During a recent interview, guitarist Joe Bonamassa was asked how Edward Van Halen created his now famous “brown sound”.
Below is an article rock journalist/author Greg Prato has shared with the Van Halen News Desk including Bonamassa’s comments on Edward’s iconic sound and the multiple factors that went into achieving it. This comes from the website Ultimate-Guitar.com:
There has been many attempts to find the right ingredients to recreate the famous “brown sound” that the legendary Eddie Van Halen obtained on the early Van Halen recordings. Was it his Frankenstrat? A Marshall Plexi? The effects included within the casing of a World War II-era practice bomb?
During a recent interview with Jordi Pinyol, modern-day guitar great Joe Bonamassa shared his thoughts and theories about how EVH obtained an outstanding guitar tone on such tunes as “Eruption,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” and “Atomic Punk” (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
“You know how he got it? First of all, it’s in his hands. He could play anything and it would sound like Eddie Van Halen. But where most people missed the mark is they forget that his cab that they recorded all those early records at Sunset Sound was loaded with JBL’s on the top, it’s Celestions on the bottom.”
Bonamassa also pointed out that mic placement in the studio also played a major role in the “brown sound.”
“They would mic one of each and they would blend the JB and they would blend the Celestion. The JBL gave it the teeth and the Celestion gave it the warmth, and they would blend it. That’s how we did it.”
And lastly, where Van Halen recorded their early albums also factored into how EVH’s guitar was captured on tape.
“Plus big old Sunset Sound plate reverb. That was a that was a big factor. But he could play anything and sound like him. Clapton can play anything and sound like him.”
Early on, Van Halen’s go-to studio was Sunset Sound Recorders, located at 6650 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, with Ted Templeman producing. In fact, they thought so highly of the studio that they recorded their first five albums there: “Van Halen,” “Van Halen II,” “Women and Children First,” “Fair Warning,” and “Diver Down,” before EVH’s home studio, 5150, was constructed.
by Greg Prato