Top Jimi: "Brown Sound" Pack is Out Now

  • Hey Kemper Fans,


    Our Brown Sound Pack is now available (14 profiles) at http://www.topjimi.com


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    In this pack we're seeking to recreate the "Brown" sound heard on the early Van Halen recordings


    Speakers Used During the Profiling Process: 1967 Celestion 20W Greenback, Celestion Vintage 30 (paired with Greenback for VH I profiles)


    Gain Range (Scale: 0 to 10): 6 to 7


    Profile Type: Studio, Merged


    These profiles capture Eddie's "Brown Sound" heard on the early Van Halen records, from Van Halen I up to 1984. The Brown Sound has always been my favorite guitar tone, and I've been working to capture it for about 20 years. We recreated his rig as best we possibly could, with the exception of the JBL speaker mixed with the Celestion on the VH I album. The JBL just didn't sound right, so we substituted a Vintage 30 instead, which worked great. We tweaked the rig and created separate profiles to account for the differences in guitar tone on each album. The Kemper Phaser, Flanger and Delay do an admirable job recreating the old analog effects used in Eddie's rig. The profiles have Phaser, Flanger, Delay and Reverb presets as appropriate for each album.


    Please Note: Obviously, the guitar is a very important part of the signal chain, and differences between guitars will affect the tone. We used Jimi's Les Paul Standard as a neutral reference to build the profiles. If your guitar has a fuller tone, we recommend increasing the Treble and Presence together. Try increasing them both by 0.3 and see how that sounds. If your guitar is bright, try reducing the Treble and Presence by 0.3 and go from there.


    Signal Path: Guitar --> Vintage MXR 10-Band EQ --> 1968 Marshall Super Lead using a Variac set to 90V --> Ultimate Attenuator (resistive attenuator + solid state power amp) --> Marshall 4x12 loaded with '67 Celestion 20W Greenback


    -Jimi

  • I also miss some gain. Mi guitar is an original music man van halen and my pickups are original dimarzio 15 kohm of impedance. Have you put all the controls to 10? Anyway the tone is definitely there, it's a pleasure to play with these profiles...

  • I also miss some gain. Mi guitar is an original music man van halen and my pickups are original dimarzio 15 kohm of impedance. Have you put all the controls to 10? Anyway the tone is definitely there, it's a pleasure to play with these profiles...

    I think what you're missing is volume; at higher volume, there is more interaction between the sound waves from the speaker and the strings on your guitar, increasing sustain and touch sensitivity. I always found it weird when playing in headphones, for example, with high gain settings that were almost uncontrollable in the room, yet were tame as a lap dog in cans :)

  • Gave them a good spin to some guitarless VH backing tracks yesterday. Using both my EVH Wolfgangs I need to up the treble and presence a touch as suggested as its quick a dark guitar compared to a hard ash strat/Kramer he used back then. With my Musicman EVH it barely needs any adjusting at all. Awesome few hours spent on these yesterday.

  • Fricking awesome !


    But, instead of looking for VH sound, I actually trapped on AC/DC,Paul Gilbert , etc - perfect Marshall sound I was looking for ...



    To be more precise , I am talking about specific setup - built in KPA Power amp (fantastic work by JP from South Africa ! ) and Mesa 2x12'' cab .


    Some kind of magic was created between KPA , JP built in power amp, my 5 humble guitars and mighty Mesa cab !!!


    I keep guitar(s) volume just bellow 8 say , but KPA monitor volume is going 50-60 % .


    I know, the walls/windows are shaking, but this is Rock and Roll ! (luckily I can do that) .


    Playing via PC speakers and QSC's do not make such a kind of magic ,while still sound awesome...


    It looks to me like a these TJ Brown profiles are ideal for loud cab playing, they just really shine with full Marshall classic power and slightly rolled down guitar volume...


    Who knows what is this all about , but who care when the real Marshall Brown sound is on !


    Thanks TJ , you nailed it !

    1988 Branko Radulovic Hand Made Strat in Macedonia (SFRJ)

    2006 Steve Vai vwh moded with SS frets and Sustainac 2006 (Japan)

    2008 Fender YJM , moded (USA)

    2010 Tom Andersons Drop Top 2010 (made in California)

    2017 Charvel GG sig Caramelised Ash (USA)

    2022 Gibson ES 335 2011 Custom Shop Cherry of course ( Memphis)

    Edited once, last by Rescator ().