Ed had the means to have his own home studio, while Landee had the know-how to build it.
Technology was not the main factor in choosing equipment; the choices were based on what sounded good and what was available at local parts stores. So one of Landee’s first moves was to source out a Bill Putnam–designed Universal Audio console for $6k. (Bill Putnam is known as the inventor of the modern recording console.)

Ed said, “We went to take a look at it, and it was this old, dilapidated piece of shit that looked like it was ready to go into the trash.” Landee got it and then wholly rewired it. One of Landee’s next moves was to bring in studio designer and longtime work associate Howard Weiss. Weiss brought in a qualified crew of other studio specialists, electricians, builders, and Ed’s brother-in-law Drew Bertinelli.

While Ed was on tour with Van Halen, Landee, Weiss, and others continued building the new studio at the Van Halen compound. Weiss said: “The deadline we faced required us to work at all hours of the day and night. Valerie Van Halen suggested that “Club Daiquiris” were to be consumed in great quantities to maintain the proper state of mind; Donn insisted on the continuous viewing of Blazing Saddles while consuming daiquiris.”

Surrounded by tall trees and barbed wire, the Van Halen home located in the hills above the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles. A guest house with an unused room sat at one end of their property. Initially, they considered this as a possible control-room site. After some investigation, however, they decided it’d be best to build the studio from the ground up. Zoning laws disallowed building a home studio on your property, so Ed told them it was for a racquetball court, and it got approved.

The space was divided into two areas, a control room being built 17 feet wide by 14 feet deep, with a ceiling height sloping from 12 to 10 feet. The remainder became the studio, measuring 17 feet wide by 23 feet deep, sloping again from 12 to 10 feet. The slab was covered with half-inch particle board and half-inch parquet flooring.

Two feet from the rear of the control room, yet another wall was constructed to house three 48-inch high racks of outboard gear, with tape machine. This wall was then carefully tested and found to be bulletproof with a 44 magnum at two feet.

One unique problem confronting the builder was a 50,000-watt AM radio station just three miles from 5150. It was also a necessity that Ed be able to play in any location facing any direction without hum, RF, or noise problems. The solution was building a pseudo chicken coop: standard chicken wire was used in the walls, flooring, and ceiling to surround the entire recording area. The concept worked flawlessly.

Due to the high heat retention of the exterior walls, a 64-degree inside temperature is maintained, while outdoor temperatures may vary anywhere between 29 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

In addition, Ed and Valerie’s two-car garage was commandeered to become a shop, tape library, instrument storage, and kitchen. The adjacent guest house also was taken to become the lounge.

For any gearheads, the list below was the initial studio equipment list. I’ll have a link in the description to an article that studio builder Howard Weiss wrote about building 5150 and where I got much of this information.
UREI 24/12 console
3M M56 16 track
Ampex MM 1200 24 track
Ampex ATR 800 two-track
Ampex ATR 100 two-track
JVC 8200U U Matic video recorder
Two Studer A 710 cassette recorders
Revox B 225 CD player
JBL/Augspurger monitor system
H&H power amplifiers
EMT 140ST plate reverb
Quantec Room Simulator
Four UREI 1176 limiters
Two Teletronix LA 2A limiters
Eight Valley People Kepex gates
Lexicon Super Prime Time
MXR delay Time
Lexicon Prime Time
Two Eventide Harmonizers
Two Lang PEQ 1 equalizers
Two Pultec MEQ 5 midrange equalizers
Two UREI 550 filters
Two Neumann U 48s, AKG C 12, four Neumann KM 84s, two Sony C 37As, two Neumann U 87s, two Sony ECM 50%, AKG 414, eight Shure SM 56s, four Sennheiser MD421s, and two Sennheiser MD441 microphones. 1912 Hamburg Steinway “B” piano (MIDI equipped)

Landee came up with the studio’s name, adopting 5150 from the California Welfare and Institutions Code for involuntary confinement of a mentally unstable person deemed a danger to themselves and others. Donn overheard the code number one night while listening to police broadcasts on a scanner, and Ed and Donn jokingly called themselves “5150s” after many around them said that they were crazy to build a studio. Both agreed that 5150 was the perfect name for their new “asylum.”

Once the control room was built and the sound system was ready to be tested, the tape that just happened to be within reach was the Dweezil tape. “My Mother Is a Space Cadet” would be the first music played in the new 5150 studio, and they were blown away by how good it sounded.

Later, the sound of Eddie and Alex playing would waft over nearby homes in the Hollywood Hills. Eventually, it became too much for Eddie’s neighbor, Lindsay Wagner – star of the ‘70s TV series The Bionic Woman – who would call Eddie’s wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, to ask for the studio doors to be shut. Eddie would have to buy Wagner out of her property within a couple of years to get around the complaints.

While Landee and others finished the new home studio, the band continued to fracture at the end of the Diver Down tour; aka the Hide Your Sheep tour. Roth, the outgoing attention seeker, and Eddie, the borderline introvert who wanted to go back to the hotel room, play his guitar, snort coke, and drink, were pulling apart the fastest. Despite the growing estrangement, the band completed the tour on February 12, 1983, in Argentina. To the relief of everyone, they all went their separate ways. Ed would go back to his new 5150 studio, Michael Anthony would head back to his wife, who was his high-school sweetheart, and Alex Van Halen would rejoin his then-girlfriend Valeri Kendall, who would become his wife in June of 1983. Roth would head out on another excursion with his adventure crew named the Jungle Studs.