Question Eddie Van Halen Live Sound

[AC Long]

I'm thinking about buying a Music Man Super Sport because they don't have the Axis in my country.
This is the kind of sound I want live:

Van Halen - Right Here Right Now Concert (HD) - YouTube

1. Is it possible to get an early 90's VH sound with a Super Sport? Or should I just take a chance and order an Axis? Furthermore, how can I approximate this sound without buying amps like this? It would be impossible to lug around amps to rehearsals and gigs. They usually have two decent half stacks where I play. I'm thinking of getting an Electro Harmonix Poly Chorus to split my signal to two amps and get that wide EVH chorused sound. For distortion of this type I am at a loss though. What distortion pedal produces this kind of sound? Electro Harmonix makes some fat sounding distortion pedals, so I'm thinking about starting there. Anything else I should check out?

2. My bass player uses a Fender Jazz bass. I'm afraid that the lack of bottom end of the Axis (compared to a Les Paul) will be a problem. I noticed Mike Anthony was using a MM Stingray in this concert. Very fat bottom end. The Axis and the Stingray go together SO well! By itself the Axis sounds like it's a little lacking in the low end. But in a band context it's just right. If I get the Axis and the bass is wimpy, we'll probably need a second guitar, right?

After playing a Les Paul Studio for 20 years, the feel of that smooth Axis neck is just so incredible. The Silhouette HSH is calling me too!

 

[Tollywood]

Hello AC Long, and welcome to the forum.

Yes, you can get vh tones from an Axis Super Sport. I use a Suhr Riot pedal through a clean amp for my after hours playing at home, and I can get that tone. It is an amazing pedal that sounds like a saturated tube amp. You can lower your guitar's volume to clean up your tone, and the pedal responds appropriately.

Good luck on your quest...

 

[ErnieJohn]

Same here, I use a Suhr Riot (reloaded), it's the best pedal I've used for high gain settings.

 

[Luke Duke]

A couple things come to mind.

First, I've played used LPs for about 15 years (though not exclusively). The thing that makes LPs sound so great (lows/low mids) when we are practicing alone can make them a pain to get right in the mix. The thing about EBMMs is they are "tuned" for band settings. What that means is that they sit in the mix "just right" so as to not become just another part of the indistinct wall of sound you'll often hear in a club setting. I say all that to say that I wouldn't worry about the low end sounding thin....in fact I believe your overall band EQ will improve.

Second the polychorus is a good idea, it seems like Ed mainly used MXR stuff, but it would be worth a try. Also note, his tone is more about power tube crunch than pre-amp tube crunch....so it's also possible that you'll find that 2 amps works against you if you have to crank the gain a lot.

Lastly drive pedal-wise I haven't tried the Suhr and can't comment to it, I really liked the MI Audio Crunchbox for all 80s-centric tones. Finally the MXR 78 Distortion and Custom Badass Modified OD used in tandem can get you the lion's share of Ed's tones for the last 25 years.

Finally, the biggest mistake I see/hear when guys are trying to get in the vicinity of Ed's tones, from any era, is that they try to use too much OD.

Hope that helps.

Luke

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

The thing you have to realize is that this concert is not all live. The vocals and most of the guitar parts are overdubs, together with a lot of post production.

There used to be a guy on YouTube who nailed this tone with a Roland Cube! At the end of the day, the sound is in your fingers!

 

[ozzyrules]

Wampler pinnacle deluxe pedal on my clean channel does it very well.

 

[gregmusi]

A couple things come to mind.

First, I've played used LPs for about 15 years (though not exclusively). The thing that makes LPs sound so great (lows/low mids) when we are practicing alone can make them a pain to get right in the mix. The thing about EBMMs is they are "tuned" for band settings. What that means is that they sit in the mix "just right" so as to not become just another part of the indistinct wall of sound you'll often hear in a club setting. I say all that to say that I wouldn't worry about the low end sounding thin....in fact I believe your overall band EQ will improve.

Second the polychorus is a good idea, it seems like Ed mainly used MXR stuff, but it would be worth a try. Also note, his tone is more about power tube crunch than pre-amp tube crunch....so it's also possible that you'll find that 2 amps works against you if you have to crank the gain a lot.

Lastly drive pedal-wise I haven't tried the Suhr and can't comment to it, I really liked the MI Audio Crunchbox for all 80s-centric tones. Finally the MXR 78 Distortion and Custom Badass Modified OD used in tandem can get you the lion's share of Ed's tones for the last 25 years.

Finally, the biggest mistake I see/hear when guys are trying to get in the vicinity of Ed's tones, from any era, is that they try to use too much OD.

Hope that helps.

Luke

Actually his tone has changed a ton over time. Early years were MXR pedals into the front of a cranked Marshall plexi with a variac to lower the voltage and bring the overall volume down but still get power tube distortion.

As for this his setup in this video, he had a somewhat complex setup to get that wide chorusey sound. He was using Soldano SLO or Peavey 5150 amps with lots of preamp distortion. He ran a wet/dry/wet setup, where he would get a line out feed from the speaker outputs of his amp to feed an Eventide H3000 harmonizer which would split his signal detuned -9 cents left and +9 cents right. Add digital delay (with different settings left and right), feed into solid state power amps for the left and right cabinets and his dry sound in the center. Mike all 3 cabinets and mix for front of house.

As for the guitar sound, the Super sport will get you there. It's the same pickups, it might vary slightly without the floyd, but it should be in the ballpark.

 

[AC Long]

Thank you so much for your advice! It was very helpful!

 

[Primo]

Definitely the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe pedal. My other guitarist in the band I play in has it and it's really close to the EVH brown sound.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Ive been chasing this tone for a long time, Ive noticed, for the right playability and harmonic response you need a lot of sustain. So a good hi gain amp like a 5150 will do this, or a good pedal, make sure you have loads of sustain though, for the tapping and soloing, as for effects you need a very slight delay with 3 to 5 repeats and make sure its not very loud, its a faint delay, combine that with a tiny reverb, I use a hall reverb. Then if you want try a very very subtle chorus effect, very wide and airy. But make sure you have a good amount of gain, cause a 5150 on the lead channel with the pre on 6 or 7 is what he's got, and thats plenty of gain! Good luck, and make sure you nail those tap harmonics bro! Would love to hear an eruption! Check mine out, its from a few months ago, but its still on here. Good luck!

 

[TNT]

You can absolutely get that sound on the SS, however, "if" you truly want to "nail" that sound you have no choice but to get an Eventide Harmonizer HD3000 - case closed!!