cheap pedals that do the brown sound well?

Reverend

Any tips for cheapish options to nail a decent 70s EVH tone?

Kebabkid

I dunno about cheapish but the Wampler Pinnacle on the vintage mode is superb for that. Used Forum prices range between £95 -120. I tried one last Saturday at a forum Gearfest and was knocked out by it, but note that it works best into a clean channel, not an overdriven one.

xSkarloey

Dirt cheap I'd say the Joyo Deluxe Crunch. 

Dave_Mc

^ haven't tried the deluxe crunch but the hot plexi gets pretty close, as long as your amp isn't super-bright

mike_l

i've had some pretty good results from a Hardwire cm2

monquixote

Skarloey said:

Dirt cheap I'd say the Joyo Deluxe Crunch. 

Deluxe Crunch is a Plimsoul clone and good as it is I'd say it's more of a very mid humped bluesy type thing (though it does have quite a bit of gain on tap)

If you are going Joyo then either the Crunch Distortion (Crunchbox) or US Dream (Riot) would probably serve you better. 

Dave_Mc

^ I have all of them (apart from the deluxe crunch), and the hot plexi does it best (and by some margin IMO). That's about all it does, but it does do it really, really well (especially considering I paid like £18 for it IIRC ) ).

It's not supersaturated (but then early VH isn't either), it's more of a higher gain OD than a distortion. Also the knobs on it do very little. But it pretty much does the early VH tone out of the box, as opposed to the crunch distortion which is more of a hot-rodded 800 type of tone and the US dream which is similar but maybe slightly smoother/more modern-sounding (I think they're both modded guvnors aren't they?).

That's not to say the crunch distortion or even the riot couldn't do a passable impression at a pinch... but considering he wants 70s VH...

That's my longwinded, roundabout, pretending-to-be-reasonable way of saying- "If you want early VH just get the hot plexi. [Assuming your amp isn't super bright since the hot plexi is bright to a fault]" )

Bellycaster

Check out the CMATMODS Brownie

£129 at guitarfx direct Isle of Man

ThePrettyDamned

Every time someone references the brown sound, I think of South park and recorders.

Reverend

The pinnacle does sound good but I suspect out of my price range at the moment.
The hot plexi sounds good on you tube but I've seen a few comments about volume problems. Anyone noticed any?

daveyh

I have a Hardwire Valve Distortion that does this to a tee

johnhe

The Hot Plexi really underwhelmed me when I tried it. The one I tried was really bass-light. I agree that the Joyos generally sound very good though and trying one won't cost too much. But if you can stretch to a used Wampler, you will get all your money back when you sell it, and the sound is in a different league IMO.

Dave_Mc

^ I dunno about bass-light, but as I said, it's pretty bright. Depending on the amp you're using it could sound horrible/ice-picky.

Reverend said:

The pinnacle does sound good but I suspect out of my price range at the moment.
The hot plexi sounds good on you tube but I've seen a few comments about volume problems. Anyone noticed any?

What do you mean? I have a vague feeling of hearing about that too from someone somewhere, but I haven't noticed anything wrong with mine.

ThePrettyDamned

Used visual sound son of Hyde, or a Marshall jackhammer. I don't like the "brown sound" thing, so I don't aim for it, but you can get excellent Marshall crunch from both pedals.

The guvnor plus gv2 can, too, but it won't quite have the top end (I prefer that to the actual brown sound stuff people have showed me). Apparently it's easily modded to get more brightness, in which case, the gain level is perfect for it.

xSkarloey

@monquixote

Are you really sure it's a Plimsoul clone?
If it is then I'm assuming the Plimsoul itself is some sort of Marshall-like because all I hear from the Deluxe Crunch is Marshall tones.

I don't really hear 'bluesy' tones in it. Much past halfway on the gain. Maybe it's me, but I'd say this thing has a shitload of gain. Deffo in Crunch/Riot territory.

In fact whack it right up and it starts muscling in on Boss Heavy Metal territory.

monquixote

Yeah pretty sure, hence the two gain controls. 

I've had both and they sound quite similar (though I didn't have them at the same time). 

It has got fairly mental amounts of gain as it's an OD stacked into a distortion (Fulltone claim it's their highest gain pedal), but it's got quite a pronounced mid hump which gives it to me a blues solo type sound and makes it more useful for rhythm than lead. 

This video compares it with an Ecstacy:

xSkarloey

Re Deluxe Crunch.

I think the one control (labelled pre) is presence.

Some others on t'web seem to think it's the Joyo Crunch but with added presence control, which makes sense to me.

Either way it's not bad at all. One of those that interacts great with the volume controls.

monquixote

Nah it's deffo a Plimsoul, the two controls work the same as the twin drive controls.

xSkarloey

You knows your pedals, so that's proof enough for me. 

BTW for anyone else interested in the Deluxe, with the gain full up it is one of those pedals that'll make your Strat pick up Chinese Radio stations.  

IanSavage

ThePrettyDamned said:

Used visual sound son of Hyde, or a Marshall jackhammer. I don't like the "brown sound" thing, so I don't aim for it, but you can get excellent Marshall crunch from both pedals.

The guvnor plus gv2 can, too, but it won't quite have the top end (I prefer that to the actual brown sound stuff people have showed me). Apparently it's easily modded to get more brightness, in which case, the gain level is perfect for it.

I came here, to say almost exactly this