Guitar Gear Forum

I am a brown sound chaser. Many of us have heard of EVH and his supposed damaged humbucker. I was researching this tonight and discovered the duncan spin a split wiring to mimic this effect. Anyone here try it? I am going to build an EVH strat next after my Slash Les Paul is done so looking for experiences with this mod.

I haven't tried the spin a split but honestly I don't know how much that was part of it. VH1 was recorded before the supposedly damaged humbucker was used and it sounded great too.

Pete Thorn did a deep dive into the EVH pickups a while ago. If you haven't watched it. It's pretty revealing how he got close to the VH tones with some pretty stock pickups. I like the results he got with the Super Distortion for the hotter tones and the 59 for the PAF stuff.

There are a handful of EVH tone eras to me

VH1
VH2->Diver Down
1984
5150->OU812
FUCK-> The end

The JB, in a Poplar body with a Floyd is a really easy way to get real close to the 84-OU812 sound, depending on the rest of the rig around it.

Just watched the video and honestly, the Duncan 59 sounded closest to VH1 tones to me. All of the pickups were good, some very surprising due to magnet type and resistance. To my ears, a good example of the broken coil tone is Hot for Teacher. With the spin a split I could go between those tones. Thanks for the suggestions!

Also in researching today I didn't know that Eddie also cranked the presence and unused bass channel volume. I tried this and there was most of the missing ingredient I needed. I used my PRS S2 which has a.bridge humbucker very similar in tone to a Duncan Custom Custom. All I think I need now are some JBL type speakers to mix with the Greenbacks. I emailed Ted Weber about his JBL copies to see which one he recommends for this application.

Ted Weber passed away decades ago (2009) unfortunately, but I'm sure one of his heirs can help you with recommendations.


Yes, cranking the unused bass channel is important. It makes a difference even when you are not jumpering the inputs (which Eddie didn't).

Maxed out presence is important too.

I agree that the 59 does really well for the brown tone. Early on, Ed used a PAF for the most part, along with the Mighty Mite for the hotter tones.
The 59 is as good as they come for a PAF clone. Better than most boutique PAFs I've tried.

Is Weber speakers still in business? My plan B as crazy as it sounds is to try some 70/80 Celestions mixed in as they have a lot of the same bright relaxed mid qualities.

Mike Oxhuge wrote:Is Weber speakers still in business? My plan B as crazy as it sounds is to try some 70/80 Celestions mixed in as they have a lot of the same bright relaxed mid qualities.

They're in business and they still are good with customer service and they answer questions fast. Just no Ted

Mike Oxhuge wrote:Just watched the video and honestly, the Duncan 59 sounded closest to VH1 tones to me. All of the pickups were good, some very surprising due to magnet type and resistance. To my ears, a good example of the broken coil tone is Hot for Teacher. With the spin a split I could go between those tones. Thanks for the suggestions!

yeah but I've heard rumors that Hot for Teacher was recorded with his 58 V .. if that's trhe case the broken pickup wouldn't be in it. It's hard to know with Ed, but usually PAFs and Super D style pickups will put you in the right track for his early tones.

For Van Hagar tones I really like the DiMarzio Tone Zone.. and the current EVH line is great too.

I could see it being the 59 v. After you mentioned it I remember reading that many years ago. The Burstbucker 2 also has a bit of that chimey single coil mixed with humbucker tone like that. That is why I'm putting one in my Slash Les Paul. Killer pickup.

Also, if you haven't tried a dimed Plexi into a Fryette Power Station, you need to. Total game changer for getting the goods at anywhere from practice to stadium volume.

Mike Oxhuge wrote:Also, if you haven't tried a dimed Plexi into a Fryette Power Station, you need to. Total game changer for getting the goods at anywhere from practice to stadium volume.

Yep. I've done it. Killer setup!!

The presence knob is probably the most important knob that isn’t volume to me on a Marshall. That thing better be pretty much dimed for me to get the tone I want. I can dial out the highs with treble if I need to, but that presence has to be maxed basically to get the best, wildest sound.