Eddie Van Halen’s Brown Sound | Does a Variac Actually Change an Amp’s Tone?
Listen on headphones or good speakers to hear it best.
In this video, I talk about doing some light modifications to my 50 watt Plexi and compare the effects of a Variac and different biases on the amp. The backing tracks used are the actual tracks from Van Halen minus the guitar part.
The amp is a Build Your Own Clone (BYOC) Brit 50 kit amp going into a Marshall 1960A Cabinet loaded with Celestion Greenbacks. For further details on the signal chain, watch the video.
The song playing in the background is my song Hell On Earth.
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#evh #eddievanhalen #brownsound
0:00 Intro/Atomic Punk
1:15 Atomic Punk Isolated Guitar
1:52 The Amp
2:36 The Guitar
2:59 The Pedals
3:27 The Cab/Mics/Post Processing
3:53 Comparisons Intro/Biasing
4:47 Voltmeter/My Wall Voltage is Actually 110V
5:22 Feel Your Love Tonight Solo
5:57 Feel Your Love Tonight Solo Isolated Guitar
6:29 The Amp’s Stock Tone
7:57 Different Voltages With the Same Bias
8:26 Different Bias Settings With the Same Voltage
9:08 Turning the Variac in Real Time
10:07 Closing
#Eddie #Van #Halens #Brown #Sound #Variac #Change #Amps #Tone
Originally posted by UC14Yl_k9kraNjtm9665xisA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgXGqgn2rJ4
Duuuude I just discovered your videos. Fantastic homage to Eddie you really rock his rifs well and do them justice ❤????????
The entire point of the variac was for VOLUME. Not tone! The point was to make the amp quieter and sound the same, which is almost impossible with non-master volume amps. The biggest difference other than volume can be voltage sag since you're starving the amp of power, making the dynamics feel more quishy.
My guess is a 20 year old kid from Pasadena wouldnt have messed with the bias. He wouldve just brought it down with a variac cause it was too loud.
So the variac that Eddie had his set at way 87 was the sweet spot. Just watch Rick beatos channel they replicated perfectly
Can you say more about the variac you used? How many amps? Model?
@ 8:00 the 110/110 sounds the best to me, more open and brighter than the 90
Thank you so much for doing this video. The amp sounds the best modded hot for 90 volts with the varian at 90. It is not in your head. Supposedly Randy Rhoads did the same thing. I wonder what got both of these players to try to use a variac to get their sound?
Makes the it sound more like single coil ,
can't tell about how it feels to play but maybe thia can be done with eq by attenuating certain frequencies and some of the gain .
A variac is a must to get that super great distortion that Eddy got! Normal plexi amps can not and will not get any where even close to that super distorted but also super articulate mind blowing tone sound! Plexi's are pure gold tone wise….but come on, they need to be setup with a variac to get THAT SOUND!!!
Take some advice – forget chasing EVH. Do something original. Be original. Be unique. Down inside you have the talent to do YOU. As cool as it may seem to you to duplicate perfectly EVH…it’s already been done. If you don’t change your direction to your own – in 20 years you will only have regrets. Make original music.
How am I just finding out about this channel?!?!? Killer playing, killer sound, AMAZING looking playing space…love it. The Pariah Pasadena set are absolutely spot-on for VH, I have the 1986 in my 5150 kit guitar and it does VH1 pretty nicely as well. EP Booster definitely gives you that "thing" as well, really well done.
How am I just finding out about this channel?!?!? Killer playing, killer sound, AMAZING looking playing space…love it.
Whatever you did, it’s sounds effin fantastic
Great Video Joe Thank you c]8-)
eddie accidentally plugged into a stage lighting variac at a theatre, it was dimmed down and thats where he got the idea, i guarantee he never reset his bias, he didn't know how, that claim is friedman who is 1/2 fos
Its worth the time and effort, it can only help your sound in the long run, brown sound is "Tastey" To the Ears
Didn't expect that. The regular voltage setting sounded better to me. What you did here was VERY smart. You let us hear the comparison DRY with no effects. One of the challenges with matching vintage Marshalls is the slight differences you could have from one month of manufacture in the SAME YEAR to another month; i.e. it wasn't uncommon for Marshall to change parts suppliers for whatever particular part due to price increases. This is why the same exact plexi or JMP of a certain year can sound a bit different because they were built in a different month – or even week! It's usually not that big of a difference. It just depends on what parts were changed.
To tell the truth honestly I don’t even really hear any distortion per se that would come from a distortion box.
I had a question maybe you can answer. Did Eddie use a distortion box or a fuzz box as some people call it ?I say no. I say it was all through the amps overdrive and gain with it cranked all the way up and volume controlled through the guitar but I could be wrong. So, which is it?
killer setup, great playing and digging the lights
You've Got an Amazing Guitar!
variac only works on vintage original amps. Anything made after about 1990 all have built in voltage regulators. The amp simply wont turn on unless you have at least 105 vac.
Already watched, I just decided to come back and write a comment, very good tone!
How did you figure out how to make the bias adjustable?