mentoneman
Well-known member
if there has to be digital involved, maybe marry it to an analog pedal with pinnacle/friedman tendencies, a tube, and a blend knob.
Favorite VH brown sound in a pedal solutions?
- Thread starter mentoneman
- Start date
Arch Stanton
Dollar Store Satriani
No one has put it all together.. yet.
You have to do it like Jim Gaustad..
Go and put all the pieces together yourself, and make it happen.
mentoneman
Well-known member
Yet the main question you have been asking that adorns your thread title is.......
Favorite VH brown sound in a pedal solutions?
I love the tones too so I get it.... but to really nail the album tones to a tee you would need to go digital somehow to replicate the entire recording chain like Jim Gaustad does with the Sunset sound package or you could use the OX BOX like Ossie Ahsen does that has the sunset sounds in it but it still needs processed through a computer and home monitor system to get the all the reverbs and such with all the ambience effects. The only live rig that would be the rig David Phillips built with SDE3000's and PCM81 for the plate verb and then everything else. I just don't think any pedal can truly replicate a two gain stage plexi circuit cranked up, some really great minds have been attempting to do this and still the real amps reign supreme.
The only pedal that kind of comes close to responding like a real amp was the BEOD deluxe that I tried, but I never really got the same clank and chirpy goodness compared to my real amp but it was good. Maybe if you experimented with Ed's signal chain in front of that pedal you might get something you like. I imagine you have have already tried one since they have been out quite awhile.
Can you not get great VH1 tones out of that Peacemaker like Victor did....add Ed's signal chain some delays and plate reverb between the Peacemaker and a stereo or mono power amp at any volume you want and you already own just about everything to build that without another pedal to make it happen. I mean what Victor setup couldn't be that difficult to replicate? Could it?
That should be all you need to get your VH1 fix?
the point is a pedal solution, NOT reverting to recreating eddie’s rig with the traditional stuff.
of course i can get killer vh tone with my peacemaker. i was one of the early adopters of that amp, shot that video at the plexi palace, and hung out with victor a ton of times at the shop and his house. he’s my friend, and the peacemaker is my personal benchmark for vh tone, but that’s not a practical solution for creating a preset in my rack rig.
a vh sounding pedal that can be called up in a loop of my GCX switcher to hit one of my 7 pre-existing preamp channels in my rack is.
this all started from the realization that my synergy DS module and my egnater ie4 channel 3 tones were overlapping in a vintage marshall kind of way. so i dedicated the DS red channel to that audley freed bluesy jtm/plexi breakup, and made it a challenge to bring ie4/ ch3 up to vh levels of gain, as the description of the channel suggests:
right now i’m hitting channel 3 of my egnater ie4 preamp with a cmatmods brownie and it’s not bad. but i believe i can get closer with the right pedal. so my post was to ask if there was something new out there in pedal land i’ve been missing.
what’s funny is if i try the lion and find out it was there all along.
Arch Stanton
Dollar Store Satriani
mentoneman
Well-known member
ag
he had a wdw rig but my cam only had 2 inputs so i threw a super cheap radio shack condenser on a empty pedal box to mic one of his wet cabs, and a 58 on his dry cab. nothing pretty or scientific. just two geeks super into VH!
the molecular sounds great too but i haven’t heard anyone attempt to recreate eddie’s tone with it yet.
agreed. when Zach got the amp, it was apparent that there were serious vh tones in it right out of the gate. and since we didn’t see anyone trying to pursue that on any of the demos at that time, i said let me come over and film you with that sound dialed in. thus the yt vid you see.
he had a wdw rig but my cam only had 2 inputs so i threw a super cheap radio shack condenser on a empty pedal box to mic one of his wet cabs, and a 58 on his dry cab. nothing pretty or scientific. just two geeks super into VH!
the molecular sounds great too but i haven’t heard anyone attempt to recreate eddie’s tone with it yet.
The difference in dialing the amp, what pickup, strings, etc are on the guitar and the person doing the playing and what speakers it’s coming out of are going to create huge differences… the Brad run Atomicas and Old Bitches have Classictone transformers in them so that’s the biggest difference between the amps, but SOME of the Brad amps have terrible hum problems, so I don’t think Nick’s amp is a bad compromise. The only other alternative is the have Friedman build you a Brad run Atomica from scratch or mod a donor amp. Or roll the dice with MC himself and see how that turns out.
mentoneman
Well-known member
another major consideration is tube quality.
regardless of what anyone tries to say tubes these days suck. multiple experiences with great old mullard and brimar preamp tubes of the past versus cheap microphonic eh or terribly congested jj tubes is all the proof i need. tubes started sucking in the 90’s and no amount of hype or wishful thinking is going to convince me that things have improved as time marched on.
i sure would love to know whatever happened to this guy because the one tube i bought from him at that NAMM was excellent:
i let my friend borrow the superchamp XD it was in (along with a pair of vintage 6V6s and my strymon flint) and it was all stolen. so i can’t speak to the longevity of the thing. but the guy and his company disappeared AFAIK.
regardless of what anyone tries to say tubes these days suck. multiple experiences with great old mullard and brimar preamp tubes of the past versus cheap microphonic eh or terribly congested jj tubes is all the proof i need. tubes started sucking in the 90’s and no amount of hype or wishful thinking is going to convince me that things have improved as time marched on.
i sure would love to know whatever happened to this guy because the one tube i bought from him at that NAMM was excellent:
i let my friend borrow the superchamp XD it was in (along with a pair of vintage 6V6s and my strymon flint) and it was all stolen. so i can’t speak to the longevity of the thing. but the guy and his company disappeared AFAIK.
harddriver
Well-known member
Ok now I know you are using an Egnator module that is supposed to do a good plexi per your description. If that module does a great plexi then Ed's signal chain should work just as good in front of that module as it does your Peacemaker.
The closest thing I have found that is not a plexi that gets close is a 2203 that I built with a Jose Master volume in it with a saturation switch to emulate sag, it clanks like a plexi probably similar to what your hear in the Atomica. That's probably why you like the Atomica so much. Maybe look into getting a Jose/ Atomica Module made for your Egnator might be your best solution.
mentoneman
Well-known member
the thought has crossed my mind but the immediate goal is getting close with my existing rig and a top of class pedal.
if i hit the target, it will inspire me to play more often!
stuff like this reminds me i have to play my acoustic more…
Exo-metal
Well-known member
No way can you expect that buffoon to effectively solve a problem like this. It would take a level of innovation and intellect that goes beyond the sandwich building 101 level.
Cameron designed the Atomica, old bitch ect...
Those Steve Stevens siggies sound more like Mark's work than anyone else's.
Cameron designed the Atomica, old bitch ect...
Those Steve Stevens siggies sound more like Mark's work than anyone else's.
Last edited:
Buy Dave services them for warranty or straight repair so he’s been inside them. And they were built in conjunction with Dave to begin with.
Exo-metal
Well-known member
Or we can disagree about the Atomica. If they all sounded like #1 they would have sold untold numbers.
mentoneman
Well-known member
i often wondered if the proto had more special attention paid to it.
i do know that zach spoke with mark after getting it, and mark mentioned that if zach wanted, he could send it to mark for a custom mod that would make it sound even better than the production model.
Exo-metal
Well-known member
You know better than me but that is certainly true from what I hear. The magic in that clip is NOT in any of the amps I've heard. They all just sound like bright gained out amps without the detail of amp #1. Was this a low gain José, that's what I read it was.
I also read the first Atomica was a goldtop that was spray painted with "Atomica" across the front that Mark was hiding under his bench? That would make Zach's Atomica #?
I also read the first Atomica was a goldtop that was spray painted with "Atomica" across the front that Mark was hiding under his bench? That would make Zach's Atomica #?
mentoneman
Well-known member
there’s also a good chance i may be preoccupied with the wrong element of the chain.
https://axiomeffects.com/products/power-amp-emulator-pae-1
https://axiomeffects.com/products/power-amp-emulator-pae-1
mentoneman
Well-known member
Exo-metal
Well-known member
The fragile can't process reality like the rest of us bro. They don't seem to be able to use their ears like the rest of us. IMO the amp Zach has more magic. The rest of the amps only bear the name and not THE tone.
They didn’t not sell because of the tones, they didn’t sell because the business model of working with Mark was impossible. Well documented here on the forum. There are 25 of each production Cameron amp. That’s not a large run. It’s not like CCVs where there were quite a few made before the Brad run and a few even after it. You really think #1 is more special than the other 24 ? Anything is possible I guess but I doubt it.