R.D.
Fractal Fanatic
This does sound very similar to what Jalen Guitar did w/ the FW ( Fair Warning ) pickup that Jim Gaustad evidently consulted on ... ?
The problem is if you only have Ed playing live in recordings from the 80's you don't really have a reference at all because between Ed's hand and the fact that Ed recorded mostly with other guitars there is no control . Also your guitar has and alder body with a thick skinned finish again totally different a way that you would hear easily in person. The best reference is a PV Wolfgang bridge pickup because it was built to replicate the original with the original as a reference in fact Jim still has it. Unless you have played the guitar yourself through a known amp you can't possibly have anything to go on except the PV and EVH (now also the Kramer) pickups.
No you haven't understood anything that I said.I'm not sure how to read your post if I'm honest, been going over it a few times. Reading back my message I don't think I claimed I discovered the holy grain tone that's 100% accurate.
Like I said, give it a go, nothing to lose. I'm assuming yours isn't wall art and you're actually have got a functioning pickup in there?
I really don't understand what you mean with that as you say on the one hand I have absolutely nothing to go on but then immediately saying we do have some things to go on. It's a little bit of a silly statement all things considered anyway by listening for years to the live recordings and the album songs that we know more or less the Kramer was used on, it gets pretty close. And besides, people have seen all sorts of Kramers played live, including 5150. Of course I wasn't in the 5150 studios hearing the raw unprocessed sound.
We might as well say to 3 generations of brown sound tone seekers over the last 40 years that all their efforts were useless as there's nothing to go on on any of his guitars. We know plenty of songs which guitars were used. A whole plethora of people have approximated a lot of different tones Eddie used successfully.
I thought people have moved away from the tone wood myth seeing as we've actually got university studies from luthiers to go by that show no tonal differences between any woods once the human factor is taken out. Other factors, sure, but not tone. I mean, by all means die on that tonewood hill, you may have PRS join you though knocking on a piece of lumber to make his point.
Can we hear more about your impression of Ed’s playing?No you haven't understood anything that I said.
I don't know if you read the thread . I met Ed in the 90's and played 5150 with the original pickup dry in to a Marshall that I was very familiar with and was able to hear directly the difference between Ed playing it and Me. Obviously Ed had a HUGE personal imprint on the tone that totally overwhelmed the pickup choice beyond did Ed like it or not. I think without this personal experience or the actual pickup all you can do is get a pickup that WAS designed to replicate it with it and use that as a reference but it will be you playing it and it won't sound like Ed. Yes you can replicate a particular era rig and try to play in a way that sounds right. The people that get close do so mostly by their playing ability.
As regards the wood; it's not the tone wood debate at all it's about the fact that your thickly painted body of different density and weight simply doesn't react the same as one with almost no paint on it that was also extremely light. The species of wood doesn't matter it is it's resonant properties. If you don't believe this makes a difference explain why putting a PAF on a Squire strat doesn't sound EXACTLY the same as a 59 Les Paul. Also frequency related dead spots are down to mismatched wood selection. Are you going to die on this hill?
And before you ask the thing that matters about paint is how thick and how hard not nitro or poly.
This was not the worst playing experience I have had ,that was playing in front of Allan Holdsworth .
Universal white and black with GMWA7753 for Chevy Truck red or Corvette red Mille Miglia WA4147.These two are almost identical and it is impossible to know exactly which is the original . I think it boils down to did Ed point at a Chevy truck or a Corvette and say "that colour" to George. It was R&M brand Acrylic Lacquer but as long as your paint dries hard and is all compatible it doesn't matter. No modern paint is anything like one from 1980s anyway. A lot of guys use Duplicolor with varying degrees of success and say Wimbledon white (wrong) and De1607 engine enamel which is too orange and is technically incompatible with the lacquer. This combo "looks" like the colours in a photo from the 80s but if you see the guitar in daylight it is redder. This guitar looks all the way from orange and cream to red and white depending on the light and it has hardly been seen since 2004 .
The real one has 1" prism pattern with printed outlines. The confusion happens because it is printed out of register and it is also part worn off. This is added too by the opacity of the printing . At certain angles in a particular light you hardly see the line. This has caused people to speculate that the outline is sharpie, it isn't.
I did something VERY similar with spectacular results, too..
I put one of those stickers on the guitar I learned to play on. A $25 Montgomery Wards Airline acoustic about 1968. It sure as hell didn't make that POS play any better.
Not really. The things that Ed liked about 5150 and the things that made it special to him are all missing from the EVH version. The first is the way is sounds acoustically, it was loud, responsive and just really balanced. The next was the way the neck was deep set and felt like a pair of comfortable worn in jeans. The closest thing with a similar vibe was the Music Man.
Thank you. Some of those aspects you're describing, such as exceptional acoustic qualities and a comfortable, worn-in feeling, are what I've found to be classic trademarks of great instruments. I can certainly appreciate how the original 5150 came together and ended up being far greater than the sum of its parts. I've owned a few other guitars with which I caught lightning in a bottle in a similar way.
How did I miss this?
That would scare me half to death!