Peterson put out the StroboStomp EVH on November 3. It's a signature version of their compact strobe pedal tuner, $179, available now from Peterson and dealers. It has EVH graphics on a color-backlit LCD. The feature you'll actually use is 13 "EVH Sweeteners," tuning presets built from the pitch of each guitar performance on Van Halen (1978).
I've owned a shop for 25 years. In that time, more customers than I can count have told me their brown sound "almost" matches the record. Not one of them blamed the tuning. Peterson's list should change that.
The Sweetener List, Decoded
Peterson's product page gives each Sweetener a three-letter code and a track number. Every one is in Eb Standard, with a different offset from concert pitch. I've added the song titles from the album's track order:
| Code | Track | Song | Offset Peterson lists |
|---|---|---|---|
| RWD | 1 | Runnin' with the Devil | Close to a quarter-tone sharp, with optimized intervals |
| ERU | 2 | Eruption | Sharp |
| YRG | 3 | You Really Got Me | One eighth-tone sharp |
| ATL | 4 | Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love | One eighth-tone sharp |
| ITO | 5 | I'm the One | Sharp |
| JAM | 6 | Jamie's Cryin' (main guitar) | Slightly sharp |
| JHG | 6 | Jamie's Cryin' (doubled and harmony overdubs) | One eighth-tone sharp |
| ATP | 7 | Atomic Punk | One eighth-tone sharp |
| FYL | 8 | Feel Your Love Tonight | One eighth-tone sharp |
| LTD | 9 | Little Dreamer | Sharp |
| ICM | 10 | Ice Cream Man (main electric) | Sharp |
| ICA | 10 | Ice Cream Man (acoustic intro, Open Eb) | Sharp |
| ONF | 11 | On Fire | Slightly flat |
Two things to notice. First, no track is at true Eb. Ten of the thirteen run sharp, one runs slightly flat, and "Runnin' with the Devil" is close to halfway between Eb and E. Second, two songs need two presets each. On "Jamie's Cryin'" the overdubs were tracked at a different pitch than the main guitar, and "Ice Cream Man" has an acoustic intro in Open Eb. A tuner company doesn't sort that out unless somebody sat with the multitracks or the record and measured it. Peterson's page doesn't say which method they used. I'd like to know.
"Optimized intervals" on RWD means the Sweetener does more than shift all six strings by the same amount. It sets them relative to each other, which is what Peterson's Sweetened Tunings have always done. That matters later in this piece.
The Rest of the Pedal
- Accuracy: ±0.1 cent, the same as the standard StroboStomp.
- Over 150 additional tunings, including Peterson's Sweetened and Guided Tunings and altered tunings beyond the Van Halen set.
- Bypass: selectable. True bypass uses a dual-relay, pop-less mute. "Pure Buffer" mode is for the front of a long board.
- Power: 9V DC at 85mA nominal. A 9V battery is included.
If you've read Jess's piece on the MXR Turbo Tuner, the buffer question is the same here. If the tuner is the first pedal in front of a modeler set to Auto input impedance, the buffer mode changes what the modeler sees. Choose a mode on purpose and leave it there.
Why the Offsets Matter for Your Tone, Not Only Your Pitch
When you play along with Van Halen and your tone sounds "off," most players reach for the gain or the presence knob. A lot of the time it's pitch. A guitar 25 to 50 cents away from the record beats against it. Your ear hears that beating as harshness, or as a thin, phasey quality, and you start EQing a problem that EQ can't fix. Tune to the record and the same preset often sounds closer right away.
Detune changes the feel too. A half-step down at your usual string gauge lowers tension, so the strings flop more, sag more under a heavy pick, and push the amp a little differently. That's part of how Eddie's playing feels on that record. If you're tuning down for this, read our drop-tuning gain staging guide before you add gain to compensate.
Doing This on a Modeler Without Buying the Pedal
You don't need the StroboStomp EVH to play in tune with the album. You need it to do so precisely, per string, in one press. Here's the 80% version:
- Tune to Eb Standard.
- Shift your tuner's reference pitch. Most modeler tuners have a reference frequency setting (Helix's is in the tuner options). An eighth-tone is about 25 cents, so A = 440 becomes roughly 446 Hz. A quarter-tone is about 50 cents, roughly 453 Hz. Use about 446 for "You Really Got Me," "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love," "Atomic Punk," and "Feel Your Love Tonight." "Runnin' with the Devil" needs most of the way to 453. Peterson's "sharp" and "slightly sharp" entries don't come with cent values, so for those, tune by ear against the record.
- Set it back afterward. A reference pitch you forget to reset will wreck your next rehearsal, and nobody will figure out why.
The shift moves all six strings together. What it can't do is the per-string tempering Peterson calls "optimized intervals." That's the part you'd be paying $179 for. If the intervals bother you, tuning one guitar to another by ear gets you closer than any global setting. Here, the "other guitar" is the record.
Then Load the Brown Sound
When your guitar matches the record, the tone recipes do their job. Our Eruption brown sound recipe uses the Plexi setup from Van Halen I, built around the Frankenstrat's single bridge humbucker and the Phase 90 swirl. The Panama recipe is the later, more refined version from 1984, and the Phase 90 stays off for the main riff. Both recipe pages list standard tuning. For the debut-album tracks, tune down a half-step first, as Peterson's chart shows. The Eddie Van Halen artist page collects the rest.
My Take
A signature tuner is usually an appearance package: same guts, nicer paint, higher price. This one isn't, because the 13 presets are actual information about a record people have been learning for nearly 50 years. Even if you never buy one, the chart above tells you something your amp settings can't. If the debut album is your reference for the brown sound and you don't own a strobe tuner, it's $179 well spent. If you already own a StroboStomp, check whether Peterson brings the Sweeteners to existing units. Their page doesn't say either way.
