some early EVH clips using my 67 plexi

[Cary Chilton]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=516588

gtr mono track panned left, reverb panned right.
cheap USB interview mic and sound recorder in Windows.

These spur of the moment recordings, plugged straight into the amp, no pedals or anything in the signal chain. Lot's of mistakes and sloppy playing because I had a party in my house at the time..... so I may have had a few too many alcoholic beverages.... hehe

[Red Suede]

That's good tone, man. How loud were you playing? Is that a square cabinet or an angled one? What wattage Celestions, 25,30,65, Vintage or old 30's? Details, my friend.

[buddyboy]

I'm not an EVH fan by any stretch, but, all hard-rockers should hear this. That's all the gain you need to get a great hard-rock sound. Early Marshall Plexi.

[JamesHealey]

stunning! tone. right up my alley!

[Cary Chilton]

Hey, the cab is a flat 8 ohm (bass cab) 4x12, with weber pre-rola30 watters, with the proper doping. The 67 plexi has enough gain for any rhythm when playing hard. All those clips I was playing very hard with a 1.5 mm, I nearly broke the 5th string ( I was a little drunk at the time).
So, tapping my very hardest ( HFT clip) barley sounded through.
In reality to solo with the amp, unless you doing slow bluesy stuff, it would be VERY VERY hard to play solos all night, without an EQ or boost. Basically, something to slam the amp to get some sustain.
I recorded it as a spur of the moment thing, my brother happened to buy a cheap USB mic, I used sound recorded in windows( terrible recordings really), but I wanted the clip to be simple, un-aided with any pedals whereby I could just add reverb ( when I had more time) as a simple amp clip....though a totally wrong mic for recording a guitar....

[Red Suede]

Still sounds very good, man.

[Cary Chilton]

Oh I was playing at about 20-30 watts of power. ( ie: Volume knob was at 3.5 )

[sampleinajar]

That sounds really nice! I am actually surprised that you have that much gain on a plexi with the volume at 3.5. DId you have a master volume installed or something? Most non-master volume plexis would be almost clean at that setting.

Good job!

Steve

[Cary Chilton]

yes, I had a power scaling kit installed in it ( from stephensonamps.com), but I think he orders the kits from London power. It is like a variac, lowering the voltage internally ( not externally) so it easy on the tubes and creates more gain/crunch than the amp normally does at a low volume. However, the PS does really add much sustain, as you can hear from the Hot for Teacher clip, tapping intro.

[pfrischmann]

Yeah,
That seems like an insane amount of gain for a stock NMV marshall of that era, if it's not cranked.

What kind of guitar and pickup are you using?

FWIW,
I recently scored a Roland ge10 eq, the big old plug in one. That will goose up your gain, add a little low mid hump and it's almost as quiet as no eq at all. I'm amazed at how transparent it is.

I don't use it for the VH stuff, I got really close and gave up chasing that.
The EQ is a great trick though.

[Cary Chilton]

frischmann, I just explained the power scaling modded into the amp. If I shut off power scaling, you are totally right, at lower volumes would be VERY bright and almost totally clean, but just a little hair......I hope that helps!

guitar> www.carychilton.com (http://www.carychilton.com) bridge pup> evh neck> crossroads WCR

[pfrischmann]

Sorry bud,
Posted before your comments were added, or at least before I refresshed.

Do you like power scaling?

It sounds great!

[Cary Chilton]

with a plexi, having the loudness I and II volumes, plus the power scale's master volume, it was confusing for me how to use it properly at first. However, now I like it. I never tried a variac, I may pick one up to try, too.

[Cary Chilton]

I changed the reverbs on HFT and panama, I think it sounds better.

[cram]

those clips do have some great sounding tone.
this is the type of sound I'm looking for and hope to take care of by this fall.

[Cary Chilton]

thanks... it is hard to describe. While playing into the amp, it is VERY difficult to play, no sustain at all ( unless cranked to 10). While playing the tone is very very clear, notes have incredible seperation ( even overdriven chords), but this amp records as good or better how it sounds in person!!! Major, Whooaaaa there.... Every mic'd amp ( sm57) I have heard, sounds usually a little fuzzier, dirtier, generally a little to lot worse than it sounds in person.

On this recording I used a FREAKEN computer mic and sound recorder, which sounded smeared and big a loss in clarity. However, it STILL ROCKS! I have had many recordings in the studio using a sm57, or a Senn mic and mic pres that STILL can't help an amp sound better in the recording. Basically it is the amp: headroom, gain staging, speakers, and the overall quality of the build.