Still my favorite EVH Tone era....

[SFW]

I know most people are into the early "brown sound" era of Edwards reign, but the Live Right Here Right Now era is where it is at for me. His tone was just huge. I'm thinking he was using the crunch channel on the 5150 for his rhythms, as there is plenty of gain, but it is not as saturated as the lead channel. But I could be totally off. At any rate... enjoy the king...

 

[Findthetone1]

A more processed Eddie tone, but I also like it alot. I think it fit that era of their writing more than the brown sound.

 

[Music&Chaos]

Nice! I actually happen to have a set of pickups that really promotes this sound.

I did not realize it until after I bought them but this is the sound.

Planet Tone Pound cake humbucker set.

I was ignorant of the song 'Pound Cake' and grabbed them based off of their description alone.

Yep, that's the sound exactly! How funny.

 

[Lightning]

If Eddie would have not used that added chorus wet dry effects that he added to when was using the Soldano SLO his sound would be like his early sound because the SLO has that insane drive of his early sound

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

I know most people are into the early "brown sound" era of Edwards reign, but the Live Right Here Right Now era is where it is at for me. His tone was just huge. I'm thinking he was using the crunch channel on the 5150 for his rhythms, as there is plenty of gain, but it is not as saturated as the lead channel. But I could be totally off. At any rate... enjoy the king...

Me too. Absolutely . FUCK was their masterpiece.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

Nice! I actually happen to have a set of pickups that really promotes this sound.

I did not realize it until after I bought them but this is the sound.

Planet Tone Pound cake humbucker set.

I was ignorant of the song 'Pound Cake' and grabbed them based off of their description alone.

Yep, that's the sound exactly! How funny.

The power drill that Ed used on that song got stolen at one point and they could not find a drill to replace because that particular drill was in A.

 

[Findthetone1]

The power drill that Ed used on that song got stolen at one point and they could not find a drill to replace because that particular drill was in A.

His tech didn't know how to tune a drill? Sheesh

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

His tech didn't know how to tune a drill? Sheesh

Right!? They could not find another enharmonic drill. I heard they got it back though.

 

[Music&Chaos]

To add onto the pickup thing I mentioned earlier -

I would think the pickups would be part of attaining that sound.

Kinda fat sounding, but with a clear edge, and lots of harmonic content.

The description of kind of saturated but clear....

That's how I would describe the PT set.

That is ran through a Crispy clean Modded blackface style amp.....that can also do crazy versatile OD on its lead channel

I would imagine if I crank these through my Marshall though.....

Didn't intend to end up on this path, but if I am already kinda here, might as well go down the road a bit!

 

[marvcus]

That whole album was amazing.

Back then, if you didn’t have a Soldano slaved into a Marshall with the Eventide going out to the H&H power amps, Peavey had the Tubefex and a patch called Browncake that approximated that tone. It was fun to hear and play back in the day, but had no dynamics.

To me, Poundcake, The Dream ls Over, and Pleasure Dome stood out tonally.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

That whole album was amazing.

Back then, if you didn’t have a Soldano slaved into a Marshall with the Eventide going out to the H&H power amps, Peavey had the Tubefex and a patch called Browncake that approximated that tone. It was fun to hear and play back in the day, but had no dynamics.

To me, Poundcake, The Dream ls Over, and Pleasure Dome stood out tonally.

The day that album came out (I was a senior in HS, 91’) and I dropped two hits of pink elephant and listened to it. I met god that day.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

That whole album was amazing.

Back then, if you didn’t have a Soldano slaved into a Marshall with the Eventide going out to the H&H power amps, Peavey had the Tubefex and a patch called Browncake that approximated that tone. It was fun to hear and play back in the day, but had no dynamics.

To me, Poundcake, The Dream ls Over, and Pleasure Dome stood out tonally.

Pleasure Dome is the best song VH ever wrote.

 

[Geo]

Sacrilege.

 

[Techdeth]

Live in Australia 1998 . With Gary .Perfect tone
They need to mix and master this show like now
This is tone that shapes metal for the 2000s
Just think Ed started the 80s tone too
He did it TWICE

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

Pleasure Dome is the best song VH ever wrote.

And secrets, little guitars, unchained, mean street, light up the sky, whiskey, tora tora… etc

 

[Briman24]

Ed never had a bad tone...

 

[brunocormack]

Love this era too, it's criminally underrated next to the brown sound. One thing though — the 5150 amp didn't exist yet for FU. That record was the big rack rig: Soldano SLO slaved into Marshalls for the actual gain, Eventide H3000 doing the detune/pitch magic, all of it run through H&H power amps like marvcus said. The 5150 amp didn't show up until Balance in '95. So that huge, processed-but-still-aggressive sound you're hearing is really the SLO's drive wrapped in a ton of stereo rack ambience, not a crunch channel.


That's actually why it sounds "less saturated but still huge" to your ear — the core gain is SLO, which is tighter and more focused than the 5150's lead channel, and then the rack widens it out so it feels enormous without being mushy.


If anyone wants to chase it today, the recipe is basically: a tight, mid-forward high-gain amp (SLO-style), a little less gain than you think, then a micro-pitch detune + a clean dual delay in stereo. The detune is the secret sauce, not the gain.


And the AT-1/Axis-style pickup is the right call for that FU bridge tone — fat with a clear top, exactly like Music&Chaos said.

 

[Dale B]

Live in Australia 1998 . With Gary .Perfect tone
They need to mix and master this show like now
This is tone that shapes metal for the 2000s
Just think Ed started the 80s tone too
He did it TWICE

A lot of people didn't like it, but I loved Gary in VH. I didn't really care about the Roth vs. Hagar stuff growing up. I also loved Extreme too.

 

[PDC]

Ed never had a bad tone...

No doubt! If you've got the chops and the swing - a cookin' Marshall-esque tone with a slap back delay and phase 90 nails the early stuff, and a detune chorus brings all the vibe of the VanHagar stuff.

He had such great rhythmic feel and such a good ear for 'tone' - whether raw plexi or gained out Soldano, he just had a sense for which frequencies caused ear fatigue and which frequencies you could listen to all night with no ringing ears the next day.

 

[fusedbrain]

We all got our favorite Van Halen era, but god damn, how can you not listen to the Right Here, Right Now vid, and not think that Sammy has/had one of the best rock and roll voices on the fukkin planet.
Love him or hate him, that fukker can fukkin sing.
The guitar player ain't bad either ......
And yeah, I really dig this era of VH as well.