Metropoulos Forum

Well, maybe sorta. Jamie's Cryin does not sound like it has the EQ pushing. But we do know that the Destroyer was used for that song. But the destroyer was also used on RWTD. And I do think the 6 band was on for that one. FYLT doesn't sound like the EQ on either to me. I'm the one was the strat and to me the EQ was on for that. So IMO, it was in and out for both guitars.

Im sure this is going to go over great now but i agree with the finding that the brand of variac can affect the tone. Its an variable transformer (transformer is the key word), and Its in series with your marshalls power.

All kinds of interesting things like losses, saturation, and eddy currents exist in a variac, just like a standard marshall pt, and these can be/ are unique to the design.

If a variac cant affect your tone than by the same logic neither can your particular pt that you agonized over before selecting.

Everything matters

TheTeddy

I could subscribe to some of this but IMO, there are plenty of brands to choose from and something in the whereabouts of an equivalent amp rating to the Ohmite Ed used, is highly likely to do the trick just fine. I mean for the most part, we're talking about lowering voltages and to some extent, limiting current, all well upstream of any signal components.

The most accurate amp for the early EVH tone in all the years around here, at least to my ears, would have to be Ralle's amp. The audio DNA, if you will, is just in that thing and we're trying to get to the bottom of it. But guess what? No variac at all.

Well said.

I would agree with all of what you say above! I learned about that powerbrake mod from ralle .. great stuff. Made my brake usable. Ralle has the amp specs down. We all hear things a little differently, but I think his amp is impressive.

With regards to the missing link to capture EVH in a bottle I would argue that the variac is not really relevant. We agree on that.

The only argument I would make concerning the variac is that the power supply is the pond from where we fish our tone out of. If that changes everything changes. There are quantifiable reasons I say that; After all AC power is signal.

Granted the variation between models of variacs may not be make or break, but there is and has to be an effect.. otherwise we can chuck our physics books in the trash.

The last missing ingredient to the evh riddle may lie the post production, specifically the eq work. More specifically comb filtering, notching and shelving. The picture only becomes clear when it is lit properly.

TheTeddy

Eddie's amp was beamed down to Earth by the mothership back at the time the first 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' film was made. Some day they will come back to reclaim it, because let's face it- Ed 'ain't usin' it, and the extraterrestrials plan on restoring it to it's former glory, but will realize that D. Friedman already did that, so they will take a Metro-Plex or Metro-Friedman back with them instead...

Re the John Suhr quote back on page 1 of this thread, noticed that...

This:

> The bottom line for me is when I saw it the amp was 100% untouched except for filter caps and 1 added part which I prefer to keep to myself....

> The ONLY Change besides the minor tweaks when I saw it was the VHT transformer.

Seems to contradict this:

> After me it went to Europe and everything was rewired and became a mess he wasn't happy with.

> ....he was trusting me to restore the amp back to it's original condition....

That make sense to anyone?

Where's leadguy to put this all together? I always enjoyed reading his posts

Was it Dave Friedman who said "he was trusting me to restore the amp back to it's original condition" or John Suhr?

Re the John Suhr quote back on page 1 of this thread, noticed that...

This:

> The bottom line for me is when I saw it the amp was 100% untouched except for filter caps and 1 added part which I prefer to keep to myself....

Well, we know for a fact that this isn't a true statement because by December 1978 the amp already had the choke, OT, and all four output tube sockets replaced.

matttornado wrote:I'm pretty sure he used the eq for the ibanez explorer. His chain was normally flanger, phase 90, echoplex amp. Just like he said. It was in a looper pedal (0ne of the big silver boxes on his pedal board. This been discussed and documented years ago. No secret or guesses.

Maybe he used the blue MXR 6-band EQ on the "Shark" version of the Ibanez Destroyer to try to compensate for the loss of tone from the "Shark"-ing process live? He would use that guitar at the end of the set for "You Really Got Me" until he got the white Les Paul Custom...of course the Destroyer was not chainsawed during the recording of the Van Halen album.

Anything is possible when it comes to that MXR 6. Just have to try stuff and use your ears.

Live 1978 pics show the black and white Franky used with the MXR, with the Boss GE-10 unplugged. With the shark, he is using the GE-10 but no MXR 6 band.

Strat, you wrote as follows: " Oh, and the 47k instead of the 27k bias resistor... "
Care to eleborate on that?

I think he may have meant changing that bias resistor to compensate for use with a variac. I didn't read that part of this thread so I'm just making a presumption.

chrisom wrote:Eddie's amp was beamed down to Earth by the mothership back at the time the first 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' film was made. Some day they will come back to reclaim it, because let's face it- Ed 'ain't usin' it, and the extraterrestrials plan on restoring it to it's former glory, but will realize that D. Friedman already did that, so they will take a Metro-Plex or Metro-Friedman back with them instead...

And all this time I thought Ed's amp was an oversized Klingon disruptor prototype captured in battle by Spock himself. Shows what I know. Geez, what next? You gonna tell me that his 6CA7's weren't filled with antimatter?