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

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I'm may be wrong but @Amp_chaser comes across as this is the "definitive" of what EVH did and that might rub people the wrong way. When the fact is nobody is every going to know exactly what or if he did anything to that amp. And now, all the parties have passed. The rest is just hearsay.

What we do know is that there are plenty of guys who cop EVH tones without modded amps using the same equipment EVH used. And we know several techs ala Dave F. etc... that have been in the amp say there was no mods, and if there had been they had been long removed which just leads back to hearsay.

That said more power to @Amp_chaser if he enjoys doing this, everybody needs a hobby.
Man before affiriming things you don't know because you lack knowledge and research don't affirm things you don't know.
In many big videos centered on evh plexi Dave Friedman said it is just a stock plexi under variac But wait a second :
- In tone talk with Ossie Ahsen Dave says he doesn't know what was going on during VH1 and he says it's possible it was modded.
- Other weird elements because i also rewatch old live stream with him. When asked what was different on eddie amp he says it had weird filtering so filtering was not stock and other small things. He also said his filtering on his amp was 32/32 uf while you can see in the board that the cap was clearly 22/22 or 15/15uf.... way smaller than a 32/32...
- Do you know Dave offers Brown Sound mods to high profile artists or to those who are willing to spend money. Mods that are different from what you usually see.
- I have at Home an amp modded by Van Weelden he came to La to service and repair ed's amp. He copied this circuitry. For a while ed's amp had been turned into something else that's what had been done during the later days. It was the work of josé. That's a complete different mod from the vh1 mod.
- FInal argument : Dave friedman says artists are becoming dumber and dumber with time younger people don't even know how amps, humbuckers amd guitars work... Take a look at this freaking picture of Ed's amp and compare it to a stock amp ? Marshall almost always used the same components on his vintage amps mustard capacitor, the red dye which is the element confirming it is stock disappeared components are non stock and were replaced multiple times way more than needed with usual servicing :

SL12309-01.jpg


Now if dave tell you that a cat is a dog and you believe him despite all the proofs we got there i can attest you that he was right when he said that guitar players nowadays are dumber than the old ones... The old guitar players had the metroforums and seeked deeply the mods done to ed's amp they knew it had been done. Unfortunately for them josé mods and pictures of these amps would come online years after that period.

now here are testimonies of guys who really knew eddie personnaly :


DSCF0654.jpg
kevin dugan.png

Pete frampton :
pete.jpg


and finally nail in the coffin Zeke clark eddie's second amp tech says : "José Rebuilt Ed's Marshall" :



Not my fault if your brain is not braining the fact that eddie was ultra secretive and even hid himself during his tapping for people not copying him.... Dave was also selling the plex which is a brown sound based plexi but was stock it would have been easier to sell it if he said the brown sound is just a stock plexi...

If you want to troll go troll with people who didn't do their work. I did mine. And a famous modder from california confirmed recently that the main mod i'm using is the right one (not voltacontrol but one of the mods i did to my plexi). This modder/amp builder is very famous in LA and worked with many famous artists including eddie.
 
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First off, I feel what Exo is saying. I'm not sure posting a super-hype, alleged break-through amp history discovery, and then posting blurred out circuits with no additional explanation is accomplishing anything meaningful.

I also agree that the mod could be adjusting the B+ at the added tube. Or in the case of a Super lead without an added tube, it could be at the stock first stage.

Both my OG Jose's have a 12 way rotary switch in the same spot as this "Voltacontrol." But, instead of having 12 different plate resistor values, it takes the B+ from the added tube's plate directly to ground through separate resistors, which lowers the voltage depending on the value of the resistor to ground selected on the switch. Mine are labelled, "PRE AMP. SELECTOR."

It is a 12 way, despite only 8 numbers on the knob.

View attachment 441635
Yeah that's exactly what the voltacontrol does reducing b+ and yes it's needed to get that tone. But it will only sound right if you already have the main ingredients right. I have been experimenting with it on my 20w amp not my 100w super lead with all the great mods and it clearly helps with the tone.

For deraps that video just confirms that he probably uses special IR and heavily EQ. In that videos when playing that SV20 he plays perfectly and awesomely but the tone isn't the same at all and not exceptionnal at all : Generic plexi tone...

People should pay attention to what zeke clark said, not believe everything techs who got the amp said (look at the contradictions) and do their own research :



Last thing i can tell you cathodes values are not exactly what we think they are... I noticed that my cathode mod in fact does change their value.
 
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I just imagine a house with a wall of magazine papers ripped out and yarn connecting the important parts like some crazed serial killer. The tone on that album was great, but not even close to the best tone ever and definitely not worth all this conspiracy shit.

The sad thing is that there are a lot of people obsessed (somehow) with his very old outdated tone, and you have solved it after years of methladen studying, and you decide not to share it because you had to work so hard for it?

I am begging you to share it. But not openly. Just with all the morons here that chase that tone so I never see another thread here about this dumb shit
 
Man before affiriming things you don't know because you lack knowledge and research don't affirm things you don't know.
In many big videos centered on evh plexi Dave Friedman said it is just a stock plexi under variac But wait a second :
- In tone talk with Ossie Ahsen Dave says he doesn't know what was going on during VH1 and he says it's possible it was modded.
- Other weird elements because i also rewatch old live stream with him. When asked what was different on eddie amp he says it had weird filtering so filtering was not stock and other small things. He also said his filtering on his amp was 32/32 uf while you can see in the board that the cap was clearly 22/22 or 15/15uf.... way smaller than a 32/32...
- Do you know Dave offers Brown Sound mods to high profile artists or to those who are willing to spend money. Mods that are different from what you usually see.
- I have at Home an amp modded by Van Weelden he came to La to service and repair ed's amp. He copied this circuitry. For a while ed's amp had been turned into something else that's what had been done during the later days. It was the work of josé. That's a complete different mod from the vh1 mod.
- FInal argument : Dave friedman says artists are becoming dumber and dumber with time younger people don't even know how amps, humbuckers amd guitars work... Take a look at this freaking picture of Ed's amp and compare it to a stock amp ? Marshall almost always used the same components on his vintage amps mustard capacitor, the red dye which is the element confirming it is stock disappeared components are non stock and were replaced multiple times way more than needed with usual servicing :

View attachment 441679

Now if dave tell you that a cat is a dog and you believe him despite all the proofs we got there i can attest you that he was right when he said that guitar players nowadays are dumber than the old ones... The old guitar players had the metroforums and seeked deeply the mods done to ed's amp they knew it had been done. Unfortunately for them josé mods and pictures of these amps would come online years after that period.

now here are testimonies of guys who really knew eddie personnaly :


View attachment 441682View attachment 441681
Pete frampton :
View attachment 441680

and finally nail in the coffin Zeke clark eddie's second amp tech says : "José Rebuilt Ed's Marshall" :



Not my fault if your brain is not braining the fact that eddie was ultra secretive and even hid himself during his tapping for people not copying him.... Dave was also selling the plex which is a brown sound based plexi but was stock it would have been easier to sell it if he said the brown sound is just a stock plexi...

If you want to troll go troll with people who didn't do their work. I did mine. And a famous modder from california confirmed recently that the main mod i'm using is the right one (not voltacontrol but one of the mods i did to my plexi). This modder/amp builder is very famous in LA and worked with many famous artists including eddie.

"Man before affiriming things you don't know because you lack knowledge and research don't affirm things you don't know."

I never said you don't know your stuff, just that you do not know the "definitive" of what EVH did or didn't do. Hopefully you can understand that point.

"In many big videos centered on evh plexi Dave Friedman said it is just a stock plexi under variac But wait a second :
- In tone talk with Ossie Ahsen Dave says he doesn't know what was going on during VH1 and he says it's possible it was modded.
- Other weird elements because i also rewatch old live stream with him. When asked what was different on eddie amp he says it had weird filtering so filtering was not stock and other small things. He also said his filtering on his amp was 32/32 uf while you can see in the board that the cap was clearly 22/22 or 15/15uf.... way smaller than a 32/32..."

Again more hearsay etc... Zeke, Dave, Vai etc... all hearsay. Most Marshalls back then had different or variant parts or tolerances which in turn has led them to have their own sound. But again, back to my original point, NOBODY is ever going to know if that amp was modded or not because Ed is gone and Jose is gone. Anything past that is speculation.

Further, I actually gave you a compliment; speculate all you want, have fun with this, enjoy the rabbit hole, everybody needs a hobby and I would never fault anyone for that. But there is simply no way to make a definitive statement on what EVH did.

It's literally all speculation because there is no documentation from A to Z. And there never will be.
 
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"Man before affiriming things you don't know because you lack knowledge and research don't affirm things you don't know."

I never said you don't know your stuff, just that you do not now the "definitve" of what EVH did or didn't do. Hopefully you can understand that point.

"In many big videos centered on evh plexi Dave Friedman said it is just a stock plexi under variac But wait a second :
- In tone talk with Ossie Ahsen Dave says he doesn't know what was going on during VH1 and he says it's possible it was modded.
- Other weird elements because i also rewatch old live stream with him. When asked what was different on eddie amp he says it had weird filtering so filtering was not stock and other small things. He also said his filtering on his amp was 32/32 uf while you can see in the board that the cap was clearly 22/22 or 15/15uf.... way smaller than a 32/32..."

Again more hearsay etc... Zeke, Dave, Vai etc... all hearsay. Most Marshalls back then had different or variant parts or tolerances which in turn has led them to have their own sound. But again, back to my original point, NOBODY is ever going to know if that amp was modded or not because Ed is gone and Jose is gone. Anything past that is speculation.

Further, I actually gave you a compliment; speculate all you want, have fun with this, enjoy the rabbit hole, everybody needs a hobby and I would never fault anyone for that. But there is simply no way to make a definitive statement on what EVH did.

It's literally all speculation because there is no documentation from A to Z. And there never will be.
yes i also do agree but for me the evidence is too big. What i really wanted is to relive those metro modding days because the guys were working on it seriously.

did you read that
DSCF0654.jpg


josé clearly says in ed's biography that he modded the amp... why would he lie in a biography ? josé was old ed too the hard rock scene was over...

One thing i know for sure the weelden i have at home is based on a mod eddie and josé worked on together and it was used on many albums along with other amps.

If i say that it's not to throw people off but to tell modders yes there is hope despite what amps gurus say there are strong arguments against what they told us. Moreover that person who confirmed me the main mod mod saw the amp once because he repaired/serviced it once during its glory days... He remembers the main mod but not the details.

what i want to tell to modders and amp builder is that no you're not chasing a ghost or a studio sound amp. That amp was overmodded. Go mod because there is hope someone will get it right !
 
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I have real point to pint soldered pulltech at home ossie ahsen has also been testing with those for years, you can forget about it. And pulling half the power tubes wont magically give you the tone even if it gets closer.

did you read that View attachment 441717

josé clearly says in ed's biography that he modded the amp... why would he lie in a biography ? josé was old ed too the hard rock scene was over...

One thing i know for sure the weelden i have at home is based on a mod eddie and josé worked on together and it was used on many albums along with other amps.

If i say that it's not to throw people off but to tell modders yes there is hope despite what amps gurus say there are strong arguments against what they told us. Moreover that person who confirmed me the main mod mod saw the amp once because he repaired/serviced it once during its glory days... He remembers the main mod but not the details.

what i want to tell to modders and amp builder is that no you're not chasing a ghost or a studio sound amp. That amp was overmodded. Go mod because there is hope someone will get it right !
Unless you are Eddie you will never have Eddie's tone. That's what I think you and thousands of other dudes who should've found their own tone instead of chasing what someone else did fail to understand.
 
yes i also do agree but for me the evidence is too big. What i really wanted is to relive those metro modding days because the guys were working on it seriously.

did you read that View attachment 441717

josé clearly says in ed's biography that he modded the amp... why would he lie in a biography ? josé was old ed too the hard rock scene was over...

One thing i know for sure the weelden i have at home is based on a mod eddie and josé worked on together and it was used on many albums along with other amps.

If i say that it's not to throw people off but to tell modders yes there is hope despite what amps gurus say there are strong arguments against what they told us. Moreover that person who confirmed me the main mod mod saw the amp once because he repaired/serviced it once during its glory days... He remembers the main mod but not the details.

what i want to tell to modders and amp builder is that no you're not chasing a ghost or a studio sound amp. That amp was overmodded. Go mod because there is hope someone will get it right !
Which amp though? It does not say it was "the" amp. Granted I can barely read it. So if you want to blow that image up more, great. Again man, have fun on the quest but I don't think you are going to convince anyone that you have discovered the secret to Ed's magic Marshall. So many others have tried and moved on.

Honestly I wish you could discover the secret because it would be great is if there was proper documentation and this could all be put to rest once and for all.
 
On the one hand, the dedication is neat.
On the other hand, the sound on WACF and Fair Warning is WAY better.

My hope is one of two things are true;

1. You are looking to sell something and make money.
2. You are looking to do this as a labour of love to the guitar community and are going to "give away your secret" for free.

Otherwise, you may just be a lunatic (I say that with love). Good on you for chasing down this ghost. Better to invest the time into that than some sort of murder plot. :p
 

Do we know who has Ed's old 12000 series these days? I heard from a reliable source he sold it for six figures before he got really sick. I haven't heard Wolfgang say anything about it. Whoever has it sure has been quiet about it.
Actually I think it was said that Wolfie used his dad's amp on a couple of songs on his first album, but I think he still has it. Why would he sell it? Wolfie don't need the money and it was his dad's #1 amp.
 
Honestly I wish you could discover the secret because it would be great is if there was proper documentation and this could all be put to rest once and for all.
I mean there's like 50 ways to get that sound. You can even get something quite like it in the room (which EVH did not). Just buy a fucking 1959HW with a metroloop or Friedman or 5150 or SLO or whatever, put a echoplex in front as a boost and a pultec in the loop, and use greenbacks. Roll the gain back a bit and play harder like Ed did.

The magic is there is no magic.
 
I mean there's like 50 ways to get that sound. You can even get something quite like it in the room (which EVH did not). Just buy a fucking 1959HW with a metroloop or Friedman or 5150 or SLO or whatever, put a echoplex in front as a boost and a pultec in the loop, and use greenbacks. Roll the gain back a bit and play harder like Ed did.

The magic is there is no magic.
I know, lots of Ed experts nail it with the only thing missing is Ed's hands. It's just one of those things that'd be nice to put it to bed all these years later.
 
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