Van Halen & Warmoth connection

Doughboy said:
Well guys, if you didn't relaize it already, I was kidding. I wrote this becuase I'd just read an interview with John Suhr, where he had gone to see Eddie at his studio some years back. Before entering the room where Eddie was playing, he could here him clearly. The brown sound was unmistakable. He listened to him play for a while & then went inside to find Eddie playing a Steinberger w/ EMGs & the most rusted set of strings he'd ever seen. Moral of the story, gear really doesn't make as much of a difference as the player. Having said that, it's still pretty cool to know that Eddie's initial frankenstien strat was a Warmoth / Boogie Bodies.

Good point.  Everyone knows Steinbergers and EMGs suck.  (I'm joking too)

EVH is famous for being...um...unclear on the origin of his stuff.  This week the Frankenstrat is a Boogie Body, next week he remembers it's something else.

 
Doughboy said:
SustainerPlayer said:
I know Warmoth. Now - who's this Van Halen fella?

I think he used to sit next to Charles Nelson Riley in Match Game back in the late 70s...but I could be wrong.

I'll take Charlie Weaver to block.....
 
Nowadays, he seems to talk as though he discovered stainless steel fretwire, although Warmoth has been using it & making it available for nearly a decade before EVH released his newer Wolfgang through Fender.
 
Brian May is a whole 'nother thing, and is awesome too! There are a few tones that make it into that top league, and then it's down to opinion.

Back in the day when it was really happening real-time, Ed's most famous body was from Charvel and the neck from Boogie Bodies. At least according to his interview in Guitar Player during that era. That's why I went straight for the Boogie Bodies stuff and built the red one shown on my posts.

It's right on the money except the body is koa. The Duncan Distortion is even screwed down solid to the body! Lynn Ellsworth himself came to my house & sold me 2 necks & a body. One neck went onto a very early Kramer Pacer long before Ed endorsed Kramer. Premonition? I just needed two nearly identical guitars, and I already had the Kramer. Lynn & I walked around my dad's yard and looked at trees & talked about wood. That's a day I'll never forget. He also said that Ed would love the stripes I did on my Kramer! I could have cried.

The other neck and the koa body became my Red One, which has been my favorite for decades. Everyone who plays it says it's the best thing ever. Sometimes you just stumble upon that magical chunk of wood, and this is it. Lynn was pissed when he heard I painted it red!

And after working on it for a long time, I have the tone. Vintage Marshall, blah-secret-stuff-blah-blah. I haven't wanted or needed any different amp stuff in decades. It's a great place to be! Now I'm into 7s and don't even play The Red One anymore. But I could never part with it...

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The brown sound (or the approximation you're able to get) is a lot of fun to mess with, but I wouldn't use it on a record. At least not these days.
 
Yeah, I just mess with it. I would never want to record with that tone because it sucks. It might come out sounding like Women and Children First, and nobody would want that!

 
spauldingrules said:
Warmoth makes amps?  And fingers?
+1, tone mostly comes from your fingers and the amp, not so much the guitar (IMO)
 
TomPerverteau said:
Brian May is a whole 'nother thing, and is awesome too! There are a few tones that make it into that top league, and then it's down to opinion.

Back in the day when it was really happening real-time, Ed's most famous body was from Charvel and the neck from Boogie Bodies. At least according to his interview in Guitar Player during that era. That's why I went straight for the Boogie Bodies stuff and built the red one shown on my posts.

It's right on the money except the body is koa. The Duncan Distortion is even screwed down solid to the body! Lynn Ellsworth himself came to my house & sold me 2 necks & a body. One neck went onto a very early Kramer Pacer long before Ed endorsed Kramer. Premonition? I just needed two nearly identical guitars, and I already had the Kramer. Lynn & I walked around my dad's yard and looked at trees & talked about wood. That's a day I'll never forget. He also said that Ed would love the stripes I did on my Kramer! I could have cried.

The other neck and the koa body became my Red One, which has been my favorite for decades. Everyone who plays it says it's the best thing ever. Sometimes you just stumble upon that magical chunk of wood, and this is it. Lynn was pissed when he heard I painted it red!

And after working on it for a long time, I have the tone. Vintage Marshall, blah-secret-stuff-blah-blah. I haven't wanted or needed any different amp stuff in decades. It's a great place to be! Now I'm into 7s and don't even play The Red One anymore. But I could never part with it...

WOW!!!! That's the coolest story ever. Stories like that make this forum so much fun.  :guitaristgif:
 
TomPerverteau said:
Yeah, I just mess with it. I would never want to record with that tone because it sucks. It might come out sounding like Women and Children First, and nobody would want that!

WACF sucks??? Dude, let me hear the album you put out that sold better than that one.
MULLY
 
mullyman said:
TomPerverteau said:
Yeah, I just mess with it. I would never want to record with that tone because it sucks. It might come out sounding like Women and Children First, and nobody would want that!

WACF sucks??? Dude, let me hear the album you put out that sold better than that one.
MULLY
I was just being sarcastic to Jay4321's comment that early =vH= tone is only something "fun to mess with." That is the sound I have strived for on every recording I have ever played guitar on, and for my live sound as well! If I can get that, I'm perfectly satisfied.

I'll admit that I have not been entirely successful copping that tone in recording situations. Just because the rig sounds like =vH= II on the floor doesn't mean the studio (or the engineer or producer) will accurately capture it! More often than not I have been disappointed with my recorded guitar sound, even on the one 3-song thing I did in an expensive studio. 2" Studer, killer mics & other stuff, veteran engineers, all analog. It's sad when a quick demo for a new song idea captured on a cassette boom box at the rehearsal space yields a closer approximation of Women And Children First tone!

There is a guy here in Portland who has it nailed live. Jim plays in a =vH= tribute, and has a super nice Warmoth posted in the gallery on the site. He uses a Bogner, and it sounds so sweet! Hell of a good guy, too. They play only Dave-era Van Halen. He does the best job of playing that stuff of anybody I have ever seen (besides the real guy of course). I would go see them every time I could, but they are kind of stuck playing the radio hits for the bar crowd.
 
kboman said:
GoDrex said:
kboman said:
Do you VH guys have a Youtube link or something to this elusive sound?

http://davidbrayamps.com/thebrownstrat78.mp3

pretty dang close

So it's all fizz, all day? No thanks :p


You have to think of a guitar's tone within the context of the mix, not by itself.

Most tones, including Brian May's, won't sound as good by itself. But put it in a mix with other instruments & it will shine.

 
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