I finally found out what the pot behind van halen VH1 does (it wasn't a master at all)

[Amp_chaser]

The tone you got in the room was spot on as far as I'm concerned. Do you know the rest of the song, though? It isn't my style, but the recording sounded good. I would just like to hear more than a 3 second part repeated

Thanks. I used to, but not anymore... I took a break because of studies and girls, and I stopped playing for 5 years x)... I was never an amazing player, but I used to play a lot. Since I started building amps, I’ve mostly just been strumming big riffs and playing a few little solos I know, just to get the tone right... When my quest is over, I’ll finally be free from the burden of trying to find something close enough to make me happy.

 

[Rackman]

Well, that's what this ampchaser guy wants, he wants his live amp to sound like the actual studio processed recording of VH1 with Don Landee and Ted Templeman at the controls.

Which is fine. I kind of like that sound myself But I'm not under the illusion that the way to make it happen is to copy Ed's VH1 rig. Elements that reproduce the distortion and frequency response of those various missing studio elements are going to be required, and it's going to be an approximate result since the thing I'm duplicating never actually existed.

Ed presumably felt the same way, and went and bought a SLO.

 

[Anje]

It's funny, at least to me, listening to that in the room janies cryin makes it incredibly obvious that it's a relatively stock plexi. At least for me personally, that "loud stock plexi in a room with a band" sound is really obvious if you've had the experience.

Exactly my thoughts too; that sounds GREAT, and I actually prefer that to the final mix sound on that record.

 

[mentoneman]

Which is fine. I kind of like that sound myself But I'm not under the illusion that the way to make it happen is to copy Ed's VH1 rig. Elements that reproduce the distortion and frequency response of those various missing studio elements are going to be required, and it's going to be an approximate result since the thing I'm duplicating never actually existed.

Ed presumably felt the same way, and went and bought a SLO.

put another way,
i have zero interest in acquiring vh bootleg tones or stuff past 1984 studio tones.

his early studio album tones are what informed my concept of what a great rock guitar sound should be. and *for me* nothing before him or since has eclipsed that.

these outtakes and rough mixes in the first vid are cool to compare with the final version in the second vid just to understand how significant Ted and Donn were to the final product.





also interesting perspective is that this song was supposedly a late filler they put together while in the studio, meaning EVH had by then really dialed in his rig with Landee towards the end of their studio time.

tone loc surely appreciated the effort!

 

[Lightning]

Anything past Fair Warning I had no interest in the Van Halen sound ,I still listened to Van Halen after Fair Warning but wasn’t crazy about the sound

 

[Anje]

put another way,
i have zero interest in acquiring vh bootleg tones or stuff past 1984 studio tones.

his early studio album tones are what informed my concept of what a great rock guitar sound should be. and *for me* nothing before him or since has eclipsed that.

these outtakes and rough mixes in the first vid are cool to compare with the final version in the second vid just to understand how significant Ted and Donn were to the final product.





also interesting perspective is that this song was supposedly a late filler they put together while in the studio, meaning EVH had by then really dialed in his rig with Landee towards the end of their studio time.

tone loc surely appreciated the effort!

Great demonstration, agree!

 

[harddriver]

Which is fine. I kind of like that sound myself But I'm not under the illusion that the way to make it happen is to copy Ed's VH1 rig. Elements that reproduce the distortion and frequency response of those various missing studio elements are going to be required, and it's going to be an approximate result since the thing I'm duplicating never actually existed.

Ed presumably felt the same way, and went and bought a SLO.

To get all the nuances of the recorded VH1 tone yes, you would need most of the known VH1 amp rig(which is no secret) and then most of what the OX Box Sunset Sound package provides like Jim Gaustad uses with great results for VH1 recorded tones as well as random people using the OX box also to great effect on YT. If you don't want all that the 78/79 Tonex and Kemper are killer for a very correct album tone.

If you are using a NMV volume plexi or superlead you would need to replicate some of Ed's known live rig like the variac, load box, similar speakers cabs and getting into slaving, if you want that plexi type response and tone. Gaustad has walked people through the entire setup and if your amp doesn't get those tones, then either something isn't right with your amp or how it has been setup per the recipe.

If you don't want that kind of hassle the SLO, Joses, BE100's, Cameron Jose's, Brays, EVH 5153's, Peavey 5150's all get a great out of the box tone without the variac setup as you have pointed out... but they do sound and feel different to a NMV that is heavily variaced. It just depends on how correct you want to be.

 

[Lightning]

You can’t forget the Rockstah Mod 5

 

[mentoneman]

Anything past Fair Warning I had no interest in the Van Halen sound ,I still listened to Van Halen after Fair Warning but wasn’t crazy about the sound

his tone on diver down wasn’t bad but the mix was way less guitar heavy and the tunes…

 

[mentoneman]

You can’t forget the Rockstah Mod 5

Mark was cool and a great player who could cop the VH tone and playing nicely.

 

[Lightning]

I still have my Rockstah Mod 5, I was going to sell it but decided to keep it I said to myself are you crazy it’s the best sounding modded Marshall I’ve played and others have heard,something with mine when Mark(RIP)modded the amp it has gain up the ass.

 

[Racerxrated]

I still have my Rockstah Mod 5, I was going to sell it but decided to keep it I said to myself are you crazy it’s the best sounding modded Marshall I’ve played and others have heard,something with mine when Mark(RIP)modded the amp it has gain up the ass.

I had one. It was a very lightly boosted 2204. That's it. A cool amp; but mine did NOT have 'gain up the ass'. Far from it. It was modded for another forum member, and signed by Mark. Steve K's old amp.
I literally could have gotten the same sound from a pedal in front. The EQ was a little different though.

 

[Lightning]

Well all I can say is that it has a lot of gain it’s not a lightly boost amp thats for sure

 

[Anje]

I remember Mark from the older forum days, played great and sounded like a nice guy.
I imagine he made different mods and not all his modded Marshall are equal?

 

[Lightning]

That’s correct he treated each amp that he modded(Mod 5) differently, if I put a overdrive/clean boost/ distortion pedal in front it would be over kill