Variplex- the tone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DAVID PHILLIPS]

Well, I finally got my ultimate amp. The Variplex by Roy Blankenship and Dave Freidman. All I can say is it is exactly the Van Halen tone with everything dimed. I can also get the perfect Cream and Hendrix tones. Basically it is the best Marshall without the headaches. The amp is a 50 watt plexi with a Variac which allows you to run the amp wide open without damaging you ears or the tubes. I can drop it down so it runs like a 10 watt amp and it still sounds amazing. Full power tube distortion-no master vol, no pre gain. Words can't describe it fully. I have found the tone.

First off, sorry for the sloppy playing. I was a little tense and playing a guitar that I wasn't use to. Anyway, here is the setup. I ran a reissue Les Paul with a Tom Holmes in the bridge into the Variplex dimed across the board dropped to 90 volts. The head went into a 70's Marshall cab with 25Watt Greenback reissues. It was then miked with a SM57. No EQ. Dry. Perfect mid-range. What you are hearing is all power tube distortion. No master volume. Hat's off to Roy and Dave for designing an amazing amp.



http://www.davidphillipsmusic.com/variplexdry.mp3

[Osmosis]

1) Nice tone and playing!

2) You might find some people on this board might frown upon someone showing up out of the blue and posting a glowing review of an amp for a first post. Lets just say, we've had a bad history with that sort of thing around these parts.

[Kevin11]

Man, with all the EVH freaks on here, I'm surprised this only has one reply so far. There's been a bit of discussion about this amp on the HRI forum over the past few months. A bunch of us were anxiously awaiting clips and David finally came through. I'm sure he figured there'd be more than a few folks here who'd be interested.

The clips sound fantastic. I think they provide a pretty killer snapshot of an amazing plexi style amp.

Anyone who digs the early EVH tones should check out this clip!

[rkstarr]

thats the closest to evh..why...the notes are very musical ..and not overly compressed..thats what eddie sounds like before ted..templeman

[Rawchannel]

You can hear all of the harmonics shift when you do any double stops/bends. That's the best part of good power tube breakup I think. Sounds like the amp is really getting worked by the playing. That's the way it should be. I'd like to hear it with a few different cabs.

[Jarick]

Sounds cool, nails the Van Halen thing!

Too much power tube saturation for my tastes, when it does that "choppy" sound. But hell, I ain't you and vice versa so

[Rawchannel]

I was just reading in a recording mag that too much power tube OD in a class AB amp causes the harmonics themselves to distort(read:Bad)

I like my master about half way up, or a little higher, but, any higher than that and it starts recording badly (with hotplate, not a full blast speaker into a mic).

I wonder how that applies to an amp without a master volume if it's still class AB...or are the blankenships class A?

[Chubtone]

First, let me just say that I have spent the last hour playing through my '72 Super Lead and my Mojave Peacemaker in my home studio. I am listening to this clip on the same monitoring system and at the same volume.

Tonally, I think the amp sounds great, especially for leads. It seems quite fuzzy sounding to me though on anything where you are playing two notes or more. Like there is too much squishy power tube saturation.

I'm not saying it doesn't sound killer because it does, but for me I would spend all night trying to dial out that fuzz before I would even press the Record button.

I don't know how much these amps cost, but the EVH sound has been totally nailed in my opinion for about 4 years now by the Peacemaker. IMHO.

[mentoneman]

Originally posted by Chubtone
First, let me just say that I have spent the last hour playing through my '72 Super Lead and my Mojave Peacemaker in my home studio. I am listening to this clip on the same monitoring system and at the same volume.

Tonally, I think the amp sounds great, especially for leads. It seems quite fuzzy sounding to me though on anything where you are playing two notes or more. Like there is too much squishy power tube saturation.

I'm not saying it doesn't sound killer because it does, but for me I would spend all night trying to dial out that fuzz before I would even press the Record button.

I don't know how much these amps cost, but the EVH sound has been totally nailed in my opinion for about 4 years now by the Peacemaker. IMHO.

what he said...i think i'm hearing too much greenback breakup on top of pegged power tube compression, but i'm happy you found your ultimate tone dave!

[Nik]

It's just a Plexi clone with a Variac?