My Van Halen patch - Need help getting volume knob "cleanup"

Stringtheorist

Stringtheorist

Fractal Fanatic
This is my tweaked version of one of the Van Halen presets that's been circulating. Sounds awesome with my Custom Shop Strat and Bare Knuckle VHII pickup. However, I can't get sufficient cleanup by rolling back the volume knob (as in Hot For Teacher, etc.). Tried using modifiers on the Master Volume and Drive parameters but the tone would always get muddy and I couldn't get it clean enough. Ideally I should be using an alder (not mahogany) guitar which may be contributing a certain midrangey muddiness but I was wondering what else I could try to make this work. 1 Meg volume pot on my guitar? :?:
[attachment=0:3mvgbvbw]285 - Van Halen 70s.syx.zip[/attachment:3mvgbvbw]
 

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i'm pretty sure Eddie used a Les Paul for the rhythm parts on "hot for teacher".i read an interview of his where he said the cleaned up tones are the neck pickup w/vol rolled back and then used the bridge pickup full on.he used the 3way toggle to switch back and forth.
a neat trick is to install a .001pf cap between post 1 and 2 of the volume pot.keeps the high freq's from going to ground when you roll back the volume.250k pots also send less high freq's to ground and have a more gradual taper.500k pots mud up when you roll back the volume.
 
RDeraz said:
i'm pretty sure Eddie used a Les Paul for the rhythm parts on "hot for teacher".i read an interview of his where he said the cleaned up tones are the neck pickup w/vol rolled back and then used the bridge pickup full on.he used the 3way toggle to switch back and forth.
a neat trick is to install a .001pf cap between post 1 and 2 of the volume pot.keeps the high freq's from going to ground when you roll back the volume.250k pots also send less high freq's to ground and have a more gradual taper.500k pots mud up when you roll back the volume.
Click to expand...
Wow... I didn't know any of that, except the cap/resistor trick. Figures that HFT clean is the neck pickup but it's the first time I've heard anyone say it was played on a LP. My guitar only has a master volume control so I guess I'll need to try 250K pots and the cap mod.
 
not to mislead you,the 250k pots will be slightly darker than 500k pots.but the roll off is more gradual.a friend of mine installed the 1 meg pot and had good results with it also.try all three,it's one of the cheapest and easiest mods you can do to your guitar. ;)or if you have an expression pedal,attach it to the volume pedal block in the Axe.i've had good results with that,then no more worries of high end to ground,your pups will still be wide open. :)
 
RDeraz said:
not to mislead you,the 250k pots will be slightly darker than 500k pots.but the roll off is more gradual.a friend of mine installed the 1 meg pot and had good results with it also.try all three,it's one of the cheapest and easiest mods you can do to your guitar. ;)or if you have an expression pedal,attach it to the volume pedal block in the Axe.i've had good results with that,then no more worries of high end to ground,your pups will still be wide open. :)
Click to expand...
I tried the volume block/expression pedal method also but the tone wouldn't clear up the same way.
 
I have an EvH pickup at the bridge position of my Strat.
I used your patch (using the FXL path) and rolled the guitar vol knob down to about 2. The sound got clean enough and still very usable.
I also attached my expression pedal to the Drive parameter in the Amp block, set Min and Max, and also got good results that way.
 
yek said:
I have an EvH pickup at the bridge position of my Strat.
I used your patch (using the FXL path) and rolled the guitar vol knob down to about 2. The sound got clean enough and still very usable.
I also attached my expression pedal to the Drive parameter in the Amp block, set Min and Max, and also got good results that way.
Click to expand...
Probably I need to install the pickup in an alder-bodied Strat then.
 
edhead said:
it was actually a flying v evh used on hot for teacher
Click to expand...

you are 100%.you just jogged my memory.thanks for the correction.knew it was a gibson though. :)
 
RDeraz said:
i'm pretty sure Eddie used a Les Paul for the rhythm parts on "hot for teacher".i read an interview of his where he said the cleaned up tones are the neck pickup w/vol rolled back and then used the bridge pickup full on.he used the 3way toggle to switch back and forth.
a neat trick is to install a .001pf cap between post 1 and 2 of the volume pot.keeps the high freq's from going to ground when you roll back the volume.250k pots also send less high freq's to ground and have a more gradual taper.500k pots mud up when you roll back the volume.
Click to expand...

It was a Korina Flying V!
 
I'd suggest the trebble bleed mod (with cap) and the instalation of a blower switch. What this does, is to bypass everything and send the signal from the brigdge pickup directly to the output.
In this way, on one hand you get the most of your bridge pickup when you use the blower switch (no pots etc between the pickup and the output, which means slightly more volume and trebble) and on the other hand you can set your volume control to let's say 2 and have the neck pickup selected.
What you accomplished now, is that you have a clean sound ready for use (neck pickup with volume on 2) and at the same time, with the push of the blower switch, you bypass everything and go straight out through the bridge pickup full throttle.
It's very convinient, easy to do and it works really well...
 
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