Great episode with Satchel. I was a little worried that he would be in full Satchel mode and be silly, I was happy to hear that he was respectful and you can hear his love for VH.
Loving all of these and excited to get to the Hagar years.
What's amazing about Jacob is that you can watch his journey on YouTube from being a 14 year old kid in his basement right through to now (early 20's). Dweezil said it somewhere else, but not only is he playing the notes on the nose but he has the feel for Ed and his musicality that no one else has come close to perfecting. As a performer he's engaging and exciting - plus his chops are insane -- insane! I'm not a huge fan of his originals - a little too much old school masculine energy and lyrical content for my tastes, but from a pure rock guitar standpoint he's amazing -- and again his feel for Ed's phrasing is uncanny -- just uncanny!
Jacob is a YouTube and touring sensation that specializes in playing and performing classic rock and metal songs as close to note correct as he can. Which is pretty close...a lot closer than most.
But his real skill in my opinion is his incredible facility with singing very well and playing very complicated parts like those in Van Halen songs at the same time.
This is difficult/well nigh impossible to pull-off, but he does it VERY well.
While we wait for the next episode in anticipation, tide yourself over with this gem I found today. The debut album WITHOUT vocals. Kudos to whoever snuck this out of the studio. Everything seems in order, except for what sounds like an outtake of “Little Dreamer?”
I might have missed a blog posting on this, but what is expected timing of episodes going forward? I'm also looking forward to the post-Roth era discussions. Perhaps a minority opinion but I think there's some very strong material there and it's how I got into VH in the first place (Balance)
I'm looking forward to hearing the post-Roth material too. The Roth material gets a load of attention, but there are some gems in the Hagar era. Even VH III isn't *that* bad - A Year To The Day, Josephina, Fire In the Hole and Without You are all great tracks with some killer guitar playing on them.
Ditto. I truly feel that most of the Hagar/Cherone era material has not been explored to an extent like the Roth era material has. In fact, in purchasing the TAB book for the Hagar/Cherone eras, I noticed that Edward's phrasing and time feel became tighter and more focused on melody. Most of the 5150 disc has MASSIVE amounts of vibrato mixed vibrato bar phrasing that is missing from the Roth era recordings ( the VH 3 disc has some AMAZING phrases from Edward, some of which are buried in the mix-" From Afar " is a prime example of this, especially with the Stereo Ripley guitar used for the solo ).
Great episodes so far, Dweezil. I'm really enjoying all of these so far, and am quite looking forward to the Sammy Hagar era, especially Balance - which is my favourite Hagar album!
I really enjoyed the Greg Howe episode! I'd be interested in seeing you continue this series beyond just the albums in the same manner. You could even circle back around to the guitarists you already spent an album with and get their top 5 or 10 favorites like you did with Greg. I also really enjoy when the person you are interviewing has a guitar and isn't afraid to launch into a part. It's so much fun.
The observations between you and Greg were really cool. It’s nice to see others feel that way or hear that sense of rhythm that VH had. Same with the Jennifer interview. Girl gone bad is a masterpiece and a true b***h to play on SO many levels.
I’m now into the Tremonti/Diver Down episode. Just a quick note that the Tele/Fender Electric XII mutt 12-string electric that Eddie used for “Cabo Wabo” was not used for “Secrets”.
Eddie used a Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck (which is obviously associated with Jimmy Page) for the recording of “Secrets” and on the early live performances of the song on tour before Kramer made the yellow and black double-neck for him which you see in the well known US Festival footage.
Now I’m getting into the Nuno/‘Fair Warning’ segments and of course it’s my favorite Van Halen album. You guys made some accurate observations. Eddie did relatively few interview references to what he did on the album and some things weren’t revealed until unedited versions of interviews were published in 2010.
(1982 Steven Rosen interview with Eddie)
Rosen: The “Hear About It Later” intro is a perfect example of those mountains of guitars. It segues from those dark legato chords at the very beginning into that hellish explosion of strings.
EVH: In the beginning it’s a clean Strat; the whole basic track was played with a clean Strat with a flanger on it and then my regular red and white main guitar that I use for all the other stuff.
The intro to “Hear About It Later” is indeed a strat because Eddie says so specifically in this 1982 interview. The intro is related to the “Women In Love” intro in that it was an out-of-phase pickup selection on a three single coil guitar and the compressed arpeggios have modulation...a rack chorus effect of some sort on the “WIL” intro and the MXR Flanger on the “HAIL” intro.
It is almost certainly a DIFFERENT strat on the two intros...Ed had used the unfinished Boogie Bodies strat with the Danelectro neck for “WIL” and by the 1981 sessions for ‘Fair Warning’ that guitar had been disassembled and parts used to make up different guitars. I theorize that it might have been a vintage 50s strat on “HAIL” since Ed was getting more vintage guitars around this time period, but it could just as easily be a slapped together instrument of some sort.
In the “WIL” intro, Ed is using the out-of-phase position between the Bridge and Middle pickups, but on the “HAIL” intro he is using the out-of-phase selection between the Middle and Neck pickups. Each of the intros have their own tuning offsets which are:
I theorize that both intros may have been recorded direct, but I have no clear evidence for that. Here are two clips I made to demo both intros on my 1968 Fender Strat into an Eventide H9 for the SM58 compression algo and a vintage Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man for the delay...the “HAIL” intro obviously features my late 70s MXR Flanger and both clips used my 1965 Fender Super Reverb amp. My version of the “WIL” intro has no chorus because I don’t own a chorus pedal, but I think the chorus effect on the second album was a studio effect since to the best of my knowledge Eddie did not have a chorus effect either.
These have no post production, just whatever my iPhone camera/mic managed to pick up...
As for the sub-octave effects from the Eventide Harmonizer, I think that the unique sound of the overdubbed leads towards the end of “So This Is Love?” is the result of the Eventide sub-octave effect which I think has some inherent modulation or the sound is the result of a mixture of the sub-octave sound and the detune chorus sound of a second Eventide which is then effected by Eddie’s MXR Flanger. I run into this same situation with the outro vamp on “Drop Dead Legs”...is it just the sub-octave effect with some inherent modulation in that one effect OR is one Eventide with the sub-octave effect mixed in just so with a second Eventide with detune chorus?! Either way, there is some magic that happens when the sub-octave sound gets hit with the flanger waves! The tuning on this one is almost exactly 1/2 step down...which is strangely unusual in the catalog! It is one of the very few that I’ve found that were tuned almost exactly to chromatic pitch!
"So This Is Love?"
Eb: -2.3 cents Bb: -2.1 cents F#: -0.4 cents Db: (No change from standard equal temperament) Ab: (No change from standard equal temperament) Eb: -2.3 cents
I used a sub-octave effect from my H9 coupled with my vintage MXR Flanger to try to get close to the sound of that overdub. It’s simple, but I think it gets pretty close to the sound...
Just listening to the bonus episode with Greg. I have mentioned before that "Push Comes to Shove" is my favorite solo, too. And that story from Don Landee about the 3 takes is amazingly cool. It makes me wonder if the fact that it's a composite of 3 separate solos is the reason they never played it live? Like maybe Edward psyched himself out from trying to recreate it live, or it soured him on it because it was such a rarity for him to do it that way. What a great story, though. Great bonus episode, too, as usual.
GREAT bonus episode. I like the format of talking specific songs that the guest loves. 7 months since EVH passing and these episodes continue to be great grief therapy. Looking forward to what’s next.
I’m into Episode 3 with Paul Gilbert and the song he’s thinking of that sounds similar to that bouncy vocal melody in “Beautiful Girls” is the intro from “Shining Star” by Earth Wind & Fire which is mostly Larry Dunn on Fender Rhodes and Verdine White’s bass. I never thought of that relationship, but Paul is right on with that comparison!
It’s been a gas listening to the first two episodes with Steve. His transcription of “Eruption” and other attempts to transcribe Van Halen music inspired me to work on transcribing myself in an effort to get closer to the reality of what Eddie actually played. My transcription of “Eruption” appeared in the February 2021 issue of Guitar World and it all began with me working through Steve’s transcription when I was 12 in 1984. Who would have thought that my own transcription would appear when I reached 48?!
I hope to share anything I’ve learned over the last 40 years of studying Ed to anyone who is interested and I look forward to learning from everyone here!
Cool! My name is Allen Garber and I’m on Facebook and you can get me there and then I can direct message you my regular e-mail address. I appear on some podcasts and I’m a member on the VHLinks forum, username “garbeaj” and my YouTube channel is under the same name.
I can send you a link to a pdf of the February 2021 issue of Guitar World which includes a long form article covering my “Eruption” transcription and the transcription itself. I also made some corrections to several licks in “I’m The One”, but we didn’t have time for me to redo that entire song’s transcription before the publication deadline. The “Mean Street” transcription is a reprint and I did not get to correct that one before publication of the issue.
Great episode with Satchel. I was a little worried that he would be in full Satchel mode and be silly, I was happy to hear that he was respectful and you can hear his love for VH.
Loving all of these and excited to get to the Hagar years.
Mr. Zappa, all of these episodes so far have been quite enjoyable. I would just like to say Thank you.
What's amazing about Jacob is that you can watch his journey on YouTube from being a 14 year old kid in his basement right through to now (early 20's). Dweezil said it somewhere else, but not only is he playing the notes on the nose but he has the feel for Ed and his musicality that no one else has come close to perfecting. As a performer he's engaging and exciting - plus his chops are insane -- insane! I'm not a huge fan of his originals - a little too much old school masculine energy and lyrical content for my tastes, but from a pure rock guitar standpoint he's amazing -- and again his feel for Ed's phrasing is uncanny -- just uncanny!
Who's the "Jacob" player in his 20's that Dweezil metions in the last 10 minutes?
Jacob Deraps. He's fantastic. He performs the end theme song on my podcast. He plays guitar and sings.
Jacob is a YouTube and touring sensation that specializes in playing and performing classic rock and metal songs as close to note correct as he can. Which is pretty close...a lot closer than most.
But his real skill in my opinion is his incredible facility with singing very well and playing very complicated parts like those in Van Halen songs at the same time.
This is difficult/well nigh impossible to pull-off, but he does it VERY well.
Great episode Dweezil, really enjoyed this one. And fully agree that Jacob Deraps nails the VH vibe. His video of 'We die bold' is fantastic
Loved the Satchel episode, it's great to hear Russ out of character for a change haha! Absolute monster player!
While we wait for the next episode in anticipation, tide yourself over with this gem I found today. The debut album WITHOUT vocals. Kudos to whoever snuck this out of the studio. Everything seems in order, except for what sounds like an outtake of “Little Dreamer?”
I might have missed a blog posting on this, but what is expected timing of episodes going forward? I'm also looking forward to the post-Roth era discussions. Perhaps a minority opinion but I think there's some very strong material there and it's how I got into VH in the first place (Balance)
I'm looking forward to hearing the post-Roth material too. The Roth material gets a load of attention, but there are some gems in the Hagar era. Even VH III isn't *that* bad - A Year To The Day, Josephina, Fire In the Hole and Without You are all great tracks with some killer guitar playing on them.
Ditto. I truly feel that most of the Hagar/Cherone era material has not been explored to an extent like the Roth era material has. In fact, in purchasing the TAB book for the Hagar/Cherone eras, I noticed that Edward's phrasing and time feel became tighter and more focused on melody. Most of the 5150 disc has MASSIVE amounts of vibrato mixed vibrato bar phrasing that is missing from the Roth era recordings ( the VH 3 disc has some AMAZING phrases from Edward, some of which are buried in the mix-" From Afar " is a prime example of this, especially with the Stereo Ripley guitar used for the solo ).
Great episodes so far, Dweezil. I'm really enjoying all of these so far, and am quite looking forward to the Sammy Hagar era, especially Balance - which is my favourite Hagar album!
I really enjoyed the Greg Howe episode! I'd be interested in seeing you continue this series beyond just the albums in the same manner. You could even circle back around to the guitarists you already spent an album with and get their top 5 or 10 favorites like you did with Greg. I also really enjoy when the person you are interviewing has a guitar and isn't afraid to launch into a part. It's so much fun.
Speaking of Diver Down, I only recently realized that the chord fading into Where Have All The Good Times Gone is the Ending Chord of Secrets!
nice catch !!! never knew that,
Great observation! After seeing your post, I found that it was easy to catch if I played the songs alphabetically from the album.
The observations between you and Greg were really cool. It’s nice to see others feel that way or hear that sense of rhythm that VH had. Same with the Jennifer interview. Girl gone bad is a masterpiece and a true b***h to play on SO many levels.
excellent job Mr.Z! !!!
I hate to add more wishes to the wishlist, but this video made by Ben Eller a few days after Eddie's death is great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHLP-DN1OY
He'd be an interesting and knowledgeable interview as well, I think, he "gets it".
Eddie used a Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck (which is obviously associated with Jimmy Page) for the recording of “Secrets” and on the early live performances of the song on tour before Kramer made the yellow and black double-neck for him which you see in the well known US Festival footage.
Now I’m getting into the Nuno/‘Fair Warning’ segments and of course it’s my favorite Van Halen album. You guys made some accurate observations. Eddie did relatively few interview references to what he did on the album and some things weren’t revealed until unedited versions of interviews were published in 2010.
(1982 Steven Rosen interview with Eddie)
Rosen: The “Hear About It Later” intro is a perfect example of those mountains of guitars. It segues from those dark legato chords at the very beginning into that hellish explosion of strings.
EVH: In the beginning it’s a clean Strat; the whole basic track was played with a clean Strat with a flanger on it and then my regular red and white main guitar that I use for all the other stuff.
The intro to “Hear About It Later” is indeed a strat because Eddie says so specifically in this 1982 interview. The intro is related to the “Women In Love” intro in that it was an out-of-phase pickup selection on a three single coil guitar and the compressed arpeggios have modulation...a rack chorus effect of some sort on the “WIL” intro and the MXR Flanger on the “HAIL” intro.
It is almost certainly a DIFFERENT strat on the two intros...Ed had used the unfinished Boogie Bodies strat with the Danelectro neck for “WIL” and by the 1981 sessions for ‘Fair Warning’ that guitar had been disassembled and parts used to make up different guitars. I theorize that it might have been a vintage 50s strat on “HAIL” since Ed was getting more vintage guitars around this time period, but it could just as easily be a slapped together instrument of some sort.
In the “WIL” intro, Ed is using the out-of-phase position between the Bridge and Middle pickups, but on the “HAIL” intro he is using the out-of-phase selection between the Middle and Neck pickups. Each of the intros have their own tuning offsets which are:
"Women In Love" intro
1st string: Eb +27.7 cents
2nd string: Bb +27.9 cents
3rd string: F# +29.6 cents
4th string: C# +30.0 cents
5th string: Ab +30.0 cents
6th string: Eb +27.7 cents
"Hear About It Later" intro
1st String: -31.7 Cents
2nd String: -31.9 Cents
3rd String: -21.6 Cents
4th String: -22.0 Cents
5th String: -22.0 Cents
6th String: -31.7 Cents (Drop Db Tuning)
I theorize that both intros may have been recorded direct, but I have no clear evidence for that. Here are two clips I made to demo both intros on my 1968 Fender Strat into an Eventide H9 for the SM58 compression algo and a vintage Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man for the delay...the “HAIL” intro obviously features my late 70s MXR Flanger and both clips used my 1965 Fender Super Reverb amp. My version of the “WIL” intro has no chorus because I don’t own a chorus pedal, but I think the chorus effect on the second album was a studio effect since to the best of my knowledge Eddie did not have a chorus effect either.
These have no post production, just whatever my iPhone camera/mic managed to pick up...
As for the sub-octave effects from the Eventide Harmonizer, I think that the unique sound of the overdubbed leads towards the end of “So This Is Love?” is the result of the Eventide sub-octave effect which I think has some inherent modulation or the sound is the result of a mixture of the sub-octave sound and the detune chorus sound of a second Eventide which is then effected by Eddie’s MXR Flanger. I run into this same situation with the outro vamp on “Drop Dead Legs”...is it just the sub-octave effect with some inherent modulation in that one effect OR is one Eventide with the sub-octave effect mixed in just so with a second Eventide with detune chorus?! Either way, there is some magic that happens when the sub-octave sound gets hit with the flanger waves! The tuning on this one is almost exactly 1/2 step down...which is strangely unusual in the catalog! It is one of the very few that I’ve found that were tuned almost exactly to chromatic pitch!
"So This Is Love?"
Eb: -2.3 cents
Bb: -2.1 cents
F#: -0.4 cents
Db: (No change from standard equal temperament)
Ab: (No change from standard equal temperament)
Eb: -2.3 cents
I used a sub-octave effect from my H9 coupled with my vintage MXR Flanger to try to get close to the sound of that overdub. It’s simple, but I think it gets pretty close to the sound...
I can only imagine how Eddie felt when Frank said "Thanks for reinventing the electric guitar" to him. Man, what a amazing story!
Just listening to the bonus episode with Greg. I have mentioned before that "Push Comes to Shove" is my favorite solo, too. And that story from Don Landee about the 3 takes is amazingly cool. It makes me wonder if the fact that it's a composite of 3 separate solos is the reason they never played it live? Like maybe Edward psyched himself out from trying to recreate it live, or it soured him on it because it was such a rarity for him to do it that way. What a great story, though. Great bonus episode, too, as usual.
GREAT bonus episode. I like the format of talking specific songs that the guest loves. 7 months since EVH passing and these episodes continue to be great grief therapy. Looking forward to what’s next.
I’m into Episode 3 with Paul Gilbert and the song he’s thinking of that sounds similar to that bouncy vocal melody in “Beautiful Girls” is the intro from “Shining Star” by Earth Wind & Fire which is mostly Larry Dunn on Fender Rhodes and Verdine White’s bass. I never thought of that relationship, but Paul is right on with that comparison!
Dragging on a Tuesday ,,, teaching,,, late night recording session and in my delirious consciousness I come here to find,,,, BONUS EPISODe!!!!!
Something to listen as I do the long drive to next gig. Thank you Sir D
It’s been a gas listening to the first two episodes with Steve. His transcription of “Eruption” and other attempts to transcribe Van Halen music inspired me to work on transcribing myself in an effort to get closer to the reality of what Eddie actually played. My transcription of “Eruption” appeared in the February 2021 issue of Guitar World and it all began with me working through Steve’s transcription when I was 12 in 1984. Who would have thought that my own transcription would appear when I reached 48?!
I hope to share anything I’ve learned over the last 40 years of studying Ed to anyone who is interested and I look forward to learning from everyone here!
That’s great I’d be interested in seeing your work how do I contact you?
Cool! My name is Allen Garber and I’m on Facebook and you can get me there and then I can direct message you my regular e-mail address. I appear on some podcasts and I’m a member on the VHLinks forum, username “garbeaj” and my YouTube channel is under the same name.
I can send you a link to a pdf of the February 2021 issue of Guitar World which includes a long form article covering my “Eruption” transcription and the transcription itself. I also made some corrections to several licks in “I’m The One”, but we didn’t have time for me to redo that entire song’s transcription before the publication deadline. The “Mean Street” transcription is a reprint and I did not get to correct that one before publication of the issue.
Will the bonus episodes be accessible from this page? Thank you.
+1
Yes! The Episode is available now.