What amp has Best Plexi Sound (High Gain Head)

[Anonymous]

Not all plexi's are created equal

True - the mod I talked about helps add the missing gain, while maintaining the feel if the amp is anemic in that department...

Steve

 

[mixohoytian]

so did EVH, in the small club days, lower his stock marshall's volume w/ the variac?

( I believe the stock marshall thing, just wondering if this part is true or if he had a mod to the post power section)

 

[Greazygeo]

Like I posted before, I played Chris Merren's STOCK 67 plexi and it had a shit load of gain (no cascade and shared cathode). More than the average plexi. I have the gut shot pics to prove it is stock. Through a pin stripe cab loaded with original 20 watts speaker was incredible sounding. Not all plexi's are created equal

My 69 has a ton of gain as well. I don't even use an od with it anymore...i have those old 20's too, they are very cool speakers.

 

[Greazygeo]

You can say this a million times and no one will believe you even though you speak the truth...

Steve

Aint that the truth.

 

[nitro]

Like I said earlier I have owned many early 60s plexis and many 70s superleads none of them had the gain-distortion that Ed achieved on van halen 1,I wouldnt post something if it wasnt true.I have listened to the VH boots,none sound like van halen 1.

 

[Heritage Softail]

EVH would be a fool to give up the goose that laid the golden egg... There was also production tricks up some sleeves too, you have to imagine.

Intersting idea about just getting a metroamp kit and doing the mods mentioned above for 28 bucks plus shipping.....

 

[romanianreaper]

Anyone that has been playing guitar for awhile can tell the difference between different types of "gain". Unfortunately the word "gain" has come to represent a knob on an amp that is clean counterclockwise and heavy clockwise. Most of us know that it is more than just the one knob.

As mentioned above, Eddie had a "pushed" gain sound where you could hear each finger on the fretboard but it sounded "heavy". Slash does something similar as does Angus Young. People always think Slash is playing thru some gain-heavy amp on the recordings, but if you listen back to AFD, you can hear the notes and how clean his playing is.

I still think a big part of Eddie's sound that people often forget about is that reverb and phaser. I know it is obvious he used it on those recordings but I think if you were able to somehow strip those effects out of the recordings and listen back, it wouldn't sound as heavy. I'm not saying his tone wasn't "brown", like everyone always talks about but I just think it is not as heavy as people think. Listen to the beginning of "Little Dreamer". It is very low gain but just has this saturated brown sound.

 

[romanianreaper]

One more thing, I think the best way to describe Eddie's tone is to compare different settings on an overdrive pedal. Most people turn the gain up and level down. Eddie's tone is more like the pedal with the level up and gain down if that makes any sense. You get that "pushed" tone that uses less gain but just has that "something".

 

[Ventura]

Slash does something similar as does Angus Young. People always think Slash is playing thru some gain-heavy amp on the recordings, but if you listen back to AFD, you can hear the notes and how clean his playing is.

Slash's tone and sound, like a lot of other cats, is due to LESS gain and fizz than what we think. Having been experimenting with recording now for years, I still find it interesting that in order to achieve a higher gain sound a la microphone, one often has to back off the gain on the amp, and turn up the volume for some true powervalve saturation. What our ears hear, is not what a close-mic picks up. I always soundcheck with ear goggles on for the nuances of each mic against the mesh. Roll back the gain, increase the volume and add an ambient room mic, and VOILA!! Instant gold. Go with high gain out, lower volumes and a similar mic set up - thin, fizzy, and 'anemic' (ps - nice adjective).

I'm not overly obsessed with EVH's tone... I think it's good, and awesome and all, but I don't strive to achieve it. I prefer my own sound. I think too, EVH definitely had some multi-layering going on with all his cuts - a cleaner track, a gainier track, and a fizzin' track - all matched up and blended. Then the FX, boom - there it is.

For what it's worth...
V.

 

[Ventura]

OP's original question...

Mako MakoPlex...???

V.

 

[Telephant]

Sigh....

1) buy a stock 12 series super lead or equivalent
2) convert the preamp to 2203 spec (cascade the first two stages, put a 10k on the second stage instead of the 330u/820)
3) lower the filtering (40uF mains, 16uF screens, 16uF PI, dual 32uF preamp.)
4) put in a LarMar PPIMV
5) Dime the preamp gain and master you now have and adjust the PPIMV to taste for overall volume....

Congratulations, you're browned for about $20-30 in parts and some soldering time + the cost of the stock Marshall or Metro you bought... In general this will work with any Super Lead style amp 100 or 50 watt - you're just doing a 2204 cascade on a 50 watt...
Y
Steve

Build me this with an nice fx loop and I'd have my perfect "high gain" head.

 

[phil b]

A low gain amp such as a plexi cranked to the max will not achieve the gain-distortion that Ed achieved on van halen 1,people need to go back and listen to van halen 1 and then try achieveing that sound(van halen 1 sound) with a cranked plexi ,its not going to happen,ive tried it,I have owned many original late 60s plexis,its just not going to happen.

Listen to the live boots on youtube....sounds like a stock marshall.

You can say this a million times and no one will believe you even though you speak the truth...

Steve

Like I posted before, I played Chris Merren's STOCK 67 plexi and it had a shit load of gain (no cascade and shared cathode). More than the average plexi. I have the gut shot pics to prove it is stock. Through a pin stripe cab loaded with original 20 watts speaker was incredible sounding. Not all plexi's are created equal

There it is..... Finally.... That last sentence should be the FIRST sentence for the EVH tone handbook!! Years ago when I worked at Kramer we were all into the VH1 thing and the quest was to hunt down sb,sl and st plexi heads. I found a minty mint super trem head that I paid $450. I picked it up and brought it over to Ken Fischer to have him give it a once over and after a 1/2 hr of playing it in his basement and a few tubes changes we both were pretty disappointed. There were some really great sounding early Marshalls but there were also some really shitty sounding ones as well. Today nobody really mentions that fact though. Everybodys old Marshall sounds great .Its bizarre that alot of guys who dont own one or have never played them have this giant misconception of what they sound like in the room with you. Try diming a plexi with 100w speakers and an emg and see how close to EVH or Lynch you'll get. Closest sounding STOCK marshall i've ever heard to nailing the EVH tone was an early 1972 metal panel sl. This was in person and not any clips, used with an early marshall greenback cab that was absolutley beat to shit..Man, those were good times!

 

[Greazygeo]

Like I said earlier I have owned many early 60s plexis and many 70s superleads none of them had the gain-distortion that Ed achieved on van halen 1,I wouldnt post something if it wasnt true.I have listened to the VH boots,none sound like van halen 1.

Exactly....now put two and two together and you'll see what the difference is.....the recording process. tape machine overload and tube compression/ wound up mic pres are the ticket.

 

[Greazygeo]

There it is..... Finally.... That last sentence should be the FIRST sentence for the EVH tone handbook!! Years ago when I worked at Kramer we were all into the VH1 thing and the quest was to hunt down sb,sl and st plexi heads. I found a minty mint super trem head that I paid $450. I picked it up and brought it over to Ken Fischer to have him give it a once over and after a 1/2 hr of playing it in his basement and a few tubes changes we both were pretty disappointed. There were some really great sounding early Marshalls but there were also some really shitty sounding ones as well. Today nobody really mentions that fact though. Everybodys old Marshall sounds great .Its bizarre that alot of guys who dont own one or have never played them have this giant misconception of what they sound like in the room with you. Try diming a plexi with 100w speakers and an emg and see how close to EVH or Lynch you'll get. Closest sounding STOCK marshall i've ever heard to nailing the EVH tone was an early 1972 metal panel sl. This was in person and not any clips, used with an early marshall greenback cab that was absolutley beat to shit..Man, those were good times!

I've had about 25 or so pre 68-78 Marshalls....out of all those, the two I kept are fantastic sounding. The others not so good. Some no matter what you try just never sound good. My best sounding head and cab are totally beat to death.

 

[jasonP]

Sigh....

1) buy a stock 12 series super lead or equivalent
2) convert the preamp to 2203 spec (cascade the first two stages, put a 10k on the second stage instead of the 330u/820)
3) lower the filtering (40uF mains, 16uF screens, 16uF PI, dual 32uF preamp.)
4) put in a LarMar PPIMV
5) Dime the preamp gain and master you now have and adjust the PPIMV to taste for overall volume....

Congratulations, you're browned for about $20-30 in parts and some soldering time + the cost of the stock Marshall or Metro you bought... In general this will work with any Super Lead style amp 100 or 50 watt - you're just doing a 2204 cascade on a 50 watt...
Y
Steve

Build me this with an nice fx loop and I'd have my perfect "high gain" head.

SDM, Metro zero loss SS effect loop and your good to go.

 

[FriedChickenBandit]

Guys what do you guys think is the best high gain head for the EVH brown plexi sound.
It has to be a high gain head, be it a Marsha, Custom Audio, Bogner or whatever....

This is worth a million bucks. Oh boy.

I can't count the contraditions, oxymorons and paradoxes with one hand here.

 

[skoora]

Didn't he use those old Boss GE-10 EQ's, in front pushing the amp. If I bump the mids, weird as they may be, on my mxr 10 band my Metro gets very touch sensitive/harmonically responsive but retains the clarity. It definitely gets as gainy as I've ever heard VH to be. Honestly with the volume almost maxed and the presence too, without the EQ it gets enough gain and sparkle for old VH.

I just don't know why people care so much about it, unless you're trying to do a tribute band. I've seen Atomic punks three times in the late 90's where the guitar player used a different amp each time and sounded just like Eddie each time. I know one time it was a triaxis, another a 5150.

 

[Schaf]

I just don't know why people care so much about it, unless you're trying to do a tribute band. I've seen Atomic punks three times in the late 90's where the guitar player used a different amp each time and sounded just like Eddie each time. I know one time it was a triaxis, another a 5150.

Yeah. the guys name is Terry Lauderdale. Killer player. He was using a Mesa Mark III for a while and just nailing that tone. I had a Mark III. Don't know how in the hell he did it, but it was very close.

Schaf

 

[skoora]

I just don't know why people care so much about it, unless you're trying to do a tribute band. I've seen Atomic punks three times in the late 90's where the guitar player used a different amp each time and sounded just like Eddie each time. I know one time it was a triaxis, another a 5150.

Yeah. the guys name is Terry Lauderdale. Killer player. He was using a Mesa Mark III for a while and just nailing that tone. I had a Mark III. Don't know how in the hell he did it, but it was very close.

Schaf

Actually the guy I saw is the same dude in Steel Panther. I didn't think his name was Terry. Is It?

 

[skoora]

Maybe not what the OP had in mind but I've always wanted to find a high gain, metal head that had a channel or setting that nailed the stock plexi tone/response. Nothing's ever come close.