Pete Thorn's Massive VH and VHII Pickup Comparison

[cooljuk]

Pete Thorn and Dave Friedman did a killer breakdown of Ed's Marshall sound, a while back. Then, a new and old 12AX7 comparison, followed by a new and old EL34 comparison. Well, these keep getting more and more detailed. Now, Pete's posted up a massive EVH pickup comparison, showing off a bunch of vintage and modern pickups and how they pull off some of the sounds on the first few Van Halen albums.

I sent him a couple of my pickups after really enjoying his "Ed's Marshall" video, which he included, but since 21 of the pickups are not mine, I hope it's cool that I share this here...

I thought original Mighty Mite 1300 was pretty cool! I might have to track one down, even though they just doubled in value today.

 

[KStopper65]

I honestly can't tell them apart under such high gain in a blind test

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

That was a lot of work. I enjoy Pete's work. Had my favorites for VH tone, but I didn't dislike any of them. Sorry @cooljuk, I don't know which ones are yours. Do you mind saying?

 

[cooljuk]

That was a lot of work. I enjoy Pete's work. Had my favorites for VH tone, but I didn't dislike any of them. Sorry @cooljuk, I don't know which ones are yours. Do you mind saying?

ReWind Electric is my company.

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

ReWind Electric is my company.

I came back to edit my post, because I just saw the thread Cooljuk came through again. I am familiar with Rewind pickups. I don't have any, but I know everything I've heard about them, and every time I've heard them, not but excellent.

 

[cooljuk]

I honestly can't tell them apart under such high gain in a blind test

I agree in a way, especially the ceramic pickups. The differences I hear are in the low end, and in compression and note separation. Some are more “mushy” or “condensed” and less open and detailed by a bit.

In the AlNiCo 2 pickups, I hear more variation across the board.

No doubt, the amp plays a significant roll in the overall sound, though!

 

[KStopper65]

I went through the comparison again, and yes, there are some obvious differences when the pickups change

 

[GUITARFORCE Pickups]

I missed this ship. I wanted to include my Erupter pickup in the competition.

 

[AJK1]

I thought the Super Dist and Mighty Mite were definitely the sound of the 1st album
And the Bare Knuckle VH II was superb for everything else
I was really looking forward to hearing the Duncan 78 as I’ve considered getting one but after hearing it I thought it was terrible
The 59 sounded better than it !!

 

[Heppe]

I agree on the Super Distortion sounding really good for those VHI tones. But then again PT can make almost anything sound good

 

[Nitro]

The AMP is the most important in my opinion the pickup is the fine tuner.

 

[Fiesta Red]

I thought the Super Dist and Mighty Mite were definitely the sound of the 1st album
And the Bare Knuckle VH II was superb for everything else
I was really looking forward to hearing the Duncan 78 as I’ve considered getting one but after hearing it I thought it was terrible
The 59 sounded better than it !!

I thought the 59 sounded the best to me. The Motor City Blackbelt II sounded great too. I have one of each and they do the VH thing really well. The Blackbelt I has an Alnico II mag and that does really well too.

 

[Fiesta Red]

I asked Pete about the amp settings. He said the only changes were done were to get the tones between VH I and some of the later stuff. There were no changes between the pickups -- all the same amp settings.

 

[Nitro]

The mighty mite 1300 is the pickup for Van Halen 1

 

[captcoolaid]

Missed it oh well. Gonna have a listen to see what's what.

 

[captcoolaid]

Well James I must say I liked yours. Crisp with a tight bottom endl

 

[cooljuk]

Thanks. I absolutely love the guitar sounds on the first couple Van Halen albums. Gotta be one of my
Favorite guitar sounds ever recorded.

I’m working with Bryan Sours of Soursound on some custom 100W transformer sets to replicate the voltages, the drops, and sag of that amp early on at 120v and 90v. Trying to rebuild that crispy squishy thing that Eddie’s amp had, from the ground up.

I’m happy with my VH pickups for the sound but I want to dial in the sound and feel of a couple amps to be closer to that.

 

[Nitro]

I like Ossie Ahsen Van Halen 1 pickup comparison better take a listen.

 

[cooljuk]

Ya, that guy has some cool stuff on his channel.

That particular video sounds too gainy / buzzy / fizzy to me, even for the first album, and all the pickups sound extremely similar through that rig because of it. Maybe it's just that it's a 50W amp? Could be post processing too, I guess, but it almost sounds like a modded amp.

Funny how several YT guys dive WAY deep into the details of the VH sound but use 50W amps for some reason. Pete Thorn used a 50W, too, but I think it was just what he had available for that segment. He hasn't really built his studio and rig around VH like some of the other channels.

 

[Nitro]

When you listen to Van Halen 1 it has the extra gainy sound to begin with