Is it the Bad Times now?

Well, I suppose that’s it then. Robert Plant re-posted a beehivecity.com article on his website confessing that he had his bollocks cut off in an accident years ago, and that’s why he has no interest in any type of music resembling the powerhouse that was, and apparently never will be again, Led Zeppelin.

Okay, not exactly – and I feel bad even kidding about that when it comes to one of the absolute kings of rock, but I AM DISAPPOINTED.

Here are the relevant parts of the article:

Now 62, the lion-maned wailer has resisted the $200 million temptation of a full Led Zeppelin reunion tour in favor of a deeper exploration of the Americana style and sounds of his Grammy-winning Raising Sand album with Alison Krauss.

Plant says he feels further away from heavy rock than he ever has – even going to see Them Crooked Vultures made his ears bleed. [Wear earplugs, Robert!]

Plant looks delighted to have found a versatile band that isn’t expected to ape Zep and which shares his current passion for pre-rock musical forms. Jimmy Page isn’t going to get that phone call any time soon.

In a way, that’s not really news: We all know he resisted a Zep reunion, and that Jimmy, JPJ and Jason Bonham auditioned various substitute singers but eventually gave up. I now wish they didn’t because the thought of no more Zep frankly sticks in my throat like a bone from a particularly bony northern pike.

I’m going to have a hard time getting over it. Because here we have the creators and pioneers of a hugely great and influential musical form, three of four lions, possibly past their prime (we don’t really know) yet still potent, and even though they’re alive and in good health and all still playing music, we’ll never see them again. Seriously?

The Beatles are gone but the Stones aren’t too proud to do it. Sabbath has done it, and the boys even got a new drummer and different singer for Heaven and Hell. Further down that path, Priest is doing it. In other words, it’s not as if the Zep guys are pushing up daisies like Tchaikovsky. They’re still here! Still playing music! And they all STILL PLAY ZEP SONGS, just not together.

They even still get along.

WTF?!

I get the whole “artistic development” thing, and “moving on to new things” or whatever. I even get that Robert probably doesn’t have the range he once did. But I don’t get having such a huge impact on rock music, literally millions of people wanting to see and hear the band (just do an album for F’s sake!) and turning a blind ear to it all.

Ah crap. I don’t know if I can make a compelling argument about why he SHOULD do it, at least at this late hour, but I strongly feel that he should – would it really be that bad?

Or at the very least, Pagey should bang out some riffs that’ll slam into and wash over us like those giant waves off Oahu. That would be glorious.

Why not play it with the fellas?

12/10/07, London’s O2 Arena. Ah well.

Dang, I hoped not. So I tracked down the folks who did the sound for that commercial. here’s what I found out: Wood!

But first, here’s the commercial:

HA! Just messin’ with ya. Here’s the one I’m talking about, which it seems KIA has not posted in full yet:

The Gear

Thad Spencer – creative director and founder of Asche & Spencer, which supplied the music for the commercial – had this to say to my questions:

1. Whose tune is it?

This song was written by Asche & Spencer. We’re a group that writes music for TV commercials and feature films. Please check out our website for a more complete listing of our work history. Currently we are scoring Marc Forster’s latest film, The Machine Gun Preacher.

2. Who played the guitar part?

Chris Beaty.

3. What was the exact signal chain?

Guitar-cable-amp. [Yeah!]

4. Make, model and year of guitar please.

Custom-made Strat with Boogie Bodies and Warmoth parts. [Boogie Bodies, eh? Hmm....]

4a) What was the pickup brand and model used for the riff, and any other tweaks to the guitar too, like an onboard boost or whatever.

EMG single-coil pickups, bridge pickup.

4b) Strings and picks, if known.

GHS Boomers (11s), and Tortex yellow picks [I assume .73mm?].

5. Make and model of any effects used.

None

6. Amp make and model.

Bad Cat Hot Cat 15. [Shweet!]

7. Make/model/year of cab, exact speakers if known.

Internal cab. [Combo – anyone know the stock speaker? I couldn't find it.]

8. Mic used and where the cab was mic’d.

SM57, straight on.

9. How recorded (e.g., Pro Tools, etc.).

FMR mic pre to Pro Tools 888-24/16 bit.
_____

And there you have it tone brothers! Many thanks to Thad for knowing this stuff and taking the time to pass it on.

Here's the album cover (click to see bigger).

You remember the buzz about this band? The buzz goes like this: Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham, Glenn Hughes – and former Dream Theater member Derek Sherinian on keys. (No offense to Derek, he’s just not as well known as the first three guys.)

The buzz was all about classic rock. Zep’s in the heritage there, Deep Purple too, and Joe was throwing out terms like Marshall plexi and Paul Kossoff. It was enough that I and many others couldn’t wait to hear this album. And now I have!

Before getting to what I hear on it, I have to admit this: I’d cooked up all kinds of riff-laden, skin-pounding, huge-sounding scenarios in my head, no doubt influenced by a real dearth of truly good classic-vein rock these days (IMO, a rant saved for another time).

Then Joe said in the music media that he was enthused about the project, as did Glenn and producer Kevin Shirley (who also produced Zep!). Oddly, however, Jason seemed a bit lukewarm about it in a vid on the Black Country Communion (BCC) site – which may have been due to the fact that the band apparently spent only a week or two on the whole thing.

Who knows, but when I read about that brief time playing together, I thought: uh-oh. I don’t care what you’re talking about – music, sports, business, whatever – it’s going to take longer than that to really mesh unless you’re talking pure magic…which BCC could be….

Then I got a free download off the BCC site, a tune called “One Last Soul” – which I think you can still download free here with the promo code OLS2010. To me, it’s not classic rock. Sounded (and still sounds) to me like a cross between ’80s (not hair) and current hard rock. Single-ish, maybe. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just didn’t match up to the possibly unrealistic expectations I’d hatched, nurtured and fed in my head.

So I had all this stuff swirling around in my cranium, and….

Okay, man, shut up already – how is the album?

It’s good! It has riffs, it’s rock-solid (no fluff), the singing is good to great, Joe plays unlike I’ve ever heard him do at length before (very cool) and yes, it does mostly sound “classic rock.” Classic rock references are all over the place in there, and you’ll know ‘em when you hear ‘em.

Is it Led Zep II or Deep Purple II or Free II? No. Bummer in a way, but hey, that was all in my head. (If I had to pick one of the above, it would be most similar to DP.)

Track by Track Rundown

Here we go:

1. Black Country
Great tune. Fast, very cool, Deep Purple-ish maybe? I doubt you/I would know this is Joe on guitar if no one told you. “Heartbreaker”-type break after the solo. Shweet!

2. One Last Soul
Single-ish, yes, but honestly my least-favorite tune on the album. That’s probably because I’m still doing cave paintings in Germany (anyone remember their anthropology?).

3. The Great Divide
Slower tune, I’m hearing more of Joe’s style of blues on this tune particularly on the solo.

4. Down Again
Another very cool tune. No reverb for Joe on the main riff? Joe is a reverb freak, but in the ol’ days, there was no reverb so I assume he was going for vintage feel here. LOVE the phased bridge riff. Super cool. Odd progression in the chorus, which I like. Joe’s tone on the solo is vintage. Very cool 60-second-plus outro, vaguely Who-like, ambient slide guitar.

5. Beggarman
Songs starts with 30 seconds of wah jamming, sounds like it’s going to be Hendrix-like, but ends up in Deep Purple-ish territory in the verses. (I’m using these references because they are classic rock and we all know them. You will hear others.) Fast solo – Joe seems like he’s fired up on this one. This tune is sort of the love child of Deep Purple and Joe’s brand of rock-blues. I like it!

6. Song of Yesterday
This is a Bonamassa riff – of course. You’ll know what I mean when you hear it. And Joe sings this tune, a slower song – but then it gets heavy, in a classic rock sense (sweet!), then back to slow, then heavy, etc. Then Glenn sings a part, then he harmonizes with Joe or Joe harmonizes with himself, cool part…oops, this has turned into a narration. Bottom line: The song is 8:33 long, and works. Nice outro, very cool.

(Side note: Joe and Kevin Shirley, who has produced Joe’s last several albums, sometimes put interesting outros on tunes, which is really, really great. Almost never done these days.)

7. No Time
Fast riff-based rock song – which would be great in itself, but it also has a King’s X-like bridge! Yeah! Am I hearing a guitar with a Fender scale here? A baritone? One of Joe’s Music Mans maybe? VERY cool keyboard break in here. No guitar solo, and it doesn’t matter. Love the tune.

8. Medusa
One minute 18 seconds of mellow, and then we get Mountain (the band) – not literally, of course, but you will hear it. And from that description, it’s obviously classic rock!

9. The Revolution in Me
Another Joe-sung tune, which to me sounds like his solo material – until after the first solo, when it sounds a little more ’70s progressive.

10. Stand (At the Burning Tree)
To me the verse is Deep Purple-ish, the bridge is slower and cool in a ’70s rock way, the chorus is a heavy riff. Yeah! What’s not to like?

11. Sista Jane
AC/DC-like power chord beginning and chorus, Glenn and Joe share vox, solo is on the outro. Solid tune.

12. Too Late for the Sun
This tune is really cool – very interesting. Defies characterization, except maybe for the Cream-like beginning. This tune really would’ve benefitted from louder drums (my opinion – see Tone Notes below). ANOTHER cool outro, just keeps on going: 11:21! I love this tune!

Tone Notes

All IMO of course – and these opinions plus $4 will get you a Starbucks.

> Joe’s tone is big, a little dark and does not have (to my ears) the classic rock mids that I expected, but is much more raw than his solo tone. Definitely woody, and less smooth than his solo stuff.

> Bass sounds great.

> Drums a little thinner than I would’ve liked. Jason can hit hard and has a big-sounding kit, plus some cool drum parts are in there so wish they were louder in the mix. Like the snare threatening to crack open my skull, a kick drum that sounds like it’s filling the Chunnel.

> Keys are a good addition, and definitely make it all sound a little more like DP. Derek’s parts are tasty and work well.

Bottom Line

> Is it classic rock? Yes!

> Is it good? Yep!

> Is it great? Only time can answer that question.

> Is it worth the $14? Absolutely.

> Do you want to listen to it again and again to absorb it? (A key test.) Yes I do!

> Is there woody tone? Yep.

> Will it give you a tone woody? Possibly.

> Do you want to see them live? Heck yes.

> Would you be stoked to see them tour and then put out another album? No doubt. If they did that, the next album would be all that and then some (whatever that means, but it’s good!).

The album’s street date is Sept. 21. Preorder the disc at bccommunion.com and also get it digital on the street date.

My 8-year-old son makes me listen to only Van Halen and Led Zep in the car (he’s a good kid!), so to keep it interesting I started to pick out some highlights of Dave-era VH albums – and wondered, wouldn’t it be cool to have some of these things on the new VH album. So here they are in album order. Chime in below with what you’d dig.

I’m the One speed
FAST boogie-type riff, almost unbelievably fast. Can Ed still fly at this speed with those 54-year-old muscles and fingers? Even though he kinda struggled with this tune on the last tour, I’m voting yes.

Runnin’- and Ain’t Talkin’-type simple solos
Solos that are simple, memorable, not real fast. Ed’s note choices are so out of the norm that these are real interesting. He’d kind of moved on from this after the first album, be nice to hear some of it again.

Dance the Night Away mass appeal
Everyone knows this song – everyone of a certain age, that is. How about another feel-good, California sunshine, fun, almost-poppy tune like this. Fun to play too.

Outta Love Again drums
SICK drumming. Go Al! Let’s see more of it! (Also one of my favorite guitar solos ever.)

Light Up the Sky tough-to-sing-over tune
Whenever someone tells me Sammy is a better singer than Dave, my response is, “Maybe so, but Dave can sing over anything.” How would you like to come up with melodies to sing over early VH riffs? This is a prime example. So how ’bout a kick-a** riff that most mortals could not sing over?

[Women and Children First note – This isn't a favorite album for a lot of folks, but it is for me. Just some crazy playing, great variety – sort-of-blues taken to the maximum level.]

Cradle Will Rock simplicity
A relatively simple tune with a great pounding groove.

Loss of Control speed
Wow! The whole band gets an F1 for this.

Take Your Whiskey Home
Can there be a sicker rock-blues tune? Getting chills just thinking about it….

In a Simple Rhyme drums
Another example of Al’s immense riffing musicality, just like his bro. More, Al!

Mean Street intro
I’m not sure if even Ed can top himself here – or even equal it somehow – but it would be super F-ing cool if he could.

Unchained “grab you by the throat” factor
You know what I’m talking about, and yes, Ed does have more of these riffs in him. I should add “Mean Street” and “Sinner’s Swing” in here too.

Here About it Later/So This is Love fun feel
These are major-scale poppy tunes that are just great. One of these on the new album would be…great.

Push Comes to Shove solo
One of the best, craziest, most-tasteful rock guitar solos ever on record. I’m sure Ed has many more in him. C’mon Ed!

Hang ‘Em High “just going for it”
This tune seems to teeter at the edge of what’s possible. I don’t know what to say about the “Hang ‘Em High” riff except no one else would come up with that – though in some ways, that can be said about every riff on every VH album. (Side note: I’d bet money that on this tune and/or “The Full Bug,” Ed was using a different amp or cab, or some kind of pedal.)

Drop Dead Legs groove
Just beautiful. Not a deep groove in the funk or boogie sense, but it’s own thing.

Hot for Teacher drums
‘Nuff said!

Girl Gone Bad/House of Pain bizarreness
Okay, “bizarreness” may not be an actual word, but how else would you describe these two tunes? Eclectic? And yes, once again, Dave has no problem finding a melody to sing over them.

Me Wise Magic
Still one of my favorite VH tunes. Unfortunately can’t be played live because it sounds like they cranked up Dave’s pitch on the recording, but a great song and monument to what could have been…and still may be.

No Covers
Not needed. Talkin’ to you, Dave!

More Bass
Since Mike is out of the band – kind of a bummer for us long-time fans – and Wolfie is in, can we assume that this time the bass will actually be heard in the mix?

No Electronic Drums
Like Ed, Al can make anything sound good, but forget the e-drums this time Al please. My son requests that you play maple Ludwigs or Vistalites with either your signature snare or a 6.5×14 Supraphonic snare. (I told you he’s a good kid!)

Here's Zakk holding the "holy grail" (Zakk Wylde photo).

Ed’s Tone
Man oh man this is a tough one. I think at this point we have to be cool with the fact that Ed is not returning to the old Marshall days – though the 5150 III can almost get there, and his #1 Marshall Super Lead is in for repair right now (see pic with Zakk Wydle holding it at the repair shop). If there has to be a compromise, I’ll again point to his tone in Me Wise Magic as sort of a hybrid between his old, raw, super-Woody tone and his Sammy-era fat, wide tone. Whatever it ends up being, I can’t wait to hear it.

That’s my list. What else you got?

I watched a recent vid (below) of Steve’s tech, Tommy Alderson, running through Steve’s rig. It’s actually kind of boring because the rig is so simple: one Morse signature Engl head run dry (no effects) into 4 Engl cabs, another amp (same head) run wet (effects) into two cabs. That’s it.

And the effects aren’t much: two Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man pedals and a Boss OC-3 Super Octave Pedal. That’s it! Except for some chorus (rack?) on one of the delays.

Which implies that Steve’s pedalboard is pretty darn simple – and it is, which is the interesting part. He uses volume pedals (I assume Ernie Ball?) to control the expression of the two delays and the octave pedal. He does have some presets on an Engl board on the floor (the shiny silver one to the right in the above photo), but doesn’t tap-dance on it as you can tell from the fact that it’s at a right angle to the main pedalboard.

The volume pedals let him control the amount of the wet signal, and “ride the solo, I call it,” Tommy says. “It’s much more effective… It’s basically infinitely controllable…depending on how you feel, what the acoustics [of the venue] are that night….”

Very cool and very interesting.

In the vid below, Steve talks about the volume (expression) pedals starting at 5:04. He notes, “For me it’s the only way to go. Having a preset with here’s delay and suddenly here’s none is too stark. It’s too weird.”

Using expression pedals with effects isn’t new, but is pretty dang rare in the rock world. Anyone have another example? I’m REALLY curious now about manipulating a flanger, a boost/OD…hmmm. Like dialing in a little bit of another pickup. Could result in some unique tonage.

Joe's most recent (current?) rig. Click to see it bigger.

Well-known fact: Joe Perry loves gear. Or more correctly, he loves gooooood gear. (That reminds me: There’s an interview with an ex-Gibson guy somewhere on the web where he tells how the Gibby folks would bum out whenever Joe and Brad went down to Nashville because they wanted to find only the good stuff, wouldn’t take just anything.)

Anyhow, here’s a pretty darn good rig rundown – caution: obligatory rock ‘n’ roll cussing from the Dunlop interviewer guy – courtesy of Joe’s guitar tech, Trace Foster. Props to guitarnoize.com for finding it.

Interesting tidbits: various Marshall amps with a mix of EL34s and KT66s (all seem to be 100w!); various Marshall cabs, all new I believe – 4×12, 2×15 and an 8×10 with old 70-watt 10s; a 1950 Fender Bandmaster (can I play through that for 10 minutes, please!).

Board: Dunlop Jimi wah; DigiTech Whammy; Fulltone OCD (no number given); Pharaoh Class A Boost; Klon Centaur (which apparently never goes away); Bradshaw/MXR Boost/OD; a couple of Line 6 boxes and two I don’t recognize – anyone know what they are?

The two pedals to the left of the Line6 pedals – know what they are? (Click to see it way bigger.)

Great tour of his guitars, too. I’m lovin’ the BC Rich from Live Bootleg!

Notable

> Here’s Joe’s rig from ‘09. Note the ‘50 Bandmaster on the right. Incidentally, the Bandmaster is apparently one of EVH’s favorite amps.

Click to see it bigger.

Glenn at the '83 US Festival (click to see it bigger).

Cool riff, cool tune, cool lead and a WET tone. That’s what I hear and have always heard in the Judas Priest tune “Another Thing Comin’,” off 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance.

While I of course know it’s a two-guitar band, I always think of the chords/riff and Glenn Tipton’s solo on this tune, hence the look at just his gear. Here’s what I found. First, some overall comments by Glenn from the book Gear Secrets of the Guitar Legends:

> “I’m like a mad professor in the studio. I like to try new processors and preamps, or even try out rackmount keyboard effects like the T.C. Electronic Fireworks. It actually works very well on guitar. I’ll try anything.”

> “The gear I use in the studio doesn’t differ greatly from my live rig….”

Guitars/Pickups

According to Glenn’s website, these seem to be the two guitars he used on Screaming for Vengeance:

> A ’78 maple necked, black and mirror-plated Fender Strat, customized with a Kahler Pro flat-mount tremolo system, and two cream-bobbined Dimarzio Super Distortion humbuckers. He calls it “a weighty beast indeed,” which implies it is northern/hard ash, and says “it’s very powerful.” He likes hot pickups (see below). He added: “I recorded the solo in Metal Gods with it.”

> A Gibson SG with a chrome pickguard and stock PAF humbuckers.

> Even though I could’ve sworn he played a Hamer in the “Another Thing Comin’” vid, turns out he didn’t (see below vid). He said that “around ‘84, I switched to a custom Hamer Phantom made for me by Jol Dantzig. This model was fitted with one EMG humbucker, a Kahler tremolo and one volume pot. A signature model of this was developed and sold to the public from ‘84-’86. I still use this guitar model.”

> On pickups for live work: “They’ve got to be hot! Most of my stage guitars are fitted with EMG 81s, which are of course active. All the EMG 81s are wired with the batteries in series so they run the pickups at 18 volts. That makes them last longer and the pickups sound hotter, with more edge and poke. This is partly for the signal-boosting active circuitry and partly so you’re not worrying about the danger of picking up the local radio station midway through a solo.”

> He prefers thin picks and light strings, 9s or Ernie Ball RPS 10s.

“Another Thing Comin’,” Official Vid

Amps/Effects

> From his website: “I used regular vintage [plexi] 50- and 100-watt Marshall heads without a master volume until 1982, when the JCM 800 head was developed. I then used the JCM 800 with Rocktron preamps….” [Not sure if he means a preamp.]

> He used a Pete Cornish custom pedalboard, the specs of which follow and are from Pete Cornish via the vintageamps.com forum:

I found the full details of Glen Tipton’s and Kenny Downing’s effects boards. I made these in October 1980 so they would have been used on the 1982 recording of Screaming For Vengeance.

The effects in the boards are as follows:

> PC [Pete Cornish] Input Isolator
> TB-83 (the original Pete Cornish Treble Boost)
> SS-2 (Cornish boost/OD)
> NG-2 (fuzz)
> Variable tone boost dual voltage 9/18 VDC, “an unreal EQ boost/shimmering pedal”
> ST-2 (gain/boost with Bass/Treble EQ)
> MXR Phase 100
> MXR Flanger
> MXR Analog Delay
> Echoplex EP3 Send/Return
> MXR 10-band EQ
> NB-2 (Linear Boost)
> Mute
> Four isolated outputs to 50w Marshall heads
> D.I. to PA.

Pete noted that “combinations [of effects] would have been used.”

Not even a chorus?! Does that argue for an Eventide Harmonizer? It was a ubiquitous studio effect, but “Another Thing Comin’” does sound more like a chorus. A tribute website also had this (all unsourced):

> Line boosters between each effect [on the Cornish pedalboard] to preserve the signal from input to output.

> A [Dallas] Rangemaster-based custom treble boost connected to the bass channel of Marshall 50- and 100-watt heads with no master volume [but JCMs had a master volume].

> Roland Chorus pedal.

Glenn also talks about using a Rocktron Intellifex unit, which has all kinds of chorus options.

That’s it!

“Another Thing Comin’,” Live, US Festival, 1983
> Here you get a good listen to Glenn’s tone, especially in the solo which starts around 2:33. He’s standing right in front of his Cornish pedalboard.

Notable

> Glenn says his mirror pickguards are, or at least were, “highly polished stainless steel,” not plastic!

> Here’s KK Downing’s 1980 Cornish pedalboard:

> PC [Pete Cornish] Input isolator
> TB-83
> NG-2
> ST-2
> MXR Phase 100
> PC-modified Cry Baby wah
> Echoplex EP3 send/return
> NB-2 (linear boost)
> Mute
> Four isolated outputs to 50w Marshall heads.

Al Estrada ripping it up in tribute.

The latest of the perennial debates about Edward Van Halen’s early tone/rig, the post You Too Can Sound Like Angus and this AmpGAS! post got me thinking: Can anyone with decent chops – say, “Running With the Devil,” “You Really Got Me,” “Dance the Night Away,” maybe “Everybody Wants Some” and “Unchained” – get close to sounding “like” EVH?

John Suhr, who recently offered up some KILLER info on EVH’s mythical Super Lead (here and here), also had this to say about playing through that amp on an enormous thegearpage.net thread:

“If the amp was ever modified in the preamp section [for more gain] it would be very obvious especially to me. I was looking for this with dentist glasses since I too had a hard time believing it [was largely unmodified] until Ed played it.

“When I got to wind it up in private, I cried in my beer since it seems Ed must have taken the magic tube out of the amp and swapped it with a 12AY7 [preamp tube] since with my playing it sound more like Billy Gibbons – EVH tone was nowhere in the picture.

“Also remember you need to Variac to get that last little bit of crunch. That is when the power section will lose headroom, but Ed sounded great either way. Remember too that he didn’t remember [effects] what he had in front of it. Even an Echoplex is going to add gain [going into the front of the amp].”

Remember that he’s saying that after playing through THE amp.

Al Estrada’s Rig

Here’s another bit ‘o crumpet…er, info…to throw in this particular pot. Have you heard of Al Estrada? If not, you might have run across him on YouTube by virtue of his spot-on Ed-mimicking performances. If not, here’s Al live this past April:

Awesome, eh? Not just the playing, but the TONE. Woody!

Luckily Al knows exactly what he used to get the tone, and was helped by John Suhr. Here’s what he used in the above vid:

> Suhr EVH replica guitar, Shure wireless
> Tonefreak Buff Puff (switched off, used as buffer only)
> MXR Flanger reissue
> MXR ’70s script logo Phase 90 [this is the order Ed used his effects: guitar > flanger > phaser....]
> Line 6 Echo Park (used for ‘Cathedral’ only)
> Maestro EP3 Echoplex run into a looper for clean bypass
> Boss GE-10 EQ [Ed might have only used these live, but a killer EQ, no longer made]
> Boss NS2 Noise Suppressor
> Marshall plexi reissue [100w], Variac set anywhere between 75 [wow!] and 90 volts
> THD Hot Plate attenuator, set down 2 notches (8 db reduction)
> 16 ohm 4×12 cab loaded with Celestion Greenbacks [25w each]

It might be tough to comprehend in this age of effects loops, but yes, all of that stuff is BEFORE the amp – all of which adds gain, per John Suhr’s comment above.

Al added this about the amp/variac attenuator setup:

> “This is John’s SL [Suhr-modded Marshall Super Lead] in the video. Everything is dimed except Bass at noon, Variac down anywhere between 80-90 volts. Only the upper right [amp] input is used – the other inputs on this amp are disengaged internally.”

> In terms of any issues from using a Variac and attenuator together: “No problem at all as long as the ohms are matched between the head and cab…. The Variac alone does bring down the volume quite a bit but not enough for sound men, apparently. I find that the Hot Plate doesn’t change the tone much if only taken down a notch or two. If I need more attenuation than that I would slave into another amp” [meaning run the Super Lead into another head or power amp, which would then control the volume going to the speakers].

If you need a visual representation of Al’s rig, here it is:

My 2c

My take on all this is probably the same as yours: If your chops aren’t up to it, you can play Ed riffs through a Metro Amp ‘68 Marshall replica and sound like crap. Or maybe “good crap” because the amp sounds killer!

It’s not as easy as channeling Angus. Ed’s style, rhythm, attack, note choice and all the rest of it are such a unique package that even one wrong note – with everything else right – will make the whole thing sound “wrong.”

But if you have decent chops and the right equipment, you can sound like Ed. Or at least Al Estrada (that’s meant as a huge compliment to Al!).

Notable

> Al’s websites are EruptionTribute.com and AlEstrada.com.

> Reach John Suhr here.

> Just in case you’re wondering how Van Halen got its first record deal, here’s a documentary on it:

Badlands, “Badlands,” (Unreleased)
> This from user MontegoMX on the YouTube page: “This is from the very first demos the band did in 1988 at The Record Plant in L.A. I was there….”

Extreme, “King of the Ladies”
> I love this tune! Fun one to sing in the car.

Schon/Hammer, “Lies,” 1982
> Check out the pickup in the bridge position – is that a Bill Lawrence?

Kane Robers, 1987
> In hindsight, it’s apparent something was seriously wrong at the end of the ’80s….

Here’s more about his experience, gear and techniques.

> On his early start, from a Guitar Player interview: “I was just really focused. I really knew what I wanted to do, and I think that was the main factor in everything falling into place for me. It was a pretty mind-blowing and jaw-dropping experience to be in Santana that young. I mean, what a great band! When I first joined up, I was a fired-up speed-gun blues guitar player who had studied a lot of Beck, Hendrix, Clapton and Page. I also loved Albert King, B.B. King, Albert Collins and Michael Bloomfield, and my goal was to put all those guys together in one style and then speed everything up and make it really accurate. I think I became more tasteful after touring the world with Santana.”

> On EVH, from the same interview:

What was it like having Van Halen open for you in 1978?
It was like getting your ass kicked every night by the best sword-swinging sushi chef in the land. I had seen a lot of guitar players by then, but I’d never seen anything like him. Somebody had given me that first Van Halen album and I remember sitting with my record player and a guitar trying to figure out what he was doing, and for the first time in my life I was stumped. I had no clue until I saw him and realized he had both hands on the fretboard. I’d met Harvey Mandel years earlier, and saw him do that a couple little tapping things, but Ed was taking everything to a much crazier level.

But it wasn’t just the tapping you dug about EVH, right?
It was everything. Ed is one of the greatest rock and roll guitar players of all time, and as far as being an innovator and taking it to the hilt, he’s right up there with Jimi and everyone else. And he didn’t come any better than on that first tour with us when we were touring Infinity – our first record with Steve Perry – and he was touring Van Halen’s debut. They opened every night, and Ed played with extreme fire and loose abandon. Ronnie Montrose was supporting, and he hated being in the middle slot. I would tell him, “Man, I’m glad you have to follow that and not me.” [Laughs.]

> Setup: “I usually use .009-.042 D’Addario strings, because I don’t like my guitar to be too hard to play, and your tone really lies between your guitar, your amp and your fingers, not your string gauge [interesting!]. But I do like the action to be a little more meaty than some players do. I went to one of Joe Satriani’s rehearsals recently. He let me plug in, and honestly, I couldn’t get anything out of his guitar because the action was so low. And when Ed [VH] showed me one of his new guitars, it was too easy to play—he had .009s tuned a half step below standard, and my fingers were just falling off the fretboard.”

> Salami: “Wes Montgomery used to say in interviews that he liked playing after eating a salami sandwich because the grease acted like Finger-Ease, and that that was one way he got such a smooth sound with his thumb and fretting fingers. I swear to God, every time I get a new guitar now, I take the strings off, get some sliced salami, and rub it up and down the fretboard, and let the grease soak in. Then I wipe off the neck and string it up. With new wood, it works really well. You’d be surprised. And sometimes [wipes forehead and then starts playing] I use my own grease. It’s organic!”

Here's the EJ Jazz III.

> Picking: “You know who I actually pick like? John McLaughlin. The crazy thing is that even though I was a huge Mahavishnu freak back when Journey first started, and still am, I never learned to pick from McLaughlin. But I caught up with him before a show recently in San Francisco, and when he started warming up, I noticed he was slicing the strings sideways with the pick, and that’s exactly what I’ve always done. I’ve never played straight on. On stage, I use Dunlop [483 Classic Celluloid] medium picks. Heavy picks feel kind of stumbly to me. But when I’m warming up, sometimes I use those pointy little Dunlop Eric Johnson [Classic Jazz III] picks. Those are really great to practice with, because they build up your accuracy. When I come back to my normal picks after that, it feels really easy because the other pick is so hard it’s like playing with a piece of bone or something.

Rigs Through the Years

Misc notes trolled up:

‘80s

At some point in the ’80s (Escape and Frontiers era) Neal was using modded Hiwatts, modded at Leo’s Music of Oakland, Calif. Apparently Jeff Watson of Night Ranger and and Paul Dean of Loverboy had similar amps.

The mods apparently were internally bridged channels and possibly more gain.

Do you hear Hiwatt in this clip?

‘95 Live Rig

A quote from Neal: “I’ve been using a Roland ME-10 [FX unit] powered by a couple of Marshall heads in stereo into two 4×12 cabinets.”

‘08 Live Rig

From the same Nov. ‘08 Guitar Player interview:

“My new Marshall JVM heads and Diezel VH4s are almost identical in the way they talk to each other and turn effects loops on and off for different settings. The TC Electronic G-System adds effects and changes everything at once. The Boss GT-6 is mostly for my in-ear monitors mix. The setup runs really smoothly, actually.

“Sure, the cabinet count has grown and grown because there’s only one guitar in the band – and sure, I could play through one Marshall in mono and just crank it on 10. But those five cabinets aren’t really that loud – they can’t be because honestly, my ears are fried and I’m constantly dealing with tinnitus. The extra cabs are really just there to simulate the ambience of a hall or a coliseum. We play a lot of sheds [amphitheaters] where the sound just goes out and doesn’t come back, so I have some cabinets set wet with effects so my area of the stage sounds like I’m playing indoors.

Gear notes from the article:

Here's his sig LP (click to see it way bigger).

> When Schon’s tech, Adam Day, is asked if he can think of a more complex stage rig, he can only cite the Edge’s famously elaborate U2 setup. Schon’s backline setup starts with a Lectrosonics wireless. From the receiver back in his amp racks, Schon’s signal passes through 45-foot Mogami cables to and from his pedalboard, which includes a Dunlop Buddy Guy Wah, a Boss compressor pedal used mostly for Strat solos, and Xotic AC- and RC-Booster pedals. (“Lectrosonics systems tend to run a little bright, so the extra capacitance created by all that long cable actually serves to balance out the sound a bit.”) A TC Electronic G-System controller at Schon’s feet handles all MIDI-implemented effects and amp channel changes, an expression pedal controls the overall delay level (the delay time seems to work nicely for most songs when set to 600ms), and Schon uses a Gibson Digital Echoplex to create the loops he solos over during instrumental interludes between songs. That’s the simple part.

> Things get more intricate back at the amp racks where Schon’s signal is split five ways [!] courtesy of Framptone Amp Switcher and 3-Banger pedals. One signal feeds a drawer-mounted Boss GT-6 processor that runs through a Demeter tube preamp into a Roland M-120 Line Mixer feeding Schon’s in-ear monitors as well as a Marshall Dual MonoBlock power amplifier driving two 1960B 4×12 cabinets in stereo. Schon’s signal is also split between two Marshall JVM half-stacks with G-System effects in their loops, and two Diezel VH4 heads running in stereo courtesy of an Eventide Eclipse processor in their loops (used primarily to fatten things up occasionally with “a little detune”). Each Diezel drives a separate 4×12. And because one is run flat out to get a full sound, its cabinet is turned backwards and miked up behind the stage, thus keeping Schon’s stage volume down.

> The only truly standard features on a Neal Schon Les Paul are the tuning machines and the Gibson BurstBucker Pro bridge humbucker. The neck heel has been heavily sculpted—almost erased—to grant easy access to the high frets, and the fretboard is angled more parallel with the body than those on standard Les Pauls so that the Floyd bridge sits flush. The neck pickup cavity is occupied by a single-coil-sized DiMarzio Fast Track 2 humbucker and a Fernandes Sustainer Driver. The knobs are widely spaced and have been rewired to include a master volume, a push/pull master tone (the pull position activates a Vari-Tone-type circuit that gives Schon “wah sounds without a wah pedal”), and a master Sustainer volume. The mini-toggle switches behind the tailpiece control the Sustainer settings. And if you take an MRI of Schon’s cherry sunburst Paul, you’ll discover it has been chambered for weight reduction.

Neal sure likes amps with a lot of knobs! (Cool seeing him play “Mother, Father, Sister” or whatever the name of that tune is!)