I am already being asked what the heck brown sound is. No, you cannot smell it before you hear it. Here is a full summation of what the brown sound actually is. If you are a die hard Van Halen fan, then you already know:
The Brown Sound is a legendary electric guitar distortion tone that musicians try to emulate using various effects pedals, tube amplifiers and modeling amplifiers. The term was coined by guitarist Eddie Van Halen to describe the sound of Alex Van Halen's snare drum, which he then attempted to emulate with his 100-watt Marshall amplifier running at full volume. Eddie would use a variac (a device that controls voltage levels) and run it at about 90 volts ac to the power input of the Marshall amp (normally the amp would have 120 volts input in the US; although the older Marshalls like Eddie's were designed in Europe with a 110 volt input rating)this allowed Eddie to lower the voltage input to his Marshall while allowing him to turn the amplifier's volume knob up all the way, this saturated the output tubes, without distorting the preamp tubes, and lowered the stress on the amplifier. Eddie would also use a dummy load on the amp output instead of going right to the speakers, then he would add his effects pedals (Eddie found the effects performed better this way) and then run the effects into a power amp usually an H&H V800 MOS-FET, then to speakers. He would set his Marshall Amp output resistance at 8 ohms and the dummy load at 20 ohms lowering the stress on the Marshall amp (the Marshall amp basically became one powerful preamp). This all helped to create his brown sound in conjunction with the single PAF pick-up and a high resistance volume pot he installed, without a tone control. Of course this was mainly his recording set-up; Eddies live setup was a little different. More than the appropriate number of user-submitted product reviews at the well known musician review websites claim that product X can replicate the Brown Sound perfectly.
Sources of the brown sound are frequently speculated upon, from the pickup Van Halen used on his "frankenstrat" guitar, possible modifications to the amplifier for more preamp gain, additional distortion from the phase 90 pedal, or simply studio trickery. However; Eddie admitted years later that the amp modification story was made up by him to increase his buddies repair business. No real modifications were done to his Marshall amp except once in a while Eddie would use a different rated output tube(s) that would saturate faster. Eddie applied the variac, dummy load, and power amp, along with his modifications to the guitar, and a few effects to get his Brown Sound. It should be noted that older Marshall Amps had a distinct sound to begin with and most guitarist used a lot of treble in the sound where Eddie did not.
