Quote:
Originally posted by Frank B
it's not his amps.. it's his hands..trust me, I know...
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This statement is both true and false.
Eddie plays and sounds like Eddie. It is his feel and his technique and no one could ever duplicate it exactly. But to say that it is not his amps completely ignores the FACT that Eddie himself no longer has that incredible tone that he had in the early days. Why? Have his hands changed? No, his amps have changed. When you hear Eddie on the Hagar era stuff up to the modern day, you can still tell it's Eddie playing, its just that his tone no longer sounds as cool.
If I plugged into EVH's amps in the early days, I wouldn't immediately be able to PLAY just like Eddie. I would still play like myself, I would just be playing like me, but with a tone or amp SOUND very close to Eddies. The differences in bottom end, overdrive, harmonics, and clarity is much more amp and guitar dependent than player dependent.
This is something that many people get confused about. If Eddie had played thru Zakk Wylde's or Metallicas rig on the early recordings, he would have still played like Eddie, he just would have had a way heavier tone. If Zakk had used Eddies rig for the Ozzy recordings, his tone would not have been heavy enough.
Does this difference make sense to people? This is absolutely accurate, TRUST ME I KNOW. LOL. This is what I do for a living. I have personally discussed this exact same thing with Matt Bruck who has been Eddie's tech for years. Matt says that when Eddie pulls out the old refurbished plexi, it sounds so close to the old sound that it gives Matt goosebumps. Keep in mind that Matt hears Eddie play constantly. Eddie's taste in tone however has changed over the years, and Eddie no longer really digs the old tone as it is too "one-dimensional".