Riff Tone

Black and Blue

Van Halen

Guitarrock1980s

Original Gear

GuitarErnie Ball Music Man EVH Signature (likely trans blue or amber, as used on OU812 era)

AmpPeavey 5150 head with Peavey 4x12 cabinet (studio recording, 1988)

PickupsDiMarzio custom-wound humbuckers (Music Man spec, bridge position)

Amp Settings

gain8

bass6

mid6.5

treble6.5

reverb2

presence6

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording for 'Black and Blue' (OU812, 1988). Eddie used the Ernie Ball Music Man EVH Signature guitar and Peavey 5150 amp, which debuted on this album. No evidence of pedals in the main riff section; effects are likely rack-based or post-processing. Settings estimated from era and typical usage.

Tone Character(10)

saturated and thicktight palm-muted chugsaggressive bridge pickup attackharmonically rich distortionpercussive and articulatecrisp note separationmidrange punchfocused low endslight room ambiencemodern hard rock crunch

Difficulty

The riff demands tight, aggressive palm muting and precise rhythm at a moderate tempo, with fast string skipping and clean note separation under high gain.

Sources

Eddie Van Halen's Guitar Gear, Frankenstrat & Pedalboard | Equipboard Does anyone know Eddie Van Halen's settings for this Amp? - Reddit Eddie Van Halen's guitar gear: get the tone of the hard-rock icon | Guitar World

This tone has been researched 2 times by the community

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