Marshall amp mods for van halen 1 sound

[Jonathan Wilder]

The guitarist is Jeremy Martens. I built that head for him back in early 2010. Steve Henderlong from 39 Stripes now owns it.

 

[John 14:6]

The guitarist is Jeremy Martens. I built that head for him back in early 2010. Steve Henderlong from 39 Stripes now owns it.

Someone should have told Jeremy to never sell a great piece of gear......he will regret it and miss the amp later.

 

[NewReligion]

Running valves out of phase? WTF? EVH was most certainly drunk off his ass if he made this claim.

IIRC, the '67 used lower value filter caps than the '68 circuit, where they went to the above chassis 50+50uF filter caps. There may have been a cathode bypass cap missing and a couple of treble bypass caps missing as well...I believe '67-'68 was a sort of transition period for Marshall as they were very inconsistent in a lot of their parts values as well as whether certain "non-electrically critical" parts were even used, which leads to the "every Marshall sounds different" and "you have to weed through a pile of them to find THE ONE that sounds great" phenomenons.

And X2 on EVH spewing misinfo in regards to how he got that album tone. Something tells me he doesn't even know anymore.

Jon, you added so much at times. Great information here about the 67-68 changes. I found this as I am still tweaking my Plexi for more saturation without turning it into a buzz saw 2204/3

David ♫

 

[popskull]

Rockstah was the man on the mod--theres others but he nailed it

 

[Tone Slinger]

I agree. Marks work had a certain tonal 'distinction'. I really hate that all of the epic threads he was involved in over at the Metro Amp Forums are most likely lost forever, due to a 'Malware'(?) virus.

 

[nitro]

All the people who gave knowledge about the early Van halen sound(including myself,Mark and many others) were banned from that site.George(Metro amp site owner)should have got rid of the administrators that ran his site(they were ban happy).Myself,Mark and many others have talked about that.George would have had alot more backing.Oh well........

 

[Tone Slinger]

George Metropoulos will get through this. He is a good guy. Info's and opinions shared are one thing, but name calling is another. If someone dissagree's with someone all is fine, but when name calling and bad language results from disagreements that when the trouble(banning) starts.
Back to the topic though, I think that you have a few OBVIOUS mods that can get you in the general area (VH1 sound), although a totally dimed 100 or 50 watt Marshall that is ran off the wall,via a variac,at 90v into 25 watt celestions with a bit of a up front bump from an echoplex and a 6 band eq will do the trick.
'Mods' are another story all togather. The simple 'cascading' of a Super Leads first two gain stages works pretty good (2203/2204). Hit the front with a little boost (od or eq). An additional gain stage on top of that (making 4 stages) can also be nice,but at a certain point, that openess that Ed got will be lost.

Rockstah's 'Mod5' was a nice spec,basically a preamp attenuator (ppimv) along with the 1st 2 gain stages being cascaded (2203/2204 style). I put this spec in my Metro 12xxx and it was most definately bad assed. The Bray modded amps are another bad assed evh brown sounding amp. I've actually heard more Bray clips sounding good than Mod5.

 

[Hahahahahahaha]

Morning idlu

 

[matttornado]

After 10 years on the Metro forum following everything about his amps & set up, and trying stuff myself, I believe he simply cranked his stock amp with his flanger phase90, echoplex & eq.

I think the actual sound was typical for a Marshall coming out of the speakers on VH1 but Don L, the engineer made it sound the way it does. Yes the Echoplex adds a little something & the non true bypass pedals may have taken away a little something.

No secret really. Oh and a ballsy re-wound pickup pushed his amp a little. But other people did that too so that's no secret.

 

[matttornado]

oh and the variac! almost forgot

 

[Silverburst]

Mike Soldano claimed it was a stock plexi
Soldano - Hot Rod 25 With Mike Araiza & Mike Soldano - YouTube

 

[marshall1967]

Mike Soldano claimed it was a stock plexi
Soldano - Hot Rod 25 With Mike Araiza & Mike Soldano - YouTube

Yes, stock with the variac. I believe this is it.

 

[pittbull]

A stock plexi cranked-variac will not achieve VH1.Listen to the Van halen 1(first album songs) iso tracks(youtube),very bright,edgy,crunchy over the top.

 

[JAC]

Guitar World February 2014 issue might help you to understand. Eddie and Alex did not like what they did with (they had no control over) what they recorded on the first few albums. Plate reverb plays a factor as well.

 

[pittbull]

I use plate reverb in my signal chain,plate reverb is important for the VH1 sound.

 

[damienbeale]

A stock plexi cranked-variac will not achieve VH1.Listen to the Van halen 1(first album songs) iso tracks(youtube),very bright,edgy,crunchy over the top.

JBL120's and and EP3 WILL get it there though.

 

[marshall1967]

A stock plexi cranked-variac will not achieve VH1.Listen to the Van halen 1(first album songs) iso tracks(youtube),very bright,edgy,crunchy over the top.

I was going by what Michael Soldano said...I don't know, I have been on this since the early eighties, a few months ago i listened to the iso track of runnin with the devil on YT and thought it was less aggressive than i hear on the album, this morning I was listening to the CD in my truck and thought it was more midrangy and cruchy than usual ..lol..I have seen your posts on different forums Pittbull and I respect your opinion and your enthusiasm on this topic. It's a topic that will probably go on for some time. I still love the VH 1 tone it's a big reason why I started playing in the first place.

 

[pittbull]

Marshall1967,Thank you......

 

[JAC]

I saw VH once when they were touring their second album. They were great but, before that I felt their stuff was so so! You have to understand I grew up listening to Hendrix, Clapton, Farner, Geils, etc. Live VH is excellent. They did not have that much control over their recordings until Eddie built 5150 in his house. There is way too much myth about him and his gear out there.

 

[Tone Slinger]

Touche, concerning stock 12xxx variaced down with a few pedals up front. Its 2014 and there are just lots of clips from others doing what Ed claimed (stock, dimed,variaced plexi, etc) and are getting his '77 era club-tone. Then, there are those who take THAT tone, and give a bit of the studio treatment,faux Sun Set sound style, and its all there. Its more how the gear is SET UP, not mods.

But.....this topic is about mods. I think that most any 1959/1987, 2203/2204 has the foundation to get there, and the one mod, imo,that can make these amps 'give it up' is a well executed ppimv. That is the common ground that many of the 'Brown Sound' type mods use,be it Bray's Mod1 or Rockstah's Mod5, etc. Letting the full preamp voltage work, albeit 'attenuated' by the ppimv circuit.