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Vintage threads from the first ten years

EVH 1978 BOOTLEG...

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4/17/2000 8:54 PM

Trace

EVH 1978 BOOTLEG... I got a copy of the '78 bootleg which contains the preproduction demos and some live tunes (originals and covers) from a show some place in LA.     It sounds like a regular 'ol 1959 with a Phase 90 and an echoplex (I don't know which model it was for sure). The gain is certainly not unreachable with a 1959 amp. "Yes," Eddie has an over wound pickup (an old PAF or something like to that effect) and this effects how much juice the amp sees at the input. Perhaps the output of the tape echo had something to do with it as well. It would stand to reason.     When you hear the live cuts (definitely sounds like a board tape) you can tell he doesn't have a distortion pedal at all (I would say the variac was not present here but was on the demo as well as the record). The ironic thing is the preproduction-demo basically has the same guitar tone as the record. The demo is not mastered and the mixes are very raw sounding. It sounds like they slammed the guitar tone onto the 2" tape pretty heavily but other than that it's pretty much the same tone as the album.     Another thing to factor in here is that LA-2A's were a very popular tube compressor back then (so were 1187's) and if you jacked them up they would (and still do) break up and add gain to the tone. Andy Johns (producer) did the same thing for Jimmy Page's tone on "Black Dog."     I know many people don't care to hear or read this but many people do so I decided to post it! (ha, ha) Too all those who are tired of EVH's tone...I'm sorry. For all those that love it...I hope this helps.     Trace

 

4/18/2000 7:56 PM
bicamen	Very interesting. If you listen to Running with the Devil vs the other songs on the first album as well as the bootleg, does it seem like that song has more gain than the others, or his sound is a little thicker (on the chorus section)?     Thanks

 

4/28/2000 2:59 AM
xray	One factor in the tone equation is the fact   that he used a les paul and a Ibanez Destroyer   on many of the cuts on that album. Both had   overwound pickups probably something similar   to a Duncan Custom.

 

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