Riff Tone

Eruption

Van Halen

Guitarrock1970s

Original Gear

Guitar1978 Frankenstrat (homemade Strat-style, maple neck, single humbucker, Floyd Rose prototype vibrato)

AmpMarshall Super Lead 1959 100-watt (plexi, variac set to ~90V, EL34 tubes, no master volume, into 4x12 cab with Celestion G12M Greenbacks)

PickupsSeymour Duncan Custom Shop 'PAF-style' humbucker (rewound by EVH, wax-potted, bridge position)

Amp Settings

gain8.5

bass5.5

mid5.5

treble6.5

reverb0.5

presence6

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording, 1978. Guitar plugged straight into amp, no pedals in front. Effects (delay, reverb) added post in mix. No evidence of pedals used in front of amp for riff section. Pickup selector hardwired to bridge humbucker only.

Tone Character(10)

saturated British crunchexplosive pick attacktight palm mutingharmonic-rich sustainpercussive and articulateaggressive bridge pickup bitebrown soundraw and immediatedynamic response to pickingclassic late-70s hard rock tone

Difficulty

'Eruption' riff section is considered expert-level due to its speed, advanced tapping, intricate picking, and dynamic control, requiring mastery of multiple advanced techniques at high tempo.

Sources

Eddie Van Halen's Guitar Gear, Frankenstrat & Pedalboard | Equipboard Eddie Van Halen's Guitar Gear, Frankenstrat & Pedalboard | Equipboard Dweezil Zappa's Eruption amp vs modeler test | Guitar World Does anyone know Eddie Van Halen's settings for this Amp? - Reddit

This tone has been researched 24 times by the community

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