MXR EVH5150

The code EVH5150 will probably surprise few of the more experienced guitarists, but for the sake of clarity let's break it down - EVH for Eddie van Halen and 5150 for his signature amp, which you may know as the Peavey 5150 and more recently the EVH 5150. The MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive is Dunlop's ambitious attempt to make a compact pedal effect that will simulate as closely as possible the authentic behaviour of the real tube preamp of the aforementioned amp. It goes the route of a purely analog circuit with manually set multi-level MOSFET transistors.

With a three-band EQ, output volume and distortion/gain rate controls, the pedal will offer you both classic rock tones from the early days of Van Halen and modern hi-gain distortion with great sound articulation. The Boost switch can be used to saturate the sound with an extra serving of gain and compression, while the Gate switch filters out any unwanted noise. If you need to kick your machine up a notch, or are looking for a pedal that works well as an overdrive/dirty channel, yet sounds realistic, then look for this box - it's well worth it.

All the electronics are hidden in a solid metal chassis. The pedal is wired as a true bypass, so it doesn't affect the pass-through signal in the off state. Power is supplied by a 9V battery or 9V adapter.