Brown Sound Shootout Part #1 EVH 5150 III vs Friedman BE-OD vs 5150 Overdrive 

I already am getting the 5150 III, but this video sold me on the Brown Eye OD. That was so close to Eddie's tone gave me chills. Thanks.

I really think Ed's early tone was less gain than people think. Certainly less than his van Hagar era or modern tone. Even Diver Down - 1984 sound higher gain to me. First few albums have a smoother softer distortion, a lot of his tone came from the PAF humbucker in a strat body, giving it a brighter more trebly sound, combined with Ed's very hard pick attack that gives the impression of high gain but with more articulation and clarity. Plus he loved to play really damn loud. I really think the key to his early tone is all in the pick attack and a Vintage output humbucker.

The BE OD is amazing. Not only for Brown, but for anything.

I don't mean to piss in your beer here but according to the official schematic, the EVH 5150III green channel is a Fender circuit with an additional gain stage. Blue channel leans more to his old school Marshall and red channel is near identical to the Peavey 5150 II. Great video!

It all sounded good but the BE OD through the EVH sounded pretty killer.

If you want the brown sound use what Ed used. Maestro Echoplex EP3 into a Marshall plexi into a 4x12 with Celestion 20 watt greenbacks. He split the signal with a load box to run one side wet and the other side dry. The Marshall was plugged into a Variac and run at 90 volts. The amp was also biased to be run at 90 volts. Don’t forget the Mxr flanger and Phase 90. The Echoplex preamp is a very important part of the sound that everybody seems to overlook.

A lot of people forget, or don't know that Eddie's fingers and style have a lot to do with his brown sound and overall sound in general. You could know his licks note for note, play through his exact rig and not sound the same. It is his sound. Great video BTW.

It's hard to compare when you're a half-step higher than the original, but nice comparison between the pedals and 5150 channels. Thank you.

I am another brown obsessed player and my opinion you nailed it perfectly with the EVH clean and the BEOD pedal first run through with the pedal put it this way when I reached that point in the video 13:28 I stopped it that was perfection point for me so stopped at that point. Perfect representation of the brown sound in my opinion

Wow Its been ages since I've watched these videos! I gotta say I've never really liked this sort of "very sweet" gain the 5150 had. It's like in the middle of the Marshall and the Soldano that he used. But I gotta say, I got the brown sound very easily (with a lot of different amps) with an MXR 10 band eq. It's kinda the holy grail of pedals to me.

I like what you are doing here. Reverb would make that tone huge!!!

Fantastic video. Really enjoyed the walkthrough and your playing. Great job!!!

You have to remember part of the Brown sound is Eddie's fingers and his pick attack. You sounded pretty damn good though

Well done. Watched the whole thing. I really want an EvH - and I play punk!

Exactly correct. That amp and Eddies 4x12's with those 12" Celestion 20 watters make that tone, but You won't ever sound like the original player because that is just impossible. Just play it correct and you'll be good enough. You need the EVH cabs to sound closer.

yup.more treble and needs reverb.

Hey great video bro. Not only good for brown sound but in using the pedals. I know how long it takes to film and edit so thanks for taking the time. Keep the vids coming!!

You can get the brown sound from a mesa dual rec into greenbacks with the rectifier tubes engaged and vintage mode with a boost in front.

I have a magical '77 JMP 50w MKII Master Model. IMO the best sounding amp of the bunch only the silver jubilee can top it because they're basically the same amp. It might not have the gain but hit it with a tube screamer and it's epic tone

Variac is the solution. Take it down 20%. Revisit. The crunch gets nice and sharp giving that pick attack.

Killer tones from that Jubilee I agree the two pedals do a good job but nothing like the amp to me. The feel dynamics just much better Good job man

Only checked out first few minutes but notes seem to be dying too quickly...and losing gain in the process. Noise gate????

my ears may differ from others but. the first set up I think your on to some thing there. really good oozing tone coming from this tone

I had always head Eddie used a Variac to lower the voltage on the amp to achieve that brown sound. Don't know how true it is though.

Dude i have an AC30. I know it can’t get too close to getting the legit brown sound but if there is a pedal to get me close i really wanna pick it up. I can’t get a Marshall or Friedman or 5150 amp at this time but if you have a recommendation for a pedal I’m all about it. Thanks!

I own the 5150 pedal with a 5150 head and a Friedman 112 cab. And I get a decent evh Vibe all so with my Wolfgang. when used the Friedman BEbod pedal it just sounded like it had a little bit more hair a little more open it just it just sounded a little bit closer. Great sounds lots of choices in that wall behind you

Eddy was talking about the sound of Alexes drum set when he was describing the brown sound. Not the sound of his amps. It is very well documented.

Thanks for sharing, I’d run a 57 mic slanteded on the speaker and run some plate reverb to take some of the dry off!! Great work my brother!! 🙏

I was standing in the kitchen listening when I heard that BE-OD. Didn't expect that. Sounded very convincing.

Isnt the brown sound gotten by putting a blanket over the head, put everything to 10, let it sit for couple hours and then play/record?

Good video, but I have one question. If you had the EVH head, wouldn't you be best and most honest to the drive tone to have just backed off the crunch channel lead and run an echoplex pre into it? Ed's tone just requires tubes, the pedal is decent, but glass gives you the proper breakup and compression. I find the pedal really dry, no squish or compression like the real amp.

loved your playing man!!! you sound so good in valve amps, you made it sound killer

Wish I had that guitar lol. I’ve used Evh amps for 7 years. Both the half stack and the 50w combo love them

This sounds great to me…certainly sounds way better than the majority of amp demo vids on YT

Wet it up a bit ! Sounds good though

Thanks for your hard work on this Video-there is a pedal I have been using you should try-it is the Mad Professor One pedal-it has a gain pedal with a reverb in it the replicates that 70s reverb-I put into the clean channel of my 5593 El34 50 watt head and dime the clean channel and boost the front end of the amp and have a delay with a noise gate in the effects loop and play thru 2 cabs one with 2 heritage greenbacks and other cab has 2 Scumback H75s nails it but to get in the ball park of Ed's sound is you need a dimed amp!

You didn’t mention what cab you’re using! One of the key aspects of tone

Awesome job man!!! I’m jealous of all the cool shit you have goin on there Lol!!

People must have loved to deafen themselves in the 70s lol today its all bass , back then it was all Treble

I had a brown sound in my pants.

1. 5150 III Blue Channel 2. BE-OD through the clean channel of the 5150 III But, then, the Marshalls in your other video probably beat these both ... the 2555 is a killer hard rock amp. Probably the best - without going crazy boutique, I guess ... and maybe even then, perhaps still more the 'classic' sound ...

how loud does the amp go. im running my marshall dsl40 with be'od in clean channel just about keeping up. i need that extra kick. thanks

Did Eddie actually invent the subtle echo slap you hear on most guitar players now days? Also, Eddie must have added the flange effect on Unchained after he recorded the main track because I've never heard him recreate that perfect up and down rythmic sweep live. Everyone I've ever heard play it, the sweep is always off. It never has that perfect rhythmic up and down sweep.

Fun video man! Thanks for making it

Every tone sounded a bir too warm for Van Halen to me, but you got pretty close! Awesome video, man!

The overall frequency range is quite right but there is just no attack, and barely any sustain.

The closest I came was with with a Mesa Boogie. 50 Cal. People always said I hade a very Van Halen tone. Must say these all sound great.

Personally i think some of eddies best tones came from the SLO. Marshall very glass house sound..

Be Od pedal sounds great !!!

How’d you play the dive bomb at the beginning of Panama? I’m having problems finding the exact tab by internet and ear and you’re the only one I’ve heard play it to its exact note.

love the 5150 but to me the real brown sound is a plexi pushed. These modern amps are to clean. The Marshall was nasty in a good way. You loose the grit with these modern preamp distorted amps.

Don't pay any attention to the nay sayers bro. You've done a good video here and it's coming through loud and clear. The six and 12 minute mark is closer to brown the later being much heavier. Maybe using a vari-ac devise would get you over the top. I've been at this pre VH and was there when jaws first dropped at the spectacle of EVH goin what the heck is this? Good job.......

There is only so much you can do with your equipment, the sound ultimately comes from your hands and how you play.

Thank you for taking the time to set all this up and give us a sound demo.

Top 5 greatest amps of all time. 5. JMP 4. JMP 3. JMP 2. Modded JMP 1. JMP

killer tones looking forward to the jubilee I own one also running the be over drive with it perfect vh tone

What were your BE OD settings including the internal trim pot?

Buy a non master Marshall 100 watt head and push it for tube saturation and you will have the brown sound. Ed's sound was always a bit cleaner than people think and certainly cleaner than it is now. 5150 which was all Eventide.

Nice playing. I think the Friedman, although it doesn't sound exactly like a tube amp its your best bet for the brown sound in terms of tone and gain. Eddie didn't have much gain on those early VH albums. You can try other things such as tuning to Eb. It would get you much closer and you woudn't need much gain to pull out Eddie's stuff.

I say try to find Eddie's original set up, I bet you'll get it dead on.

BE OD with EVH on the clean, but the JMP and 25/50..killer.. if you get the opportunity to try out a EVH EL34( upgraded the power tubes to KT 77 Golden Lions and in the V1 preamp tube a Tung Sol ....I'm pretty close, enough to choose over my Friedman Small box

Brown Sound is in Eddie Van Halen hands, that´s why everybody´s are close to it.

People want Eddies classic Brown sound so bad, why not use exactly what he used ., then practice your arses off & play like he played , cant just do half the effort.

Withi position’s did you used in you pedal Friedman plz !!! Thanks a lot

Nice guitar! Sounds great. You can't go wrong with that guitar you are playing right there! :)

Max Norman coined the term Brown Sound while describing Alex's snare sound.Like Centaurus said...

Would love to hear your JMP, dude. Nice playing.

I think you're all missing the point here a lot of that sound came from his fingers and how that he played I own evh amps myself and I just find it easier to find my own sound

question on the peavey 5150 i have a footswitch with 2 channels. how do i bypass the overdrive pedal and eq pedal when i switch from the dirty to clean channel?

How come you have the bass knobs cranked relative to the mids/highs?... Its kind of missing the early VH snarling mids. Sounds great though

Cool video! Well worth the 16:50 of time checking it out! I'm looking for the closest brown sound I can get. Have you ever tried the Mad Professor "1" pedal? Pete Thorn did an excellent review for it and MAN, does it sound good! It even has the EVH studio plate reverb built into it.

I thought your first sound was closest to VH, a little reverb would put it even closer. The Friedman is a great sound too. It is kind of unique to itself. How do you like your Jubilee? That is one great amp!!!

Nice , had every Line 6 there is ... Rip your ears off 👎.. Love the Dirty and OB into the front !

that's a very nice wall behind you!

The so called brown sound is when the power tubes go into harmonic clipping at a overdriven state to produce a really great overdrive sound ! When you cascade 12ax7 tubes in the preamp its the worst sounding clipping overdrive you can get , you have to put the master volume 7.5-10 to push the power tubes into OD ! Marshall makes the amps bright sounding to have some highs when you overdrive the power tubes and that warm OD sound takes over ! Negative feedback on the transformer can prevent the power tubes from being overdriven so the NF is low or has none ! You cannot get the true brown sound adding bass , pedals cannot do what a el34 power tube can do at all either ! Crank it up then dial in what the amp can do ! Go see Bad Company for a true sound of power tube overdrive !

Where is part #2?????

Awesome video dude! Van Halen was a little before my time but my dad introduced me to them at a very young age, he would always listen to them and my love grew for them very young haha great tones and gear bro! Im thinking about doing some van halen covers on my youtube channel cheers dude

It's Van Halen 1 sound you're trying to re-creat Ed has said in interviews when he referred to 'The Brown sound' he wasn't even talking about guitar. Non of these set ups sounds right.

Well done my friend!

You gotta drive it to get "brown". Can't do it on 3.

When you say 3 ... notch 3 or 3o’clock - specifically on blue

Reverb please!

So , what in your opinion is the best 'brown sound' you have in this video, min marker?

You did a great job !

Dude, turn up the distortion!!!

that phase 90 post distortion is an ear rape

Incidentally, the SS clean on the MP-1 can be reeeeeeeeal nice ... :)

If you think the Friedman BE-OD sounds good, wait till you play on a bonafide Friedman BE amp!

where are the pedals ..!? hiden behind the cabinets.. !?

first 4:45 If you could just "Dirty" up the Clean Channel a little more We'd be talking.6:35 More trebble :) 12:00 "It's Closer" 15:49 It has the Balls but the tone is off... (more trebble)

Great job bro what speakers and pick do you have ?

Solid playing, good sounds.

Where do you have the internal gain pot set on The be od,?

Great video and tones!! Question for you. When on the 5150 blue channel and your gain is on 3, was your guitar volume all the way up? I plug straight into mine with my gain at noon and low is at 11, but feel like mine sounds way heavier than yours (using a Wolfgang). Keep up the great playing!!

Friedman thru clean is the shit! Nails the Brown. What flanger are you running?

A whole lotta stuff I can't afford to buy.

I’m just here for the special FX

If he would turn up the master to 5 or 6,he wouldn't need any overdrive pedal.A Boss Super Chorus is a must tho.

what was the eq on 5150 overdrive

Eddie used a 77 Marshall head on the first few V H albums.It is NOT a EVH 3 head.Eddie is a amp maker and inovater yes.But the pre amp and power amp tubes in the evh are massive compared to the Marshalls.he didn't turn his master volume up over 3 whole time.thats not enuff to get those big ass tubes hot enuff to sound right.thats probably why it wasn't quite sounding signature.lol again.