Andy Wood demos his ultimate Van Halen pedalboard rig and it sounds as spectacular as we hoped

Andy Wood Van Halen pedalboard
(Image credit: Andy Wood / YouTube)

Andy Wood's Eddie Van Halen pedalboard reveal late last year had us excited, and now he's ready with a full hour-long reveal of it to show us how it sounds and the reasoning behind his choices. 

Wood revealed that the idea came about when he was going to do a Van Halen-leaning video on the BOSS SDE 3000VH and fellow VH fanatic Pete Thorn beat him to it. So he got thinking about a bigger idea, integrating that delay pedal based on the digital delay rack unit Eddie used: 'What would it be like to shrink Ed's $30,000/$40,000 rig into a pedalboard?"

Well now we know, with the help of XAct Tone Solutions (XTS) in Nashville. The results can switch from wet/dry/wet to mono with the flick of a switch. XTS even put it on a striped pedalboard. 

The video above includes XTS talking through how the 'board works, as well as session pro Andy's playing and the reaction of guest players to the rig. Spoiler: in case you didn't know, Andy has his EVH chops down. 

Boss SDE-300D and SDE-3000EVH

(Image credit: Boss)

Pedals on the 'board that are paired with the EVH 5150 amp include the MXR 5150 Overdrive, signature Phase 90 and Flanger, Dunlop EVH95 wah and the Eventide MicroPitch for Van Hagar era delay.

And just to prove how good the pedalboard is, it's run through three mic'd Roland Micro Cubes instead of the 5150s, and it still sounds amazing! 

Check out more of Andy Wood's videos at his YouTube channel

Rob Laing
Reviews Editor, GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars

Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.