beaulieu wrote:But everone still tries to find some "missing link."Just don't understand why people can't be satisified with ED used his old Marshall,Mxr fx's,Echoplex and how VH 1 was recorded and take that is "how it was done."?? I really don't think theres a "secret button" or something anyones going to find that will end any of this.I do enjoy reading most of this stuff but sometimes have to wonder Why?? No matter what anyone ever comes up with its still not going to be enough or close enough!If it is close enough then what?? Going to sit around and play old VH songs all day??
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I'ts only Rock and Roll.
Sometimes when I have some free time I might try to sift through some of the amazing amount of BS about Ed's early sound but I don't take it that seriously and I think I've gone as far as I can go with it.
The more I did it, the more the chunks of BS ended up dropping away and I was just left with Ed, a Humbucker ceramic/alnico Strat and a Destroyer, a Flanger, a Phaser, 2 Echoplexes, an optional Univox and a Marshall(s).
Just a simple rig with spacy time based effects.
Maybe a cascade mod but just about anyone can do that.
The early boots and even the GH iso's show nothing special to me gearwise.
I can understand an armchair Ed fan that just can't play guitar very well or handle gear setups making BS up about his idol but experienced guitarists who don't have Ed as their idol should be able to pick out that the only thing really different about Ed's early sound compared to other well known guitarists around at that time is Ed himself and how he used just basic effects in sync with his playing.
Just say Ed had a cascade mod and used a MXR and Flanger/Phaser/Echoplexes on VH1 with a 2 amp slaved setup, well try it and see if it is.
Just say Ed didn't have a cascade mod and used a MXR and Flanger/Phaser/Echoplexes on VH1 with a 1 amp setup, well try it and see if it is.
etc etc
There are only a few basic gear combos to try and one is going to be near the one Ed used.
There is no way to get close to Ed's early tone without using what we know he used ie Script type MXR Phaser, MXR Flanger, 2 Echoplexes, a loud cranked Plexi based amp with a Variac/rebias at 90v with everything on 10 and a optional MXR EQ and edgy sounding pickups.
Ed would have had a ball with just the above gear that we know he used.
What Ed actually used might differ slightly from the above gear but I'd say it's in the ballpark and should be enough for anyone trying to cop Ed's early tone.
There are studio recording variables that no one is going to get right.
The thing is that peoples tone opinions can be very different.
If David Gilmour played through Ed's early rig he would sound like duhhhh! David Gilmour and he'd probably have a good time with all of Ed's time based effects and hardly anyone would talk about a magical rig tone.