Was the Brownsound a Fender amp?

This is the best breakdown/recreation of Ed’s sound I’ve ever heard. The DI theory is spot on IMO. There was always that smooth, consistent distortion in his sound that was always present. I too described it as synthesized and could never achieve it. I can really hear it on Diver Down album, and at the beginning of Drop Dead Legs. Fantastic work!

It always drives it home for me when I see someone with killer chops like you concentrating hard to play Ed's stuff and then I remember standing watching him, plus all the concert footage of there, and he's playing while running and jumping and/or hardly paying attention to his hands! Add to that he was often loaded or ganked on stage and the man was literally 'super natural'.

That is scary close well done sir! The one thing that really stood out to me is the pick scrape/swipe. The swipe sounds powerful like on his recordings. I think I've heard about every rendition on YouTube and none of them have that! You are definitely sliding into home plate with this. That subtle accent is right up there with how the chords bloom.Nice!

This is incredible! It takes someone who can really play guitar, and loves the early Van Halen guitar sound, and has the skills of an engineer, and knowledge of a producer, and Most importantly, has great ears, to figure this out. Martin, you have all this! As always, the sound is what is most important. As you demonstrated and dialed in the sound you were looking to show us, my ears went right back to what I first heard on VH1 in 1978. This video is a major milestone in the analysis and decoding of the Brown Sound!

I got my first rig at 15 in 1977. It was a 65 Fender Showman head which I ran through a Marshall 8X10 cabinet. Someone had wired the two channels together along w a master volume which they stuck in one of the 1/4 jack holes. That thing absolutely SCREAMED. Plug straight into the amp, crank it up and the gain was otherworldly.

That’s a righteous sound, brother Martin! Thanks for sweating the details, then sharing the results with us. “Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love” gave me goosebumps.

Your "Hang 'Em High" was killer, dude! :D

As a Van Halen Tribute Player & Fan, I salute you for a job very well done. Brilliant !!!

Well the Marshall Plexi was based on the 1959 Fender Bassman, and even now Fender is making all thier normal chanels based on the Bassman bass chanel. The real difference is the Power tube and transformer output and extended high end with the Presence. So yea you could make a Fender sound like it, youll need like an SD1

absolute over the top video. My mind is reeling from the amount of in-depth detail that you shared. thanks so much.

Man that sounds so good! The tone, the playing, Spot on!! would love to hear the "Panama" breakdown section (after the solo) through these EVH rigs. I find that kind of rolled off flubby/wooly tone is so hard to nail.

INCREDIBLE GUITAR! Looks and sounds amazing! Thank You for sharing your tones. 👍

Fantastic Journey into the Brown sound! Thank you very much(I still have goose bumps!)

You got it close enough that no one will notice the difference...and there is not much!!!! Good job!!

Absolutely entertaining ... keep em coming. Very cool!

I'm a session guy in LA. I work regularly with a producer who was an assistant staff engineer at Amigo in the early 80s. He swears to me me that Ed was using a Fender amp when VH was at Amigo.

Wow!! Very convincing Martin! Man! You can really rock those older VH riffs!!! Thanks for sharing your experiences and results!!

Great stuff as always.

Dude, your vids are nailing these early VH tones! Your chops definitely are the cherry on top as well 💪

What a great video! Very insightful! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, Martin! To top it all off, it sounds so, so good and the playing is just perfect! To get back on topic: Those vintage Fender circuit designs are very close to the vintage Marshalls and, knowing that Ed liked 6CA7 (EL34 with 6L6 qualities) tubes in his plexi, he might as well have used a cranked Fender. Letting the DI signal through is also an interesting idea, really fills that "JBL" gap that seems present with most greenback-only recordings.