The particularities about Eddie Van Halen plexi 12301

[pittbull]

Recording techniques does play apart no question each album sounded different.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

I'm of the opinion that part of the confusion around Eddie's amp is that Eddie had a lot of Marshalls and they were modded in different ways. We've heard that his no. 1 is stock, we've heard it had that weird Arredondo power soak mod, we've heard it had other mods....maybe they're all just different amps and people have been mistaken about which is which.

I think I'm going to go with that.

Allegedly this is his rig at one point, and it got bigger with more amps in the 80s. WHICH of these amps is THE ONE? Are you sure?

 

[vivanchenko]

I agree with whoever said that brown sound is more of a pickup and play style thing. I remember I once installed a hot DiMarzio Evo bridge pickup and with it brown sound was simply jumping off my amp. Pretty shure it's a pickups and play style thing.

Here, this amp is nothing like what has been discussed in this thread yet it does nail EVH. Researching particularities and peculiarities of circuits is not going to help much.

​

 

[Derrick111]

I agree with whoever said that brown sound is more of a pickup and playing style thing. I remember I once installed a hot DiMarzio Evo bridge pickup and with it brown sound was simply jumping off my amp. Pretty shure it's a pickups and playing style thing.

Here, this amp is nothing like what has been discussed in this thread yet, it nails EVH to a "T". Researching particularities and peculiarities of circuits is not going to help much.

​

I dunno man... the playing is good, but it sounds like someone trying to get brown sound from a modern amp. It's pretty constricted and doesn't have the articulation, and, well... the "brown" is lacking to me.

 

[vivanchenko]

I dunno man... the playing is good, but it sounds like someone trying to get brown sound from a modern amp. It's pretty constricted and doesn't have the articulation, and, well... the "brown" is lacking to me.

That's you, here are some comments other people left under that video:

"This is one of the best brown sound replications I've seen on youtube! Nobody will ever nail it perfectly, but this is surprisingly close. hot damn!"

"I cant believe it sounds so good with bass at 2, mid at 1, treb at 1? Wow. Awesome sound and playing. Thanks!"

"F'ing amazing!! great playing and Eds brown sound. Phenomenal!!"

 

[vivanchenko]

Also, what on earth do you mean by "constricted" sound? First time in decades I hear someone using this word to describe a sound. Do you have any examples of "constricted" vs "unconstricted" sound?

 

[Derrick111]

That's you, here are some comments other people left under that video:

"This is one of the best brown sound replications I've seen on youtube! Nobody will ever nail it perfectly, but this is surprisingly close. hot damn!"

"I cant believe it sounds so good with bass at 2, mid at 1, treb at 1? Wow. Awesome sound and playing. Thanks!"

"F'ing amazing!! great playing and Eds brown sound. Phenominal!!"

"Who Are You ????? Why arent you making your own records. Are you hidding and need some food. This is incredible and your Brother Dan sent it to me. In-Fuckin-Credible. ATOMIC PUNK Awsome !!! What next D.O.A."

"Please tell us how you get your tone?!"

Also, what on earth do you mean by "constricted" sound? First time in decades I hear someone using this word to describe a sound. Do you have any examples of "constricted" vs "unconstricted" sound?

You seem to be offended and defensive, so I assume this was your video. Sorry, I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings... just being honest. I thought the playing was pretty cool but the sound just wasn't hitting the mark for me. The lead tone comes off convincing enough, but the brown sound should really shine in the chords but I don't like the sound outside of the lead tone here. They're pretty modern and pedestrian to me where Eddie's was articulate with his "brown" characteristics. The constricted sound if not your gear may either be your phone recording, YouTube, or both. Others apparently like it, so who cares what I think about how well you nail someone else's sound.

 

[vivanchenko]

No, this is is not my video (I wish), just pointing out the fact that you subjective opinion is just that, your subjective opinion and that a lot of people think that the opposite is true.

Obviously, this is not a studio recording. The clip would sound 10x better if it was. It is a 14 year old video. Phone recording sucked back then. Regardless, the sound is phenomenal.

 

[vivanchenko]

For instance, when I am listening to this clip I hear that cords have just as little definition. I can live with that. Happens with overdriven amps. Not sure if cord definition is what made EVH famous. You can't beat cord definition of a clean amp.

 

[cccc]

I agree with whoever said that brown sound is more of a pickup and play style thing. I remember I once installed a hot DiMarzio Evo bridge pickup and with it brown sound was simply jumping off my amp. Pretty shure it's a pickups and play style thing.

Here, this amp is nothing like what has been discussed in this thread yet it does nail EVH. Researching particularities and peculiarities of circuits is not going to help much.

​

Wow , that is some truly outstanding playing . The majority of clips I hear are God awful but this is superb.

 

[racerxrated]

Well, I can say with confidence after hearing the isolated guitar track for On Fire, that I agree....it's simply a stock SL with a bit more gain than most; and if that 330uf cap was indeed the only thing that was factory installed 'different' than most 68s then that explains the extra gain; along with the use of the Variac.
That Iso track is also a good bit darker, with less 'hair' than what would end up on the album after the engineers were finished with it.
Stock 68 lead with a factory 330uf cap 'mistake', and the final production sounded brighter and 'hairier' than the raw iso tracks.
Solved!

 

[racerxrated]

I'm writting this thread because EVH is probably the ultimate reference tone for a plexi. After a plexi the best tone would be the tone of a peavey 5150 particulary the tone of Dann Huff :
the most underrated guitar player which was unfortunately born at the wrong time...

I just want to mention that Dann used his early-mid 70s Marshall 1987 for the first album. The 2nd album was 5150.

 

[Spanngitter]

For me there is also the question: Was it really only one amp?
Maybe on VH-1 up to Dover down it was, but later on, there is for sure multiple Amps tracked and from 5150 on it was definitely multi amp setup as you can see and hear here:

 

[Mile High Effects]

Man this is kind of a mess to try to find out what was originally there x).

Want VHI tones, use a Dimarzio Super Distortion, MXR Flanger, MXR Phase 90, EP-3 Echoplex before the amp into a quad of RFT’s and probably Brimar ECC83’s, a pair of JBL120F’s and a pair of Pre Rola G12M 75hz Greenbacks.

VHII you’ll need the 9K “78” Alnico II PAF. Sylvania 12AX7WA preamp tubes and Sylvania 6CA7 power amp tubes from here on out until the 80’s when he switched to Chinese square getter tubes. Mainly because the long plate tubes hum and become microphonic waaaay too often.

WACF pups aren’t that different from Fair Warning.

Fair Warning you’ll need the EVH Frankenstein humbucker.

And that’s the basis for the albums that I really care about the most.

Anyways, here are the specs for my replica:

Aged steel chassis (took me a while soaking with PCB etchant to remove gold zinc anodization)
Replica inspection sticker
Replica front and rear plexi plates with 12301 serial number and front polarity switch labeling
1968 Dagnall T2562 Power Transformer
Classic Tone C1998 clone (until I have someone rewind my 1968 Dagnall C1998)
Early 70’s C1999 choke (EVH Spec)
NOS Cinch preamp tube sockets
McMurdo power tube sockets
NOS 70’s Fuse holders
Modulus Turret Boards
Erie filter caps (reformed)
RIFA coupling caps on V1A and Bias circuit
Iskra resistors
5nf Lemco and Murata 100pf bright caps on switch
RadioSpares 500pf ceramic tubular mixer bypass cap (EVH spec)
Lemco 560pf mica tone stack cap (EVH spec)
RadioSpares 47pf gray ceramic tubular PI cap (EVH spec)
Vintage CTS pots incl. 50K mid pot (EVH spec)
Philips 680nf yellow box caps on V1B and V2A (EVH spec)
Philips Mustard coupling caps for all other positions
1.2K 5W Sand colored screen grid resistors
IR 10D8 bias diode (common bias diode of the era)
IR BY127 rectifier diodes (common rec diodes of the era)
Late 60’s vintage correct 6V indicator lamp
Vintage Black bat Standby switch (EVH spec)
LarMar PPIMV mounted in speaker jack hole
Proper non pre-tinned UK wire
Improved and safer AC wiring scheme
90-115VAC input

V1-V3 - 70’s Sylvania 12AX7WA long plate
Quad of Sylvania 6CA7’s

Besides the few EVH spec values, it’s a bone stock ‘68 Super Lead.

EVH spec breakdown:
Early 70’s C1999 choke with end bells
RadioSpares 500pf ceramic tubular mixer bypass cap
Lemco 560pf mica tone stack cap
RadioSpares 47pf gray ceramic tubular PI cap
Vintage CTS 50K mid pot
Philips 680nf yellow box caps on V1B and V2A

 

[svinyard]

What's this? Do you have a recording of it?

Want VHI tones, use a Dimarzio Super Distortion, MXR Flanger, MXR Phase 90, EP-3 Echoplex before the amp into a quad of RFT’s and probably Brimar ECC83’s, a pair of JBL120F’s and a pair of Pre Rola G12M 75hz Greenbacks.

VHII you’ll need the 9K “78” Alnico II PAF. Sylvania 12AX7WA preamp tubes and Sylvania 6CA7 power amp tubes from here on out until the 80’s when he switched to Chinese square getter tubes. Mainly because the long plate tubes hum and become microphonic waaaay too often.

WACF pups aren’t that different from Fair Warning.

Fair Warning you’ll need the EVH Frankenstein humbucker.

And that’s the basis for the albums that I really care about the most.

Anyways, here are the specs for my replica:

Aged steel chassis (took me a while soaking with PCB etchant to remove gold zinc anodization)
Replica inspection sticker
Replica front and rear plexi plates with 12301 serial number and front polarity switch labeling
1968 Dagnall T2562 Power Transformer
Classic Tone C1998 clone (until I have someone rewind my 1968 Dagnall C1998)
Early 70’s C1999 choke (EVH Spec)
NOS Cinch preamp tube sockets
McMurdo power tube sockets
NOS 70’s Fuse holders
Modulus Turret Boards
Erie filter caps (reformed)
RIFA coupling caps on V1A and Bias circuit
Iskra resistors
5nf Lemco and Murata 100pf bright caps on switch
RadioSpares 500pf ceramic tubular mixer bypass cap (EVH spec)
Lemco 560pf mica tone stack cap (EVH spec)
RadioSpares 47pf gray ceramic tubular PI cap (EVH spec)
Vintage CTS pots incl. 50K mid pot (EVH spec)
Philips 680nf yellow box caps on V1B and V2A (EVH spec)
Philips Mustard coupling caps for all other positions
1.2K 5W Sand colored screen grid resistors
IR 10D8 bias diode (common bias diode of the era)
IR BY127 rectifier diodes (common rec diodes of the era)
Late 60’s vintage correct 6V indicator lamp
Vintage Black bat Standby switch (EVH spec)
LarMar PPIMV mounted in speaker jack hole
Proper non pre-tinned UK wire
Improved and safer AC wiring scheme
90-115VAC input

V1-V3 - 70’s Sylvania 12AX7WA long plate
Quad of Sylvania 6CA7’s

Besides the few EVH spec values, it’s a bone stock ‘68 Super Lead.

EVH spec breakdown:
Early 70’s C1999 choke with end bells
RadioSpares 500pf ceramic tubular mixer bypass cap
Lemco 560pf mica tone stack cap
RadioSpares 47pf gray ceramic tubular PI cap
Vintage CTS 50K mid pot
Philips 680nf yellow box caps on V1B and V2A

 

[Mile High Effects]

On my Insta or FB under my forum name. I haven’t done a ton of recordings yet, as it’s rather crude with just an iPhone.

But I’m working on better recording in the near future.

 

[Mile High Effects]

lol I love that I got a laugh emoji on my SL replica post. Haters gonna hate. Taters gonna tate.

 

[pat_rocks]

lol I love that I got a laugh emoji on my SL replica post. Haters gonna hate. Taters gonna tate.

Don’t worry there are many haters on this forum. I’ll release a video soon explaining how to get the sound from vh1 the one which comes from the recordings after mixing and not the one which came out of the cab. I managed to get pretty close by discovering a component which Jose used in a specific way. I’m just waiting for a 33k resistor to come from the mail to see if I’m finally able to transpose this mod in high wattage amps.

My el84 plexi sounds exactly like if you isolate the guitar tracks of vh1 from the songs which means it sound like vh1 after it went threw the mic and mixed…

My sv20 sounds like shit compared to my el84 plexi. It sounds even better than my big amps…

The only issue with this amp it’s that it’s a one trick pony. It sucks for clean but everything with distortion sounds like your humbucker is melting and your speakers being abused.

The good thing it’s that it’s a bedroom volume tone. The only way to get it sounding louder is with a power amp like the fryette power station or by using slaving.

 

[PelliX]

lol I love that I got a laugh emoji on my SL replica post. Haters gonna hate. Taters gonna tate.

There are likely haters, too. I just nearly laugh my balls off at stuff like "Proper non pre-tinned UK wire". What, you don't tin it to solder it?

RIFA coupling caps on V1A and Bias circuit

They've been gone since the late 80's and a had a horrible name for becoming hygroscopic, hence the "RIFA madness" phenomenon associated with the magic smoke... regardless of the voltage one subjects them to, they're flaky by now and will not withstand a leakage test. You've got to consider that Eddie was using parts that were likely no older than a few years.

into a quad of RFT’s and probably Brimar ECC83’s

...and I will guarantee you you couldn't pick them out in a blind test. Of course, it's your rig, your choice.

I’ll release a video soon explaining how to get the sound from vh1 the one which comes from the recordings after mixing and not the one which came out of the cab. I managed to get pretty close by discovering a component which Jose used in a specific way.

What mics are you using? The studio Eddie used for VH1 didn't have iPhones, they were mainly on Nokia back then... Seriously, though - that would be a key component. If you've ever recorded anything seriously you will understand the huge tonal differences achieved by the mic(s) used and their placement. The last recording you offered was "a little lacking" to put it mildly.

 

[colchar]

Not this shit again.