Van Halen largely passed me by during my formative teenage years. I think by that point it was the Hager era and my adolescent self was drawn more towards GnR, Aerosmith and AC/DC. There was something about the party rock cheese that prevented deeper exploration of EVH.
Recently though I’ve totally fallen down that rabbit hole. Yes there is filler and cheese and IMO EVHs chops are kind of wasted on many mediocre songs, particularly once you get past the first 4-5 albums. But there are some best of the best gems in there too. Incredible tone and groove. Mean Street, Somebody get me a doctor, Beautiful Girls, Ain’t talkin bout love, unchained etc.
So I’ve put this little board together. The 5150 pedal totally nails that Brown sound through my DRRI. The EP booster is filling a gap but might be better replaced by a delay or flanger.
Just need to work on the fingers now!
Comments
If you watch the Pete Thorn video about delay into drive you realise it's such a key component of the early sound.
The modelled ep-3 was great into the 5150 pedal. I couldn’t get the grey flanger model sounding as good as Pete Thorn (unsurprisingly) and the real MXR phase 90 was better than the helix model (significantly).
Might trial the tone city mini tape echo as I could probably squeeze it on the board. Not worth the faff of the helix for one effect.
The Boss GT is better, but nothing beats the real deal.
The slap back came from his tape delays built into the Bomb, which were probably in a loop somewhere, he always stated he used no drive in front of an amp, Pete Thorn has it nailed, so I'd do what he does anyway.
I think the delay will kick the ep booster off this board actually. It seems to darken/ muddy the tone a bit when paired with the 5150. There’s a pre-drive boost on that pedal anyway.
Still not nailing it as per Thorn but his far superior playing is probably more to blame than the pedals. Plus I’m running direct into a DRRI and using a Jem 7v.
Nothing to do with EVH, I just can't stand chorus as a result of having lived through the eighties..
Keeping the EP booster (for use as a clean channel when the 5150 is off) and swapping chorus for tape delay might be more versatile.
First couple of records were as revolutionary as the Beano album, just going to another level.
His use of effects in the early days were just that, effects for sections in songs ALA Unchained, and Atomic Punk, the core of the sound is just a dimed plexi, and a pickup in the right zone. The sound we hear on the records was very much a production choice, check out the Zero demos for an alternative sound, that was more conventional for the times.
Add all that to good songs and you can't help but hear how good they were.
Maybe try the EP Booster into the Tone City delay ( might not need as much level as you normally use, depends I guess) and then into the 5150. The EP is supposed to be like an Echoplex pre amp so that would have been part of the Brown Sound ( at times anyway).
Tried my EP booster in front of the analogue delay but it didn’t really add much. The 5150 pedal has more than enough gain on its own.