Van Halen pickup list

[pat_rocks]

Hi i made this thread for those interested in Van Halen's tone :

Here is the list of the assumed pickups he used and what is clone to it :

Van halen about his early frankie : "That guitar has a Gibson PAF and just one volume knob — it’s real simple"

VH1 : tremolo songs black and white frankenstein : ES-335 overwound PAF 9k. Closest to it duncan 78. duncan 59 is close but uses alnico 5 instead of 2
Hardtail songs : Ibanez super 70 humbucker

VH2 : Eddie statement for van halen 2 : " I put a PAF magnet in a DiMarzio pickup and rewound it by hand, which took a long lime. I actually ruined about three pickups, and by the fourth time it worked. I didn’t count the windings — I just did it by sight. " it is probably the Duncan custom. A rewound of a 14.4 super distortion.

According to the EVH brand :
He tasked Wayne Charvel to make the original guitar, which had a maple neck, maple fingerboard and dot inlays. Other features on the first-incarnation guitar (as pictured on Van Halen II) were a standard nut, single Mighty Mite® humbucking pickup with transparent bobbins, single chrome volume knob, original Charvel® six-screw brass tremolo bridge, and Schaller® tuning keys. While pleased with the looks of the guitar, Eddie was less impressed with its tone and quickly began tinkering with it, as he was prone to do. He installed a new Boogie Bodies maple neck with a natural headstock, unfinished back (which he has always preferred) and 12"-radius dot-inlay maple fingerboard. Next to go was the Mighty Mite pickup. After selecting a DiMarzio® Super Distortion humbucking pickup, he swapped out its ceramic magnet for an alnico 2 magnet from a Gibson® PAF. He rewound the pickup by hand, dipped it in paraffin wax and put copper tape around the windings.

Fair Warning Women and children first : EVH frankenstein pickup or Duncan custom swapped with an alnico 2 magnet,

The Seymour Duncan Van Halen Special - Duncan Special — AXN™ Guitars

The Seymour Duncan Van Halen Special - Duncan Special Seymour was said to have called Eddie Van Halen before he made the pickup for sale and ask if he could market the Van Halen pickup and Eddie said NO.

alienxnation.com

it is a 14k4 ceramic pickup. That's probably the pickup that was in the bee and that got rewound by Duncan (probably a dimarzio super distortion). Then Eddie swapped the ceramic magnet with the paf magnet and it became the evh frankenstein pickup.

1984 and driver down : Duncan JB according to mj at seymour duncan.

After this : Dimarzio tone zone and air norton

then there is this test of different van halen sounding pickups made by pete thorn :



i own many van halen pickups including the 300 limited edition run signed by eddie of the frankenstein humbucker, a mighty mite 1800, dimarzio super 70's, except if you play 1984 riffs where the duncan jb is really spot on, the 78 model of seymour duncan is the best overall pickup in my opinion, it does early vh and it is pretty versatile (it cleans extremely well too) :



apparently the 78 model is a copy of eddies favorite pickup which duncan replicated here is the alleged story :

Legendary Tones - The "Secret" Edward Van Halen Pickup!

We dig into Seymour Duncan's "Secret" Edward Van Halen Pickup in this feature, and how close it can get you to Van Halen's sound with the right equipment.

legendarytones.com

in a nutshell :

vh1 : 9k paf alnico 2 / 8k alnico 8 ibanez pickups = Duncan 78 or 59 (but it will be brighter and not sound as "hot")
vh2, fair warning, women and children first = 14,4k + alnico 2 = EVH frankenstein or evh wolgang pickup.
1984 + driver down : duncan JB that's the pickup in the kramer 5150

 

[junk notes]

in a nutshell :

 

[Im247frogs]

Good to know.
My BareKnuckle VHII humbucker sounds pretty damn good in an alder Tele. Like, shockingly authentic.

 

[SonVolt]

What I’m most shocked about is how stable the price of pickups has been over the last 40 years. $70 in the late 70s was quite a bit. It’s only ~$20 more today.

 

[pittbull]

Van Halen 1 first album = Mighty Mite 1300
Pickup

 

[pat_rocks]

Van Halen 1 first album = Mighty Mite 1300
Pickup

Eddie never used any mighty mite pickup for the recordings the ibanez destroyer had black bobin pickups in running with the devil if you look at the clip. He had super 70’s in it. Those do not have hex screws and have regular pole pieces and screws. Then because the tone changed because he made the cut into his destroyer he tried the mighty mites in it but the Sound was way too altered and he didn’t use it anymore.



The super 70’s are alnico 8 pickups it is close sounding to ceramic pickups.

People tend to believe eddie used mighty mite pickups because of the destroyer and That charvel put a mighty mite with transparent bobins in the bee but if you look closely eddie replaced this pickup by a dimarzio super distorsion. The cream bobin pickup in the bee wasn’t a mighty mite. A mighty mite has no side hole in the bobins. The bee pickup has 3 side holes in the bobin like the vintage dimarzio super distortion.

Eddie is clear about the pickup he used in vh1 in his interwiev with Jas obrecht : in the frankie it was his es 335 overwound paf for the tremolo songs. Try a duncan 78 and it will be spot on.

Mighty mite 1300 it has no holes in the bobins :



VH bumblebee with holes in the bobins :

 

[crossroadsnyc]

The best “EVH” tone I’ve ever had is out of my Clapton “Beano” LP. It’s a Clapton Custombucker w/A3 magnets. Probably the least EVH pickup on spec you could find, right? Go figure 🤷‍♂️

 

[Matthews Guitars]

Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about pickups. The differences between various PAF style pickups are pretty subtle. You might be surprised at how little it really matters in the big picture, when you start reviewing pickup comparison demos on youtube. Yes, they can make a difference. But take any 10 PAF style pickups and try to tell them apart by recorded sound alone. Good luck!!! Particularly if you try to say "This sound is from pickup no 4...this is from pickup no 2....etc"

Speaker choice is way more important when seeking the classic early VH sound.

 

[pat_rocks]

The best “EVH” tone I’ve ever had is out of my Clapton “Beano” LP. It’s a Clapton Custombucker w/A3 magnets. Probably the least EVH pickup on spec you could find, right? Go figure 🤷‍♂️

it is close the clapton beano lp has a bridge at 8.5k ohms alnico 2 VH has it at 9k both are plain enamel pickups. They are close in specs !

 

[pat_rocks]

Good to know.
My BareKnuckle VHII humbucker sounds pretty damn good in an alder Tele. Like, shockingly authentic.

i think it might be spot on van halen 2 is still a mystery because it sounds brighter than most van halen albums. Some say he didn't made the frankenstein pickup yet. I red somewhere that he used a dimarzio paf with alnico 5 at 8,56k then it would be very close to what bare knuckle uses at the bridge for vh2.

 

[pittbull]

Eddie was changing pickups left and right on the Ibanez Destroyer the running with devil video shown above was shot after Van Halen 1 first album was completed and it wasn’t cut up by Eddie during the recording of Van Halen 1.The shark guitar with the cream color mighty Mite pickup was used on Van Halen II look at the famous Van Halen II studio photo you can see the shark guitar with the cream color mighty Mite 1300 pickup.Here’s a picture of Eddie in the studio recoding Van Halen II you can see the shark guitar with the mighty Mite cream color 1300 pickup to Eddie left it was used for recordings,as for the bumble bee strat that was a Dimarzio Super Distortion not a mighty mite I’ve known that since 1978-79 Karl Sandoval made the guitar he worked for Wayne Charvel.I also posted a clip below of Ossie Ahsen doing a pickup shoot out listen very carefully to the Mighty Mite 1300 pickup and then go listen to Van Halen 1 first album,don’t believe a lot of the early Eddie Van Halen interviews.

 

[pat_rocks]

Eddie was changing pickups left and right on the Ibanez Destroyer the running with devil video shown above was shot after Van Halen 1 first album was completed and it wasn’t cut up by Eddie during the recording of Van Halen 1.The shark guitar with the cream color mighty Mite pickup was used on Van Halen II look at the famous Van Halen II studio photo you can see the shark guitar with the cream color mighty Mite 1300 pickup.Here’s a picture of Eddie in the studio recoding Van Halen II you can see the shark guitar with the mighty Mite cream color 1300 pickup to Eddie left it was used for recordings,as for the bumble bee strat that was a Dimarzio Super Distortion not a mighty mite I’ve known that since 1978-79 Karl Sandoval made the guitar he worked for Wayne Charvel.I also posted a clip below of Ossie Ahsen doing a pickup shoot out listen very carefully to the Mighty Mite 1300 pickup and then go listen to Van Halen 1 first album,don’t believe a lot of the early Eddie Van Halen interviews.

The cream pickup could have been a dimarzio one too.

but for the frankie it was a paf for sure.

The shark destroyer best tone was the one of VH1 and it had the destroyer stock pickups during the recordings.

For vh2 the hardtail songs aren't as good as the trem songs. The somebody get me a doctor song was recorded with frankie and a gibson or a dimarzio paf not the destroyer.

the destroyer's tone was fucked after eddie cut the teeth of the guitar eddie even said it. It's probable that he took it to the studio and didn't use it a lot.

Search and Destroy

www.vhnd.com

look at this picture eddie is playing the stock destroyer he only painted it white and he recorded the first album with it before the sharkification.

they even said the van halen 1 records were done before the sharkification.

because the sharkification altered the tone he tried a mighty mite to see if he could recover the tone but no and the shark was never used anymore except for show.

the hardtail songs of vh1 are super 70s pickups. and Vh1 is the ultimate brown sound.

alnico 8 pickups are powerfull and rare. They tend to sound close to ceramic pickups but with more articulation.

 

[junk notes]

Wolfy holding in its current state:

@VHND

 

[pittbull]

Still with the Mighty Mite 1300

 

[pittbull]

Every pickup Eddie designed was above 13.k not what other company’s assumed Eddie liked/used

 

[crossroadsnyc]

it is close the clapton beano lp has a bridge at 8.5k ohms alnico 2 VH has it at 9k both are plain enamel pickups. They are close in specs !

I'm probably misreading your reply, but just to clarify what I was saying, the Gibson pickups I'm talking about have A3 magnets in them ... not sure which pickups you are referring to specifically. The only EVH pickups I have any experience with are the Wolfgang, which came standard in a few EVH guitars I had, and I honestly don't remember the specs in them. They were fantastic pickups though.

 

[pat_rocks]

Wolfy holding in its current state:

@VHND

The record of Vh1 was done while van halen had his guitar stock or painted in white with super 70 ibanez stock humbuckers. Then the sharkification was done. Eddie made the clip running with the devil with the ibanez super 70 humbuckers look at the video clip. Then eddie said That the sharkification screwed the tone and he put à mighty mite and nearly stopped playing it. He left the mighty mite inside and put it in his closet and voila. He barely used it in vh2 with the mighty mite and then it took the dust.

 

[pittbull]

This we know but it’s very easy for Eddie to change out a pickup,listen to the Ossie Ahsen post I put above listen carefully use your ears

 

[pat_rocks]

This we know but it’s very easy for Eddie to change out a pickup,listen to the Ossie Ahsen post I put above listen carefully use your ears

In his early days and the fact is that live he used the white destroyer with the super 70's pickups

Look no cream bobin pickup. Normal scews and pole pieces. When noticed this I was like I was screwed to have bought an expensive mighty mite cause it was all urban legend.






those are super 70's maxon alnico 8 pickups.

Ossie can even make single coils sound like van halen with his hot rod marshalls and boxes.

if people believe he use mighty mites it is because eddie changed the destroyer pickup after the record with a mighty mite 1300 but it sounded bad and the guitar was almost never played again in records. However he continued to play the shark live with the mighty mites for the show.

Add to this the story with charvel putting a transparent mighty mite humbucker in the bee people began to think that eddie used mighty mite pickups too. but eddie removed the mighty mite from the bee an put an overwound dimarzio super distortion with an alnico 2 magnet in it. The whole story with eddie and mighty mites is an urban legend. We know that eddie loved mighty mite necks and it is probable that when he bought those he bought pickups to try them. When the shark tone was screwed he tried one put it in it and it was over no more shark use.

Mighty mite pickups become way too much expensive for what they are really. In fact the pickups which should have their price raised are the overwound dimarzio super distortion from the 70's because their windings were inconsistent they red between 12k to 15k....

another interesting fact is that chris holmes had the exact same destroyer and eddie borrowed it for women and children first...

holmes destroyer had the super 70's maxon with cream bobins :

EDDIE VAN HALEN Borrowed Former W.A.S.P. Guitarist CHRIS HOLMES' Guitar For Women And Children First Album; Mean Man Documentary Bonus Sequence Streaming

In a special bonus interview feature in the Blu-Ray version of the upcoming documentary film Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes (January 15, 2021 Cleopatra Entertainment), Holmes speaks in loving tones of his late, long-time friend and fellow guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Says Holmes: “The one who...

bravewords.com

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--o_-VrfJi--/f_auto,t_large/v1659116403/livdhhxmy7zinbzlrkfi.jpg

if the mighty mites were the holy grail why would then eddie borrow a destroyer with super 70's in it ? doesn't make sense at all...

 

[pittbull]

Believe what you want