Just what we need – another V.H. patch attempt, right ?

R.D.

Power User
My first Patch Sharing Attempt !

First of all …, I’m not Scott Peterson, Mark Day, yek, Marco, simeon, etal; ….But, here’s the skinny ….

I built this patch after getting a look at the patches of three or four other forumites ! It’s important to me to mention that, because I haven’t been keeping track of who they were …. And really they’re the ones that deserve the credit. My apologies up front that I’ve forgotten who and where they came from. If my 50 yr old brain wasn’t on overload, I’d give all the credit where it’s so obviously due !

Anyway, I used their ideas, and tweaked up against the solo’ed out tracks of V.H.’s guitar that have been floating around the web until I got something that worked for my particular guitar ( PRS CU-24 – Mahogany & Rosewood – a far cry from Eddie’s Ash & Maple rig ! ) ….

BTW – one thing while I’m thinking of it. My PRS has the HFS pickup in the bridge. While it’s not as “hot” as say, a Suhr Aldrich …. It’s still pretty hot, and it’s got a ceramic magnet, which sounds a little brittle to me. In my monitors ( Adam A-5’s ), I’ve been able to tweak around it. But I have no idea what that’ll do to the tone on your guitar, and through whatever you’re playing through !

And the pickup is just hot enough, that the patch won’t really clean up like it did for Eddie ( ie; Ain’t Talkin’ bout Love ). It’s close, but as it cleans up, the Noise Gate starts to clamp down and cut off the beginning and/or end of notes ! If I lower the noise gate, the hiss from the gain on the amp starts to bleed through …. If you’re pickups are more PAF’ish, you might have better luck than I did !

Now …, a couple of things really surprised me …. 1.) Solo’ed out, Eddie’s tone really has a lot of high frequency energy, it’s almost “fizzy” dare I say it. Since he’s the only primary instrument, it seems to work just fine. A lot of the fizz goes away in the mix with Alex’s hats & cymbals. 2.) There’s correspondingly very little low-end information in the solo’ed out tracks …. I didn’t think Michael’s bass used up that much sonic space ? Maybe it’s an anomaly of the solo-ing out process. But it was surprising to me none-the-less. And that said, frankly I like more low-end in my guitars ….

So, I didn’t go for a perfect match. I’m just after the mid-range “roar” and the high-end “crisp”-ness, then just enough low-end to make it fun for me to play. This was the result, and I hope you enjoy it !

A couple more things about the patch.

1.) I put a pitch block in the first slot. For those that can’t or don’t want to re-tune to Eb, this will help. It’s not perfect, but it’ll transpose your guitar for you and it only added a little digital funk ….

IMHO – an Eb tuning is a must to matching a V.H. tone. There’s something about tuning down a ½ step that really gives the guitar some extra balls !

2.) I put in a Wah ( I didn’t try to match anything, it’s just a Wah that works for me, Clyde I think ), a Phaser and Flanger to try and re-create the MXR EVH models ….

3.) Between the Amp & Cab I put another pitch block that has the Eventide de-tune parameters that I picked up somewhere on the web ….

4.) Originally I used an OwnHammer IR ( the 412 SLM M75 Mix-n-Match # 3 – I think ). But since not everyone has OwnHammer’s I tried to duplicate it with a stock cab …. I settled on the 4 x12 Cali w/no Mic. ( that’s Mark Day’s favorite, and mine too because it’s the fullest sounding to my ears ) …. Yeah, I know Eddie used a combination of “old” Greenbacks and JBL D120’s. But I didn’t want to use a stereo cab, and the 4 x12 20’s, 25’s or Green’s just didn’t cut it for me ( feel free to switch it out, YMMV ).

Now, if the hi-end in the patch isn’t quite right for your guitar, just try adding in a mic ( your choice ), as they seem to add some crunchy highs, each in varying degrees. Then just crank up or down the filter ( LowPass ) to adjust it to your taste ….

5.) IMHO - the 2nd key to a convincing V.H. tone is the dry vrs. effects panning …. I panned the Amp & Cab left to -20.1 and then panned the Reverb ( Lg Plate ) & Delay ( Stereo ) hard right. I was surprised just how much difference that made when trying to copy the total V.H. vibe. I suppose you could pan the dry even harder left ( like Don Landee actually did ), but to my ears it started to sound too small by comparison. Yup, -20.1 did it for me !

I’m an effects junkie ( ie; Steve Lukather’s 80’s tones ), that’s a huge reason why I bought an Ultra to begin with ! I’m not sure if this is some of the rush that guys get when they play a W/D/W rig or not ? All I know is, I’m lovin’ this …, and I’m gonna have to dig a little deeper into it !

6.) Someone built a copy of Dweezil’s V.H. patch that had a Multi-Band Compressor in it ( sorry, I don’t remember who ) …. I couldn’t make that work at all. No matter how I adjusted the bands, there was no low-end and the patch just wasn’t any fun for me to play. But it did show me that a compressor at or near the end of the chain was a great idea in terms of balancing some of the dynamics and making a tone fit better when jamming along with CD’s, and when I combined it with the Enhancer, it all felt more fun under my fingers to play ! If the Enhancer makes it too much for you, just turn it off or turn it into a shunt to save CPU …. If you’re better with the Multi-Band Compressor than I am, feel free to put that back too ! Just let me know the settings you settle on, I’d like to try them !

Finally, one comment about the Amp block …. Mark Abrahamson ( aka rockstah ), just posted a couple of clips of a stock 1978 & and a stock 1969 Super Lead ( over on HRI ). The 69 clip was interesting in so much as he used a Variac and cranked it down to 90v. He posted a comment that the Variac lowered the B+ to 363 dcv and then he raised the Bias to 48 mA to compensate …. Alrighty then, I went to the Amp Geek page and did the same ( B+ of 3.62 & Bias of .480 ). I have NO idea if that means anything or not …. But I did it anyway ….

Also, regarding the settings on the Advanced page ….

If I’m honest …, to my ears I have to admit, I’m only about 90% there on the tone. It’s close enough that I’m proud of it, but there’s obvious differences. I played around with the Depth, Damp Sag, etc; But I found that while extreme settings changed the tonality of the sim ( a lot of times for the worse ), more gradual settings seemed to affect the “feel” of the sim, more than affect the tone of the sim. That may or may not make any sense, but it’s my story and I’m sticking to it …. These are the settings that “felt” best under my fingers ….

As Scott P always says, YMMV !

Have fun with it, feel free to post comments good or bad !

THANKS for reading ….
 

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RD, will try the preset soon. But if possible, make a soundclip for us as a reference. Because the preset will sound different through everybody's gear.
The Axe is very sensitive to input level, pickup, etc etc etc.
 
RD, will try the preset soon. But if possible, make a soundclip for us as a reference. Because the preset will sound different through everybody's gear.
The Axe is very sensitive to input level, pickup, etc etc etc.

Alexander !

You're absolutely correct about that ! The Axe-Fx is as sensitive to the differences in the input as ANY analogue amp I've EVER played. Unfortunately I'm not equiped to make clips yet .... I'm hoping to pick up something right after I get my tax return check.

Hopefully soon !

That's why I gave as much description as I did because I'm sure some folks are going to load it up ..., generally be disappointed and then not know why ?

Truthfully, I'm hoping that maybe Mark Day will make a quick clip if he likes the patch .... But he's got a lot on his plate right now.
 
Neat post....I'm curious, is this an over-all VH tone attempt or particular a certain song?

And yes, one MUST tune down to replicate. I just got more confirmation of that today, having created a Motley Crue patch (tune down a whole step). One patch created for Smokin Boys Room, then tweaked for Girls Girls Girls...then slight adjust. for she's - got - Looks - That Kill.
 
The riff that I kept playing over and over was Feel your Love tonight .... Both the single note riff that starts the song and the chorus riff ! I was also doing Ain't Talkin bout Love and sometimes You Really Got Me .... I tried Unchained w/the Flanger, but I didn't change to the Drop D, so it didn't really work out to well ....

Let me know what you think !

THANKS ....
 
RD, I dig the tone! Very nice job. It really captures the era in a big way with a very 3d depth to it. Thank you for sharing!!
 
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