Just My Pedalboard...Said Ed in that '79 article...

This here is rambles about guitar effects processing & finding one's "sound."
In that article I found with EVH in '79 he quipped humorously...
"Just my pedalboard, my cheap piece of plywood with my MXR garbage. You know, that's funny too. I've met just about everybody that I grew up on, and they all laugh - you know, like Montrose and Nugent and all these people. Last year when we'd open for them, they'd walk up to me and go "What is this stuff?" You know, I got my little plywood with an MXR phase shifter duct-taped onto it....I see Montrose with his $4000 studio rack...And then he laughs himself silly looking at my stuff. And then later on he's going 'Whoa, how do you get that sound?'

Stop! Hey what's that sound? Everyone look what's going 'round...

"In the late 70's Dave Gilmour and Eddie VanHalen were both using script MXR Phase 90's"
"Why so popular? Simple. Have a listen to 'Eruption' from EVH, now have a listen to the solo in 'Hotel California' and now have a listen to 'Breathe' by Pink Floyd. It's all the same phaser." It's all vintage modjo.
"If you really want one, and you should, you'll need to be prepared to trawl for hours on the net to find one & pay $250 0r more."

Forget mocha. Modjo please!

Then found that Dunlop makes or did make a reissue called:
Custom Shop Phase 90 Script Pedal
http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=243&pmh=products/p_and_e_detail

Curiousity might lead me to get one to try.

Added 10-21 - Did a bit more poking & found MXR M-101 Phase 90 Pedal and then doing a simple 'R28 Mod' where you clip one end of a resistor to remove it from the circuit:
http://www.thejunosound.com/phase_90_r28_mod.htm

So as part of one's journey into guitardom there's the dreaded cat & mouse game of "Find your sound." It's been a vain journey so far for this me. There's something to be said for just plug in & play & forget trying to sound good for, as I hinted at in my rambling earlier this week it is far better to look good than it is to be & sound good. So I'm on this quest to return to the roots of the Halen I simplicity. That sure changed quickly:
http://www.customaudioelectronics.com/images/EVH1.jpg
Some guy claims this was the 90's setup that Ed used:
http://guitargeek.com/rigs/img/v/vanhalen_eddie_1997.gif

So I walked into a local music shop in town & just asked the dude "I look at the roots of Halen I sound & there's simplicity. What effects processor do you recommend to help return to similar simplicity?" They had only a few types of units but the guy pulled out a DigiTech RP50 & RP80. The 80 is the 50 but adds an expression pedal. I'm not fond of DigiTech as they try to market to the masses. Of course reviews are all over the charts but the consensus seems to be it's for dinking around but overall, as expected, not for the intermediates & above. But I could go try one for the heck of it to either prove the guy wrong or to confirm or deny the reviews.

So I did a Google for: best simple guitar processor & on page 4 of the myriads of results I found the text "Steve Vai Takes Guitar Effects to a New Level...
http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=8873

I drooled through these clips:
http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=6061

The GSystem is of course at least $1500.
The TC Electronics VPD1 seemed impressive as well.

In the very middle of drooling I just said to myself..."Welp, simplicity at it's best on VH1 was guitar on one side & verb on the other with some flange or delay." I'm to the point of saying, turn on my, not so cheap Crate amp, turn on a bit of chorus, & pick one of the preset verb or delay settings & go. But then I could also run the amp's effect loop out into my, not so cheap & not really meant as a guitar effects processor, Quadraverb 2, & just pick a something & go.

Welp, until later comes, turn it up to phaser + "MXR garbage."