Eruption Guitar Solo by John Denner
John Denner’s cover of Eruption by Eddie Van Halen
Eruption Guitar Solo JohnDennerRocks.com
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What Eddie Van Halen used to get this monster sound on ERUPTION
One of the most precious old Marshall amp manufactured in 1967 with Plexi-glass and a laydown trans. It is said that the amp had been a house amp of “Pasadena Rose Palace” before Eddie became famous. Eddie says he used two Marshall amp heads at the recording of the 1st album (Young Guitar Sep 1978). There is no information on the another head.
Tubes
According to Rudy Leiren, who had been Eddie’s guitar tech from 1974 to 1990, power tubes were Sylvania 6CA7/EL34s. As for bias, he said he cranked it all the way up. But the detail is unknown. Preamp-tubes, some people guess they were Sylvania 12AX7WAs. But no detailed information.
Did Jose Arredondo modify the amp ?
It is still in mystery. Eddie said in a 1978 interview that Jose beefed up the amps. But later he admitted that the amp was stock and Jose had just done basic maintenances. An Dutch amp tech who restored Eddie’s legendary Marshall also said it was stock. But, how can we get that 1st album tone with stock Marshalls? The “stock Marshall theory” seems to make more people scratch their hairs. Ummm….
Limited witnesses regarding the inside of the amp are here.
By the way, there is a strange screw (white knob) on the back left side of the amp. What is this ? There are some remarks on this. I personally support the idea that it was a master volume. Because the amp was a house amp of “Pasadena Rose Palace”.
Variable transformers
Eddie used variable transformers (variac) to change the amps’ voltage. He sometimes cranked it up to 130, 140 volts or more (he said 160V) to overdrive the amp as he said, and sometimes lowered it down to 90 volts. As far as I tried 140-150 volts shortly, the tone itself was not so different from the standard 117 volts’. And the tone of 90 volts was a little bit milder. But Eddie said he often flied tubes in his early days. So I believe he really cranked the voltage up to around 140 volts at the recording for the 1st album as he said.
By the way, professional amp repairmen warn that cranking up to that voltage level is very bad for amps.
Setting of the front panel
All controls are full 10. Input jack used was “High gain and treble boosted” (Upper left jack).
Speakers
Eddie said he used “two Marshall amp heads and two combination cabinets for the 1st album” (Young Guitar Sep 1978), as an illustration on the right. *
The combination cabinet consists of two Celestion Greenbacks (I don’t know whether they were G12M-25s or G12H-30s. But I guess G12M-25s) and two JBL D-120s (D-120 is a speaker for old Fender amps). Eddie says Celestion creates distortion sound and JBL clean. I think one of the important elements of the incredible sound of early EVH is this combination cabinet. Both Greenback and D-120 are old type speakers, and signal more than 100 watts from Marshall heads exceed the capacities of these speakers.
That’s why, I suppose, Eddie blew speakers very often in his early days.
By the way, according to Van Halen’s debut demo video, the cabinet covers were peeled.
Some guy in Japan followed this, but the sound changed poorly and regretted. Photos at a recording studio for the 2nd album show the peeled cabinets, too. And it seems that Eddie had used peeled cabinets since club days.
Eddie Van Halen’s Official Website
http://www.van-halen.com