"brown sound"

[Shauggy]

So the Toadworks Mr. Ed pedal is supposed to replicate that "famous 'brown' sound" that's so highly sought-after. So how exactly would you describe a 'brown' sound? I know a good tone from bad, and an overdrive from a distortion, but I guess since you can't really describe a sound, is there a certain song I can listen to for comparison, so I know what I'm listening for? Thanks guys-

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: "brown sound"

The early Van Halen records.

I really like the South Park origin of the phrase "brown sound.":laugh2:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: "brown sound"

my favourite VH so called Brown Sound tone on record i think is Running With The Devil.... An Exployer, a Plexi, some voltage controll variac, and some Echo added during mixing

 

[Mephis]

Re: "brown sound"

Brown sound=Overwound PAF pickup in a ash guitar(debatable), Marshall plexi 100watt(dimed), Varraic running the amp at 90volts, and some ultra high quality chorus.(On later stuff)

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: "brown sound"

I often wonder if the term "brown" was used because EVH was essentially running the amp in a perpetual "brownout".

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: "brown sound"

I often wonder if the term "brown" was used because EVH was essentially running the amp in a perpetual "brownout".

It was probably that, and the fact that he didn't use too much high gain?

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: "brown sound"

Or because they requested m&m's with no browns and if they found one they would trash the place.

 

[Stratman]

Re: "brown sound"

My wife says if I make anymore brown sounds that I get to clean my own draws.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: "brown sound"

Getting more power tube distortion than any guitarist has ever got (or since got) by putting a heavy duty resistor between the OT primaries. That's that massive sound on Van Halen I right there. If you don't fancy blowing up your amp to get it, you can also distort the power tubes that much with Power Scaling by adjusting the controls in such a way that the input signal to the power tubes is greater in proportion to the signal the power tubes normally receive.

I don't believe a variac has much to do with that tone, it changes tone slightly but the rest of the things he did to his amp and guitars have 10 times more effect on tone than the variac.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: "brown sound"

I guess for me "brown sounds" are most often associated with massive amounts of Mexican food. It is rather scary that Stratman and I think a bit too closely alike.

 

[Rainmaker]

Re: "brown sound"

The term 'spongy' gets thrown around a fair bit... but even descriptive words like that can have different meanings to different listeners.

 

[theodie]

Re: "brown sound"

The Brown sound was originally not the word that described Ed's tone, it was actually describing the sound of the drums! No kidding, I heard that in an interview of them!


Anyway, is the whole "brown note" still a theory or has it been proven???

 

[aleclee]

Re: "brown sound"

Anyway, is the whole "brown note" still a theory or has it been proven???

The guys on Mythbusters were totally unable to reproduce the alleged effects, even at 150 dB.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: "brown sound"

Explain?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: "brown sound"

Big Dave gets the prize...the first time the biys in VH used he term Brown Sound it was being used to describe Alex's snare drum.

Anyway...as for Ed's Brown Sound that Marshall was stock...no mods what so ever!

Plug a Super Strat into a stock 100 watt plexi, drop the wall voltage with a variac, crank it and let it rip...

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: "brown sound"

Anyway, is the whole "brown note" still a theory or has it been proven???

Definitely a theory. You'd think otherwise that every person who goes to a Sunn O))) concert would end up crapping themselves :laugh2: and that's never happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

 

[Mephis]

Re: "brown sound"

I don't believe a variac has much to do with that tone, it changes tone slightly but the rest of the things he did to his amp and guitars have 10 times more effect on tone than the variac.

The Variac sends the tubes to a firey hell.

That's how he got his MASSIVE powertube distortion.

 

[TimmyPage]

Re: "brown sound"

Er. Question from an idiot.

What makes a plexi.. plexi?

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: "brown sound"

What makes a plexi.. plexi?

The plexiglass face and backplate on older Marshalls.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: "brown sound"

Whether the brown note exists or not is questionable? But I went to the "unholly alliance" show last night and Dave Lombardo's double bass ruptured a couple of tumors in my lungs!