EVH tone is this his secret has it been overlooked

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
I know the EHV thing has been chased ad nauseumem and I am not an eddie tone chaser myself but....
I noticed this the other day and its made me wonder .....

I noticed that in some pics of the band while they are in the studio recording what I think would be Van Halen 1 there can clearly be seen a device known as the schaffer vega diversity

I dont recall the shaffer vega diversity ever being linked to eddie van halen before and yet clearly he WAS using one , there are also numerous pics of him live where it can be seen he is wearing the the shaffer transmitter
so I just wondered did EVH use one and did he deliberately use one to produce his tone and keep it below the radar ?
Its now a well known fact angus young used one for definite and this information about angus using one only recently came to light in the last couple of years.
I believe the device is capable of of a around 20 db boost and its also a compressor.
at the time around 1977 the shaffer device cost somewhere in the region of $4500 dollars so not many people on average earnings for the times would have had access to these devices so its easy to imagine these devices were not known about by most people and it would be easy for eddie to keep the device pretty much a secret
here is a pic , the device is labelled in the pic as SVDS its just below eddies left hand
guitarist_edward_van_halen_197720ch-2-1-1.jpg
 
eddies tone has been chased for many years by soooo many people and yet I dont recall the schaffer vega diversity ever being mentioned as part of his signal chain and yet...
it is very clear from this photo that he was in possesion of one
its actually a wireless transmitter but ... a side effect if you want to call it that was that the device could produce 20 db boost and it had a built in compressor
apparently angus young was given one of the devices in 1977 he was mad for it he absolutely loved and it became a permanent part of his live rig and his studio rig purely because of its awesome boost and tone it produced
clearly eddie van halen had one as well.....

there obviously are many parts to eddies tone but was the schaffer vega diversity one of them ?
I dont know I never used one but its got me wondering....
 
university81":2l5m44s1 said:
interesting, i guess it would make sense

it was the same deal for AC/DC back in black tone as you mentioned

have to register to read his artticle/research, but the video demonstrates well

http://www.solodallas.com/the-definitiv ... o-article/


Click to expand...

by the way if you dont bond with that 50 watt JCM800 you just snagged then let me know as I am in the uk and would most likely take it off your hands
 
Business":bpy8lrf3 said:
That's a well-disguised infomercial for that replica :D
Click to expand...
No kidding.. Its been posted on a few different forums now and as he points out, an original at that time was $4500. I doubt all of EVH's gear conbined prior to being signed cost that much.
 
custom62":17f1cwb8 said:
university81":17f1cwb8 said:
by the way if you dont bond with that 50 watt JCM800 you just snagged then let me know as I am in the uk and would most likely take it off your hands
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


unlikely ;) but you never know

There's a 1984 2204 on musicradar .. think it might still be available , the guy was looking for trades but would probably sell too, talked to him last week about it but before he could respond the other one popped up on ebay.co.uk which i had to snag

here's the post:

http://forum.musicradar.com/showthread. ... and-jc-120
 
The pic posted by the OP is recording VHII and the more interesting thing is the white "stick" sticking out of the top left corner of the chassis in that pic...probably a pot shaft for a master volume. Ed has been quoted as using a Schaffer on tour in some early GP interviews. (along with "Nasty" wireless...probably miss-quoted from Nady)
 
I've heard enough people touch the various eras of EVH tone going straight into an amp that I can't imagine spending time worrying about all those details.
 
The real secret of EVH's tone was that he was a great guitar player.
 
A great guitar player with HUGE hands! That makes a diff too for stretches and vibrato strength in my opinion. I thought VH1 was pretty much stock but re-amped for more grind. I won't get into the endless ageless debate though. Lots of people have replicated the tone closely enough with a stock amp going balls out with a DSD.
 
My theory is the little white Fender Bandmaster cranked on 10 plugged into the extension speaker jack only, and it's cab placed in an iso booth and tracked along with the Marshall and brought into the mix in various amounts with it's own channel fader...Ed has stated that the best sound he ever got was playing that Bandmaster in his bedroom...why wouldn't he use it on his debut record ? Makes sense to me.
 
I recall reading an interview with Jerry Cantrell. He was on tour (solo or AIC I don't remember) and EVH showed up one day. Ed was really impressed with Jerry's sound and asked to play, so of course JC let him. How did he sound through a G&L and Jerry's gear? Just like EVH always does. So I'm on board with Eddie just sounds like Eddie.
 
A db boost/compression in EVH chain? Totally makes sense, there are certainly that in his early solo tone. Very interesting possibility that he used it for more sustain and tighten up the sound. Jay Graydon comes from that era, and he always played with the Orange Squeezer on all his studio sessions.
 
I don't know...usually when you play an amp with a ton of pre amp gain, the sound doesn't have that squishy-squashy thing goin on like Ed's tone has...I used to think that quality was from the low output PAFs and or the Variac, but I've tried both and neither one gets me there. The Bandmaster working hard through the extension speaker only jack would make more sense to me (the primary speaker jack on an old Fender is a switching jack, you're supposed to plug into that one first and then use the extension jack), because Ed said it blew up a transformer every few months doing it that way, but the sound was worth it . Not trying to hijack the OP's thread here...just stirring the pot.
 
The secret is that pot sticikng out of the back of the Plexi that Jose added for him.
 
Any idea what it is glip ? I always assumed a master volume of some sort...but later shots of the amp (like the centerfold that appeared in GW magazine) show a screw through the hole left when the secret pot was removed...
 
The secret is the Axe-FX. Every time I plug into the damn thing and select the "Brown Sound" preset, I get nearly identical early EVH tones...

Steve
 
Bob Savage":1byb2cr4 said:
I've heard enough people touch the various eras of EVH tone going straight into an amp that I can't imagine spending time worrying about all those details.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna have to agree with you.

Steve
 
paulyc":1ticmxm8 said:
Any idea what it is glip ? I always assumed a master volume of some sort...but later shots of the amp (like the centerfold that appeared in GW magazine) show a screw through the hole left when the secret pot was removed...
Click to expand...

Not sure. I have read Ed worked with Jose but it seems noon really knows. Whatever was going on in that amp must have been returned to stock. I have seen the empty hole but its not empty in your pic, is it? :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top