Ed's 'personal' desired tone ?

[Tone Slinger]

Which type tone does everyone think Ed was gravitating towards ?Is it represented in a particular album or track, or was it always evolving, yet 'lost' after too much experimentation ? What would be a good explanation of what Ed was chasing, tonewise,in technical terms (Brown Sound aint a good enough answer)?

I'll start by giving my current opinion. I think that the 1978 world tour all the way to the second album (with maybe 'Beatiful Girls' being a bulls eye) demonstrates Ed's most refined tone.In technical terms I recon a nice nearly dimed Plexi, 25 watt speakers, variaced to around 90v with a bright,attacky sounding strat with a medium output humbucker with an alnico 2 magnet/500kvolume pot.
The 1977 era 'First album tone',though so well 'produced', was maybe a bit less musically dynamic in comparison, in many respects.Like either the white knob was a cascade,or Ed was using an eq up front?

[dirtycooter]

I think today is what he exactly wants. You know he has enough money to do just about anything he wants equipment wise.
He walked away from the old tone but kinda circled back some.
If the old tone was his fave he would still throw it back together and use it now. But he doesn't.
Hard tellin what he desires in his own mind. Crazy when you think of how he had vh1, vh2 on up didn't change till 84, then the 5150 OU years, then another change for FUCK and Balance, and now todays tone.
Thats 6 very difinitive different eras of tone.
I think he had it right the first time and the best later era to me was Balance coming in 2nd place to VH1 though they are two completely different vibes. Todays tone still bugs me in ways though its about as close to the balls out first record as far as gain goes with not alot of other stuff like the harmonizer thing.
Hes gettin back to something good again though, maybe next record or two will be different yet.
You gotta remember-he had to fight off influences and other flash on the way to today.
I am sure he heard other players after him get sounds he liked or wished he had. I don't think for one second he don't look at other players sounds. He was all over clapton, later he expressed how much he liked Cantrells stuff. So he keeps his ears open.

[ErickC]

IMO you can start zeroing in with the release of the first 5150 amp. It is quite a departure from his Marshall. Had he wanted a "british" voiced amp im sure Peavey would've delivered but instead they went with in the VERY high gain direction.
But i think all that had to do with Sammy's influence and the style of music they were playing at the time. Again, look at what he was playing, he went from an ash bodied 1 bridge HB (although he did experiment throughout VH1-1984) to the basswood/maple 2 HB EB MusicMan.
The funny thing is, even though the "Van Hagar" era is more mellow by comparison to the Roth era, his amp had more balls (from a certain perspective) so it's quite a head scratcher
But you know that with every 5150 that is released Ed will claim it has the tone he was looking for.

[dirtycooter]

Yes. You haz slash tone. All day long. Ed tone on the other hand...
Thats a toughy

You'd be suprised how many kids today think slash was badass.
I don't, but kids do. Thats a head scratcher

[EJSLPlexi]

as much as i love the SLO i wish eddie had never played one,cause it "seems" that after he used a soldano his tone went very far away from the roth era stuff.
I do love the soldano stuff but overall i am NOT a high gain amp lover.
the best tones i ever heard were always from a cranked marshall non master volume amp

[rgorke]

He states that he looks for sustain, not necessarily distortion or gain. But, I think what he hears now versus what he heard then are somewhat different, not entirely, but somewhat.

I have often wondered how many gigs Ed has played, obviously in the 1000s, maybe 10,000 plus being in his own studio with the amp and monitors blasting. His hearing ain't what it use to be so he is going more by what he feels, how the tone hits him, "... in his chest.."

So, I have noticed that different setups for me yield different levels of sustain. Even how the amp is set up.

The more I listen to ADKOT, I hear a bit more of old tone. Maybe it is wishful hearing.

[jnew]

This may be an unfair question because I think Ed approached each track with whatever it was gonna take to make that song work with his given equipment choice at the time. i.e. some songs have more reverb than others. Mic placement, EQ in the chain or not. etc. Look at the monster difference in VHII between outta love again (which is this insane warm, almost choked back or compressed, super vowel pronounced type thing) to the very next song, Lighting up the Sky. This one is much more raw. Less EQ or process y type thing. He (and Don Landee I suppose) did what worked for the song. That's what he was looking to achieve far more than just plugging into any gear and saying or thinking "there it is. That's the tone I'm after". Sure, he had his baseline gear that worked for his ear but that was just scratching the surface. Once the tracking started, his focus probably changed a lot in terms of what he wanted to hear from his gear at that point.

At least IMO.

[somethin'else]

randomly casting...

Women In Love rhythm tone
Mean Street rhythm tone
Bottom's Up lead tone
Push Comes to Shove and One Foot Out the Door lead tones
Secrets rhythm and lead tones

I think Fair Warning all in all is Ed's personal desired tone, which may be what he hears (after life's munson curve effect) he's accomplishing today!

[sixpakldp]

My personal take on this is that originally Ed was designing rigs that did not exist. In the early days he used slaving to create an effects loop and the sound of a maxed out amp while still being able to control his stage volume. At that point in time the options were a 2203 mv amp or to use pedals. As technology caught up (numerous mv amp designs and fx loops) so did Ed. Ed has referred to his amps and guitars being like race cars in that he runs them at max conditions all the time and they need to hold up in that scenario. As new technology came out he continued to push that to the limit (hence the change to high gain amps and high gain pickups). I think his MO is to stay current and to push the limits of what is currently available. That's why while we are all trying perfect VH I, he's already been there and done that. That's why although we would love to hear a cranked plexi he's messing with his fenders. Just my two cents.