Metropoulos Forum

This may already public knowledge, but listening to the "Dave & Dave Unchained" podcast (EP #11) they are interviewing John Shanks. The producer of A Different Kind of Truth. According to John, they had Ed's baby (along with an EVH and a Peavey) and tracked the entire album with all three amps. He said that when he'd bring the Marshall further up in the mix, that Ed would complain in that it was harder to play.

I only want to know what the stereo rig setup was for Ripley <cough> "Blood and Fire".

Best tone on the album for me, most specifically because it had (due to the limitations of the Ripley pickups) by far the least amount of gain and compression.

John Shanks also mentions that Eddie said that the marshall was more "gainy" back in the day, that it lost some gain over time. He also mentions picking up a plexi 50 serial numbers away from Ed's 12301 at guitar center during the recording. They opened both amps up and John matched the components from Eddie's head to his. Eddie then played through Shanks head and said it had that thing. Very cool interview, you can tell John wanted to talk more about the marshall but kept getting cut off by one of those Dave dudes.

It sounds like John was really pushing for the marshall to be used on the record but Eddie wasn't going for it. That's sad because 90% of those tones on that album are garbage Kudos for John for trying....

echoplexi1974 wrote:90% of those tones on that album are garbage Kudos for John for trying....

What 10% do you like and what would be the difference?

I'll bet the ADKOT album would've sounded much different if they would have brought in Don Landee as recording engineer, even with the newer amps 'in the mix'... Gotta agree with the comment above about 'Blood and Fire'. That's about as close to classic VH as you hear on that album...

FL6 wrote:

echoplexi1974 wrote:90% of those tones on that album are garbage Kudos for John for trying....

What 10% do you like and what would be the difference?

I like the blood and fire tone. Also, the fade out solo on Big River sounds like the old marshall.

It's tones like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlC-SEemSK8 Kinda sounds like CC Deville

sounds identical to cc

Ugh, yes that does sound like CC. Totally agree on Big River fade solo, good call

I remember hearing stuff through the grapevine during the recording of this record. What a mess! Ross was engineering, then he wasn't...eventually he was again. Shanks producing, then not, then was again.
Ross said the whole record was tracked, then another engineer came in and re-tracked all the rhythms. Then he was out and Ross was back.
John from Royer said that when Ross came back he sent them an R122V ribbon mic and when Ed heard it he wanted to re-do all the guitars.

I can confirm that the original amp had been fully restored and was in the studio during that time. Word was that it was used on some tracks, always with other amps on as well. My understanding was we never hear just that amp.

My personal opinion: it's 2017, there's no technical reason why we can't capture great old plexi tone. If Ed wanted that VH1 tone, he could have it. I think he has moved on and simply prefers his signature amps.

george

VelvetGeorge wrote:"...I think he has moved on and simply prefers his signature amps.

george

He has said that countless times in recent past. Thus his work ethic.
(Why I can't stand Splammy so much. oops, sorry that slipped.... not.)

Capturing old plexi tone in 2017...has it been done? To me all the newer recordings -- whenever digital took over -- sound flat/compressed. Every instrument is flat and uninteresting, yet the whole spectrum is taken up somehow.

This old rocker's 2c is there has to be space in the mix -- literally, like air/no notes -- for amps and drums and even vocals to "bloom" or whatever you want to call it. Air moving, overtones, harmonics, interactive sound waves or however plexified would say it! (lol pfied!) Not saying this has any bearing on EVH's latest amp choices, just a line that stuck out to me.

I DO think that right now we have the best-sounding amps of all-time. (Some of them, not all!) But I've yet to hear one recorded in a modern recording that was like, "Wow!" That I can recall right now, anyway.... Hearing these great amps live and LOUD (screw the little amp into a PA thing, sorry) is a different story....

Probably the (recording) industry has changed. The formats and mediums that record them are changing; along with the gear & equipment that captures it live ? Then there are other issues of duties performed, and by whom; and who gets paid and how much. The process and other details of course.
So... a new or modern model of the industry has taken over and are in the process of figuring "it" all out; with all this 2017 technology. That's because I believe that "loud" means something else now. a marketing loud

"Would you like to hear me play my awesome bedroom amp now ?" heh

Interesting posts from George and fivecoyote. Come to think of it, I haven't heard a really great cranked plexi tone since the Soldano style of amps became all the rage.

I have a 5153 and there are some good rock tones in there, especially if you lay off the gain (hey, Ed -- have you played your own amp on the blue channel with the gain backed off to 10 o'clock to noon ??). Anyway, George's post about the Royer mic got me curious. Ross Hogarth talked about the use of that mic on ADKOT in an interview.http://www.soundonsound.com/people/ross ... len-tattoo

Here is my question. Can one of the members tell me their experiences about the differences between the Royer ribbon mic and something like an SM57 or 58 when mic'ing up a cranked plexi ? Ed's tone on ADKOT was interesting to me for a few weeks because he finally shit-canned that harmonizer. But it is a fatiguing guitar tone to listen to. I mean c'mon --- you have one of the guitar greats playing, world class equipment and sound production professionals aplenty, but the guitar sounds just kind of, I don't know, bland and a little irritating ??

Megaro wrote:Interesting posts from George and fivecoyote. I don't know, bland and a little irritating ??

The tone's not the greatest but I find it's the mix that's fatiguing.

Megaro wrote:Interesting posts from George and fivecoyote. Come to think of it, I haven't heard a really great cranked plexi tone since the Soldano style of amps became all the rage.

I have a 5153 and there are some good rock tones in there, especially if you lay off the gain (hey, Ed -- have you played your own amp on the blue channel with the gain backed off to 10 o'clock to noon ??). Anyway, George's post about the Royer mic got me curious. Ross Hogarth talked about the use of that mic on ADKOT in an interview.http://www.soundonsound.com/people/ross ... len-tattoo

Here is my question. Can one of the members tell me their experiences about the differences between the Royer ribbon mic and something like an SM57 or 58 when mic'ing up a cranked plexi ? Ed's tone on ADKOT was interesting to me for a few weeks because he finally shit-canned that harmonizer. But it is a fatiguing guitar tone to listen to. I mean c'mon --- you have one of the guitar greats playing, world class equipment and sound production professionals aplenty, but the guitar sounds just kind of, I don't know, bland and a little irritating ??

I kept hearing that it was the new (at the time) 50 watt 5150-III that he used for the album and that's matched with the EVH 2x12s... Which are loaded with G12H's instead of G12M's. I think that's part of what I've dubbed the "cripsy" tone on ADKOT.

For the record, I love that album, and I loved hearing some of the live boots with his better live tone.