Description
Co-designed with Eddie Van Halen himself, the MXR EVH5150 Overdrive is built to cover the full arc of his tone — from the raw, harmonically rich crunch of his early recordings to the tight, articulate high-gain sound he favors on modern stages. At the heart of it are hand-adjusted multi-stage MOSFETs that behave more like a cranked tube amp than a typical clipping circuit, giving the drive a rounded, dynamic feel that responds to pick attack rather than just compressing everything flat.
Placement on the board is straightforward: run it into a clean amp for amp-in-a-box duty, or stack it in front of an already-driven tone for extra push and sustain. The Gain and Output knobs handle the basic dirt-to-volume balance, while the 3-band passive EQ lets you carve mids forward for lead work or scoop them back for rhythm chug. Flip the Boost switch and the circuit adds compression and extra gain on tap for solos, no second pedal required. The Smart Gate control is worth calling out on its own — it’s a noise gate baked directly into the drive circuit, so high-gain settings stay quiet between notes instead of hissing or buzzing.
- Designed in collaboration with Eddie Van Halen
- Multi-stage MOSFET clipping for tube-like overdrive character
- 3-band passive EQ tone stack
- Boost switch for added gain and compression
- Smart Gate noise-gate circuit
- True bypass switching
- Road-worthy housing with custom EVH artwork
This unit is open box — inspected and confirmed mint, ready to go straight onto your board.
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