Replicating Eddie Van Halen's Recording Technique with Pathways.
Most Eddie Van Halen fans are very familiar with the hard-panned guitar tracks on the first Van Halen record. During the sessions, Eddie wanted to keep overdubs to a minimum, so to create a wide stereo spread with a single guitar, producer Ted Templeman introduced a unique mixing approach. He panned the dry guitar almost all the way to the left side of the mix, with a 100% wet signal to the right. The reverb came from the custom-built EMT 140 plate reverb at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, CA. This legendary sound appeared time and again in subsequent Van Halen releases.
We recently had the pleasure of hosting a recording session with guitarist Ben Cote, a rising six-string hero who has performed with 80s metal legends like Slaughter and Brett Michaels of Poison. Ben tears through Eddie Van Halen-inspired riffs with effortless precision. So we seized the opportunity to recreate this split-stereo approach using the Pathways Reverb & Tremolo's Plate Reverb engine. Ben’s phenomenal playing and EVH-style paint job brought the sound and vibe fully into focus.
The signal chain was as follows: the guitar runs first into the Atlas Compressor, then into the L.A. Lady Overdrive, loaded with the “Metal” Distortion Engine. From there, the L.A. Lady splits the signal. One output goes directly to our Fender Deluxe, providing the dry overdriven guitar sound. The second L.A. Lady output feeds the Pathways Plate reverb with the MIX knob set to 100% wet. That signal ran into a Supro amp positioned on the left side. For the full impact, try listening with headphones — the result is massive. Check out the YouTube Short to hear the results.
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