Who was Robin L?

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harddriver
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Who was Robin L?

Post by harddriver » Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:19 pm

So after all this time was it ever established who this Robin L guy was? He spoke in very certain terms of having first hand knowledge of the tours and equipment as if he were Rudy Leiren. Then after Dave Friedman cornered him he claimed that he never claimed to be Rudy but was still there around on the tours to have first hand knowledge.

Then some time later I found some posts by him as if he was just another guitar player getting info on here about a Randy Rhodes amp and he posted as recently as 2015. So unless someone else swiped his user ID then all the Robin L posts were a complete fraud... For him to claim that a lot of the reamp Marshall had been converted to more of a power amp spec by Jose was the first I had heard of that being done. So after re-reading recently all his info seemed so clear and concise and not the ramblings of an internet sociopath. But I guess true a sociopath believe they are true soooo...

So to all the older Metro members who where here for this to unfold, what do you guys think about it now?

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by matttornado » Tue Jan 31, 2017 2:31 pm

I remember that post. I really enjoyed reading it & personally thought that he was right about Eds rig. It all made perfect sense to me. Then when it got taken off of this forum, I really believed it to be true. :scratch:

I wish I could find it and re-read it.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by mr.twistyneck » Tue Jan 31, 2017 3:37 pm

Interesting; i'm surprised that the thread was removed. But nothing really ever dies on the internet. The Wayback Machine probably has it...let's see!

Voila - here's a snapshot of the thread, at least from around 2010.

http://web.archive.org/web/201107200603 ... 16&t=24704

FWIW, I tried the re-amping a line level 100W SL into the front end of another, it was fun and I really liked the sound - really thick and compressed.

The practice of modifying a tube head so that it was solely a power amp isn't new - Ampeg V4 heads had a power amp in on them way back in the day. I used that to my advantage in the late '80's when I ran a stereo mesa boogie studio preamp into the power amp in on two V4 heads, each powering a 4x12 loaded with EV speakers. it was stinkin' loud. Also a really heavy rig - V4 heads weighed a ton.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by garbeaj » Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:37 pm

I was always suspicious of "RudyL"...even though I came to this forum fairly late in the game (around 2010), his posts just didn't have the ring of truth.

I became immediately very suspicious of ANYONE claiming or intimating that they were "x" person or "y" person around the group. So much so that when Brian Kehew began posting here I didn't believe it was him and said as much. The wolves came after me for that...Everybody thought I was a total asshole for questioning him.

But to me, you HAVE TO question people on the internet. Especially when it comes to the extremely small group of people that were around when the first album (and later albums) were being recorded.

Unless I'm physically standing in front of Donn Landee and talking with him or I've seen a preponderance of credible evidence that it is him actually communicating online in some way, I probably won't fully believe anything I hear about the recording of Van Halen. But boy, everybody here tore me a new asshole for questioning Brian...who I later discovered was actually posting here. Still, I believe getting some clear cut evidence that the person you are reading posts from is actually who they claim to be. Reading "RudyL"'s posts got me in this mindset.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by harddriver » Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:41 pm

What really intrigued me about his post as his descriptions were so very clear and concise and there was information about things and claims that I had never heard of before even with being very well read on the topic of the brown sound as we all pretty much were here at metro.

He seemed to say enough interesting things that ruffled Dave Friedman enough to try to call him out. He continued to post undaunted. There are still sections of his EVH Tour Rig post in Mark A's Slaving a Plexi Project thread which is stickied if you want to re-read it. I know we all posed very clear questions about Ed's rig and he seemed to answer them without a lot of bullshit and conjecture as was my opinion at the time. I was pretty convinced at the time of the posts.

Here's Mark's thread if you want to read I think it around Page 20 for you guys here that have never read this account of Ed's rig albeit it could all be a fantastical recollection filled with lies...

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21330

If you read the guys later posts his credibility just fell apart IMO but his early posts really got my attention, as well as Mark A, Rgalpin, BMF5150 and the rest of our group. Is it possible Jose modded the bare wood head and others to power amp specs, maybe, as Mark A was getting good result as well as, Rob Galpin. It was kinda fun re-reading those posts it all seemed to make a lot of sense. Now Ralle is reamping his setup I wonder if he has ever read these posts, I am sure he has.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by jape88 » Fri Feb 03, 2017 12:02 pm

67 Melody Maker wrote: I think the reason no one in a position of authority on these forums wants to have the "Plexi on 10 -> load box/line out -> solid state amp" be touted as the answer to Ed's early tone is because... you can't sell that.

No amp builder wants blown up amps coming back to them every other month.

:popcorn:
As far as I'm aware, no one on the forum has 'blown up amps' using this method?...
so why post misleading information on the forum :what:

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by blfrd » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:26 pm

I was around when this post was current.

Who was RobinL? Someone who has read a lot of forum posts, has been around this topic quite a bit and knows how to read people.

1. I could be mistaken, but I don't recall reading anything in his threads that was completely new information. Most of it, had been discussed before, in one form or another.

2. The simplest answer is always the best one. In this case, his explanations backed up a simple premise: Ed had various problems with his Marshall on '10' and he got help to address those problems. It was a functional solution that yielded what would become a very desirable form.

2a. He told people what they wanted to hear. Theses theories had been floating around for some time and with guys like Mark A.(RIP) putting proof to putting, it was very easy to agree with what he said.

3. On the other side of that spectrum, there are people that don't like to hear that Ed's rig was simply a matter of function, rather than some highly engineered, science project. And that just perpetuates the debate further.
If there's no quiet, there can be no loud.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by harddriver » Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:53 pm

If the guy had no inside knowledge then he was the biggest whack job out there or was he laughing saying look at these guys eating all this up...or he was around and seen some stuff, still not 100% sure on that one...

Dave Friedman pretty much shut the guy up, I still can't figure out why he started posting some time later like just another guitar amp guy like no-one would remember what he had posted earlier.

He was always so very matter of fact about stuff that none of us had really heard or considered, the reamping power amp stuff with Superleads and Superbass's which really dovetailed with the pics from the Civic center prior to the 78 tour. We all had heard about the daisy-chaining yada yada yada...

I guess if nothing else he interjected some lively discussions which really made the EVH forum fun then. :toast:

I really miss everyone's experimenting posting of clips of them aka, BMF5150, Rockstah, RGalpin, Jnew, Mightymike, and others. :listen:

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by rgalpin » Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:28 pm

Hey harddriver - so great to see you on here talking about this stuff - i think, if i am remembering correctly that the new info he added to the "amp slaved into another amp scheme" was the tone settings. i think he said put the all the knobs on 0 except the bass ON TEN!! and then just add in a touch of high end via the treble or presence. now, was that on the amp 1 or the power amp amp? but anyway - i remember reading it and thinking it was the biggest load of crap until i tired it. ha! i played with my amps like that for years after that based on the info read in that post.

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by harddriver » Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:52 am

Hi Rob, it's a shame this place has become such a ghosttown but people move on and things become not so interesting as it once was, even I left for quite a while.

Back to Robin L, I still can't 100% discount what he said. Details like what you bring up like exactly how to set the tone controls on a 70's Superleads when using it as a poweramp for it to sound good and other very detailed descriptions of his guitars setups, that the pedal in the old effects housing that had foot switches 1 and 2 was a line selector for the echoplexes and mxr EQ(which didn't have an oon/off switch) was just uncanny and made a lot of sense and other details as well.

I read a lot of Ed's articles through the years like all of us did I never came to the kinds of conclusions that this guys so very matter of fact in great detail described and it didn't seem like he was reaching to come to a specific answer. I know what he said has kind of been disregarded since Dave F destroyed him but he did continue on undaunted afterwards.

He did seem to provide some of AHHA aspects to our whole EVH group think, it was just uncanny to say the least... Great to see you Rob hope you and your family are doing well!!! I do consider you one of Metros' bestest MADSCIENTIST with all your experiments it was awesome... :hairband:

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by rgalpin » Thu May 11, 2017 10:20 am

Yes! those were the golden ages! haha! true! all my soundclick clips got trashed i think when soundclick changed their format. boo.

Yes, it was the power amp tone settings all on ZERO, bass on 10! I guess that just removed a lot of front end color and gain from the power amp which was good because the first amp had already added all that color - so we avoided double-color. :)

hey - just saying that if somebody came on here and was spilling too many beans, it would be easy to construct a scenario where he is torn down and discredited in order to get him off the microphone with all the bean spillery. the magic and the mystery is only intensified by the ease with which a forum can be "molded" behind the scenes by key players. not saying it happens but just sayin'... it could. and as long as it is a possibility... i heard a very wise dude say one time that in regards to such media manipulations: "if you can imagine it, it's happening." :rock:

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by jnew » Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:20 am

Well looky here. Some visits from some OG members. :lol:
I too remember that thread as it was happening. It was really interesting as it unraveled and at the same time intertwined well with all that had been discussed over the years. Whether a well informed hoax or actually account experiences, I think there was some excellent takeaways and I believe the bit about a second amp with all the stuff on 0, bass on 10. The old original Peavey Butcher amps used to have a "boost" output on the front panel. I ran from that into a second Butcher head with all the stuff on 0 and the bass turned up. You had to or you would hear factory workers in China along with every radio station on the planet. I always assumed that it was after the power section of the amp because of how noisy it was going into a second heads hi input but now that I know a little about amps, that's high unlikely. But it was a crazy effect with tone. I will have to try this with some plexi's. Just been so happy with the variac after the head, haven't gone down many avenues in a long while.
Last edited by jnew on Mon Jun 26, 2017 5:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by jnew » Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:30 am

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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by jnew » Mon Jun 26, 2017 5:16 am

Wow, so now I can't leave this alone. Turns out that the signal is after the power section.
https://assets.peavey.com/literature/ma ... 300228.pdf
This should be fun. :?
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Re: Who was Robin L?

Post by rdodson » Tue Jun 27, 2017 5:03 pm

I remember the old Robin L thread when it was live. I would hit refresh every 30 seconds like a dork waiting for the next post. I wanted to believe.

Was it the same guy who posted the pics of the Jose rigged-up load box things with the radiator fins?

Anyway, good times. The biggest takeaway (which I believe IS true) is the EQ in front of 12301 for VH1 versus hotter pickups and no EQ boost for VH2.
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