Dweezil Zappa

Thank you for the bonus episode.

Was super excited to see the hi/lo res option for download added.

But, when I tried to download the episodes that previously MP3 only, but clicking the Hi Res option, the MP3s still download for Steve Vai Pt 1 and @2, and Blues Saraceno Pt 1 and 2.

Thanks.

Another amazing episode! This (slightly more) random path was really cool and a great bonus.

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...

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.