[Brock]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

It wasn't a "home made" guitar, per se. It was a Boogie Bodies (which later changed their name to Warmoth) alder strat body with a Mighty Mite neck. I should add that Wayne Charvel told me back in 1993 that HE made the neck on Eddie's famous "Frankenstrat". A huge part of the sound was 60's hand wound pickup Gibson pickup, which Eddie decided to "pot" due to feedback (which also cuts down on the "chime" or top end, which balanced out the sound of the Strat body).

Also, the variac thing is a myth. I've heard people say that he burned out tubes because he ran the voltage so hot, but that's the exact opposite of what would happen - the amp would sound cleaner. Then, there's this idea that he ran the Variac to starve the tubes, which would indeed give the amp more gain. But all of it is complete hogwash and nonsense.

I have it on extremely good authority that he used his '68 Marshall Super Lead, which has the same tonestack at the JTM45, but had its tube rectifier converted to a solid state rectifier, which made it "tighter" sounding (later "Plexi" models have a different tonestack and solid state rectifier) along with an MXR Distortion + for the recording of Van Halen I. And in all honesty, that's exactly what it sounds like. Also, there are pictures floating around from various festivals and outdoor shows that clearly show a Distortion + on his pedal board, right next to the Phase 90 and Phase 100.

This is all fascinating to me because I've been attempting for years to duplicate exactly his tone using the same low-buck, low-tech methods i.e. without just going out and buying it. Thanks.