Dude, holyshit! Never ever ever have I heard a better Brown sound video in my freaking life! There was a point I stopped the video and just sat there in absolute awe. Obviously, you're playing and technique are very very good. But the sound you get on this video IS Eddie's sound. Couldn't thank you enough. Absolutely brilliant

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for your kind words! Please subscribe for more upcoming 🤘

@jesuschrist2284

8 ай бұрын

Kemper amp will solve your problems

@freemanmt1

8 ай бұрын

@@jesuschrist2284 I would totally do that. Just someone else will have to set it up for me LOL. I've never had any luck getting great tone out of modeling style amps. Your message is very appreciated, I feel like I should give it one more shot.

@jesuschrist2284

8 ай бұрын

@@freemanmt1 it has presets and you can easily download more. Bit pricey but omg convincing. And i love real amps.

@jesuschrist2284

8 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 also when i say sounds good, i mean it sounds really really good :)

I've seen a million of these videos where people try to get that Eddie's Brown sound and honestly I can tell you that in my opinion this is the closest I've heard. And your playing is awesome too by the way.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Now that’s a great review! Thanks 🙏

@DS-nw4eq

10 ай бұрын

I’m making some brown sound right now

@manaras

10 ай бұрын

This is it, the most accurate replica of VH early tone

@wallisliss

10 ай бұрын

I've always wondered if we put Randy and Eddie on the same stage at the same time WHAT WOULD happen😁 Ace playing by the way. Thank you.

@DMSProduktions

10 ай бұрын

@@DS-nw4eq I can smell it ALL the way from here!

This is about as spot on as I’ve ever heard it. All the right harmonics are there and those are usually what are missing!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

🙏 Awesome. Thanks watching and listening!

@Greeanerbeans77

7 ай бұрын

Why is your photo a pentagram?

@slickfrictionless

7 ай бұрын

@@Greeanerbeans77 it’s a star, not a pentagram.

Dude just stumbled upon this vid and as a producer/engineer u absolutely friggin nailed the tone. It’s a subtle batch of such specific overtones! Seriously well done mate🎶

Not sure if this is the secret sauce (will we ever know?) but this is probably the closest/best Eddie tone I've heard on KZread. The way the tone cleans up at lower guitar volumes is just as impressive as the fully open tone. Well done sir!

@martinsmith4123

6 ай бұрын

Thanks my good man! 🤘🤘

Aside from the outstanding sound displayed in this video, one has to really sit in awe of all the devastating riffs Ed created. He was a genius on so many levels.

This has got to be the closet I have heard anyone get to Eddie's early "brown sound" tone - I want it!!! Fantastic job!

That's a GREAT guitar tone! The guitar is alive in your hands. Great work, great playing! Thanks!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thanks dude🤘

David Bray has it figured out. Whether its his 20 or his 100 watters, he absolutely nails the EVH tone.

I lived with Ed for several months and I can tell you it's in those meat hooks he had for hands. His grip could snap drumsticks....literally

@charlesromulus7317

7 ай бұрын

Definitely a factor. I heard this as well over the years. For a lot of guitarists, a lot of the tone is said to come from the fingers.

@paulrogers6037

7 ай бұрын

Ted Nugent famously said that he played through Ed's stage rig and only heard himself playing. And when Ed played through Nugent's rig, he couldn't believe that sound came out of his own amp.

@charlesromulus7317

6 ай бұрын

@@paulrogers6037 Seems like it's almost magic man, and only a small percentage are blessed with it...

@martinsmith4123

3 ай бұрын

I made this reply for you kzread.info/dash/bejne/X2h8y9SLYbCxftY.htmlsi=eRPRAOeeYqksxS2f

I wouldn't want to leave the house if I could play through this sound! And don't tell me the Friedman's can do this! This has the voice!

Best "brown sound" replication I have heard yet. Great touch, too, Martin. Kudos.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Very kind! Thanks for watching. More upcoming 🤘

Spot on! That Mean Street intro especially, the notes just pop!

im not even a huge evh fan or anything, but ive been facinated with the brown sound for ages now, this is one of the best videos ive ever seen on the brown sound, so informative and entertaining. This should have at least 10x the views man, and your voice is very relaxing!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Hey, Thank you John! Yes it’s one heck of a grail Tone! Rock on 🤘

Just stumbled across this... Easily the most spot-on representation!!!Well done Sir!... And you captured the most important part... The sound has everything...the bite/ the harmonics/..the perfect distortion..it's alive...best take ever!!

David Bray just simply makes the best amps on the face of the earth. What a sound!

The undisputed KING of rock guitar! No one is even close! And that was very informative. Your playing is stellar bud.

Variac. A brownout is when power is reduced. That’s where the name comes from.

@davidbarlow431

10 ай бұрын

First time I've heard that one. Nice and simple - I like it! 😂

Damn right! The stacking of amp, load box, and amp I have never quite understood until now, but you have that VH sound that roars at you when you get up to 7 and beyond. Great explanation and example, not to mention the playing! thanks for doing this.

I showed this video to Paul Gilbert, he said "He plays really well! And interesting gear ideas too. Thank you". I thought you might like to know that ;o)

@martinsmith4123

5 ай бұрын

Dude!! That’s amazing. Thank you very much 🤘🤘🤘

If you and Jim Gausted get in a room together Eddie will literally come back to life and walk the earth as a 21 year old.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Haha. If only 🤘

This is very very close, nicely done, I bet it's a lot of fun rippin' with that tone. I dig your Strat too!

Your theory is spot on. My former room mate was Tony Iommi's tech for 30 years. He knew Van Halen. He told me what your video shows. We also built a rig like this doing the same. The signal was crushed against the power amp. Great video and sounds amazing. Enjoyed this video.

@martinsmith4123

2 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! I’d be interested to know more… 🤘🤘🤘

We’re never gonna get it 100% right because he kept it all a secret. He mentioned the variac in interviews but also said he used the term brown sound to describe Alex’s drum sound… so yeah we’ll never know. To me it sounds like Eddie invented the modern guitar world and never really wanted credit. He put humbuckers in strats, did the whole ox box dummy load thing, attenuation, and basically everything else we’ve just started doing in the last ten years… in the 70’s. Like I’ve always said… it’s his world and we’re just living in it.

@danroberts9050

10 ай бұрын

Well, he wound his own pickups so he really did "invent" the sound.

@davidburns862

7 ай бұрын

Psh! It’s his guitar world. We’re just breathing his air

Nice Work, always enjoy a great tone and outstanding playing, subbed and on board for more. You obviously worked very hard for that technique and all the details.

VH1 tone was quite a bit more aggressive than VH2 and WCF but at Fair Warning the tone was back to being aggressive but also darker. In the early years he used a Boss 10 band graphic EQ and the MXR Phase 90 at the front to drive the amp input gain stages harder. The other key point was the use of a Variac to lower the amp voltage down to around the mid to upper 80 volts. This resulted in just the right sag effect which was also key to his tone. As far as the load box use, I agree that it makes sense that he was cascading the gain by using the entire Marshall head as a pre-amp cranked up with the use of the Variac which would give the full tonal headroom of that amp then using the other heads as the power amps with that gain dialed back (as clean as possible). This also allowed him to put effects in the chain between the main head and the slaved power amps to get more saturation on the input side of the effects (for example the Jet Flanger effect which would sound totally different on the input of the primary front amp). It's pretty amazing how all of this gear evolution came along back then, all experimental but it yielded legendary tone.

@youscreamiscream

10 ай бұрын

You're in the ballpark. A few important details that had a BIG contribution to Eddie's early tone. Eddie was indeed "slaving" his main plexi by using a resistive load tapped at roughly 20-24 ohms. His amp was set to 8 ohms, giving him a fudge factor of roughly 3 times the original impedance to prevent the head from blowing up. The load was brought down to line level with a 10k pot wired to the output of the resistors. He could adjust his output signal hotter(or weaker depending on the onstage situation)allowing him to hit his post amp effects harder. Another critical part of his early sound which was an EP-3 echoplex...the preamp in the echo plex gave him more gain and changed the tone slightly. He'd come off the echoplex with a hotter signal then use that to drive any tube amp he had handy(marshall, fender, vox, etc)to drive his cabs and overall stage volume. The second tube amp added harmonics and drive. Lastly, if you look at Eddie in studio from the first album, you'll see pics of his old cabs without tolex. If you examine pics of the cabs, you'll see the aluminum dust caps from JBL D120's on the lower portion of the cabs. Eddie was mixing vintage greenbacks with the D120's. The 120's gave him clarity mixed with vintage green backs all contributed to his early brown sound.

You’ve got my attention. Your tone and playing is spot on! Subscribed!

I have to say, this sounds so authentic. Like I was listening, and waiting for the inevitable little nitpick that one hears when you know the music well. Be it note, or tone, or in this case, overall sound. And it just never came. Everything was so on the money, I wished that there was more to listen to, I was getting into it.

Now, here we are 😁🎸! The proof is in the pudding - there’s all the stuff about using Variacs and the like, but the load-box is what does it, essentially allowing you to use a 100 Watt Marshall head as a “stomp-box” ❤! Incidentally, and you probably know this, but that’s exactly what Tom Scholz (Boston) did in the very beginning - a Scholz Power Soak is exactly this thing, a load-box that sits between the head and the cabinet. Later, of course, he miniaturized the whole works into the Rockman, but Tom began with a homemade load-box 😊!

Wow, that was awesome! Thanks for taking the time to explain this. Now, on to part 2!!

Fantastic, had to sub , cheers from New Zealand, just shared your channel on our facebook group too

This appeared in my feed and I’m so glad it did! Holy cow man - you have done a fantastic job with the research and tone! Be proud. I’m a new subscriber today. 🎉

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you so much 🙏🤘

I always thought it was a combo of the variac, maybe re-amping, a fat cap in the amp, (Eddie's touch!) and the sunset sound reverb plate that gave it that extra sizzle! This was so well done. Years spent in the metroamp Eddie forum leads to all of this! I often thought it was like instead of using a distortion pedal, it was basically using a whole other amp head as the pedal!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

All parts of the recipe are important, but this get me most of the way there before I even have to bother the soldering iron! Years well spent I say! Thanks for watching 🤘

it`s VERY VERY close. nice to see and hear, thanx man!

@martinsmith4123

6 ай бұрын

Thank you 🤘

It's amazing how close you nailed the tone with different (but similar) equipment. Awesome guitar you've got there. Your playing, of course, is spot on. Great vid.

Wow !!! That is closer than anybody else has got to it, both in playing and sound ,I bow down to you sir !!!🛐🛐🛐

Well _DONE!_ God level tone right there! Everything and everything you could ever want right on the tap? Wild!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you kindly 🤘

Oh my, yes! I closed my eyes a few times and really listened close thru the Sennheiser phones - and you've nailed it! Great vid - and GREAT playing, too.

Outstanding tone my friend,I think you've got it in my opinion

Nailed the tone and your playing is phenomenal. I only started learning to play guitar 2.5 yrs ago and have become fascinated by Eddies sound and technique. Hats off to you bro, awesome playing, i practice every day relentlessly and look forward to being as good as you one day. Great vid. ❤

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you man 🙏 it’s taken me all my life to get halfway to Eddie’s technique. It’s humbling

Best EVH tone I've ever heard

Mmm nice and creamy stratoblaster sizzling out that brown sound! Now THAT'S what a tone junkie is all about! Great video and Thank You for sharing! 👍

Yeah man, really close, good work !!!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching 🤘

I typically play my Marshall SV20H into a Suhr Reactive Load, which goes straight into my audio interface and I add a IR in my DAW. But this video inspired me to try putting a ToneX plugin instance (clean fender amp, free model) before my IR to simulate the slaving, and it sounds rippin!! Thanks for sharing, this is sending me into a huge rabbit hole 😅

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Oh wow, awesome application of this technique. Bonus points 🏆 Thanks for watching 🤘

@cliffords2315

3 ай бұрын

We were using Tone'x back in the late 60's into Plexis, got the idea from Ritchie Blackmore interview in Creem magazine

Awesome video! I love Eddies legendary brown sound. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen on it. You’re an amazing player btw.

You have my attention so much so I subscribed, and a like. It's a quest for distinct noting and chuck. Very tone helpful.

The stories about Eddies crazy setups usually end with a note that he was lying a lot, using mostly stock plexis but tried to boost Jose's business. And many people have replicated the tone with stock plexis, I remember one guy on youtube got so close with a stock 60's plexi and also added all the delay and rever so that the only difference basically were the pickups and the hands. But then there are also people who have great results replicating some of the crazy stories. The craziest one I can remember is the "Cerrem resistor mod" where you put one of these 3:00 resistors between the negative and positive half of the power amp, basically making both halves of the amp kill each other adding both distortion and reducing volume. I probably still have the samples of someone brave enough to try this playing Little Dreamer. (Obviously, never try that at home) It's fascinating but in the end the playing technique is the most important thing. The percussive playing really makes the difference.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comments. Yes, the Cerrem mod is a radical solution to the extra gain issue. Whilst many great tone chasers have got close to Ed’s raw amp sound, I haven’t hear one that totally nails the extra saturation , sustain and harmonica on the classic VH albums. I can’t help feel Eddie took some secrets with him.

The picture of the band in Sunset Studios apparently was taken during the recording of Jamie's Crying. Edward is playing an Explorer (prior to the cutout seen on WACF) that lacks a tremolo 🎸

@martinsmith4123

8 ай бұрын

Correct! Cheers 🤘

Excellent job and great playing. Nailed it!

Great analyses, thanks for sharing, pretty cool playing too !

Wow🎉 that is the most logical approach, locking the tone in and then amplifying it

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it, more VH tone coming soon! Thanks for watching 🤘

Yo seriously, SERIOUSLY, I've been watching these brown sound quests since the beginning of KZread essentially and this is by far the closest I've heard. It's almost indiscernible at certain spots especially imo on the VH1 and 1984 riffs... Awesome man just awesome!!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks 🙏 more upcoming 🤘

Love it dude! Totally new information and new approach. I think you nailed it. Add the plate on the right and it's there

Happy i found your demo through my algorithm...You're a gentleman that plays VERY well and your guitar and tone are magnificent.

@martinsmith4123

8 ай бұрын

Thank you very much 🤘

The science was interesting, but quite honestly, I'm just having a whale of a time sat here on a Sunday morning with a cup of tea listening to you playing these classic Van Halen riffs. You seem to have nailed the sound to my ears. Great stuff

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you Matt, enjoy your Sunday Coffee ☕️🤘

A couple of things I’ve thought about is that one, Eddie’s Marshall was supposedly a 12,000 series which have some balls (Johan Segeborn has a video demoing one and it sounds quite close). Second is that while it might not have been deliberately modded, there could have been lots of minor tweaks and component changes done during repairs. Marshall amps from that era were extremely variable in terms of components.

Martin - magnificent. Amazing understanding and interpretation of what was going on back in 78. The tone is beyond compare. Doesn't hurt that your phrasing and fluidity is majestic. Thank you for this awesome post.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Many thanks Ian 🤘

Good tone and great playing!

It's a version of a POWERSOAK...They had to RECREATE what Eddie found when he had an AMP from the UK wired for 220v mains. He could crank it all up to 11 and not saturate it as hard. The powersoak was also key in Tom Scholz getting his iconic ROCKMAN tones...

You certainly have gotten the Frankenstein sound. At least as close as is possible! Nice job.

Awesome tone, helped immensely by your extraordinary playing! Obviously it’s true what say,tone is in the fingers and it certainly is in yours. Thanks a great insight.

I heard many years ago an interview or something where he said he hated the bright chimey sound of new strings and heard that bass players would boil there strings to take the chime out so thats what he did, and said it gave it a more `brown` sound which sounded better for him.

The way I've always described the "Brown sound" is a rather loose, flubby almost clean bottom end, and then all the brittle, crystal chime harmonics on top. Combined in chords, you get a distorted sound, broken out in riffs, you get all sorts of harmonics and what I call the "cddrraaang" chord sound with a rare clean/harmonic/distortion blend. It is a thing.....

Great video! Well put together. From what I heard he purchased the house 100 watt Marshall head from the Pasadena recreational facility (That was an unconventional British model) and he was forced to use a power converter to be able to plug it into US current. With a little experimentation and... The rest is history. When you "dim" conventional tungsten lights with a Dimmer - By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the intensity of the light output, and thus the light changes from 3200 kelvin to a more amber (or brown) 4000+ kelvin This could quite possibly be the hint at his "Brown Sound" moniker. Lowering the voltage makes light much more warm, amber or "brown".

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Great info. I’d never thought of the Brown Sound in terms of light, but Eddie did use his household light dimmer before he got the Variac. 🤘

@leddygee1896

10 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 Hey Martin, I was figuring you'd talk about the Variac. Or did I miss that. Anyway, I've seen / heard stories about Eddie using the Variac for years, and I've also heard using one can be an Amp killer, so I guess you have to walk a fine line with that device.

Excellent video Martin .I really loved it - I think you have solved it 100% . Cool playing too. Inspiring. More VH videos please.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you! More to come 🤘

The panned reverb here is doing a lot of heavy lifting too. Excellent vid.

This My Friend is a 100 percent correct representation of the signal path. I would hope someone could duplicate this signal somehow in a smaller portable format. The maple fretboard is also such a important part of the string sound and snap.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thanks man! Yeah, a small box head with load box di and a valve power amp. Should get it all in a rack and we can go back to the 90’s!

@theboofin

10 ай бұрын

Is it really? Half the songs used a rosewood board...

So he basically made his plexi into a master volume amp

in 1987 I learned about the Scholz power soak, and cranked a vintage 50w Sound City into it with perfect results

Wow! Absolutely brilliant tone- and probably the best/closest I've heard to Eddie's famous tone. But I have to re-watch it to try to figure out exactly what you did here- I have a David Bray JC800 and have to start using it because this sounds PERFECT!

@martinsmith4123

6 ай бұрын

Thank you kindly 🙏 🤘🤘

Like Eddie’s sound or not it sounds great! And you’re a great player too!

Your telling all of Eddie's secrets. That sound will always be his. You got it man. 😢😊

@martinsmith4123

8 ай бұрын

🤣🤣

2:52 That load box is steampunk! 😂

You nailed it! Excellent video.

Damn. Loved every bit of info as well as every bit of time your fingers provided us. You are great at guitar my friend and you make me want that sound. Harmonically rich , sustainful, yet not overly saturated beyond single note clarity. That takes a great ear and a great setup on the guitar among many other things But damn you rock🤘🏻

No idea if you're right or not, but the SOUND is spot on! Importantly also is your playing!!! Amazing!!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you kindly 🤘

dude, you nail ed it!!! Great job!!!

Great Video and Great Playing ! Keep up the EvH content !

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏

I remember reading somewhere that the Brown Sound was not Eddie's sound, it was the sound of Alex's drums.

@thedadyouneverhadchannel3544

10 ай бұрын

His snare specifically.

I personally think the old marshall brown sound is soo much better and supreme than the 5150’s amp that switched to later on. It was just pure, something you could really chew on while listening.

You nailed the Eddie tone and vib my Lord man !!! Great work mate cheers 🤘🏻

Great video. Just came across your channel. Awesome stuff Buddy. Thanks for sharing. 🎼🎸👍👏👏👏😎

Dude, that’s pretty damn close to Eddie’s sound ! Great playing too…. VH is fun to play once you get the EVH feel.

I defy anyone to replicate the EVH brown sound with any more authenticity than this. Simply gobsmacked! Wow man. Also, great playing.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank you my good man 🤘

@badguacamole3709

10 ай бұрын

I believe Pete Thorn nailed it.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

@@badguacamole3709 of course! Pete’s the man! This is supplemental if you want to get into to the sizzle of the classic Dave-Era albums. Pete’s amp sounds probably as close to Eddie’s as need be. But slaving adds the juice man. I’m telling ya. 🤘

@badguacamole3709

10 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 I agree

Groove Tubes founder, Aspin made great gear, including speaker emulation back in the '70's. Awesome video and your playing is spot on!!

Wonderful stuff man!

Awesome. Bray and Friedman are making such chewy, monster amps. Maybe the answer is just running both of those at full go🤔

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Word! It’s an amazing time for Amps. Big ups @Bray & @Friedman

I got a COCO 50 Bray amp in my pursuit of the brown sound a few years ago. It’s a fantastic amp and Dave Bray is a great guy. Super friendly and responsive and has a ton of knowledge in this area. I’m curious if you could A/B between just running directly into the Bray amp and a cab vs the slave setup. I’m wondering the slaving is actually necessary. Or does it really give the tone those extra harmonics and sustain? Great playing and great video!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Yes, the Bray is a fantastic amp. Really captures all the tonal characteristics. The response and feel change most with the slaving. It becomes a little tighter and simultaneously explosive. To me anyway. I might be going crazy from all the testing. I’ll upload some samples with and without the slaving. Thanks for watching 🤘

@livefromstudioa8245

10 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 hahaha. Awesome. Thanks for your reply. I’d love to see some comparisons. Even via KZread video - the very best way to hear these sort of differences. :)

@rikshredder

9 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 Hey Martin does the Coco have to be cranked to get that sound?

Well done sir! 🙏 .......a seldom heard and seen capability of what might have had really happening back then. Thank you very much for such a skillful insight 🤘🎸 Greets from Germany 👋

@martinsmith4123

5 ай бұрын

Thank you kindly 🤘🤘

You really nailed it and I'm sure it sounds 3X as good live than what we hear on this vid. Eddie also ran a Variac due to the voltage difference; i.e. his Superlead was built to run on European voltage. That also had something to do with it but the "dummy box" that dealt with the loading was the secret sauce. When VH1 was released, I had a 65 Fender Showman head I ran through a Marshall 8X10 cabinet. One of my uncles was a working musician (i.e. keyboard player) who had that rig sitting around and didn't need it so he gave it to me. His guitar player had permantly jumpered the channels so that freakin' rig absolutely SCREAMED when it was dimed up. It had gobs of gain - not quite what Eddie was getting but somewhere in between your standard JMP and Eddie's rig. It was an 8ohm head and the cabinet was wired for 16ohms but one of the speakers was blown. After playing at full volume for an hour if you grabbed the speaker cable down near the input jack on the cab, it would actually be hot LOL. I was a 16 year old kid who was just learning about ohms. Thankfully I had 8 ohms running into a 16ohm cab and not the other way around. Those were the days...

What type of head are you plugged into? Also, who is the Sunset Sound interview with that you mentioned?

@martinsmith4123

5 ай бұрын

Hey, it’s a Bray Coco 50. And Doug Messinger is interviewed on Sunset Sounds KZread channel. Cheers 🤘

@tchaddrats9874

5 ай бұрын

Thank YOu! GREAT video!!! @@martinsmith4123

Back in time there where a totaly different story about Eddie him being one very eager tech getting support from tech whizards. I think that you are touching the truth about his sound. Nice guitar by the way.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thank for watching🤘 would be keen to hear more about this.

@stevepelham9010

10 ай бұрын

@@martinsmith4123 Before the image of Eddie modding trial by error in his garage.. the story back then was that Eddie had the guy or guys from what came to be Charvel backing him up in making "the guitar" and Tom Scholz ( guitarist Boston) was the man creating the sound with his stuff that became to be Scholz Research & Development, Inc/ Rockman effects. Scholz carried on with Boston "The Boston guitar sound" and as I remember it there where serious issues raised against him Scholtz revaeling secrets about the Van Halen sound that he had signed to keep as exclusive Van Halen and of cource to be quiet about. Eddie was said to be a pretty clever tech him self and a determent guy, if one thinks about it, there is no way creating over the real kind of stuff tinkering about in an garage with bits and pieces knowing nothing.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

@@stevepelham9010 very cool. You’ve found a specific rabbit hole I may to inspect 🤘

Wow..thats the sound that hooked me years ago..spot on!

Very interesting video man. Great work 👏 👍. Cheers 🍻

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Thanks Jason 🤘

Mike Soldano, who is in a better position than most to talk about Eddie Van Halen's gear, was pretty specific about Eddie using UK Marshall amps (with 240 V transformers) hooked up to a Variac that stepped up US 120 V to 140 V. If you aren't using a Variac, you aren't getting "The Brown Sound". Also, the output impedance of an amplifier does not change depending on "heat and pressure". It's not plumbing.

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

If you read up, impedance rises due to changes in voice coil inductance. I've got a frequency plot diagram that shows it but can't attach here. I'll add it on my Patreon. Thanks for watching

The recipe is well documented by Dave Friedman and Pete Thorn. There’s nothing really mystical about it. 1. It mostly about his hands. It’s his attack and the way he played that made it sound the way it does. 2. There is no one brown sound. It was constantly evolving and he hated the way his guitar sounded on VH1. It’s the Ibanez Destroyer for everything but the whammy stuff. DiMarzio SD pickup. 500k volume pot. Signal chain was MXR Flanger into Phase 90 into Echoplex into hi input of 1969 100w plexi Superlead. The amp is stock, but has some odd quirks. 4 ohm tap for negative feedback and a 50K mid pot. Sylvania 6CA7 power tubes. Variac down to 90V or so and bias as hot as he could to compensate - at 70% plate dissipation at the lower B+ Cabs were Marshall with 25w greenbacks. VH1 was possibly a cab with a mix of greenbacks and JBl120s which are cleaner and crispier. On VH1 there was a fair amount of eq at the board - Demedio modified API. Pre delay into the Sunset Sound chamber for the reverb with dry guitar panned to one side and reverb panned to the other side. He would use the MXR eq to buffer the Univox delay both of which were plugged in only for Eruption. Slaving amps using a load box and H&H power amps to do WDW came much later - Diver Down and after. Starting with Fair Warning, he used Eventide H910s to micro pitch detune his signal a few cents up on one side and a few cents down on the other. Doubling guitars with one slightly out of tune wide panned is an old Bob Ezrin trick (all over Kiss Destroyer). A lot of the guitars people think are the Frankenstrat on early records are the Destroyer, a Les Paul, Korina Flying V, and a Strat. To cop his tone today (if you have the chops) all you need is the Flanger, Phaser, Clinch EP Pre or Echoplex pedal into a Metropoulos Mark II. George cloned his 1969 Superlead and then added a second channel with all of the tweaks to Eddie’s amp. Check out the recent video he uploaded. It’s sick. kzread.info/dash/bejne/k3-ZzLNqh6XfkqQ.html

@e.l.norton

10 ай бұрын

One point...Ed didn't hate the way his guitar sounded. He and Alex were both unhappy with the finished production because it didn't sound like what he was hearing as he played, or when they played live. The production touches added by Templeman were what left him unsatisfied. He just wanted to hear what he heard on stage and in the studio.

@calebkey2050

10 ай бұрын

His amp is *almost* stock. V1a and V1b have mirrored cathode combos (820/820 vs 2.7K/820), and there’s a 330uF cap bypassing V2a’s cathode, also pretty sure the bright cap was clipped. But you’re right, it was really nothing special and still sounded like a Marshall. The biggest takeaway I got from my digging into this was that this particular amp was constantly changing and being repaired as needed I tried out the ‘Ed’ spec for a second in a project amp, and it honestly sounded like shit, not gonna lie lol. Mud. Lots and lots of mud. We all owe Ted Templeman a beer for his work!!

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

Great replies guys. My point here is that the slaving gets you 95% of the way and then you can fine tune the specifics. It’s the only way to get the same gain and response out of a plexi style amp that I’ve found. Plus it checks out with some of the supplemental details we’ve gleaned. Thanks for watching!🤘

Magic plexi + Variac + Dummy load + Another amp= Heaven

@shable1436

2 ай бұрын

Jose modded Marshall, Steve Via has one or two he got back in the day

Wow. Just, WOW!! Great job dude!

Can we PLEASE get this guy like a million times more subscribers? Cuz he friggin deserves it

@martinsmith4123

10 ай бұрын

✊✊✊

When I was 15 in 1978, my friend said I needed to come over and listen to his new album. Well I was in AWE of VH1 for sure and also saw them in 82'. Anyhow, as a long time guitar player and fan of Van Halen you have nailed the tone for sure! I've watched a lot of youtube videos on the brown sound and this was the best for sure IMHO. Just subbed and thank you for this!

@martinsmith4123

8 ай бұрын

Thank you and what a time to be 15! 🤘🤘