Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

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Megaro
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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by Megaro » Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:45 pm

Curt is a great player and has great tone. But I hear DeMartini in the Tone Junkie clip, not really Ed so much.
That is more of an early 80s LA metal tone to me. A cutting scooped-mids kind of distortion with lots of interaction with the flesh part of the pick hand thumb and index finger. It's a great tone, no doubt. But not Ed. Ed has a warmer, ballsier saturation with those certain unmistakable key frequencies. His touch on the strings is a lot different too. Not every note is waiting to leap out into a pinch harmonic. Not bagging on Curt or the tone at all. I have no idea what George Lynch tone is. I love the guy, but he had his guitar so soaked in FX I could never tell what was going on with the core tone in his instructional videos.

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by garbeaj » Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:03 am

67 Melody Maker wrote:
garbeaj wrote:Curt's tone is Ok to me, but a lot more in the Demartini/Lynch/...etc. heavy metal sounds. Not quite like any of the Van Halen sounds.
Allen, if you haven't ever heard it before, go youtube search for "Tone Junkie" by Curt.

The first listen thru of that instrumental, I would have sworn Curt nabbed a DAT tape from Ed's house and was playing an unreleased VH track. :rock:
Yeah, I hear absolute ZERO Van Halen sound there...I've heard that "Tone Junkie" thing many times. I agree with Megaro, it sounds more like Demartini/Lynch, Mick Mars,etc. basic hair metal tone..very, very far from any of Ed's tones in my book.

That said, I like a couple of Ratt songs an awful lot...great tone, great riffs from Demartini and Crosby and Demartini is an excellent lead guitarist.

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by garbeaj » Mon Jan 30, 2017 8:31 am

Don't get me wrong, Curt did an outstanding job given the time frame that he did the Van Halen lesson videos...very early days and he was really the only guy even trying to get that in depth about Eddie's playing and style. Hats off to him...I didn't even know about the detune Harmonizer until somewhere around 2008 when I started going on the internet! He had it figured out way back in the early 90s!

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by fivecoyote » Mon Jan 30, 2017 12:44 pm

Dude please don't if not Top Secret!
67 Melody Maker wrote:I've also had some real interesting discussions outside of that that I'll just keep for myself.
At it awhile, still learnin'

Get woodalicious tonology factoid learnin' at http://www.WOODYTONE.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;!

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by Megaro » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:06 am

It is a lot easier to dissect Eddie's playing today now that we have things like the Amazing Slow Downer and have high quality videos of him playing a lot of the songs that have been historically inaccurately transcribed. Same goes for forums like this where players can discuss ideas and trade tabs. People were still fussing over the hook to Drop Dead Legs and whether Eddie used the tremolo (vibrato??) bar until a few years back. When he played it on tour, the close up video clips made it pretty clear that all of those old tabs showing the use of the whammy bar were just stupid. But Curt was definitely ahead of the curve. Maybe he would like to join up and contribute to the forum ? He certainly has a lot to contribute.

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by fivecoyote » Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:15 am

I'd love to hear it '67! Whenever you feel prompted, man. No worries either way....
At it awhile, still learnin'

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by chrisom » Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:12 pm

...It's almost as if this place has death-spiraled down to 10 or 12 guys commenting "that's not VH tone" on everything said or posted. Gets a bit tiresome. :palm:
SO true!!! :lol: :clap: :thumbsup:

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by Megaro » Thu Feb 09, 2017 9:36 am

chrisom wrote:
...It's almost as if this place has death-spiraled down to 10 or 12 guys commenting "that's not VH tone" on everything said or posted. Gets a bit tiresome. :palm:
SO true!!! :lol: :clap: :thumbsup:
I don't think it is exactly like that. There is a recent thread in this forum "The Tone...Have I done it? [CLIP]" that generated a lot of excitement and interest due to the tone the OP achieved. There is also a current thread going "My NEW Franky! CLIPS!" that has generated quite a few positive comments. The folks who post clips on this forum have skills and tone that are scary good, so it is not always easy to stand out in a field of guitar players of the caliber found here.

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by chrisom » Sun Feb 12, 2017 12:47 pm

I agree that some incredible tone has been put forth here, BUT one or two self-appointed 'experts' seem to nit-pick submissions no matter what, which tends to drive people away after a while. I've heard stuff praised here that I thought was crap (no more RWTD or ATBL please), but never commented on it, partly because I've never even submitted a sound-byte, and because it's all just for fun. I know big ego's go along with rock guitar, but hey- we're all just sharing our love of the music that inspired us to pick up an instrument or soldering iron... :peace:

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by garbeaj » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:00 am

I could listen to Strat78 play "RWTD" all day...and I just posted an "ATBL" clip!

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by chrisom » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:57 am

To each his own- I can't even listen to EVH himself play those songs today after hearing them so many times over the years. Lots more stuff out there than listening to an arpeggiated A-minor chord over and over again.. :what:

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Re: Did you see the second Curt Mitchell VH vid?

Post by garbeaj » Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:20 am

chrisom wrote:To each his own- I can't even listen to EVH himself play those songs today after hearing them so many times over the years. Lots more stuff out there than listening to an arpeggiated A-minor chord over and over again.. :what:
I agree...but, obviously with "ATBL" it's not really necessarily about the notes for me. I'm listening for how the echo interacts with the rhythm, how the palm muting sounds and feels on the vintage Fender vibrato bridge, the actual tone of the guitar, the way the vintage Flanger cuts through on the fills, the way the Phase 90 sounds during the solos, the way that blends with the electric sitar overdubs, the volume control manipulation and dynamics with the flanger during the Bridge...lots of stuff that makes it interesting even though it's just Am arpeggios and a G power chord!

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