Van Halen – 1984 (Remastered)

In the music video for Van Halen's Jump, Eddie Van Halen can be seen [at 2:34] playing the Oberheim OB-Xa. According to this Keyboard magazine feature, he played the OB-Xa on "1984", "Jump" and "I'll Wait" on the 1984 album. On the former two songs, the OB-Xa was recorded direct in stereo, while on the latter the synth was run through a pair of Music Man amplifiers to make it sound nastier. Eddie Van Halen did his own programming on the OB-Xa: "I just know that if I twist the knobs enough, I'll hear what I like".

Live, the OB-Xa had to be replaced by the newer OB-8:

When we were getting ready to tour [for the 1984 album], I went out to buy four or five OB-Xas, because you need backups in case something breaks down. That's when I found out they didn't make the OB-Xa anymore. I didn't even know they made the OB-8, but I got a couple of them instead and tried to reprogram them. Now I only use my own programs.

In this article, Eddie Van Halen mentions using a Prophet-10 synthesizer to write "Jump". Eventually he had problems with the fuses blowing out whenever he got the sound he wanted on the right hand section of the keyboard that he had to get an Oberheim OB-Xa instead to get the same result.

In 1984 issue of Guitar World, Van Halen was seen with Gibson Korina Flying V. According to 2014 Guitar World interview, Van Halen used the guitar during the recording of "1984" for "Hot for Teacher" and "Drop Dead Legs".