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Post by Dirrty Craig on Jul 17, 2005 0:20:49 GMT -5
Point taken, but I'm not trying to do the VH thing at all, I'm trying more to get a Lynch vibe going. My style is about the furthest thing from VH. I can make the amp sound like VH, but there are already so many good VH style clips I purposefully wanted to do something a little more choppy and metal and do my own solos. Anyone can play cover tune solos. There are a million guys who can do VH licks all day long on any amp.
I will gladly post some VH style clips to prove you wrong though. This amp can do it in spades all day long if you can play the licks.
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Post by tubez on Jul 17, 2005 7:42:24 GMT -5
Craig,
Your style is obviously more Lynch influence then VH but I think alot of people confuse playing with tone itself. There are many clips all over the net of amps to emulate the VH tone yet none of them really sound like it. Listen to Vics peacemaker unchained clip. Yeah hes playing the tune but the sound is not even close to the original. I was talking to Brian over at Tophat and he says to if Eddie were to play on lets say my prosonic it would still sound like eddie which is true but meanwhile when you listen to the older VH records compared to the newer stuff there is an obvious difference in tone and its still the same player. I don't know maybe if the splawn and some of these other amps out there were recorded with the same effects and studio situation that eddies were they would be a lot closer in tone then I think they are. The only way to know for sure how close one sound is to another is to play on it yourself....
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ag
Newbie
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Post by ag on Jul 17, 2005 22:41:14 GMT -5
If you are really trying to cop that sound, you have to look at everything. The maple fingerboard would be a good start, a real paf would help, probably different speakers. In general the quick rod doesn't sounds like vh1 to me either. To me that sound is really pretty clean, and the amp sounds cranked. If I was to describe what the quick rod sounds like, I would say it has some Shenker in there, some lynch, early Rush. Play it with a strat and it starts to sound Hendrixy. To me it's just a very good marshally sounding amp. Try different speakers and cabs. With my vintage 30 4-12 the midrange is little too gnarly for me. With a 2-12 bluesbreaker type cab it's not quite right either. I tried an 800 series marshall 1960av and to me it sounded perfect with that cab. Find the right cab and guitar, open up the amp on 100 watts, play with gain and tone controls, and you can get close. Don't forget that a loud of the sound is just the way you play. I think vh used 9-40 guage string tuned down a 1/2 step with a fender medium pick. That would require an extremely light touch to pull off, so obviously most of it is in his hands. You can tell the volume was up on the records because of the ease of feedback, and you can tell the power amp was doing a lot based on how the amp cleaned up when he turned is volume down on the guitar. Even Van Halen can't that sound now, so maybe the stars just aligned for him on that recording. A lot of that sound is the recording process anyway. Look at VH2, to me it doesn't sound as good as 1, some of that I'm sure was the addition of the floyd, some him, some the studio, whatever.
Back to the quick rod, it's a great amp and can get a lot of different sounds out of, and you don't have to blast it to have it sound like something. A lot of it is how you play. Also keep in mind you can take something like an old 800 and by itself you might think it sounds like crap, but start playing it live with band where is has to compete with cymbols blasting and then it sounds great. I bet if you solo'd the guitar tracks on vh1 you would think it sounded trebly and thin, but in that mix it works. They were probably using a great sounding 24 track tape machine, great eq's, great compressors, a great signal path. Just some thoughts.
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Post by Dirrty Craig on Jul 18, 2005 0:37:56 GMT -5
I like his tone on VH II the best and I swear my Quick Rod nails it to a 'T" with the right settings. I also have a script logo MXR Phase 90 and I've had REALLY good players tell me its spot on the sound with this amp/guitar/cab combo I have setup.
We opened for Skid Row in March and Scotti Hill was drooling over this amp. We opened for Slaughter, Jackyl and Firehouse during Bike Week in Daytona, and the soundman from Firehouse said it was the best guitar mix he heard the entire week from all of those guys.
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Post by VomHalen on Jul 18, 2005 14:51:51 GMT -5
I like his tone on VH II the best and I swear my Quick Rod nails it to a 'T" with the right settings. I also have a script logo MXR Phase 90 and I've had REALLY good players tell me its spot on the sound with this amp/guitar/cab combo I have setup. We opened for Skid Row in March and Scotti Hill was drooling over this amp. We opened for Slaughter, Jackyl and Firehouse during Bike Week in Daytona, and the soundman from Firehouse said it was the best guitar mix he heard the entire week from all of those guys. i'm obviously with craig on this...i took my quick rod out of the box/ plugged it in/turned it up...and after about 3 minutes of testing the eq i had the mean street/unchained sound...trust me, i know what that sound is supposed to sound like...that's why i got rid of my mojave...it couldn't do it...this can...my limitation is that i don't know how to record my tone well to get it across clips...which is frustrating |
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Post by Shawnee on Jul 18, 2005 16:58:35 GMT -5
OK guys, I talked to Scott today and this is what I learned:
My cab is way to bright. He said that he has a cab with the 65 watt celestions and that they have no bottom and are overly bright.
1st gear is the same as the low input. A vintage Plexi type sound with less bottom and very bright. 2nd gear is the high input which has more bottom and less top end. More 80's sounding. 3rd gear is just a magnification of 2nd gear.
He recommended four Celestion G12H30's because I think the amp is overly bright and I want huge bottom end. Some of it is just me getting used to the "Marshall" tone. Much brighter in the midrange than a Mesa Boogie.
For the Van Halen "Women in love" sound clip Scott used a Quick Rod with the Vol on 2, and everything else on 5, input on 2nd gear, into a cab loaded with 2 Celestion G12H30's and 2 G12H75's with a Rio Grande BBQ bucker in the bridge position of his guitar.
For the Van Halen "Mean streets" clip he used the same as above but was in 1st gear and in overdrive channel 2. He thinks that this was the closest to the brown sound he has gotten.
Hope this helps. I have some tweaking to do but I know this amp is going to work out for me.
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Post by tubez on Jul 18, 2005 17:56:43 GMT -5
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Post by Dirrty Craig on Jul 18, 2005 20:47:30 GMT -5
His clips are great, but they all sound professionally recorded too. I have no idea how to record either. I mic up the cab and play , no effects no nothing.
By the way Shawnee, Scotts rig is identical to mine right down to the Rio Grande pickups. I'm using the same "commando" guitar he makes and QR/cab combo with the 30's and 75's x-pattern.
So maybe thats also why I'm able to get a spot on VH tone.
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Post by Shawnee on Jul 18, 2005 22:03:16 GMT -5
Tubez- I have horrible computer speakers and I can barely get any volume out of my computer, but I did hear enough of the clips to agree with Craig. They sound great but I can hear the reverb which will help smooth out the top end. Scotts clips were done with a dry amp and cab. I know Eddie's live sound was way brighter than his studio tone. We are all trying to get the brown sound but I don't think Eddie could reproduce his studio sound live either. On a positive note, he used much less studio trickery to get the Van Halen II tone than he did on the first album (and a lot of people prefer that tone).
Craig- I think you and Scott both have a great sound. That's cool too because you use the same set up and still get a different sound from each other.
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Post by thereborn on Jul 18, 2005 23:13:38 GMT -5
First of all, I'm as much of a VH fan as the rest of you guys!!!! ;D We all have our influences who we like to emulate their playing style and tone. But I don't believe anyone, even when they learn someones else's licks, will sound exactly like that person. So if you don't get the VH tone, well, you are not Ed. Just be yourself!!!! With that being said, I can hear VH, Lynch, Jake E. Lee tones out of this amp. Maybe not exactly to the very sound but in the area. As far as the previous amp you used, the mesa stuff, that is a very different beast from a Splawn or a Marshall. In fact, I think Boogies have too much low end and they sound muddy. I have a QR, and I really like her. I'm still getting used to her myself.I used have a Voodoo WitchDoctor head, which is also a great sounding amp!!!! I'm not trying to come down on anyone, just expressing my opinion. :)Like I said, I do use gear based on my influences. I even have a Charvel B&Y EVH on the way!!! I did not buy it because I think I'm going to magically play like VH, but Scott said they are nice playing/sounding guitars and I do like the look.I would much rather play like myself, even if it might suck compared to my influences, as opposed to having learned their stuff note for note and have no style of my own. Even when I listen to Craig's sounds, or anyone else's for that matter, sure you can hear some of those influences coming through, but for the most part I hear that particular person. I'm glad to hear you are starting to get some tones that you like, and yes the cab certainly can make a diff..... Anyway peace guys!!! I've got to say, I have liked everyones sound clips that I've heard so far!!! I would record some, but don't have any software to do so right now, plus I tend to get nervous when trying to record and I don't play as well. I'm sure this is more of a psychological issue, but hey..... Keep posting everybody as I learn new things all the time about amps/guitars.
Thereborn/Peace-Out!!!! ;D ;D
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Post by tubez on Jul 19, 2005 6:30:27 GMT -5
To really sum this up.. The most important thing is you dig the sound you are getting. If not you try something else. I own one amp right now and its a fender prosonic and until I can find something that I plug into that I can say " This is a big improvement" over my fender I will continue to enjoy playing through it. I guess if I were a working musician I would have a few amps. The splawn was great but to me it really was not any improvement over my fender with my vox valve tone pedal so I decided to sell it. As far as the splawn truely doing the early VH tone the only person that could honestly verify how close it really is would be the man himself. Think about it... we have all been fortunate to hear ED's tone but nobody has ever played through his rig but him to really know what was coming out of those speakers. Now if Scott could get Ed to test out a splawn....
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Post by Shawnee on Jul 19, 2005 6:36:25 GMT -5
This forum is great. I really enjoy interacting with other players. Thanks Splawnfan!
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