The legend of EVH and the variac????

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King Elvis

King Elvis

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Ok, I need some clarification from you Van Halen scholars out there. As a teenager back in the '80's I always knew that Eddie used a Marshall Super 100 lead Plexi plugged into a variac. In interviews that I read with Eddie at the time he would make a statement to the effect that he would plug the plexi into the variac and crank up the voltage on the variac and "watch the tubes melt!!" That kind of bravado was what rock was all about to a teenager. Now to get the kind of gain Eddie was getting out of the plexi he would have to have been running it on 10, so the variac story made sense. Fast forward to the year 2003. Line 6 models a plexi thru a variac for their new POD XT and the discription in the manual says that they got any old plexi, ran it into a variac and CRANKED THE VOLTAGE...after all, thats the EVH legend right??? So, over on the Line 6 message board, this guy gets on there and says that Line 6 got it wrong and everything that we know about the EVH legend is wrong as well!!! He says he read an interview with Eddie just recently and Eddie now says that back in the day he used the variac on his plexi and turned the voltage DOWN to the 90's???? I started thinking about this with my limited knowledge of electronics. It would seem to me that if he turned the voltage down then the amp would have to compensate by working harder, thus breaking up at a lower volume. Much like the old Scholz Power Soak or a Marshall Powerbrake. So, in essence it seems to make sense. Do any of you guys know the REAL story and would my assumption be correct???:confused:
 
Eddie used the variac to turn the voltage down. He wanted the sound of his Marshall on 10 at a reasonable volume.
 
yeah, KE, i was thinking about the very same thing....

and matty boy's got it right....

everything i ever heard about the variac was so he could crank his amp and get his sound at a lower volume.....

it's such a lame thing, for line 6 to miss all that.....


probably just a sales pitch anyway......


by the way, i like that patch on my xt....

but only after i turn off the speaker and mic modelers, and set it up through the effects in on my boogie, running it as my power amp, through my own speakers.....

now that really sounds good!

sonic nirvana.....
 
An interesting side topic on this is that amps are designed against a specific voltage. I think the deal is that some outlets can be pusihing out as much as 125v, into an amp designed for 110-115v this is going to make the sound harsher than the designers intended.

Supposedly Neal Young is pretty good at guessing the voltage of a socket his amp is running off of.

Maybe that was the secret to the British invasion sound, Everyone on this side of the pond was running their Marshalls 5-10 volts too hot.
 
Ok, but am I mistaken or did he used to say in interviews that he turned the voltage UP on the variac?? I could swear that is what he used to say.
 
I think if you can play like EVH it would sound good with any configuration.
 
http://www.vhvault.com/~mr5150/evh-brown-sound.html

"First, he used an Ohmite Variac, a variable transformer that could lower or raise the voltage going into the amplifier (see photo for what a typical Variac looks like). Edward set the variac to approximately 90 volts, thereby reducing the amount of input voltage going to the amplifier (see the Marshall Super Lead article for more information about variacs and attenuators) and allowing the amp to run more reliably. A key element often not considered today when running vintage Marshall amplifiers is that many that were made for export to the U.S. were designed to run at 110 volts and current U.S. outlets run at 120 volts. As a result, while there has been much talk about the dangers of using a variac, in many applications, it obviously serves a benefit."
 
I seem to recall reading about "sag" adjustments on some amps. Is this also a voltage adjustment?

One of the amps I keep around the studio is a DSL 100 watt head/1960 cab. I wouldn't mind trying out the variac idea.
 
Thank you Gonzo for hooking me up with that link. Very informative!!!
 
Ya got that exact...lower the voltage...demand current by increasing the volume knob.....VOILA! instant overdriven output stage......in reverse, I use a variac on my mixing console and run its power supply at 130 volts...dont try this at home kids...make sure your power supply can withstand the range of volts....mines a soundcraft so its built to take up to 200 volts in...being english
anyway this makes all the eq's and the aux's and the mic pres much more creamy and full sounding...
 
This is like why he used to turn around on stage when he was tapping! he just wanted to fool everyone and not let anybody see what he was doing! The guys a genious (or just comes up with some crazy sh*t) thats why he's one of my fav guitarists, not because he can smoke any of them that are out there right now but because of the techniques he came up with and the balls he had to do some of this stuff. I mean come on would any of you guys try to wind your own pickups, I would but they would sound like crap. EVH is god! Would you rip the horn out of a old BMW (or mercedes ?) and mess with the voltage going to it, slow the tape speed down and reverse it just to get the intro to RWTD!
thats Sick!
 
Van Halen famously put out disinformation so that his sound would remain "his sound". If you want the brown sound, use a variac into a Marshall and sag the voltage to 90 volts. Be prepared to replace tubes (not cheap) very often, however.
 
And really, who else would have written a song like POUNDCAKE and thought to themselves..."this song needs something, I just cant put my finger on it. AH HA I know!!! A DRILL!!!!"
 
Tom Hicks said:
Van Halen famously put out disinformation so that his sound would remain "his sound". If you want the brown sound, use a variac into a Marshall and sag the voltage to 90 volts. Be prepared to replace tubes (not cheap) very often, however.
Click to expand...

I heard it got to the point where he was replacing tubes almost as much as he was replacing strings. Of course thats only what I *heard*. Sounds expensive anyways.
 
I also believe this can be hard on the transformer too (way more expensive than tubes).

Before Eddie was using the variac, Joe Walsh was using it in the late 60's and early 70's while touring with James Gang. Joe is mostly known as a guitarist (great one too IMHO), but he also played a Hammond B3 on a few songs. He used the variac in front of the Leslie speaker amps too.
 
Early EVH on a budget.

Set you distortion gain to about 50%, low to about 60%, mid about 40% and high around 50%. Flanger settings are level about 50%, spd 20% dep 50% and reg 50%.

that should get you pretty close to "Eruption" but at the end of the song, Eddie kicks on a delay for that part set the dry/t at 60%, time to 100% and the reps to about 25%.

You guys let me know how it works out for you.
 
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