Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

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Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

Post by lll »

Some thought-provoking possibilites for discussion; surely there will be more (hence numbering this the first - of many).

Variac vs. tube rectifier

As we all know, using a variac to lower the voltage a la Ed creates a "starved" amp. And when you really slam down (picking-wise) on a power chord (for example), the amp really struggles to produce and the resulting tone is what we know and love - "splatty" and "super crunchy" treble, plus low end "squish".

I believe I experience a similar phenomenon with my amp, which is essentially a 12301 '68 Plexi circuit, plus .68uF on V2, plus tube rectifier, 50 watter (was originally a JTM45 reissue). I get a similar tonal effect (as above) when slamming down on a power chord when the amp is 8-10 on volume; the amp struggles.

I never really thought about this much until recently with my latest tone tests. I hear the "splat" and "super crunch" (in the ballpark anyways) and I'm thinking, "I don't use a variac anymore"...
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Re: Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

Post by PLX »

I like to go back to thinking about why Ed used a variac to begin with..

We all know the "I hooked my amp to the light dimmer, and blew out the lights in the house" story. :roll: which, if you think about it for a minute makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Ed, by his own admission, could not even connect a second pickup to a selector switch.. and gave up. :lol:

The other top "Ed Lore" is that Ed went to Jose Arredondo and asked for help lowering the volume of his 100W super lead and Jose took what was an everyday item found on every electronic tech's workbench and showed Ed how to use it to lower the wall voltage of his Marshall.

Well, I have a much better story.. from a much better source. About 16~17 years ago I contacted Terry Kilgore to purchase some NOS tubes. (His username on the old MetroAmp forum was "tube tramp").

Legend had it that he was in possession of a stockpile of New Old Stock vacuum tubes and sold them at a reasonable price. I pm'ed him on the forum and he replied with his phone number and said to call him and find out what model/quantity tubes wanted. Anyone who has ever had a conversation with Terry knows that it's really more like sitting around a campfire with a drunk uncle who never shuts up and loves to hear the sound of his own voice.

So we talk about what tubes he has, what sound I'm going for, and I tell him I'm chasing that early VH tone just like every other ham-fisted idiot on the Metroamp forum.

Terry starts telling me about how he knew Ed from back in the day (mind you.. I was ignorant of the true personal history, and thought this guy was some crazy old coot and completely full of shit at this time and I had legitimate fears for sending him any money for some old Mullards), and launches into the story about how/why Ed started using a variac.

According to Kilgore, Ed used to play all day in the house in Pasadena, and back then California would have trouble meeting the electrical demand during the summer. In order to keep the grid from completely blacking out they would purposefully "brown out" the grid.

wikipedia : A brownout is an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system. Intentional brownouts are used for load reduction in an emergency. The term brownout comes from the dimming of incandescent lighting when the voltage reduces. A voltage reduction may be an effect of disruption of an electrical grid, or may occasionally be imposed in an effort to reduce load and prevent a power outage, known as a blackout.

Ed noticed that while playing thru his SL100 during a 'brown out', it still functioned, but at a reduced volume and a less tight, softer feel to the attack normally felt in the amp. Ed went searching for a way to recreate this phenomena on demand, and Jose accommodated him with a variac.

Hence: Brown Sound.

Now, you can believe what you want. Terry Kilgore's band was called "Reddi Kilowatt".

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Re: Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

Post by lll »

Yeah I totally remember Tube Tramp from the Plexi Palace forum.

What I heard as far as Ed (and I don't remember the source; media of some sort - internet, youtube, interview, article, don't remember) and his variac goes (and it's not gonna be verbatim cuz it's off of memory)...

When he bought his first amp from "Rose Palace", he brought it home plugged it in and no sound.

Waited a few hours came back and it had sound, but super duper low volume.

But it sounded great.

Supposedly this amp was a 240V (don't remember if those old plexis had voltage selector on back)... British voltage amp.

So, 240 volt amp running at half voltage (American wall voltage)


Then he bought a 2nd amp (normal American voltage) and wanted to see how to get that same tone with the new amp.

Did some asking around local electrical people etc

That's when he learned about lowering the voltage.

then the "light dimmer" episode (I assume Ed's own naive idea).

then he went back to electrical dudes and asked for the proper equipment - they told him "get a variac"
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Re: Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

Post by lll »

BTW the "Brown Sound" term is incorrect as far as Ed's guitar tone; Ed straightened that out in an interview and stated he used that term to describe his brother's (Alex) drum sound:
In talking with Billboard’s Chuck Klosterman, Van Halen was asked if he has synesthesia, which essentially is the ability to “see” sound, as one sense triggers a reaction in another sense in the body.

Interestingly enough, Van Halen said that when he referred to the brown sound, he actually meant his brother Alex’s drumming.

https://blog.evhgear.com/2015/06/eddie- ... d-feature/

“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.”
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Re: Ed Theory #1 (Variacs vs. Tube Rectifier)

Post by PLX »

lll wrote: Thu Jun 09, 2022 7:20 pm Yeah I totally remember Tube Tramp from the Plexi Palace forum.

What I heard as far as Ed (and I don't remember the source; media of some sort - internet, youtube, interview, article, don't remember) and his variac goes (and it's not gonna be verbatim cuz it's off of memory)...

When he bought his first amp from "Rose Palace", he brought it home plugged it in and no sound.

Waited a few hours came back and it had sound, but super duper low volume.

But it sounded great.

Supposedly this amp was a 240V (don't remember if those old plexis had voltage selector on back)... British voltage amp.

So, 240 volt amp running at half voltage (American wall voltage)
That was a different amp. The one he bought from the Rose Palace was the "House Amp". Anyone who played there was able to use it.

The 240V amp was the one Ed bought through "The Recycler", which was a re-sale newspaper where people bought and sold second-hand items.
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