The Brown Sound

Hootsmon

What pedal  for TBS into a clean amp?

I love the washed out saturation tone on the chords in this clip

PS tried the Riot and it never did it for me Folks

JDE

MXR 5150. Will do the earlier classic Brown Sound and the more modern 5150 gain-out-your-arse sound. 

dindude

Mad Professor One is the closest I’ve heard.

Hootsmon

That be the mighty red ?

ICBM

Carl Martin Plexitone - the big three-button one.

dindude

hootsmon said:

That be the mighty red ?

No, the “one” specifically designed as brown sound into clean amp, even has plate reverb, sounds immense.

https://www.mpamp.com/eu/1

Hootsmon

Wampler Pinnacle..? the basic one

bingefeller

Amptweaker Tight Rock.  I owned one and it is designed for the Plexi sound.  Use it with a phaser and plate reverb and you are in Van Halen zone.

57Deluxe

When I hear Brown Sound being banded around I thing of the Van Halen use of a Variac to get it...

MikeB

Carl Martin has a new "Panama" pedal that Pete Thorn demoed. Had a def VH quality to it

Hootsmon

anybuddy else?

fftc

'Rusty screws can be bought in our shop.'

The world truly has gone mad!

hubobulous

Mad Prof 1 or Pinnacle. They both nail it to perfection, the former having built in reverb to REALLY nail it

Hootsmon

but i keeps on hearin' folks that the Pinnacle be noisy,too noisy!

anyone pipe in if it's LOUDER noise than teh others

bingefeller

hootsmon said:

but i keeps on hearin' folks that the Pinnacle be noisy,too noisy!

anyone pipe in if it's LOUDER noise than teh others

The Tightrock has a built in noise gate     

Cols

Surely the answer’s in the video; you need to buy his pickup!

In all seriousness, Van Halen’s early setup was as simple as you get; Frankenstrat straight into a dimed Marshall Superlead.  No overdrive or distortion pedals; the only effects were a Phase 90, flanger, Echoplex and occasionally an EQ pedal for a mid boost.  Within the confines of that, the sound’s coming from the fingers.

Nuno Bettencourt told a great story about getting to play through Eddie’s rig during rehearsals in 1991:

“Everyone else was out of the room and he comes over and he goes, ‘I want to try this one wah wah pedal – do you want to plug in?’ So here I am playing and Eddie Van Halen’s in front of me testing out a pedal while I’m playing. But there’s one thing that really sucks, that I was really disappointed about. The whole time I was thinking, ‘I can’t wait to play this rig because I want to sound like Eddie.’ I wanted for years to be able to sound like him. And I had his guitar going into his amp and pedals and everything, and when I started playing I was so disappointed: it still sounded like me. I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ And I learned pretty quickly that day that it doesn’t make a difference. Yeah, it makes a difference sort of, but you will always sound like you, no matter what. You could add a different colour, a different pickup, but your DNA is going to come out as you. I had Eddie Van Halen’s rig, all of it right in front of me, the dream rig, and I still sounded like me, unfortunately.”

abw1989

Second the MXR 5150. Very much regret selling mine once I got a high gain amp, then the amp bummed out...

It also has a handy built in noise gate.

not_the_dj

Cols said:

Surely the answer’s in the video; you need to buy his pickup!

In all seriousness, Van Halen’s early setup was as simple as you get; Frankenstrat straight into a dimed Marshall Superlead.  No overdrive or distortion pedals; the only effects were a Phase 90, flanger, Echoplex and occasionally an EQ pedal for a mid boost.  Within the confines of that, the sound’s coming from the fingers.

Don't forget the reverb, Rick Beato covers his early sound in this, the hard panned plate reverb is a big part of it, see around 4mins in

fatherchewielewie

There are all the usual suspects but the Weehbo JCM Drive LTD ended my search for an hot rodded MIAB pedal. The Xvive Golden Brownie is a brilliant low dollar option.

clarkefan

not_the_dj said:

Cols said:

Surely the answer’s in the video; you need to buy his pickup!

In all seriousness, Van Halen’s early setup was as simple as you get; Frankenstrat straight into a dimed Marshall Superlead.  No overdrive or distortion pedals; the only effects were a Phase 90, flanger, Echoplex and occasionally an EQ pedal for a mid boost.  Within the confines of that, the sound’s coming from the fingers.

Don't forget the reverb, Rick Beato covers his early sound in this, the hard panned plate reverb is a big part of it, see around 4mins in

I haven't seen this vid yet, but if Rick is talking about plate reverb he's wrong, it wasn't plate reverb on VH1, it's an "urban myth".  Agreed it's a huge part of his sound on that album

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/van-halen-vh1-sunset-sound-setup.1877707/

Now if only someone could explain HTF he got the Phase 90 as prominent in the mix as it is I'd be a very happy chap.

Reverend

Ibanez Destroyer and Schaefer Diversity are key parts of the sound, surely?