Okay, that is good to know. I have a BOSS Digital Delay but not a Phase 90. Any excuse to buy new gear is cool. I guess I am pedal shopping.
Struggling to Nail Early EVH Tones with EVH 5150 Iconic Series Amp
- Thread starter TubeNoob
- Start date
Okay, that is good to know. I have a BOSS Digital Delay but not a Phase 90. Any excuse to buy new gear is cool. I guess I am pedal shopping.
GreatGreen
Roadie
- Messages
- 258
@TubeNoob
Before you go down the rabbit hole buying stuff, take a breath and step back. A lot of people will swoop in and give you advice like spending more money all across different parts of your signal chain, but first there's a few things that might be important about you that would be helpful for us to know, so we can help you better.
1. How long have you been playing guitar?
2. How long have you been into tones with a lot of distortion?
3. What VH songs, or even just riffs, do you consider yourself good at? Entire albums worth or a handful of licks here and there. Either answer is completely fine. Even if you don't know any VH at all, that's totally fine too. The more info we know, the better we can help.
4. Can you post a cell phone audio clip or something of you playing your current setup so we can better identify what needs to be improved? You don't need to aim the camera at yourself, you don't even need to include the video part, really. Just take an audio recording with the phone mic aimed at the speaker. If you don't want to do that, that's fine, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000, etc.
As far as pickups go, if you're a relatively new player, a Duncan JB is going to be more than fine to get you good high gain rock tones that are close enough to VH-like. And even if you change pickups, it might not have the impact you want if the rest of the rig isn't doing what you want it to do. It might just be a case of helping you dial in your amp. But if you've been playing for decades and are a die hard VH fan who needs to get his specific rig EXACTLY right, then that will call for a different strategy for helping.
These people recommending multi-thousand dollar amps and all kinds of stuff you haven't even thought of yet, without knowing the first thing about what kind of player you are or your understanding of gear, are clowns. Don't listen to them.
Before you go down the rabbit hole buying stuff, take a breath and step back. A lot of people will swoop in and give you advice like spending more money all across different parts of your signal chain, but first there's a few things that might be important about you that would be helpful for us to know, so we can help you better.
1. How long have you been playing guitar?
2. How long have you been into tones with a lot of distortion?
3. What VH songs, or even just riffs, do you consider yourself good at? Entire albums worth or a handful of licks here and there. Either answer is completely fine. Even if you don't know any VH at all, that's totally fine too. The more info we know, the better we can help.
4. Can you post a cell phone audio clip or something of you playing your current setup so we can better identify what needs to be improved? You don't need to aim the camera at yourself, you don't even need to include the video part, really. Just take an audio recording with the phone mic aimed at the speaker. If you don't want to do that, that's fine, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000, etc.
As far as pickups go, if you're a relatively new player, a Duncan JB is going to be more than fine to get you good high gain rock tones that are close enough to VH-like. And even if you change pickups, it might not have the impact you want if the rest of the rig isn't doing what you want it to do. It might just be a case of helping you dial in your amp. But if you've been playing for decades and are a die hard VH fan who needs to get his specific rig EXACTLY right, then that will call for a different strategy for helping.
These people recommending multi-thousand dollar amps and all kinds of stuff you haven't even thought of yet, without knowing the first thing about what kind of player you are or your understanding of gear, are clowns. Don't listen to them.
Last edited:
- Messages
- 3,795
Holy Satan, that boy can rip!
Agree. This is a maze of rabbit holes if you want it to be.
If I had your rig, I’d drop the gain 2 level to under 4-5 and raise the volume 2 level up.
Or even crank the volume 2 and use the Gain 2 as the volume control.
Pre-1988 EVH tones were all about tube power amp saturation. He CRANKED those amps to ear bleeding levels to get the distortion.
The Iconic mirrors more the 1988-2015 tones with the gain 2 up and the volume lower, more preamp gain/distortion. But it can be at (as above) for power tube saturation which may help your quest.
The JB is fine, it’s a great pickup and there is all kind of speculation that it was a pickup used by EVH in 1984-???? in his main Kramer striped guitar
If I had your rig, I’d drop the gain 2 level to under 4-5 and raise the volume 2 level up.
Or even crank the volume 2 and use the Gain 2 as the volume control.
Pre-1988 EVH tones were all about tube power amp saturation. He CRANKED those amps to ear bleeding levels to get the distortion.
The Iconic mirrors more the 1988-2015 tones with the gain 2 up and the volume lower, more preamp gain/distortion. But it can be at (as above) for power tube saturation which may help your quest.
The JB is fine, it’s a great pickup and there is all kind of speculation that it was a pickup used by EVH in 1984-???? in his main Kramer striped guitar
Eagle
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,027
In the mid 90’s Ed was over here on tour and he arranged to visit a friend of mine who is a dealer and collector of vintage Marshalls. My friend asked me to come over and help him with the gear . When Ed arrived we ended up chatting about stuff and he handed me 5150 to hold while he took off his jacket. He could see me looking carefully at it and he said “ play it man”. So I got to play it and a Music Man that he also brought. The back up guitars I have worked on are in collections.
Stone
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,913
I'm pretty sure that Pickup type is not a major factor, sure part of the equation but a small part IME
for Early VH stuff I use the stock Seymour Duncan® Hyperion in my stock Ibanez AZ42P1, other things in the chain matter more
Certainly the amp and chain is much more important
for Early VH stuff I use the stock Seymour Duncan® Hyperion in my stock Ibanez AZ42P1, other things in the chain matter more
Certainly the amp and chain is much more important
Last edited:
As my username says, I’m a noob—I’ve been playing for about five years now. I love metal, so distortion is definitely a must for me. I can play a few songs from the first few VH albums, but I mostly know riffs. I don’t feel very confident or comfortable posting my playing on the internet just yet. The clips you all posted are amazing, and I feel like I’d be embarrassing myself in comparison.
I’m not going crazy buying gear, but I did just pick up an EVH Phase 90. It wasn’t too expensive, and I think it’ll be a fun pedal to experiment with. I’m just trying to nail down the echo settings before it shows up.
Eagle
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,027
Phase 90 first for VH tone.
GreatGreen
Roadie
- Messages
- 258
Ok. So, what about that EVH 5150 Iconic combo isn't getting you what you want? Be detailed and specific.
- Messages
- 3,795
Have no fear. I post songs here with my godawful singing for fun. Just a few chords from a VH song that show us what's coming out of your amp would help us help you. No pressure tho!
- Messages
- 9,866
@TubeNoob, no need to be shy here, there are no assholes around who would take a shot at someone who's been playing for a few years. And if one popped up it'd only take a few minutes for everyone else to tear their head off. Gleefully.
It definitely would go a long way to make a quick recording of just playing some chords and palm mutes so we could hear what ballpark you're in. It's a bit tough giving direction when no one knows where the starting point is!
It definitely would go a long way to make a quick recording of just playing some chords and palm mutes so we could hear what ballpark you're in. It's a bit tough giving direction when no one knows where the starting point is!
Stone
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,913
@TubeNoob your not the only noob here im also a player of only 5 years and a late bloomer, i post some of my recordings/cover sure they aint nothing special but no one ever said anything bad, this place is the best of any online forums period, all you will get here is support and positive reinforcement
Cheers
Mike
Cheers
Mike
MatrixClaw
Newbie
- Messages
- 18
Came here to say this. Don't use channel 2. Also don't be afraid to turn the volume up high and use less gain. The Iconic sounds awesome when pushed right at the power section.
Agree though, the 10" speaker in yours probably isn't helping. Even the stock 12" in my 40 sounded like garbage. A quick swap to a WGS ET65 and it's killer now. I use my Iconic more than my amps that cost 4x+ more than it.
Seymour Duncan 78 is probably more suited.
You should check out Pete Thorn's video on VH styled pickups.
Eagle
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,027
That video actually proves that it doesn’t matter because Ed’s tone was coming out of pickups ranging from pafs to super distortions. Get the playing first.
Oh yeah I agree about the playing part.
I will say that going from a Paf to a higher output can change subtle nuances in one's playing.
I have a Knaggs which had a JB in it which I found quite stiff sounding - I replaced it with a SD 78 and it was much more pleasing in its response etc.
