Tag: eddie van halen

How to get Eddie Van Halen Tone


Eddie Van Halen, known as one of the best electric guitar players ever has amazed audiences for years with his fast picking and tapping skills. For many guitarists, Eddie’s tone is quite sought after. Without his rig, he wouldn’t be able to properly get his guitar to scream, or hold copious amounts of sustain for those tapping solos. So todays’ article will show you how you can get Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tone.

Guitars
First lets look at which guitars Eddie used. Early on, he used a a crazy looking stratocaster-style guitar with a humbucker pickup for a fatter sound. In the early ’80s, Eddie famously used Seymour Duncan pickups. Over time, this strat became a partsocaster with different necks and such. One of the biggest changes to Eddie’s guitar was that he swapped the bridge for a Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo. This would allow him to go crazy on the whammy bar without going out of tune. Other guitars Eddie used were the Gibson 335, Les Paul, and Les Paul Jr.

Amps
One of Eddie Van Halen’s favorite amps to use was a ’60s Marshall SuperLead Plexi. Many have said that he would crank all the dials on the amp to get a lot of his tone by pushing the power tubes. Some guitar magazines say that Eddie used an attenuator to control the output of the amp. In later years, he used Peavey Amps which he had a part in designing. As for the cabs, his were loaded with either Celestion 25-watt Greenbacks, Vintage 30s, and/or 75s. He would use multiple cabs on stage for that really fat sound.

Pedals & Effects
Eddie would use a MXR EQ in the studio that was set to give him a mid-boost. Other MXR pedals he would use is the Flanger and the Phase 90. He was also known for using an Echoplex. Throughout his career, he started incorporating all kinds of rack processors to get the exact tone he wanted.

Eddie Van Halen Tone on the Cheap
Of course acquiring all of the equipment mentioned can be rather costly. In order to get Eddie’s tone at a low cost, here is what I suggest. Use a high-gain amplifier, a guitar with a humbucker pickup, your favorite distortion, echo, and phaser pedals, and that should get you close.

In the end, if you want to sound like Eddie, you gotta play like him. So of course practicing his technique will give you his sound, much more than any rig could. Hope this article brings you one step closer to Eddie Van Halen tone!

Xotic EP Booster Review

Today’s review is on a pedal that I’ve now owned for about a year, the Xotic EP Booster. Extremely simple to use, this pedal only has one dial. So what does this pedal do exactly? Well its a pre-amp, but not just any pre-amp. This particular pre-amp is modeled after the one that would be found in an old Echoplex. Truth be told, many great guitarist like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen would use an Echoplex, minus the echo. Why? Well it coloured the tone a bit, gave it a boost, and all around just produced an extra shimmer or sparkle if you will. Just take a close look at the features of this pedal…

There are many ways to use the Xotic EP Booster. One way is kick it on for solos to give your lead a little extra boost and thickness to stand out in the mix. Another way is to leave it on all the time, making your tone fatter. Other people like to stack the EP Booster with overdrive and fuzz pedals to make the sound a bit more powerful. Personally, I like to use it as a clean boost. Really there are a variety of ways to use the EP Boost, you just gotta experiment.

If you are a strat player who plays through Fender amps, you know that sometimes you would love a Marshall because of the great midrange it provides. But you are not willing to give up those glorious Fender cleans. Thats where the EP Booster comes in. Give its that Marshall style fattening, while maintaining the great cleans of the amp.

If you open up the EP Booster, you’ll notice that there are two internal dip switches to customize the tone a bit. The first switch (1) is a bass boost, and the second (2) is a bright switch. I found having the bright switch on really made a Les Paul come to life. Many like the bass boost for a Strat. Also I forgot to mention, that the main dial on the EP Booster controls the intensity of the effect. Cranking that dial means more output.

Overall, I must say that I really like this pedal. I especially like its small size, making it really easy to travel with. Sometimes when I’m going to small jams, I pack this pedal right in my guitar case, so my tone stands out a bit at the jam, without the need to carry a huge pedal board. Also, I should mention that this pedal has a pretty great price at $115US (see it on Amazon). If you haven’t already had a chance, try an Xotic EP Booster.. you might find it’ll add that extra punch that your tone was looking for.