EVH's original Plexi and the FAS Brit Brown amp

Dimebucker said:
Hey

Yeah this was amazing invention ,to get intonation and chords to be in tune. Link Is below time 00:50
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Better but still not even close. That helps some chords in some keys but really makes others horrible. Its an impossibility on a fretted instrument, sorry. You have to have multiple offsets of each pitch depending on the key and interval its being used as. One quick example; A "C#" in a JI A Major Chord is very different from a "C#" from a JI A# Minor Chord. Try playing both chords. Tune your B string down 14 cents so its a pure major 3rd. Then play that A major barre chord. Sounds awesome right? Then try hitting a a# minor barre chord. Way flat now...you have to bring it up around 30 cents to remove the beats completely. Unless you had two C#'s there its never going to be in tune. When you start adding more intervals and chords in gets even more complex to the point you need dozens of variation of the same note depending on the function.
 
barhrecords said:
This is it then: 21 Tone Just Intonation Guitar

And have a dedicated instrument for each key you want to play in.
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Exactly. But if a song changes keys at some point or uses some non-key interchange chord, as pretty much every song does, your screwed.

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My JI guitar. Picked the good old A, D, and E Keys for the in-tune keys, and a few others are very close.
Notice how complex it gets. I don't play much bebop jazz on this one ;-)
 
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Tremonti said:
Best "brown sound" I ever heard that sounds like Van Halen I is a Bray modified Marshall. No clue what he did....but damn.
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Long before the Axe-Fx ..., I had a Bray 50 watt Marshall w/ the kitchen sink thrown at it ! Before I got it back, Dave sent me the most glorious clipage of what that amp was going to sound like !

Then I got the amp back and it didn't sound ANYTHING like the clips .... At the time I had a Marshall 2 x 12 vertical loaded w/ V30's. I sold that and bought a Marshall 4 x 12 w/ Greenbacks and viola instant "Brown" sound ....

The moral of the story is the IR's were important even back before I knew what an IR even was !
 
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I love this subject and find it fascinating.

What surprises me is that he used the original plexi on everything up until F&ck - I mean the guitar sound on 5150 & OU812 bears absolutely no resemblance to the first few VH albums does it? ( On 5150 in particular the guitar sound is more like a Rocktron than a Plexi to my ears..)

On the AFX II I go for jumped plexi with just the high channel maxxed gives a really authentic percussive VH1 tone.

PS I've been without my AXE FX for a couple of days and had to use my old POD XT 'PRO'.... it has certainly brought into focus how far things have come in the modelling world...
 
zack said:
I love this subject and find it fascinating.
On the AFX II I go for jumped plexi with just the high channel maxxed gives a really authentic percussive VH1 tone.
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That amp as well as the plain 100 watt plexi is what started this topic for me. I found just the opposite. With things maxed out the low end lost definition and the highs weren't what I remember from my Marshall days (stout to say the least). Mind you this was with the MV wide open so this type of behavior is to be expected.

But everything I've read says that's the way he played. Loud. I wanted to replicate that loud energy with the thump (thunk) you get from a Marshall blasting through the cabs. I think Ultrares is going to go a long way once I convert my OH library.

But I found something interesting today. Trying to simulate a variac has definitely put a 100 watt plexi in the ball park. I'll post some clips in a bit. It's been a game changer for me. Mind you I'm no amp tech by any means. I was just twisting knobs based on what Groovenut posted in an older thread.

Groovenut said:
I dont believe this is possible yet with just one control. We can simulate some of the side effects of the variac with the Sag and Damping controls, as well as the B+ Time constant, but its not going to get you the exact same thing as lowering the B+ voltage on the whole amp or just the power section. However, given that Cliff has included the ability to choose AC or DC power, adding (if it's not already in there) and revealing a B+ voltage control that effected the whole amp or just the power section is only a few steps away. Incidentally this is how Power Scaling (and the Power Scale control on amps like the Badger) works.
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Here's a sample. First half is wet and the second totally dry. Hoping to give an idea of the dynamics and how the amp feels and sounds at different volumes and such. This is literally tinkering with all of the mistakes in tact. You've been warned.

Here are the changes that I've made. It's a rather rude and crude amp and needs improvements. I'm just half assed guessing at what to change based on what I'm reading. If anyone more versed in these things wants to offer some suggestions I'm all ears!

100 watt Plexi amp
Input Drive 5.43
MV 10
Base, Mid, Treble, Pres = 10
Bright = On

Dynamics: Supply Sag 1.34, B+ Time Constant 30ms
Power: Pwr Tube Bias .827, Triode Hardness 3.543

OH MAR-CB D-120 SS SP - mic set to null - Hi Res - lvl neg18db
OH 412-MAR-CB-V30-Studio - Mic set to null - Ultra Rez - lvl 0db

 
Sounds pretty good!, now pan the dry over and turn the mix up a little more on the verb and you will have a good representation of his studio tone.
 
Narzugon said:
OH 412-MAR-CB-V30-Studio - Mic set to null - Ultra Rez - lvl 0db
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Nice tweak, but going for EVH tone w/ V30s instead of Greenbacks? I'm confused. ;)

Tremonti said:
Best "brown sound" I ever heard that sounds like Van Halen I is a Bray modified Marshall. No clue what he did....but damn.
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Get one to Cliff! Stat!
 
Gasp100 said:
Best example of a clone I've ever heard was a Marshall with the Rockstah mod... unbelievably close tone and unbelievably good playing and technique he had...
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true. that was a really good sounding mod. schematics for that mod must be out there somewhere. we should try find it and get it to Cliff's attention...
 
VegaBaby said:
true. that was a really good sounding mod. schematics for that mod must be out there somewhere. we should try find it and get it to Cliff's attention...
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I think it's called the "Mod 5". But Mark used to say that each amp was it's own thing. And each one ended up being tuned slightly differently ( by his ear ) !
 
Narzugon said:
Here's a sample. First half is wet and the second totally dry. Hoping to give an idea of the dynamics and how the amp feels and sounds at different volumes and such. This is literally tinkering with all of the mistakes in tact. You've been warned.

Here are the changes that I've made. It's a rather rude and crude amp and needs improvements. I'm just half assed guessing at what to change based on what I'm reading. If anyone more versed in these things wants to offer some suggestions I'm all ears!

100 watt Plexi amp
Input Drive 5.43
MV 10
Base, Mid, Treble, Pres = 10
Bright = On

Dynamics: Supply Sag 1.34, B+ Time Constant 30ms
Power: Pwr Tube Bias .827, Triode Hardness 3.543

OH MAR-CB D-120 SS SP - mic set to null - Hi Res - lvl neg18db
OH 412-MAR-CB-V30-Studio - Mic set to null - Ultra Rez - lvl 0db

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Ahhh! Squeal on little piggy ... sounds absolutely great! :encouragement:
 
R.D. said:
I think it's called the "Mod 5". But Mark used to say that each amp was it's own thing. And each one ended up being tuned slightly differently ( by his ear ) !
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Unfortunately Mark Abrahamian passed away about a year or so ago. There were a lot of discussions involving him on the Metroamp forum. There were some guys there that had amps modded by him. Maybe that would be a good place to start looking. I believe his amps sounded better than most trying to get early vh tone.

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner
 
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