Has anyone nailed the "Brown Sound" with a Stilett

[Platypus]

I agree. I think the Stilleto Ace dials in the brown sound much easier. I tried the combos and the 4x12, and the 4x12 definitely gets you closer to the early EVH sound. That's physics for ya'

It seems as though you would be able to dial in the same tone on the Stilleto II. Haven't tried that yet.

The Ace is a Stiletto II

 

[abe]

I actually think you can get that tone the best in Fluid Drive (with gain below 12:00, depending on pickup output), Spongy power setting and Diode on. I couldn't really hear it in Crunch mode and I came across this review and used his settings.

Thanks for the input, and a huge DUH on my part. I was set on my tite gain sounds and never thought to use the fluid drive at a lower gain setting ( I actually only used the fluid drive mode the 1st couple of days that I had it). Bringing the gain to around 11:30 worked and got me the basic character I was looking for.

This is my normal setting - For anyone who cares:

Tite Gain
Bold

Gain: 2:30 - 3:00
Treble: 11:00
Mid: 10:30
Bass: 2:30
Presence: 10:00-11:00

And these were the slight tweaks I use to make it sound more Van Halenesque:

Fluid Drive
Spongy

Gain: 11:30-12:15
Treble: 11:00
Mid: 10:30
Bass: 2:30
Presence: 10:00-11:00

Boosting the treble a bit more may help as well, but I like to set it and forget it, so I try and make changes simple so I can do them on the fly at a gig or practice if I choose to do so.

Both settings were done using my Peavey Wolfgang

 

[voodooamps]

He cranked his amp as hard as he could and then used an attenuator.

Eddie used a variac. An attenuator lets you turn down the volume of your amp where as variac lets you lower the ac voltage coming into the amp, thereby effectively lowering the B+/high voltage inside the amp. Attenuators where not around back then but eventually people used a L-Pad and the ideas rolled forth from there (ha, ha).

EVH had sick tone on "For Unlawful Carnage". That was a Soldano SLO100?

Yes it was along with a harmonizer to give it a double tracked feel.

...check it out..accord. to some of the more recent interviews with ed, he has shot down most,if not all, of the fabled "brown sound" legends-he has said the variac,the jose mod,etc..were all just "red herrings"

Ed has said a great deal of things (amazing player nonetheless) however there are photos of VH in the studio during the recording of the first record and you can see the variac. He also used Jose modded Marshalls a great deal and even commissioned Jose to build a signature series head but for what ever reason nothing came from it. At that point Ed starting saying he didn’t use Jose modded Marshalls, etc.

We have worked on several Jose modded Marshalls and have one in the shop right now. It was used on the Dr Feelgood record (Motley Crue) and when you add the additional gain stage it sounds identical to the old EVH tones.


Hope it helps
Trace

 

[Mr. Stiletto]

I've also heard some really good EVH ish clips with an old JCM 800, one power tube, and maxed volume[...] If it doesn't fry the Stilleto[...]

Well, i think that would fry every amp :lol:?
Are you sure that there was only one powertube in the amp?
A Marshall JCM 800 isn't class A and so the amp shouldn't work with only one powertube => one phase would be missing.
It might have been modded to Class A?! :?

 

[SixVeeSix]

He cranked his amp as hard as he could and then used an attenuator.

Eddie used a variac. An attenuator lets you turn down the volume of your amp where as variac lets you lower the ac voltage coming into the amp, thereby effectively lowering the B+/high voltage inside the amp. Attenuators where not around back then but eventually people used a L-Pad and the ideas rolled forth from there (ha, ha).

Hope it helps
Trace

Well this will date me but I seem to remember using a widget made by Altair? way before VH's first album came out. We opened it up and it was (surprise) an array of wire wound resistors to convert electrical current into heat, essentially it was a toaster . I have also seen vintage hi fi amps use a lightbulb to prevent attenuate a circuit. A weird sort of compression I suppose, my JBL Control 5s use light bulbs to protect the tweeters, when you see a glow coming out of the port you know it's cranked a bit too high for realistic dynamics.

 

[amused]

maybe somewhat OT but there is some very interesting info from Marc Cameron about EVH in this thread at the metroamp forum:
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?t=12684

here is a quote from the first Marc Cameron post (about halfway down page 1)

"The Ed thing is mostly split cathode w/brite cap(.0047)68 filtering 74--1959 pre-amp style... volume on 8(EVERYTHING WAS NOT ON TEN) ,MXR 6 bandEQ ,phase90,Flanger ,echoplex ,voltage 98volts....Jose Line out box to JTM 45 AND AC50 (look at pictures of old set up) this is most of the gain...............AND EDWARD!!!!!!"

on the second page of this thread he posts a picture of VH with these amps on the stage.

 

[KhaosMonster]

What exactly is this 'brown sound' I keep reading about?

Boy does that make me feel old! Next thing that I'll hear is that my mullet is out of style, and having just a mustache isn't cool any more

WAIT wait wait......just a mustache and a mullet aren't cool anymore????

 

[123thefirst]

Believe it or not I can get quite close to the early EVH sound using 57 Classic Plus pickups, a BB Preamp on a very low gain setting and a Fender "Evil Twin".

That setup kicks out a tremendous amount of upper mids and lower treble. The guitar's volume control needs to be rolled off a bit and the tone control down somewhere around 1/2. That's crucial! Otherwise you get a grungy new metal kind of sound.

Haven't gotten around to trying something like that on a Road King but the results should be even more convincing especially in Spongy mode despite the darker, fuller nature of the Mesa. Let the fun begin...

Oh yes, a very hard pick is also needed. I use a stone pick.