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,I still listened to Van Halen after Fair Warning but wasn’t crazy about the sound