> It’s possible that Ed used the exact same setup he used on any of the four albums and it’s all recording magic. Your Fair Warning tone might not be the same one I’m hearing. Before going into that, a couple disclaimers: Talkin’ real tone here, not modelers, computers or whatever. Some folks have gotten close to the Fair Warning tone with the base components of any early VH tone chase: Marshall plexi or plexi-like/clone amp, and low-efficiency Celestion speakers (e.g., Greenbacks), along with any number of pickup and geetar wood combinations. Or maybe so many guys are focused on nailing the first album tone that the other four tones have gotten shoved aside. The Van Halen II tone – much different – is great too, the over the top tone raspy on Women and Children First likewise, and then we come to what I think is the hardest, meatiest, nad-kickin’est guitar tone on any Van Halen record: Fair frickin’ Warning.Īnd here’s the thing: It’s the most difficult to cop. They’re a band kicking the world’s butt in every way, and it shows.Īnyhow, tone-wise seems like most Ed Van Halen fans are bent on copping the larger-than-life, comet-hitting-the-Earth-from-outta-nowhere first-album tone. Love the rest too, including the Van Hagar years (oops, forgot about VH III…), but those first four vinyl donuts are to me and many others just the nads. Seeing a lot of cream-ish replacement pickups there….
