Strong hints that Van Halen 1 68 lead was just a slave amp and not the main amp.

[Amp_chaser]

Ah.....so, an amp Steve neither possessed nor paid for and is not one of the 3 Jose heads he used in DLR and still owns that everyone would know as "Steve Vai's Jose amps"

Maybe "Sykes bought a Jose that was made for Vai" would be a more accurate telling of the tale?

What i know is that vai recieved a mod which was very close to eddie’s and that caused according to some rumors a break into ed and josé’s friendship. It was dlr who introduced vai to josé.

However i stongly believe the mod wasn’t the exact same thing. That on the paper it’s similar but way different in the way it’s wired.

still way too much gain. The way i implemented it makes it muddier. but the eq of the tone seems getting close.

however i have 4-5 main mods to try. after i will build a 68 lead to ed's specs with the same transformers.



even if it's not quite it yet, i learnt so much by modding those plexis that i even found out new mods and varieties of how a plexi can sound.

I have many ideas of mods that could be related thatpeople never thought of or that i never seen done to any amp. On the metro forums they did a lot of good work but unfortunately for them there is a josé mod that was never mentionned and that would have sparkled a lot of debate. A lot of experiments could be done with this mod. People tend to think plexis are obsolete because everything has been done to it. But that's not true at all if you are very creative there are infinite ways to mod a plexi without even changing a component just by adding or injectif things at different stages. when i look at many famous modders they mostly do josé variants but they don't think further and think it's sad because it's like for them josé only did those 3-4 mods. Why don't people try things on their josés ? I don't think josé invented every mod for eddy he could just have taken circuits from amps or pedals he used to deal with and implemented them on a plexi. In fact the ceramic caps over plates were a current thing on vox amps and its nowadays mainly associated with josé or friedman amps and we know he worked for vox amps... that's not a coincidence.

When i look at those possibilities i tend to believe that marshall just slept on their fame. They could have done so much more...

if i ever get very close i'll ask a friend to play those vh riffs. i stopped playing 5-6 years ago i'm so rusty. The riffs i play are mostly muscle memory.

 

[Amp_chaser]

One interesting fact is that Carl Esperanza worked with

It’d be pretty funny if dude came back in a month with an amp that actually sounded exactly like the VH1 tone, despite the lack of acknowledgement of all the shitty reference recordings.

that's way better i found a trick with the josé master and the schaffer vega boost. which eddie used on vh2 and i think he used it on vh1 too...

 

[Anje]

that's way better i found a trick with the josé master and the schaffer vega boost. which eddie used on vh2 and i think he used it on vh1 too...

Sorry, that sounds really bad to me; I don't like this, at all.

 

[psychodave]

These last two clips aren't close at all. Maybe if they were mixed together, it would be closer.

 

[Amp_chaser]

These last two clips aren't close at all. Maybe if they were mixed together, it would be closer.

thx it's always good to get feedback. I'm looking for that sizzle right know. Those records were made with the josé master at 1-2. It adds sizzle it's weird how it reacts with some boost. However i don't know why when i use genome only it's not that fuzzy and when i use genome in the reaper fx it get instantly way more fizzier.

i keep wondering if rockstah was right but just didn't all the values he needed. If i remember correctly not sure : but apparently chris merren told him that eddie's amp was turned into a jcm 800 style circuit and was in reality a 2 holer. Which is weird because eddie got a plexi which was turned into a 1hole input in his home. I wonder how true this is.

 

[SmashingAtom]

Still way off the rails man. Have you gone back in time to actually research where these people were , what they did and what the timeline looks like. Cause you need a timeline, if you don't do it that way , your in the weeds like a DARPA Victim on chemtrails. Where was Jose', what did he do ?
Who welcomed the VH family when they got off the boat. People , I did the work, booting up the material. Nothing matters before January 1, 1980, how is that for a clue. How about, who did Jan hang around with. Hello ! it all is hanging out in between that timeline. Nothing else matters, Metallica said it.

 

[Amp_chaser]

Still way off the rails man. Have you gone back in time to actually research where these people were , what they did and what the timeline looks like. Cause you need a timeline, if you don't do it that way , your in the weeds like a DARPA Victim on chemtrails. Where was Jose', what did he do ?
Who welcomed the VH family when they got off the boat. People , I did the work, booting up the material. Nothing matters before January 1, 1980, how is that for a clue. How about, who did Jan hang around with. Hello ! it all is hanging out in between that timeline. Nothing else matters, Metallica said it.

okay i just found out the a video of the amp that was modded by friemdan in the post Toshi Yanagi is mentionned and the amp called joselified :

the japanese bloger says that an amp was created to mimic the brown sound of vh1.

it's perhaps the real amp that was used on this video (as you can see when he describes the amps on the description he removed every marshall shown in the video by crossing them in the video description). the title of the video features : the brown sound voiced by dave friemdan :







here is the amp and it has 3 tubes :

eddie's amp in his studio is also a 1 holer :

A japanese blog says that this amp was built and also mentions the restauration of Toshi Yanagi's amp.

not sure he will do that mod for everyone. Again it's 3 tubes + one knob around the preamp. It's in the front of the amp compared to eddie's in the back.

So this amp was the result of 10 years of research by Dave it was built in 2020.

Perhaps that lawsuits that could follow if this was sold publicly could be the reason he can't sell directly this mod.

it's probably a cascade with something extra feeding the first tube.

 

[Amp_chaser]

I have listened to the Zeke Clark Steve Rosen interview parts 1 and 2. Judging from his references this interview must have been from around 1986 since he references 5150 songs, Steinberger guitars as just being released.

Using your logic at the time of this interview 1985/86 Mr. Clark was an employee of Van Halen and would have been under an active NDA so he would not be spilling any secrets that weren't already out in the public lexicon from multiple interviews. He just talks about basic things in both of these videos with just enough vagueness that nothing definitive can be derived from these videos.

Yes, I believe it is stock/stockish and every clip posted in this thread including the VH1 room mics clips and early live tour clips support my conclusion as well as all my real world exprience standing in front my 68 Marshall amps and cabs.

you should check my previous post.

 

[Lightning]

Rudy Leiran(Edward Van Halen first tech from the club days to 1984 Edward met Rudy in high school)Zeke Clark started in 1986(5150)

 

[Anje]

okay i just found out the a video of the amp that was modded by friemdan in the post Toshi Yanagi is mentionned and the amp called joselified :

the japanese bloger says that amp was created to mimic the brown sound of vh1.

it's perhaps the real amp that was used on this video (as you can see when he describes the amps on the description he removed every marshall shown in the video by crossing them in the video description). the title of the video features : the brown sound voiced by dave friemdan :







here is the amp and it has 3 tubes :

View attachment 414202

View attachment 414203

eddie's amp in his studio is also a 1 holer :

View attachment 414208

A japanese blog says that this amp was built and also mentions the restauration of Toshi Yanagi's amp.

not sure he will do that mod for everyone. Again it's 3 tubes + one knob around the preamp. It's in the front of the amp compared to eddie's in the back.

So this amp was the result of 10 years of research by Dave it was built in 2020.

Perhaps that lawsuits that could follow if this was sold publicly could be the reason he can't sell directly this mod.

it's probably a cascade with something extra feeding the first tube.

Going through that with my Sunday coffee, I'm sorry but it reads like you're making things up & lot of imaginary hypothesis not based on actual factual data.
Why would Toshi "hide" the "real amp" used in his videos? He's always been transparent about what he uses, and he's used a lot of different gear; he always sounds great, it's in his playing. He's actually another great example that you can "sound" 9x% like Ed with "stockish" old Marshall if you have the right skills & attitude.

Yes Ed may have used a 2203-like amp at some point, actually I'd bet he had as he loved to experiment; those are great too. I love my 2204, lots of ways to use/play those, and just as "good" to me as my older NMV 4 input models; different tools for different jobs/needs.
But there is no particular "magic" in them, just as there is no "magic trick" to me in any particular old "Plexi circuit" to all of a sudden get the EVH sound, VH1 or any other album for that matter. It comes down to what suits the player, with the right skills, and all the recording/song mixing art & science after that.

And let's play the "what if" game for 20sec: "if" that one particular "circuit mod" iteration you're chasing on his main Marshall was "it"/ "magic" / "better"... to Ed, why does it look like he then (quickly) moved away from it, and that was not to be found again on most of his main recording/touring Marshall amps?

 

[Amp_chaser]

Going through that with my Sunday coffee, I'm sorry but it reads like you're making things up & lot of imaginary hypothesis not based on actual factual data.
Why would Toshi "hide" the "real amp" used in his videos? He's always been transparent about what he uses, and he's used a lot of different gear; he always sounds great, it's in his playing. He's actually another great example that you can "sound" 9x% like Ed with "stockish" old Marshall if you have the right skills & attitude.

Yes Ed may have used a 2203-like amp at some point, actually I'd bet he had as he loved to experiment; those are great too. I love my 2204, lots of ways to use/play those, and just as "good" to me as my older NMV 4 input models; different tools for different jobs/needs.
But there is no particular "magic" in them, just as there is no "magic trick" to me in any particular old "Plexi circuit" to all of a sudden get the EVH sound, VH1 or any other album for that matter. It comes down to what suits the player, with the right skills, and all the recording/song mixing art & science after that.

And let's play the "what if" game for 20sec: "if" that one particular "circuit mod" iteration you're chasing on his main Marshall was "it"/ "magic" / "better"... to Ed, why does it look like he then (quickly) moved away from it, and that was not to be found again on most of his main recording/touring Marshall amps?

Dave mentionned eddie didn't like it at all. He thought it was too bright. Apparently during vh1 the amp was stock but with small things on it no component change mostly wiring changes (cascade) and something added at the end.

Then he began to try other mods that's apparently when things began to get wild and that the amp began to be wacked. OT mods, Components changes etc.

Here is the mention of that amp in Taka's blog :

"The Joselified BE Mod amp is finished!


On Friday evening I got a message from Dave, and I jumped in the car to the shop right away.


I arrived, excited and wondering, “So what exactly is ‘Joselified’?” I found it among the many amps sitting there, and just seeing the added push/pull knob knocked me out (lol).


It’s already been two years since we first talked about the Jose project. In that time, more Jose amps have been brought into Dave’s shop and the research has gone even further. We were lucky enough to get the chance to check the Joses owned by Vai, Sykes, and Metallica. And everyone’s been amazed—and talking nonstop—about Mr. Toshi Yanagi’s restoration of a 1968 Marshall Plexi and its Eddie Mod with that glorious Brown Sound. Now, a modded Marshall that really lets you feel the fruits of that research has finally been completed.

Couldn’t resist a commemorative photo outside the shop!

When you say “Jose,” you’re talking about this push/pull-type knob.

With Push, it becomes like the Plexi channel of a Small Box or BE Deluxe.
With Pull, it switches to a Jose-style high-gain mode.

I see—“Joselified BE Mod” is the perfect name. "

See it was indeed a modded 68 plexi...

source :

http://blog.musette-japan.com/_mtos5/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&search=josé

if Toshi Yanagi amp has that mod this video is the ultimate proof that José was indeed the mastermind behind vh1 and no stock plexi could do it. Knowing hardcore van halen fans if they had to have this mod they would ask it in the same spot as eddie. In the back. We never were shown Toshi's back amp in the video.

Many people just hate the idea that josé could be behind ed's vh1 tone. If he is the guy behind it, he really deserves more recognition.

 

[Bluplirst]

Whats the point if you cant even play the riffs?

 

[harddriver]

In my opinion the secret sauce for the VH1 album is Ted Templeman and the Sunset Sound engineers use of the studio EQ's, preamps, reverbs and delays and used in the studio to process Ed's live tone to what we hear on VH1.

Trying to extract exact VH1 recorded processed tone strictly from the live tube guitar/amplifier/speaker setup is not realistic. There are too many variables regarding the tricks of the trade of the studio engineers used to enhance his live tone to what Ted Templeman and the engineers wanted to hear.

The only true yardstick to measure what Ed's amp sounded like standing in front of the amp/amps are the room mics clips from the sessions and the live shows directly after recording before they went on tour in January of 1978....these recordings illustrate exactly what the guitars/amp/amps sounded like before studio processing. I've posted the room mic clips and the live shows to support my argument which I feel is the most realistic and pragmatic approach. I feel all of the clips posted of two gain stage 1968-1972 Plexi's/superleads in this thread can and do attain the gain, distortion and plexi characteristics heard in those clips, then you must add in the exact signal chain on top of this and play with Ed's 22 year old ferocity.

Chasing the recorded VH-1 tone is a noble undertaking but the studio processed recorded tones on the album are not what the amp sounded like standing in front of it while it was being recorded from August-October of 1977 and you cannot conflate the two.

Many others as well as Jim Gaustad understands this and he uses the Sunset Sound plugins to further process his live amps tone to sculpt them into what he feels captures the VH-1 magic.

In addition to my previous post. Since getting the 78/79 Brown sound package and spending some time with it I find the 300-350ms slapback delay with 0 repeats, low mix like 20-25% and correct reverb settings has even more to do with the recorded tones as well as all those Eq's and preamps that gave Ed's amp so much bite, crispness an aggression on VH1. I highly recommend the 78/79 package if you are into all this VH1 stuff, it's alot of fun to mess with and you will find without the correct delay and reverb the VH1 album/recorded tone vanishes.

As noted above the best anyone is going to do is get close to his Live amp tones and then go down the recording rabbit hole like Gaustad did with all the Eq's and preamps, delays, reverbs or use the UA OX box like alot of people do. Trying to get that exact recorded tone out of a live amp is ludicrous when the room mics clearly show the amp was warmer and had all the plexi characteristics underlying what is heard on the processed mastered tones put to tape for VH1.

Van Halen - Live in St. Paul, MN (April 13th, 1980) - Super 8 Film​

 

[Amp_chaser]

Whats the point if you cant even play the riffs?

7 years ago i stopped to play completely. I was way better back then and played a lot, i was not a maestro at all just an intermediate level guitar. Because of multiple factors like studies i stopped. That's my last recording before stopping completely (at that time i played very few). Believe me that practice practice practice is true if you stop for a long time you have to practice again even if you have muscle memory. :



that was my last riff idea when i played some gigs with some friends before stopping playing. It is a little bit inspired by some george lynch licks.



Because i was so frustrated that my bray 4550 could do every vh tone except vh1. I then went to learn amp building some years ago because a friend of mine presented me rob robinettes website which is a website teaching you how to build and mod amps. And that's when i began to play again a little bit. When i test amps i usually just play some riff quickly to adjust values. I didn't have a loadboax back then so i couldn't really play loud amps at home. Since i never played more than a 5-10min guitar playing session. I told myself that i will only play again seriously if i can get that sound i really want threw mods.

Many have asked me what humbucker it was in the second clip it was a seymour duncan jb modded with a gibson t top magnet. That thing sounded so thick it was insane. I regret to have sold that guitar it sounded extremely good for hard rock and the neck was extremely good the guy who bought it told me it was the best neck he ever played in his life and he had lots of guitars. The neck profile was based on the kramer 5150 it was a musikraft neck without any lacquer only tung oil.

 

[Anje]

Dave mentionned eddie didn't like it at all. He thought it was too bright. Apparently during vh1 the amp was stock but with small things on it no component change mostly wiring changes (cascade) and something added at the end.

Then he began to try other mods that's apparently when things began to get wild and that the amp began to be wacked. OT mods, Components changes etc.

Here is the mention of that amp in Taka's blog :

"The Joselified BE Mod amp is finished!


On Friday evening I got a message from Dave, and I jumped in the car to the shop right away.


I arrived, excited and wondering, “So what exactly is ‘Joselified’?” I found it among the many amps sitting there, and just seeing the added push/pull knob knocked me out (lol).


It’s already been two years since we first talked about the Jose project. In that time, more Jose amps have been brought into Dave’s shop and the research has gone even further. We were lucky enough to get the chance to check the Joses owned by Vai, Sykes, and Metallica. And everyone’s been amazed—and talking nonstop—about Mr. Toshi Yanagi’s restoration of a 1968 Marshall Plexi and its Eddie Mod with that glorious Brown Sound. Now, a modded Marshall that really lets you feel the fruits of that research has finally been completed.

Couldn’t resist a commemorative photo outside the shop!

When you say “Jose,” you’re talking about this push/pull-type knob.

With Push, it becomes like the Plexi channel of a Small Box or BE Deluxe.
With Pull, it switches to a Jose-style high-gain mode.

I see—“Joselified BE Mod” is the perfect name. "

See it was indeed a modded 68 plexi...

source :

http://blog.musette-japan.com/_mtos5/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&search=josé

if Toshi Yanagi amp has that mod this video is the ultimate proof that José was indeed the mastermind behind vh1 and no stock plexi could do it. Knowing hardcore van halen fans if they had to have this mod they would ask it in the same spot as eddie. In the back. We never were shown Toshi's back amp in the video.

Many people just hate the idea that josé could be behind ed's vh1 tone. If he is the guy behind it, he really deserves more recognition.

Ok now let's check VS actual facts:

Dave restored Toshi's '68 50w and tweaked / "voiced" it, per his own wording, to be more like VH2 sound as the main reference. Toshi's posted several times about that. And Dave is on record that he greatly prefers VH2 tone VS VH1 (like lots of us I would say).
I never saw it referenced as a "secret magic VH1 record tone in a box ready" amp. Never.

Same with that particular modded '80 2203 you posted about: it's nowhere described as a replica of Ed's amp with a particular secret magical mod from VH1 recording. The Japanese dealer blog you referred is describing it as another "Jose mod project", with inspiration taken from several misc Jose amps Dave had seen in his shop until 2020. Nothing less, nothing more, no reference to any of Ed's amp.
Also, at least one of the clips you posted of this amp in your previous post is clearly described by that Japanese dealer as being the amp with the Jose mod "off" = "standard Plexi channel", and you can see the Jose knob also pushed in = off in at least a 2nd video; all clips were played by Toshi at his place.
And btw, the Japanese dealer sold that amp one year later in 2021, and also had the Reissue 50w for sale seen in Toshi's video where Toshi compares it to this old '68. Again, no clear reference, evidence, or even the smallest hint of them being meant to be "the magic secret Ed's VH1" amp here to me.

I have to say they do sound great though, especially with Toshi playing them; sound like great examples of well maintained classic old Marshall amps to me, with well twicked specs & variac on some of the videos, again nothing less, nothing more.

 

[Lightning]

Vh2 is much easier to achieve then VH1

 

[Amp_chaser]

Ok now let's check VS actual facts:

Dave restored Toshi's '68 50w and tweaked / "voiced" it, per his own wording, to be more like VH2 sound as the main reference. Toshi's posted several times about that. And Dave is on record that he greatly prefers VH2 tone VS VH1 (like lots of us I would say).
I never saw it referenced as a "secret magic VH1 record tone in a box ready" amp. Never.

Same with that particular modded '80 2203 you posted about: it's nowhere described as a replica of Ed's amp with a particular secret magical mod from VH1 recording. The Japanese dealer blog you referred is describing it as another "Jose mod project", with inspiration taken from several misc Jose amps Dave had seen in his shop until 2020. Nothing less, nothing more, no reference to any of Ed's amp.
Also, at least one of the clips you posted of this amp in your previous post is clearly described by that Japanese the dealer as being the amp with the Jose mod "off" = "standard Plexi channel", and you can see the Jose knob also pushed in = off in at least a 2nd video; all clips were played by Toshi at his place.
And btw, the Japanese dealer sold that amp one year later in 2021, and also had the Reissue 50w for sale seen in Toshi's video where Toshi compares it to this old '68. Again, no clear reference, evidence, or even the smallest hint of them being meant to be "the magic secret Ed's VH1" amp here to me.

I have to say they do sound great though, especially with Toshi playing them; sound like great examples of well maintained classic old Marshall amps to me, with well twicked specs & variac on some of the videos, again nothing less, nothing more.

For Toshi's amp it's possible but who knows but it's clearly mentionned that it has been voiced. that could just mean fat cap and 50k pot but, it's possible that other things were done too. if you look in the blog there is a passage when Taka said Dave began a josé project he went threw many josé amps threw the years until he found what he needed. This joselified amp is the culmination of the research Taka says it. Dave seems to have found an amp that had the same pot in the back which eddie's amp got there is a picture of it in the blog.

Another thing if you look at the title of the musette video it's clearly written brown sound.

 

[Amp_chaser]

Ok now let's check VS actual facts:

Dave restored Toshi's '68 50w and tweaked / "voiced" it, per his own wording, to be more like VH2 sound as the main reference. Toshi's posted several times about that. And Dave is on record that he greatly prefers VH2 tone VS VH1 (like lots of us I would say).
I never saw it referenced as a "secret magic VH1 record tone in a box ready" amp. Never.

Same with that particular modded '80 2203 you posted about: it's nowhere described as a replica of Ed's amp with a particular secret magical mod from VH1 recording. The Japanese dealer blog you referred is describing it as another "Jose mod project", with inspiration taken from several misc Jose amps Dave had seen in his shop until 2020. Nothing less, nothing more, no reference to any of Ed's amp.
Also, at least one of the clips you posted of this amp in your previous post is clearly described by that Japanese the dealer as being the amp with the Jose mod "off" = "standard Plexi channel", and you can see the Jose knob also pushed in = off in at least a 2nd video; all clips were played by Toshi at his place.
And btw, the Japanese dealer sold that amp one year later in 2021, and also had the Reissue 50w for sale seen in Toshi's video where Toshi compares it to this old '68. Again, no clear reference, evidence, or even the smallest hint of them being meant to be "the magic secret Ed's VH1" amp here to me.

I have to say they do sound great though, especially with Toshi playing them; sound like great examples of well maintained classic old Marshall amps to me, with well twicked specs & variac on some of the videos, again nothing less, nothing more.

Here are the hints that it might be the case :

“The Jose-lified BE Mod amp is finished!


On Friday evening I got a message from Dave, jumped straight in the car, and headed to the workshop.


Wondering, ‘What exactly does Jose-lified mean?’ I arrived buzzing with excitement. I spotted it among the many amps sitting there, and just seeing the added push/pull knob knocked me out (lol).


It’s already been two years since we first talked about the Jose project. In the meantime, more Jose amps have been brought into Dave’s shop and the research has moved forward. We even had the chance to check the Jose amps owned by Vai, Sykes, and Metallica. And Mr. Toshiyanagi’s restoration of a 1968 Marshall Plexi—and its Eddie mod—has everyone amazed and talking about how sweet that brown sound is.


At last, a modded Marshall that truly lets you feel the fruits of that research has been completed !”


I spent many hours looking for infos in this blog. It's a gold mine. There is a post which mentions that dave had a project to service and research everything about josé's mods. In fact it's possibe he serviced most of the josés still existing on this planet.

Here’s a natural English translation:


“It’s already been ten years since the Jose Project started.


As those of you who enjoy ‘From LA’ know, from the Jose-inspired modded Marshalls to the road that led us to PLEX, we’ve been moving forward little by little, steadily.


Then, by a curious twist of fate, last year Dave met Jose’s daughter, Marisol. At first, there was a plan to recreate the custom amp Jose designed for Eddie, but we decided instead to officially commercialize the amps we’ve been developing in the Jose Project. Drawing on Dave’s ideas—he’s handled repairs on many Jose-modified Marshalls—we packed the features of the roughly five types of Jose-modded Marshalls into a single unit, and the Friedman/Arredondo that caused a stir at NAMM 2025 is slated for release this summer.


Michael Nielsen couldn’t resist and has already posted a very real demo video.


By the way, the story of Dave and Marisol’s fateful meeting is top secret for now, so we can’t share it here yet—but Dave’s knack for luck is really something. All those happy coincidences have led to the release of this Jose Arredondo Tribute Amp. (There are a few hints in this blog, lol.)


Stay tuned for the Friedman/Arredondo amp!


P.S. We’re taking preorders for the September shipment.”

i have to admit that this + his collaboration with josé's daughter is badass. He is a hard working guy + he has ethics to give a little bit of the josé's profit sales back to the family.

finally it's a 3 tube preamp amp you can see it in the pictures. It has knob around the input which is around the first preamp tube... Did josé make 3 tube amp mods ? extremely rare and they didn't have an extra knob... The friedman josé is a 4 preamp tube amp. The joselified and friedman josé amps are 2 different amps.

Again that joselified amp is very similar to the amp that ed got at 5150 studios. It's perhaps the prototype that josé and eddie used 1 holer again... :

Perhaps that this one holer was the base for the friedman be (which is probably not the exact same thing) but without that special knob pot circuit mod... Who knows...

 

[Amp_chaser]

In addition to my previous post. Since getting the 78/79 Brown sound package and spending some time with it I find the 300-350ms slapback delay with 0 repeats, low mix like 20-25% and correct reverb settings has even more to do with the recorded tones as well as all those Eq's and preamps that gave Ed's amp so much bite, crispness an aggression on VH1. I highly recommend the 78/79 package if you are into all this VH1 stuff, it's alot of fun to mess with and you will find without the correct delay and reverb the VH1 album/recorded tone vanishes.

As noted above the best anyone is going to do is get close to his Live amp tones and then go down the recording rabbit hole like Gaustad did with all the Eq's and preamps, delays, reverbs or use the UA OX box like alot of people do. Trying to get that exact recorded tone out of a live amp is ludicrous when the room mics clearly show the amp was warmer and had all the plexi characteristics underlying what is heard on the processed mastered tones put to tape for VH1.

Van Halen - Live in St. Paul, MN (April 13th, 1980) - Super 8 Film​

One thing you have to understand VH1 is unique from the rest.

The mods that were in it probably didn't last long. Eddie didn't like that sound. It's probable that just after the recording the amp was brought back to stock just leaving the pot there.

you can see that in japan he tried slaving amps in 1978. Then in 1979 you can see the power tubes changed and it was probably just a plexi biased very hot. Then rudy leiren said a lot of mods were done including that zeke clark mod to the ot. it's safe to say that mid early 80's the amp was very different from a stock 68 lead. Dave even said it had weird components and weird filtering in it and he brought it back to stock.

Another thing that was explained by some people on all those online shows is that some records had multiple amps and that the 68 lead was not used for everything. There is also the possibility of slave setups for recording.

In fact guitar magazines and some people say a second amp was used in van halen 1 as a power amp.

There are nda about eddie's tone and it's probable that the evh company and the vh family will sue anyone that will spill the beans about all those mods that went into that amp around the years. Plus eddie didn't want people to copy his sound. Just remember when seymour duncan run this add for the van halen humbucker ? what did ed do ? he said he will sue seymour so seymour retracted...

 

[Anje]

“it might”, “could be”… as you said, “who knows”.
I don’t see/read any actual new fact in your posts.
“Brown sound” could mean anything.
It honestly sounds like you’re imagining / making things up, projectings theories from your own fantasies.