ITO Tones rockstah posted

[rockstah]

After listening to Rockstah's clip with the mod...Anyone who says that mod doesn't do it, just isn't listening. Holy Crap..

[leadguy]

I try not to get into judging what gear I hear with my ears because often it is wrong.
In blindfold tests people are often wrong.

If someone thinks or feels this or that and it makes sense to them then rock on, if it turns out wrong later on, who cares, everyone should be using their own ears and judgments anyway and not try to do everything Ed did exactly.

Ed might not have slaved in the 70s but anyone else can if they want to, it's up to them.

The Spectrum Analysis interpretation is how you want to look at it.

The 1.25kHz spike might be there for a fraction of a second in the ITO riff and then a fraction of a second later it isn't because it depends on what notes Ed is playing at any particular time and other things.

If Ed is playing nothing then there can't be any spikes, 1.25kHz or any other, but if Ed plays a low A then that will generate a frequency spike and associated overtone spikes as well based on that A note and if there is a EQ boost involved then the frequencies around the EQ boosted frequency bands will be boosted somewhat but only if the note Ed plays or one of it's overtones are within range of it, and if the A note or it's overtones are not within the EQ boosted frequency bands ranges then they will not be boosted much.

Here is another view of the start riff of I'm The One at a particular sampled time in the riff.



Here is ATBL sampled at a particular time in the start riff.
Ed is channel 1 or the top graph and sinasl1 is channel 2 or the bottom graph and these were both sampled at the same particular point in the riff.

[Krinkle]

....man that frequency also really makes them EVH harmonics jump out too like the tapping part on the mean street intro WORKS!

Very interesting, I've never heard anyone get those harmonics to cut through like Ed did, especially one of those last few, the tap on the tenth fret of the A string. I may be way off, but I wonder what the frequency, or harmonic, of that note is.

As for ITO, I don't care if this is how Ed did it, I just want to get that tone any way I can get it! Time to dig out the XR and look for a cap.

[leadguy]

Ed's tone would be nothing without Power Tube distortion and volume which I still think is the main thing.

The output section of the amp and the speakers on full throttle like a throbbing Harley between your legs.

Power baby.

[mightymike]

There's so many factors that make up EVH tones. Power tube and speaker break up are just 2 of them that are common to almost all his tones. ITO tone is unique, and different from other tones off the same album. I think to Ed it was probably a novelty, and he made a cool little tune out of it, and moved on. He may have used the pedal on other songs, but not the same way to my ears. He could have more than one pedal in the studio.

The spectrum analysis is awesome, but doesn't really measure feel. As unscientific as that may sound, I can hear the way that amp feels with my ears; having played ITO on some really well dialed in EVH style Plexis, but just missing that one little ingredient to put it over the top for exact ITO tone. To me this is a huge finding! The cool thing about the spectrum analysis, was that it was a tool that pointed out the 1.2kz spike to Good Guest who knew about Jose modding the pedals, and had the genius to say hey, "Let's try modding that band to emphasize that freq."

Whether or not EVH's pedal was modded exactly this way will never be proven. It would be interesting if people like LeadGuy took other pedals, or 1.2khz pre and and post eqing to see if they can replicate this in other ways. Like every other spec, you can only measure so much with meters, in the end it's the meter you were born with (your ears) that decide what you think is correct. In this case, hands down this is head an shoulders better than any ITO tone I have ever heard. I can't wait to hear what some of the other players drooling over this easy mod will sound like when they make their ITO clips. There's a few people here I can' wait to hear with this mod.

I'm laughing because it is so frigin easy. It's like a Mcgyver episode.

To Good Guest for thinking of this
To Mark For taking it from an idea to a sound clip fast.

[rgalpin]

Sounds good Mark. Is this your *stock* or cascaded amp? What exactly has been done to the MXR 6 band?

thanks Eric! its my stock 78 metaface, superlead specs.
the mod: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=10034480 ( 6th post down)

hee hee!! SNAKES ALIVE!

it seems to give a strat-like snap n sting. while at the same time it seems to be pushing the amp very close to the "cymbal splash" type of distortion we explored back in '07. with this setup, it seems like the "game" becomes about getting as close to the cymbal splash distortion as you can w/o spilling over the edge.

the lead tones in rockstah's clip here have that ATOMIC FEROCITY you hear on VH I - and nowhere else in the interplanetary solar system.

[Good Guest]

There's so many factors that make up EVH tones. Power tube and speaker break up are just 2 of them that are common to almost all his tones. ITO tone is unique, and different from other tones off the same album. I think to Ed it was probably a novelty, and he made a cool little tune out of it, and moved on. He may have used the pedal on other songs, but not the same way to my ears. He could have more than one pedal in the studio.

The spectrum analysis is awesome, but doesn't really measure feel. As unscientific as that may sound, I can hear the way that amp feels with my ears; having played ITO on some really well dialed in EVH style Plexis, but just missing that one little ingredient to put it over the top for exact ITO tone. To me this is a huge finding! The cool thing about the spectrum analysis, was that it was a tool that pointed out the 1.2kz spike to Good Guest who knew about Jose modding the pedals, and had the genius to say hey, "Let's try modding that band to emphasize that freq."

Whether or not EVH's pedal was modded exactly this way will never be proven. It would be interesting if people like LeadGuy took other pedals, or 1.2khz pre and and post eqing to see if they can replicate this in other ways. Like every other spec, you can only measure so much with meters, in the end it's the meter you were born with (your ears) that decide what you think is correct. In this case, hands down this is head an shoulders better than any ITO tone I have ever heard. I can't wait to hear what some of the other players drooling over this easy mod will sound like when they make their ITO clips. There's a few people here I can' wait to hear with this mod.

I'm laughing because it is so frigin easy. It's like a Mcgyver episode.

To Good Guest for thinking of this
To Mark For taking it from an idea to a sound clip fast.

Thanks for all the kind words and yeah I'm hard at it trying to learn ITO too...this is so much fun ... and The ears on rgalpin and rockstash are pretty damn remarkable...

If Ed did change a slider ..I would imagine he would of wanted others changed too when he found out the usefullness of an eq boosting certain frequency's....my search is now taking me too other ancient eq's that boosted the 1.2Khz .It woudn't surprise me if Ed played around with these ancient eq's and found some neat combos of frequency's for certain songs...and had them incoroprated into his 6 band. Just saying it wouldn't surprise me.

Good thing it's like a Mcgyver episode and not a Mcgrueber

[Good Guest]

....man that frequency also really makes them EVH harmonics jump out too like the tapping part on the mean street intro WORKS!

Very interesting, I've never heard anyone get those harmonics to cut through like Ed did, especially one of those last few, the tap on the tenth fret of the A string. I may be way off, but I wonder what the frequency, or harmonic, of that note is.

As for ITO, I don't care if this is how Ed did it, I just want to get that tone any way I can get it! Time to dig out the XR and look for a cap.

That whole run (tapping bit / w 10th fret ) seems to be one solid piece that re enforces each other...if you play it fast and deadly accurate the harmonic jumps out easier...which in my case is a lot easier said than done...but if you use the 1.25 khz with the 3.2 Khz it is a helluva lot easier.

[dazzlindino]

very cool mod....makes a strat have les paul like overtones...
it makes the mid range more upper, broke out the destroyer and RWTD has more punch.....
I played both the modded vintage pedal and the black box 6 band, different guitars different riffs.....
the modded pedal wins...
also I tested my stock mxr 6 band blue box vintage mxr against a brand new stock black box 6 band...and they have the same tone! could not tell which box was which, however the new black bx has all those itty bitty little tiny parts...so it may not be modable...but stock for stock...wow just the same...

[cary chilton]

also I tested my stock mxr 6 band blue box vintage mxr against a brand new stock black box 6 band...and they have the same tone! could not tell which box was which, however the new black bx has all those itty bitty little tiny parts...so it may not be modable...but stock for stock...wow just the same...

Anyone find this?

[cary chilton]

Good Guest, could you spectrum analyze Dave Friedman's clip of Ed's studio raw mono track ? I am curious if it is similar pre-production or not.

[wjamflan]

also I tested my stock mxr 6 band blue box vintage mxr against a brand new stock black box 6 band...and they have the same tone! could not tell which box was which, however the new black bx has all those itty bitty little tiny parts...so it may not be modable...but stock for stock...wow just the same...

Anyone find this?

Hey Cary. We've talked about this a few times in the last couple of years. They sound the same. I don't know about the guts of the new one compared to the originals and how that would affect modding, but sound-wise, a new one is just as good. Good luck.

Bill

[Good Guest]

Good Guest, could you spectrum analyze Dave Friedman's clip of Ed's studio raw mono track ? I am curious if it is similar pre-production or not.

Are you talking about the RWTD clips celestian /JBL or is there another ITO ?

[Strat78]

Looked at my 6 band last night. You have to desolder the slider to remove the current cap. A bit of surgery for sure.

I have a 77 and a 76 blue (square script) mxr 6-band. Since the 76 square script sounded better I decided to sacrifice the 77. It got a little messy trying to leverage out the slider from it's three solder pads. -started with the single pad in the center of the board, it did not seem to ruin the slider when I pulled it back from the board. It's the two pads that are close together that are difficult to dislodge. I'm amazed I did not ruin this thing. Ok, this IS big! Lets delete this thread from the forum before mxr (or evh) catches wind of it. This should be Good Guest's cash cow, he deserves it! It's the "BlueCockWah" mod!

[jape88]

I have a 77 and a 76 blue (square script) mxr 6-band. Since the 76 square script sounded better I decided to sacrifice the 77.

That was my observation of 3 blue's (76 and two 77's) I had at one time... NOT ALL mxr's sound the same.