Tattoo
A dry, punchy crunch from two amps panned hard left and right.
What is the Tattoo guitar tone?
The Tattoo guitar tone is a dry, punchy crunch from two amps panned hard left and right, heard on Van Halen's 2010s hard rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Van Halen reportedly tracked it with an EVH Wolfgang USA in Stealth Black, Eddie Van Halen's main guitar for the whole album, plugged straight into a pair of 50-watt EVH 5150III heads on the blue crunch channel with no pedals, each into its own 5150III 2x12 cabinet, one miked with a Shure SM57 and panned hard to one side and the other with a Royer 122v ribbon mic panned hard to the other, in Guitar World's account; Van Halen said in a 2012 Guitar World interview that all the guitar tracks on Tattoo went through the 50-watt head and 2x12s, which sounded slightly different from the 100-watt 5150IIIs and 4x12s on the rest of the album, pretty whomping in his words; the tone is mostly dry, with very short delays of 28ms on one side and 32ms on the other added in the mix to thicken the rhythm tracks, an EMT 140 plate reverb on the volume-knob swells at the end and, Guitar World thinks, a mid boost around 3kHz from engineer Ross Hogarth; unlike most of the album the song is in standard tuning rather than a half step down; it grew out of Down in Flames, a song from the band's club days, and came out on 10 January 2012 as the first single from A Different Kind of Truth, the band's first album with David Lee Roth since 1984 and the first single with Wolfgang Van Halen on bass; it was the band's first single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 17 years. Here the size comes from two amps on a crunch channel panned hard apart and left mostly dry, rather than from more gain on one amp.
You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a high-gain head and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.
Tattoo amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 6, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 6
- Bass 5
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 6
- Reverb 2
- Signal chain
- Two amps panned hard left and right → Short delays of 28 and 32ms in the mix
- The control that matters most
- Width rather than gain. Guitar World has the riff on two amps panned hard apart, left mostly dry with very short delays to thicken it, so record or run the part twice, keep the reverb off, and leave the mids in enough for the riff to cut through a dense mix.
These positions are free and they are a starting point. A Katana, a Spark and a valve head reach this voicing from different knob positions, so Tonelify rewrites every value above for the amp and guitar you own. A first plan starts with 7 days free, $0 today.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Bridge pickup
These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. If you tell Tonelify which amp you own, it rewrites every value above for the controls that amp actually has.
Does the Tattoo tone sound off on your amp?
Pick what you hear. You get the knobs to turn from the starting point above, and how far.
Published settings
What amp settings did Eddie Van Halen use on Tattoo?
Gain 10, low 8, mid 3, high 5.5 and volume 6 on the blue crunch channel, with master presence 6 and master resonance 10, on each of two EVH 5150III 50-watt heads into 5150III 2x12 cabinets with Celestion G12H 30-watt speakers, and the Wolfgang's bridge pickup with volume and tone on 10. That is Chris Gill's settings box in Guitar World's feature on the song, which does not say where the numbers came from, so read them as the magazine's reconstruction rather than a note from the session.
Source: Guitar World: the secrets behind Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone on Tattoo
What gear did Van Halen use on Tattoo?
An EVH Wolfgang USA in Stealth Black, Eddie Van Halen's main guitar for the whole album, plugged straight into a pair of 50-watt EVH 5150III heads on the blue crunch channel with no pedals, each into its own 5150III 2x12 cabinet, one miked with a Shure SM57 and panned hard to one side and the other with a Royer 122v ribbon mic panned hard to the other, in Guitar World's account; Van Halen said in a 2012 Guitar World interview that all the guitar tracks on Tattoo went through the 50-watt head and 2x12s, which sounded slightly different from the 100-watt 5150IIIs and 4x12s on the rest of the album, pretty whomping in his words; the tone is mostly dry, with very short delays of 28ms on one side and 32ms on the other added in the mix to thicken the rhythm tracks, an EMT 140 plate reverb on the volume-knob swells at the end and, Guitar World thinks, a mid boost around 3kHz from engineer Ross Hogarth; unlike most of the album the song is in standard tuning rather than a half step down; it grew out of Down in Flames, a song from the band's club days, and came out on 10 January 2012 as the first single from A Different Kind of Truth, the band's first album with David Lee Roth since 1984 and the first single with Wolfgang Van Halen on bass; it was the band's first single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 17 years.
Sources: Guitar World: the secrets behind Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone on Tattoo, Wikipedia: Tattoo (Van Halen song)
Tonelify's tone matcher reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.
How do you get the Tattoo tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Tattoo
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
Tattoo tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Tattoo?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 6, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup. These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. Tonelify rewrites the same values for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same dry, punchy crunch from two amps panned hard left and right from different positions.
What amp did Eddie Van Halen use on Tattoo?
Amp: Two EVH 5150III 50-watt heads, each into a 2x12. Guitar: EVH Wolfgang USA in Stealth Black. Sources: Guitar World and Wikipedia.
How do you get Eddie Van Halen's tone on Tattoo?
Width rather than gain. Guitar World has the riff on two amps panned hard apart, left mostly dry with very short delays to thicken it, so record or run the part twice, keep the reverb off, and leave the mids in enough for the riff to cut through a dense mix. Play it with the bridge pickup.
What tuning is Tattoo in?
Standard tuning: E A D G B E, low string to high, according to Guitar World.
Source: Guitar World: the secrets behind Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone on Tattoo
Can you get the Tattoo tone without the original gear?
Yes. The parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order, and those translate to other equipment. Tonelify's adaptation step works them out for the amp and guitar you own.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
A match for your own gear takes a plan, and a first plan starts with 7 days free with nothing charged that day: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matching within a fair use limit of 150 new matches a day, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.
