The Van Halen Master thread collection!

USMC_Trev said:
There is scientific precedent for it. Studies have shown (according to Adam Neely) that musically, we're all permanent magnets for whatever we were listening to at about hte age of 14 +/- a year. So, whatever that was, that's just who you are forever. For me, that was OU812 and everything else in the 1987-1989 timeframe. Look at these lists, they're amazing. I don't feel bad at all.

1987
1988
1989
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I'm gonna quibble with the conclusion, or at least hold myself up as some freakazoid exception to the conclusion of the research...

For the record, I was 13 years old in 1980 and the first albums that that made me prick my ears up and ask "what the everloving fuck is that!?" were 2112 and the first Van Halen album. They were on heavy rotation in my 8th grade gymnastics class (the coach let the kids play records during the class), and truth be told, I didn't know which was which for while, I thought "Eruption" was a Rush synthesizer thing for a little while, but I soon sorted that out...

The albums of my 14 +/- time were pretty much those two and I didn't find more until I hit high school. Then my diet was pretty much Rush, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Queen, and a smattering of Yes and Scorpions up through the time I graduated. Oh, I forgot Back in Black, which was life-changing when it came out. My father was somewhat unimpressed, but I started picking out my very first guitar parts on Hell's Bells. The next thing I tried to tackle was La Villa Strangiato, because I'm stupid like that.

There are some amazing albums in the 1987-1989 list Trev posted, favorites of mine included Surfing With The Alien, Nothing's Shocking, Vivid, and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska. I'd graduated from college by then, so I was well past the 14 milepost, but all those albums are part of my DNA, plus The Real Thing, Louder Than Love, and Nothingface. Also, holy crap, where are Among the Living, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, and And Justice For All? Seriously into my twenties here, for the record. and those albums will be playing in my head until I die. Oh, and Rage Against the Machine is among the best debut albums ever

The 90s brought us (good lord), Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, Gish, Frizzle Fry, Astro-Creep: 2000, the peak Extreme albums, Slavestate, Tonight the Stars Revolt, Wisconson Death Trip and probably some other good stuff I don't know about. The 90s Rammstein albums are amazing.

The 2000s: Porcupine Tree were at their peak, and nobody who likes rock music should miss listening to In Absentia. Nobody who loves metal should miss listening to Blackwater Park -- just get over the cookie monster vocals, it's the best metal album ever. Mudvayne's LD50 is amazing. And then there's Meshuggah... possibly the most abrasive, harsh sounding band that still sounds coherent, but watching the Bleed video for the first time at the tender age of 31 blew me away and changed me forever. They became one of my favorite bands ever and to be honest I still hope that now in my mid-50s even as life accelerates with each passing year I'll still see some New Rock Things that blow me away and change my life.

It's all a long way of saying I take exception to the research and refuse to be defined by my 14-year old self! I suggest others try it. :) Over and out!!
 
HerrSquid said:
I'm gonna quibble with the conclusion, or at least hold myself up as some freakazoid exception to the conclusion of the research...

For the record, I was 13 years old in 1980 and the first albums that that made me prick my ears up and ask "what the everloving fuck is that!?" were 2112 and the first Van Halen album. They were on heavy rotation in my 8th grade gymnastics class (the coach let the kids play records during the class), and truth be told, I didn't know which was which for while, I thought "Eruption" was a Rush synthesizer thing for a little while, but I soon sorted that out...

The albums of my 14 +/- time were pretty much those two and I didn't find more until I hit high school. Then my diet was pretty much Rush, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Queen, and a smattering of Yes and Scorpions up through the time I graduated. Oh, I forgot Back in Black, which was life-changing when it came out. My father was somewhat unimpressed, but I started picking out my very first guitar parts on Hell's Bells. The next thing I tried to tackle was La Villa Strangiato, because I'm stupid like that.

There are some amazing albums in the 1987-1989 list Trev posted, favorites of mine included Surfing With The Alien, Nothing's Shocking, Vivid, and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska. I'd graduated from college by then, so I was well past the 14 milepost, but all those albums are part of my DNA, plus The Real Thing, Louder Than Love, and Nothingface. Also, holy crap, where are Among the Living, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, and And Justice For All? Seriously into my twenties here, for the record. and those albums will be playing in my head until I die. Oh, and Rage Against the Machine is among the best debut albums ever

The 90s brought us (good lord), Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, Gish, Frizzle Fry, Astro-Creep: 2000, the peak Extreme albums, Slavestate, Tonight the Stars Revolt, Wisconson Death Trip and probably some other good stuff I don't know about. The 90s Rammstein albums are amazing.

The 2000s: Porcupine Tree were at their peak, and nobody who likes rock music should miss listening to In Absentia. Nobody who loves metal should miss listening to Blackwater Park -- just get over the cookie monster vocals, it's the best metal album ever. Mudvayne's LD50 is amazing. And then there's Meshuggah... possibly the most abrasive, harsh sounding band that still sounds coherent, but watching the Bleed video for the first time at the tender age of 31 blew me away and changed me forever. They became one of my favorite bands ever and to be honest I still hope that now in my mid-50s even as life accelerates with each passing year I'll still see some New Rock Things that blow me away and change my life.

It's all a long way of saying I take exception to the research and refuse to be defined by my 14-year old self! I suggest others try it. :) Over and out!!
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Well since you brought up all the grungy stuff, I had a real hard time with the 90's. As I'd graduated high school in 1992, that was right in the death throes of hair metal and the rise of grunge ((or whatever moniker you want to give to these genres). Aside from a few inescapably compelling albums, like Perl Jam's 10, I was very much a get-off-my-lawn old man at the age of seventeen. It wasn't until my 30's and 40's that I began to embrace the music of my 20's and enjoy it for it's virtues: songwriting and emotion vs. technical prowess and showy bombast.

Meanwhile, in my 40's (which are about to be over and done with) I've leaned hard into djent (whatever) metal like Meshuggah (and bands like Periphery who gleefully admit to ripping them off), as well as the new generation of kids with amazing chops, proggy sensibilities and unassailable writing. Plini is a good example.
 
Someone complaining about proper growls on blackwater park, what did I stumble into lol (leaving out morningrise, orchid and deliverance is faux pas haha)
 
RevDrucifer said:
We all know the Balance era tone was peak EVH!
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Yeah, everyone talks about early EVH tone, and for good reason. It was a great sound, fit the music, and was part of the revolutionary sound that Eddie had. And the DIY-ness enhances it even more. Buuut...

For me, who was 8 years old starting to learn guitar in 1992, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance are my favorite ones. Guitar tone, and the music itself, and the production/mix. I've probably listened to those albums 5x more than the rest of the catalog.

Don't get me wrong, I love pretty much all of Van Halen to the point I literally painted my bedroom when I was a teenager to look like the Red/White stripe Frankenstrat. Maybe it's that "formative years" thing, but the SLO/5150 amps with the Music Man/Peavey guitars does it for me.
 
Dale LeClaire said:
Yeah, everyone talks about early EVH tone, and for good reason. It was a great sound, fit the music, and was part of the revolutionary sound that Eddie had. And the DIY-ness enhances it even more. Buuut...

For me, who was 8 years old starting to learn guitar in 1992, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance are my favorite ones. Guitar tone, and the music itself, and the production/mix. I've probably listened to those albums 5x more than the rest of the catalog.

Don't get me wrong, I love pretty much all of Van Halen to the point I literally painted my bedroom when I was a teenager to look like the Red/White stripe Frankenstrat. Maybe it's that "formative years" thing, but the SLO/5150 amps with the Music Man/Peavey guitars does it for me.
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Iā€™m pretty much exactly the same! The first music video I remember, period, was ā€œJumpā€ and then I was big into MTV when Balance came out, I remember Road Rules had an episode where they setup one of the VH gigs and they had one of the chicks tuning Edā€™s guitars where he showed her an A chord, I was 11 or 12 then and really had no clue of Edā€™s relevance in the guitar world, I just loved what I heard him playing.

Iā€™ve always dug the older stuff, but for the same reasons you listed, Iā€™ve generally been a bigger Van Hagar fan.
 
@RevDrucifer That's awesome, great memories!

My first distinct memory of Van Halen is going with my dad to a video store at the mall to get a copy of "Live Without a Net" when I was just starting out because, as he said, "you have to see this man's hands fly across the fretboard." And he was right, I damn near wore that VHS out re-watching it over and over.

It's all great stuff obviously; hard to find a bad song. I wish I'd been able to see them at their peak (of either era) though. By the time I saw them it was VH3. It was still a good show, well performed, and sounded great. And I had backstage passes from a local radio "call in and play Eruption" contest, so I got a pic of me as a scrawny 13 year old with the band. At that point, I didn't care who the singer was.
 
I can't remember when I 1st heard VH but I can remember seeing the Pretty Woman vid on MTV when I was a kid in the 80's Im sure I had heard something else somewhere on a radio, MTV was great for a young kid into music it was great. I remember all of it and miss it on a regular basis, Then again aside from a few newer bands I don't explore music as much as I used to, I don't know if its just getting older or the lack of development and the focus on the money making single in todays music but a lot of it does nothing for me. I mainly listen to Hair Nation or Ozzy's Boneyard on Sirius while I drive, or music on my phone.

I also never saw them with Dave or Sammy, I did see the VHIII tour and I know im in the minority when it comes to that album but I do like it. I do kick myself for not seeing them in 2015 but I couldn't have listed to Dave butcher the stuff live.
 
Cool vid!

My first time hearing VH1 was over at a neighbor friends house 1980 I remember the car horns and all the rest that followed. It was at that point I knew I had to learn how to play the guitar in that fashion. 43 years later I kind of can play that way. I'm just happy to say that I grew up in that era and those were my teenage memories!
 
Rich5150 said:
I did see the VHIII tour and I know im in the minority when it comes to that album but I do like it. I do kick myself for not seeing them in 2015 but I couldn't have listed to Dave butcher the stuff live.
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I'm not a huge fan of VHIII but the show I saw in Dallas was excellent.
 
Rich5150 said:
I did see the VHIII tour and I know im in the minority when it comes to that album but I do like it.
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You'll have to share your secrets for enjoying that one. I'm a huge VH, EVH, and Extreme fan but VH III is a very tough listen for me. They really miss the melodicism of DLR and Sammy on that one. Sam and Dave came up with great melodies over EVH's music, but for whatever reason VH III doesn't come close IMO. But I love what Gary does on Extreme albums - it just didn't come together for VH III. IMO. I've made attempts over the years to give it fresh listens because I really want to get more out of it, but it just doesn't gel for me. I've lately thought about putting together an instrumental version of it so I can just listen to Eddie's work.
 
if at gunpoint i had to pick a favorite for me it would be the VH2 tone. that's the the sickest, fuzziest, meanest, intimidating tone of his to me. it's a racecar in the red ready to blow. on another day at gunpoint i might answer mean street for the same reasons. i also like the 5150 tone, but for differnt reasons. the full, grandiose guitar sound on 5150 blew me away when released. those hanging, ringing chords, summer nights, are so huge, glorius!. i'm of the belief evh did not have a partivular 'favorite' tone of his own. he's a tone chaser, that's a fact. and each overall sound he had on each release was what he thought was best AT THAT TIME. but he's gong to move on and try and top it. and by top i mean whatever he felt makes his sound good, correct, best, etc. for him AT ANY OTHER MOMENT IN TIME. finding THE tone and then having that sound forever isn't something i would be able to settle on even if at that moment it sounded better than qanything.. does/has anbody do/done that? my tastes are always shifting.

but, i'm vh2 at heart. :)
 
HerrSquid said:
I'm gonna quibble with the conclusion, or at least hold myself up as some freakazoid exception to the conclusion of the research...

For the record, I was 13 years old in 1980 and the first albums that that made me prick my ears up and ask "what the everloving fuck is that!?" were 2112 and the first Van Halen album. They were on heavy rotation in my 8th grade gymnastics class (the coach let the kids play records during the class), and truth be told, I didn't know which was which for while, I thought "Eruption" was a Rush synthesizer thing for a little while, but I soon sorted that out...

The albums of my 14 +/- time were pretty much those two and I didn't find more until I hit high school. Then my diet was pretty much Rush, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Queen, and a smattering of Yes and Scorpions up through the time I graduated. Oh, I forgot Back in Black, which was life-changing when it came out. My father was somewhat unimpressed, but I started picking out my very first guitar parts on Hell's Bells. The next thing I tried to tackle was La Villa Strangiato, because I'm stupid like that.

There are some amazing albums in the 1987-1989 list Trev posted, favorites of mine included Surfing With The Alien, Nothing's Shocking, Vivid, and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska. I'd graduated from college by then, so I was well past the 14 milepost, but all those albums are part of my DNA, plus The Real Thing, Louder Than Love, and Nothingface. Also, holy crap, where are Among the Living, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, and And Justice For All? Seriously into my twenties here, for the record. and those albums will be playing in my head until I die. Oh, and Rage Against the Machine is among the best debut albums ever

The 90s brought us (good lord), Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, Gish, Frizzle Fry, Astro-Creep: 2000, the peak Extreme albums, Slavestate, Tonight the Stars Revolt, Wisconson Death Trip and probably some other good stuff I don't know about. The 90s Rammstein albums are amazing.

The 2000s: Porcupine Tree were at their peak, and nobody who likes rock music should miss listening to In Absentia. Nobody who loves metal should miss listening to Blackwater Park -- just get over the cookie monster vocals, it's the best metal album ever. Mudvayne's LD50 is amazing. And then there's Meshuggah... possibly the most abrasive, harsh sounding band that still sounds coherent, but watching the Bleed video for the first time at the tender age of 31 blew me away and changed me forever. They became one of my favorite bands ever and to be honest I still hope that now in my mid-50s even as life accelerates with each passing year I'll still see some New Rock Things that blow me away and change my life.

It's all a long way of saying I take exception to the research and refuse to be defined by my 14-year old self! I suggest others try it. :) Over and out!!
Click to expand...

A lot of that "research" is summarized in this book. I am trudging my way through it now. Maybe it
will be the death of me. šŸ¤£

I like to think my growth and appreciation for music was not stunted at 14 either. Exceptions to every rule or norm, I suppose.
Maybe musicians and music lovers are a bit different in that some of us try to find something to like and love as long as we
are capable of liking and loving music.

1702426278543.png
 
I find the VH tones---especially 5150 on --- far more compressed and smoother than the early work.
It kind of is indicative of how guitar, as an whole, in Rock/Metal across the board, became more
compressed, less dynamic, smoother, less open, and more polished.
 
Paf 7.5 to 7.7 plexi greenbacks ep pre jbl d 120 if your after vh1. Reffer to Pete Thorne deep dive thread on here should get you there. Iā€™m getting the kerrang.
 
I would have loved to hear more details on the "Me Wise Magic" Les Paul with the trans trem and sustainer pickup.

That tone and performance is the best thing since his Fair Warning tone for me, although I did love his tones on ADKOT too.
 
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