He sanded down the back of the neck until it was slim and comfortable enough for his preferences. While Ed loved the white Wolfgang USA, he found the neck a little thicker than he normally likes for his neck profiles. I compared it to my trusty old Stealth, and the white guitar sounded better, so it immediately became my main guitar for rehearsals and the tour.” “Chip built that for me and did a wonderful job.
“I wanted a white guitar that was relic’d,” says Van Halen. However, shortly after rehearsals for the tour started Ed took delivery of a Wolfgang USA guitar built by Chip Ellis featuring a heavily relic’d white finish, block fretboard inlays, and a custom kill switch, which Ed uses to create stuttering staccato effects during “You Really Got Me” and his solo. Because the improvements and innovations that Ed makes to his gear become standard features of EVH products, that same sound and performance is available and accessible to any guitarist.īut even better than that, thanks to the unlimited access that Van Halen gave to Guitar World, Ed has allowed us to share every detail of his rig, including the signal path, amp and effect settings, and other insights into his signature sound to help players dial in the same exact tones or use his rig as inspiration for their own signature sounds.įor Van Halen’s 2015 tour, Ed initially planned on using the Wolfgang USA with a Stealth black finish and ebony fretboard with dot inlays that was his main guitar during the entire 2012 tour as well as for the television appearances the band made in early 2015. The end results of the meticulous attention to detail that goes into every EVH amp and guitar were boldly evident throughout the 2015 tour, as Ed’s tone remained massive, crisp, articulated, aggressive and, most importantly of all, consistent from the first note of the first night through the last note of the last night. Those modifications were the result of Ed’s feedback after using the original 5150 III amps for Van Halen’s 2007-08 tour, and they all became stock features of the production version of the IIIS head, which is what Ed is using now. On Van Halen’s previous tour in 2012, Ed used 5150 III amps that were modified to provide enhanced gain and midrange as well as additional features such as Resonance controls for each channel. What’s even more amazing is that the primary source of Ed’s phenomenal tone on Van Halen’s entire 2015 tour was a single amp head-an EVH 5150 IIIS. That signal path forms the core of Ed’s sound, which is subtly enhanced and given added body and dimension thanks to his wet/dry/wet setup where delay-processed signals are routed to 4x12 cabinets on the left and right. While the racks of gear at stage left-Ed’s side of the stage-look intimidating and complicated to the average music fan, Ed’s rig is brilliantly straightforward and simple, with a fundamental signal path that consists of guitar to pedals to half-stack amp. It’s very likely that the reason for that is because his sound is also the best it’s ever been, and thanks to the iron-clad reliability of his rig all he has to think about is playing.Įd’s guitar tech Tom Weber and Wolfgang’s bass tech Jim Survis-both experienced road pros who have worked on previous Van Halen tours as well as with numerous headlining acts for decades-both humbly comment that the rigs remained trouble-free for the entire tour, something that neither can recall ever happening before on tours with other artists. Van Halen fans who attended the band’s 2015 tour unanimously agreed that Ed’s playing is better than it’s ever been. As the Van Halen family-Ed on guitar, his son Wolfgang on bass, and brother Al on drums-roar into an instrumental version of “Light Up the Sky,” the entire backstage crew gathers to watch, and even the venue workers, who moments ago were hastily preparing for the evening’s events, stop in their tracks to listen. This point is driven home during soundcheck for Van Halen’s show at New York’s Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.
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