Mike Soldano talks about EVH's Marshall

[Rogue]

Can't understaand why so many find it hard to believe that the amp was stock.

Here ya go.

Plexi + Variac = Brown Sound.

It's the Compression and Sag the Variac brings that makes the sound.
Only a Slight gain increase over a non- Variac'd dimed Plexi

I don't get it either. Lots of builders/experimenters have gotten in the ball park of that tone. The rest is recording and engineering.

Expect changing goal posts.

 

[rupe]

Well Rupe,let me help you out Jose was Edwards amp tech since 1972

So Ed hired an amp tech when he was 17 years old in high school?

Oh yeah...you didn't have an amp tech in high school?

And prior to that, Jose was Ed's babysitter

 

[rupe]

Someone posted here that "I'm the One" doesn't sound like a lot of gain... are you kidding me? That sounds like more gain than you'd get with a plexi unless you variac'd, re-amped, EQ'd, echo plex preamped, and possibly micro amped your signal. I'm sure Ed picked hard and aggresively as that is part of the sound but he for sure was squeezin out a bit more gain with some help somewhere.

I guess it depends on your definition of "high gain", but the gain is much lower than that used by just about every player in the 80's who was influenced by Ed. And nobody has contended that a variac wasn't used...simply that the amp wasn't modded in a gain-altering manner. A variac is not a mod...it's an external voltage controller, and it has a huge effect on an amps sound and response. And who knows what other studio magic was used? The only thing that may have added a bit of gain was the EP-3 but it's minimal, and the tone can be done without it.

We may never know the truth about Ed's actual gear, but it's been proven time and again that a stock plexi can basically nail that tone when variac'd and dimed.

 

[nitro]

Rupe be serious,that's the truth.I know your frustrated.As for Edwards gain it was more then norm."Jose Ed's babysitter".....Rupe your to funny.

 

[Shark Diver]

I don't think it's a stretch that He's father would help him at that age given the talent. Nik Sterling's dad did. The thing lost here is that I got to play the amp and both Eddie and I prefer SLOs.

 

[nitro]

SLO is a great amp excellent quality built.Better then the rest of the boutique crap out there.

 

[nitro]

SLO is a great amp excellent quality built.Better then the rest of the boutique crap out there.Mike Soldano and Steve fryette are THE best in the business period ....

 

[londaxe]

also is the consensus here that a Jose master volume is the way to go?
I was thinking loading a plexi down then using a matrix etc... as the volume was the best way to go? I've pretty much concluded that regardless of mods, Eddie had a way to load the head down, then feed it into another head for lower volume

I've heard that particular master that's floating around doesn't work too well with non cascade amps, but I've never tried it myself.

I'm guessing he wouldn't be running a cranked 100 watt super lead here for example, so he's keeping the volume down somehow...or using a magic box

Also, I'll just leave this here.

 

[TrueTone500]

The 'magic' of Ed's tone (technique excluded) is the result of what happens when you turn a great tube amp up! The rest is 'icing on the cake'...

 

[gtrwun]

SLO is a great amp excellent quality built.Better then the rest of the boutique crap out there.

That's kinda harsh and if I built amps I'd be offended at your generalization.

 

[thegame]

VH1 has always sounded gainier than any other VH recording. Something often overlooked : on VH1 at least, he used JBL speakers mixed with greenbacks. I've heard the isolated VH1 tracks down to the individual Greenback and JBL tracks. The Greenback track alone sounds much less gainy, not at all like the end result, so therefore less like VH1 than even some of these youtube clips !!! A huge percentage of the perceived gain/sizzle is coming from the JBLs. I may have downloaded them from metroforum, can't remember.

Also, why is no one mentioning padding down the Marshall into his H & H power amps ? Slaving amps tends to introduce more gain and compression into the equation as well. This may prove there's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[TrueTone500]

VH II tone =

 

[ZachMN]

My two cents:

Early tone VH/VH II-W&CF-not high gain

I am including two links the first of which I was linked too from this site recently (like two/three months?)

http://www.pleximods.com/evhspec.html

(what follows is the tect of the above link)


"EVH Magic Marshall Spec (12000 series)
Posted by admin on 2/27/10 • Categorized as Articles,Mods

EVH Gear
From the Plexi Palace:

(1) By Mark Cameron from pictures taken in the early 80′S.
There ARE small tone altering and/or gain altering mods.
I do have pic’s so I CAN physically see that the amp has a split cathode arrangement.
…the cap on v2(330uf) cathode.
…its a 2.7k/.68 and the resistor looks like the stock part (but I don’t think it is) but the cap is one of those yellow square type from the 70′ Marshall’s. From the circuit card It looks like it came stock with this arrangement. The post that is pressed in looks stock too which tells me more than anyone could. In the pics the serial # is 12301.

(2) Cerrem 1980.
To try to wrap up is ED thing…
His head was a 67/68 and he had the first stage valve with BOTH cathodes tied together sharing the same 820 ohm resistor that was bypassed with a 330uF blue cap…
His treble cap was a round shaped ceramic that was a 250pF that said MURATA … With 56K on the tone circuit feed..

One of the 470K mixer resistors was bypassed with a round hollow tubular MURATA cap 500pF… If memory serves me right on the value, or it was a 330pF..I will check my notes….

The real kicker, his phase-inverter “get-rid-of-the-FIZZIES” cap was a 100pF instead of the normal 47pF ….and this my friends is how the “brown sound” with that added compression happens..

Oh, BTW those 820 ohm resistors were carbon-comp and drifted in value up about 1.1K and make the amp much more gainy and warmer, since these re-bias the 12AX7 valves in a bit more non-linear region..

I am pretty sure the feedback resistor was a 47K …I will have to check my notes…

The filter cap in the center of the board was a dual 16uF grey RS cap…

The screen filtering was 2 DALY 32uF light-blue caps in series… The voltage doubler were 2 100uF DALY royal-blue caps…

Rear cap on top of chassis was a royal-blue HUNTS 32uF or 16uF…need to check notes..

The value of the coupling cap between V1 and V2a….022uF.

At least that was what it was in 1980…

(3) Plaap (a friend of Peter Van Wheelden who restored Eddie’s amp.)
Edwards amp’s internal measurements were as follows:
1.The first 820 ohm resistor (carbon type) measured a little over 1K. It was bypassed with a blue 330uF resistor. can

2.His treble cap was a 250pF Murata flat ceramic one. The cap across his 470K was a Murata hollow round 330pF. cap

3.His second stage 820 ohm (which also measured a little over 1K, was also bypassed with the exact same type 330uF blue coloured cap that was on the first cathode resistor.

4.The filtering caps for the middle of the board were grey coloured RS caps that had dual 16uF values.

5.The screens were 2 blue caps in series (DALY 32uF’s).

6.The voltage doubler were two big blue caps (100uF DALY’s). The one on the outside was a blue Daly – and was a single 32uF.

7.The feedback resistor was a 47K of unknown origin.

8.His power transformer was the smaller one of that era. His OPT was also the smaller one with 1.5″ stack.

The amp was either left stock into a load resistor or, a big Ohmite (or other) power resistor was placed somewhere in the circuit to cut the power of only the output stage meaning Sylvania 6CA7′s were the only valves to hold up to this.

If this is true – doesn’t this kinda dispel the whole ‘special’ 67 slp 100 myth …as almost all amps of that year had pretty much identical configurations (with the small exception of the 330uf cap on the second preamp stage?

Dankuwell ! (dutch for many thanks)
Plaap"

I have no idea what all that electrical jargon means but some of you guys certainly do so ....tell me/us if it matters.


Second link which I came across years ago and I think should be considered...

http://www.cathedralstone.net/Pages/VanHalen.htm



Love the thread!

 

[nitro]

Edward didnt start using HH power amps until 1986 when bradshaw built his rack.

 

[nitro]

gtrwun its the truth,wouldnt care who got offended..

 

[metalmaniac93]

Great thread!!! Love this stuff even though I do not know what any of the technical information means!!! ALL GREEK TO ME!!!

From what I have listen to and I have been listening to VH well since 1978 or so, EVHs sound/tone on VHI is definitely different (more gain) than on VHII. And the Warner Bors VH demos do not even come close in tone to the 1st LP. Was it magical studio work or a modded Plexi Marshall?

 

[mentoneman]

SLO is a great amp excellent quality built.Better then the rest of the boutique crap out there.Mike Soldano and Steve fryette are THE best in the business period ....

i think it's interesting different builders who experienced eddie's amp came away with different aspects of it.

vht has the spongy throtly aspect, soldano has the fiery energy, suhr has the reedy spank i associate with vh I, and mojave has the midrange growl and chirp i hear in fair warning

 

[Chubtone]

JCMLesPaul came into my store today and started talking about this thread. He mentioned that if you remember when Van Halen split there was this obvious competition between David Lee Roth and the new Van Hagar camp as to who was going to put out the better album. Van Halen went in a much softer, more keyboard direction and Roth was all about returning to the sound of early VH.

I think it is pretty well documented that Roth insisted that Vai use a Jose modded Marshall on that Eat Em And Smile record even though Vai was already well established as a Carvin endorsee. A few years later, again well documented, Roth insisted that Jason Becker use Jose modded Marshalls when he joined the band and Roth had Jose do a couple of amps for Jason. Joe Holmes ended up using those amps when he toured with Roth to replace Becker.

Now this proves absolutely nothing, but it really makes you wonder. Eddie went off into Soldano land and Roth insisted his guitar players use Jose modded Marshalls. Does this make anyone else wonder what's up with that?

 

[shgshg]

I think it is pretty well documented that Roth insisted that Vai use a Jose modded Marshall on that Eat Em And Smile record even though Vai was already well established as a Carvin endorsee.

Or,

I supplied the gear for the record. Got a phone call from Ted Templeman asking if i'd help supply Vai with some real deal Marshall's, as Ted wasn't happy with what they were getting. I sent over 2 Plexy's. They stayed with Ted until the record was finished. -- Steve Stevens

http://www.hugeracksinc.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=81826

As an aside, I don't think Vai signed on as a Carvin endorsee until the Legacy came out, which wasn't until around the recording of the "The Ultra Zone" album . He used a X100-B a lot back in the early days because he was an employee of the Zappa organization and Frank had a close relationship with Carvin. Alcatrazz, Roth, Whitesnake, solo tours, all that stuff was mainly Marshalls with Soldano and Bogner gear in the mid nineties.

 

[Chubtone]

I think it is pretty well documented that Roth insisted that Vai use a Jose modded Marshall on that Eat Em And Smile record even though Vai was already well established as a Carvin endorsee.

Or,

I supplied the gear for the record. Got a phone call from Ted Templeman asking if i'd help supply Vai with some real deal Marshall's, as Ted wasn't happy with what they were getting. I sent over 2 Plexy's. They stayed with Ted until the record was finished. -- Steve Stevens

http://www.hugeracksinc.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=81826

Or,

"I supplied SOME gear for the record."