Van Halen

Van Halen formed in Pasadena, California in 1974, built around the guitar playing of Eddie Van Halen and the showmanship of vocalist David Lee Roth. Eddie Van Halen's technique — two-handed tapping, right-hand harmonics, whammy bar manipulation at speeds that had no precedent — was announced to the world on the band's 1978 debut album. "Eruption," a 1 minute 42 second guitar solo, changed what players believed was physically possible on the instrument. Eddie's guitar tone was the product of deliberate experimentation rather than conventional setup. His primary guitar was a homemade instrument — a Stratocaster-style body fitted with a Gibson PAF humbucker at the bridge, stripped of every component he didn't need, built in his garage. His amplifier was a Marshall Super Lead 100-watt head run through a Variac transformer set to approximately 89-90 volts. Lowering the voltage caused the power tubes to saturate differently than they would at full voltage — more compressed, warmer, more harmonically complex. No distortion pedal. An MXR Phase 90 for the swirling modulation heard on "Eruption" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," an Echoplex tape echo for pre-amp boost and delay, an MXR Flanger used selectively. The dirt came entirely from the amp operating in a voltage-starved condition that nobody else had tried. The "brown sound" — Eddie's term for the warm, singing quality he was chasing — became the most studied tone in rock history. Thousands of players have tried to replicate it. Few have gotten close, because the specific interaction of that particular Marshall, at that particular voltage, through that particular speaker cabinet, with that particular pickup, is a system behavior that cannot be isolated to any single component. David Lee Roth departed in 1985 and was replaced by Sammy Hagar, who brought a more conventional hard rock sensibility to the band's music. The Roth era — five studio albums from 1978 to 1984 — remains the most influential period. Roth briefly reunited with the band in 2007 for a tour and in 2012 for A Different Kind of Truth, the final Van Halen studio album. Eddie Van Halen died on October 6, 2020. Key gear: Frankenstrat (homemade Strat-body guitar with Gibson PAF humbucker), Marshall Super Lead 1959 (run through Variac), MXR Phase 90, Echoplex tape echo, MXR Flanger, Marshall 4x12 cabinet.