how to get the van halen sound?

[CivilWar]

what setting (guitar/amp/setting) does he use to get the sound ?

[Kilamite]

Urgh damn, there was a site I can across which told you how to get it etc...

I'll have a look man, then I'll post it if I find it

[gan7676]

It's impossible.  I've never been able to do it.

But then again, my guitar ain't that great and my amp is shitty as hell.

[MJG]

You have to be EVH. Thats it.
You will never be able to emulate someones sound EXACTLY because everyones hands are different. Sure, you can get close if you have all the same gear as the person your tryin to sound like but people dont realise how big a part your hands are in terms of what you sound like.
As Steve Vai once said: "I met Eddie and he let me play his guitar through his rig and it did not sound like EVH"

Why? Because only Eddie sounds like Eddie, just like I only sound like me and you only sound like you.

[Kilamite]

That's a lot of pish...MJG.

It's called a setup. Get Eddie's amp, guitar and pickups then copy eddie's settings and what do you have? The Van Halen sound.

Slash's sound is not hard to copy either - Robin Finck uses the same setup as Slash did for live concerts and I tell you, his tone sounded IDENTICAL to Slash's.

It's not down to the playing, the playing is only to play like Van Halen.

Van Halen can't pickup a £50 guitar from the second hand store and play though a 5watt Fender Starter amp and sound like the way he does using his setup can he?

We can get our own independant tone by easily adjusting bass, treble and gain controls.

Tone isn't down to playing...unless you are trying to play harmonics like Zakk does..

[nemo]

actually tone does come down a lot to your own style, your picking technique, fingering style, etc, etc

even with someone elses rig you wouldnt sound like they do unless you play the exact same way

if you've got your amp setup like evh's u might get a passing resemblance to his tone, but unless u have the same feel for the instrument u wont sound like he does

[MJG]

"Van Halen can't pickup a £50 guitar from the second hand store and play though a 5watt Fender Starter amp and sound like the way he does using his setup can he?"  :roll:

I never said he could, but if you or me went and picked up that very same guitar straight after him and didnt change the settings are u sayin that we would sound exactly the same? If you are, im afraid you are wrong. You have even contridicted yourself by mentioning Zakk's style. I can go away now, pick up a les paul, plug it into a marshall and bash out a few pinch harmonics but it dont make me zakk wylde.

  "Pish"   . Im Scottish so i get this.

[OzzyCat]

Robin Finck uses the same setup as Slash did for live concerts and I tell you, his tone sounded IDENTICAL to Slash's

I'm sorry but on this you are way of base.  Finck's sound is NOTHING like Slash's!!!  His gear is not exactly the same, his tone is completely different.  It's blatantly obvious!

[bucketsixx]

Van Halen can't pickup a £50 guitar from the second hand store and play though a 5watt Fender Starter amp and sound like the way he does using his setup can he?

..

Well, he did actually use a $150 home made guitar for the first VH album :o. I agree with nemo, its mostly down to picking patterns and stuff like that. E.g. I can get a very convincing zakk wylde tone from my guitar but i still dont sound like him beacuse he picks every note whereas i pick one note in every three and slur the rest. 8)

[xwiredx]

After you get all your EVH gear and settings, you're still going to have crank that tube amp to the max!  

[Stiltzkin]

you'll need a Gibson PAF humbucker(or a SD '78 EVH) and you need
to bolt them onto a strat(alder or ash) directly to the body.

Then you need a few Marshalls. preferrably 1959 plexis.
Hook a Variac to the Marshalls and lower the voltage.

for effects, you should go with a MXR Phaser 90 and some tapedelay.
I've read something about a BOSS SD-1 but haven't confirmed
it's usage.

[2NaFish]

thanks for replying to that, but you do realise that the topic is about 2 years old.

[Stiltzkin]

thanks for replying to that, but you do realise that the topic is about 2 years old.

oh damn, didn't see that
just went to the end and browsed my
way through

[Kilamite]

Shows how much my knowledge has changed.

Knew little and fuck all few years ago  

[Stiltzkin]

Well, VH is timeless so a little update won't do any harm  

[bucketsixx]

Ahh...the good old brown sound....

eddie was the shit!

[whpprsnpprr]

My brother chased the EVH sound for years and he did finally find it.  In addition to certain guitars, certain pickups, certain effects...guys like Eddie also had their amps modified and that's what my brother does for a living.

http://www.davidbrayamps.com/

go under sound clips and listen to some of them...esp. brown tone....the evh sound is there.  He's happy to answer questions too....ask him...he knows his shit

[CivilWar]

fuckin cool!

[bucketsixx]

My brother chased the EVH sound for years and he did finally find it.  In addition to certain guitars, certain pickups, certain effects...guys like Eddie also had their amps modified and that's what my brother does for a living.

http://www.davidbrayamps.com/

go under sound clips and listen to some of them...esp. brown tone....the evh sound is there.  He's happy to answer questions too....ask him...he knows his shit

holy fuck!!!! That 'brown tone' is dead on!!!

UNCHAINED!!!!

[whpprsnpprr]

lol cool.  I'll let him know you liked it.  
Email him if you want