How did EVH get these gain levels without pedals ?

[BryanMatthews]

isolated guitar track is from somebody get me a doctor, this is astonishing tone and even a plexi dimed will not give you driven tone like this. i have read in loads of articles evh saying he wasnt used any drive fx, so how did he get tones like the clip shows by just plugging straight on in ?

[RedRock]

Probably a Jose A. mod.

[HHB]

there are old plexis that have that amount of gain, I've played a few, you do have to crank em and it's insanely loud. EVH used boosts like EQs or micro-amps in front of his Marshalls, you can clearly see him using MXR EQs in early pics, this is about the same as using an OD

[Jd3]

Originally Posted by BryanMatthews

i have read in loads of articles evh saying he wasnt used any drive fx, so how did he get tones like the clip shows by just plugging straight on in ?

Didnt' he supposedly hook up a variac to these amp to vary the voltage going into the power section ? I heard he smoked some amps this way (including some vintage marshalls ! gah !) , but it was part of the reason he got some insane sounds ... i'm sure somebody on here has details . ...

[carbz]

He played dam loud for one thing. My buddy owned a Komet 60 back when they first came out. I thought he was nuts spending that kind of money for an amp that had no master volume. Where's the OD I thought? My mind back then was for the same $3k I'd way rather by a Bogner or Soldano which were very hot amps back then. Anyway I had no idea how much gain the Komet had under the hood when cranked. It was just beautifully saturated power tube distortion. No one really knows for sure how Ed achieved his early tones and I think part of the magic was playing sickly loud with a great engineer and magical hands.

[germs]

yeah, but he's also using lower watt speakers with some high watt heads. add in the variac'd amps (NOT recommended) and insane volume levels...

i think it's more a combination of several things, rather than one single determining factor. EVH is sort of known for picking out one thing that would work for him, and adding a group of those "one things" together for different results.

[Backroads]

Definitely a variac at one point. I event heard he slaved a cranked Marshall into the input of another Marshall, which I know would work because I used to do the same thing. Jose was also part of the equation at one point, but I'm not up on my EVH gear timeline.

[Laplacian]

I have a 12 series from late '67-'68, no mods. All controls dimed, volts AC at 90, humbucker in strat. It's in there. I've also read about him using an MXR EQ pedal too, but fundamentally a plexi can take you there. It IS less gain than people think, it IS his fingers doing the rest.

For VH-I, run into a Hotplate set to load and take the line out into a power amp, run the speakers up to the edge of break-up. Add delay and phase on the line signal to suit.

[Blix]

I have posted these clips here plenty times already, but here is a stock 50w 68' plexi, no pedals, just guitar and amp, reverb added at the console. Guitar was a Korean Peavey Wolfgang, amp dimed, everything but bass at 10.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822593

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822594

[buddastrat]

I had a few late 60'/70's Marshalls and they do get that gain, if you crank them full on. It's just ridiculously loud. I used to have a rug to put over the cab. It was real chunky and grindy. How you play has a ton to do with it, because it's so touch sensitive. Some people play through it and it sounds clean because they play with a light attack. You have to dig in, and work for that gain. It's like playing a strat on high gain, some people can do it and others make it sound twangy.

[buddastrat]

Originally Posted by Blix

I have posted these clips here plenty times already, but here is a stock 50w 68' plexi, no pedals, just guitar and amp, reverb added at the console. Guitar was a Korean Peavey Wolfgang, amp dimed, everything but bass at 10.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822593

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822594

[Gnarlly]

I firmly believe that the right old Marshall and a mild humbucker-equipped guitar can get those gain levels, even without boosts from EQ's and other pedals in front. A lot of EVH's style is his "attack" of the guitar strings that really overdrives the amp further (also check out the AC/DC Young brothers for another example of hard "attack" into lower gain, cranked amps). You have to really "dig in" to your guitar strings if you want to cop those tones and Eddie's feel IMO.

[pfrischmann]

Originally Posted by Blix

I have posted these clips here plenty times already, but here is a stock 50w 68' plexi, no pedals, just guitar and amp, reverb added at the console. Guitar was a Korean Peavey Wolfgang, amp dimed, everything but bass at 10.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822593

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822594

Awesome clips!
Have you ever peeked at the circuit?
Split or shared cathode on V-1?
.022's in the phase inverter?
33k of 56k slope resistor?
47k neg feedback resistor?
voltage on the power tube plates?

I'd kill for a picture of the circuit.

[drgonzoguitar]

Originally Posted by Blix

I have posted these clips here plenty times already, but here is a stock 50w 68' plexi, no pedals, just guitar and amp, reverb added at the console. Guitar was a Korean Peavey Wolfgang, amp dimed, everything but bass at 10.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822593

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6822594

That is the stuff!

[Wizard of Ozz]

Depends on the specific "Plexi" in question... my original 1968 SLP 100W with 6CA7s does that tone in spades. There are many small differences in caps, resistors, tubes, etc. so you need to clarify the term "Plexi" in your original post.