The musician promoted a revolution on his instrument not only through the way he played, but also through the way he configured his tools
Passed away in 2020, Eddie Van Halen He was a genius not just playing the guitar. The musician, extremely curious, was also very interested in equipment — and at first he kept secrets about the amplifiers he used, even having to tell a lie to avoid frequent questions about it.
The iconic artist used tube amplifiersin which the valves are responsible for amplifying the sound — and, when saturated, they generate a type of distortion called drive. It’s a very common sound in rock, but Eddie came up with a different approach, where he managed to sound very clear without losing weight.
In 1978, the year of the release of the band’s first album, Van Halenthe musician gave a famous interview to the American magazine Guitar Player (via Igor Miranda website). When asked — probably for the umpteenth time — about the “secret” of his sound, the musician said that increased the voltage of your amplifiers to further saturate the valves and achieve the desired sound.
Was lie. And this caused many people to burn their equipment. The tactic was just the opposite: he actually decreased the tension to achieve that sound.
In 2017 (almost four decades later), during an interview with the institute Smithsonianhe recalled how he came up with the idea of reducing the amplifier voltage. It all started with his dream amp:
“I worked in a music store delivering pianos and organs. One day a 100-watt Marshall amplifier came along and I really needed it, so I worked all summer to buy one of those. It was so noisy that I did everything from laying it on its back to laying it on the floor.”
When Eddie discovered there was another Marshall amplifier for sale in his area, he thought it might be different. So, he bought the other product. He explains:
“Well, it certainly was different, because when I called, it didn’t work. What I didn’t realize was that the product was from England and was set at 220 volts. It took a long time to warm up the tubes at half voltage, so when I started playing I thought the sound was amazing, but it was very quiet. This way, I noticed that it was possible to control the amplifier with the voltage.”
With that came the discovery: with a Variac transformer, he could control the voltage. This was done with the original amplifier — and the sound called “brown sound” was born, which consisted of an amplifier almost running out of energy.
“I slowly lowered the voltage from 110v to 100. The lowest I ever got was 60. It depended on where we played, it was between 60 and 100, depending on the environment. The sweet spot was 89 volts.”
The inventive Eddie Van Halen
This wasn’t Eddie Van Halen’s only quirky creation in the guitar world. The musician also modified his instruments, always looking for a better sound. He even believed that manufacturers placed the pickups in a position that wasn’t the best — and then made changes, placing them more inclined.
He also created a device called D-Tuna, which quickly changes the tuning of the lowest string (the mizona), descending to a lower tone. Over time, the system evolved and began to be integrated into all Wolfgang guitars sold by its official brand, EVH.
The impressive amount of unreleased material left by Eddie Van Halen
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Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
