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Riff Tone
Eruption
Van Halen
Guitarrock1970s
Original Gear
Guitar1978 Frankenstrat (homemade Strat-style, maple neck, single humbucker, Floyd Rose prototype vibrato)
AmpMarshall Super Lead 1959 100-watt (plexi, variac set to ~90V, EL34 tubes, no master volume, into 4x12 cab with Celestion G12M Greenbacks)
Amp Settings
gain8.5
bass5.5
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Notes
Studio recording, 1978. Guitar plugged straight into amp, no pedals in front. Effects (delay, reverb) added post in mix. No evidence of pedals used in front of amp for riff section. Pickup selector hardwired to bridge humbucker only.
Tone Character(10)
saturated British crunchexplosive pick attacktight palm mutingharmonic-rich sustainpercussive and articulateaggressive bridge pickup bitebrown soundraw and immediatedynamic response to pickingclassic late-70s hard rock tone
Difficulty
'Eruption' riff section is considered expert-level due to its speed, advanced tapping, intricate picking, and dynamic control, requiring mastery of multiple advanced techniques at high tempo.
This tone has been researched 21 times by the community
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Create Free AccountGuitarrock1970s
Original Gear
Guitar1978 Frankenstrat (homemade Strat-style, maple neck, single humbucker, Floyd Rose prototype vibrato)
AmpMarshall Super Lead 1959 100-watt (plexi, variac set to ~90V, EL34 tubes, no master volume, into 4x12 cab with Celestion G12M Greenbacks)
Amp Settings
gain8.5
bass5.5
Create an account to see all tone details
Create Free AccountEffects & Signal Chain
This tone has been researched 21 times by the community
Notes
Studio recording, 1978. Guitar plugged straight into amp, no pedals in front. Effects (delay, reverb) added post in mix. No evidence of pedals used in front of amp for riff section. Pickup selector hardwired to bridge humbucker only.
Tone Character(10)
saturated British crunchexplosive pick attacktight palm mutingharmonic-rich sustainpercussive and articulateaggressive bridge pickup bitebrown soundraw and immediatedynamic response to pickingclassic late-70s hard rock tone
Difficulty
'Eruption' riff section is considered expert-level due to its speed, advanced tapping, intricate picking, and dynamic control, requiring mastery of multiple advanced techniques at high tempo.