Ed's use of Dist/OD Pedals, the ADA MP-1

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Good Guest
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Post by Good Guest » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:13 pm

Ruben wrote:
Good Guest wrote:Interesting if you clip the diodes of your mxr dist + and the diode fizz cap (placed there to remove unwanted artifacts from clipping) you end up with a boost that reduces lows the more you turn up. a la vh1..at least when you play atomic punk the low strings don't sound so muddy.
Any pics where those diodes are hidden?
Yep but yer on yer own for the cap..should say .001uf or 102 and is connected in parallel to the diodes.

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Post by Strat78 » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:07 pm

Good Guest wrote:
Ruben wrote:
Good Guest wrote:Interesting if you clip the diodes of your mxr dist + and the diode fizz cap (placed there to remove unwanted artifacts from clipping) you end up with a boost that reduces lows the more you turn up. a la vh1..at least when you play atomic punk the low strings don't sound so muddy.
Any pics where those diodes are hidden?
Yep but yer on yer own for the cap..should say .001uf or 102 and is connected in parallel to the diodes.
Thanks Good Guest for that picture. I spent a fortune for my script mxr D+, so I just can't bring myself to start cutting wires. I kind of like the way it sounds now anyway. It sounds absolutely nothing like that awful Randy Rhodes tone.

It's good to hear someone ells mention the problem with the low E string when it comes to getting a tone that works for VH riffs. Not that I've ever came close to getting Ed's VHI tone, but when I do try, I always begin with how the low E string performs. The low E aside, it's amazing how full Ed's tone is yet it also has this am radio tone as well. Listen to those first two riffs in the first verse of YRGM on VHI. He's got this fat rhythm tone yet the riffs are very compressed. Could that be a distortion + type peddle. As close as people have gotten on this board to that VHI tone, I still don't hear anybody even approach some of the cooler tones from that album. Marks I'm The One clip sounds great for the riff, but the tone of the Eruption part of the clip does not sound anything like the original.

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Post by Ruben » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:24 pm

Jeez, after playing my (block-logo '70's) Distortion+ which I bought today, I really starting to like it!

I think it still sounds crap when using this with a clean (tube) amp though...It's much to shrill. IMO it makes my 100 Watter Plexi turn in to a tiny radio. No bass, only squeling hights

Anyway; when pushing an already overdriven tube amp this pedal really kicks major ass! At least in my set up when I also hook up the Boss GE-10...SOUND! They seem to compliment eachother VERY well. Maybe that's why some pedals just won't work in a chain. I always played a MIJ Boss SD-1 until I got my Plexi: No need for overdrive pedals anymore. I've owned original 808's / TS 9's / Fulldrive and a lot of other brands, but this one blows them away easily...again; in my current set up.

So, me happy :P and beginning to think this might be the pedal ED sometimes used to record with, maybe live too!

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Post by Tone Slinger » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:23 pm

Yeah, see the "stock" Distortion + circuit varies. In my experience the output just barely reaches the level of a loud amp, when that knob (level)is dimed. This tends to cause one to crank up the distortion knob, which isnt necisarily a good thing. Replace the germanium diodes with sillicon and bam, problem fixed. I hate too disagree with GOODGUEST here, but it has been very well documented that Randy used MXR distortion +'s. George Lynch has stated as much. I think that the Distortion + is the single best distortion device available. On a Gibson or Fender, this pedal shines. No excess's, just great tone.

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Post by Ruben » Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:02 am

Mine seems to do okay on the volume issues. When volume set at 12:00 it matches the amp volume. When turned to let's say 17:00 the volume increases a lot. Absolute great unit to boost a tube amp!

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Post by Good Guest » Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:10 pm

Strat78 wrote: He's got this fat rhythm tone yet the riffs are very compressed. Could that be a distortion + type peddle. As close as people have gotten on this board to that VHI tone, I still don't hear anybody even approach some of the cooler tones from that album. Marks I'm The One clip sounds great for the riff, but the tone of the Eruption part of the clip does not sound anything like the original.
I would say his eq has a lot to do with how things are sounding. Remember he has done lots of experiments and likes to set up his speakers to produce a hifi effect. Plus the echoplex when in bypass thickens the tone and adds a bit of gain .

I think Mark's eruption clip is pretty good considering the lack of the treble boost from the phase 90 and perhaps a little boost from an eq. Eddies phase 90 has been said to be modded..maybe it's a phase 70 with an ic used for a distortion+ circuit..very easy mod ..anything is possible.


Tone Slinger says
"I hate too disagree with GOODGUEST here, but it has been very well documented that Randy used MXR distortion +'s. George Lynch has stated as much."..."Replace the germanium diodes with sillicon and bam, problem fixed."

I've been digging trying to find that mxr disll referance. But yeh I have run into many saying D+ , some say mxr products with a midrange boost and one where Randy himself says D+..I'm still digging. He also mentioned he liked to play EVH riffs live cause people like them. At least he gives credit for playing in Eddies style.

Ran into a few Eddie interviews while digging and an intersting pic where he had 4-5150's in one rack and in another 2- JCM 800's (2203's) that were modded for crunch . It also showed his wah phase90 and octave device ..no boss sd-1 . Just like he said ' no use for it now that the wah volume drop is fixed". Could it be the jcm800's were for his older stuff? Another neat tidbit is he approached Jose to make an EVH amp..sunk and lost $100,000 into the project but Jose health went downhill..so he went to peavey.

And George Lynch..talk about a van halen copycat ( at one time anyways) I was reading how he cranks his ohmmite variac to 140 and watchs his tubes melt..sound familliar..then he goes on to say he likes to use his echoplex as a preamp distortion unit.

Replacing the germaniums with silicon can provide plenty of tonal possibilities your right. Smooth tones , asymetrical clipping tones, symetrical clipping tones, hard clipping etc. You can pretty well design any tone ...now which diode configuration for the EVH tone?

edit many hours later...boy was dead wrong...Found the detailed discription and yes it was an MXR DISTORTION + used by Randy Rhoads not a ll like I said. He achieved the mid boost with an MXR 10 band eq also.

I would of just kept on thinking that it was a "ll" if it wasn't for Tone Slingers post.
:oops:


:)

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Post by Tone Slinger » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:42 am

Hey, it's just that I had read that so many times. I looked a long time for a Distortion + (way before internet and ebay) I was trying to get Randy's sound back when I was around 15. I never could, but did have a great '77 Distortion + given to me by a great musician named Allen Younce. I could definatley hear how this circuit was favored by "Loud Marshall" playing dudes back in the day, Like Randy, Priest and Maiden. I agree that it isnt Ed's sound as a stand alone.

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Post by LypsLynch55 » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:29 pm

Good Guest wrote:
And George Lynch..talk about a van halen copycat ( at one time anyways) I was reading how he cranks his ohmmite variac to 140 and watchs his tubes melt..sound familliar..then he goes on to say he likes to use his echoplex as a preamp distortion unit.
Name one guitarist from the 80s who didnt mimic a style, tone, or equipment from VH in some way or form. :o

If you think about the innovations VH made, everyone was coypying him in some way or form.

And I think George managed, like you implied, to develop his own style.
"Just shine the echo there....Tommy get those cords that we use" - DLR during the Pasadena Rehearsal

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Post by Good Guest » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:21 pm

LypsLynch55 wrote:
Good Guest wrote:
And George Lynch..talk about a van halen copycat ( at one time anyways) I was reading how he cranks his ohmmite variac to 140 and watchs his tubes melt..sound familliar..then he goes on to say he likes to use his echoplex as a preamp distortion unit.
Name one guitarist from the 80s who didnt mimic a style, tone, or equipment from VH in some way or form. :o

If you think about the innovations VH made, everyone was coypying him in some way or form.

And I think George managed, like you implied, to develop his own style.
yep..it's just the short interview it sounded like he invented the use of variacs and echoplex's , there was this arrogance that rubbed me wrong.

But thank god he grew out of it. As far as guitarist mimicing styles , you can say that about 80's guitarists mimicing styles from 60' and 70's guitarists also. Even the tapping thing that ed does isn't something he invented just something that he refined to an art.

The guy who first plugged into a fuzz box..boy did guitarists mimic him or what.

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Post by Tone Slinger » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:31 am

George didnt copy Ed so much. From what I hear, he was there with all the other "born in the mid 50's" dudes who were sorta the 'bridge' from the old to new , which turned out to be the very technical 'shred' of the 80's. Lynch, along with Eddie, Schenker and Roth, all were playing more notes than previous dudes. All this was in the 70's, and Schenker(UFO) was the only one at the time who could be heard (major record label), as live(George and Eddie) or on import (Uli Roth of Scorpions) was the only 'exposure' of the others.

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Post by Good Guest » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:01 pm

Ahhh but George left a tidbit behind for us to ponder....he says he likes to use his echoplex as a preamp and distortion unit...That is interesting!!! I wonder who else did that ? Eddie???


So I did an experiment..what happens when you overdrive an echoplex in bypass? What happens is you get a nice assymetrically clipped waveform very similar to what a fuzz face would give you, or any multitude of diode modded tube screamer type pedals or even a distortion plus for that matter...but with a mild distortion and sustain all without the added noise those pedals would give you. And above all ..without chopping of the high end harmonics! Super important!!

This is where all the 2203 users are in a quagmire , because if you actually used what Eddie used for effects before that amp (blazing 2203/jcm800) ..all you would here is washed out noise and washed out tones. Especially with an overdriven echoplex.

However if you run that type of system thru a typical plexi you don't get the astronomical noise levels but instead you get plenty of tone and pleasant distortion characteristics which is what you hear on vh1.

Despite everything George lynch left a very important tidbit of info for us to chew on. I think even the rackdoctor has mentioned this in another thread somewhere.

So there seems to be two schools of Eddie one where you use what Eddie used and just mod a stock plexi without cascades but master volumes and clippers etc.or two chuck out all the effects and go with the modded cascaded high gain monster amp and be satisfied with that, work on clean and dirty speaker combos and cab simulators and compression gizmos.

8)

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Post by Ruben » Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:48 pm

Have been gigging with the MXR Distortion+ a few times and damn, when driving an already overdiven Plexi it just sounds so freakin awesome!

Now I do this:

Les Paul (SD Antiguity bridge pickup) -> MXR+ -> Boss GE-10 (midboost, gain:+6) -> Korg SDD3000 digital Delay (using rear outputs set at +4db) into my '67 100 Watt Plexi with 4X12 'pre-rola' cab and '64 AC30.
PURE TONEHEAVEN!

I'm very happy with the sound and don't think I'll change anything!
At least; not for now! :P

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Re: Dis+

Post by maestrotta » Mon Apr 03, 2023 2:30 am

MarkCameron wrote:
Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:59 pm
Strat78 wrote:
Good Guest wrote:
That would be too easy and telling..but here is a clue..it's in this forum..and it's obvious that the pic was intentionally blurred , but the "telltale yellow" of a distortion+ is there. I'm sure when delving deep into the forum you will learn what re-amping is and find the pic.

I'm just getting into re-amping myself..I experimented with it years ago with an assortment of amps and didn't like it, the tones were too rank in the high end...now playing with marshall type circuits it's a whole new ball game..shimmering highs and lots of lows and the best way to describe what it sounds like is what Eddie said...like a hi-fi stereo system.

This forum rocks "bigtime" ..I wouldn't of bothered re experimenting if it wasn't for the pioneers here.
I see nothing.
See how things get out of hand. That pic was posted by me. And no Its not intentionally blurred. I dont have a scanner so its a crappy pic of a pic from my cel phone( the one I have is clear) and there is NO MXR Dis +. In every pic I have seen from the club days there is no Dis +.

Can you please email the pic to mdrottamusic@gmail.com? Thank you!!

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