Pete and Dave have done it: The EVH tone vid is must see for ALL!

Geesh...some of you guys would criticize anything. That kind of attitude takes the fun out of all this. Pete seems like a genuinely good dude. He’s not a barn burner, but he’s a dang good player. The “guitar playing is a competition” attitude is so obnoxious.
 
Mr. Willy said:
Geesh...some of you guys would criticize anything. That kind of attitude takes the fun out of all this. Pete seems like a genuinely good dude. He’s not a barn burner, but he’s a dang good player. The “guitar playing is a competition” attitude is so obnoxious.
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Oh I don't know, I think he can fly around the fretboard with anyone, from some of the vids I've see.

Yeah it does become a 'contest' in many ways...we all seem to have a lot invested in EVH. Most of us grew up listening and wishing we could play even just a bit like him.

I thought the vid was pretty damn cool.
 
The only guy really blazin by the mid to late 70's is Uli roth and he doesn't have that tone or the swing and aggressiveness that Ed had so I'm not buying that there was really anyone before who had put it together like that. Flood gates opened by 80 though.. maybe all these guys would have developed anyways regardless of VH1. Old clips of Lynch seem to imply he wasn't too far behind and his style was definitely different. He didn't have the song writing though.
 
Growing up with Ed he was always there. Love him or hate him he was always present, and now he's not.
Time to get my affairs in order with my Attorney.
Nobody gets outta this world alive.
Life's not all lollipops & blowjobs, but sometimes it is. ♠
 
mooncobra said:
vintage marshalls sound so damn good!
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Yes they do. I've owned several of the 2000 and newer plexi circuits, and they just don't compare to the '77 1987 50 watt that I had. Nothing barks in the mids like an old Marshall. I love my Splawn, but the mids are not as pleasing to the ear as a good old JCM 800 or 1959/1987 model.
 
SFW said:
Yes they do. I've owned several of the 2000 and newer plexi circuits, and they just don't compare to the '77 1987 50 watt that I had. Nothing barks in the mids like an old Marshall. I love my Splawn, but the mids are not as pleasing to the ear as a good old JCM 800 or 1959/1987 model.
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I hear ya. I'm also a Splawn player - I've owned 4 over the years: a QR and Nitro before the 'Fully Loaded' options and now one of each with the Mid/Cut and Old/New options. And I gotta' say, Scott really hit it out of the park with those options. Each switch affects a different midrange frequency. The Mid/Cut hits the upper midrange and the Old/New hits the lower midrange. They really help make the QR very cab and speaker friendly, where the older versions can be finicky with certain cabs and speakers.
 
PDC said:
I hear ya. I'm also a Splawn player - I've owned 4 over the years: a QR and Nitro before the 'Fully Loaded' options and now one of each with the Mid/Cut and Old/New options. And I gotta' say, Scott really hit it out of the park with those options. Each switch affects a different midrange frequency. The Mid/Cut hits the upper midrange and the Old/New hits the lower midrange. They really help make the QR very cab and speaker friendly, where the older versions can be finicky with certain cabs and speakers.
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I am a new Splawn QR owner (about 3 weeks in) and I am really happy so far. Currently using the mid switch in the uncut position, New/Old on New, and B+ engaged. Using the gears and OD1 & 2 covers so many modded Marshall tones. EVH is in there along with Lynch and the other 80's guys. All the way up to modern modded Marshall tones. I am impressed up to this point.

For the first two weeks I had the B+ off (mainly because I forgot it was back there) and the New/Old on Old. Not sure I will ever use the mid cut switch.
 
Interesting that Mike Soldano mentions the Variac probably being gentler on the tubes... I guess maybe because he had already biased hotter and then the variac drops it down to where it works well in unison. DF did mention that you have to bias up to compensate.

Once you put Superlead and Variac in your youtube searches, you come up with all sorts of brownsounds. Some as good if not better than what Pete and Dave got. Deraps did a pretty good one here with a 60$ variac looks like;

 
That is strange about the tubes. Everything I had read indicated that it is was the heaters being run so low that stressed the tubes.

But he does touch on something that bears mentioning. That tone is special and just cranking an old Marshall isn't it.
 
SpiderWars said:
That is strange about the tubes. Everything I had read indicated that it is was the heaters being run so low that stressed the tubes.

But he does touch on something that bears mentioning. That tone is special and just cranking an old Marshall isn't it.
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Depends on the Marshall.
Wouldn't surprise me if Mike is embellishing the folktale a bit.
In 45 years ive never needed a variable transformer either step-up or step-down to get awesome tones out of a Marshall.
And tho my line voltage here is a very stable 120VAC in other places its been 109 to 127.
 
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Imho the most vital link in the EVH chain is lower B+ and higher idle bias.

If you have an amp with a low/hi power switch that reduces B+, try it! My Rivera M60 goes from 440v to 220v, so a pair of EL-34/6L6’s goes to about 15 watts. Cranking the bias there makes it so rad, Like an EVH practice amp!
 
SpiderWars said:
That is strange about the tubes. Everything I had read indicated that it is was the heaters being run so low that stressed the tubes.

But he does touch on something that bears mentioning. That tone is special and just cranking an old Marshall isn't it.
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I was chatting to Cameron about lower heater voltages and he felt it didn’t really affect tube life much if at all. He mentioned someone doing a test of lowering the Hester voltage on preamp tubes and improving their life...but the tone getting better as well. He often mentions that these are guitar amps and not NASA equipment which needs to be run at tight parameters.
 
I think Mike is telling the same tale many players have experienced. Crank a perfectly functioning vintage Marshall and it is a great tone but it ain't VH1.
psychodave said:
I was chatting to Cameron about lower heater voltages and he felt it didn’t really affect tube life much if at all. He mentioned someone doing a test of lowering the Hester voltage on preamp tubes and improving their life...but the tone getting better as well. He often mentions that these are guitar amps and not NASA equipment which needs to be run at tight parameters.
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Cool, good to know.

Deraps is a badass and that sounded good but imo it's not there. I don't know if it is the Germino (seems to get praise) or what but imo its close but no cigar.
 
SpiderWars said:
I think Mike is telling the same tale many players have experienced. Crank a perfectly functioning vintage Marshall and it is a great tone but it ain't VH1.

Cool, good to know.

Deraps is a badass and that sounded good but imo it's not there. I don't know if it is the Germino (seems to get praise) or what but imo its close but no cigar.
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Tough Crowd! But I appreciate that all our nerd ears hear stuff differently. Who knows, that might have been Ed's tone on any given day if you removed as some people already mentioned, the board, the JBL speaker mixed in for top end, and the compressor/EQ on the final mix. I think it sounds as close as to what Pete has going on but I think it is also in the room vs. mic'd. I think I am with the masses though. A cranked Marshall sounds amazing but it isn't THE sound of VH1. Variac is closer but again, for that push, I see an EQ plus his Echoplex giving a push. All those combined gets the lead playing to sound more effortless. This guy here dropped his Superlead down to 60! Pedals for that extra push.

 
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