Dr.Dan 1959LV Plexi

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Marioverkill

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I want to give some appreciation to Dan Tramble for building me this amp. Dan is a builder from NS,Canada specializing in Marshall type builds. I wanted to get a 1968 Marshall that would get me as close as possible to the Van Halen 1 sound. I know this has been done to death. That album has alway been one of my favourite and probably had the biggest impact on me. Almost two years ago when EVH passed away, I went down that path and decided I would build a VH1 rig and learn the whole album. The amp is a 1968 circuit built as close as possible as EVH's amp. It has a custom set of transformers, the power one made to run as the amp would running off of a Variac at 90 volts(the LV in the name=Low Voltage).It is built on a turret board to the highest craftsmanship Dan is known for. The only difference would be the standup Transformers instead of the recessed lay down and can caps. Dan felt this would be an improvement that would not affect the final result and I would have to agree. This amp has surpassed my expectations and has become my all around favourite amp I have ever owned or played. Dan is an incredibly nice guy to deal with and the transaction could not have been more pleasant. I'll include one clip and below also a link to my Youtube playlist of the complete Van Halen One album covers that I recently finished.



Full VH1 Album Covers
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLskG9N9nuni3-lvTiK-PhFferU_DH2RCu
 
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Marioverkill said:
I wanna to give some appreciation to Dan Tramble for building me this amp. Dan is a builder from NS,Canada specializing in Marshall type builds. I wanted to get a 1968 Marshall that would get me as close as possible to the Van Halen 1 sound. I know this has been done to death. That album has alway been one of my favourite and probably had the biggest impact on me. Almost two years ago when EVH passed away, I went down that path and decided I would build a VH1 rig and learn the whole album. The amp is a 1968 circuit built as close as possible as EVH's amp. It has a custom set of transformers, the power one made to run as the amp would running off of a Variac at 90 volts(the LV in the name=Low Voltage).It is built on a turret board to the highest craftsmanship Dan is known for. The only difference would be the standup Transformers instead of the recessed lay down and can caps. Dan felt this would be an improvement that would not affect the final result and I would have to agree. This amp has surpassed my expectations and has become my all around favourite amp I have ever owned or played. Dan is an incredibly nice guy to deal with and the transaction could not have been more pleasant. I'll include one clip and below also a link to my Youtube playlist of the complete Van Halen One album covers that I recently finished.



Full VH1 Album Covers
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLskG9N9nuni3-lvTiK-PhFferU_DH2RCu
Click to expand...


Great playing, Great tone, fellow Canuck!

Cheers,
 
thegame said:
Oh snap, you just busted Pete Thorn’s other eye
Click to expand...
No cool.
For me, ….”Wouldn’t It Be Nice”..”Surfer Girl”..
I thought this dude was Mike Love from
The Beach Boys…
Now I’m hearing “In My Room”-AMAZING SONG.
Was B.Wilson a genius?
Anybody would be when the drugs were so pure and plentiful…,
Sadly nearly every great song from 60,s-80’s,
is a direct relation to whatever they snorted or smoked before the take.
It sucks man but it’s the sad truth.
Why do you think Clapton will never perform the song Cocaine again?
He’s over it and lived through that shit!!
 
Awesome! I was interested in Dr. Dan's Jcm800 build awhile back. His stellar work needs more recognition.
 
Dino 939 said:
No cool.
For me, ….”Wouldn’t It Be Nice”..”Surfer Girl”..
I thought this dude was Mike Love from
The Beach Boys…
Now I’m hearing “In My Room”-AMAZING SONG.
Was B.Wilson a genius?
Anybody would be when the drugs were so pure and plentiful…,
Sadly nearly every great song from 60,s-80’s,
is a direct relation to whatever they snorted or smoked before the take.
It sucks man but it’s the sad truth.
Why do you think Clapton will never perform the song Cocaine again?
He’s over it and lived through that shit!!
Click to expand...
Since you’re off your meds again, let me explain. I think Mario would sound great in Mitch Malloy’s VH experience, better than Thorn. His playing captures Eddie’s aggression, something many other VH cover artists fail to achieve. Sorry OP for derailing your thread again. It’s been bonkers and quite heated here recently. And by recently I mean going on the better part of a decade now. We don’t want an arguing old couple to scare off the new neighbours!
 
Great playing and sound, really does nail that tone.

Dans amps deserve more traction. I have been following his builds for a couple of years and I think he makes a great product. I know if I was looking for a plexi style amps he would be the first person I contact.
 
Sounds really good! Did you build it to 100% stock 68 specs or Dave Friedman Ed specs? Either way the amp sounds killer Mr. Tramble did a great job!

I listened to a few of your YT clips, nice job, your amp has the ED core tone for sure......Alot of people unsuccessfully chase that tone!

What are you using up front of the amps input? Anything? EP3 echoplex? MXR 6 band EQ? MXR Flanger? MXR phase 90?

In your clip are you using the whole sunset sound post EQ plugins or are these clip just the amp in the Suhr IR load box then in to the DAW?

What IR are you using in the Suhr?

What pickup is in your 5150 Kramer?
 
harddriver said:
Sounds really good! Did you build it to 100% stock 68 specs or Dave Friedman Ed specs? Either way the amp sounds killer Mr. Tramble did a great job!

I listened to a few of your YT clips, nice job, your amp has the ED core tone for sure......Alot of people unsuccessfully chase that tone!

What are you using up front of the amps input? Anything? EP3 echoplex? MXR 6 band EQ? MXR Flanger? MXR phase 90?

In your clip are you using the whole sunset sound post EQ plugins or are these clip just the amp in the Suhr IR load box then in to the DAW?

What IR are you using in the Suhr?

What pickup is in your 5150 Kramer?
Click to expand...
Thank you.
You would have to talk to Dan about circuit specifics.

In front is as follows:Original MXR Flanger modded for true Bypass and DC powering--Analogman modded Custom Shop MXR Phase 90 modded for mix level,LED and power jack---Clinch EP+---Mxr Echoplex Delay

For the VH1 covers: Runnin' With The Devil and Ice Cream Man are the Sennheider e609 mic you see on the cab. All the other covers from that Album are the Suhr RLIR,patch 1.1 into a mixer the into GarageBand. I am using reverb from my Eventide H8000FW. I thought of getting the Sunset sound stuff, but I am using GarageBand,not Logic so I am not up to full speed on plug-ins.

The pickup in the 5150 is custom wound by Ted Stevenson base on the hot Mighty Mite he had at one point.
 
This is a total nerdfest post but I love it! Right down to custom wound pickups no less. I had never heard of this builder but we really should put together a list of builders across Canada because the exchange rate and border/customs taxes are working against us.

That's a fantastic sounding amp though admittedly, most plexi circuits ( even cheap ones) get close enough to that sound to scratch my itch.
 
I am not at all surprised you are running a Mighty Mite 1300 I hear it all over VH1 myself...you must have watched the Ossie Ahsen pickup shootout from last year.........it just has the right crunch and that fuzzy distortion that rides on the notes. Your VHII SGMAD even sounded good with the mighty mite, I kinda think Ed went to a hotter wound PAF on VHII how hot is up for discussion but Jim Gaustad has some theories....Have you checked out Gaustad's VH tone chase videos?

I still love my Duncan 78 model for almost all Ed stuff but it does VHII the best and my mighty mite 1400(9K) does VH1 better than the 78 model IMHO and your clips as well as Ossie Ahsen's just keep confirming that for me!:yes:

I think it's great you are getting these tones without the API 550, Pultec EQ andthe Sunset Sound plugins. Are you doing alot of post EQ on these clips? Like the Don Landee 10K at 2DB kind of studio fluff.

What is the Suhr 1.1 patch? A pre-rola greendback?

I almost forgot...what preamp and power tube is your 68 Tramble running? EL34's or 6CA7's?

Anyway... greats clips I enjoyed listening to them! Thanks for the information on your setup!:2thumbsup: Those Suhr IR's are really impressive sounding!
 
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The Mighty Mite was Ted's suggestion as my goal and favorite early VH sound is VH1.
I did see Jim's and Ossie stuff,lots of cool opinions !
I am not doing any EQ'ing . The EQ on my Mixwiz is bypassed. No EQ in GarageBand either.
The RLIR 1.1 is a Suhr G12M Greenback 4x12 C SM57 Balanced Celestion
I can't remember the preamp tubes but the power are EL34 II.
Thanks for your interest.
 
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