Ed's 1978 touring rig.

[spaceace76]

I've never looked too closely at this photo but it seems to make sense now. IF and just IF Ed is daisy chaining he has 3 metal panel 1959's and 3 plexi's hooked up.

seven of the amps have labels above the switches. of those seven, six appear to be hooked up together in a daisy chain config. It sorta looks like the top right amp is only hooked up to the bottom left two amps, one of which sports a 6-band in a frown curve before it's input. So that could be three amps in each of two setups. And that's presumably how the Eruption changeover happens. The Univox is left to oscillate and then Ed is handed a guitar and in one show even hits a pedal on his board before playing the Destroyer.

Here's a question. I'm not big on delays so I've never thought to try anything like this... but does an oscillating delay keep oscillating if you remove the input cable? If so that would provide a few seconds for everything to be patched over by hand. If Ed's guitar lead goes offstage or he's using a wireless (which we see he has at least by the recording of VHII) then the cables can all be swapped by hand in a few seconds while Dave does the trademark "EDWARD VAAAAN HAALEEENNN" yowl after Ed finishes every Erpution

How exactly the changeover happens is still a bit of a mystery... Why has no one tried out a metal panel 1959 for live Ed tone?

[leadguy]

It keeps oscillating as can be seen in this clip where the Univox is still oscillating after Ed has put down the Franky.

Ed then get's handed the Destroyer by a roadie and Ed then steps on the pedalboard (Box 1) to turn the Univox oscillations off and launches into YRGM at the same time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L08uuAf7PBc[/youtube]

Ed's live setup is so simple and just hacked together but it worked.

It's just a 70s classic setup with effects before the amp and amps daisy chained if needed for larger venues.

The wireless in interesting, because it looks like Ed has it on stage after Japan 1978 which would be mid or just past mid 1978, but he doesn't seem to be using it in the 1978 photo and there are also 1979 photos where Ed seems to be just using guitar leads but some where he is using it as well.



Most normal players would have a Univox footswitch especially when they are playing a song straight after that requires the oscillations to stop and when to switch it off is best controlled by the player themselves.

Here is a fun thread about Ed slaving with a Vox http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic ... 6&start=50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The dude mentions a 5 band EQ and it turns out that they thought the 6th band was a volume slider.

The only other dude that I know of that has mentioned a 5 band EQ was ROBIN L. and maybe he thought the 6th band was a volume slider.

[Marshall SL12301]

Leadguy you said "Having two Echoplexes with the same settings in series is pretty pointless." BUT I SAY not if the other is his backup to the first?

[leadguy]

Leadguy you said "Having two Echoplexes with the same settings in series is pretty pointless." BUT I SAY not if the other is his backup to the first?

Yes, I agree.

[Marshall SL12301]

Leadguy you said "Having two Echoplexes with the same settings in series is pretty pointless." BUT I SAY not if the other is his backup to the first?

Yes, I agree.

[rgorke]

the onlt thing to me that is NOT making sence about the secret pedal theory is why isnt EVH inc selling one?
He would make a fortune releasing it IF it exsists? well enough of that i am heading back to jam on my new MCP custom kurt sold me!

To many of them ..I count 3 now ...and the amount of boutique copiers that are already making them without even knowing what they are making...is enough to make yer head spin..EVH would not have a leg to stand on as they are all pedals from other companies and in effects world if you breath in a different direction or change a single part when making the pedal they think they have created it...the cloners would eat him up for breakfast.

That's where he has an edge in his amps as he can mimic lots of his boosts etc with them..that doesn't stop the mod5 or the 12 series or the countless other amps tagging along the VH skirt of wealth , but amps are big ticket items ...effects when the market dictates can be as cheap as set of guitar strings...throw in a foreign sweat shop and the market is diluted.

There is also the risk that the box just might be an EVH in a box which would hurt his amp sales also ..Why spend a fortune on an amp that mimics the BOX..when you can get the box for cheap and purchase a plexi reissue....or god forbid a bugera or ceriatone. Some questions might be best left unanswered .... That is one of the reasons those that do discover the box shouldn't really say anything publically..

Kinda like being stuck between a rock and hard place

I could not disagree more. There are lots of players that have their own amp and a distortion pedal. The 5150 IOU is/was never marketed as getting tone for early VH1 tone. Ed has capitalized on making everything striped and even sued Nike over shoes that were striped (I wish I could get a pair of those). Most run of the mill guitar players, not those of us who obsess over this stuff like us, would eat up an EVH distortion pedal. Buying a $3000 amp and cab is a different market than the 10s of thousands of guys at the VH concert....fat, balding, and playing air guitar who our pay $100 or so for a pedal to plug into their PV Bandit and get EVH tone (as far as they know). They would buy Ed's striped model long before any boutique maker.

Ed would have put out a distortion or OD or boost or whatever.

So, I mean no disrespect but am not buying the logic.

[vanhalen5150]

Ed could sell a pedal with some Rogaine and bottle of weight loss pills.

[Good Guest]

I could not disagree more. There are lots of players that have their own amp and a distortion pedal. The 5150 IOU is/was never marketed as getting tone for early VH1 tone. Ed has capitalized on making everything striped and even sued Nike over shoes that were striped (I wish I could get a pair of those). Most run of the mill guitar players, not those of us who obsess over this stuff like us, would eat up an EVH distortion pedal. Buying a $3000 amp and cab is a different market than the 10s of thousands of guys at the VH concert....fat, balding, and playing air guitar who our pay $100 or so for a pedal to plug into their PV Bandit and get EVH tone (as far as they know). They would buy Ed's striped model long before any boutique maker.

Ed would have put out a distortion or OD or boost or whatever.

So, I mean no disrespect but am not buying the logic.

The problem with the signature products in general is they really don't deliver the tone they promise ..Case in point the EVH phasers and amps ..do you sound like EVH VH1 .? NO phasers not subtle enough , amps aren't 12 series knockoffs , but effect mimicers, instead...Now if a pedal pops out that does ...would you buy the $50 EVH dist/overdrive/fuzz or whatever? Yes ..and it would be just a matter of time till it was plastered all over the net (eta 3 months grace is all you got)...and the cloner copiers would have their improved versions guaranteed...but if it was EVH in a box they sure wouldn't be buying the $5000 amp..which would be good for Peavey bandit sellers and bugera sellers etc but not $5000 evh amp sellers and modded plexi EVH skirt taggers at all...they would be washed up in a heart beat.

So the big problem EVH would face is after 3 months his business would be toast and all profits split among 100's of cloner crooks ..prognosis ..Keep the pedal secret ..it's just like yer bro said years ago.." Turn your back ED or they will rip you blind"...

You just have to look at the guitar market ..the pickup market , the effect market and amp market to know it's kinda true..there are lots of people holding on to and swinging from the EVH brown skirt of dreams..this would wash his EVH brand up, and there's too..think! If his amps are designed to sound like the gizmo he used? He would have to be a BONEHEAD to market it.

[Good Guest]

Ed could sell a pedal with some Rogaine and bottle of weight loss pills.

To hell with the tone ..restore my hair and make me thin again..

[vanhalen5150]

Ed could sell a pedal with some Rogaine and bottle of weight loss pills.

To hell with the tone ..restore my hair and make me thin again..

Well, it would certainly put him ahead of the cloners.

Ed would never do a Marshall PTP VH1 type amp though. Ceriatone would have that cloned and in the stores before Xmas in a second.

[Good Guest]

Ed could sell a pedal with some Rogaine and bottle of weight loss pills.

To hell with the tone ..restore my hair and make me thin again..

Well, it would certainly put him ahead of the cloners.

Ed would never do a Marshall PTP VH1 type amp though. Ceriatone would have that cloned and in the stores before Xmas in a second.

I figure 3 months for the cloners to tool up and end of story....just look at the ep3 cloners...3 companies(last count) ..1 technology rape site(last count)...there is 80% of the ep3 business down the drain...and that's just a preamp of an echo unit. A dist/fz/overdrive ....you would be looking at hundreds of companies and dozens of technology rape sights all with fancy pictograms on their boxs...and websites devoted to the box of tone

Opps the "C" word..good thing they are in Malaysia ...god help North American amp makers should some wise one open up a North American distribution company...between Bugera and the big "C" ..that would take over both the circuit board and the PTP market in a heart beat...so much for country loyalty, flag wrapping and protectionism. What I can save thousands. Act now and we'll throw in a genuine EVH dist pedal. That's all it would take.

[spaceace76]

First off, it would take around a week. Two max.

Secondly, the pedal would sell like hotcakes anyway. Case and point:
Klon. Tons of clones and still people pay $3-600 on ebay. And that thing doesnt have half the recognition that Ed does.

[Good Guest]

First off, it would take around a week. Two max.

Secondly, the pedal would sell like hotcakes anyway. Case and point:
Klon. Tons of clones and still people pay $3-600 on ebay. And that thing doesnt have half the recognition that Ed does.

The pedal would have to dipped in epoxy and have so many fail safes built in (surface mounting + multi layer board ) just to delay the ripping off of the technology..so what ? 3 weeks max.

There will always be the collector market for originals like the Klon and Arbiter fuzz face and pretty well all the ancient fuzz boxs etc.no doubt about that. Go see how much an original EVH phase 90 goes for tho buy it now for $125....I guess in 50 years from now they might be worth something.

Yep the internet has sure screwed up intellectual property rights and ethics no doubt about that, real dog eat dog.

[guitar007]

Please, guys. Let's not get too carried away here. Who would be ripping who off?? What's Ed's contribution to marketing an Echoplex, Marshall, Phaser....striping them?

[spaceace76]

I say a week or two so confidently because I'll be first in line for said pedal and RE it before I do anything else with my time. Eat, sleep, fuck, you name it. It'll all be on the backburner till I figure out what the circuit is based on and how it works.

Stripes and a few component changes do not an original circuit make.

Also, the internet has done zilch to change IP laws in regards to pedals and their circuits. You can't patent a circuit unless it innovates at a fundamental level on the basic structure of what we're attempting to do here. The early fuzz pedals (and wahs) were really the only ones that could be patented, and those have long expired. Nearly every other pedal is derivative of those designs, in a manner of speaking. Choosing a topology, picking out a device, biasing it up to amplify and tweaking some values is not a very original or patentable franchise.

The value in a product does not come from its makeup, necessarily. If a builder is talented and gives a quality product, then he will sell pedals. If a builder is endorsed by EVH and puts stripes on his enclosure, he will sell pedals. Even if a guy is a shit builder with terrible soldering skill, no idea what a capacitor does, no clue about longevity of his product, as long as he can market and network, he will likely sell pedals too.

People see value in things for a multitude of reasons. Not only is there NOTHING illegal about cloning said EVH distortion, but he will likely not lose many sales because of it. He will of course have to look out for brand dilution, because lots of boutique builders will likely try to get away with a derivative of the stripes on their version, which would certainly be illegal as the copyright is owned by the EVH company. The only thing you can't reuse from a circuit is the brand name, PCB and decorative artwork. Everything else is up for grabs. Is that ethical? perhaps not. But the law does not protect circuits for a good reason. Because the circuit itself is only a small portion of the value of a product.