Ed's '1984' tour rig

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:22 pm

My 'International Musician and Recording World mag has the 'Music award poll' results for 1984.
Eddie Van Halen- Best guitarist
Geddy Lee- Best Bassist
Greg Hawkes (cars)- Keyboardist
Neil Peart- Best Drummer

It has info from Rudy Leiren, It alluded that for the studio (for '1984' I presume) Ed used,

A early '60's (more like late '60's) Marshall 100 watt top that was retired from roadwork 3 tours ago, due to a scare with it getting lost in air freight (we know that story). "The brain has a plastic front and back, a three way toggle switch and has been modified to run hotter".The bias has been turned up, so consequently, longtime guitar technician Robin (Rudy) Leiren supplies the Marshall with Sylvania el-34 (6ca7) tubes because they run somewhat cooler than similarly numbered tubes made by other companies.This 100 watt head sits atop a stock Marshall 4-12" cabinet housing Celestion drivers.

Van Halens effects consist of MXR's phase 90 and Flanger, an ADA preamp (used occasionally), an MXR Micro Amp (used sometimes), a Roland DC-30 (for chorusing and long ech delays) and an MXR echo unit for hints of delay. Leiren maintains that Eddie has used MXR gear ever since the first album and tour because of its affordability and durability.

It goes on to say that Eddie uses Fender XL strings (we know) and D'andrea picks (says they make Fenders picks). Says 44mm. There is also a list of the studio gear at the 5150 studio.

There is a layout of Ed's 1984 live rig. It reads,

Strat style guitar into Nady transmitter/reciever into MXR Phase 90 into MXR Flanger into 2 MXR echo units into 100 watt Marshall head into 2 H&H power heads then split into 10 2-12" custom cabinets and 2 8 - 12" custom cabinets.

There was obviously nothing said about a load box, though there obviously was one.

Also, the '100 watt Marshall head' was a nice sounding Plexi chosen for this set up (no more JMP's). I didnt get that from this article, but from another old '80's mag of mine.

Sounds like Ed had the Micro Amp in front of the head. This, imo, is correct info and is the basis for Ed to FINALLY get a good/consistant live tone again. The Letterman show, '85 Namm, Farm Aid, etc, utilized this type rig, imo.

dirtycooter · Post by **dirtycooter** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:08 pm

84 is the most unlike all other vh record plain raw tones-cleaner, brighter, super tight.

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:29 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:
a three way toggle switch and has been modified to run hotter".

What does this mean????

Tone Slinger wrote:

Van Halens effects consist of MXR's phase 90 and Flanger, an ADA preamp (used occasionally), an MXR Micro Amp (used sometimes),

Micro amp, huh, maybe that secret pedal hidden in the Echoplex box. These came out in the '80s though, right?

Finally, can you scan that article in so we can see....please....

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:40 pm

Yeah, I really dont care for the tone much on 1984. Its alright, just not my favorite. Its the tone that Ed got on that TOUR that I like. That tone was the same as what Ed got up to the Letterman stuff and NAMM '85.

LWAN was similar, but was a tad nicer, probably due to further use of effects, etc.

My wife sold the scanner without me knowing about it

. Anyone know how to get the pixel level down enough in pics to post here. I could get up a pic of it.

Good Guest · Post by **Good Guest** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:12 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:
"The brain has a plastic front and back, a three way toggle switch and has been modified to run hotter".

The bias has been turned up, so consequently, longtime guitar technician Robin (Rudy) Leiren supplies the Marshall with Sylvania el-34 (6ca7) tubes because they run somewhat cooler than similarly numbered tubes made by other companies.This 100 watt head sits atop a stock Marshall 4-12" cabinet housing Celestion drivers.

Something lost in the transalation there..are we to assume he has a bias switch? Maybe the knob at the back is a switch....the amp running hotter may mean a od mod or one wire mod or some other mod or it may be the bias turned up makes the tubes hotter....This is the guy where info on the univox and how it is only used for eruption is to be believed ..I don't think so ...
These answers are so ambigious and vague there is no question he's beating around the bush...

Tells me there are lots of secrets still out there.

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:33 pm

Good Guest wrote:
Tone Slinger wrote:
"The brain has a plastic front and back, a three way toggle switch and has been modified to run hotter".

The bias has been turned up, so consequently, longtime guitar technician Robin (Rudy) Leiren supplies the Marshall with Sylvania el-34 (6ca7) tubes because they run somewhat cooler than similarly numbered tubes made by other companies.This 100 watt head sits atop a stock Marshall 4-12" cabinet housing Celestion drivers.

Something lost in the transalation there..are we to assume he has a bias switch? Maybe the knob at the back is a switch....the amp running hotter may mean a od mod or one wire mod or some other mod or it may be the bias turned up makes the tubes hotter....This is the guy where info on the univox and how it is only used for eruption is to be believed ..I don't think so ...
These answers are so ambigious and vague there is no question he's beating around the bush...

Tells me there are lots of secrets still out there.

The more I listen to that interview with Steve Rosen, the more I just think Ed is ignorant (only meaning not knowing the exact way things work) about how a lot of stuff works and can be a bit inarticulate. Just jumbling words and phrases where the meaning could logically have 3 or 4 outcomes.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:29 pm

My Metro '12xxx' series has a three way toggle switch........

leadguy · Post by **leadguy** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:09 pm

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 6&p=284854" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rudy has said this to Dave.

Look there was no slaving of any amps until 1984 tour everything was in front of the amps and yes hiss Rudy Leiren told me that. Its not all that hard his signal chain into a stock Marshall with 6ca7s biased hot droped with a variac. In these pics he is using telefunken tubes that he use to buy at the tv repair store[ this was told to me by him] Dave

Very simple. Rudy leiren told me personally. Flange phase echoplex into a marshall with variac to 90 into only one cab. The univox echo or whatever was only patched into the chain for eruption he also used a eq for eruption. Eq was also occasionally used for tone shaping with amps that did not sound as good. This was the core setup. As more vol was needed more amps were added and more cabs but sill only one per amp. There really is nothing more to it. Lots of sustain and feedback from the sheer vol of it all. Now ed was always experimenting and still does to this day so there might have been some mishaps along the way like tubes melting etc. No lying just things not explained the right way out of a lack of technical knowledge.

Well here is what i was told by Rudy Leiren his long time tech. This was just last week. His setup was flanger phaser echoplex amp. His main 100 watt was used on everything. The bias was turned all the way up and the variac was set to 91v. into only 1 cab. There is a pic of the early days with a 50 watt and a vox. He told me the 50 was a back up to the 100 and the vox was a last ditch back up. He often borrowed amps for his back ups. In fact he told me a story that at a party they were playing ed blew a fuse in his main amp and did not have a backup and had to rum home to get a fuse while the band was playing. After this he always made sure he had a backup. Now Rudy said the eq pedal was used only for certain guitars or sometimes when he used rental gear that sounded bad. Also the univox echo was patched in by hand for eruption only and then was taken out of the chain after. Later there was another cab on Mike side that was driven from another amp they used a splitter to do this. As time went on more cabs where used and so where more amps. The amps would only drive one cab though. Now he did say ed was always trying shit but would always come back to this set up. This info follows everything ed has ever said to me personally. Also when 84 hit he changed his set up to H&H power amps and some different effects etc. He still used a cab off the head though no load resister. The Load resister came for the 5150 tour.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:06 am

That post established the most concrete proof of Ed's early set up/s. It does make sense to those who have done what was described. Not MANY people bludgeon 25 watters (100 watt cab) that hard with a dimed 100 watt head, which would be more like 120 watts or so dimed. Variac obviously would take that down a bit (like 70 or 75 watts or something).

Its been said here MANY times, you CANT reproduce it properly without BLASTING the speakers.

uiovbged332 · Post by **uiovbged332** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:53 pm

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