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Gear Avail

Hard rock

Eddie Van Halen

Van Halen, 1978 to 1984

The brown sound is mostly a Marshall run through a Variac and a guitar he assembled himself, but the board is what people actually hear as the signature: a phaser sitting slow underneath everything and a flanger doing the descending sweep on Unchained.

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The chain

Shown in conventional signal order rather than the order the sources list them, so it reads the way it would be wired: guitar on the left, amp on the right.

  1. 1
    ModulationNo photo available

    MXR Phase 90

    Modulation

    Left on, slow, and shallow. It adds chew and a moving midrange rather than an obvious swoosh.

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  2. 2
    ModulationNo photo available

    MXR Flanger

    Modulation

    Set for the deep, slow sweep on Unchained and Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love.

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  3. 3
    DelayNo photo available

    Echoplex EP-3

    Delayrack or amp-top unit

    Used as much for the preamp colouration as for the echo itself.

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  4. 4
    DelayNo photo available

    Univox EC-80 Echo

    Delay

    The short slapback behind the Eruption tapping section.

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Documented on

  • Van Halen

    album · 1978

    • Eruption
    • Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
    • Runnin' with the Devil

    MXR sells an official EVH signature Phase 90 built to this setting.

  • Van Halen II

    album · 1979

    • Dance the Night Away
    • Spanish Fly

  • 1984

    album · 1984

    • Panama
    • Hot for Teacher

Editorial gear history, assembled from interviews, rig rundowns, live photography and liner notes. Eddie Van Halen is not affiliated with Gear Avail and nothing here is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so this one is scoped to 1978 to 1984 rather than presented as a career-long setup. In most cases what is documented is that a pedal was on the board during those sessions or that tour, not that it is audible on a specific bar of a specific take.