicality of his playing.

EDIT: If I had to pick one EVH song to let the aliens that just landed listen to it would be I’m the One.
 
Last edited:
Metalhex said:
I didnt grow up in the 70s and 80s so pardon my ignorance, but was his tone just not possible to get without modding anything?
Click to expand...

I didn't start playing until the 1984 album came out and tone chasing wasn't on my radar at all then. But I'm not aware of any off the shelf amp you could buy in the late 70s that would have that much distortion. It wasn't like you could just grab a Fryette Power Station and dime any 100w Marshall of the day for the real crunch. It took a lot of experimentation and creativity to get that VH1 tone. And I dare say his live tone from the early bootlegs is even better than what's on the records.
 
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