Pinnacle II Distortion pedal Wampler pedals Eddie Van Halen Brown sound

[TheInvalidChronicles]

how much was this pedal? what amp were you going through?" if i may ask

[mosola2]

Hi! How does the Pinnacle compare to your Hot British? Is the HB capable of nearly the same sounds; thinking of the transparency and glassyness of a Plexi amp? Or are they totally differently voiced?

Thanks! Best regards, Morten

[AlterEgoEffectors]

Cool pedal

[CenileTV]

Hi Jason! Been diggin your videos. Great job! Why does your pinnacle II have 5 knob and one DIP switch? I checked the ones on his site, and they have 4 knobs and 2 dips. Is yours an earlier or modded version? Cheers. Also, how do you make the HQ vids with the mic'ed up cabs. What is your workflow/software used for making the vids. Do you record in a DAW first then import it back into the movie? I'm inspired. Thanks!

[JTM45100]

No did intended, but if you want to get a dead on VH tone, check out Strat78 or Ralle at the metroamp forums. They pretty much have stock 12000 series plexis , but with llittle tweaks like and 820ohm cathode resistor across the .68uf on v1b instead a 2.7k, and different v2a cathode cap.Then get a Northern Ash body from Dive bomb, and put a Super Distortion in it. You can thank me later if you dare to try this.

[jashobbsie]

@JTM45100 ? this is a pedal demo...only. dare to find a better pedal to put you in the ball park....keep looking...let me know.

cheers!

[Drew927]

man that guy just melted our faces

[t3hPoundcake]

Sounds pretty nice, has the right amount of gain but it could be a little more harsh, I don't think boosting the trebles would do anything but make it sound more metal, pretty damn nice tho.

[joehenao16]

Please tell me the settings of your amp. I have the same one and i cant get it exactly like this.

[stephjeff]

Sounds more metal than old school Van halen. It's not bad, but too chugga chugga. Eddie didn't do that metal tone sound. In all the videos of this pedal, the sound is very distant. Is this how the pedal is? or is it simply the users are scooping the mids too much? It's sounds buried as soon as they hit the pedal on.

You really Got me, through Metallica's rig! I'll pass.

[jashobbsie]

@stephjeff

obviously you know nothing about this pedal....eddie guitar technician even said this pedal can be tweaked to get the best brown sound out of a pedal that he's ever heard. Plus, do you think you couls sound like evh thru his gear? not a chance...most of eddies tone is how he plays and attacks the strings and his style. If steve via, joe satriani, malmsteen...or whoever played his rig...they would sound like ...guess who...themselves. this is an old vid i put up years ago...no mic...

[Marathonmarch]

@jashobbsie I am able to duplicate the so called brown sound through a peavey classic 30 a mxr 10 band in the loop and chandler tube driver and it's better than this pedal at least for the brown sound. I had one of these pedals and have to say it's not really the brown sound it reminded me of a radial tonebone for the most part

[jashobbsie]

@Marathonmarch I own all the pedals you just mentioned...I know this pedal kicks their asses..lol

IMO the pinnacle is one ove the best versatile pedals out there...this is not a good recording of the pedal IMO..my recording technique has improved since then...check out my Unchained cover in the responses to this video for a better representation of the pedal.

cheers!

[Marathonmarch]

@jashobbsie Well maybe to your ears it does, like I said I have owned it and sold it because it wasn't the tone I was after way too much gain on the pedal . So I opted for a pedal with 250 volts running through a 12ax7 or 12au7 which is a really cool option by the way to change out your preamp tube in your pedal lol. Anyway that pedal doesn't kick any ass whatsoever in my opinion

[jashobbsie]

@stephjeff

[jashobbsie]

@stephjeff

i have better recording equipment nowadays....

check out the dialed in tone in a newer vid..playing unchained.

search:

jashobbsie unchained

[calfender08]

are you using your DR Z maz 38 in this demo?

[jashobbsie]

@calfender08 no...marshall TSL 100 on clean channel...

cheers!

[itsonlyrcknroll]

great demo, enjoy all your videos, appreciate your genuine comments about all the gear you demo...just off the cuff as you play. And this is the closest thing I've heard to the Brown Sound that you can get with just a pedal.

[calfender08]

Quality depends on your pc speakers and tube is compressed. I think is a great demo for this pedal and this guy kicks ass. I made the mistake of picking out a head via you tube marshall vintage modern huge mistake bought on ebay new open box cost me 1000.00 in repairs 6 times in the amp shop.

[TCB141]

How do you think this would sound on a line 6 spider amp? Would I still get that "brown sound"?

[jashobbsie]

@TCB141 not quite sure...I think you will get the best sound thru a tube amp...

[YouJustGotOwend]

Wow, that's as near to the brown sound as you can get with a pedal. Nice work!

[Amorphustruth]

love the way you played....beautiful sound!

[tomiclav]

can u tell me the settings? pls! i can't see what says uder the knobs- i see in the 1st row volume, vint/mod, gain then in the 2nd sumthing, sumthing sumthing???

[jashobbsie]

@tomiclav top from left to right  volume/ gain

bottom left to rght treble/mids/bass

[tomiclav]

@jashobbsie tnx!

[sportsportsport]

Why this over the Superplextortion?

[awesomejohnnet]

@sportsportsport

this is the full body wampler while the plextorition is the sooped mids heavy bass sound... each has its fans... the scooped thing is better for thumpers the full body sound is the players solos sound..

[brownbigb]

it's pretty good, but the top end openness is missing.

[jashobbsie]

@brownbigb really? I've been playin for 25 years and i don't even know what you mean by that saying....I just use my ears....what you hear on my 50dollar video cam is not at all what you hear in the room...let me tell you, you will never hear a pedal come closer to the brown sound...let me know if you know of one....I'd love to buy it and compare it for myself....thanks for the comment. :)

[brownbigb]

@jashobbsie i am not saying it doesn't come close. and it could be the camera's mic. but what i meant is eddie's sound has a more open, less compressed top end. wasn't putting it down, just an observation

[jashobbsie]

@brownbigb oh ok, yeah, the thing is you are never gonna get the sound of a cranked plexi 100watt in a box, lets be realistic i guess, right? But this thing does the job at bedroom levels, i should do a better demo soon, I have better recordng gear now where as i can mic my amp...might do it more justice? take care my friend :)

cheers!

[brownbigb]

@jashobbsie would love to hear a demo with better recording quality. looking forward to it. nice playing btw.

[budgetvanhalen]

Hi mate,please can you tell me what each knob is labelled as? I have one of these but it only has 4 knobs!!! Thanx and great tone and playing too!!

[jashobbsie]

@budgetvanhalen Top left is volume Bottom left is trebleTop right is Gain Bottom right is bassMiddle isMids/vintage/modern I have a knob instead of a switch thats all, its the only one i've seen like it..this is the way Brian made it for me....hope thats helps.

cheers!

[evhfan1000]

I have this pedal but the one with the foot switch boost. Only $100 anyone interested????

[antonioval90]

@evhfan1000 yes!!!!but i'm Italian:)

[halcon7000]

@evhfan1000 I am interested .

[xXNeoShredderXx]

@evhfan1000 Does it work? I'll pay via paypal.

[dohootowl]

Man! You're killin' me! You've got skills! Brian has nailed the early VH tone with this one.

[bailey32121]

Wow i say thats very close to the brown sound, i have to get one lol

[solunasunrise]

are they called wampler .. the factory makes this pinnacle thing !?

[jashobbsie]

@solunasunrise wampler prounced "wompler"

[MrBingo9er]

wow that is spot on with ed's tone im sold (nice playing too mate jolly good hi-ho gotta go to the stow and get me one yo ! =))

[2253glen]

Holy crap, this thing is smokin'! Just got one off ebay and it is without a doubt the best sounding pedal I have ever played, wow. Glen

[RelaxationII]

Could this do Jason Becker and Yngwie type sounds?

[12345678ix]

i see the tone bone hot british to the side i had the pedal but i dident like it it was too loose and tone bad

is the pinnacle better and tighter i have a bugera v22 and ibanezz rg

[jashobbsie]

just put up another video playing "UNCHAINED" by van halen using this pedal! NIce pedal for this song!

[snoopjmcd]

this pedal poos brown sound

[evhfan1000]

Ok so do you think i could oreder it this way?

[jashobbsie]

@evhfan1000 can't see why not..just tell him thats the way you want it made....

cheers!

[jashobbsie]

@evhfan1000 I personally like it this way....I don't know what the other way is like....sorry.

[evhfan1000]

Ok i gotta ask why does this one have low mid and high adjustables and the ones you can buy have volume boost and gain instead?

[jashobbsie]

@evhfan1000 don't know ..just they It was made for me...I love it this way!

[keeza333]

Its funny cause i seen a video with EVh and he doesn't use a distortion pedal . He was talking about jamming out with Billy Corgan and Billy asked him where his effects were and he was like what effects . He just uses his amp and guitar . Of course this is cheaper than buying an expensive amp . Good guitar playing by the way . I wish I could play that good .

[evhfan1000]

So do you need the phase pedal or is that incorporated in the Pinncale?

[jashobbsie]

@evhfan1000 there is no phase pedal on here...just a wampler analog echo..not built in the pedal...does it sound phasey to you?...its probably the delay your hearing...

cheers!

[evhfan1000]

No was just wondering cause I usually use a phase for his stuff cause he used a phase 90 back in the day.

[MoonmanJR]

Damn thats fricken sweet. Sold me when you played Panama. That was REALLY close if not spot on!

[ThePathofHavoc]

Jeezice. That sounds fantastic.

[Luckums135]

HEY! I need Help! Mines the new one with the boost switch. do you think you could give me the settings for it?

[jashobbsie]

@Luckums135 If I were you I would just use your ears...to dial in a specific tone! every player has different feel as well, tone is in the fingers to a certain extent as well...good luck. I just use my ears..i had no manual to use.

[Luckums135]

It's just that it sound way different in a bad way with my amp. I have a Peavy Classic 50. It sounds like it has only low gain even with the gain crabked on the padal. Did I get a bad pedal or is it just my lack of knowledge?

[Luckums135]

Whjats your setup? Cuz this sounds great!

[jashobbsie]

@Luckums135 i no longer have this setup..sold the marshall...but "kept the pinnacle", keeper for life!

[thecoolkid4ever]

don't buy a pedal just use yer' amps drive with lots of gain and reverb probly a variac or attenuator no pedals

[Mrjones2044x]

Can i use this pedal on the gain channel of my amp or just the clean? ive got a vlackstar ht5 head and marshall tsl 212cab.

Best pedal for van halen in my opinion and ive been looking for a while now!

[erocypsi]

@MrJones

This pedal works great with amps with gain. It is more of an overdrive pedal than a distortion pedal IMO. It is capable obviously of distorted tones, but with the boost off, it acts more like a overdrive pedal on steroids. Great Pedal!

[VHAKscott]

hello I just bought the pinnacle but I do not understand several things when I use the boost button puts a terrible noise, besides deque not understand why mine has 4 knobs and yours has 5 I may describe as button-button to see if it same order as in the video do not get to see the letters and not if the order is the same bone I want to know if the gain is in the same place as mine, so help me and I hope that your amp sounds genial and not mine, I want to know

[jashobbsie]

i asked Brian wampler the same question....he says they are all basically the same circuitry simply. there are different versions of this pedal, no orries ,you got a great pedal there. every amp you put it through will same different. at higher gain settings you will get some hiss or hum, nothing to worry about. especially if you use single coil pickups....

cheers!

[StratGT]

I haven't been to the 12th Fret in a few years. I have a Dr.Z Z28 amp, do you think this pedal would work well with my amp? I find my Tonebone pedal takes too much tone out of the amp when I use it.

[1961gibson]

i have the same amp and pedal what are the settings on the amp?

[edGgitarista]

Great playing there jason! I'd like to ask though, how do you find it against the plextortion if you have/had one? They seem to overlap at some settings based ont the other vids. How would you also find this with medium gain, will it pass for a bluesy tone? Thanks in advance

[jashobbsie]

I'm not sure how it compares to the plextortion...i never tried that one yet..but I intend to buy that one too eventually! I can tell you however that the pinnacle is geat for a lot of things! i have used it for blues...you can get a real great bluesy tone with this pedal. The pedal cleans up quite well with subtle gai...also i back off my guitar volume and this works well too...You can't go wrong with this pedal!

cheers! thanks for watching!

[BrasilGuitar]

What would you say about Hot Wired??

[jashobbsie]

the hotwired is not as "gainy" but you can certainly rock out with it! You'd have to play it to hear what i mean. Keith Urban and Brad Paisley now own a Hot Wired by Brian wampler....

[jameswalshe09]

would this be better than just recreating eddies setup ?

[jashobbsie]

definately not! eddies setup would blow mine away! hands down!

[TheStrangeGuitarist]

Great video !!!!!!!!!!

I think you can help me :)

I want a Marshall Plexi in a Box, i'm looking for :

- Wampler Plextortion

- Wampler Pinnacle II

- Tonebone Hot British

Wampler or Tonebone ?

Thanks

[jashobbsie]

personally i would pick the pinnacle 2, I had a hot british and sold it a couple of months later...wouldn't to gone on it..it was an impulse buy. it was a vert versatile pedal though. I hear the plexi tonebone is the better one, but a little more pricy...thanks for commenting...

[TheStrangeGuitarist]

Thanks a lot ;)

[Broodkill]

dude no go for the plextortion or plextortion II dude seriously....best distortion pedal ever made period

[TheStrangeGuitarist]

Thanks,

So the the Wampler Plextortion would be better

The plextortion = 3 band EQ

The pinnacle II = 1 tone, 1 contour

I think I will go for the Plextortion, what do you think ???

[Broodkill]

yeah go for it. it really is the best..it is like a marshall plexi and jcm 900 in a box. you can get really heavy metallica tones or you can get acdc rock n roll.

[TheStrangeGuitarist]

Ok, thanks a lot !!!

[mancuzojr]

Ok but just the Pinnacle II its enough for this or I need more pedal for the same sound.

[jashobbsie]

well just to let you know, in the video i have an analog echo by wampler pedals as well, they sound great together. But the pedals sound great by itself...Probably would sound better through a hot rod deluxe or fender twin or something because they are such great clean amps.

[Nothernlight47]

Simply awesome. Can i ask you the amp and guitar used ? 5*

[jashobbsie]

The amp used is a marshall tsl 100 half stack on the clean channel and a fender partscaster that i put together from a mexican fender strat. all american pups and and hotrails in the bridge and a "allparts" fender neck. i have a video of this guitar in my videos..it's the white fender with the pearloid pickguard.

Thanks for the comment.

[Nothernlight47]

Thanks to you for sharing ! Can i ask you also if you use the delay in front of the amp or thru the Fx loop ?

[tomiclav]

OMG!! this is an awsome pedal if only would make a demo between this and mi audio crunch box......could you tell me something bout that radial pedal? is it worth being next to this Holy Grail??

[jashobbsie]

Well, i just recently sold it! it was a nice pedal, very versatile, but not as smooth as the pinnacle for soloing. It had some good rhythum tones. I wasn't gone on it!

this one's called the "hot british" pedal by tonebone radial. all in all nice pedal.

[jashobbsie]

Thru the FX loop on the marshall. Sounded better to me. All of my delays I put thru the FX loop. Even on the dual rec head.

[Nothernlight47]

Thx

[calfender08]

You rock. I'm going to buy that pedal and a boss reverb for my marshall vintage modern 2466 I got on monday. The marshall reverb is like not having a reverb. such an awesome amp but bad reverb. How did you learn to play? guitar tabs, teacher, self taught?

[jashobbsie]

thanks! I mostly a self taught player, after about 5 years of playing i got into reading tabs just as a reference. i still like playing by ear, you tend to apreaciate all the little nuances of somebody's playing that way...by the way ...you'd have to put this pedal through a clean channel to get the best sound from the pedal, Brian builds some awesome pedals! the pinnacle 2 is one of many!

take care

[Axeman2006]

"not too bad...." lol

This thing is unreal!!!

Thanks for the ripping playin and demo!

[kampuri]

Im planning on making my own. Can anyone tell me where I can get the schematics for this pedal?

[Georgeee1995]

i go to 12th fret too in toronto

[torobug]

this pedal sounds amazing , must get one ,, nice playing to

[logeybear5150]

will this pedal work well with a marshall MG 100 stack, i know its bad but iv got a pretty awesome clean sound with the pedals i have just now, i just cant get any good distortion sound and i really want a van halen sound cos i play mainly van halen stuff

[jashobbsie]

wouldn't know forsure but it wouldbe worth a try!

[logeybear5150]

awesome, thanks

[rockfreak611]

I have a zoom g2.1u and when I plug it into my marshall mg 50dfx, the awesome tones I can get out of the zoom are destroyed. just a thought before you buy.

[jashobbsie]

I think the zoom pedal may have a built in preamp of some sort? The line 6 products are much the same, they tend to sound different in front of an amp. BUT the pinnacle is great in front of an amp at least with my experiences. lets just say, if I had to part with every pedal an could just keep one, it would be the pinnacle, it is very versatile and helps shape some great tone.

[rockfreak611]

thanks. i had no idea the zoom already had a built in preamp, but that makes sense why the tone would be so drastically changed infront of an amp. I'm definately considering this once I get the money.

[VanHalenWorshiper]

wow great tone how much is this pedal ive been trying to chase the brown sound myself where can i buy it help me out thanks

[Scearus]

Eddie doesn't have tone. He just turns everything all the way up... Or at least that's what it sounds like. :/

[jashobbsie]

ok?

[logeybear5150]

he has plenty tone, he just needed more gain which is why he ran everything at full volume, and that was only on the first VH albums up to 1984 when he used old marshall plexi's, but even then they still have monster tone

[jashobbsie]

as everyone one knows, eddies tone is in his fingers! some o the top players in the world have played through eddies setup and said, " it sounds like me", maybe they were expecting it to sound like eddy? some people who have the licks down and all the little nuances, maybe they could come close, but i'm sure eddy could coax terrific tone out of the worst amp in the world thru his personal touch of the"fingers"

[Taud]

Nice tone man, its funny how more than half the comments on here are douches arguing over van halen's gear....

[usta4070]

At 1:34 just roll off the guitar volume knob. Nice playing. Something in that rig is making it sound too dark and it's missing the Marshall midrange honk..

[GnR190]

where can i buy it? and how much € does it cost?

[DonJannis]

Look at the wampler homepage and then Dealers, then you can find some dealers here in europe!

I think it's 220 €

[GnR190]

thanks

[Teutonic1250]

how much is this? its very badass

[THERAGINGALCOHALIC]

so wats the difference between the pedal with 4 knobs and the pedal with 5? wat does the 5th knob do?

[evhfan1000]

yeah what is the difference and where do you get one of these?

[Greenballed]

This was a version that was made for a short time. It was just a mids knob in place of the mid boost switch. It has some problems with excess noise so they went back to the other version with 4 knobs and 2 switches. Sounds the same though. Best VH sounding pedal I have ever heard. I bought an extra for backup.

[badtelerising]

I'm a country picker but S***! I gotta have one of these!!

[megalink94]

holy shit i did not know a fender could sound so bad ass

[smultimate77]

dude van halen basicly played a fender.

[MeanStreet1981]

Totally not true! Fender was using alder back in '74 thats why Eddie went to Charvel.

Eddie also used Gibson pups..

The shape of the body was a little bit different as well.

[smultimate77]

i said basicly

[scumcity14]

eddie went to Boogie Bodies and bought a "second " body out of the junk pile because he had no money. Had nothing to do with fenders use of alder. Yes he basically played a fender..same scale length and bolt on neck. just used a PAF pickup from a 335

[MeanStreet1981]

Guitar World (Circa 78): Tell us about your guitar.

EVH: My guitar? Which one? I got like three of them that are kind of tripped out. The first one is a copy of a Strat. It's not a Fender. It's by a company called Charvel. You know, I bought a body from them for 50 bucks and a neck for 80 bucks, slapped it together, put an old Gibson pickup in it, and it's my main guitar. Painted it up, you know, with stripes and stuff. I guess that's my thing.

And everyone knows that he had the Frankie first

[scumcity14]

yep...like i said. bought the body cheap...im pretty sure boogie bodies was wayne charvel...Like he said "copy of a strat". eddie has also changed his stories many times regarding his gear...point being it was, for all intents, a fender....bolt maple neck with fenders scale length..just had a gibson pickup.

[vanhalen2626]

a fender that was very modified :)

[CrazyForCooCooPuffs]

the line 6 has a built in brownsound thing

[logeybear5150]

most things have a patch or sound thats meant to be an (shit) attempt at getting eddies tone.....nothing comes as close as this pedal

[kissrocks45]

were can I buy these?

[VHAKscott]

have always been found of the distortion, but in this one except I do not know how but managed to match the sound of peavey 5150, the sound is incredible and I could see in the demo has all the channels of the amplifier, congratulations, just awesome pedal

[VHAKscott]

excelente pedal

donde lo puedo conseguir, el canal que estas usando es limpio o le ayudas con el overdrive del ampli?

[trex257]

Well, here's another pedal that I just added to my "must have" pedal list. I think I'm up to like 40 or 50 pedals now...he he...just kidding. I really want to try some of the AMT pedals too.

[peque1234]

why you have another extra knob? compare to the new pinnacle? WHat's the diference in your so i can order mine like yours..lol

[jashobbsie]

there is no difference in tone, i asked Brian the same question when i got it. believe me this pedal is awesome, i find myself using it more and more over my other pedals.

[Greenballed]

Got this one last week. Sold my Radial Plexitube today. This pedal smokes everything else I've heard for early Vanhalen. Playing for 25 years,and thought getting this sound in a pedal was impossible. Its sweet sounding,

[Labtec86]

Dang i ordered the Radial Tone Bone Plexi just now, I read some good reviews on it. Wish I saw this demo before I hit the "Order" button. lol

Sounds good, nice playing too

[GianniA]

Very nice demo and sound! i've got it too... fantastic! do you think that it has enough volume level?

thanks for sharing! :)

[jashobbsie]

Yeah i have to admit that it does not have enough volume level i pretty much have it maxed out almost.

[Nohoxx]

Great! Could you tell me what version is that Pinnacle? On their website, the pedal is with 2 togge switches. With yours, how those controls are named? Is it a special version or what? (I can't read what there's written under "Pinnacle" on the pedal...)

[jashobbsie]

it's just the newest version of the pinnacle, no different than the rest I was told. it's basically the one you see on the website, a couple of controls are placed differently...

[nedocaster]

Nice job, could you tell me what gear your using with the pedal? What amp are you using and what else do you have on your pedal board.

Thanks

[jashobbsie]

marshall tsl 100 and a wampler analog echo pedal for this video.

[blazenron]

how do you think that would sound on a marshall valve state amp also do you run a phaser pedal or dose that have a phaser built in

[jashobbsie]

not quite sure, look up user wampcat, he is the guy who designed it, he would probably know more about that.

[bolomsa]

great !!!

[alphastry]

good job man i love your tone and some of your pedals including the distortion keep it coming