Brown

[jim]

Can anyone tell me what is the "brown sound?"
I've heard about it in reference to vintage Marshall amps. Is there a musician or any tune that might
use the "brown sound' so that I might recognize it?
Can modern amps produce this tone?

[Bainzy]

It's the term used to describe the sound of Eddie Van Halen's guitar setup in the Van Halen albums made with David Lee Roth. Basically it consists of:

Home made 'frankenstrat' guitar
PAF pickup (just over 9k)
Marshall 12000 series SuperLead 'Plexi'
Variac to lower the amp's voltage to 90v from 120v

not all of the above were used at the same time to get that particular sound, but the 'brown sound' is associated with that equipment.

it's not a low gain sound but it's not your run of the mill high gain sound, it features rich poweramp distortion - hopefully someone else can explain it better

[willo]

I'd describe it as a really fat, wide, tone, if that makes sense. Smooth and creamy, but with bite if you dig in.

Get it with the VHII's eh, Bainzy?

[Bainzy]

aye ;D

[marstran]

If I was going to look at it from an electronic view I would say it's similar to the lights dimming in your house, brown out. This condition can be had when you shut the amp off and get that great crunch as the power drains away in the power supply. This may also expain the big interest in the 90V variac thing.

[crankitup]

brown for me is 1970's zz top. Which Eddie then took as a jumping off point and added his touch and brought it into the 80's. In the 90's, soundgarden had sort of a brownish tone, other than that, the brown tone disappeard as far as I can tell.

[nilo]

I'va just ordered a GuitarForce "Erupter" which is said to give that "Brown Sound". I'll update you on That!