Phill X! Awesome episode! Dream guests:Terry Kilgore (is he still alive?), George Lynch both were playing in the clubs the same time as Edward and can speak about the rise of this amazing band and guitarist.
Michael Anthony would be my number one dream guest! One can wish.
Wow! Fantastic episode of 'Runnin' With the Dweezil'! I am SO glad that you had Phil X on board. This is PRECISELY the type of stuff that I love about this wonderful podcast and interview style...we hear two guys who love Van Halen and that despite all of their success and acclaim are STILL learning from Edward and who have fun learning and discussing the minutia of his playing in all its intricate glory! SO many great points brought up here that I don't even know where to begin. Thank you for mentioning Jacob Deraps...he is indeed amazing and one of the very, very, VERY few who get into the rhythm and timing feel of Ed's playing. And then he sings his ASS off on LEAD vocals while playing very complex Van Halen riffs-though he does lots of other material of others and his own music this way. He gets very close to note-for-note...not exactly, but a lot closer than almost anyone else. It's a pleasure to hear him tackle "Runnin' With the Devil/Dweezil" at the end of every episode!
I just finished listening, so I'll have to come back and edit this post with some point-by-point observations later, but wow, THANKS very much to you and Phil X for this fun-time geek out!
I think that would be a gas! I like how you approached this one with Phil and maybe we can shoot for something along those lines…it’ll be hard to rein us in because we can go down multiple rabbit holes as you know! Just let me know when works best for you and I’ll make it happen on my end!
I’m not sure if Dweezil is aware of this, but apparently the first thing that was ever played back in Edward’s ‘5150’ studio as it was being completed was a cassette of “My Mother Is a Space Cadet”! This is an excerpt from a fairly well-known article from the April 1985 issue of ‘Recording Engineer/Producer’ magazine about the construction process of the studio, but somehow I just now noticed this little factoid!
Do you have any instructions for downloading and playing the episodes on my phone? I have both Spotify and podbean, but neither one can find the files I saved.
You don’t play them through those apps - you play them through the player on the website or from the file you downloaded onto your phone. Check your files or downloads folder on your iPhone.
If you have an Apple phone, use the Safari app to sign into the website. You should have two options for downloading the episodes into your phone: Hi-res or low-res. Hit your choice and the download should appear in the " files " app. I download the low-res version for my phone ( since I'm constantly on the move ) and these downloads sound pretty good, even with earbuds. Hope that helps.
This really nice, clear footage of the 1986 NAMM jam at a club in Chicago with Schon and Entwhistle among others was just posted on YouTube a day ago…Edward is as usual a little or a lot lost as he throws in his stock licks and whammy squeals in a non-Van Halen band context to mixed results. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has seen his “jam” or guesting footage before, but it’s still good fun to see stuff from when he was at the top of his game and arguably one of the world’s best electric rock guitarists on the planet.
I think it’s a great example of the difference between a player like Neal who is playing to the chord changes versus Ed who most often played his specific licks that worked over riffs in his own songs which would sometimes have an implied chord structure, but are not really related to chord changes per se. Neal does his blues shredding, but comes out of that landing in time and always following the chords with phrasing related to the chords as they cycle. Ed not so much…which is part of why Ed sounded great playing Van Halen music, but improvising, even over blues changes, was not his forte. It’s kind’ve a good problem to have in a way…he was at his best when he was playing his own music with his brother, and the world is richer for it!
All RWTD episodes have been amazing Dweezil! So good, that I keep checking to see if next when is uploaded. No pressure Dweezil :) They are worth another listen so much great content!
I've never had anything truly great come to me without waiting and RWTD is no exception. Keep up the good work, Dweezil. Looking forward to those Fractal presets!
Ok, so wonderful that you had a ‘Runnin’ With the Dweezil’ conversation with CPA! I’ve followed him since the MetroAmp forum days from around 2009 and I’m happy to say we’ve had a blast chatting on Facebook and through e-mail. He’s obviously a fellow Edward disciple and he shares the deep love of the DEEP details…we’re all kindred spirits for sure!
I love that you discussed ‘The Wild Life’ soundtrack…very timely since Chris Gill and I have made some discoveries related to that film soundtrack that I’ve shared online elsewhere which I wanted to share here for the gearheads!
Wolf recently posted a pic of the Veillette-Citron Baritone Shark guitar that me and my buddy Chris from Guitar World have been talking about for months. You all know that Chris is the co-author of ‘Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen’ a true player and gear nut in addition to his many contributions to Guitar World and other publications over many years now. He’s regularly in touch with me and many others in the hardcore Van Halen fan community. At any rate, in a social media post originally on Instagram, Wolf said he’s just finished using it on the new MammothWVH record when he was tracking bass.
A while back, Chris and I discussed the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone that we had seen pictures of with Eddie in the 5150 studio around the time of the recording of the ‘1984’ album.
Chris said that he would ask Matt Bruck and Wolf some questions about that guitar on my behalf when he was to interview them right after the Wembley Taylor Hawkins tribute gig. He also said that he would mention to Wolf that I and other fans know that he had to work hard to be able to play all that Van Halen material on guitar just like we all have to work and that those that say “it’s all in the DNA” are dead wrong. You can see Chris mentioning this to Wolf in this clip that you may have seen:
As you can see, Wolf appreciated hearing that! It doesn’t matter who your parents are…like say if your Dad happened to be Frank Zappa for instance…you STILL have to work your BALLS off to be able to play music. It isn’t DNA…it’s hard work! (end of rant).
Matt also answered all my questions. I had theorized that Eddie used this Veilette-Citron Shark baritone to write the drop A riffs on “Good Enough” from the ‘5150’ album. I further guessed that he came up with the idea of using a .60 gauged La Bella/Steinberger bass D string for the 6th string slot on the ‘1984’ Kramer guitar and tuning that low 6th string down to A so that he could play the riffs that he came up with on the baritone on the low strings and still be able to play regular lead on one guitar. Incredibly, Chris brought my theory up to Matt and he confirmed that my guess was EXACTLY what happened.
I was shocked to find that my theory hit the nail directly on the head! What are the chances?!
I knew that Eddie used the ‘1984’ Kramer on “Good Enough” both live and on the studio version from ‘5150’. But I also guessed that he WROTE the riffs on the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone. Incredibly, that’s exactly how it went!
I feel pretty certain that Eddie might have used this baritone on “Donut City” and the early version of “Good Enough” from the soundtrack to ‘The Wild Life’. I’m also guessing that Ed might have used this Veilette-Citron Shark baritone for the unreleased octave lower doubling of the tapping intro to “Hot For Teacher” that engineer Brian Kehew mentioned hearing when he went through the masters several years ago. Brian said it was very similar to what Sheehan and Vai did on the Eat ‘Em and Smile/David Lee Roth band version of “Shy Boy”. It’s also possible that Ed played the rest of the bass on the song using that instrument too, but that’s a guess. Again, Matt and Wolf have not specified which songs Eddie used the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone guitar on yet, Matt confirmed to Chris only that Eddie did use it on the '1984' album…these are just some of my guesses.
Anyway, as soon as I saw Wolf’s Instagram post on 10-23-22 where he says that he used the Veillette-Citron Shark and the 1963 Gibson Les Paul TV Jr. from “Dirty Movies” on the new album that very day,
I e-mailed Chris to alert him if he hadn’t seen it yet. Almost as soon as I e-mailed Chris, he spoke to Matt. This is the e-mail Chris sent back to me: It turns out that me and Chris asking about that guitar got them thinking about it and they pulled it out solely because we asked about it…and as a direct result, Wolf ended up using it on the new MammothWVH record! Un-f-ing-believable.
A few days later, Wolf confirmed that the tuning for the Veilette-Citron Shark baritone is A-A-D-G-B-E.
Which is the “Good Enough” tuning of course and I reckon it might also be the tuning for “Donut City”- I still need to check that. Which goes along with what I mentioned regarding the whole thing about the 1984 Kramer, the low A bass note with the bass D-string and all that which I supposed was him referring to “Good Enough” and it’s writing process as Matt confirmed.
Greg Renoff also told me that there was a 1983 memo to Warner Bros. that Ted sent them about songs in progress for what would become “Good Enough” which had a song called “Baritone Slide” which I’m willing to bet was an early version of “Good Enough” and if that was the case, this confirms that was Ed working on “Good Enough” even then in 1983. The title “Baritone Slide” makes sense when you consider how much sliding there is in those riffs, but without an actual metal or glass slide-Ed is just sliding with his fingers of course:
And then you have probably heard this boot from 3-24-84 of the “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” encore with bits of “Growth” and several riffs from what would become “Good Enough” later on where he is clearly screwing around with that A tuned low 6th string:
and as the brief ‘Lost Weekend with Van Halen’ footage from April 5-6 1984 Detroit with the “ATBL” encore shows, we see Ed using the 1984 Kramer with the original standard chrome Floyd, not the black one he would later (almost) permanently modify to accept the bass string (until he reconfigured it back to a standard chrome Floyd and gave it to Wolf), clearly at 4:51 here:
I don’t hear Ed using the low 6th string at all in this recording, he’s avoiding it and playing “ATBL” on the top 5 strings. I think he was already experimenting with that low A note in April just as he clearly did in March, and he was using the 1984 Kramer as the guinea pig.
But at any rate, it is great that Wolf confirmed the tuning and it is indeed the “Good Enough” tuning!
I just had to share this story here so that you could hear the full story in all the details!
I leaped on this episode as soon as it was posted. Love(d) it & THANK YOU. (I bought Craig’s album soon afterwards…just waiting for a moment when I can listen to it on headphones, as he’d like us to). :-)
I’ve been meaning to write…with about 8 minutes left in the episode, at the point referenced as ‘Act Like It Hurts’ &/or ‘Red Zone’, I love how the highlighted-snippet became the interlude before the solo in ‘Get Up’. So cool!!
Great episode! Love hearing CPA tell his VH stories with such passion and reverence. His love is on display for the entire episode. Like many of us, listening to VH starts with the ears and ends in our hearts. I’ve said it many times…this podcast is a wonderful way to remember EVH now that he is gone. Great job DZ…looking forward to the next one.
Oh my that was such an amazing episode. I didn’t want it to end. Craig is so interesting and also one hell of a guitarist Amazing content throughout from both of you and such great stories from Craig. I found his demos album on ITunes and picked it up right away and going to his website to get the new album. Thank you soooo much Dweezil for doing all these episodes and making Ed Heads all the world feel so wonderful. -Jeff
I know how disappointing the wait times are. I've honestly been doing my best to get the rest of the episodes finished. With everything that is going on it has been very challenging. I certainly haven't forgotten about all of you who have supported the podcast. I have just finished the latest episode with Craig Parker Adams and I hope you will enjoy the little musical surprises.
BTW, I'm working my way through the guitar presets as well. I'm hoping to make everyone's holiday season a little brighter with some reverb on the right side.
there are none. the way it's worded is very misleading. Supposedly they are coming at some stage. I would look elsewhere if you want VH Fractal presets.
The presets are indeed "tardy" as in "I don't feel tardy" because of a long list of things related to getting a studio space operational. Supply chain issues aside, the studio set up will allow me to do things I could not do previously. There's been a ton of time consuming research and development I've been doing along the way and it has been yielding valuable results in terms of recreating the sounds and making specific IRs from my own special cabinets.
Even though the wait has been very long and frustrating for all in involved I'm still excited to complete the mission for all of you. There's a great deal of discussion to have about recreating the layers of detail in the sounds.
Waiting for long periods of time for exciting things is never on the top of anyone's list of fun things to do. I'm sorry for the wait but the hard work will finally pay off this year. DZ
Hey Ken, do a search for IR within the site. You will find some Fractal Speaker IRs that Dweezil gifted us over one of the holidays. He hasn’t done any VH ones yet but these look cool (not VH related though).
They were s******g on the album, bit stupid to have them on to talk about an album they obviously don't like and then upload it as part of a series for VH fans....
Apologies for not keeping up but I was trying to go back to an old comment about Ed's picks --the old Fenders.
Allen G.: do you know if the plastic formulation has changed since the late 70s/early 80s? .. and the thickness of the medium/thin Fender picks?
Semi-related question to the community: any thoughts or comment on on the striped Tortex picks Dunlop is selling these days?
Otherwise, thanks a bunch to DZ and the rest of you EVH nerds! can't get enough of this stuff!
The newer Tortex picks are cool. They help when it comes to pinch harmonics. But, when it comes to playing rhythm parts, you have to REALLY hit the strings harder to get those dynamics. I have been using Steve Vai's picks lately and those have a great balance to them.
To the best of my knowledge, the Fender pick material hasn’t changed. There was a brief period around 1955 when real tortoise shell was used to make the brown tortoise colored picks, but I believe it’s just the same old celluloid material and as far as I know the thickness has remained to within negligible tolerances.
Hi guys, forgive me if I'm being a bit daft but where do I find the Line6 HELIX Van Halen tone/patch Presets?
Thanks in advance
Hi Ravi,
I haven't finished the line 6 presets yet. I'll keep you posted when they are ready.
Phil. F*****g. X. Yes!
Phill X! Awesome episode! Dream guests:Terry Kilgore (is he still alive?), George Lynch both were playing in the clubs the same time as Edward and can speak about the rise of this amazing band and guitarist.
Michael Anthony would be my number one dream guest! One can wish.
Terry is very much alive!
Wow! Fantastic episode of 'Runnin' With the Dweezil'! I am SO glad that you had Phil X on board. This is PRECISELY the type of stuff that I love about this wonderful podcast and interview style...we hear two guys who love Van Halen and that despite all of their success and acclaim are STILL learning from Edward and who have fun learning and discussing the minutia of his playing in all its intricate glory! SO many great points brought up here that I don't even know where to begin. Thank you for mentioning Jacob Deraps...he is indeed amazing and one of the very, very, VERY few who get into the rhythm and timing feel of Ed's playing. And then he sings his ASS off on LEAD vocals while playing very complex Van Halen riffs-though he does lots of other material of others and his own music this way. He gets very close to note-for-note...not exactly, but a lot closer than almost anyone else. It's a pleasure to hear him tackle "Runnin' With the Devil/Dweezil" at the end of every episode!
I just finished listening, so I'll have to come back and edit this post with some point-by-point observations later, but wow, THANKS very much to you and Phil X for this fun-time geek out!
So glad you enjoyed it. I'm thinking that you would be a fun guest at some point. What do you think?
I think that would be a gas! I like how you approached this one with Phil and maybe we can shoot for something along those lines…it’ll be hard to rein us in because we can go down multiple rabbit holes as you know! Just let me know when works best for you and I’ll make it happen on my end!
+1 to an Allen G spot! This podcast is everything.
I’m not sure if Dweezil is aware of this, but apparently the first thing that was ever played back in Edward’s ‘5150’ studio as it was being completed was a cassette of “My Mother Is a Space Cadet”! This is an excerpt from a fairly well-known article from the April 1985 issue of ‘Recording Engineer/Producer’ magazine about the construction process of the studio, but somehow I just now noticed this little factoid!
Do you have any instructions for downloading and playing the episodes on my phone? I have both Spotify and podbean, but neither one can find the files I saved.
You don’t play them through those apps - you play them through the player on the website or from the file you downloaded onto your phone. Check your files or downloads folder on your iPhone.
If you have an Apple phone, use the Safari app to sign into the website. You should have two options for downloading the episodes into your phone: Hi-res or low-res. Hit your choice and the download should appear in the " files " app. I download the low-res version for my phone ( since I'm constantly on the move ) and these downloads sound pretty good, even with earbuds. Hope that helps.
Hi everyone! I just wanted to leave a note here for the Van Halen faithful to be sure you head over to the Community Blog section to see the full text of the only interview that Robin “Rudy” Leiren has ever given. Journalist and author Steven Rosen gave me the audio of this full interview with permission to transcribe it to text and share it. Check it out here: https://www.dweezilzappa.com/posts/1989653-for-the-vh-fans-runnin-with-the-dweezil-crowd-rudy-leiren-s-only-interview-done-with-steven-rosen-in-early-1985
This really nice, clear footage of the 1986 NAMM jam at a club in Chicago with Schon and Entwhistle among others was just posted on YouTube a day ago…Edward is as usual a little or a lot lost as he throws in his stock licks and whammy squeals in a non-Van Halen band context to mixed results. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has seen his “jam” or guesting footage before, but it’s still good fun to see stuff from when he was at the top of his game and arguably one of the world’s best electric rock guitarists on the planet.
I think it’s a great example of the difference between a player like Neal who is playing to the chord changes versus Ed who most often played his specific licks that worked over riffs in his own songs which would sometimes have an implied chord structure, but are not really related to chord changes per se. Neal does his blues shredding, but comes out of that landing in time and always following the chords with phrasing related to the chords as they cycle. Ed not so much…which is part of why Ed sounded great playing Van Halen music, but improvising, even over blues changes, was not his forte. It’s kind’ve a good problem to have in a way…he was at his best when he was playing his own music with his brother, and the world is richer for it!
All RWTD episodes have been amazing Dweezil! So good, that I keep checking to see if next when is uploaded. No pressure Dweezil :) They are worth another listen so much great content!
I've never had anything truly great come to me without waiting and RWTD is no exception. Keep up the good work, Dweezil. Looking forward to those Fractal presets!
Ok, so wonderful that you had a ‘Runnin’ With the Dweezil’ conversation with CPA! I’ve followed him since the MetroAmp forum days from around 2009 and I’m happy to say we’ve had a blast chatting on Facebook and through e-mail. He’s obviously a fellow Edward disciple and he shares the deep love of the DEEP details…we’re all kindred spirits for sure!
I love that you discussed ‘The Wild Life’ soundtrack…very timely since Chris Gill and I have made some discoveries related to that film soundtrack that I’ve shared online elsewhere which I wanted to share here for the gearheads!
Wolf recently posted a pic of the Veillette-Citron Baritone Shark guitar that me and my buddy Chris from Guitar World have been talking about for months. You all know that Chris is the co-author of ‘Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen’ a true player and gear nut in addition to his many contributions to Guitar World and other publications over many years now. He’s regularly in touch with me and many others in the hardcore Van Halen fan community. At any rate, in a social media post originally on Instagram, Wolf said he’s just finished using it on the new MammothWVH record when he was tracking bass.
A while back, Chris and I discussed the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone that we had seen pictures of with Eddie in the 5150 studio around the time of the recording of the ‘1984’ album.
You can read more about the Veillette-Citron company here: https://www.veilletteguitars.com/press_citron.shtml
Chris said that he would ask Matt Bruck and Wolf some questions about that guitar on my behalf when he was to interview them right after the Wembley Taylor Hawkins tribute gig. He also said that he would mention to Wolf that I and other fans know that he had to work hard to be able to play all that Van Halen material on guitar just like we all have to work and that those that say “it’s all in the DNA” are dead wrong. You can see Chris mentioning this to Wolf in this clip that you may have seen:
As you can see, Wolf appreciated hearing that! It doesn’t matter who your parents are…like say if your Dad happened to be Frank Zappa for instance…you STILL have to work your BALLS off to be able to play music. It isn’t DNA…it’s hard work! (end of rant).
Matt also answered all my questions. I had theorized that Eddie used this Veilette-Citron Shark baritone to write the drop A riffs on “Good Enough” from the ‘5150’ album. I further guessed that he came up with the idea of using a .60 gauged La Bella/Steinberger bass D string for the 6th string slot on the ‘1984’ Kramer guitar and tuning that low 6th string down to A so that he could play the riffs that he came up with on the baritone on the low strings and still be able to play regular lead on one guitar. Incredibly, Chris brought my theory up to Matt and he confirmed that my guess was EXACTLY what happened.
I was shocked to find that my theory hit the nail directly on the head! What are the chances?!
I knew that Eddie used the ‘1984’ Kramer on “Good Enough” both live and on the studio version from ‘5150’. But I also guessed that he WROTE the riffs on the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone. Incredibly, that’s exactly how it went!
I feel pretty certain that Eddie might have used this baritone on “Donut City” and the early version of “Good Enough” from the soundtrack to ‘The Wild Life’. I’m also guessing that Ed might have used this Veilette-Citron Shark baritone for the unreleased octave lower doubling of the tapping intro to “Hot For Teacher” that engineer Brian Kehew mentioned hearing when he went through the masters several years ago. Brian said it was very similar to what Sheehan and Vai did on the Eat ‘Em and Smile/David Lee Roth band version of “Shy Boy”. It’s also possible that Ed played the rest of the bass on the song using that instrument too, but that’s a guess. Again, Matt and Wolf have not specified which songs Eddie used the Veillette-Citron Shark baritone guitar on yet, Matt confirmed to Chris only that Eddie did use it on the '1984' album…these are just some of my guesses.
Anyway, as soon as I saw Wolf’s Instagram post on 10-23-22 where he says that he used the Veillette-Citron Shark and the 1963 Gibson Les Paul TV Jr. from “Dirty Movies” on the new album that very day,
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkEwmAVvoVK/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I e-mailed Chris to alert him if he hadn’t seen it yet. Almost as soon as I e-mailed Chris, he spoke to Matt. This is the e-mail Chris sent back to me:
It turns out that me and Chris asking about that guitar got them thinking about it and they pulled it out solely because we asked about it…and as a direct result, Wolf ended up using it on the new MammothWVH record! Un-f-ing-believable.
Then, the next morning, Guitar World posted this story which many of you have seen already. https://www.guitarworld.com/news/wolfgang-van-halen-evh-guitars-album-2
A few days later, Wolf confirmed that the tuning for the Veilette-Citron Shark baritone is A-A-D-G-B-E.
Which is the “Good Enough” tuning of course and I reckon it might also be the tuning for “Donut City”- I still need to check that. Which goes along with what I mentioned regarding the whole thing about the 1984 Kramer, the low A bass note with the bass D-string and all that which I supposed was him referring to “Good Enough” and it’s writing process as Matt confirmed.
Greg Renoff also told me that there was a 1983 memo to Warner Bros. that Ted sent them about songs in progress for what would become “Good Enough” which had a song called “Baritone Slide” which I’m willing to bet was an early version of “Good Enough” and if that was the case, this confirms that was Ed working on “Good Enough” even then in 1983. The title “Baritone Slide” makes sense when you consider how much sliding there is in those riffs, but without an actual metal or glass slide-Ed is just sliding with his fingers of course:
And then you have probably heard this boot from 3-24-84 of the “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” encore with bits of “Growth” and several riffs from what would become “Good Enough” later on where he is clearly screwing around with that A tuned low 6th string:
and as the brief ‘Lost Weekend with Van Halen’ footage from April 5-6 1984 Detroit with the “ATBL” encore shows, we see Ed using the 1984 Kramer with the original standard chrome Floyd, not the black one he would later (almost) permanently modify to accept the bass string (until he reconfigured it back to a standard chrome Floyd and gave it to Wolf), clearly at 4:51 here:
I don’t hear Ed using the low 6th string at all in this recording, he’s avoiding it and playing “ATBL” on the top 5 strings. I think he was already experimenting with that low A note in April just as he clearly did in March, and he was using the 1984 Kramer as the guinea pig.
But at any rate, it is great that Wolf confirmed the tuning and it is indeed the “Good Enough” tuning!
I just had to share this story here so that you could hear the full story in all the details!
I leaped on this episode as soon as it was posted. Love(d) it & THANK YOU. (I bought Craig’s album soon afterwards…just waiting for a moment when I can listen to it on headphones, as he’d like us to). :-)
I’ve been meaning to write…with about 8 minutes left in the episode, at the point referenced as ‘Act Like It Hurts’ &/or ‘Red Zone’, I love how the highlighted-snippet became the interlude before the solo in ‘Get Up’. So cool!!
Great episode! Love hearing CPA tell his VH stories with such passion and reverence. His love is on display for the entire episode. Like many of us, listening to VH starts with the ears and ends in our hearts. I’ve said it many times…this podcast is a wonderful way to remember EVH now that he is gone. Great job DZ…looking forward to the next one.
Oh my that was such an amazing episode. I didn’t want it to end. Craig is so interesting and also one hell of a guitarist Amazing content throughout from both of you and such great stories from Craig. I found his demos album on ITunes and picked it up right away and going to his website to get the new album. Thank you soooo much Dweezil for doing all these episodes and making Ed Heads all the world feel so wonderful. -Jeff
No matter what anyone says, I love you Dweezil. Thank you for these interviews, each one is an awesome gift, whenever it shows up!
We are getting to the point IF they show up, not when...
I know how disappointing the wait times are. I've honestly been doing my best to get the rest of the episodes finished. With everything that is going on it has been very challenging. I certainly haven't forgotten about all of you who have supported the podcast. I have just finished the latest episode with Craig Parker Adams and I hope you will enjoy the little musical surprises.
BTW, I'm working my way through the guitar presets as well. I'm hoping to make everyone's holiday season a little brighter with some reverb on the right side.
Question for anyone/everyone - I'm not seeing where to access the Fractal patches, anybody know where to get them?
there are none. the way it's worded is very misleading. Supposedly they are coming at some stage. I would look elsewhere if you want VH Fractal presets.
Hello RWTD Friends,
The presets are indeed "tardy" as in "I don't feel tardy" because of a long list of things related to getting a studio space operational. Supply chain issues aside, the studio set up will allow me to do things I could not do previously. There's been a ton of time consuming research and development I've been doing along the way and it has been yielding valuable results in terms of recreating the sounds and making specific IRs from my own special cabinets.
Even though the wait has been very long and frustrating for all in involved I'm still excited to complete the mission for all of you. There's a great deal of discussion to have about recreating the layers of detail in the sounds.
Waiting for long periods of time for exciting things is never on the top of anyone's list of fun things to do. I'm sorry for the wait but the hard work will finally pay off this year. DZ
Hey Ken, do a search for IR within the site. You will find some Fractal Speaker IRs that Dweezil gifted us over one of the holidays. He hasn’t done any VH ones yet but these look cool (not VH related though).
https://www.dweezilzappa.com/products/23868-free-fractal-speaker-irs
I've listened to the Blues Saraceno & James Santiago episode.
It's one thing to criticize an album.
It's another one to do it "in style"...
I don't think EVH deserved that kind of treatment.
Oh my God, They Killed Kenny!
They were s******g on the album, bit stupid to have them on to talk about an album they obviously don't like and then upload it as part of a series for VH fans....
This was tossed out simply to check a box. I am not a big fan of the album, but it was a bit much.
Apologies for not keeping up but I was trying to go back to an old comment about Ed's picks --the old Fenders.
Allen G.: do you know if the plastic formulation has changed since the late 70s/early 80s? .. and the thickness of the medium/thin Fender picks?
Semi-related question to the community: any thoughts or comment on on the striped Tortex picks Dunlop is selling these days?
Otherwise, thanks a bunch to DZ and the rest of you EVH nerds! can't get enough of this stuff!
The newer Tortex picks are cool. They help when it comes to pinch harmonics. But, when it comes to playing rhythm parts, you have to REALLY hit the strings harder to get those dynamics. I have been using Steve Vai's picks lately and those have a great balance to them.
To the best of my knowledge, the Fender pick material hasn’t changed. There was a brief period around 1955 when real tortoise shell was used to make the brown tortoise colored picks, but I believe it’s just the same old celluloid material and as far as I know the thickness has remained to within negligible tolerances.
Hi DZ! Any estimate when the Line 6 Helix VH presets will become available for us subscribers?