The Final Word on EVH’s VHI Setup?
The following article is a WoodyTone.com exclusive. WoodyTone is a great site for guitarists that’s written by a self-professed “tone-freak” who’s favorite guitarist is Edward Van Halen.
L-R top: Variac, Marshall 50.
L-R bottom: Vox, Marshall SL 100.
There’s been a lot of stuff written about, said about and speculated about regarding Edward Van Halen’s mind-blowing, world-altering Van Halen I setup. Was he running “slaved” amps (one amp into another), was he using some sort of boost and/or distortion pedal, etc.
If you read hard and don’t fall prey to speculation (which is tough!), it looks like he didn’t use more than his regular club setup, which was: Frankie guitar >> pedals >> his famed Marshall Super Lead (stated to be all or largely stock, but those heads were all different back then!), all knobs on 10 >> 4×12 cabinet(s) with Celestion 20- or 25-watt speakers and JBL-120s – and a Variac used to “brown” the sound and decrease the volume.
This makes sense – why would he change what he spent so much time dialing in? On the other hand, he was changing stuff all the time….
Anyhow, the latest shot fired in this tone info craziness comes from Dave Friedman, who knows Ed and his circle, and who recently posted the following on the MetroAmp.com forum:
“Well here is what I was told by Rudy Leiren [Ed's] long time tech. This was just last week. [Ed's VHI] setup was [MXR] flanger-[MXR] phaser-Echoplex-amp. His main 100-watt was used on everything. The [tube] bias was turned all the way up and the variac was set to 91 volts into only one cab.
“There is a pic of the early days with a 50-watt [head] and a Vox [head]. [Rudy] told me the 50 was a backup to the 100, and the Vox was a last-ditch backup. [Ed] often borrowed amps for his backups. In fact, [Rudy] told me a story that at a party they were playing, Ed blew a fuse in his main amp and did not have a backup and had to run home to get a fuse while the band was playing. After this he always made sure he had a backup.
“Rudy said the EQ pedal [MXR 6-band] was used only for certain guitars or sometimes when he used rental gear that sounded bad [meaning NOT on VHI?!]. Also the Univox echo [located in the practice bomb!] was patched in by hand for Eruption only, and then was taken out of the chain after.
“As time went on [post-VHI], more cabs were used and so were more amps. The amps would only drive one cab, though.
“He did say Ed was always trying [new things], but would always come back to this setup.
“This info follows everything Ed has ever said to me personally. Also, when ‘84 hit he changed his setup to H&H power amps and some different effects. He still used a cab off the head, though no load resistor. The Load resistor came for the 5150 tour.”
And there you have it.
Filed under: Eddie Van Halen, Van Halen
Leave a comment
trackback • RSS 2.0
July 30th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Interesting….Imma go play MY rig now.
July 30th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Eddies boots/shoes are look crazy in that old photo. That 100W marshall…I wonder if he will ever use it again?
July 30th, 2010 at 9:45 am
The tone to end all tones. Long live Classic VH!
July 30th, 2010 at 9:53 am
im curious what the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge or Balance Tour setup was, or at least what Ed used for Humans Being and Respect The Wind. both of those songs have a pretty good tone.
July 30th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Bran Halen, I believe, but I may be wrong, that Marshall head was lost in transit at some point in the early history. Maybe it showed back up, IDK. I smoked away that memory…
July 30th, 2010 at 10:14 am
“Eddies boots/shoes are look crazy in that old photo.”
Maybe that early on he was already planning to jump to KISS and thus was working on getting the look down.
July 30th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Yeah, but Kiss sells coffins and VH sells a tsunami if I’m not mistaken?
July 30th, 2010 at 10:39 am
last night on the tv show(so you think you can dance)one of the older american idol cast offS played a song with her band.she was using evh amps and they kept showing the little 5150 logo on the front .I thought it was pretty cool.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:39 am
That Marshall Super Lead should be enshrined at the Smithsonian…..it changed music history forever.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:44 am
All those old photos with Van Halen members wearing platform shoes just crack me up! You can tell it was a side effect of the band being forced to play so much Top 40 crap during their club days.
Dave and Eddie looked kinda cool in them…..but Mikey always appeared goofy because he had short, stubby legs mounted on 5-inch platforms that a girl would wear.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:57 am
It WAS the seventies, right? Saturday Night Fever came out the same year they recorded “Van Halen”, they just couldn’t resist the urge to wear those goddamn, freaky-lookin’ cool ass lifts!
July 30th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
I remember hearing that Ed’s main amp head was lost in transit on the way back from Japan during the first tour. Don’t know if there’s any truth behind that but…
July 30th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
MJ, yes the SL was lost in transit and he was using Laneys, Voxes and Music Mans for a time, but he got it back.
Joker, some of that info is on WoodyTone, the rest I will chase down at some point!
July 30th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
He got the amp back…he used it sparingingly on F.U.CK. and Balance,then it was all Peavy’s until he made the 5150III.Carnal Knowledge was said to be recorded with the Marshall and a Soldano Super Lead running thru a Bradshaw preamp simultaneously.I am sure he still plays the Marshall in the studio,but wouldnt want to risk losing it or having it break down on the road…..you can bet the new 5150III heads are a little more reliable and sound just as good to him because it’s tuned to his ears
July 30th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I wish Eddie would just set up a rig similar to the 1st record in his studio. Show us what it is, hit an A cord and call it a day. Would be too easy huh? Lol would love to hear that tone again. If you really crank the clean channel on the 5150 III its almost there.
July 30th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
This article came from the MetroAmps forum. They make a ’66, ’67, ’68 and ’69 Plexi Super Lead Replica handwired exactly with the same type parts and perf-board layouts of the originals.
The early ’68 gets the exact VH I-Fair Warning sounds. You can hear it on YouTube if you type “Metropoulos”.
They sell kits too. I just purchased my ’68 plexi replica steel chassis and exact duplicate transformer set. They even took a new Marshall hand-wired series and made it sound like it was supposed to sound… Eddie should get one of these…
July 30th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
The YouTube title is,
Van Halen Unchained – ’68 Spec (12xxx Series) Metro Plexi
July 30th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Also on YouTube,
68 replica 100 watt 12 Series
July 31st, 2010 at 12:03 am
Bet you dollars to donuts he’ll never use the Marshall again. He’s way too stubborn to go back to that tone. The more us fans say we wish he would, the more he digs his heels.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:17 am
Amps? effects? It’s all in the fingers, ladies and gents. The later Sammy albums seem to be laden with effects more, chorus and delay, than the early ones.
July 31st, 2010 at 2:46 am
I agree Roth Zealot, that amp deserves to be in a museum, but would the smithsonian house a british made amp?, probably not, and theres no way ed would let it go im sure. Have you guys tried out guitar rig 4 ‘Jump’ amp emulator, they have done a remarkable job of recreating the early evh tone for enthusiasts like me, worth checking out for amusment sake if nothing else. But no matter how hard I tried i could not change the voltage setting to 89V. which is what ed himself said he set it at, what this 91V about? Any way time to crank my Marshall DSL, nuthin beats the real thing.
July 31st, 2010 at 8:32 am
Too bad Ed and Marshall didn’t do a signature amp. I’m sure he was approached on it by Jim Marshall. But hey, the Peaveys were/are great. Just can’t like the Fender made 5150 III’s made in Mexico !?!?! and that price ? Guess Ed’s not aware of the world’s economy yet.
July 31st, 2010 at 11:53 am
Joker, for the Carnal and Balance tours, his rig was a wet-dry-wet setup with three cabs, a 5150 amp and a rack full of effects. The amp would push the dry cab but also a line-level out that would go to the effects and then into an H&H V800 power amp to drive the L/R wet cabs. He even used the wet-dry-wet on the VH3 tour though the rack of effects was replaced by footpedals (remember the two striped cabs with the one yellow cab?).
This was an evolution from his 5150/OU812 wet-wet tour setup where a Palmer speaker simulator was used as the amp load and provided the line-level out. Bob Bradshaw speculated one day “Why not use a real cab for the amp load?” The Palmer became history and the line out on the 5150 amps was born.
I an many other players use the wet-dry-wet topology today (although Malmsteen is the only example I can think of at the moment). My rig consists of Marshall Lead 12 mini stacks, two Alesis Midiverb IIs (one chorus, one reverb/delay) and a beat-up Peavey power amp. The Lead 12 amp even has the line-out needed for this trick. What I like best is that no matter how much effects you blend in, the originial tone is always present in the dry cab.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Tom, during the recording of Carnal, it was discovered that the magic Marshall had deteriorated in its sustain and presence. He ended up recording much of that album using a Soldano SLO-100 with the bright switch on as well as an early 5150 prototype. Matt Bruck, Ed’s tech at the time, sent the Marshall to a European guy (Peter?) who lovingly restored it to its sonic glory.
He also used an unfinished EBMM prototype for much of that album too. Along with a custom Tele for Runaround, a barritone for Spanked, Pleasure Dome and Top of the World.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:03 pm
If I remember correctly, didn’t Eddie’s Marshalls get lost (or stolen) in Japan (during the 1st or 2nd tour) and he used something else? I know if you look at old photos of him backstage in the dressing room he was using Music Man amps for warm up. Does anyone know any of this info?
July 31st, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I think he said “they were flying aroung somewhere above India, but they got them back and he was never taking them on the road again”.
Also, he then “was using newer Super Lead Marshalls live but they were modified to sound like the old ones”. Steve Stevens also used stock JCM800 Super Leads live on the “Whiplash Smile” tour to avoid taking his ’66 and ’67 Plexi Super Leads on the road.
July 31st, 2010 at 5:29 pm
I have read many interviews with Ed where he said he wasnt even sure if the Marshall had changed or if he just wanted more than it could put out and his taste in tone had naturally changed.He went with Peavy because they were willing to work with him and not just throw it out there and sell it based on his name.It had to be to his liking (which is why he left….he was less than thrilled about how the Wolfgangs were being built).I think he went with Fender because they were willing to let it be his own brand,not simply a signature model that he played and endorsed.He has to make 0 compromises and they are more than up to the task of mass producing his line while maintaining quality
July 31st, 2010 at 7:40 pm
@dirtyfacedkidinagarbagecan:
Considering Smithson WAS a Brit, the should allow the Marshall to be put on display!
July 31st, 2010 at 7:41 pm
its obvious that the ‘vanhalen news desk’ is the best place to come for vh news….Roth being quite is proof that eddie Dave and the band is making new music for an album!
July 31st, 2010 at 8:34 pm
In that case your probably right.
What ever happened to the Marshall that Reinhold Bogner sold to Ed? From what Ive heard of the new Glodfinger it has some brown tones, I really want one of these.
July 31st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Goldfinger, lol (Clodfingers indeed)
August 1st, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Try the Wompler–Pinnacle 2 pedal. That will nail the sound on a clean amp !!!!!!
August 1st, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Well while the article itself isn’t exactly new (mainly just another source citing confirmation of somthing that has been said for years and years), I’m really loving all the comments, especially regarding the setups between Carnal Knowledge and Balance. Thanks guys!
August 1st, 2010 at 6:32 pm
On Carnal,he used the Steinberger for Pleasure dome.The old 58 Flying V was used on Top of the world.He used the Kramer 5150 on Judgement day,possibly the last known recording he did with that guitar before switching ovet to the Musicman.On Balance,it was the Musicman except on Big fat money,where he used an old Gibson 335 on the solo.And the acoustic on Take me back,which was some old guitar he wasnt even sure of the make lol.He has always used many different guitars in the studio,sometimes he said it in interviews,sometimes not .We guitar players are left to scratch our heads and wonder how he achieves so many tones out of one guitar lol.He also has said he has used Hiwatts and Voxs here and there to get different tones as well.But live,he keeps it simple as can be so if there is a problem,it can be solved as easily and quickly as possible.The show must go on
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:33 am
Great info Tom, Thanks. Still love the tone of the Musicman.. both live and in the studio. Gorgeous looking guitar too.
Check out the vids on Youtube from the John Stewart show in
’95 and tell me that Musicman wasn’t smokin’….
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Yeah, he played a Steinberger with a TransTrem for Pleasure Dome’s lead and main riff but there’s a barritone doubled underneath. Same with Top of the World, the barritone is under it all and somewhat hidden by Mike’s bass. Funny that the main riff for TotW is the outro riff from Jump. The Kramer 5150 was outfitted with a bass A string for the low E which was a common trick when detuning 1/2 step for Dave. The custom Runaround Tele was a gift from Fender who were courting him at the time. I guess their patience won in the end!
Not sure on the Balance guitars since at that time I eschewed hard rock/heavy metal in favor of the Blues. Fortunately, I’ve rejoined the fold.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:31 pm
I saw Van Halen play in front of the book store at Glendale College around 1975. After their set, I was checking out their “flash pots”. Eddie walks up to me and gave me a tour of his setup. He showed me his one 100 watt Marshall and told me he pulled one of the power tubes out to give it more distortion. I asked if Anthony’s SVTs would drown it out. He said no. He had a BLOND FENDER BANDMASTER amp for his backup then.
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Since it doesn’t seem Ed is using it right now, I agree with Roth Zealot 78, enshrine that amp in the Smithsonian and make it Mecca for all us VH freaks.