Strong hints that Van Halen 1 68 lead was just a slave amp and not the main amp.

[chumbucket]

In addition to my previous post. Since getting the 78/79 Brown sound package and spending some time with it I find the 300-350ms slapback delay with 0 repeats, low mix like 20-25% and correct reverb settings has even more to do with the recorded tones as well as all those Eq's and preamps that gave Ed's amp so much bite, crispness an aggression on VH1. I highly recommend the 78/79 package if you are into all this VH1 stuff, it's alot of fun to mess with and you will find without the correct delay and reverb the VH1 album/recorded tone vanishes.

As noted above the best anyone is going to do is get close to his Live amp tones and then go down the recording rabbit hole like Gaustad did with all the Eq's and preamps, delays, reverbs or use the UA OX box like alot of people do. Trying to get that exact recorded tone out of a live amp is ludicrous when the room mics clearly show the amp was warmer and had all the plexi characteristics underlying what is heard on the processed mastered tones put to tape for VH1.

Van Halen - Live in St. Paul, MN (April 13th, 1980) - Super 8 Film​

Hey @harddriver, have you tried the new 80/81 pack yet? It's very cool too. There's some raw amps in there now for using your own IR or a power amp/cab setup.

 

[harddriver]

Hey @harddriver, have you tried the new 80/81 pack yet? It's very cool too. There's some raw amps in there now for using your own IR or a power amp/cab setup.

No not yet, I still haven't gotten the latency issue fixed yet on my interface. To be honest I haven't been playing it much right now been busy with everything but music

I did watch Gaustads video where he said he thought the Celestion G1265 was used on the 80-81 era, I found that to be interesting.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

One thing you have to understand VH1 is unique from the rest.

The mods that were in it probably didn't last long. Eddie didn't like that sound. It's probable that just after the recording the amp was brought back to stock just leaving the pot there.

you can see that in japan he tried slaving amps in 1978. Then in 1979 you can see the power tubes changed and it was probably just a plexi biased very hot. Then rudy leiren said a lot of mods were done including that zeke clark mod to the ot. it's safe to say that mid early 80's the amp was very different from a stock 68 lead. Dave even said it had weird components and weird filtering in it and he brought it back to stock.

Another thing that was explained by some people on all those online shows is that some records had multiple amps and that the 68 lead was not used for everything. There is also the possibility of slave setups for recording.

In fact guitar magazines and some people say a second amp was used in van halen 1 as a power amp.

There are nda about eddie's tone and it's probable that the evh company and the vh family will sue anyone that will spill the beans about all those mods that went into that amp around the years. Plus eddie didn't want people to copy his sound. Just remember when seymour duncan run this add for the van halen humbucker ? what did ed do ? he said he will sue seymour so seymour retracted...

Eddie saw first hand probably dozens of times that when it comes to his sound in particular, the tone really is mostly in the hands. He’d hand his guitar to other players while it was plugged into his rig all the time and there’s a ton of interviews with those other players, and they all came away saying the exact same thing. “I played the rig and didn’t sound like Ed, I sounded like me.” Nuno, Zakk Wylde, and Billy Corgan off the top of my head are all on record saying exactly that.

NDA’s about Ed’s tone? Seriously dude? So his tone, gear, and mods supposedly changed constantly, all the time, but Ed still demanded total and complete secrecy about what he was doing to the point that he had contracts drawn up about it, even though by the time the ink dried, he’d have moved into something else?

Serious question, have you considered therapy?

 

[Racerxrated]

Eddie saw first hand probably dozens of times that when it comes to his sound in particular, the tone really is mostly in the hands. He’d hand his guitar to other players while it was plugged into his rig all the time and there’s a ton of interviews with those other players, and they all came away saying the exact same thing. “I played the rig and didn’t sound like Ed, I sounded like me.” Nuno, Zakk Wylde, and Billy Corgan off the top of my head are all on record saying exactly that.

NDA’s about Ed’s tone? Seriously dude? So his tone, gear, and mods supposedly changed constantly, all the time, but Ed still demanded total and complete secrecy about what he was doing to the point that he had contracts drawn up about it, even though by the time the ink dried, he’d have moved into something else?

Serious question, have you considered therapy?

Let's not forget Nugent; on whatever tour VH & Ted were on, Ted played Ed's rig and sounded just like Ted.....Ed played Ted's cranked Fenders and sounded like Ed.
Gear plays a huge part too, of course but no one is going to sound like Ed, except Ed. Even the great ones like Al and the other players...still not exact. Damn good though.