SO YOU WANNA SOUND LIKE EDDIE VAN HALEN

You know the man, the myth and the legend – now it’s time to crack that classic, timeless tone that made Eddie Van Halen one of the most revered guitarists in the world. Taking into account the fact that many of us don’t have the kinds of budgets Eddie would (or anywhere close to them), we’ve put together a surprisingly cheap, yet law-defyingly accurate recreation of EVH’s setup that any shredder with a paper route could take pride in.

MXR 5150 OVERDRIVE PEDAL

Eddie is a rarity, as he’s been more heavily involved in designing the gear he uses than nearly any other guitar hero since Hendrix. He knew what he wanted and it gave birth to one of the greatest high gain amps of all time: the Peavey 5150. Its blue channel this is based on became a huge hit with metal players, but Eddie used less gain than some think.

The contemporary EVH 5150 III take on his amp head design costs over a grand itself, so the launch of this pedal four years ago was potential brown sound manna from heaven. Does it cut it? It does very well. While Wampler’s Pinnacle is impressive, we think this is as close as a pedal gets, and its in-built noise g ate is a rare feature indeed for a gain pedal.

At a median street price of $350, it’s not cheap, but it offers boutique-level string definition for those EVH rhythms that are even more important to nail than his leads. It’s versatile enough for great classic rock and metal tones too and even sounds great at low volumes – handy for the home!

EVH STRIPED SERIES GUITAR

A maple neck gets you a little more brightness you’ll want and a Super-Strat-style body is a given. While we love the Charvel So-Cal Series guitars, for less money we can get right on the Frankenstrat money here with the entry-level Striped model. There’s even four finish designs to cover every classic EVH era! But this is a guitar that’s far more than looks, as you’d expect from the EVH name.

A genuine Floyd Rose will get you divebombing in no time, and a D-Tuna takes you down to drop D faster than you can say “Unchained”. A single bridge EVH Wolfgang humbucker and master volume keeps things streamlined, and the graphite reinforcement in the neck is our kind of strong and stable.

LANDLORD FROTHY HEAD ECHO PEDAL

Eddie used an EP-3 Echoplex tape echo in-between his Marshall Super Lead and power amp without distorting the repeats. The Echoplex preamp also instilled its own character, but the recent pedal version will set you back a couple hundred bucks on a good day. Let’s keep it simpler, then, with this bargain mini pedal that will cover the short delay time and repeats required.

DONNER MOD SQUARE MODULATION PEDAL

Our last ingredient is a crucial one: a phaser. Or is it a flanger? Well it’s both. Unchained is the latter, Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love uses a flanger in the intro and phaser in the solo – indeed an MXR Phase 90 throughout the leads on the first album. That alone will set us back over $100, and we’re on a budget here, so we’re back to the bargain world of Chinese-made mini pedals. This seven-mode special from Donner offers killer bang for buck, including both a phaser and flanger.

Your rig is officially complete – and if you play your cards right, and you’ll still have some coin left over to buy some snazzy dungarees like Eddie used to rock!