Anybody like pictures of racks and stuff?

[Rsmacker]

Brown pants=brown sound!

I hate to tell you this, but I think he meant the mess was a Solvite-like goo in the FRONT of his pants.


But then again........


Imagine how much their trucking bill must have been back in 86, shifting that gear and all the rest across the world. (Weren't they using Clair Bros PA stuff back then too? Not exactly the most compact and lightweight cabinets!!)
There's a lot to be said for IEM, Line Arrays and compact processor-based guitar rigs (one of them being, of course, that they sound shit).

[jgcable]

That pic is a good lesson to all the newbie players searching for 1 amp amp for a specific live tone. Both live and in the studio... most of the pro's use multiple amp rigs and very complicated racking systems.
What the MP1 and the latest modelers do is mimic an entire rig like the one shown.

[Rsmacker]

Yeah, but you also have to remember that at the time Van Halen were one of, if not, the biggest rock bands on the planet, so money would have been no object when it came to getting this lot together.

Which means, in charge of it all, would have been EVH's Tech, who would probably have a couple of juniors running for him too, probably on a nice fat retainer when they weren't touring.
I'll put a pound to a pinch of shit that Mr Van Halen didn't have a fucking clue what was in those racks, let alone what they did. His only concern, along with that of his money-men, would be that when he walks out on stage, the sound is there, and stays there. No fuck ups, no dicky fuses, no valves gone, everything 100%. If that doesn't happen, bye-bye Tech, because the audience would simply say "Van Halen were shit, the guitar broke down", not "The Tech let Eddie down". Chances of getting another well-paid gig like that after being fired for fuck-ups - zero.

If I was that Tech, I'd be spec-ing back-ups to the back-ups. NO room for error.



Actually, looking at the pic again, it's not that big a rack, it's just the wall of Marshall heads that makes it look excessive! In fact, it looks quite low-tech compared to, say, Steve Vai's modern rack.

[hippietim]

I remember those days:



Then I came to my senses: