Hi Al A.Kazam these are the Fractal Presets....I was asking about the Line6 Helix and made reference that a few months ago there was a firmware update with the Blue & Red Channel EVH 5150. The Fractal Presets do not help and I appreciate that Dweezil is preparing for a Tour - But it would be nice to know if the "LINE6 HELIX" Presets will be available in a few months after the tour perhaps ??? Thank you for your response, but I did specify for the "LINE 6 HELIX" All the Best.....Also I hope you get this as there was no way to reply to your link for the Fractal Presets. Looking forward to any news regarding this
A bit of a n00b question but where can I get the Line6 Helix Dweezil EVH Custom Presets?? ....Line6 a few months ago did add two new EVH 5150 Amps Blue & Red Channels. Thanks in advance
What I love most about these podcasts is the replay-ability. I imagine many of us will still be regularly listening even 10 years from now.
For this Aussie millennial, VH was not a part of my childhood, nor the childhoods of anyone I know locally. I discovered them very late. But through these great conversations, I get a feeling of what it must have been like to be 12 or 13 and hear VH1 for the first time. It's helped paint a picture, and create a passionate love of all things Ed.
For me, discovering this podcast was the perfect thing, at the perfect time. Thank you Dweezil for your dedication to the cause!
Ryan Brown Podcast was stellar. Thanks for that guys. Love to see a Mikey episode and Roth ep just like that. Dweezil thank you for doing the RWTD podcast. Every angle of study of Ed and VH is so interesting truly a Masters if not Doctorate in Eddie Analysis. I am learning so much and deepening my appreciation for Ed which now that he is gone is even more important than ever. THANK YOU!
Oh yes. The Alex/Ryan episode is so great! Guitarists that study Edward cannot avoid studying Alex…or they avoid it at their own peril.
The legendary “swing time” of Alex and Edward is so often where guitarists throw up their hands and give up…especially on the boogie tunes like “I’m the One”, “Source of Infection”, “Hot For Teacher” etc. Some of this frustration comes from guitar players who sit at home and practice with metronomes or with their own internal time rather than playing with an actual drummer.
And I wasn’t immune to the frustration. It wasn’t until I really started examining the tempo changes in things like “I’m the One” through studying Alex’s isolated drum track and Edward’s isolated guitar track that I realized that the tempo changes within that song were pretty drastic and that they were quantifiable or at least that they could be very closely estimated.
I saw a recent interview with Joe Satriani in which he totally nails what is going on in “I’m the One” in terms of tempo changes between Ed and Al and he really ends up putting his finger on a big part of that rhythmic relationship between the brothers in general. At the same time I watched and listened to this interview, I started creating a tempo map through the user website for Peterson tuners. By listening to Al’s iso drum track and Ed’s iso guitar, I’ve been able to map out where the tempo starts with Ed by himself and where you can hear Alex slow down that tempo and reign in his brother…EXACTLY as Satriani describes. The bpm notations I found are approximate of course, but I believe they are pretty darned close.
This way, as you work through a proper note-for-note study of “I’m the One” on guitar, you can learn the tempo changes of the album version with exact bpm guideposts throughout the piece. You can use the tempo map I’ve created to practice with through playing it all back with the click from the metronome feature playing through the tempo map, or you can also just learn to play along with Alex’s iso drum track to really get the feel and timing down. It was always difficult to start the song in time when playing along with the record because Ed starts by himself at a very fast speed and then it gets slowed down as Alex enters and the band enters and as the song progresses. This was always jarring to me and it was difficult to comprehend. But now that I can quantify these tempo changes with fairly accurate bpm notations, it all makes more sense to me. The “unknowable swing” became very knowable and “executable” as a result. https://youtu.be/aVT7EAV7iCE?si=rGFtm8wfE-hdmLLj
I love how Dweezil and Ryan address that wild 5-stroke roll thing that happens between Ed and Al during the second solo from “Outta Love Again”…that is a great example of their telepathy which isn’t to do with tempo changes at all-it is just two guys that play together so much that a moment like that pops out every so often and it is sublime! Well spotted!
I’m finishing up my new transcription of “Hot For Teacher” and my engraver and I have come up with a slightly different way of notating some passages to try to reflect some things that happen out of straight time during that recording. I’ll share it here when we are finished which should be soon! That whole drum intro is a labyrinth in itself and it was fun to hear Dweezil and Ryan try to figure out how it was recorded. It is a discussion that me and my drummer friends have talked about for years and it is still not cracked completely!
Anyway, BRAVO! It was really exciting to hear that Ryan is as into the extreme details of the drum parts as I am on the guitar parts…it reminds me of why I love drummers! And also why they drive me insane when they throw a crazy fill in that I’m not sophisticated enough as a musician to comprehend and react to…those “you’re fired!” fills have been the bane of my existence all too often. But that says more about me and my level of proficiency than it does about the drummers who throw ridiculous fills in that throw me and the entire band off! Drummers…love them and try not to hate them! I still wish there was a mute switch for a drum kit!!!
Super fun and very informative episode…loved it!!!
Having been privileged to have seen Shane at some of his first gigs with The Neville Brothers and with our local Lafayette, LA legend Zachary Richard, I was already a fan of Shane. I became even more of a fan when he joined H&O and Darryl’s band. This was a cool episode for me…it was the most constructive one for me personally because of Shane’s specific demos and articulate responses to Dweezil’s pointed questions.
I’ve long struggled with how to integrate nearly any part of Edward’s playing into my own playing or into other non Van Halen contexts. And I know I’m not alone in this. I never thought of infusing things with the “attitude” and “between the cracks” fills and stinging wide bend/vibrato one-noters that Ed certainly used along with those little voice leading triad things a la “Women In Love” that Shane demoed. These are the very things that really can be integrated into almost any situation.
This seems simple, but something clicked with me only through this interview. I think I’ve always been so caught up in thinking (pretty correctly) that Ed’s visual fingerboard lead patterns don’t work in the music that I’ve played…it is pretty grating and atonal because of the lack of regard for reference to harmony when it gets applied in non Van Halen music. And even the pentatonic Ed stuff that I sometimes tried to integrate into blues standards worked only with varying degrees of success. But the stuff that Dweezil asked to hear Shane demonstrate…the “finger grease” stuff that is aptly named throughout the conversation for instance…THAT type of ATTITUDE stuff is really useful because you can put that stuff in until the cows come home and still play in key and follow the chords!
I know many might say “Duh!” and I’m saying it to myself! But it took hearing a great player demonstrate potential answers to the questions that I couldn’t answer about how to integrate Ed influenced things into a broader range of material to really make the light bulb go on! Thanks Dweezil and Shane!
You're welcome! It's interesting to see how much the smallest details influence the greater outcome. Playing with "intention" and "finger tone" influences the sound more than people think.
Thanks Dweezil, that was a really cool episode. “Eddie made the triad rock&roll”, ha, that’s a good quote! Loved the focus on the rhythm-side of things and glad to have now been introduced to Shane Theriot who played some really groovy stuff and made many interesting observations. I’ll be thinking of ‘finger grease’, ‘bundles of harmony’ and ‘good wrong notes’ from now on!
As an aside, the reference to Hocus Pocus by Focus as an early example of triads in a rock and roll context, and Shane’s discussion of Secrets and Little Guitars reminded me of a wonderful youtube video that was posted after Edward’s passing (WHY EDDIE VAN HALEN KICKS ASS!! (youtube.com)). Check it out, it’s a similar kind of deep dive into the rhythm playing on Little Guitars, also referring to Focus and highlighting the chord progression into the verse section.
Dweezil, it's so cool that you and Shane are friends. I do recall the contest and Shane's submission. Thank you so much for including him here! You two need to collaborate on an album!
Dweezil, I know you mentioned that we are coming to the "end" of this great series of podcasts in the one you did recently. (I second the "Push Comes To Shove" deep-dive, BTW) But I was wondering if you thought about Ben Eller as a guest? His deep-dive into the Hang Em High riff and what makes it, in his words, impossible is a great watch. And while I know you have had some HUGE guitarists on as guests, I think Ben's love/respect of EVH would make him a great guest. Anyway, love this series, and I don't care HOW LONG it takes for these to come out, each one is golden.
Ben is great…though I have to take exception with his “Hang ‘Em High” tutorial. He makes it way harder than it has to be and he makes something that is actually easy into something confusing.
The pattern that Ed uses is as follows. There is no video evidence of him playing it in any way other than this. My friend Doug Steele also made a video that gave that “absurd stretch” placing the riff on adjacent strings as an option…and while he said that was an OPTION it must be made clear that Eddie never played it that way.
This should make that riff crystal clear. Be sure to use the left hand fingers that I have notated here because these are the fingers that Ed used in all available footage and that goes for the simple picking directions that I have included.
Allen I love all your posts/content, especially the fact that you pore over live vids as well to document the actual way Ed played. I appreciate that the actual riff is "easier" than what Ben was trying to do, what I thought was so cool about the vid was the last part where he realized the riff is swung instead of straight 16th notes. It explains the "galloping" of the low notes that I always heard in the isolated riff parts of the song.
Gotcha…yes, but I will say that nearly everything Eddie played was in his own timing. So one could make a very good case that everything he did was in swing time!
Hi everyone! Most or many of you may already be aware of this, but I thought I’d post it here for those that might have missed it…
My pal Greg Renoff did a historic interview with Dweezil’s pal and quantum level engineer Donn Landee a while back for ‘Tape-Op Magazine’. I can’t stress enough how important this is. To have Donn interviewed to this depth was a dream I thought unattainable, but Greg made it happen finally! His superb research, dedication and tireless interest in Van Halen and the music that Ted and Donn were an integral part of over their careers is served so well in this interview and it is a must read. Part One came out a while back and Part Two just dropped yesterday.
Hi Dweezil, thank you for your incredible dedication to this podcast! It’s been a real pleasure to listen and learn!
I was wondering if you’d be willing to do a “Challenger Deep” dive into the structure and nuances of arguably one VH’s deepest tracks: ‘Push Comes to Shove’.You’ve mentioned that it contains your favorite EVH guitar solo…and I assume it’s one of your overall favorite VH songs (certainly your fave VH album!)
I can’t think of anyone who does a better job than you of articulating not only technical nuances of a piece of music but also emotional nuances, aka the “F**k Yeah” factor!
It’d be great to hear you pick apart everything from the background (disco-reggae vibe), the intro, overall song structure, the solo, the outro, and any known info on how it was recorded.Perhaps do this as part of another listening party?
A couple of the many things I love about the song are: 1) Dave’s scream during the outro which seems to slowly take up all the oxygen in the room (in the best possible way).2) Mike’s bass fill right before Dave’s scream. It sets up the scream perfectly.And it reminds me of his bass fill in ‘Romeo Delight’ right after Ed’s tapped harmonic intro.
Anyway, keep up the fantastic work and thanks again!
Jacob Deraps has the formula.
Hi Al A.Kazam these are the Fractal Presets....I was asking about the Line6 Helix and made reference that a few months ago there was a firmware update with the Blue & Red Channel EVH 5150. The Fractal Presets do not help and I appreciate that Dweezil is preparing for a Tour - But it would be nice to know if the "LINE6 HELIX" Presets will be available in a few months after the tour perhaps ??? Thank you for your response, but I did specify for the "LINE 6 HELIX" All the Best.....Also I hope you get this as there was no way to reply to your link for the Fractal Presets. Looking forward to any news regarding this
A bit of a n00b question but where can I get the Line6 Helix Dweezil EVH Custom Presets??
....Line6 a few months ago did add two new EVH 5150 Amps Blue & Red Channels. Thanks in advance
https://www.dweezilzappa.com/pages/fractal-audio-axe-fx-iii-and-fm9-presets
Hi Ravi P , Doug Steele ( Youtube) created a couple of EVH patches using Red & Blue channels - you might find helpful ? take a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsk-eCwYNHU&list=WL&index=448 . Hope this helps ?
Any chance episode 30 will drop before the end of the year Dweezil ?.
I know Dweezil has been pretty busy lately ;) , but I was wondering about this too...Also, is #30 to be the final episode?
What I love most about these podcasts is the replay-ability. I imagine many of us will still be regularly listening even 10 years from now.
For this Aussie millennial, VH was not a part of my childhood, nor the childhoods of anyone I know locally. I discovered them very late. But through these great conversations, I get a feeling of what it must have been like to be 12 or 13 and hear VH1 for the first time. It's helped paint a picture, and create a passionate love of all things Ed.
For me, discovering this podcast was the perfect thing, at the perfect time. Thank you Dweezil for your dedication to the cause!
Ryan Brown Podcast was stellar. Thanks for that guys. Love to see a Mikey episode and Roth ep just like that. Dweezil thank you for doing the RWTD podcast. Every angle of study of Ed and VH is so interesting truly a Masters if not Doctorate in Eddie Analysis. I am learning so much and deepening my appreciation for Ed which now that he is gone is even more important than ever. THANK YOU!
Dave
Oh yes. The Alex/Ryan episode is so great! Guitarists that study Edward cannot avoid studying Alex…or they avoid it at their own peril.
The legendary “swing time” of Alex and Edward is so often where guitarists throw up their hands and give up…especially on the boogie tunes like “I’m the One”, “Source of Infection”, “Hot For Teacher” etc. Some of this frustration comes from guitar players who sit at home and practice with metronomes or with their own internal time rather than playing with an actual drummer.
And I wasn’t immune to the frustration. It wasn’t until I really started examining the tempo changes in things like “I’m the One” through studying Alex’s isolated drum track and Edward’s isolated guitar track that I realized that the tempo changes within that song were pretty drastic and that they were quantifiable or at least that they could be very closely estimated.
I saw a recent interview with Joe Satriani in which he totally nails what is going on in “I’m the One” in terms of tempo changes between Ed and Al and he really ends up putting his finger on a big part of that rhythmic relationship between the brothers in general. At the same time I watched and listened to this interview, I started creating a tempo map through the user website for Peterson tuners. By listening to Al’s iso drum track and Ed’s iso guitar, I’ve been able to map out where the tempo starts with Ed by himself and where you can hear Alex slow down that tempo and reign in his brother…EXACTLY as Satriani describes. The bpm notations I found are approximate of course, but I believe they are pretty darned close.
This way, as you work through a proper note-for-note study of “I’m the One” on guitar, you can learn the tempo changes of the album version with exact bpm guideposts throughout the piece. You can use the tempo map I’ve created to practice with through playing it all back with the click from the metronome feature playing through the tempo map, or you can also just learn to play along with Alex’s iso drum track to really get the feel and timing down. It was always difficult to start the song in time when playing along with the record because Ed starts by himself at a very fast speed and then it gets slowed down as Alex enters and the band enters and as the song progresses. This was always jarring to me and it was difficult to comprehend. But now that I can quantify these tempo changes with fairly accurate bpm notations, it all makes more sense to me. The “unknowable swing” became very knowable and “executable” as a result.
https://youtu.be/aVT7EAV7iCE?si=rGFtm8wfE-hdmLLj
I love how Dweezil and Ryan address that wild 5-stroke roll thing that happens between Ed and Al during the second solo from “Outta Love Again”…that is a great example of their telepathy which isn’t to do with tempo changes at all-it is just two guys that play together so much that a moment like that pops out every so often and it is sublime! Well spotted!
I’m finishing up my new transcription of “Hot For Teacher” and my engraver and I have come up with a slightly different way of notating some passages to try to reflect some things that happen out of straight time during that recording. I’ll share it here when we are finished which should be soon! That whole drum intro is a labyrinth in itself and it was fun to hear Dweezil and Ryan try to figure out how it was recorded. It is a discussion that me and my drummer friends have talked about for years and it is still not cracked completely!
Anyway, BRAVO! It was really exciting to hear that Ryan is as into the extreme details of the drum parts as I am on the guitar parts…it reminds me of why I love drummers! And also why they drive me insane when they throw a crazy fill in that I’m not sophisticated enough as a musician to comprehend and react to…those “you’re fired!” fills have been the bane of my existence all too often. But that says more about me and my level of proficiency than it does about the drummers who throw ridiculous fills in that throw me and the entire band off! Drummers…love them and try not to hate them! I still wish there was a mute switch for a drum kit!!!
Super fun and very informative episode…loved it!!!
Love the Ryan Brown episode! Great to dig into Alex Van Halen's huge contribution to VH's sound.
Amazing
Really enjoyed the Shane episode Dweezil. Another great reminder that tone is primarily in the hands and the heart!
Having been privileged to have seen Shane at some of his first gigs with The Neville Brothers and with our local Lafayette, LA legend Zachary Richard, I was already a fan of Shane. I became even more of a fan when he joined H&O and Darryl’s band. This was a cool episode for me…it was the most constructive one for me personally because of Shane’s specific demos and articulate responses to Dweezil’s pointed questions.
I’ve long struggled with how to integrate nearly any part of Edward’s playing into my own playing or into other non Van Halen contexts. And I know I’m not alone in this. I never thought of infusing things with the “attitude” and “between the cracks” fills and stinging wide bend/vibrato one-noters that Ed certainly used along with those little voice leading triad things a la “Women In Love” that Shane demoed. These are the very things that really can be integrated into almost any situation.
This seems simple, but something clicked with me only through this interview. I think I’ve always been so caught up in thinking (pretty correctly) that Ed’s visual fingerboard lead patterns don’t work in the music that I’ve played…it is pretty grating and atonal because of the lack of regard for reference to harmony when it gets applied in non Van Halen music. And even the pentatonic Ed stuff that I sometimes tried to integrate into blues standards worked only with varying degrees of success. But the stuff that Dweezil asked to hear Shane demonstrate…the “finger grease” stuff that is aptly named throughout the conversation for instance…THAT type of ATTITUDE stuff is really useful because you can put that stuff in until the cows come home and still play in key and follow the chords!
I know many might say “Duh!” and I’m saying it to myself! But it took hearing a great player demonstrate potential answers to the questions that I couldn’t answer about how to integrate Ed influenced things into a broader range of material to really make the light bulb go on! Thanks Dweezil and Shane!
You're welcome! It's interesting to see how much the smallest details influence the greater outcome. Playing with "intention" and "finger tone" influences the sound more than people think.
Thanks Dweezil, that was a really cool episode. “Eddie made the triad rock&roll”, ha, that’s a good quote! Loved the focus on the rhythm-side of things and glad to have now been introduced to Shane Theriot who played some really groovy stuff and made many interesting observations. I’ll be thinking of ‘finger grease’, ‘bundles of harmony’ and ‘good wrong notes’ from now on!
As an aside, the reference to Hocus Pocus by Focus as an early example of triads in a rock and roll context, and Shane’s discussion of Secrets and Little Guitars reminded me of a wonderful youtube video that was posted after Edward’s passing (WHY EDDIE VAN HALEN KICKS ASS!! (youtube.com)). Check it out, it’s a similar kind of deep dive into the rhythm playing on Little Guitars, also referring to Focus and highlighting the chord progression into the verse section.
Thanks Rolf! I'm glad you enjoyed Shane's episode! I'll check out that link you sent.
Dweezil, it's so cool that you and Shane are friends. I do recall the contest and Shane's submission. Thank you so much for including him here! You two need to collaborate on an album!
Hey Tim,
Yes we do need to collaborate. He did play on stage with me a few times. You can hear hime here. https://www.dweezilzappa.com/songs/1964851-threesome-then-some-pound-for-a-brown
From NAMM 1987 with permission from Dan Kozlow who took these pictures…
Great pics!
Amazing pics!
I’ve just completed my “On Fire” transcription and I thought I would share it here with any of you guitar players that are interested. As I always do with my transcriptions, I used all available footage and the raw mic track helped a great deal.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kLobmynnf1wGMePMddkjnLrjyBDTPiVX/view?usp=drivesdk
Hey hey! Which episode is the reverse engineering the brown sound?
We are still waiting for it.
I always wished final episode would be wolfgang.
Dweezil, I know you mentioned that we are coming to the "end" of this great series of podcasts in the one you did recently. (I second the "Push Comes To Shove" deep-dive, BTW) But I was wondering if you thought about Ben Eller as a guest? His deep-dive into the Hang Em High riff and what makes it, in his words, impossible is a great watch. And while I know you have had some HUGE guitarists on as guests, I think Ben's love/respect of EVH would make him a great guest. Anyway, love this series, and I don't care HOW LONG it takes for these to come out, each one is golden.
Ben is great…though I have to take exception with his “Hang ‘Em High” tutorial. He makes it way harder than it has to be and he makes something that is actually easy into something confusing.
The pattern that Ed uses is as follows. There is no video evidence of him playing it in any way other than this. My friend Doug Steele also made a video that gave that “absurd stretch” placing the riff on adjacent strings as an option…and while he said that was an OPTION it must be made clear that Eddie never played it that way.
This should make that riff crystal clear. Be sure to use the left hand fingers that I have notated here because these are the fingers that Ed used in all available footage and that goes for the simple picking directions that I have included.
Allen I love all your posts/content, especially the fact that you pore over live vids as well to document the actual way Ed played. I appreciate that the actual riff is "easier" than what Ben was trying to do, what I thought was so cool about the vid was the last part where he realized the riff is swung instead of straight 16th notes. It explains the "galloping" of the low notes that I always heard in the isolated riff parts of the song.
Gotcha…yes, but I will say that nearly everything Eddie played was in his own timing. So one could make a very good case that everything he did was in swing time!
Hi everyone! Most or many of you may already be aware of this, but I thought I’d post it here for those that might have missed it…
My pal Greg Renoff did a historic interview with Dweezil’s pal and quantum level engineer Donn Landee a while back for ‘Tape-Op Magazine’. I can’t stress enough how important this is. To have Donn interviewed to this depth was a dream I thought unattainable, but Greg made it happen finally! His superb research, dedication and tireless interest in Van Halen and the music that Ted and Donn were an integral part of over their careers is served so well in this interview and it is a must read. Part One came out a while back and Part Two just dropped yesterday.
Behold!
https://tapeop.com/interviews/157/donn-landee/
https://tapeop.com/interviews/159/donn-landee/
Thanks so much for posting these links to the Donn Landee interviews, have always wanted to get some his perspective on "how it all went down."
Hi Dweezil, thank you for your incredible dedication to this podcast! It’s been a real pleasure to listen and learn!
I was wondering if you’d be willing to do a “Challenger Deep” dive into the structure and nuances of arguably one VH’s deepest tracks: ‘Push Comes to Shove’. You’ve mentioned that it contains your favorite EVH guitar solo…and I assume it’s one of your overall favorite VH songs (certainly your fave VH album!)
I can’t think of anyone who does a better job than you of articulating not only technical nuances of a piece of music but also emotional nuances, aka the “F**k Yeah” factor!
It’d be great to hear you pick apart everything from the background (disco-reggae vibe), the intro, overall song structure, the solo, the outro, and any known info on how it was recorded. Perhaps do this as part of another listening party?
A couple of the many things I love about the song are: 1) Dave’s scream during the outro which seems to slowly take up all the oxygen in the room (in the best possible way). 2) Mike’s bass fill right before Dave’s scream. It sets up the scream perfectly. And it reminds me of his bass fill in ‘Romeo Delight’ right after Ed’s tapped harmonic intro.
Anyway, keep up the fantastic work and thanks again!
Paul
Hi Paul,
Glad you're enjoying the podcast. I like your idea. I just need 17 more hours in each day in order to get stuff done. I'll keep it in mind! Best, DZ