No. 0071978·hard-rock·5 blocks
Eruption
The 'brown sound' that changed rock guitar forever. Eddie Van Halen's tone on the debut Van Halen album is a Frankenstrat with a single humbucker through a Marshall Plexi 1959, reportedly powered through a variac to lower the voltage and achieve a thick, compressed, harmonically rich overdrive at manageable volumes. An MXR Phase 90 adds a subtle swirl. The result is a warm, singing sustain that is neither too clean nor too distorted — it sits in a magical sweet spot that responds to every nuance of Eddie's playing.
Van HalenSignal path · input → output · 4 blocksLive values · Boss Katana
Guitar
EVH Frankenstrat
Pickups
single
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Brown
Phaser 90E
Spring
Brown
← Marshall Super Lead 1959 (Variac)
Gain
8
Volume
7
Bass
5
Middle
7
Treble
7
Presence
5
Phaser 90E
← MXR Phase 90
Rate
3Hz
Depth
50
Spring
← Studio room reverb
Level
15
Engineer's note
File 007
The 'brown sound' that changed rock guitar forever. Eddie Van Halen's tone on the debut Van Halen album is a Frankenstrat with a single humbucker through a Marshall Plexi 1959, reportedly powered through a variac to lower the voltage and achieve a thick, compressed, harmonically rich overdrive at manageable volumes. An MXR Phase 90 adds a subtle swirl. The result is a warm, singing sustain that is neither too clean nor too distorted — it sits in a magical sweet spot that responds to every nuance of Eddie's playing.
— Eddie Van Halen
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