Specs on EVH wolfgang pickups

[5150mod]

So you think he didn't slave his Plexi ,go to metro amps forum and check Rockstah 's mp3 clips out .They are closest to that VH1 tone I've heard anyone get.
It's not all in his hands his rhythm tones are not that easy to get out of any amp and it ain't his playing it's his rig.
His tone is the hardest to get of any of the great guitar tones and ain't in just his fingers and playing style .That's why there is a never ending quest to get that sound.

[5150mod]

Ibanez Super 70 is an Alnico 8 at least the early ones.
http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/disc...s/13/20223.jpg

[big_teee]

Ibanez Super 70 is an Alnico 8 at least the early ones.
http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/disc...s/13/20223.jpg

The Super 70, may be what was used in the Ibanez explorer.

The Frankie pickup was a modified PAF.
Eddie sells that pickup as a relic signed replica item for $399.
Sure as hell looks like a PAF replica to me!
Terry

[David Schwab]

Ibanez Super 70 is an Alnico 8 at least the early ones.
http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/disc...s/13/20223.jpg

I stand corrected!

But that wasn't the Frankie pickup. Find Frank Falbo's post on the matter.

[David Schwab]

So you think he didn't slave his Plexi ,go to metro amps forum and check Rockstah 's mp3 clips out .They are closest to that VH1 tone I've heard anyone get.

That doesn't mean that's what he did. That just means someone else got a similar tone in a different way. Doesn't prove a thing. Eddie has said how he set his amps up. The variac was the key, along with some mods. By lowering the voltage to the amp, it went into saturation sooner, just like the starved tube distortion pedals on the market. So he didn't need to drive it harder. Did Rockstah use a variac? If not, then he wasn't doing it like Ed.

I once got a very similar tone with a Hayman guitar plugged into a Sony boombox, and I'm quiet sure Ed didn't use that either.

[5150mod]

On the plexi slaving this is not my opinion this is from people around at the VH1 recording .Check out metro amps evh forum (the best place for Eddie tone talk I've found)and he supposedly ran guitar into an EQ frowned(boosted mids) into his No.1 plexi (every nob on 10) then from speaker out of the amp into a 20 ohm load box into phaser,flanger,delay then another EQ with scooped mids into another amp a plexi maybe even a vox as seen in a photo on the floor at that recording session.

On later albums he slaved using a Palmer into a H&H solid state instead of of the load box, except for VH2 which was recorded as normally done (no slaving) but went back to slaving after that album.

That pickup from EVH inc. is what was in it later not what was in it back when VH1 was recorded in'77 when it was black&white.

Eddie wasn't that smart back then ,have a look at the butcher work he done on his guitars all of these ideas in the recording studio came from other people.

He must of liked the tone of the Ibanez destroyer because it's used on half of the tracks on VH1at least.And after he butchered his one he borrowed Chris Holmes(from WASP) unmodified Ibanez destroyer and used it live and on some recorded tracks.

I know must people couldn't care less about any of this but there sure alot of people who wouldn't mind knowing what he did use on his early stuff and how he got his sound. These are not my opinions just what answers I have come across in a lot of searching through the fog layed by Eddie the master spin doctor of tone.

[dai h.]

That doesn't mean that's what he did. That just means someone else got a similar tone in a different way. Doesn't prove a thing. Eddie has said how he set his amps up. The variac was the key, along with some mods. By lowering the voltage to the amp, it went into saturation sooner, just like the starved tube distortion pedals on the market. So he didn't need to drive it harder. Did Rockstah use a variac? If not, then he wasn't doing it like Ed.

I once got a very similar tone with a Hayman guitar plugged into a Sony boombox, and I'm quiet sure Ed didn't use that either.

As far as I can gather that is what is going on (similar tone achieved a bit differently). I don't think the sound is the difficult part as much as playing the same. There have been other people with sound clips that were quite close to the album sound. (Again, as far as I can suss out) the amp is pretty normal (split cathode lead with a more fuller range done by adding a big cathode bypass cap). Some of the confusion is from guys who think they know something who evidently can't tell the difference between the bass type circuit and later split cathode lead and conclude "you can't get that much gain from a 'plexi'"(same plastic panel but different circuit).

[5150mod]

Here is some of Rockstah's MP3s. Click on view all 97 clips and you find lots of different ways to get there.
SoundClick artist: rockstah plexi tweaks and mods - page with MP3 music downloads

And here is an interesting post on slaving a plexi.Pickup used is a Super Distortion with an alnico 5.
MetroAmp.com Forum • View topic - Slaving a Plexi Project

The EVH inc franky pickup at 14K + is not really in the PAF range.

[paulyy]

Holy crap! I havent posted in almost 2 years. I got caught up with work and family. Had to give up winding pickups for awhile. I was bummed but before I stoped. I found a sound that was close to what I was looking for. Like most of the EVH inspired pickups. Its a p.a.f. type clone reading around 9.66 with 42 PE wire with a alnico2 magnet. I wound the screw side 500 more than the slug side. Im happy with the results but the next time I wind one of these. Im going to cut back on the winds. Trying to tape up the screw side bobbin was a pain in the ass but it came looking clean.
Im just happy I can start winding pickups again and happy to be back.

[mondo]

Eddie Van Halen says that the pickup he used for his brown sound had the coil cut. His high E string used to get snagged in the bobbin regularly and when his guitar tech put a multi-meter on the pickup it read 0 ohms DCR! Does anyone here have any explanation for how this pickup could pass a signal with the wires cut and how this might affect the sound?

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Eddie Van Halen says that the pickup he used for his brown sound had the coil cut. His high E string used to get snagged in the bobbin regularly and when his guitar tech put a multi-meter on the pickup it read 0 ohms DCR! Does anyone here have any explanation for how this pickup could pass a signal with the wires cut and how this might affect the sound?

Meter was on the wrong setting? 0 ohms would be a short, not a cut. A cut would either be infinite ohms, or it would read the same as a complete coil as the capacitance across the break is such that the current for the meter is uninterrupted.

[big_teee]

Meter was on the wrong setting? 0 ohms would be a short, not a cut. A cut would either be infinite ohms, or it would read the same as a complete coil as the capacitance across the break is such that the current for the meter is uninterrupted.

When he implied zero, maybe he meant it read nothing, which would in fact be Infinity!
That's a definite Maybe. lol
T

[charvelstrat81]

I've looked into eddie's VH1 pickup for a few years and it ain,t no Gibson PAF .
The pickups he used then were Ibanez Super 70(7.9K alnico8) in his destroyer and a Mighty Mite medium output around 12K (Mighty Mite only had a couple of pickups around at that time)in his black&white franky.
He might have used the neck pickup off the destroyer(super 70)in the b&w franky as he took it out of the destroyer at some point after VH1.A lot of people know this and Super 70 prices are pretty high because of this.
He was changing pickups all the time in the early days.
So chasing a PAF clone for that VH1 tone is off the mark.

you have definitely did your homework. No one is positive of what was in the black/white strat(if it was even painted that way yet?)
for the recording of VH I but all early photo evidence points to like you said a Mighty mite MM1300 or MM1400 model.
which is funny since the MM1300 is basically a dimarzio super distortion clone. 13.6K large ceramic)
seems that after the VH I record Ed's strat was loaded with a PAF looking(this could be the duncan 78?) pickup in it.
going by the tone of VH II compared to VH I i can hear he dropped heat somewhere in the chain so a switch from the 13.6K ceramic to a 9.1K alnico II paf type would explain that.
oddly enough after that 9K paf type left his guitar he never went back to a lower output pu, all of his pickups that followed are all 13.7K and up.

[charvelstrat81]

Oh yeah almost forgot to ask, on the EVH branded wolfgang pu's does anyone know of these are A2 or A5?
I heard ceramic but that is definitely not right,i took a new EVH WG pu apart and it is definitely alnico.

[big_teee]

Oh yeah almost forgot to ask, on the EVH branded wolfgang pu's does anyone know of these are A2 or A5?
I heard ceramic but that is definitely not right,i took a new EVH WG pu apart and it is definitely alnico.

I use A2 on my version.
It is easy to swap the magnet and try some of all of them.
A8s sound pretty good also.
T