Metropoulos Forum

Just listening to Van Halen II, that tone in the intro to this song is fantastic! It sounds beautifully harmonic and atmospheric - is there any form of chorus used at all?

If I remember correctly, Eddie said he doubled the part (played it twice) on the record. He then said to replicate it live he would use a harmonizer. How true all of that was is anyone's guess.

I dont know. That sounds an aweful lot like chorus to me. If thats just a double tracked part then Ed is about 10x more inhuman then I thought. Sounds like the kinda thing he'd say though. You can hear the modulation to it though.

Oh you know he used some type of modulation on there, but that's what he said. LOL Perhaps it is both.

Ah, let's see, we know he had an MXR flanger and an Echoplex in his arsenal. I can hear them both in that intro.

Interesting - so you think an MXR flanger might be able to double up as a chorus style pedal? If it could produce that kindof chorus tone, I'm sold as that means purchasing one would mean I get 2 pedals for the price of one.

I just did a little experiment with mine. You can set the MXR Flanger with the Manual and Regeneration at zero, the Width at say 5%, and the Speed at about 1 o'clock and get close. The difference is it isn't as thick sounding as the recording. Of course maybe Ed DID record it twice and of course they added a bit of echo.

If you don't have an MXR Flanger then I highly recommend you get one. Don't get the Dunlop reissue either...go ahead and get an old one, if you can find one. They can be expensive, but maybe you can luck out on one like I did. I paid $140 bucks for mine, which is cheaper than the reissue. The good thing is there are no batteries, just 100 percent 3-prong AC cord. Plus, you can't really play Unchained correctly unless you have one of these babies.

I really want one for jet engine style sounds and like the way the original sounds through a distorted plexi, the problem is that they seem to be scarce in the UK and I'd have to get some sort of step down voltage transformer to get it at 120v.

I didn't think about that. Perhaps a Reissue is the way to go, if they are plentiful across the pond.

Bainzy wrote:Interesting - so you think an MXR flanger might be able to double up as a chorus style pedal? If it could produce that kindof chorus tone, I'm sold as that means purchasing one would mean I get 2 pedals for the price of one.

Oh, yeah, flangers aren't just for that jet plane thing. When you play clean with one, the sound is very close to a chorus. They're like cousins

Anonymous wrote:I didn't think about that. Perhaps a Reissue is the way to go, if they are plentiful across the pond.

they're more plentiful than vintage ones here but they're bloody expensive! over £150 for one (at least $255) is a lot of money to be paying for something that apparently doesn't sound as good as the original. I could easily buy a US original and a transformer for that money, the thing that annoys me is having to mount a transformer on my board.

Or perhaps pick up a used ri and mod the circuit to original specs and remount it in one of the larger Hammond boxes that they used to come in so you could fit the transformer in the box.

Necrovore wrote:Or perhaps pick up a used ri and mod the circuit to original specs and remount it in one of the larger Hammond boxes that they used to come in so you could fit the transformer in the box.

I've heard that the chips the originals used are extremely hard to find, so that may prove difficult