Is it just me, I think EVH's tone is not that special

[blues_n_cues]

i've never been a big EVH fan or liked his sound that much. too much phaser & overuse of flanger.

 

[diesect20022000]

i've never been a big EVH fan or liked his sound that much. too much phaser & overuse of flanger.

see i love van halen but, damn man i coudn't agree more about those fucking turd boxes


i also don't think TODAY his tone is all that impressive as we have some pretty fucking amazing tools now but, that goes for a lot of the greats and why so many of us are in love with the old tools, the old tools left your ass out in the air. NOW you got underwear,thermals AND pants.

I do like the tone though minus those things. I think the album version of Panama's the ballpark basis for most of my EQ settings.

 

[scat7s]

i had the opportunity to plug into an old non master 100w jmp last night, (cuz my amp blew up)

first thing i thought of was old VH tone. that fuzzy top end...what a cool sounding amp in a mix. always cuts thru. and very reminiscent of the old VH tones imo.

 

[stax]

Almost 35 years ago no one had that tone and then add the incredible playing on top of it, he is a guitar legend for many reasons. You guys have heard him and his influence most if not all of your lives, so it slowly looses it's impact over time.

You guys need to thank VH for almost single handedly ending disco's reign and returning the guitar back to it's rightful place, otherwise you would all be playing synthesizers!

 

[Khaos]

Well, I'm not an expert in heavy metal, cause I never was much into it anyway. I give him credit for coming up with tapping.
But whenever I heard him, I always thought that people liked him more for the speed of his palying rather than what he was actually playing IMO.

 

[wreckingball]

Well said stax, I remember that era well. At the time, punk was about the only genre trying to slay the dreaded disco dragon.

Someone had to bring the battle mainstream, and Ed and the boys did just that.

As for his tone? Well, I thought the first four albums were great as far as that goes..

 

[stax]

Well, I'm not an expert in heavy metal, cause I never was much into it anyway. I give him credit for coming up with tapping.
But whenever I heard him, I always thought that people liked him more for the speed of his palying rather than what he was actually playing IMO.

If you picked his songs apart and removed his innovative playing style and his ungodly tone, you would find a seasoned songwriter. He had a knack for writing melodic popish rock n' roll and was/is an incredible rhythm guitar player (that part is too often way overlooked). As I said earlier, he is a guitar legend for many reasons.

 

[Khaos]

If you picked his songs apart and removed his innovative playing style and his ungodly tone, you would find a seasoned songwriter. He had a knack for writing melodic popish rock n' roll and was/is an incredible rhythm guitar player (that part is too often way overlooked). As I said earlier, he is a guitar legend for many reasons.

I just said my opinon. Which is worth as much as any other.

 

[aikiguy]

IMO.... the thing about Eddie's sound is that it's his.... You can identify it anywhere. As stated above that sound comes as much from his fingers, emotion, pick attack, and other factors along with whatever he uses in his rig. His sound works great for him and always has, lot's of guys definitely try to copy it so that says something.

I have buddies that are shredders and I LOVE their sound. Put me on their rig and it sounds entirely different, because I play entirely differently than they do. It's kinda' weird.

Anyways, I like Eddies sound for what he does. I don't think I need to copy it, but it works good for him and that's all that matters. He's a great player.

 

[NewReligion]

Almost 35 years ago no one had that tone and then add the incredible playing on top of it, he is a guitar legend for many reasons. You guys have heard him and his influence most if not all of your lives, so it slowly looses it's impact over time.

You guys need to thank VH for almost single handedly ending disco's reign and returning the guitar back to it's rightful place, otherwise you would all be playing synthesizers!

First off, I respect all in put that I read.

My take on Eddies tone: In short I do not believe it is "that special" as guys like Iommi, Lifeson and Blackmore etc... were getting tones close to that years before. In addition I think that there are/were guys playing the same circuit not yet signed who had/have better saturated tones (G. Lynch, Mick Marrs for example).

I believe it was a sum total of events (Sound, Technique, Style of Rock/Metal, Stage Look, Custom Guitar, Pick Ups) that really put Eddie in the spot light and allowed him to soak up the legendary title. Very inovative guitarist and no one should deny the fact that EVH is a legend and has earned that title.

As for Slash he has his set of followers that look at him as a legend as well, I do not share that point of view as I watched both guitarist emerge and debut.

Eddies tone allowed/pushed many of us to emulate to some degree aspects of his sound. I ended up finding that I am a Lynch/Malmsteen/Norum tone freak lol. Then sometimes I plug into my 1963 Bassman head and spend the day playing Hendrix Electric Ladyland tones.

Guitarist all over the world were ready for a change and Eddie was able to debut it first, leading the way at the time on the endless adventure we all know as the "Tone Quest". IMO

Just my $.02

Respectfully, NR

 

[stax]

First off, I respect all in put that I read.

My take on Eddies tone: In short I do not believe it is "that special" as guys like Iommi, Lifeson and Blackmore etc... were getting tones close to that years before. In addition I think that there are/were guys playing the same circuit not yet signed who had/have better saturated tones (G. Lynch, Mick Marrs for example).

I believe it was a sum total of events (Sound, Technique, Style of Rock/Metal, Stage Look, Custom Guitar, Pick Ups) that really put Eddie in the spot light and allowed him to soak up the legendary title. Very inovative guitarist and no one should deny the fact that EVH is a legend and has earned that title.

As for Slash he has his set of followers that look at him as a legend as well, I do not share that point of view as I watched both guitarist emerge and debut.

Eddies tone allowed/pushed many of us to emulate to some degree aspects of his sound. I ended up finding that I am a Lynch/Malmsteen/Norum tone freak lol. Then sometimes I plug into my 1963 Bassman head and spend the day playing Hendrix Electric Ladyland tones.

Guitarist all over the world were ready for a change and Eddie was able to debut it first, leading the way at the time on the endless adventure we all know as the "Tone Quest". IMO

Just my $.02

Respectfully, NR

I agree with most everything you have said here. His tone was an old cranked Marshall driven by a rewound PAF and it was basically everyones "live" tone. But in the studio at the time, most were striving for a over the top fuzz tone or the creamy smooth overdriven tube tone.

His studio tone (first album) was very dark, raw and foreboding. It was different than anything I had ever heard in the Boston, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers, Dianna Ross, Billy Joel, Captain and Tennille, James Taylor, Thin Lizzy world pre EVH! I remember the first time I heard Running With The Devil and You Really Got Me, it was dark, scary and almost religious and it truely changed my young teenage life.

As you know, I can also testify to the fact that George Lynch was incredibly influenced by EVH, more than he may admit to. And Slash is famous like Kim Kardashian, he did one really cool thing years ago, has been able to keep himself in the spot light for decades and is a familar face/image to all of us now.

 

[Macro]

I always really liked his tone on the Fair Warning album...to me, that was his best sound of all the albums. I like his playing overall...it's not my style, but I love jamming out to the old stuff.