Steve Vai's Wiring

[Nitefly SA]

OK, i know steve vai has a gain circuit in EVO, so could anybody tell me which one? and also does he have two volumes, the boosters a push/pull, or he just doesnt have a volume? is there some other combo im missing? thanks, i know theres a few Vai freaks on PG so hopefully they see this and can help. i did search and didnt find anything.

[crafty]

There is no gain circuit in Evo. Just a volume and tone. Flo is equipped with a sustainer.

[Sambo]

Never heard of that one :s

[Nitefly SA]

no, there is definately a gain circuit he uses it in the song "tender surrender" he eases from high gain to no gain using the knob, i've seen him, he also uses it in "for the love of god".

[marksound]

In my country we call it "volume knob."

[Nitefly SA]

you ever think of doing stand up? (i realize it is hard to convey sarcasm through plain text so im telling you im being sarcastic)

[frank falbo]

You're probably just hearing the high pass filter. It's a cap across the two hot tabs on the pot. Search that, and you'll come up with some stuff.

[crafty]

Dude, there is no gain circuit in the damn guitar! Get it out of your mind! IF you've seen him live, then you've seen the racks of processors and pedals he uses to get the holy gain. There is NOTHING on Evo besides a set of very powerful humbuckers. That's it. Move along, nothing to see here.

[Nitefly SA]

see though i see how he turns the gain down as he turns the nob down its not like a on off thing he slowly segways into clean, but if you insisst i guess ill just get a circuit for myself.

[thegarehanman]

If he's using overdrive, then it could definitely be controlled by volume. Turn the volume up on your amp. Turn the overdrive up a quarter of the way, now fiddle with your guitar's volume control. The more signal you're feeding to the amp, the more distorted it will sound, at least that's my experience.

peace,

russ

[frank falbo]

*sigh* It's the high pass filter. Don't "just get a circuit for yourself." Or do, I don't care. But what he's doing is simply turning the volume knob down which reduces the gain to the amplifier. The reason the sound cleans up so well is because the pot is modified with the high pass filter cap (which I told you to search) and it's standard on lots of Ibanez guitars, including the Jems.

When you turn the guitar's volume knob down it attenuates the highs quicker than lows. The cap allows the highs to pass through, essentially making the volume knob double as a bass rolloff. That, in conjunction with the pickup selection, is how you, or anyone else can develop a technique whereby you seem to fade between clean and dirty with just the gradual turn of your guitar's volume knob.

But no, I'm sure there's something in there none of us know about, and you should probably search all around until you can buy it. Or, send me some money. I do believe I have one of tho.....I better stop.

It's not a flame post, really. Just learn to start trusting us more.

[TenderSurrender]

Vais guitar page

Go there and then click the banner at the top, and read all about Evo... No where in there does it mention it has a gain circuit in, Also take some time to read around vais site Nitefly, It has pictures of his rack gear

These guys are all right, By rolling back the volume on your guitar, the distortion tends to "clean up" a little giving you that nice clean tone with a bit of edge to it!

~~ Slain Angel ~~

[Sambo]

Man, His rig consists of the Jem, Cable, DS-1 distortion and a carvin legacy (excluding all the other fx gubbins), He sets the amp to break up, then uses the volume to go from breakup to clean and uses the DS-1 to send it over the top. Its really not anything active in the guitars. look on his website, he explains how he attains his sounds!

[ansil]

yeah man sorry but dude Vai was my hero man and i have followed everything about his rig since i can remember. however not in his evo guitars but you rem the guitar he played with zappa the old hendrix one it had a booster in it. with a dimarzio x2n as well which i though was quite over kill an x2n and a booster. well anyway. no man theres no booster in evo however if i rem correctly evo wasn't used on the recording of that song. it was a real strat from what i rem. but its been what a decade since that song came out. ???

but if you want somethign t give you some grind man just drop a push pull pot in your axe with an lpb1 it will give you volume increase as well as a little dirt. http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/lpb2_sc.gif

[Nitefly SA]

ok, you said this "high pass filter" comes standard on a lot of ibanez's, does it come standard on RG1570's? cus i just bought one (in the mail) and that'd be great.....x2n with a booster? that takes balls.

[marksound]

You didn't say what year, but here's a wiring diagram from Ibanez for the 2004 RG1570.

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=RG1570

Unless I'm reading Frank Falbo wrong, the 330pF cap on the volume pot acts as a highpass filter. This is doable on any guitar. The cap value may be different, but the effect is the same.

[Nitefly SA]

i think its a 2005

[GregP]

Friggin' A.

Based on this thread, I headed over to Guitarnuts.com to look up some simple capacitor mods. Made a shopping list (0.001, 0.01, 0.02, 0.022 uf capacitors) and headed to The Source (aka Radio Shack). Of course, they don't stock capacitors in any 'real' sense of the word. A few project 10-packs of miscellaneous caps, none of which were what I was looking for....

<grumble>

Since we're on the subject, though-- in my Pacifica, there are wires on the metal casing of both the volume and tone knobs. Are those just both acting as ground spots?

In other words, can I de-solder them from the backs of the pots and then create my own star ground somewhere else? I know that on the tone knob, it goes from the wiper to the housing, but it's just going to ground, right? I can ground it to the same spot as the rest of my grounds if I have a long enough wire thingy coming out of the new one?

Greg

[guitarmonky55]

steve vai most definitely doesnt have a gain in his guitar. i know what youre talking about though, he does it on the intro solo to 'i know youre here' on the g3 denver dvd. basically hes got that searing tone dialed in, but he kills his volume and throws some neck pickup in the mix. i approximate the same effect on my ibanez s1620 when i perform that song, you just hit the volume knob to get up to high gain.

[lovekraft]

...can I de-solder them from the backs of the pots and then create my own star ground somewhere else?

You need one ground connection to the pot case (for shielding), but if it's connected elsewhere, by all means, desloder away!

[swirlslave]

Heres what i think you guys are looking for,

this is a excerpt from the Legacy amp manual from the carvin site.

HELP SECTION

a) USING THE VAI “HIDDEN FEATURE”

One of the “hidden” features of the Legacy amp is using a technique that Steve Vai

requested be part of the amp for his own use. While playing on the lead channel with a

generous amount of DRIVE (around 6), back off the volume on your guitar. You will find

the channel actually “cleaned up” with your guitar at a lower volume. This is a great feature

for playing both rhythm and lead without switching channels. You will also find that

the amp will be very responsive to your “attack”. An advanced player knows how to vary

his/her attack when picking or strumming, and the Legacy is designed to respond to this.

[GregP]

...can I de-solder them from the backs of the pots and then create my own star ground somewhere else?

You need one ground connection to the pot case (for shielding), but if it's connected elsewhere, by all means, desloder away!

←

So let's say I've just picked a spot for a 'star'... all of my grounds (from the pickups, various cavities, the bridge) are all gobbed together at this one spot,

PLUS,

a wire soldered to the back of each pot, ALSO leading to my 'star' should be present. Is that correct?

And then there should be a solitary ground going from the 'star' to the ground.. er... tab.. thingy... on my input jack, too, right?

(sorry for the OT... I should've just made another thread)

Greg

[lovekraft]

That's it, Greg - it's that simple.

BTW, using the volume control to clean up the guitar sound is a time-honored tradition that obviously doesn't get enough mention these days - you have to remember, back in "medieval times", amps didn't come with footswitches and master volumes, so you had to do all that stuff manually (shock! horror!). It even works pretty well with most classic stompboxes, like the Fuzz Face or the Tonebender. I know it's hard to believe, but lots of guitarists used to get by all night long with just a guitar, a cord and a Marshall stack!

[haggardguy]

My current amp is a 1 channel pos solid state ampeg and somethings probably broken with it but I have no desire to fix it with a new amp in the mail. I use a distortion pedal all the time with it and just roll down the volume knob and it cleans up as soon as i take it down to about 75%. Its that easy.

[Paul Marossy]

I use a distortion pedal all the time with it and just roll down the volume knob and it cleans up as soon as i take it down to about 75%. Its that easy.

Yep. That's basically what I do. If you have a "touch sensitive" amp/distortion pedal, it makes it easy to manipulate your tone and even coax it into a near feedback/long sustaining sound when you want to take it over the top.

Edited October 23, 2005 by Paul Marossy