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new van halen song

puppiesonacid

puppiesonacid

Well-known member
well i just heard the new van halen single and i dont really know what to think. they have definetly tried to keep up with the nu metal trend, but Ed's riffing is still very much his own. the solo is decent, a nice decending two hand tapping lick in the middle of it. his tone isnt great though. rather raspy and kinda like jerry cantrell's off his solo album degradation trip ( song refrence: Spiderbite) i miss his brown sound!!!!!!!!!!! hahah, he's runnin' more distortion that he usually does, a lot more fuzzy than his last release. anyways... if you guys hear it let us know what you think.

God bless,

Tony
 
I agree, wolfgang and 5150II I'll guess. It's a dry midpeaky nasal fuzzy kind of sound. I have a liveshow from the VH3 tour with Gary on video (from australia), and the sound is the same as on the new track, not to appealing.

Nothing beats his EBMM+5150 sound that he had 1991-1996. The best sound I've heard from Eddie is from the Toronto show from the Balance tour where he was using EBMM and 5150 combos+4X12's

They could have made a better mix on the new track, the drums are no fun at all, The mix is dry and kinda boring and uncomplexed compared to the Balance album.

But hey, I like the song, and I love Van Hagar and it's great that they are back together! Let's hope they record a live DVD on this tour.
I'm excited!
 
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You may well be right that his tone isn't as good with the Wolf and 5150II. Obviously they are different than the EVH and 5150 so there are going to be some differences in his final tone.

When listening to recordings though there are MANY more variables to consider beyond what guitar and amp he's playing. From the way the cab was mic'd, to what mic was used, to how it was originally eq'd at the console. Then there's mixing and mastering which do amazing things to all the frequencies on the recording. All of this ends up being a combination of the artist's tastes and the tastes and abilities of the people doing the producing, mixing, mastering etc.

Again, I'm not telling you it isn't the Wolf and 5150II. Listening to a recording just isn't equal to sitting and listening to him play live in front of you with just his amp and guitar. There are too many other variables IMO.

For the record, of his post 80's recordings, I've always been partial to his Carnal Knowledge tone. Also the Balance tone is way up there on my list. The fuzziness of his tone on VH3 and what sounds like his tone on the new song are not my favorite EVH recorded tones.

So we don't necessarily disagree. We probably just disagree on why we agree... or something.

:rolleyes:
 
He is also using a guitar with a trans trem, probably one of his trans trem wolfgangs. You can hear that at the end of the song.

(trans trem = Steinberger tremolo)
 
Didn't he have a trans trem installed on a wolf? I couldve sworn I saw that somewhere....now if I could find the link....
 
I knew I saw that somewhere. Thanks man! That's pretty cool idn't it. Now. They need to market that here in the US. To be honest I'd interested in a trans trem instrument that isn't a s'berger. Never liked the feel, tho I almost bought one of tose spirits for travel purposes.
 
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I don't think it's a trans trem. Sounds like everything is tuned down a step and Ed is using the D-Tuna to drop the low E.
I'm glad to hear a new VH song, but I'm not digging this one too much. However, I am digging having tickets to opening night in Greensboro! :)
 
I'm with Schnook on the tuning assessment and "glad they're back, but..." factor, and with the rest of you guys on his current tone (or lack thereof compared to the old days - it's so markedly different I'm led to believe the boy's gone rather deaf after all these years or something :confused: ).

To me personally, though, the ultimate Ed tone - or ANY rock tone for that matter - is the one on "Fair Warning" - "Unchained" is just one of the most crushin', stompin', rippin', screamin', liquid, brutal pieces ever committed to tape....and that slappin' on the front end of "Mean Street"....oh man oh man oh maaaan!!!

(Hey Schnook....you in GSO? I lived there for a short while a long while back. Hell, my whole family's from NC, actually...)
 
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PurpleSport said:


To me personally, though, the ultimate Ed tone - or ANY rock tone for that matter - is the one on "Fair Warning" - "Unchained" is just a crushin', stompin', rippin', screamin', liquid, brutal pieces ever committed to tape....and that slappin' on the front end of "Mean Street"....oh man oh man oh maaaan!!!
Click to expand...

Unchained IMO has to be the best example of Ed's "Brown Sound"
 
PurpleSport,

Nope, I'm driving down from Virginia. Although, I've been to Greensboro quite a few times over the years.

And I agree completely with the ultimate rock guitar tone being on Unchained. Although, I also really liked the tone of the EVH EBMM through the original 5150's and Combo's. I think the main difference with EVH's tone these days is the 5150II more so than the Wolfgang.
 
i just wish their 'new' sound wasnt Soundgarden & Nu Metal combined. I wish they did something completely differemt, since a new VH album has little hope of getting played in today's ClearChannel owned stations. Not impressed, and I *like* Sammy and Ed, so I really wanted to like this.
 
the new Van Halen song....

my advice is to not listen to it for a day. I listened to it a bunch of times on wednesday then ignored it yesterday and came back to it today...

aside from the "whats up with that over processed tone?" intro, there's so much great Fair Warning/1984 style rhythm in there, its untrue! of course there's a little bit of "Van Halen 3" frivolity in there (i'd be surprised if Sammy was in the studio when the rhythm tracks were done), but I'll forgive Ed some of that. the solo isn't breaking new ground for Eddie technique-wise but I love the first lick and how the drums kind of off beat themselves into it.

the middle section (pre solo) is pure Fair Warning stuff!!! I can hear some Panama in there, and some (believe it or not) pre-solo Beat It in the verses...

I got into Van Halen when Sammy was behind the mic so overall this is the sound I want to hear from them. the Dave stuff is great too, of course, but this just does it for me.

seriously, live without it for a day then come back to it. you'll realise how great it is.... I did!
 
Shnook said:
I don't think it's a trans trem. Sounds like everything is tuned down a step and Ed is using the D-Tuna to drop the low E.
I'm glad to hear a new VH song, but I'm not digging this one too much. However, I am digging having tickets to opening night in Greensboro! :)
Click to expand...

I'm sure that he is using a trans trem at the end of of the song.
In the outro he is pulling the tremolo arm to rise the pitch , you can't do that with the original wolfgang tremolo as it only have down pitch.

We will find out in a guitar mag soon i supose :-)
 
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