<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was interesting to read how the guitar \/ amplifier company EVH founded by the late Eddie Van Halen has evolved since its inception.\u00a0 The roots of the venture go all the way back to 1990-1992 when the Peavey company began working with Eddie on a signature model amp (the EVH 5150).\u00a0 The company wanted an amplifier that guitar players at any level could afford but would give them the same tone quality they could hear on Van Halen records.\u00a0 The original EVH 5150s shipped to stores in 1992 and proved to be a hit, but the Electro-Voice PA company took exception and filed a cease-and-desist letter.\u00a0 They felt the \u2018EVH\u2019 logo would be confused with their longtime moniker \u2018EV\u2019.\u00a0 Peavey dodged the problem by changing the EVH from block lettering to a script version.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The change in the logo alarmed consumers and rumors flew that Peavey had changed the design (which was not true).\u00a0 In fact, Peavey had taken steps to keep things just as they were in the original design.\u00a0 Each amp used four Sylvania 6L6 power tubes and when it was announced the company was going to stop manufacturing them, Peavey bought nearly a half a million dollars worth to insure an adequate supply remained. \u00a0 Unfortunately, this stockpile of tubes began to dwindle about the same time the \u2018block to script\u2019 logo change happened.\u00a0 The tone changed slightly when Peavey began using Chinese made Ruby 6L6 tubes so the original EVH amps suddenly became the Holy Grail sought after by scores of tone purists.\u00a0 Peavey and Eddie maintained a relationship for the next fifteen years and the market saw a host of EVH amps in various configurations released with the guitarist\u2019s stamp of approval.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 2007, Eddie took the brand to another level when he started his own company under his now iconic EVH logo.\u00a0 Fender would take care of manufacturing and distribution while Eddie\u2019s team would oversee research and development.\u00a0 They hit a homerun on their first swing when they achieved an amp capable of producing the tone Van Halen had been chasing for his whole life – the EVH 5150 III.\u00a0 The logo problems with Electro-Voice were cured by making the \u2018V\u2019 twice as big as the \u2018E\u2019 and \u2018H\u2019, all of which now were located in an oval.\u00a0 Like the Peavey collaboration, a multitude of amp styles were produced and having Eddie himself use banks of EVH speakers and amps on tour provided more than enough advertising punch.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Van Halen (the band) first began making noise in the music world, Eddie\u2019s playing certainly caught everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Equally eye-catching were his \u2018Frankenstrat\u2019 guitars he had pieced together and decorated in search of his perfect guitar.\u00a0 Signature models were eventually manufactured by Kramer, Ernie Ball, Music Man, and Peavey but some didn\u2019t meet Eddie\u2019s specs.\u00a0 He had been working with Peavey on the guitar that would bear his son\u2019s name.\u00a0 When the deal to work with Fender came along, the Wolfgang design also migrated to the newly incorporated EVH.\u00a0 Now that Van Halen is no longer with us, Eddie\u2019s long time guitar tech\/design partner Matt Bruck and son, Wolfgang Van Halan, have been left to carry on the legacy.\u00a0 Reading their extensive interview in <\/span>Guitar World <\/span><\/i>(Vol. 44, NO. 01, January 2023), it hit me that Wolfgang grew up with the world\u2019s greatest guitar player to show him the ropes.\u00a0 He was surrounded by guitars, amps, and assorted gadgets that gave him a slight edge over the everyday garage band musicians who do not happen to have a G.O.A.T. rock star in the house.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other striking fact that pops out of this interview?\u00a0 Wolfgang isn\u2019t some spoiled, silver spoon-in-mouth, over privileged musical snob.\u00a0 Elsewhere in the same issue, Wolfie finds himself listed as one of the 19 guitarists who left their mark on the year 2022.\u00a0 Wolfgang\u2019s reaction to the honor?\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not a \u2018guitarist of the year\u2019 – I\u2019m just a dude!\u201d\u00a0 He grew up with resources but has worked hard to become a remarkable musician, songwriter, and business man.\u00a0 This does not diminish what 90 percent of the wanna be rock stars go through so they can pursue their rock \u2018n\u2019 roll dreams.\u00a0 One would have a hard time being jealous of Wolfgang\u2019s path simply because he has paid his dues, developed his talents, and remains remarkably humble.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The best way I can explain the whole process of equipping a band is by examining how the three of us ended up becoming a band called The Twig.\u00a0 Playing paying gigs was the culmination of two solid years of work, but each of us had our own path to follow before we became a unit.\u00a0 Mike was interested in electronics and had some background in guitar before we met.\u00a0 Gene\u2019s brother had a beautiful Gibson SG guitar and an amp he let Geno borrow. \u00a0 I contracted drum fever in fifth grade and when my folks fronted me the money to buy a Ludwig drum kit in seventh grade, I hit the ground running.\u00a0 Gene and I actually jammed a few times during our freshman year in high school, but it was at his house.\u00a0 I would bring my snare and one cymbal there because his brother would not let him take the guitar from their house (yet).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The three of us were all involved in our high school\u2019s production of <\/span>Bye, Bye, Birdie<\/span><\/i> during the spring of our sophomore year.\u00a0 I was playing drums in the pit orchestra, Mike was playing an unamplified acoustic on stage during some of the numbers, and Gene was part of the backstage crew.\u00a0 The bass player in the pit orchestra, Ron Caviani, and I got into the habit of playing snippets of pop songs warming up before rehearsals.\u00a0 Mike would occasionally sit on the edge of the stage with his guitar and plunk along.\u00a0 From these sessions, we started thinking about doing more serious jamming in the future.\u00a0 Somewhere in the discussion, Mike mentioned he was thinking about getting a bass guitar.\u00a0 The first time we played together was at the cast party held at the Chalet Supper Club after the play had wrapped.\u00a0 The next summer, we began meeting in my basement to see if we could put together a trio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our first jams were done with piecemeal equipment.\u00a0 Of course, I had my drums but had to borrow one of the two microphones Mike brought along.\u00a0 Mike had a nice Fender bass he had bought but was playing it through an amp he had built from a kit powering a speaker box he had fashioned from a large, wooden box that used to be a TV.\u00a0 Gene had the better equipment – but it was still his brother\u2019s Fender amp and Gibson SG guitar.\u00a0 We had no PA so we plugged in the vocal mics through the guitar and bass amps.\u00a0 Not ideal, but it got us started.\u00a0 Halfway through our junior year, we knew we were on to something so we began the process of upgrading our equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0First up was Gene scoring his own guitar.\u00a0 He found a used Ovation semi-hollow and a Fender amphead and speaker cabinet.\u00a0 The cabinet was a two person hauling job but we noticed the fullness of the sound he could get right away.\u00a0 Mike liked the Fender amp\/bottom combo and soon found his own.\u00a0 We were still working on a set list but suddenly the matched amps on either side of the drum set looked impressive.\u00a0 Mike found another used speaker cabinet that matched the bass and guitar set up so we put that to use as a one speaker PA for rehearsals.\u00a0 Next up came microphones.\u00a0 Mike the electronics geek had run the specs on an Electro-Voice 664, which he assured us was the gold standard for live bands.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We visited the electronics shop on West Washington Street and I recognized the salesman;\u00a0 he had played in the band at our one and only JH dance back when I was in eighth grade.\u00a0 While we drooled on his countertop while looking over the mics, he mentioned that he was now with the Joe Arkansas Band (named after a member from Arkansas named Joe, but even he didn\u2019t know Joe\u2019s last name).\u00a0 He said his band had begun goofing around singing songs in a UP-Finn accent on nights when the gigs were really slow.\u00a0 He said they had almost a whole set of \u2018Finn-rock\u2019 songs and were thinking about recording some of them.\u00a0 Sound familiar?\u00a0 If you guessed this was the beginning of the band The Yoopers, then you know how that turned out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike and Gene snapped up two E-V664s and stands but they were big units.\u00a0 I asked the salesman if he had any ideas of a mic I could use on a boom stand playing the drums that would not give me a concussion if I hit my head on it.\u00a0 He reached into the display case and hauled out a cool looking E-V 627 B Dynamic Cardioid Hi-Z mic.\u00a0 He asked if I sang lead at all.\u00a0 When I said, \u201cYes, and most of the high parts,\u201d he said, \u201cPerfect.\u00a0 This mic\u2019s frequency response on the low end will make your voice sound full and it is a great size for a boom stand.\u201d\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure what all that meant, I really liked the cool black color and slim design.\u00a0 Once Mike agreed it met our needs, we added a six channel mixer so we could have individual volume control for the PA we didn\u2019t own yet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I do not know what happened to the old TV set bass bottom.\u00a0 It sat in our basement for a long time and the last time I saw it, members of Mike \u2018Cub\u2019 Coda\u2019s band were hauling it out our front door.\u00a0 Their bass player Kim French had a tendency to blow up speakers and they were on an eternal quest to borrow speakers for the next gig.\u00a0 They must have been desperate because when they called, Mike didn\u2019t offer to loan them his new speakers, just the old homemade TV box.\u00a0 I never saw it again – maybe Mike made them a deal and he didn\u2019t bother getting it back?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We played a few unofficial gigs where the lack of a PA was not a problem.\u00a0 Playing in a living room for the Red Owl Grocery store\u2019s Christmas party didn\u2019t require more than our one speaker bottom PA set up.\u00a0 Same with a couple of \u2018anyone is invited\u2019 dances we held in the recreation room at Messiah Lutheran Church.\u00a0 As the summer before our senior year was coming to an end, we ended up playing an outdoor dance for Northern Michigan University\u2019s Band Camp.\u00a0 We set up on the front steps of the Forrest Roberts Theater facing the Hedgecock Fieldhouse.\u00a0 We ended up playing our entire set list twice.\u00a0 When we were done, we agreed that, A) we had a month to put together more songs before our first post-football game high school dance and B) we needed a real PA.\u00a0 My mother questioned the need for more equipment when she said she could hear us just fine over the half mile that separated our house from the dance.\u00a0 Mike assured her it was about the sound quality, not the volume.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike the electronic whiz found a reasonable set of speaker columns in a mail order catalog and a new D-I-Y amplifier kit which we all pitched in to pay for.\u00a0 It sounded great in our basement but after the first set we played in the high school gym, it became apparent that at the volume needed for a big hall, they sounded terrible.\u00a0 Mike sent them back and we headed straight down to see our buddy Gene Peterson at Marquette Music.\u00a0 We explained what we needed and he was more than happy to sell us two speaker cabinets each containing two twelve inch speakers.\u00a0 Gene P warned us we may need some treble horns to help them project in larger places, but Mike had that covered.\u00a0 He had two very large ones similar to what one would see hanging from the light poles at a football field.\u00a0 They sat nicely on top of the speaker cabs and we were now in business.\u00a0 This was the second time we shared the cost for band equipment, but it was more than well worth our while to upgrade our sound.\u00a0 We were all set . . . almost.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other thing we learned at the first high school gym gig, was Mike and Gene ended up pointing their speaker cabinets toward the middle of the stage so they could hear each other better.\u00a0 Mike had recently seen another trio and noted they solved the problem by putting an extension speaker for the bass behind the guitar player and a guitar cabinet behind the bass player.\u00a0 Our first couple of band wages went into more speakers but I noticed the balanced sound was even better for me sitting between the four cabinets.\u00a0 The one thing we never did invest in was stage monitors so we could hear what was coming out of the PA better.\u00a0 At the volumes we played, I never had any trouble hearing the vocals and back then, very few garage bands used monitors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Mike and I played together again three years after The Twig was no more, we built our two massive folded horn enclosures and monitor speakers in my dad\u2019s workshop.\u00a0 We were pretty proud of those and when we had a chance to use E-V Voice of Theater PA speakers at a dance at Lakeview Arena, we actually preferred the sound of our home-built cabinets.\u00a0 Our new band, Sledgehammer, used a lot more vocal harmonies covering the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan,\u00a0 and the Eagles so I was more than happy to have stage monitors for that band.\u00a0 When Sledgehammer went our separate ways, I bought the monitor speakers and used them for my home stereo and for DJing the JH dances in Ontonagon when I first started my teaching job here in 1975.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The only thing we needed to round out our highly professional stage equipment for The Twig were lights.\u00a0 Rather than build boxes to hold colored flood lights, Mike looked around and found a cheaper alternative.\u00a0 He picked up two fluorescent light fixtures and two colored bulbs – one red and one green.\u00a0 With those set on the stage just in front of and on either side of the drum kit, they cast a cool red and green glow.\u00a0 They not only looked cool reflecting off my silver sparkle drums, they lit up the walls and ceiling around the stage no matter how large or small the venue.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As you can tell, Wolfgang Van Halen got his start in the music biz without resorting to scrounging equipment or making D-I-Y speakers.\u00a0 He did learn a few tricks of the trade from his dad, however, when it comes to designing new amps, speakers, and guitars.\u00a0 Eddie made it his habit to take new equipment prototypes on the road and use them.\u00a0 He would come back from the concert trail with detailed notes on things he liked and didn\u2019t like about what he was test driving.\u00a0 Wolfie has teamed up with Eddie\u2019s old guitar tech \/ business partner Matt Bruck. \u00a0 They are still working on designs Van Halen Sr left behind when he left this mortal coil.\u00a0 In fact, as of this writing, Wolfgang is road testing a new EVH 5150 III 100S amp and a new SA 126 electric guitar.\u00a0 The EVH brand lives on and Wolfgang is living proof the apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree.\u00a0 For those still woodshedding away on the garage band front, one thing remains – equipping a band is a fun process that comes in a close second to actually learning enough songs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Eddie’s boy Wolfgang showing what can happen if your dad is the G.O.A.T. guitarist and you pay attention growing up (and a nice little hint that he played all the instruments on his debut MAMMOTH WVH album)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was interesting to read how the guitar \/ amplifier company EVH founded by the late Eddie Van Halen has evolved since its inception.\u00a0 The roots of the venture go all the way back to 1990-1992 when the Peavey company began working with Eddie on a signature model amp (the EVH 5150).\u00a0 The company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}