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sometime pple talk abt brown sound? what is that?

I think it's Eddie Van Halen's early tone they're referring to as the quot;brown soundquot;, but I'm not old enough to know that for sure.

I thought it was a specific note/pitch that makes people crap themselves. At least that's what it was on that one South Park episode.

From the stories I've heard 2nd hand from friends of Eddie's tech's, the brown sound had more to do with the Variac lowering the voltage down (not up as most thought) to I think 90v, causing the tubes to be pushed way harder. Thus the tubes glowed a much brighter quot;brownquot; hue. The sound got associated with the physical feature.

It's become to be known as the description of EVH's guitar tone circa 1978-81. The idea was that the sound cut and had balls but didn't offend with too many piercing high frequencies. It's quot;chick friendlyquot; tone. Dave Roth brought that commercial appeal to the band and knew it was important not to scare away the chicks. The funny thing is that in the band quot;brown soundquot; was the term originally applied to AVH's snare drum tone. It went quot;tonkquot; more than quot;shhitzzquot; because he damped the head and the snares quite a bit. The idea was the same...keep the highs under control.

Good, at least I was right then

I always found it interesting just how clean Eddie's early tones are.... They are not exactly Heavy Metal tones like a lot of players think.... His tone is pretty clean compaired to others out there...


Originally Posted by ratherdashingI thought it was a specific note/pitch that makes people crap themselves. At least that's what it was on that one South Park episode.

thats the brown note

brownsound

Brown Sound is also the name of the guitarist from Sum 41.


Originally Posted by JeffBbrownsound
so thats brown sound... thanks for the link jeff.

hmmm thanks for the explanations folks!!

David Bray is THE MAN if you want a Marshall 1959 SLP brown sound amp. I've got one and it totally kills! I actually sent mine back to adjust the mod for current needs adding a bit more brightness than his typical mod. Also added a Line Out and a Power Amp in feature to power a preamp if needed.

Here's a clip of my amp David sent me for approval. Really captures that tone. Played thru a Les Paul into a mid 70's vintage Marshall 4x12 wich 25w rola Celestions.

My David Bray modded Marshall MP3

I heard that the 'brown sound' was originally applied to Alex's snare, rather than Eddie's tone.

The quot;Brown Soundquot; was actually the term that the guys in VH used to describe Alex's snare drum...somehow later on it started being used to describe Ed's tone...truth be told...in the early days Eddie had a pretty cutting tone.

I have seen a few unoffical dvd's of live Van Halen from 1982.... Us Fest and Baltimore.... It's kind of hard to tell what Ed's real tone at the shows sounded like but every live VH show i have heard from 1975-83 Ed's sound has a hell of a lot of high end to it... may be the recordings i know but his tone is always bright...

Back just a few minutes before they recorded their first album, they used to play this little beer bar near me. They did everything on the first album and a pile of covers. 4 hors a nite. I used to sit 6 feet from Eddie every nite and that Marshall sounded like what Marshall should sound like, plus a hair more gain. It sounded exactly like the record, because that's what the captured live pretty much in the studio. Even better was that if you got to the club before 9 pm, it was free to come in.


Originally Posted by ratherdashingI thought it was a specific note/pitch that makes people crap themselves. At least that's what it was on that one South Park episode.

I think thats the frequency of 4Hz

Ed came up with the phrase, and yeah, I think he was originally referring to Alex's tone as well as his.

That Bray clip was pretty brown. Nice.

Wow I like that bray clip, just not enough highs for me

joelap, I had David rework the highs and gain to eck out as much as the plexi will do. That is about it. Now different speakers might help too. Those were blackback 25w Celestions. Part of it may be the guitar too. I personally like more high end sizzle in amps.