So I have a question for Dweezil which may have been asked and answered at some point, but here goes:
My pals Greg Renoff and podcaster/classic rock/VH cover band guitarist Jeff Goebel and other friends of mine have been going down every possible rabbit hole for information on the source or sources from which Edward drew for his famous right hand tapping technique.
We have essentially all agreed that the most solid evidence on balance points toward Harvey Mandel being the person that Edward got his right hand tapping technique from. There are reliable eyewitness accounts from George Lynch who attended a Mandel show at the Starwood with Edward where Mandel played his many advanced right hand tapping runs live and a local scenester who actually saw Terry Kilgore teach Ed the technique after he himself was taught the technique by Mandel. Neal Schon is also quoted as saying that Edward specifically told him that he learned the technique from Mandel by way of Terry Kilgore.
It is an almost foregone conclusion that despite Ed’s best attempts to claim that he came up with the idea on his own after seeing Page’s “Heartbreaker” solo open string legato triplets, he almost certainly actually learned the technique wholly from Terry Kilgore who was taught directly by Mandel and the very reliable account of Lynch having attended a Mandel show at the Starwood where Mandel performed many advanced right hand tapping runs which were all over his 1973 solo album ‘Shangrenade’ and which he he’d been playing since 1969.
Another very distinct possibility is that Edward was aware of right hand tapping from seeing and/or hearing Derringer band guitarist Danny Johnson doing advanced right hand tapping runs in Derringer…who also played a great hard rocking live version of “You Really Got Me” well prior to Van Halen’s breakthrough recording and who also played guitar in the band ‘Private Life’ that Edward produced in the late 80s.
My question and the question from my friends to Dweez is this…Did you ever discuss the origins of tapping with Ed as it related to Frank’s pioneering right hand tapping as we see it in this famous clip of “Black Napkins” from 1976 at around the 2:40 mark?
My dad was tapping on the neck with a pick to make what he called "Bagpipe Sounds" starting as far back as 1973. It was a more randomized hyper fast flutter sound within lines. It wasn't uniform like Eruption.
Thanks for that memory! It’s clear from that footage that 1973’s “bagpipe sounds” evolved into something more “uniform” by the time of that 1976 footage. I think I get what he was driving at with “bagpipe” if the tapped note was a very short one that quickly jumped to the next note in the way that notes in bagpipe music can.
It is really interesting that the whole right hand tapping technique was essentially “in the air” for some progressive rock guitarists and forward thinking guitar players in general. I reckon it is obvious that Edward popularized it because he ultimately made great popular music that reached the masses in a way that others didn’t, but the actual technique and the same basic runs were definitely being done by others just as well, especially from Hackett and Mandel.
Thanks David! It was great fun…I’m glad you enjoyed it! Dweezil is great at editing and audio magic to such a degree that he made a simpleton like me sound passable!
Just letting Dweez and everyone know, really great interview with the one and only Don Landee in the new issue of TapeOp Magazine! Hoping Dweezil can get him on here one day, that is the dream episode!
Hey gang! Happy October! Finally got caught up on the recent episode with Allen. Superb! Thanks to Allen for the info on Edward. Stuff like this makes me happy ( I'm a gear/technique nerd-haha! ). The cross reference between Cream and Van Halen is so under-spoken about. So, it's wonderful to hear that reference finally ( I'm still convinced that Jan-Edward's dad-had a bigger influence on Edward, in terms of time feel. Jan's slightly behind-the-beat clarinet solo on " Big Bad Bill. . ." sounds similar to the way Edward would play the blues ). Great episode. And thanks to DZ for renewing my subscription. Happy to be tagging along with this group!
Thanks so much David…I’m so happy to know that you and others enjoyed it and maybe learned a few things! It was such a gas for me and I’m super grateful to Dweezil for his patience and for having me on the podcast!
Wow! This is awesome! A fantastic resource! Thanks again Allen for sharing all of your materials with us. Many practice hours ahead to look forward to!
Near the end of the episode, I also played one of my favorite variations of the repeating open string licks similar to those in “Eruption”, “Somebody Get Me a Doctor”, “I’m the One” (second solo), “5150” etc. in F# during the “Hot For Teacher” solo. Here is my complete transcription of that solo where you can see exactly how Eddie played that iteration of the lick where he mixed up his straight picking with his normal “single open E picked with the rest legato” patterns with added picked notes at various points in an off-the-cuff way which doesn’t follow his usual non-varying pattern all the way through all of the repeats:
The “Hot For Teacher” solo is based almost entirely on the Clapton/Cream “Sitting On Top of the World” ending solo licks…the phrasing and the overall composition of each part of this solo is breathtaking!
I also played through the solo from “Girl Gone Bad” which is one of my favorite of all of Ed’s solos at the very close of the episode. To me, the song is a strong candidate for being perhaps the best song the band ever did…right up there with “Push Comes To Shove” or “Hear About It Later”. To my mind, it is the closest the band ever came to Led Zeppelin…a masterpiece! And the solo showcases some of Edward’s old familiar licks played with swinging gusto and with a nice long legato phrase near the beginning of the solo…a clear example of the influence of Holdsworth before Ed goes to his more familiar five-note pattern with one Upstroke picked note at the 14th position (same as in the “Beat It” solo in the 12th position) and his raked Am arpeggio/A blues phrasing to wind it up. I love it! Here’s my transcription of the complete “Girl Gone Bad” solo:
Also, here is a video lesson in which I go over these five note patterns from “Beat It” and “Girl Gone Bad” which contains some tips on how to execute this pattern cleanly:
To demonstrate Ed’s penchant for whole step bending with his Index finger rather than his Ring finger in his typical blues box playing, I played the opening lick from the “Jump” solo which is a great workout for these Index finger whole step bends. My transcription is in the tuning from the album which is about 1 and 1/8 steps ABOVE standard pitch, so this is played in Am in the 5th position:
The very fast lick near the beginning of the “Panama” solo is an example that I played which is an extension of the Clapton “Sitting On Top of the World” ending solo lick patterns:
And another example of this Clapton inspired playing in the “When It’s Love” solo…(I played the last fast phrase at the end):
And that fast lick from “When It’s Love” begins with a similar string skipping pentatonic box lick that Dweezil mentioned and that I demonstrated in the beginning of the first solo in “Bottoms Up!”. The whole solo is another bluesy homage to Clapton and Billy Gibbons:
Here is a link to the live version of “Sitting On Top of the World” from Cream’s ‘Goodbye’ LP that was discussed as being so critical to Ed’s playing. The unaccompanied solo flourish at the end begins at around 4:34 here:
And this is my transcription of it. Ed would basically play these notes in different keys with either the verbatim left and right hand articulations as Clapton played it or with the addition of silent hammer-ons throughout nearly his entire lead guitar playing catalog:
Lick #1 and Lick #2 were identified by my friend Bill Flanagan who taught them to me and it was like opening a veritable Pandora’s Box of understanding Ed’s lead playing…it was a major “light bulb” moment for me!
Here are my handwritten TABs for the opening lick from the “Ice Cream Man” solo and the ending descending lick from that solo which were discussed in Ep. 23.
In all my transcriptions, I make sure to include the left hand fingers to use (I=Index, M=Middle, R=Ring, P=Pinky) and the pick hand picking directions (Up or Down) and of course the left hand articulations that Ed used which were discussed in this episode. Pay close attention to these because they are all critical to the overall sound and playability…as we said, these are all things that identified Ed without him ever plugging in his guitar! You’ll also see TAB for the descending pattern at the end of the solo that I also demonstrated.
To be clear on this opening pattern…I once thought that the single “transition” note at the 19th fret that is sounded on the string below the string where most of the notes occur as the pattern descends was a “silent hammer-on”. I now believe that it was indeed a picked note.
Here’s a link to my forum thread in which I go over what I’ve learned about how to set up a Fender vibrato system. Dweezil mentioned this in this episode and this thread also includes links to the Fender vibrato set-up/mod videos of Italian luthier Galeazzo Frudua that we spoke about:
I realized that there were two excellent questions that Dweezil asked me about Ed’s Fender vibrato use and his tuning stability…he asked “Have you done that (all the Fender vibrato mods and setup tips that I included from Italian luthier Galeazzo Frudua and myself) to many guitars and does it always work?” and in the moment I totally forgot to answer those questions…and excellent questions they are and they deserve an answer!
So I have done that entire series of mods to two guitars that I own…my ‘78 black and white Musikraft body/Locke Custom Guitars neck Frankenstein and my 1968 Fender Strat that I mentioned was my first guitar. On the vintage Strat, I removed the entire stock bridge and then assembled and modded all new parts to create a totally new bridge with new modded parts…though I did use vintage Pat. Pend. stamped Strat saddles which are slightly rusted naturally just like those on my original Strat bridge so that they match the age of that guitar on a visual level.
The big question is “Does it always work?” and the answer to that question is a resounding YES! These two guitars stay COMPLETELY in tune, even after hours of playing Van Halen’s music and other general rock and blues playing styles with string bending and vibrato bar dive-bombing. And when I say “completely in tune”, I mean completely…I check the tuning periodically throughout the day with my Peterson strobe tuners, with sometimes 8 or more hours of playing time and the pitch of the strings remains perfectly in tune from where I originally tuned them…the strobe display on each open string remains “caged” or stock still with no movement up or down. Perfectly in tune.
This is for home use. I have had excellent results in a live setting as well, though I would imagine that being under outdoor variable humidity conditions and/or the boiling hot stage lights of a giant 70s and 80s Showco lighting rig (which is as hot as Dallas, Texas where those lights were born), there might be more challenges to that stability which Ed may have experienced. One thing that I have noted is that Ed seemed to stay in tune better with standard Fender non-locking vibrato equipped guitars at the end of 1978 going into the first half of 1979 than he did from 1977 through the most of the 1978 first world tour. I know he changed vibrato systems on the Frankenstein at that point to a 70s Fender vibrato which was different from the 1961 Fender Strat vibrato that was originally on his ‘61 sunburst Strat from which the neckplate and vibrato system was culled for the early iterations of the Frankenstein. I don’t know why that is…perhaps he discovered and applied some different mods? His playing style didn’t change at all, so I couldn’t say exactly why.
But I can firmly prove that I have achieved long lasting and demonstrably perfect tuning stability on my ‘78 style Frankenstein replica and my ‘68 Fender Strat when playing Van Halen music that was recorded or performed with a non-locking Fender or Fender style vibrato system.
You can hear at least some of my success with Fender vibrato tuning stability in Ep. 23 when I play the opening segment of “Eruption” and the “Ice Cream Man” solo on my ‘78 styled Frankenstein replica. I also used that guitar for my demo of the brief string skipping blues licks at the beginning of the first solo from “Bottoms Up!” though there are no “dive-bombs” with the vibrato bar in that solo, I still stay relatively well in tune even with the left hand bends in that solo. This “bend with the left hand/go slightly flat and dive with the bar to get back in tune” method that Ed used along with all the “Frudua” mods and other tips that I mentioned in my VHLinks Fender vibrato thread really works perfectly for Van Halen music that was recorded and performed with a Fender vibrato system!
When you get a chance, take a look at page 11 of my dissertation. I have some information I discovered about Edward's piano teacher. He may have had a bigger impact on Edward's understanding of music than we (guitarists) may have thought. All of my sources are cited for clarity and further research.
Yes…great point Roxy! I read your citation of Greg Renoff’s research on Alex and Edward’s piano teacher Stanley Kalvitis and it is clear that the piano and knowledge of it certainly impacted Ed greatly. Greg and I have spoken of this before and though most piano theory didn’t stay with Ed, there are many key concepts that did stay and work their way into Van Halen music!
I thought I would post some more details on the examples I played which Dweezil and I discussed in Ep. 23. so that anyone can easily follow along. For the first example I demonstrated from “Eruption”, here is an extract from my transcription covering the first repeated open string lick in that piece (note that all left hand fingers-Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring and Pinky are notated as well as the correct right hand picking directions-Up or Down). You’ll also see the correct tuning offset for “Eruption” listed on the first page:
Also, my friend in Germany and amazing player and all around musician Ed De Genaro did some amazingly detailed and helpful work on putting my “Eruption” transcription into the Soundslice format so that anyone can follow along with the original recording as my transcription plays along with it. You can also vary the playback at any speed and the transcription will follow at that speed as well.
I’d gotten a lot of requests for a Soundslice version of my transcription and Ed put in a lot of work to make it easy for anyone to follow. Ed is also a huge Frank fan and has helped Dweezil with a couple of technical things in the past. I think he’s a great candidate to be a guest on any part of this website…a musician well above my pay grade with a wealth of knowledge to share, so please do look him up online!
Fantastic! Allen. Thank you! I have a GW subscription, so I'm revisiting that issue. Thank you for the videos too!
I have the Peterson StroboStomp HD pedal and have been adjusting the intonation of my EVH Wolfgang USA using the EVH sweetened tuning. Thank you for clarifying to set the intonation using the chromatic setting, and then tune using the EVH sweetened tuning. Next string change, I'll setup this way.
Great to hear! Be sure to read the accompanying article on “Eruption” written by Guitar World’s transcription editor Jimmy Brown and also partly by me. There’s even more details in the article!
Very interesting Episode Allen, and a welcome surprise to the series. I have really enjoyed the RWTD Podcast over the last couple of years and look forward to every new episode. Several, I have revisited.
For those who would be interested, I'll attach a link to my dissertation. It maybe worth a glance and to checkout the bibliography. It's a good collection of research, and possibly a draft to a future publication:
Rock Guitar: Individuality, Creativity, and Musical Expression From Edward Van Halen to Guthrie Govan (1978-2021)
Yes indeed I am! I’m a Peterson endorsed artist and they had heard of my research on Ed’s tuning offsets using my Peterson strobe tuners and they approached me. Eventually, they created their “EVH” preset using the tuning offset that Ed’s last tech Tom Weber used on the Roth reunion tours. Tom and Matt Bruck gave those offsets to my pal writer Chris Gill who published them in the March 2016 issue of Guitar World and Peterson lifted those offsets specifically for the “EVH” preset. This was confirmed to me straight from Peterson. The “EVH” preset offset only relates to the Roth reunion tours and does not match any specific offset that Ed ever used prior to 2007 when the first Roth reunion tour commenced.
Love the new episodes with Pete! Still the best podcast ever!
Thank you for Pete Thorn + Allen Garber, Dweezil. Just superb. Very enlightening + entertaining, both.
Happiest Holidays to everybody!! XO
Duuuude, Hey MAN..just sayin hi ..hope things r good ..hi 2 Megan & rollo...sincerly..did I spell that right ? ha ha Patti & greg
Loving the Pete Thorn episode, Dweezil!
So I have a question for Dweezil which may have been asked and answered at some point, but here goes:
My pals Greg Renoff and podcaster/classic rock/VH cover band guitarist Jeff Goebel and other friends of mine have been going down every possible rabbit hole for information on the source or sources from which Edward drew for his famous right hand tapping technique.
We have essentially all agreed that the most solid evidence on balance points toward Harvey Mandel being the person that Edward got his right hand tapping technique from. There are reliable eyewitness accounts from George Lynch who attended a Mandel show at the Starwood with Edward where Mandel played his many advanced right hand tapping runs live and a local scenester who actually saw Terry Kilgore teach Ed the technique after he himself was taught the technique by Mandel. Neal Schon is also quoted as saying that Edward specifically told him that he learned the technique from Mandel by way of Terry Kilgore.
It is an almost foregone conclusion that despite Ed’s best attempts to claim that he came up with the idea on his own after seeing Page’s “Heartbreaker” solo open string legato triplets, he almost certainly actually learned the technique wholly from Terry Kilgore who was taught directly by Mandel and the very reliable account of Lynch having attended a Mandel show at the Starwood where Mandel performed many advanced right hand tapping runs which were all over his 1973 solo album ‘Shangrenade’ and which he he’d been playing since 1969.
Another very distinct possibility is that Edward was aware of right hand tapping from seeing and/or hearing Derringer band guitarist Danny Johnson doing advanced right hand tapping runs in Derringer…who also played a great hard rocking live version of “You Really Got Me” well prior to Van Halen’s breakthrough recording and who also played guitar in the band ‘Private Life’ that Edward produced in the late 80s.
My question and the question from my friends to Dweez is this…Did you ever discuss the origins of tapping with Ed as it related to Frank’s pioneering right hand tapping as we see it in this famous clip of “Black Napkins” from 1976 at around the 2:40 mark?
My dad was tapping on the neck with a pick to make what he called "Bagpipe Sounds" starting as far back as 1973. It was a more randomized hyper fast flutter sound within lines. It wasn't uniform like Eruption.
Thanks for that memory! It’s clear from that footage that 1973’s “bagpipe sounds” evolved into something more “uniform” by the time of that 1976 footage. I think I get what he was driving at with “bagpipe” if the tapped note was a very short one that quickly jumped to the next note in the way that notes in bagpipe music can.
It is really interesting that the whole right hand tapping technique was essentially “in the air” for some progressive rock guitarists and forward thinking guitar players in general. I reckon it is obvious that Edward popularized it because he ultimately made great popular music that reached the masses in a way that others didn’t, but the actual technique and the same basic runs were definitely being done by others just as well, especially from Hackett and Mandel.
Dang, Zappa was on the Mike Douglas show? Nice camera work, never knew Frank used so many upstrokes on downbeats. Thanks for posting that.
Hi DZ! Any estimate when the Line 6 Helix Van Halen presets will become available for us subscribers?
Amazing Pod cast tons of info super love the deep dive thanks Allen and Dweeze!
Thanks David! It was great fun…I’m glad you enjoyed it! Dweezil is great at editing and audio magic to such a degree that he made a simpleton like me sound passable!
Hey gang! Happy October! Finally got caught up on the recent episode with Allen. Superb! Thanks to Allen for the info on Edward. Stuff like this makes me happy ( I'm a gear/technique nerd-haha! ). The cross reference between Cream and Van Halen is so under-spoken about. So, it's wonderful to hear that reference finally ( I'm still convinced that Jan-Edward's dad-had a bigger influence on Edward, in terms of time feel. Jan's slightly behind-the-beat clarinet solo on " Big Bad Bill. . ." sounds similar to the way Edward would play the blues ). Great episode. And thanks to DZ for renewing my subscription. Happy to be tagging along with this group!
Thanks so much David…I’m so happy to know that you and others enjoyed it and maybe learned a few things! It was such a gas for me and I’m super grateful to Dweezil for his patience and for having me on the podcast!
Wow! This is awesome! A fantastic resource! Thanks again Allen for sharing all of your materials with us. Many practice hours ahead to look forward to!
Near the end of the episode, I also played one of my favorite variations of the repeating open string licks similar to those in “Eruption”, “Somebody Get Me a Doctor”, “I’m the One” (second solo), “5150” etc. in F# during the “Hot For Teacher” solo. Here is my complete transcription of that solo where you can see exactly how Eddie played that iteration of the lick where he mixed up his straight picking with his normal “single open E picked with the rest legato” patterns with added picked notes at various points in an off-the-cuff way which doesn’t follow his usual non-varying pattern all the way through all of the repeats:
The “Hot For Teacher” solo is based almost entirely on the Clapton/Cream “Sitting On Top of the World” ending solo licks…the phrasing and the overall composition of each part of this solo is breathtaking!
I also played through the solo from “Girl Gone Bad” which is one of my favorite of all of Ed’s solos at the very close of the episode. To me, the song is a strong candidate for being perhaps the best song the band ever did…right up there with “Push Comes To Shove” or “Hear About It Later”. To my mind, it is the closest the band ever came to Led Zeppelin…a masterpiece! And the solo showcases some of Edward’s old familiar licks played with swinging gusto and with a nice long legato phrase near the beginning of the solo…a clear example of the influence of Holdsworth before Ed goes to his more familiar five-note pattern with one Upstroke picked note at the 14th position (same as in the “Beat It” solo in the 12th position) and his raked Am arpeggio/A blues phrasing to wind it up. I love it! Here’s my transcription of the complete “Girl Gone Bad” solo:
Also, here is a video lesson in which I go over these five note patterns from “Beat It” and “Girl Gone Bad” which contains some tips on how to execute this pattern cleanly:
https://youtu.be/lIL27p_MAfA?si=2VHmj5yBHTIeCN5R
Girl Gone Bad is def a standout cut for me. He put the whole prog rock crowd on notice with that tune.
To demonstrate Ed’s penchant for whole step bending with his Index finger rather than his Ring finger in his typical blues box playing, I played the opening lick from the “Jump” solo which is a great workout for these Index finger whole step bends. My transcription is in the tuning from the album which is about 1 and 1/8 steps ABOVE standard pitch, so this is played in Am in the 5th position:
The very fast lick near the beginning of the “Panama” solo is an example that I played which is an extension of the Clapton “Sitting On Top of the World” ending solo lick patterns:
And another example of this Clapton inspired playing in the “When It’s Love” solo…(I played the last fast phrase at the end):
And that fast lick from “When It’s Love” begins with a similar string skipping pentatonic box lick that Dweezil mentioned and that I demonstrated in the beginning of the first solo in “Bottoms Up!”. The whole solo is another bluesy homage to Clapton and Billy Gibbons:
Here is a link to the live version of “Sitting On Top of the World” from Cream’s ‘Goodbye’ LP that was discussed as being so critical to Ed’s playing. The unaccompanied solo flourish at the end begins at around 4:34 here:
https://youtu.be/rSlyX4eDq9s?si=0GrzM0nQTXG4AZZE
And this is my transcription of it. Ed would basically play these notes in different keys with either the verbatim left and right hand articulations as Clapton played it or with the addition of silent hammer-ons throughout nearly his entire lead guitar playing catalog:
Lick #1 and Lick #2 were identified by my friend Bill Flanagan who taught them to me and it was like opening a veritable Pandora’s Box of understanding Ed’s lead playing…it was a major “light bulb” moment for me!
Here are my handwritten TABs for the opening lick from the “Ice Cream Man” solo and the ending descending lick from that solo which were discussed in Ep. 23.
In all my transcriptions, I make sure to include the left hand fingers to use (I=Index, M=Middle, R=Ring, P=Pinky) and the pick hand picking directions (Up or Down) and of course the left hand articulations that Ed used which were discussed in this episode. Pay close attention to these because they are all critical to the overall sound and playability…as we said, these are all things that identified Ed without him ever plugging in his guitar! You’ll also see TAB for the descending pattern at the end of the solo that I also demonstrated.
To be clear on this opening pattern…I once thought that the single “transition” note at the 19th fret that is sounded on the string below the string where most of the notes occur as the pattern descends was a “silent hammer-on”. I now believe that it was indeed a picked note.
Here’s a link to my forum thread in which I go over what I’ve learned about how to set up a Fender vibrato system. Dweezil mentioned this in this episode and this thread also includes links to the Fender vibrato set-up/mod videos of Italian luthier Galeazzo Frudua that we spoke about:
https://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/threads/66343-Van-Halen-Fender-Vibrato-System-Use-amp-My-Tips-For-Keeping-It-In-Tune
I realized that there were two excellent questions that Dweezil asked me about Ed’s Fender vibrato use and his tuning stability…he asked “Have you done that (all the Fender vibrato mods and setup tips that I included from Italian luthier Galeazzo Frudua and myself) to many guitars and does it always work?” and in the moment I totally forgot to answer those questions…and excellent questions they are and they deserve an answer!
So I have done that entire series of mods to two guitars that I own…my ‘78 black and white Musikraft body/Locke Custom Guitars neck Frankenstein and my 1968 Fender Strat that I mentioned was my first guitar. On the vintage Strat, I removed the entire stock bridge and then assembled and modded all new parts to create a totally new bridge with new modded parts…though I did use vintage Pat. Pend. stamped Strat saddles which are slightly rusted naturally just like those on my original Strat bridge so that they match the age of that guitar on a visual level.
The big question is “Does it always work?” and the answer to that question is a resounding YES! These two guitars stay COMPLETELY in tune, even after hours of playing Van Halen’s music and other general rock and blues playing styles with string bending and vibrato bar dive-bombing. And when I say “completely in tune”, I mean completely…I check the tuning periodically throughout the day with my Peterson strobe tuners, with sometimes 8 or more hours of playing time and the pitch of the strings remains perfectly in tune from where I originally tuned them…the strobe display on each open string remains “caged” or stock still with no movement up or down. Perfectly in tune.
This is for home use. I have had excellent results in a live setting as well, though I would imagine that being under outdoor variable humidity conditions and/or the boiling hot stage lights of a giant 70s and 80s Showco lighting rig (which is as hot as Dallas, Texas where those lights were born), there might be more challenges to that stability which Ed may have experienced. One thing that I have noted is that Ed seemed to stay in tune better with standard Fender non-locking vibrato equipped guitars at the end of 1978 going into the first half of 1979 than he did from 1977 through the most of the 1978 first world tour. I know he changed vibrato systems on the Frankenstein at that point to a 70s Fender vibrato which was different from the 1961 Fender Strat vibrato that was originally on his ‘61 sunburst Strat from which the neckplate and vibrato system was culled for the early iterations of the Frankenstein. I don’t know why that is…perhaps he discovered and applied some different mods? His playing style didn’t change at all, so I couldn’t say exactly why.
But I can firmly prove that I have achieved long lasting and demonstrably perfect tuning stability on my ‘78 style Frankenstein replica and my ‘68 Fender Strat when playing Van Halen music that was recorded or performed with a non-locking Fender or Fender style vibrato system.
You can hear at least some of my success with Fender vibrato tuning stability in Ep. 23 when I play the opening segment of “Eruption” and the “Ice Cream Man” solo on my ‘78 styled Frankenstein replica. I also used that guitar for my demo of the brief string skipping blues licks at the beginning of the first solo from “Bottoms Up!” though there are no “dive-bombs” with the vibrato bar in that solo, I still stay relatively well in tune even with the left hand bends in that solo. This “bend with the left hand/go slightly flat and dive with the bar to get back in tune” method that Ed used along with all the “Frudua” mods and other tips that I mentioned in my VHLinks Fender vibrato thread really works perfectly for Van Halen music that was recorded and performed with a Fender vibrato system!
Allen,
When you get a chance, take a look at page 11 of my dissertation. I have some information I discovered about Edward's piano teacher. He may have had a bigger impact on Edward's understanding of music than we (guitarists) may have thought. All of my sources are cited for clarity and further research.
Yes…great point Roxy! I read your citation of Greg Renoff’s research on Alex and Edward’s piano teacher Stanley Kalvitis and it is clear that the piano and knowledge of it certainly impacted Ed greatly. Greg and I have spoken of this before and though most piano theory didn’t stay with Ed, there are many key concepts that did stay and work their way into Van Halen music!
I thought I would post some more details on the examples I played which Dweezil and I discussed in Ep. 23. so that anyone can easily follow along. For the first example I demonstrated from “Eruption”, here is an extract from my transcription covering the first repeated open string lick in that piece (note that all left hand fingers-Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring and Pinky are notated as well as the correct right hand picking directions-Up or Down). You’ll also see the correct tuning offset for “Eruption” listed on the first page:
1st string: Eb +12.7 cents
2nd string: Bb +12.9 cents
3rd string: Gb +14.6 cents
4th string: Db +15.0 cents
5th string: Ab +15.0 cents
6th string: Eb +12.7 cents
I’ve also done a play-through video lesson series for my entire transcription here:
https://youtu.be/vs2E_tPiCf4?si=o3LrVWxfGFegdAk0
https://youtu.be/Ost7AWzN0uY?si=DK-7aXqVPHbwc1SH
https://youtu.be/yss_nFgDXlE?si=ZFk7ZnMerXkoelhP
You can find my complete “Eruption” transcription in the February 2021 issue of Guitar World or you can download it from this link:
http://www.vhlinks.com/Eruption.pdf
Also, my friend in Germany and amazing player and all around musician Ed De Genaro did some amazingly detailed and helpful work on putting my “Eruption” transcription into the Soundslice format so that anyone can follow along with the original recording as my transcription plays along with it. You can also vary the playback at any speed and the transcription will follow at that speed as well.
https://www.soundslice.com/slices/YvtMc/
I’d gotten a lot of requests for a Soundslice version of my transcription and Ed put in a lot of work to make it easy for anyone to follow. Ed is also a huge Frank fan and has helped Dweezil with a couple of technical things in the past. I think he’s a great candidate to be a guest on any part of this website…a musician well above my pay grade with a wealth of knowledge to share, so please do look him up online!
Fantastic! Allen. Thank you! I have a GW subscription, so I'm revisiting that issue. Thank you for the videos too!
I have the Peterson StroboStomp HD pedal and have been adjusting the intonation of my EVH Wolfgang USA using the EVH sweetened tuning. Thank you for clarifying to set the intonation using the chromatic setting, and then tune using the EVH sweetened tuning. Next string change, I'll setup this way.
Great to hear! Be sure to read the accompanying article on “Eruption” written by Guitar World’s transcription editor Jimmy Brown and also partly by me. There’s even more details in the article!
I’m glad to know you are a Peterson user…you can download all of the Van Halen offsets that I have found directly to your Strobo Stomp HD. There is a video on my YouTube channel that shows you how to do it. For more information on Ed’s offsets, please read through my forum thread on the subject here: https://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/threads/62695-Van-Halen-tunings-with-Peterson-strobe-tuner-reference
Very interesting Episode Allen, and a welcome surprise to the series. I have really enjoyed the RWTD Podcast over the last couple of years and look forward to every new episode. Several, I have revisited.
For those who would be interested, I'll attach a link to my dissertation. It maybe worth a glance and to checkout the bibliography. It's a good collection of research, and possibly a draft to a future publication:
Rock Guitar: Individuality, Creativity, and Musical Expression From Edward Van Halen to Guthrie Govan (1978-2021)
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qh4d3f0#main
Very cool Roxy! I’ll have to take more time to digest all that, but I appreciate the detail! I look forward to digging in further!
Allen's episode was awesome and should make it up to those whose episodes were less of a deep dive. Looking forward to Pete as well, great stuff.
Allen, are you familiar with the "EVH Sweetened" setting on the Peterson Strobo tuners? What group of songs do they align with ( if any)?
Yes indeed I am! I’m a Peterson endorsed artist and they had heard of my research on Ed’s tuning offsets using my Peterson strobe tuners and they approached me. Eventually, they created their “EVH” preset using the tuning offset that Ed’s last tech Tom Weber used on the Roth reunion tours. Tom and Matt Bruck gave those offsets to my pal writer Chris Gill who published them in the March 2016 issue of Guitar World and Peterson lifted those offsets specifically for the “EVH” preset. This was confirmed to me straight from Peterson. The “EVH” preset offset only relates to the Roth reunion tours and does not match any specific offset that Ed ever used prior to 2007 when the first Roth reunion tour commenced.