THE BROWN SOUND | The Secret of the VAN HALEN Guitar Tone!

[@falappisgarage_yt]

The words of EVH: "I used to work at a music store delivering pianos and organs and one day a Marshall amp comes in and I’d only seen pictures of these, only Eric Clapton and God’s play these! I said I gotta have that amp, and so I worked all summer to buy that amp and we were already too loud as it was and now I had a 100-watt Marshall! It was so dam loud I did everything from facing it backwards to facing it down to the floor … I was just too damn loud! So I saw an ad in the paper for another Marshall amp and thought “maybe this one will be different”, well it certainly was cuz when it showed up I plugged it in and it didn’t work … but, I left it on and what I didn’t realize was this thing was from England and it was 220-volt, and I plugged it in and I didn’t look at the back and see it was set on 220; it took a long time for it to warm up at half voltage, and when I picked up my guitar I was like “it sounds incredible!” … but incredibly quiet. It dawned on me “I could control the volume of the amp with the voltage, so I proceeded to hook it onto the light dimmer of the house, and blew it out and so on. So finally I went to this place called Dial Radio and asked “do you have any kind of like an industrial variable voltage transformer that I can use like a light dimmer” and he said “yea I got this thing called a Variac”, I said “ok cool”, and I take it home and plug the amp into it and I’d lower the voltage from like 110 slowly down to 100 and ... the lowest I ever went was like 60. Depending on the room we were playing I’d set it anywhere between 60 and 100 because the only way the amp sounded good was with everything all the way up, so that became my volume knob. If we were playing little bars I’d set it to like 60 volts; somewhere a little bit bigger I’d crank it to 80 and for recording the sweet spot seemed to be 89-volts."

[@SharpZed]

Mickey Falappi thanks for spending the time to write this memory. I'm familiar with this story.

[@donvape336]

Wow, brilliant

[@matthewguarna2975]

Yes, the Smithsonian interview... Sorry to say Rick didn't get the video right... I'd really love to see it done on a 220V marshall

[@tyroneshuz]

@@matthewguarna2975 Sure he did. The British Marshall was unusable because 110V or so won't power a 220 British Marshall very well. The amp he used the Variac with was the USA 100W which Ed said was too loud.

[@benjaminchartier6458]

I had Heard EVH used to burn up Marshalls by ni-amping them also,that they would sound awesome up to the point where they would melt down. Don't know how true this was

[@Sodacake]

I'm living for all the videos people are making about Eddie at the moment. It's so great to see he had the same impact on other people as he had on me. He made us all brothers in that way.

[@herbcanter2114]

Eddie is by far the most influential guitarist of ALL TIME and that includes Hendrix. It has very little to do with his amazing tapping techniques either . Eddie was always on a completely different level than everybody else especially his mind boggling rhythm playing . Nobody to this day has come even remotely close to mastering rhythm like Eddie has, his flow and effortless control is truly insane.

[@hsfinlayson]

“That’s funny, because people took that whole ‘brown sound’ thing totally out of context,” he said. “I was never talking about my guitar tone. I was talking about Alex’s snare drum. I’ve always thought Alex’s snare drum sounds like he’s beating on a log. It’s very organic. So it wasn’t my brown sound. It was Alex’s.” Klosterman then asked how the confusion originally occurred. “It happened years ago. People would ask me about his drumming, and the only way I could explain it was that it had a very brown sound,” Van Halen noted. “I’m glad you brought this up, actually, so people can finally understand what I was talking about.”

[@hsfinlayson]

I'm not saying that the quote (from an interview) is ACCURATE... but it's something that I had heard about and there are confirmations of it - be it true or not.

[@mightyV444]

@@hsfinlayson - Yeah, I read a similar thing in an interview a while ago, but with Eddie saying in the end that he wanted to match Alex' sound with his guitar, that he too wanted a 'brown sound'.

[@hsfinlayson]

@@mightyV444 Aaahhh... so then the moniker would still "fit" the legend if he said that *HE* was trying to achieve a similar "Brown Sound"... so both are true... it WAS about Alex's drum sound... AND about Eddie's (never-ending) tone-quest. Thanks.

[@mightyV444]

@@hsfinlayson - I was confused when Rick was referring to Alex' snare sound as the 'brown sound', in the sound-matching video he'd made a while ago, as I'd always only known Eddie's sound termed that way; That's when I did some online research and came across the interview I mentioned before :-)

[@skidrowe68]

Yup!

[@diamondstud322]

I definitely heard the difference in “runnin with the devil” when it hit 89. I have no idea why I enjoy these tech videos...I don’t play, so most of it goes over my head, but somehow I like it anyway 🤔

[@michaelb.42112]

To ME, the secret to Eddie's tone was lack of money ! So he had to invent ways of doing things from the variac to the Frankenstrat. He was very curious and his insticts were always right. Sometimes NOT having money is the mother of invention.

[@markdavidofficial4274]

lack of money?

[@mjb1475]

Do think the cost of the variac some how made that very expensive Marshall stack cheaper?

[@mayonnaisical]

Limitations breed creativity

[@tomliemohn624]

The secret to Eddie's tone, was Eddie! :) I also bet he made a fair amount of mistakes in trying new stuff. But he was smart enough to know when he probably had something useful.

[@turtlesauce6860]

Absolutely! It forces you to get in the habit of creative problem solving. You can see possibilities everywhere.

[@RC32Smiths01]

EVH is a legend that changed guitar for the better. One of the all time greats!

[@nellawell4976]

Guitar,amps,effects,strings and everything else in the chain.

[@dougelick8397]

Generally, under-driving the tubes causes them to break up /distort earlier. On amps with tube rectifiers, they're going to sag more at lower input voltages than SS rectifiers as well. That's the loss of attack. If you under-drive the tubes too much, too long, it can cause cathode stripping; the effect literally rips electrons right out of the emission enhancing coating instead of the electron cloud created at rated voltage. Some tubes suffer the effect worse than others, depending on the cathode surface. Pure tungsten (brilliant white) generally don't suffer it.Thoriated tungsten (bright yellow) are somewhat susceptible. Oxide-coated (orange/red, say 6L6, EL34s ), quite susceptible to cathode stripping. Just don't run your tube amp at around 50-ish% design voltage for long periods of time. FWIW, I have an 1st generation Music Man HD130 head with Hi/Lo setting that changes the transformer tap for just this effect - it runs the amp at lhalf voltage for better distortion w/o ear bleeding volume. On this version, "Lo" drops the plate & filament voltage - long term use of the low setting can cause problems. Later versions were designed so the low setting only reduced the plate (B+), but left the filaments at 6.3v precisely to avoid premature tube failure.

[@bobd6711]

☝️nerd in tha House. Thanks for that, even though I only understood about 10% of it.

[@thefog7067]

I was with you all the way up to "cause"

[@johnnybrown9581]

Does anything else suffer besides the tubes? I have been running my amp like this for a year and I haven’t seen any ill effects. I’m sure the type of amp/circuit matters a lot too :)

[@glennpace9783]

So is there a tungsten-cycle that needs to be considered? i.e. If one is operating at a reduced voltage for extended periods, should the amp be periodically operated at the full rated voltage in order to keep the tungsten life expectancy up?

[@CatarineausArmory]

I like turtles.

[@robt5108]

Reminds me when Steve Vai said that he met with Eddie at his house and gave him his Ibanez to try it. Eddie started to play and it sounded like Eddie not Steve Vai.

[@MrDuds1984]

All in the fingers

[@petegaslondon]

Now THAT I can believe !!! Lemmy would still sound pretty much Lemmy with a Fender Bass and a 'normal' bass amp Hendrix like Hendrix etc.. It's fun to try these tone hacks - but its pretty subtle compared to what YOU wanna say with YOUR instrument!

[@Totone56]

Reminds me of this video where you can see Satriani playing Surfing with the Alien on a cheap strat and a practice amp. Still sounds like Satriani.

[@TheHighwinder]

The RG was the guitar EVH was trying to create in the first place. Only the RG had 3 functioning pickups and a WAY better neck on it. Nothing touches a nice RG.

[@iplaypearldrums7935]

I'm still me on any kit.🤔🤔

[@voodoochild1975az]

"The first thing we are going to do is try to recreate the Brown Sound..." said every guitarist since 1978

[@tennesseewallick3093]

Me in my basement without a brutish amp

[@StevenEveral]

I said the same thing back in 1999. I'm still trying to do it. 😎

[@Head318Hunter]

7:10 Hendrix "Angel" in case anyone's wondering. Doubt many are as we're likely all deep lovers of great guitar music.

[@alexduncan9941]

This is exactly why I came to the comments. Cheers!

[@maus_drummer]

I was wondering what song was.. thanks man!!!!

[@stickman33]

That was my favorite part of this video! Hendrix really shone on those softer melodic compositions.

[@Head318Hunter]

I looked and absolutely couldn't find the original on YT (or even Google). Just a lot of low skill covers posing as Hendrix. Sad. I'd highly recommend South Saturn Delta, Electric Ladyland, Axis Bold as Love and Band of Gypsies (live album) to any young people who aren't yet "Experienced"

[@Erkbrothers80]

That’s what I thought it was. Thank you for confirming my suspicions. No mistaking Jimi.

[@Murphy_R9]

Ed was referring to AL's snare drum tone when he first spoke of this "Brown sound" He described it as a warm, woody tone like a really old big red wood tree type of thing. For me the "Brown sound" is when i hear anything on VH II guitar tone wise. That record is pure Brown sound!

[@autodidacticprofessor869]

It's the only album where he played his Marshall into the cabinet with no doohickies attached to it. Other than that album, he used a special "load box" to bring the speaker output down to line level and he cascaded it into another Marshall, then to the cab. This was especially evident on Fair Warning. No way can you get a late 60's plexi to grind like that with a variac alone.

[@73challenger5031]

Because Alex's snare tone is indistinguishably, Alex!

[@darsure3006]

Man this channel is just amazing. I started off on the wrong video, and honestly would love to spend 30 minutes with Rick and just talk about drum n' bass sound design and engineering, but with every single video I realize this guy is a window to real music business, but without the money. God's work.

[@petegaslondon]

Yeah! My backgrounds kinda indusltrial noise punk - so though i design some quite funky electronics I sure dont have melody dripping thru my veins - and it's not so much this dude knows about engineering (which he surely does) but this guy knows about SONGS !

[@Retrospective.]

As a guitar player for some 35 years .... i can't hear the difference with any of this. The Marshall sounded like a Marshall, and the Fender like a fender, i could hear absolutely no difference in sound, at all. but that's just me :)

[@brianhubermusic]

The 89 seems less " in your face" i think...

[@KyleP133]

I assume this might be something you'd hear better in person. Really nice speakers probably help too. I agree with you, but at the end of the day even the most obvious differences to guitarists are not going to be noticeable to regular people.

[@chopperking007]

Use ear phones.

[@PostalDude667]

89v sounds quite a bit more saturated and compressed to my ears. Like the headroom on the power section was reduced. It's nice though because it doesn't really change the character of the amp, like a very clean boost in to the power section. Definitely noticeable with headphones in the back to back test.

[@eelcosterringa1374]

As An electrical engineer having designed many amplifiers i could hear many things go "wrong" e.g. not as designed with the internal power of the amps and the amplifier reacting to that. For a hifi amplifier you do nog want that but here it becomes a sound. Nevertheless the ampliers are siill nest their normale operatitng range so it's true their fundamtal sound remains

[@JB-bi4lf]

My favorite VH album is Women and Children First. The energy is incredible

[@coolmacatrain9434]

First VH album I bought when I moved to London from Ireland back in 1983 The shopping centre where I bought it (The Elephant & Castle) closed for the last time a few days before Eddie died ...so I'm having a bit of an existential crisis at the moment

[@d-d-i]

I have that vinyl still somewhere at my parent's house. Killer album.

[@mightyV444]

I've known VH for 40 years and prefer the original line-up with DLR - but I still haven't heard 'Women...' and also 'VH II' in their entirety! :-O

[@geoffcowan2384]

@@mightyV444 ok, stop what you are doing and go listen to WACF right now. Seriously, that is THE album in my opinion.

[@JakeTerch]

@The Bored AF Guitarist I’d say Fair Warning is heavier.

[@bazzboy6739]

Just between us geeks, in 1982 my best friend a guitar player and holder of a 1st class radio-telephone engineer license made a voltage regulator that he placed between a tube preamp that he also constructed and a Fender Twin. I had the Telecaster and he was experimenting. The amp was head/cab . We were trying to find the Tom Sholz tone and smoked the 2 JBL speakers. Thank you for the memory. You both rock!🎸🔥

[@fl_7997]

To get it even closer; Ed's Plexiglas was a transitional 12xxx series with lower value filtering caps of the earlier Marshall super leads. . Replace the 32x32's with 16x16's UF caps and the amp gets even sweeter and more loose at 90 volts. You guys nailed it, the EVH sound revolves around the sag and spongy character that responds to the player the harder you dig into it. The amp is its own instrument. Awesome stuff!

[@BPToneReview]

All the EVH purist will come out of the wood works and I'm one of them ;) So you almost had it right. 89 on the variac but its well documented that Ed used the bright input only, not jumped and every knob was on 10. Then from the board, he adjusted the channels 3 band EQ for each mic with a slight dip in the mids. Also his Echoplex that was in front of his amp gave him a slight boost to the front end. Dunlop EP101 Echoplex preamp simulates this.

[@johntougas4494]

Another recording trick he used was to triplicate his tracks - one was used to cut everything but bass, another everything but mids, and the last everything but highs. Sub them together, and adjust accordingly. I've tried it, and the harmonics really jump out, especially on muted chords.

[@mikew9788]

You are spot on, I would have like to see it done this way and rick definitly has the studio to be able to do it, just do it damit

[@TomBelknapRoc]

Guitarists messing with electricity. What could go wrong?

[@eyedunno8462]

Turning a simple rheostat with resistive load is hardly "messing with electricity"

[@TheJTish]

@@eyedunno8462 no, but messing with old transformers (that are really hard to find) is.. LOL.

[@jeff4310]

Throw a little alcohol into the mix too while you're at it. LOL

[@TomBelknapRoc]

@OverLord Opps Drummer, actually.

[@AdamGotheridge]

I don't see the fire extinguisher in the picture! I think Dave Friedman said the amp re-biased to run properly under the lower voltage. There's part 2, where the amp tech comes in and does that, and you can leave Rhett at home because you captured the DI to reamp it, right? ;) Great job on the overall tone in general.

[@tubebobwil]

The last few notes of the 89 volt setting gave me chills it was so close to the album tone to my ear.

[@Walkerbjj]

I’ve been playing since ‘88 and I couldn’t hear any difference when I closed my eyes. It’s so minimal. Not to mention, wouldn’t you want to rebias the tubes for the lower variac setting? Love your channel Rick

[@huh1952]

@@dreyn7780 who asked

[@DavidDiMuzio]

Now I need a Variac sim for my Amp sim 🤘😜

[@loetbraamkolk6483]

Axe FX has it!

[@RichardKurbis]

I have a Variac (I think I have the same one as you Rick)... I use it on my Bugera BC-30 (Matchless clone)... you get some swankin tone.

[@sneifert1968]

Most do. It’s the “sag” control on the amps settings.

[@zarbog8618]

Thank you Rick and Rhett! Highly enlightening to hear it this way.

[@TheNocturnalEvil]

Overloud TH-U has it.

[@jameso87]

The thing you missed about using the variac with the plexi, per Dave Friedman - the voltage is lowered, but EVH had his tubes biased so hot they would have popped at 120v in an instant. I feel like this is probably the most important thing in making that amp sound so on fire all the time

[@andywild9183]

Hi Rick, an interview Dave Friedman would fill out the story, he serviced Eddies amp and has some inter-mate knowledge of what Eddie was doing.

[@andywild9183]

.....a spilling mistook

[@andywild9183]

....or a tipping errop

[@mrnelsonius5631]

Charlie Bryant I recorded a record at Sound City studios, and the engineer had taken a Pro Junior and put a bass speaker in it. It was the best sounding rock bass tone I’ve ever gotten. He wouldn’t tell me what else he had done to it, but I suspect he had swapped and rebiased the tubes. Point being; you can do some great stuff with those little fenders :)

[@MichaelJWane]

Absolutely true. Lower primary voltage = lower plate voltage = power supply sag. But the power tubes have to be rebiased hotter to get “the sound”. Now whether or not you want to over bias them is up to you, Eddie would buy Sylvania 6CA7s by the case!

[@robforrest2069]

I shut my eyes and listened to them back to back, for the life of me I can't tell a single difference. Oh well.

[@JohnFoxBass]

Correct!

[@milesaway3699]

Pour yourself an adult beverage. Look up Eddie VanHalen isolated guitar tracks. Turn off the lights, turn up the volume and....your welcome!

[@robforrest2069]

@@milesaway3699 Way ahead of you brother...I've probably listened to all of them a dozen times...so awesome!

[@c00lkatz]

Yup, same here. More “audiophile mumbo jumbo.” The audio world seems to be the most absolutely riddled with placebo.

[@MeatPopsicle_]

You know KZbin compresses everything. Probably sounds different in the room

[@JoeCoutureMusicCouture]

I am commenting on the comments that some folks "could not hear a difference" and would like to use that as an opportunity to mention that I probably would not be able to hear the difference were it not for getting into home recording in 1995 (Cakewalk). Recording myself and others has been hands down the best method of "ear tuning" I have ever done. You always hear that musicians make the worst sound guys, so I hope I can be more helpful to the sound guys when I play live because of doing this. Rick, love your channel! I hit the like button & save every video to my "Rick Beato" folder. You remind me of some of the best teachers I've ever had & some of the best players I've ever played with. I'm 65 4/25/24 and have a You Tube channel (with some music friends around the country, & one in St. Petersburg, Russia) & just love the whole You Tube experience.

[@seanolson8246]

In the words of the imortal Jessie Pinkman, "Science, Yo -- Awesome!"

[@Martwypłód2k12]

*B I T C H*

[@codechasr1]

@@Martwypłód2k12 u beat me to it!!

[@Martwypłód2k12]

@@codechasr1 lol, Jesse is so iconic

[@JoeR203]

If memory serves me correctly, they were in Jesse's kitchen and Walt was making Ricin, and Jesse proclaimed "Yeah Mr. White!......Yeah science!". (But I liked the magnets best. lol)

[@josephballerini3730]

Wire!

[@kessbar5247]

Me: same thing every time, right? Them: definitely more saggy, sweeter, tighter, compressed... Me: erm... sure, sure!

[@ziggybaker3446]

yeah, it all sounds the same to me LOL!

[@jlopez47]

I tried with my studio headphones, and I still can't tell a difference.

[@bfr123456]

I could only hear the difference between 120 and 88, slightly less attack and more “swirly” in the remainder of the chord. I once heard that Ed said the “Brown” part of the sound was how he got the guitar to sound like the “word” brown, with a growl as the note faded. Ive looked all over for that clip, wish I could find it.

[@kennhern]

I could hear differences albeit, slight. I didn't listen to the core guitar sound, I sought to find if clarity, decay, texture, volume, feel etc would be affected. 120V Marshall sounds more wild and loud compared to 89V Marshall, which is more clearer and decays faster, for example

[@JaredGrissett]

Confirmation bias.. i guess you might hear a difference in studio, but through this video, nothing.

[@kylevandeusen]

*literally can't hear a difference*. *watches anyway*

[@bb_lz9790]

I think KZbin compresses the he** out of everything so we might not be able to hear any difference out in the real (real?) world.

[@seabulls69]

Yeah, my electronics teacher in college, back in 1971, liked to use the word "negligible" a lot. That's the first word that came into my mind while watching this video. I can imagine a smaller envelope if we were able to see the waveform on a good oscilloscope, but otherwise, a negligible difference as a result of voltage changes. I will say this, I'm pretty impressed with Rick's equipment

[@jbred6049]

I could hear a difference, but I wouldn't call it night and day. Particularly if it was live sound you were working with. The audience wouldn't notice.

[@davidlittlewood2763]

Couldn't hear any difference but then I was listening with my crapped laptop speakers. Might hook it up to my floor standing HiFi speakers and Denon amp....

[@MaTtRoSiTy]

Lmao now I don't feel bad as I sat here thinking exactly that. Guess that is why I am not a professional sound engineer

[@MarleyWigston]

One thing that should be mentioned Rick is that EVH, while he would variac his voltage to 89 he would also have his tubes rebiased back to where they should be. When I'm playing live I also tend to rebias my tubes based on wall voltage to get optimal sound. Mind you I am using Two-Rock amps which make biasing quite simple along with a blackface super that i had bias test points added so that can be biased on the fly as well.

[@matthewf1979]

Your best bet is to measure the heater voltage. Most amps I’ve messed with sound better when it’s right at 6.3v. You’re gonna get the most tube life too. I built a high power buck converter out of a 12A filament transformer to run my Tweed/Brown/Black amps on. It’s a bit safer than a VariAC because it’s got two safe settings, not a wide range of severe under and over voltage.

[@greenchilaquiles]

That Hendrix "Angel" riff was soooo good

[@RhettShull]

Thanks! One of my favorite Hendrix songs.

[@roderickwhitehead]

@@RhettShull - I just answered my own question... I instantly recognized that sound and was hearing Angel, but not as I remember it... but I can't remember much anymore. I would love to hear you play more of that, Rhett. It truly is such a sweet, sweet ballad.

[@TranscendentBen]

@@roderickwhitehead I've seen him play it in at least one of his videos when checking out guitars at Righteous and such.

[@ISAZEKE]

Killed it

[@jacob.brandw]

Thank you for just being someone else who knew, I’ve always loved the song and feel it’s undervalued. I’ve never heard anyone use it as a tone/voltage test😂

[@santellavision]

I've read that you should re-bias after lowering the voltage. That might also effect the tone if the tubes are running at the correct bias at each voltage.

[@ariarc]

I am not a musician, but I can't stop looking at your videos and watching your explanations and techniques. You are a master at your craft and make music even more enjoyable, showing all the technique and hard work that goes into it. I love your channel and videos.

[@MrGTO-ze7vb]

Using a variac is very important in so many electronic applications. Always check the output of the variac with a Fluke DVM. Just because the variac dial says 115 VAC doesn't guarantee that is the VAC output. I always check output VAC at all the companies I have worked at. When you need to calibrate sensitive electronic devices, having the correct voltages are crucial. I have seen 95 VAC up to 128 VAC all over the USA. In Florida the VAC power is always going up and down do to lightning storms knocking out transformers and power lines. Also check the Hertz.. Should be running at 60 Hz.. I have seen 48 Hz to 64 Hz...!!! YIKES

[@masongregory278]

Absolute truth.

[@dustinevans2895]

Thanks Nerd : )

[@notacommie5415]

What’s the best thing to keep all that cleaned? Asking for a friend that has fried more than his share of gear...ahem

[@MrGTO-ze7vb]

@@notacommie5415 monitor the VAC with a system with alarms, use an AC Power Conditioner, Surge protection also

[@stevedimebag]

If the frequency varies that much, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the power distribution system in your area. I’m in the uk and voltage can vary +10%/-6% Frequency should only vary 1hz either side of 50Hz over here. If frequency drops then BAD things happen!!

[@rockysouthflorida1707]

Fricking Cool KZbins experment with EVH Brown Sound Theory! All you boys were missing were a white lab coat, cig in guitar and some pounder beers laying all over studio! Nice JOB! SO COOL THAT LES AND EDDIE WERE SOUND/GUITAR MAD SCIENTESTS BEYOND THE TIMES! RIP BOYS!!!!

[@simonbergvall7151]

I’ve heard that the term ”Brown sound” originally was used to describe Alex’s snare sound!

[@Jeff-li5ri]

People that worked at the clubs he played at complained about his volume being too loud. So the variac was used to lower the volume to please his clients. A lot of comments correctly mentioned that the bias setting is much different than normal voltage. This must be done. Another big part of his brown sound is his unmodded 1967 Marshall plexi. I've owned many Marshalls and that particular year 100 watt plexi is often outstanding in brown warm tone. The tubes make a difference too of course. The pickup output strength. Pickup height setup. Speakers. So many variables. Eddie was a tone chaser who always amazed me with his playing skills and great sing writing. Rhett was right about feeling a little sag in the attack at 89 volts. Volume wise, I don't hear a huge difference which does surprise me since that was the intention

[@bcbtd123]

This is cool! I happen to own a Marshall plexi head that was formally owned by Eddie and it sounds so good you can get that exact tone!

[@shredgd5]

Now we know exactly that the Variac accounted for just 1% of EVH's tone

[@bluematrix5001]

hahahahaha and even that!

[@theobaldINsorrow]

ROFL

[@ElOtroJuanjo]

0% actually

[@chadrew6]

I hear WAY more than 1% difference; it sounds much better with the voltage dialed down! Perhaps try earwax remover? LOL!

[@222tweed]

It was Eddie...the sound came from him ...always

[@benketteridge9150]

Surely any electrical device has conditioning circuitry to cope with the fact that the wall voltage varies across the country? I couldn't hear an ounce of difference between Rhett's versions of the riffs with the variac. I suspect this needs blind testing - your expectations that the variac will make a certain difference is affecting how you perceive the sound. Someone else needs to control the variac, so you cannot see it.

[@leftaroundabout]

Most _modern_ electrical devices do have conditioning circuitry (switching power supplies), but guitar technology remains mostly stuck in the 50s-60s. Actually, parts of the signal chain were already technically dated back then!

[@zachary963]

I heard the compression they were talking about on the marshal.

[@bikershark9]

I agree, you've got to test these blind to get a real good test bc I can't hear anything.

[@jamesthe-doctor8981]

Virtually every electronic device has a power supply that provides the correct, conditioned, DC voltages it requires to operate, but very few have one with a way for the user to vary the input voltage like this. A device’s internal power supply is made to step the wall voltage up or down a few volts to correct for the variations you’re talking about, and their outputs to the circuitry are always (hopefully) the same level.

[@KleyDeJong]

A tube amp power transformer will actually multiply the input voltage from the wall by its winding ratio. So if you go from 115vac to 120vac from the wall, the amp will see 5 * its winding ratio. It would have a big impact on how the tubes are biased and distort.

[@chokkan7]

Rick, I've seen a few of your vids now, and I just wanted to say that I think it's very magnanimous of someone with your resources to take the time and effort to exposit upon subjects musical for the benefit of so many others as you have...thank you very much.

[@johnspina318]

Dave Friedman stated that when the wall voltage was lowered,the bias current to the output tubes was increased on Eddie's Marshall...As you turn down the wall voltage via the variac it can also thin out the overall tone.

[@motrock2]

Rick; I have done the Van Halen Variac trick with my plexi for years. 2 things.... you gotta have it all on 10.. except Volume 2. The presence has to be on 10. Its almost like another gain control. The other thing; if you are lowering the voltage to 89-90volts, you have to rebias the tubes to compensate. Dave Friedman has been on that kick for years now. You guys were close. But man... all on 10! Rebias!

[@RickBeato]

When I turn it up all the way, it turned to mud. I turned it to where it sounded like Running with the Devil. If you put them side by side, it’s almost a perfect match. I was a/b’ing it while we were doing it. The thing you have to take into account that is as important is mic selection, room, mic pre. cabinet, speakers, guitar, player etc. There are no hard and fast rules except using your ears. I’ll get Dave Friedman back on my channel to talk about it again. If any of you haven’t seen it, I interviewed Dave, Mike Soldano, Joe Morgan and Peter from Tone King all in the same video. It’s really interesting

[@motrock2]

@@RickBeato Rick; I would be very interested in seeing that video. And I would also be interested in hearing another interview with Dave. That would be very interesting. Thanks for the reply!

[@dekofschipper8412]

Aren't all controls on these tube amps passive, meaning that the pure amp sound is everything on 10, both volume, presence and eq ? Of course, the neighbours won't be happy and probably will gladly give you a variac as christmas present (and a power soak).

[@slipspectrum9253]

Eddie went on to say “the brown sound” was not even his thing, his tone was his tone but that the “brown sound” was actually a drum sound that Alex was after...

[@blazezoolander7473]

I remember a Guitar Player story about Eddie from around 1981 and Eddie said he was after the Brown sound and he used a Variac to turn it up all the way and he would watch the tubes melt. He may have been doing some misinformation there. I wonder how many guitar players blew up there amps trying to get that Brown sound.

[@Jay-hq4lo]

Apparently you, me and HR Puff n Stuff are the only people in the world who knew this.

[@timbuckxxi9690]

Eddie said " Brown sound ? I wasn't going for that..

[@markconlinrmt]

alex' snare was like hitting a log - hence the brown sound. it was not eddies tone at all

[@martinfitzsimons9539]

That Park Amp & Head sounds killer!!! It's amazing how a change in voltage changes the sound. Keep up the great videos.

[@MrGTO-ze7vb]

Eddie developed the 5150 Amp at Peavey Electronics. He was very particular with running certain voltages from the transformer to the tube circuits and tone stacks. Eddie also wanted the combo amps and speaker cabinets to be made of hard pine wood and not particle board. Hartley Peavey told me he sent cases of tubes to Van Halen every couple of months because the VH amp techs changed tubes at every gig.... he sponsored the band for 10 years..!!

[@georgebarry8640]

And acc to a source that was there EV was VERY guarded with his Marshall..he wouldn't let just anyone near it.

[@mikew9788]

The cabinets are birch not pine. Listen to tone talk with James brown.

[@MrGTO-ze7vb]

@@mikew9788 Cool.. got a link to this ?

[@mikew9788]

I hope the link works, this is the full episode with is worth every second. There is also a shortened version.

[@mikew9788]

@@MrGTO-ze7vb he tells a ton of stories about eddie. He even played eds original plexi which he says was all original. He goes into details of how they achieved the first album tone.

[@derrylgabel]

I read in an interview with Ed that David Lee Roth told Ed to tell folks that he was turning up ( increasing the voltage ) of the Variac instead of what he was really doing which was turning it down. This was to throw people of his trail. However, in hindsight he was giving you a hint by calling it his "brown sound". Like a "brown out" when the voltage drops.

[@Shredwizard445]

Lol ill never get over the trademark Rick Beato casual name drops of musical giants Also the Fender clean with the Variac was immaculate

[@inbloom08]

Super classy on both points so true. 👌👌

[@admtech69]

Excellent video! Bedroom guitarist here, so the alchemical science of amp modding continues, always searching for that elusive tone is like turning lead into gold when you find the sweet spot.

[@markwaynelangford]

I have always heard that Eddie primarily used the lower voltage just to reduce the volume slightly. Honestly, I preferred the original tone. The Plexi seemed to lose bite as the lower plate voltage reduced the headroom. FWIW - My Mesa Boogie has a "Tweed Power" switch which drops the plate voltage by reducing the incoming current to 90 volts.

[@jeffbeckfreak54]

I have a Mesa Boogie Mark IV and run it at tweed power, around 30 watts. I have track effects through the loop and the input and output volumes are set over halfway. That gain structure works great, but it is a bit loud. I get yelled at all the time. After 49 years of playing, I'm used to it.

[@geraldhartley]

Who else has been waiting FOREVER for Rick to do this video!! 👇

[@hartleyroadmusic]

Me 🤘😎

[@franciscorodeghiero3679]

Me!!!!!😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@geraldhartley]

ThatsRaidillonActually You’ve been waiting a whole 12 minutes? Wow that’s a very long time. Impressive. 👏

[@CaliberFiftyVideos]

The problem with this test is: It's void because you changed more than one variable at a time. Yes, there will be a difference in an audio circuit if you run it way below the operating voltage that the circuit designer made it for. But all of those devices are manufactured and with manufacturing comes tolerance. Power inside homes is not the fixed value of 115 or 230 that the public is familiar with. It depends on the wiring inside the house, the area wiring, and sometimes even the power company itself. Those old amps are all designed for either 115V or 230v, the markings just represent the average home voltage in the area in which they were produced. Increasing or decrasing by less than 10% of the designed operating voltage will NOT affect the tone whatsover. That is definitive, because if amps where designed for exactly 110V only, and expect only a variation of 1 or 2V, then every amp would sound totally different when plugging it in in different rooms, or even different circuits in bigger venues. You would go broke as a manufacturer because your device would be totally unstable. For a deliberately "mis-dialed" voltage to affect a device you definitely need to exceed the 10% margin, because otherwise it would be still normal "operating conditions". You should have recorded one, single take of that Van Halen riff, and then send that same audio through the amps at 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, and 120V. Instead you had him play each setting again, which is naturally a different sound and you made only 2 distinct changes to the voltage. The very first recording had a very dominant scratching noise from the way he played it, which got less and less with each new performance. The Marshall 110 and 100 V are literally the same tone, there is no objective difference to be heard, especially since they are all different performances. Then you took it way out of being a reliable test by changing guitars. If you kept the same, single performance through all the amps and settings, there might have been something worth noting. I get that this was a test specific only to the "Van Halen 89V tone", but you missed a great opportunity for a real educational demonstration from which many of your fans could have learned a lot. ;) You could have expanded from the 89V idea and do the above mentioned steps with one audio sample.

[@axe2grind911a]

Good points. But the most important point is that the Brown sound was not something that was supposed to make a different tone at different voltages using the same amp levels. It was specifically to be able to get "dimed" amp sounds at lower volumes. So the test should be: no variac at amp on 4 or 5 vs. variac at 89v with amp dimed. This would emulate the purpose for which EVH used the variac. Also, there is no evidence I can find that indicates Eddie used the variac in recordings. This would be unnecessary since in a studio he would have the amp naturally dimed and cab mic'd in a sound booth. This whole experiment just made no sense IMO.

[@JohnDavidBalla1927]

Or as we say in behavioral science, bad control. A better test would be to only change the voltage of the Variac (one variable) for each test. Don't change guitars or amps. And I'm not sure why the preamps were necessary.

[@whatwhy2884]

I’m not gonna read this but I assume you know what your talking about

[@billyarsenault1970]

If you cannot be bothered to read it and maybe learn something- Then why bother to comment. Strange people.

[@onolicious9147]

This is genuinely one of the best videos you’ve ever done. This sharing of insight and experience on how to obtain “tones” is really useful. I hope you do many more.

[@dimitrisloufakis916]

Personally, I couldn't really hear the difference. I think it's one of those things people swear by but at the end they barely contribute to the sound at all. The thing with EVH's sound is that he sounds like himself even if he played through a belt-clip-style amp. On the other hand, you could give me his exact rig and I would still sound nothing like him.

[@chitlitlah]

I agree. I only heard a volume difference. Maybe it's more noticeable in person, but I suspect they're just hearing what they want to hear. It would be more believable with a blind test.

[@anthonyparker8519]

The difference is rick really didn't show it eddie could turn his guitar volume knob down and still have that full on balls tone and a little extra if he cranked the volume knob up I definitely herd a difference when he turned it down the sound was darker and saggy

[@andrewsmith7543]

Same here. Forget the 10v increments, even ABing the 120 vs 89 sounded basically the same to me. At the very least, it didn't say to me "Here's why Eddie's sound was so good". I think like others are saying the variac was just part of his larger recipe of overdriving the amp without blowing it up.

[@Jeff-Vader_head_of_catering]

If you're listening on your phone, you won't hear a difference. Your phone speaker is not capable of reproducing what they're doing.

[@darkjurai2]

I feel like it's one of those things where if you're sitting there and listening to it, it won't sound that different. BUT, if you've got the guitar in your hand, that pick-guitar-amp-ear chain becomes a LOT more sensitive, and suddenly it'd be a day and night thing. For you. Then, since that chain feels different, you play different.

[@evhfan5150]

I still think 95% of Eddie's sound was in his hands.. Steve Vai said when Ed played through his gear it sounded like Eddie..Ted Nugent played through Ed's gear one time and he said it just sounded like him playing someone else's rig. He was surprised he thought Ed's sound came from his gear.

[@gregoryjunker3914]

This. A thousand times this.

[@boneworx]

Holds true for almost all instruments and studio gear. A great player sound great no matter what they're playing, and a great performance sounds great no matter what gear it's passing through, providing the gear isn't total crap. And of course the opposite is also true. Some people put so much money and effort into trying to bottle the lightning of their heroes via hardware, but the primary ingredient will always be missing: their hero.

[@maxpower9499]

Yup, i agree. The guys that do the best with the tone chasing have the fingers for it. I went down the VH gear rabbit hole and had fun doing it, but it sure never made me sound like VH.

[@chuckharrel8272]

John Mayer opened Crossroads DVD 2004 stating of all the player one the tour know that a guitar is a 6 string instrument and it all in how you touch it!

[@paulgeary531]

There is another video of Ed playing backstage on a cheap single coil strat, a kids guitar. Still sounds like Eddie, so it is eddie and not the equipment, for the most part, obviously.

[@whyyeseyec]

Eddie's mom: Edward, why do you have to make that 'high crying noise'? Eddie: Because it bought you a house, Mom!

[@CP-kb1du]

Eddie I like that high stuff you do , Beat it Michael Jackson biggest hit .. Legend

[@Brian-bs8np]

I adjusted the voltage on my hearing aid and damn, you're right. Big difference. Brilliant work fellas. Simply fun to watch y'all nerd out.

[@teacoop1]

The brown sound pertains to Alex Van Halens drums witch sounded warm. That's what Eddie said in an interview. Eddie said he thought his guitar tone was rather bright.

[@pcollenyt3683]

Given that he used a metal pick, maybe that is how he restored some brightness and pick attack that was lost with the amp input voltage reduced. Billy Gibbons and Brian May also claimed to have used metal picks...made from coins.

[@3sidesofeve711]

Terry Kilgore had the variac and tapping before Ed.. Ed picked that up from him and ran with it.

[@bujfvjg7222]

@@pcollenyt3683 I still cringe when I see people talk heavenly about La Grange, yet they've never heard Canned Heat's Fried Hockey Boogie... Gibbons is no Blind Owl, that's for dam sure!

[@joelmarksbury4376]

I know it's probably been brought up before, but Eddie has said the "Brown Sound" was the sound of Alex's snare. Like he was beating on a brown log.

[@armyguy872008]

Referring to Janies Crying I think, that chug chug with the snare

[@autodidacticprofessor869]

Turns out what the "secret" was not the variac alone. Ed, according to Jose Arrendando, used a sort of "load box" to bring the speaker output all the way down to 64ish ohms so it basically became a preamp at line level to send into whatever he wanted, be it a power amp or another Marshall. This allowed him a variety of different tone possibilities. Every early VH album had a different sound with the same head but different amp he was sending it into. So when we say "Brown Sound" or we're trying to condense his early tones into one thing, it really can't be done. You'd have to focus on a particular album.

[@lunarlandscape1434]

Thanks for the vid! Very interesting stuff. As a studio drummer, it never ceases to amaze me how apparently small changes in sounds can suddenly add up to a huge difference in the mix.

[@nielsdeclercq8027]

Riffs, beards and gear had Mike Soldano on 3 weeks ago. Soldano retubed the 'brown sound'-Marshall himself, Eddie asked him to do so, so he had the chance to test it out himself and he explains how the brown sound comes to life... also worth checking out.

[@GermanFafian]

I'd say amp sag is more of a "feel" thing for the player than an actual sound difference. In a blind test you would be hard pressed to tell which one is which. They all sounded excellent to me which is to be expected from any recording by Rick.

[@bluesmon54321]

Agreed!

[@OdaKa]

I could feel it through my earbuds

[@ryana.7510]

Whew, thought for a second you were trying to achieve the brown note...... *wipes forehead*

[@Gershom.]

Lucky that's all you had to wipe.

[@kiashangovender5221]

That's what I thought as well

[@eyedunno8462]

Van Halen V: Mean Streaks

[@ub2bn]

@@eyedunno8462 lol, good one.

[@Stonemeister]

Can't you see me sitting here I've got my back against the porcelain latrine A never-ending stream Looks like it's starting to steam Look at this dump (dump!) Look at this dump

[@pfg_pedals]

You mentioned his preference for 89 volts, however I ended up watching a video after this one of a replica of his '78 stage rig in a museum, The Met I think. Anyway the two variacs on top of the heads had marks at about 105ish volts that were made with a marker and had the initials DB nect to them. Not sure about the initials but they were set at the marks. Of course this is a replica and could be wrong, but it was an official display and was supposed to be extremely accurate so that is something to consider. Being an electrician, I can add that when you see 110, 115, 120, etc, these are nominal voltages meaning they refer to anything from 110-125 volts. appliances are generally designed to handle up to 10% variation either way. In the UK amps run at 220-240V and I had read that Eddy preferred his amps wired for this voltage and that he set his amps for 236. Angus young uses a power supply that gives him 234 as you can see in one of those rig rundown vids. Higher voltage results in lower current which may allow some components to not get as hot.

[@richardleerodgers5303]

I believe I heard Dave Friedman mention the output tube bias on Edward Van Halen's Plexi was compensated to produce a specific current flow in the output tubes at the 89 VAC line voltage

[@pcollenyt3683]

In that case the amp would have to be re-biased each time the variac setting was changed, within acceptable tolerance limits.

[@ontogeny6474]

This make sense ---something to do with tube saturation in the output stage. This no doubt would help create a whole spectrum of unique harmonics.

[@bujfvjg7222]

@@pcollenyt3683 pretty sure these days you could design an auto-bias circuit to do just that.

[@SparyZWanTuhNayHo]

@@pcollenyt3683 Probably not. Keep in mind that the bias isn't to picky here. This is not an ABii push-pull amp for "reproducing" sound with perfect clarity. If your bias is optimized for an input AC of 90V then you won't hear a difference from bias from 80V to 100V. You may hear a difference, but it won't be from tube bias. The difference will come from B+ sag and from cooler filaments that limit tube current.

[@toddweaversound]

@@SparyZWanTuhNayHoa small change in Line voltage creates a huge difference in the high voltage DC on the plates of the tubes. We are talking about extremes of operating voltages and if the grid or cathode isn't biased for those plate voltages, the thing will either under-perform of burn up quickly.

[@guitarbrad]

"Eddie did not start using a Variac to make his amp sound better, he did it because the amp was too darn loud! ... Depending on the room we were playing I'd set it anywhere between 60 and 100 because the only way the amp sounded good was with everything all the way up, so that became my volume knob." From " The TRUE Story of Eddie Van Halen Using A Variac" If you turned the amp UP as you turned the Variac DOWN, it would be a better test!

[@dronai]

Yeah, heard him in an interview tell this story.

[@matsumoku1]

That's a strange quote because it contradicts itself. Maybe this is why people can live with epic levels of cognitive dissonance. Eddie did obviously use the variac to make the amp sound better, because it sounded better with the voltage lower, but the volume still cranked up.

[@adamr8878]

No that would not be a better test. Turning the amp volume down will reduce the amount of distortion. The power amp is heavily distorting and that is only achieved through volume. These amps don't have a high gain preamp, nor do they have a gain knob. The reason EVH (and everyone for that matter) turns the amp all the way up is because every part of the amp (preamp, phase inverter and power amp) are distorting and it sounds glorious. That is the sound. Turn the amp down, and that goes away. If you turn the amp down as you raise the voltage that has achieved nothing.

[@dronai]

@@adamr8878 I agree ! what he said was amp settings all the way up, and lower the voltage as needed, to play at the level required for smaller venues

[@dustinevans2895]

You're both wrong! I would correct you both and put you in your places, but, alas...I am but a troll. I am jelly you guys can play anything, my son and daughter play guitar. My Dad was a Drummer in the Mid/Late 60's (borderline famous, Gold Record, Ed Sullivan Show, Monterey Pop Festival) Keep Playing! Music makes so many people like me happy and I couldn't imagine life without it!

[@brucehaddow2666]

Oh, I thought that Eddie was using the variac so that he could still set his amp at ten, but reduce the speaker volume in smaller venues.

[@shecktheteck3765]

exactly, Eddie said to sound good, the amps are dialed full, but to be comfortably audible, he used the variac to lower the voltage until it was room volume.

[@Heaven-dy9lj]

@@shecktheteck3765 Yeah that's what I heard. Ed was considering the smaller venues.Wanted the tone quality dialed in full, but reduced volume for small venue size. He even taped sound insulation foam too around the amp...to make it less shrill for those in the audience.

[@GinoGenero]

Sounds like some are confusing the role of a Variac with the role of an attenuator ( or power soak if you like). Variac controls incoming voltage, while attenuators reduce volume by turning a portion of the electrical energy on its way to the speaker into heat. Very different obviously

[@SVATTIMO]

@@shecktheteck3765 If you did that the amp will spit and will not work. He used the HH Power amps to control the volume.

[@TimMillernapavalleyfilmworks]

That's what I understood too. 👍

[@kh491]

Its subtle this is the stuff that keeps us guitarists buying crap instead of playing. (completely quilty myself) Played live infront of fans, they wouldn't notice anything. Only a person in thier studio/room would, obsessing.

[@MrGrand2000]

As a guitar player of 40 years ,I heard minimal difference

[@brandoncook2560]

it's all about subtlety. the difference is there.

[@docdeens4030]

My guess is that it does more to the feel than the sound...dynamics and compression and attack

[@Stefan-Van-der-Pulst]

Well, maybe that is the reason , because 40 years of loud guitar amps will blow your ears! Just kidding, man...I also heard minimal difference......Wait ...been playing exactly 40 years too (born in 1966), hmmm..nevermind...

[@davidrebel]

As a guitar player of 42 years I hardly hear anything... *lol* ;-)

[@echo1434]

@@docdeens4030 It is largely "heard" in the feel (if that makes any sense). I can definitely hear a graduated change as he cranks it on down. But please, there is sooooo much going on to get that "authentic first album sound" that was specific to the year 1978 and the studio, production, and moment in time. It would also help a lot to be Eddie Van Halen - that's always the last missing ingredient that is often overlooked. =)

[@michaelclark2357]

A Variac. is a Variable transformer I am an Engineer come on guys, that was the only way he could use the English made Marshall head or amp he just bought which is rated at @240Volts, and he had to plug it in to !20Volts U.S.

[@brianskinner5212]

That is why he bought it but started messing with it

[@eroldcroft3045]

I hear you but elaborate further. Or did Rick nail it?

[@sundogaudio851]

@@eroldcroft3045 the amp Eddie got was set to 240. Most of those amps have the switch on the back. So it starved the plates of the power tubes. But it didnt work reliably, so Eddie figured he could set the voltage properly for US and still dip the voltage with a stage light dimmer which is a variac. Same theory.

[@chet1952]

Eddie received is Marshall head from the U.K and did know that the head was setup on the 240 switch and when he tried it he thought that it was defective because the volume was very low, but the sound he had was the sound he was looking for so he then thought of that idea to use the variac by asking an electrician.

[@NotoriousFunk]

@@sundogaudio851 To not blow a tube during the concerts, for what i remember, the amp tech was used to change all the power tubes to Eddie amps and this was for every single show.

[@therealkpat]

Dear Rick, I swear there's very little to no audible difference in any of the comparisons. Please make a follow up vid, where you include images of the soundwaves of each recording, also a proper blind test. Cheers

[@easchit]

Agreed. For the average musician, they’d get more tonal variation simply by using a different pick. Or practicing more lol. Don’t need a damn variac.

[@flavy1000]

Hmm: the difference is in the tone..and I do not need soundwaves to listen to the differences...they are clear!

[@rOCKINxsOCKIN]

There's a pretty clear difference if you are using quality studio headphones in terms of the attack and warmth/roundness of the sound. Please don't listen on laptop or iPhone speakers and then critique

[@coreymelanson5139]

get your hearing checked,I played drums for 20 years and still heard a difference. the fender was super obvious,but the Park was incredibly obvious. or get new monitors,ect . I was listening on a crap set of tascam th-02 headphones,heard all differences plain as day. helps if you close your eyes whenswitching comparisons. also, im not at all trying to be a d!^&,Im just shocked theres ppl with worst hearing than me, im pretty deaf,but always had an ear for indifference,and suble stuff. its why I love recording so much. anyways I do appoligize if I was harsh,i hope all are safe and heathy. my best wishes to all ,in this great big family. _COREY BTW ,THAT PARK AMP IS THEEE MOST KILLERRR OMG!!

[@Jordan-fg9cc]

@@easchit absolutely. what you see here is just a bunch of people who are willing themselves into hearing 'a huge difference' so they can be part of the good ears club

[@ugra15]

Impossible to tell the subtle differences considering how youtube compresses & screws up the audio after an upload. We need to hear to the audio in its original rendered quality to tell the differences. That said, awesome content as always.

[@Vltor311]

After lowering the voltage, you need to rebias the amp. That's the mod.

[@Horatio4711]

This!

[@jholdener44624911]

Them Tubes will act funny and there is more than putting frosting on the cake, so they are a number of other factors that makes this not as cut and dry

[@UptempoMusicLessons]

And change the midrange pot to 500k like Eddie's.

[@Vltor311]

On the 1st album his tone is a doctored up mirage. In the studio, it doesn't even sound like that. Just a old Marshall dimed. Go to the Sunset Sound YT page and listen for yourself.

[@mhoff7722]

Yep. Up the bias to compensate for the lover voltage. Otherwise tubes are running too cool.

[@nolatone]

I’m guessing Eddie’s Humbucker in his Franken strat would’ve been hotter than a typical Les Paul bridge pickup. That extra push would take it further into the brown zone.

[@OxaudioPhilly]

It was a paf out of a gibson es-335

[@ericku7167]

@@OxaudioPhilly Correct but he's also right b/c EVH's PAF was overwound by Seymour Duncan so likely a touch hotter than stock. The S-type scale and bolt-on construction (arguably) adds to a punchier and brighter tone. At any rate this is so darn close with the LP.

[@christopherbuckley7544]

Changing the line voltage downward does two things: 1) It runs a lower voltage on the heaters saving the life of the tube, but that is not where the greatest savings are. 2) It lowers the voltage at the plate...which does two things a) reduces the total power across the tube, making the largest savings in life, and b) reduces the sensitivity and gain of the tube, generating a less responsive tube, thus giving it the classical "mellow" sound you cannot get from transistor devices. Transistors simply don't have the inconsistent behaviours at various voltages. Transistors are more like switches, full on or full off until they reach their cutoff point so they don't "brown out" like a tube will. Tubes are far more flexible and tolerant of voltage changes. Transistors just don't care as long as it's enough voltage to keep working.

[@roryyerama5496]

Hey Rick - I have always thought "I'll Wait" was a great "hidden gem" on 1984 - have always wondered what that would have been like if it was a guitar driven song instead of keyboards - would be fun to hear that one re-imagined. Also another video idea "Top 20 Hidden Gems on great albums"

[@r.plante2916]

One of his best solos.

[@felipecollazo-pagan9363]

Eddie said he had everything on 10 on the first record.

[@alex0589]

Including the number of engineers who quit during the process

[@StormbringerMM]

Those variacs aren’t that precise, would be good to measure with a multimeter to be precise... of course this will end up being a gateway and you’ll soon be on your way to having an oscilloscope similar to that dude that worked upstairs of =V/-/= ‘s racketball/squash studio. A fun remake of this would be to attempt this in a double blind set up... my guess is that “inconclusive” may be the result.

[@patrickchase5614]

I could hear the difference pretty clearly through decent headphones (Sony 7506). It was more in the transients than the tone during sustained notes, which is probably why Rick mentioned "compression" and why the guitarist spoke of how it responded to picking. Basically what the reduced voltage does is to limit the peaks/transients.

[@mikerobinson9504]

Interesting ... could Rick have added a second power-conditioner into the circuit, downstream of the variac, just to use its digital line-voltage display? However, "since Eddie didn't have one, it probably doesn't really matter." Sigh: "Eddie ... RIP." I'm still not used to adding that three-letter acronym.

[@toddweaversound]

I'm guessing the low setting was probably around 100v. I wish they would have turned it down lower to get to the correct "brown sound" voltage and then lower for fun.

[@KashNickels]

So where are the specs on the variac, oh yeah internet.

[@CharlesPierce79]

Rick Beato, I know that you know this but you didn't explain EVH's reason for the variac. He only used the variac to CONTROL THE VOLUME. Looking at Mickey Flappi's quote, I heard those exct words form EVH's mouth in an interview. I am an electronics technician by trade and have been involved with sound systems and music for years. Essentially EVH was creating his own "brown out". He had all his amp cranked up which gave it the tone he wanted but it was way too loud so, hence the variac, he dialed down the voltage and there you go. It would have been great if you would have done it like EVH and did turn the amp WIDE OPEN and you have the tone EVH was looking for but there you are in the room with the speaker plugging your ears because it was too loud then hook up the variac to get the volume down. Keep up the great work Rick! I love your channel.

[@quitolemutt1062]

Finally!! The whole reason for the auto-trans was crunchy sustain at a reasonable volume. I tried everything and by adding low ohm power resisters to the EL34s via a multi terminal switch from the cathode to gnd I was able to reduce the volume and keep the dist.~...BUT, it was reducing the output tube rumble or growl that only came through the 25W greenbacks in my old 100W marshall...[I didn't even know it was called a plexi!] Then I removed the cathode resisters and the growl came back, No substitute for driving air through the 4x12 cabinet and all 4 EL34s properly biased but 2lowd... FWIW...I just realized I was also born in 55 so that makes me EVH's final age and i have subtle ear damage I guess. Now the Critisizm: Rhett, when I saw you and Rick [I'm also a Rick] doing the definitive TEST with a freaking Les-Paul and standing right there in a dampened studio I knew this was a pseudo-test!! It was like watching the dazzling range of colors that new QLCD TV delivers through your own piece of crap VGA monitor and expecting to 'see' the difference. I heard only what I was TOLD to hear though..nothing that is if I was not told what and how. Com'on Rick...I ADMIRE your creds and all the stuff you do but FCS think about what you are trying to do...RECREATE the so called BS through a thousand various transducers at our ends. I also tried an early Power soak and it did exactly the same thing as the cathode resisters...removed the growl. One more point was touched on here and was also in EVH interview at the Wolfgang design meeting....Guitar=> copper cord=> input of Marshall. I feel stupid for wondering why everybody gets boutique amps with a zillion tone shaping sections and pots between every hand wired connection point and then sticks a bunch of foot pedals in there making the expansive marvelously crafted preamp/pwr amp output tube distortion masterpeice into a Monobloc silicon poweramp driven by an ibanez 741 IC ! I THINK IT ALL STARTED FOR THE SAME REASON...SATURATION AT LOW VOLUME DESPITE LOOSING THE SOUGHT AFTER TONE AND GROWL A MARSHALL EL34 CLASS-B AMP GIVES. or do I need skooling? Rick, Rock Steady Band. even though this is a yr old and 66year old shits like me [and EVH RIP] were playing guitar when foot pedals were a means of getting crucnhy dist~ but not driving the walls out!

[@matthewguarna2975]

Rick in the Smithsonian interview Eddie says he bought a Marshall from Europe which turned out to be 220V. He put all the controls to 10 and discovered a noce sound but the amp wasn't loud enough to be usable. That's when he bought the variac, to actually control the volume of the amp... Could you try that?

[@mightyV444]

Oh yes, like a Main Volume knob! I remember watching that, too! :-)

[@roderickwhitehead]

Gain knob goes to 20!

[@ziccuj]

It's one thing to reduce the plate voltage of the power tubes (and also preamp tubes) and a totally different thing to reduce ALL the voltages inside the amp. The voltage at the tube heaters need to be very close to 6.3 volts regardless of everything else or the tubes will fail in no time. This is why I would never recommend running the whole amp at an incorrect voltage for an extended period of time. Luckily modern power scaling methods (VVR, 65 Amps' Master Voltage etc.) have been designed: they keep the heaters at the right voltage while you can mess with the plate voltages - and most importantly, your tubes will be safe.

[@AlexisGitarre]

@@ziccuj that's why even eddie had his variaced amps biased properly to the lower voltage.

[@anthonyparker8519]

Rick don't wanna push his amps or burn one up lol ur right though eddie used it like a volume knob he said this because a marshall turned up to 10 would kill the person's ears that was in the front row so u he used it better answer is you can roll back the volume knob on the guitar and still have all the balls you need that's the real reason

[@christopheratkins6640]

“That brown sound sure do get around.” - Larry Underwood

[@phrymcdunstan]

Fantastic comment! I just thought of that quote the other day, hahaha

[@BCTTV_DTJ]

I can dig him. He's a righteous man!

[@leftyguitarjoe]

Just finished that book last week. Larry was the best dude.

[@ashamael]

@@BCTTV_DTJ but he ain't no nice guy, Larry

[@alanwalton3322]

you ain't no nice guy

[@markrobinson8410]

Eddie could play a squire through a champ and sound Amazing

[@msw812]

Agreed. Edward’s playing changed, I believe, when those Earnie Balls, PV Wolfs and EVH’s got in his hands. They’re so engineered for ease of playing. The earlier guitars he used I assume required more work to play where you here the honest effort a lil more. Same concept SRV adopted with his guitars that required hard work to play.

[@aphexlane]

@@msw812 I never considered this.. good point.

[@MarkAnthony5150]

Ask Ted Nugent played Ed's rig and sounded like Ted not Ed .

[@markrobinson8410]

@@MarkAnthony5150 i saw eddie van halen and ritchie sambora on tv once and evh made sambora look like a beginner

[@L.A.W.Studios]

Totally agree that Ed would sound Amazing! However, he wouldn't have had the 'brown sound'... Above and beyond the virtuosity of Ed's playing, I'm *strongly* of the view that his amp sound had just as much, if not way more bearing on their success.. The rock-record-buying public then cast it's vote for the mighty Van Halen. A fantastic thing! Especially in the midst of a disco/punk torn music industry that plagued' '78.. I remember thinking "Let the disco whores and punk weenies compete with this!! VH gave us rockers a fighting chance for the future once again..

[@AquanautSt1]

Man just the production quality of your video's sound so epic . Very refreshing compared to like 95 % of the audio output on KZbin videos in general .

[@0000song0000]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who thought Rick was going to talk about the "brown note" 😂

[@scottmatznick6461]

You are not the only one

[@ABMP4D3]

Me too, thought they were talking about the SouthPark episode.

[@dustinevans2895]

Please be respectful, this is KZbin after all

[@footnotedrummer]

Our bass player plays through an Ampeg SVT300 and an 8/10 cabinet. I can't begin to tell you how many brown notes I've heard/experienced. LOL

[@0000song0000]

@@dustinevans2895 The original Thumbnail only had a Rick photo and the "The Brown Sound" as title.... and I was like "wait, what?" Then they started talking about voltages, I swear to God I sincerely thought they were gonna say something like " do not plug 220 V amps on 117 outlets or you will crap your pants" or something 😂

[@jdessell]

7:12 Jimi Hendrix angel. If nobody else recognized that song then I have lost my faith in humanity. One of the best songs ever written and Rhett did a killer job with it.

[@mexicofcmexicanito3206]

I recognized it and I'm only in highschool but I love hendrix

[@BerndThomasSchuller]

7:11 "Angel", nice!

[@Ron4885]

yeah. :)

[@anatomicallymodernhuman5175]

On the other hand, I read an interview with one of VH's producers back in the 1980s. He said that if any other guitar player walked into the studio while VH was on break and picked up Eddie's guitar, it wouldn't sound like Eddie. Eddie's tone comes from Eddie more than from any particular gear. That idea was reinforced for me about 20 years ago when was working as a freelance engineer in Nashville. A semi-retired A-string guitar player was hired to lay down whatever part he felt would help a somewhat genre-bending track. He asked me why I had put both a 421 and 57 on his amp, and I said because I didn't know whether to expect to capture a rock tone or more of a R&B tone. He held out his palm toward me, fingers spread, and said very sternly, "The tone don't come from the mic, it comes from the fingers!" That said, it is cool how voltage can shape the tone of tube gear. I was recording a male rock vocal once through a very old UA tube compressor (no model was designated but it had serial number 0001, so it may have been a prototype). It's PSU slowly began to fail, and the singer's voice got cooler and cooler sounding. He kept doing take after take because it just kept sounding cooler. Then suddenly, it stopped working altogether. I sent it to two different shops to get it fixed, but it never really worked right after that. I had the opposite experience with transistor gear once. I was tracking Paul Overstreet at his home studio outside Nashville. It was late on a hot afternoon. His vocal tone was getting worse with each take, until we stopped to check for the problem. All seemed OK, until I noticed that the incandescent bulbs weren't burning as brightly as usual. Sure enough, the line voltage was down in the 90s. Apparently, everyone between him and the substation was getting home from work and turning down the AC and such, and the grid couldn't keep up.

[@a.kguitars930]

Couple things you missed along with the Plexi and Variac: MXR 12 Band EQ and Echoplex Delay. Eddie used the EQ to boost the front of the amp

[@bpuryea]

Sounds like the sound gets warmer and fuller as you dial down the voltage. I like how the lower voltage sounded better in all set ups.

[@michaelclark2357]

It only works if the tubes are biased for the plate voltage after the variac is set to whatever input voltage is written on the amp compared to the line voltage in the room or building, you are in, initially EVH bought the Variac because he had bought a European /English Marshall Amp,s Head rated@249Volts Ohms Law V=IxR(ohms),when he plugged in the amplifier took 1/2 hour to warm up because US. volts are running at 110-120V rms.

[@chrisflashmusic]

You nailed it.

[@Deft1-007]

Rick is so INFORMATIVE!! NO BULL! and such a PLEASANT TEACHER for us music gurus/musicians!! 💙

[@m.charron]

Clean power is so necessary for good tone... The power where I'm living now is so dirty that, depending on which outlet I'm plugged into, I can hear the furnace kick in through my amp!

[@arthurblackhistoric]

I had a regular gig at a pub like that. In between songs we had to suffer through the loudest bacon and eggs frying on the BBQ sizzle I ever heard in any room.

[@jamescopeland5358]

Check the filters

[@Arlo4511]

Use a 1:1 isolation transformer between mains power and your amp.

[@m.charron]

@@jamescopeland5358 Which filters are you referring to?

[@jamescopeland5358]

Filter caps in the B+ and you might check the coupling cap in gain stages to power. Be careful if you check all this stuff yourself, high voltage will be present which can ruin your day

[@thomassmith7608]

Regarding not "screwing your amps up": The old-school repair technique of slowly increasing line voltage after repairs from zero volts AC to 115-120 volts AC by using a Variac transformer should NEVER be used with an amplifier that includes digital electronics circuits. (Most newer guitar amps have sophisticated fused circuitry, so the Variac 0 volts to 120 volts in slow steps technique isn't necessary, anyway.) Slowly increasing line voltage in an amplifier that includes digital electronic channel-switching or inline digital effects can potentially damage the master power supply circuitry, the +5 V DC line, and 5 or 15 VDC associated circuitry. Having lower than normal DC voltages on a D.C. line can raise current on the line (see Ohm's Law), which, in turn, drives some digital components into self-frying mode. I had a friend attempt to bias new tubes in my Marshall 6100 30th Aniiversay Head using old-school testing with a Variac, and he cooked both the 5 V D.C. power supply and a "J-K flip flop" digital chip associated with MIDI channel-switching. (In most cases, if the MIDI section of the Marshall 6100 goes dead, so does the whole amplifier: It's, effectively, a body without a brain.) Since that incident, even though I used to work as an electronics technician at a very high level, I always let the local Authorized Marshall Service Center repair my 6100 and replace and bias the EL34 power tubes. He has the official Marhall Service Manual for post-repair verification, and it's better to be safe than sorry with a rare or a beloved amplifier. :) When going for a Brown Sound, I would adjust the voltage to be above 100 volts before plugging-in a valuable or rare amplifier. You can tweak for the "Brown Sound" from there. Digital electronics are damaged by the zero-to-115 volts in slow steps procedure--which is pretty much useless these days, anyway. :)

[@doughsnakes]

Glad you mentioned this. Also, the variac method reduces both the filament and B+ voltages. Ultimately you don't want to change the filament voltages. I have not used power scaling, but that is a safer alternative.

[@metalgarri4194]

Well, to power the digital part of an amp there will always be a DCDC converter to regulate the 5v or 3.3v or whatever the digital supply domain is. If the voltage at the output of the transformer is lower than expected from the DCDC converter, it will simply not turn on. So in general you will not damage anything but it will simply not work at all...Those tricks with the Variac can be done only with with all analog old style stuff :)

[@thomassmith7608]

@@metalgarri4194 Thanks for the update on recent DC circuitry design. (We knew it had to come some day. lol) (My Marshall Joe Satrirani Signature Head has a whole load of breakers and fuses to protect against shorted tubes and other mishaps.) In the Marshall 6100, which was designed in 1992, the filament voltage (6.3 volts AC) and the regulated 5 volts DC derive from a separate leg of the Mains Transformer which leads to the main power supply board--a faulty, short-sighted design. The 6.3 Volts AC is not fused well enough at the point that it leads to the series filament circuit. Marshall no longer uses that design for heads that have both 6.3 Volt AC and 5 volts DC regulated. The DC lines of the main power supply board are now completely isolated from 6.3 volts AC filament (series circuit.) The problem with the 6100 design is that if the filament of a tube shorts to the cathode, the main programmable IC in the MIDI section often gets fried from the current surge, or a J-K flip-flop in the MIDI ciruit (5 volts DC) gets fried, disabling the MIDI function, which, therefore, disables channel-switching, which, in turn, causes the head to go braindead and not produce sound. Since the Marshall MIDI Programmed chips for the 6100 are no longer available from Marshall, to avert tagedy, my Marshall tech wired a quick-trip circuit breaker into the 6.3 volts AC series filament circuit, to protect against future damage to the MIDI section as a consequence of a short between tube cathode and filament. It's a push-button jobby, so it is easily reset. :) I'm happy to hear that newer DC guitar amplifier power supplies are isolated, with better design, and with space-age current protection. Those amplifier design engineers are crafty rogues. :)

[@metalgarri4194]

@@thomassmith7608 yeah it is a trivial and very foreseeable problem. I mean, in a tube amp with digital circuits you are interfacing a 300v analog circuit with a 5v digital, and valves are not the most robust devices in the world. That is a call for trouble! A good design should have, besides fuses, galvanic insulation like capacitive or with a transformer, to avoid all those problem. Or at least that's how I would have designed it if I was working for Marshall 😄

[@helions8]

That's funny - how many people are trying to catch the difference after KZbin has compressed the audio with a lossy codec? Why not to show the spectrum analysis?

[@christianmani1730]

Very True!

[@genericnamethingy]

Now we're talking. I don't even know what codec KZbin uses but from general experience it's noticeable, and that's really bad, you can have compression that's indistinguishable from lossless. I distinctly remember youtube forcing lousy audio compression, I don't know if they do that anymore.

[@doctorscoot]

@@genericnamethingy normally you upload the video with H.264 or H.265 compression anyway: so either 192kbps or 360kbps on the audio (many more options eg VBR too) even before it hits whatever You Tube does to it (e.g. convert to lower rate streams).

[@genericnamethingy]

@@doctorscoot I personally cannot distinguish between lossless and v0 360 kb/s. You hit on a good point. What I wonder about is if max quality on youtube implies they don't do any extra processing on the audio. That is, if you upload it lossless it stays as is. I remember it used to have a cap and I think it was 256 kb/s, I wonder if it still imposes a cap and what processing is done, and how it varies with the video option. I should be able to have low video quality and high audio quality, for example if I'm on a music video or podcast and want to minimize data use and have good audio. I don't know why they haven't implemented such a simple thing.

[@doctorscoot]

@@genericnamethingy yes, i find 360kbps to be indistinguishable too. but its always dependent on how well its encoded in the video export AND whatever it is that you tube does to it to process it.

[@shinyoneincarnate5565]

I heard an interview with Eddie where he said that in his early interviews, when asked about his sound, he would tell the interviewer about the Variac. He said he use to laugh about how many people followed his advice, & blew up their amps. He would say he turned UP the wall voltage, but he really turned it down. Har har har.

[@johnfrenette]

One thing that want addressed (or maybe I missed it): isn’t an amp at lower voltage supposed to be quieter? Wasn’t that the original reason EVH used a variac?

[@mrhatch117]

He lowered the voltage to increase the distortion to get the sound he wanted

[@calliopenation3174]

@@mrhatch117 I think he lowered the voltage to get the distortion he wanted at a lower volume, when he had to. If the quote above it correct, he was not using a Variac to change his sound, he was using it to get a 'sound' whether he was playing in a large space or a small space. As far as the 'sweet' spot, that must have been something he learned over time, but given his tendency to 'hide' his technique, perhaps even that is suspect. But the basic principal is sound, crank the knobs, and lower the voltage when playing in smaller places. Eh?

[@MarksMindBox]

@@calliopenation3174 Spot on.

[@blazeesq2000]

@@calliopenation3174 Amplitude is voltage. But amplitude with... all kinds of other things depends on the amplitude and the other things. I think Eddie was looking for a more "pure" sound. There was a buzz in the studio, due to wiring, etc. that he always wanted to make clean so he could crank it. He wanted any sound he got to be what he wanted his heads + speakers + pre to be without worrying about wiring noise. That's a theory I have.

[@Arkadius1984gl]

You are right -it will be quieter, however from Eddie's interviews I gathered, that he only realised that voltage affects the amp volume and tone after he bought an used amp that was set to work at the 220v UK voltage:) I believe that an idea of using a variac sprung from this event:) The rest is history, as they say:)

[@RÅNÇIÐ]

Requested this about a month before Eddies passing. Glad it's coming now in his honor.

[@dwalden74]

It’s just a volume control - not shifting the tone at all. He said the Marshall only sounded good with the levels turned all the way up, so using the Variac preserved the tone he liked while allowing him to turn the volume down. I suppose the EVH amps must have this feature built in - ?

[@TheTanashimaru]

Hey Rick, You should put one of those warnings like" Do not try this at home. These are trained profession als". No amps were harmed in the making if this video. Lol. Love the content brother.

[@maxwellkafka]

I was thinking about the “Brown Note” from South Park that makes you poop

[@83aquastar]

I did, too. I was expecting to hear some serious low tones 🤣

[@ix-Xafra]

Nicola Tesla invented a vibrating platform that he could adjust the frequency of oscillation. He noticed that at a certain low frequency it would cause one to lose bowel control. Of his circle of aquaintences the writer Mark Twain wanted to have a go on this machine and insisted on trying the 'brown' frequency. Despite Tesla's warning he went ahead and crapped himself on the machine. I don't recall the frequency but believe it was single digit and below human hearing. Perhaps that's what South Park was refering to. Brown out is a term used in some electrical circles to describe low voltage occurence - it's not a black out complete loss of power so it's brown out

[@oldschoolman1444]

Came here looking for this comment! ...lol...

[@AugustusTitus]

Also Archer.

[@waynemontpetit8181]

and eating some S***ty Shrimp from City Wok