Metropoulos Forum

rgorke wrote:

chrisom wrote:5150 cabinets debuted on about the 9th Van Halen album. 'Eruption' was on the 1st Van Halen album...

Get out!!! Really?

Sorry, just have a headache.....I think it is from banging my head against wall....

It also might interest you that Eddie builds his own guitars....from scratch.

Strat78 wrote:I'm looking at that photo of those two dorks in the car and I'm thinking who is that twerp in the drivers seat, looks like he's in a Monkeys cover band or something, oops, that's Edward.

jnew wrote:

Strat78 wrote:I'm looking at that photo of those two dorks in the car and I'm thinking who is that twerp in the drivers seat, looks like he's in a Monkeys cover band or something, oops, that's Edward.

At first I thought it was Mic Jagger

I dont know if eddie used a marshall PA but i definitely believe he ran the plexi into some kind of amp after it was cranked to ten and set down to 70v on the variac.
I also am not convinced VH I is NOT a 50 watt small box cranked with variac into the 12301 either.

There are just so many possibilities. Then when we get to the production, ENDLESS, which is why I just try and focus on core tones and how the tone actually behaves.

Since the whole point of it was vol reduction with tone conservation, in the clubs I'm thinking he didn't power-amp/re-amp anything. This is what the folks who knew him that I've talked to have said as well, people who play guitar. Bigger venues maybe he did, or maybe he just cranked it without the Variac. As we all know he had a couple Echoplexes too plus stomps so all that was pushing the front end. In bigger clubs and on VH1 I'm assuming lower volume was not an issue? If so, would he Variac it at all? Variac atit plus power amp? Not saying either way just posing the Q.

My guess is that he found his tone when discovering the variac trick in controlling the volume. From there, I believe the variac would alway be in play. We see the variac's in the club days, and we see them again on the 78, Japan tour. Definitely no volume issues on that tour as we see 8 or more heads being used. Sure some may have been backups but at least 3 or 4 at a time being used. Pretty safe to say the variac was core to his tone, regardless of desired volume.

jnew wrote:My guess is that he found his tone when discovering the variac trick in controlling the volume. From there, I believe the variac would alway be in play. We see the variac's in the club days, and we see them again on the 78, Japan tour. Definitely no volume issues on that tour as we see 8 or more heads being used. Sure some may have been backups but at least 3 or 4 at a time being used. Pretty safe to say the variac was core to his tone, regardless of desired volume.

That's absolutely right. He said that the variac was at first a volume control device then found a "sweet spot" at 80-90volts for recording. Pretty simple actually. Don't we know that the simplest, most straight forward answer is usually the correct one?

Simple and straight forward it is.

rgorke wrote:

jnew wrote:My guess is that he found his tone when discovering the variac trick in controlling the volume. From there, I believe the variac would alway be in play. We see the variac's in the club days, and we see them again on the 78, Japan tour. Definitely no volume issues on that tour as we see 8 or more heads being used. Sure some may have been backups but at least 3 or 4 at a time being used. Pretty safe to say the variac was core to his tone, regardless of desired volume.

That's absolutely right. He said that the variac was at first a volume control device then found a "sweet spot" at 80-90volts for recording. Pretty simple actually. Don't we know that the simplest, most straight forward answer is usually the correct one?

Do you guys think it was a single variac?

The reason why I ask is because the vids MightyMike put up recently of jnew playing had some unreal tone going on...

I can only hypothesiz on the 2nd Variac, by my own experience with one, and some pics from the 78 Japan tour but for sure, at least one was used. That's a known fact.

He's known to have 2 of a lotta' things


What bugs me is the ghost knob on the left side of the back of his Marshall... Someone did that mod

With so many folks inside his amp, able to see the original solder joints and claiming it to be mostly stock, I'm surprised no one has deduced what the knob on the back was for.

I've come to the conclusion that, knowing it was a house amp at one point, it was probably a master volume. He may or may not have used it but I hear a NMV, 2 stage plexi circuit, deficient of voltage.

My thinking is that we have discovered many different pathways to getting great tone. Many of those tones are as good as or are even better than what Ed had back in the '70s. Now, does that mean that is how he did it? I don't think so.

James is getting great tone using two variacs. I believe Ed just used one variac and has the benefit of having his hands.