ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

what is brown sound?

 

3/7/2000 8:32 PM
Kremator	what is brown sound? All right, i know it might seem blasphemous, but i don`t know what the brown sound is. is it that it makes "bbbrrrrrrooowwwnnnn" when i strike the low E, or is it something like the "blue" in blues( the colour)? I'm not native speaker(you see mistakes, do you?), so i don't undertand this.   greetings   K.

 

3/7/2000 10:11 PM
Tonefactor	"Brown sound" is a term that EVH came up with when he was describing his and Brian May's sound back in the early 80's.

 
 

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3/7/2000 10:58 PM
Ken Gilbert	i've read where he said he originally coined the term to describe his brother alex's SNARE drum sound, and that over the years the publications just kept applying it to his guitar tone.     i've also heard him speak out of the side of his mouth before, especially regarding his tone, so take it for what it's worth.     kg

 

3/7/2000 11:24 PM
Firefly	Think of the EVH guitar tone on Van Halen from the 1984 album and before. That's pretty much how I understand it.

 

3/8/2000 6:31 PM
Tonefactor	I agree. His tone after 1984 sucked. I certainly wouldn't call it "brown". He started relying heavily on effects to try and get a fat sound out of amps that couldn't do it on their own.

 

3/7/2000 11:51 PM
steveR	This is what your amp sounds like in a "brown out".     ha ha ha ha ha.     Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

3/8/2000 12:23 AM

rebel420

I've also heard that his amp tech...(forget the guy's name) who had him using the Variac, called it a brown sound, due to putting the amp in a 'brownout' stage (for the non-english speaking natives-- a bronwout is when your line voltage is sagging way below what it should i.e. measuring 100v instead of the normal 120v or if you run 220v, it would be at like 200V or lower)... so syaing it's what the amp soudns like in a brown out, is not that far from the truth!

 

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