EVH & The (Early) Album Brown Sound (How To)

There's 3 basics to getting this tone. The rest is gravy and/or studio magic.

No distortion/overdrive boxes - no hi output pickups - no hi gain amps.

- Here's Runnin' With The Devil using my guitar (variac included) with the original backing track:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fVBUL3SmFiX1BJTmd2aDNQR00/view?usp=sharing

- Here's Feel Your Love Tonight using my guitar (variac included) with the original backing track:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fVBUL3SmFiWm9YNHBTTzNGTUU/view?usp=sharing

- And here's a side-by-side comparison clip; EVH on the left, myself on the right:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6fVBUL3SmFiYW16ZEJoZVdOSXc/view?usp=sharing

Here's a vid I made on my YouTube channel that goes into detail (yakking with Sunset Studios Chamber 'verb on it haha

I'm just curious about what makes everyone on the Metroamp forum "not cool". I mean you admit you're new to chasing that tone and then generalize a statement about people that have been doing it for 10 plus years before you even had the itch in your nifkin to seek it out. What made you the immediate prodigy?

^agreed!

Since you asked -

Padre Bonic":235bvg5l said:

I'm just curious about what makes everyone on the Metroamp forum "not cool".

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Several of us former members have our reasons. One of the biggest is the way they (the inner circle) screwed over knowledegable members by stealing important information (ban the member providing said information, then turn around and claim to have discovered said information). We all agree that their M.O. has been essentially the same in each individual's case. It used to be a great place, but the word has gotten around the internet over the last couple of years and the place is now full of tumbleweeds due to so many leaving. But the inner circle (all that's left) try to keep the place alive by rehashing the same old aspects; by talking to themselves in circles.

Padre Bonic":235bvg5l said:

I mean you admit you're new to chasing that tone and then generalize a statement about people that have been doing it for 10 plus years before you even had the itch in your nifkin to seek it out.

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I've culled information from there and other sources, and added it all up. Tried numerous things; amp modding etc... It took me approximately 3 years. The biggest difference between them and myself, however, is the fact that I'm not trying to sell a product. Another difference is that many of them focus solely on how their gear sounds coming out of the speaker cab, instead of focusing on getting the album tone (which is, ironically, the tone they are chasing and which one needs some studio/DAW experience to achieve).

Padre Bonic":235bvg5l said:

What made you the immediate prodigy?

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I'm not qualifying your statement there, because the fact is I made no such claim; I let the clips speak for themselves.




Now, since you're so interested in this tangent, the question you have to ask yourself is:

"Taking into consideration the sheer amount of information, period-correct gear and amp know-how that is found on their forum, why haven't any of the regulars there solved this tone yet and shared it?"

The answer is simple: Because they don't want to share it... because they want to keep the business afloat. The big "brown sound" mystery pulls in customers.

Now, back to the subject; again, I'll let the clips speak for themselves.

(Which, BTW, I noticed you made no mention of whatsoever. I find it very strange that you watched the YouTube vid but the only thing you wanted to post about here was my 3 second video comment about Metroamp; talk about fishy. You wouldn't happen to be good buds with George, would ya? )

I just stumbled across this thread… Your YouTube clip ( I could not access the other three clips) is amazing and you have done a very good job at achieving the early VH tone… That's all that matters… Great job!
The tone is incredible, it's got lots of meat to it and yet also has lots of cut… The actual chirps when you hit single strings is always the magic I look for in that tone... and your comment regarding the A2 magnet for Van Halen II Makes absolutely perfect sense!

Padre Bonic":2xy82evj said:

I'm just curious about what makes everyone on the Metroamp forum "not cool".

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You can sum that entire site as follows:

Every 6 months they dredge up some 10, 20, or 35-year-old amp mod (or signal chain hack) and the little group of heavy posters goes on a posting blitz over it.

All of those clowns are trying to sell home-made amps or pedals they built in their mom's basement. Most of them are "kit assemblers" who simply need to pawn-off their latest amp-building experiment on unsuspecting noobs to fund their next experiment.

The latest bullshite is a series of cell-phone videos of a decrepit old geezer butchering a bunch of ham-fisted VH riffs with a variac between the amp head and cabinet. Hey guys... It's not gonna sell much gear if the dude can't play, and the recording sounds like shite - no matter how many comments you make about "how great that sounds".

These guys will say anything if they think it's gonna fool some newbie into buying gear off that site, or any of their paid (or un-paid) advertisers' sites.

I'm convinced the majority of the little circle-jerk of heavy posters there are sock puppet accounts anyway.

Have you checked out Chelsea Constable - David Bray/Van Halen Demo on youtube? I'm not trying to piss on your research and work you've done.. you sound good, but if it didn't have her name in it, I would swear it was the man himself..