Everybody wants some!!
The '80s are here. The '80s have been here for some time, as it turns out. If you were to put money on the '80s sticking around for at least the immediate future, I don't think anyone would take those odds against you. There's a third Gremlins on the way and a really cool Stranger Things prequel series surely stewing over at Netflix as we speak. Remember the '80s? Remember remembering the '80s?
Four kids on bicycles and Bryan Adams needle drops are fun, but those trappings do not always an authentic '80s vision make. There's no shame in bringing the '80s into the twenty-first century, don't you know.
One of the decade's most famous personalities has made his way into timelessness. His guitar, his tone, his namesake band – all carried over intact. Today's MXR release translates one of rock's most beloved, stadium-ready tones for the boards of the future. Well, not the future, but the future in relation to 1983. The here and now.
This is the MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion.
Shop the MXR EVH Modern High Gain
Thoroughly Modern Eddie
Introducing the MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion
It'd be no overstatement to say that Eddie Van Halen is an influential guitar player. Stop us if you've heard this one before, but the number of young players primetime Eddie Van Halen launched through MTV appearances and magazine fold-outs alone surely cannot be overestimated. Van Halen's musicality has proliferated throughout culture and history in his technical ability, his innovative creative outlook, and his undeniable style. One of the realms in which Van Halen has absolutely left his mark is the sphere of high-gain guitar.
Fired up by the fairly straightforward and powerful contemporary gear of his time, Van Halen's original rigs included Marshall heads and analog MXR effects to build his primary, baseline tone that instantly became famous through his band's songs. A cranked Marshall head and an early mainline production pedal, believe it or not, is pretty standard fare for an iconic '80s guitar rig*, so the pedal on today's docket plays faithfully, authentically, simply, and expressively.
You can probably already think of a few other examples right now
The MXR EVH Modern High Gain follows in a line of Van Halen-style pedals meant to capture the magic of Eddie's unmistakable vision. Notably, the Modern High Gain was designed in collaboration with Van Halen himself back in 2015 – today, offering a real level of authenticity. The Modern High Gain is a box of '80s rock primed to perform on modern stages. Let's talk about that.
Could This Be Magic?
MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion Design and Controls
Like many MXR drives and other EVH pedals at large, the MXR EVH Modern High Gain distortion is a blissfully simple, compact, and playable effect. In many ways, the Modern High Gain presents a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" experience in the best way as it cuts right to the chase for punishing distorted tones. Let's talk about these controls.
MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion Controls
Forward-facing, the EVH Modern High Gain features an intuitive lineup of controls.
- Output – Your overall effect volume control. The EVH Modern High Gain kicks off quickly in not its modernity in not only its tone, but in its control scheme as the pedal splits its volume and gain control between this control, Output, and...
- Gain – Your overall distorted gain control. Splitting the effect's output and distortion gain between two control instantly allows the Modern High Gain to finesse its volume and gain structure. Turn the Output down and crank Gain for formidable drive at lower volumes, hit the inverse for better cleanliness at room-filling volumes. Easy.
- EQ – Another push toward modernity is the pedal's three-band EQ which allows the distortion to be shaped on a Treble, Bass, and Mid-basis. Not only does this make the Modern High Gain friendly to live mixes, but allows it to meld to impersonate similar effects. More on this later.
- Boost – A two-way Boost channel switch. For those looking to push the envelope further on that one solo or whatever else you're up to, the Modern High Gain features an additional Boost channel.
- Gate – Finally, the Modern High Gain tops off its thoroughly modern experience with a noise gate that not only works on call, but automatically and reactively. Circumventing your normal "on/off" noise gate experience, the Modern High Gain's noise gate works on a basis that can be rolled in incrementally to make it clean up your signal as you best see fit.
Light Up the Sky
MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion Tones and Further Functions
Alright, so we've got our controls. What tones do we have under the hood, here?
The MXR EVH Modern High Gain is, unsurprisingly, a Van Halen distortion pedal. Stomp the pedal to life and you get an authentic, analog MXR distortion flame stoked. At its baseline, the EVH Modern High Gain is – you guessed it – a high gain effect. Even at its lowest Gain setting, the effect is a bold, bright, fiery, and searing distortion primed to light up your best Van Halen firework riffage. Chances are, that's what you're here for, so feel free to take the chance now to exhale in comfort of knowing that MXR has absolutely delivered Eddie's distorted tone lovingly in this pedal.
Mt. Marsh-moreLet's get into it and talk about Van Halen's tone itself and how it manifests through this effect. Van Halen fans will tell you how much of Eddie's tone was in the fingers and in the amps. It was the early '80s – in all likeliness, your amp was your tone. The Modern High Gain crosses that bridge by summoning an authentic, amp-like distortion tone under the hood. At square one, the Modern High Gain creates the full, fiery, Marshall-style tube tone Eddie was known for. The pedal sounds authentic to classic, amp-style distortions, the kinds that made their way to the original records. Massive, full distortion with buckets of tube-like sustain blooms throughout the pedal to summon drives both authentically vintage and thoroughly modern.
With the Modern High Gain's three-band EQ, MXR treats us to a control experience that simultaneously adheres to traditional amp-style sounds and bends from that tradition as the effect flirts with sounds you'd have a harder time getting out of an amp alone.
Work the pedal's Treble control upward and get a bright, spikey, highs-forward tone that introduces a glassy, amp-like tone. Match it with a higher Bass setting and the Modern High Gain can get rumbling and thunderous. If you're feeling adventurous, turn to the pedal's Bass frequency shift and Mid control and cook yourself up a makeshift fuzz. Turning the Mid control all the way down* muddies the effect to drift it closer to a fuzz that sounds more synthetic rather than the authentic amp distortion you're likely familiar with in discussions surrounding Eddie Van Halen.
"Scooping" the mids, as it were
MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion Further Functions
From here, the EVH Modern High Gain offers more angles to explore with its noise gate and boost functions. If you want your pseudo-fuzz to get even messier, hit that Boost channel button and get pretty "peak"-y and choked. The noise gate shines at the Modern High Gain's highest gain settings. Working on a gradual scale, the noise gate can get very effective in hushing your distorted overtones and noise. Finding a sweet spot for your noise gate is easy as you inch along the Noise knob's sweep. The control sweep makes it easy to clean up your signal for that one solo you could do in your sleep – that one you know exactly where every note lands. In short, it's a wonderfully useful tool for the stage.
The EVH Modern High Gain is an easily integrated drive pedal to make itself right at home on your board. Standard power requirements match with a quickly-accessible backplate that offers a nine-volt battery connection, if battery power is your forte. Totally, the Modern High Gain is an effortless pedal to work into your rig.
MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion Final Thoughts
For Eddie Van Halen fans clamoring for a true-blue Van Halen distortion, we can't imagine you'll be disappointed with this MXR creation. Delivering Eddie's timeless, high-gain amp tone with all the modern fixin's of three-band EQ, shapeable noise gating, and seamless connectivity, the Modern High Gain is primed for the limelight. The pedal introduces an authentic Van Halen distortion tone with a bit more nuance and flexibility than you might expect. Do your classic, Marshall-flavored, amp-like distortion, your crushing, twenty-first century wall of sound, your chunky, pseudo-fuzzes... do it all, in fact!
"High gain? Sure, what's next? Modern high gain? I’ll believe it when I see it."
