The Magical Marshall The amplifier pictured above is Eddie Van Halens sacred Marshall that he has used during the recording of each Van Halen studio album (except VH3). Ed purchased the head from the Rose Palace when he was only 14 years old. It had been used there as a house amp. Although Eddie used to use dozens of Marshalls for his live shows, he saved this particular head for his studio work due to its incredible tonality. As far as Im concerned, this amplifier is the Brown Sound. This Marshall Super-Lead head is a 100-watt #1959 SLP model with four inputs, two separate channels (Bright and Normal), no master volume, with three 12AX7 pre-amp tubes and four EL34 power tubes. This model is nicknamed the plexi- because of its plexiglass front panel. Eddie would keep it loaded with four Sylvania 6CA7 power tubes (Ed used this American brand because they run slightly cooler than their European counterpart). Also, notice in the picture that the back panel of the amp has been removed to allow better ventilation to keep it from over heating. This amplified was used in conjunction with Marshall cabinets (each with four Celestion speakers). I plugged into an old 100-watt Marshall Super Lead through a 4x12 cabinet for that album. Its a 66 or 67 -nothing special. Ive done all the Van Halen records with that same amp. To really pull that crunchy overdrive from the tubes, Eddie would connect the amplifier to a Ohmite Variac Transformer that regulated the electrical current from 0 to 140 volts. This allowed Ed to have the head turned up all the way to really work the tubes, but at lower, non-ear bleed volume levels (Although he did crank the Variac up to 140 volts in the studio for Van Halen I)! The only way I can make my Marshall work is with everything turned all the way up. When we played in clubs, it would be too loud and the amp would feed back. I tried using a light dimmer, but it fried a fuse when I hooked it up to the house. So I went down to Radio Shack and bought a Variac, which worked. I always used it for recording in the early days before I started sitting in the control room. Whenever the amp would feed back, Id turn it down with the Variac. Early in Van Halens career, Ed used to say that his amps were heavily modified by Jose Arrendondo of Arrco Electronics to throw people off that were trying to imitate his sound. He would comment in interviews that the gain had been incresed by cascaded certain stages of the amp and that the transformer was hot-rodded. Later, after Eddie designing the 5150 heads with Peavey, he debunked those myths. His amps had always been stock.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:43:14 +0000