EDWARD VAN HALEN: A HEAVY METAL GUITAR GOD DISCUSSES GUITARS

It's New Year’s Eve and the party at producer Ted Templeman’s is going strong. There’s a lot for Eddie Van Halen to celebrate. The first Van Halen album had exploded on the scene. The answer to who would be the next hard rock heroes was on everyone’s lips. It had the familiar ring of his last name. More than that, he was catapulted to king-of-the-hill status among electric guitarists.

Drunk as he is. he drifts toward an acoustic guitar and starts playing. With a sound that had stopped many a backyard party just a few short years ago, Eddie, stripped of electronics, lets his electricity flow through a nylon string guitar. The most sensitive ears in the house cannot ignore it. “So you play the acoustic guitar too!” Templeman exclaims.

“Spanish Fly” ended up on Van Halen II and even John McLaughlin was filled with praise upon hearing it. What comes naturally to Eddie Van Halen is not dependent on electronic effects boxes, amplifiers, or even the electric guitar. That sound which is admired by guitarists from Steve Lukather to Carlos Santana is produced by a warm, gentle kid who still can’t stand to be thought of as a “rock star.” I approached him with bug-eyed praise and he accepted it with a quiet smile, one that said you may make me into a guitar hero, but I'm really just a kid who likes to play. Gentleman that he is, he endured my fantasy.

CREEM: How would you divide your career as a guitarist into major turning points?

EDDIE VAN HALEN: It just seems like one big step. I don’t know how to bring it down. I started playing with the British Invasion, and it never changed.

Oh. but it has. Like Clapton, you 've given the guitar world a slightly new way to play the instrument. You've done some boundary stretching.

It wasn’t intentional. I play more out of enjoyment. I have fun playing, it wasn’t like 1 set out to leave my mark on the world.

Are you aware that you have?

I think I’ve done a couple of things that have influenced some people.

But you started as a Clapton fan.

I knew his licks inside and out.

Can you remember when you discarded them?

It wasn’t a conscious thing. When I stumbled onto the hammering things and the vibrato bar, that changed my style considerably. Then I said “Shit, I’m having more fun getting weird noises doing this than still playing Clapton licks ."

How did you stumble onto the right hand hammer stuff?

The way I thought of doing it was, say you’re playing in the key of E and you’re doing a pull-off with your left hand on the B string. You’re doing a triplet without picking. If you had a sixth finger on that hand and that finger was long, then you could do that anywhere on the neck. You wouldn’t need an open string to do it. 1 remember sitting in my room, doing it. and being so excited, and my brother said “What is that?”

Was this much before your first recording?

It’s probably two or three years before the first album. I’ll tell you, we used to play at the Whiskey and I would do an “Eruption”-type solo and I would always turn around when I did it. There would be these clowns from the other bands trying to see how I did it, so I’d put my back to the audience.

Did it take a lot of practice to get it down?

Not really, it’s just a matter of where you do it on the neck to get the melody you want. You need to know the scales and the notes.

"I don't consider it work. We don't work, we play music. When I'm on stage, it's like stepping into a different world."

How did you happen to use the hammer with harmonics?

It’s something that I stumbled into. Like in the intro to “Mean Streets,” I stumbled onto even more harmonics than last year. Larry Coryell flipped when I played him that intro. Did you use any outboard devices to get that sound?

That’s just straight guitar and amp. That was like the funk slap technique bass players use. I just applied it to the guitar.

As I recall, you work up new ideas by locking yourself up in a room?

I usually go up there when I’m bored. I grab a guitar, pick up a couple a beers, cop a buzz and play.

You once described the process as being almost trance-like.

It sounds strange, but it might be like meditating. If I go in a room and play, I can’t play my best, play new licks, change or get any better in an hour. It usually takes three hours before I get in a state of mind where I can come up with new things.

And you only do this when you're bored?

Or when I have to write songs.

Have any complete songs come out of these sessions?

Lots of songs, “Sinners Swing” comes to mind right now.z

Does the band do a pre-production before the actual recording?

We usually don’t like to go into the studio unprepared. There are very few things actually written in the studio. '

What does Ted Templeman bring to the recordings?

He helps arrange, and gets the sound. He also listens to us. A lot of producers say “This is my album and everything goes my way.” The best thing about Ted is that he doesn’t have this ego thing, saying “I’m the producer and you’re the band." It’s more like we’re five in the band.

I know it was his idea to have you use slide guitar on “Could This Be Magic. " Didn't he also have something to do with you recording on the acoustic guitar?

It was New Year’s Eve at Ted’s house and I was drunk. I just picked up an acoustic guitar and started playing. Teddy said “So you can play the acoustic guitar too, huh?” I’m thinking: what the fuck’s the difference? That’s how “Spanish Fly” came about.

[Eddie doesn’t realize that the amazing part of “Spanish F/y” is that it shows that his sound and approach are not dependent on the electric guitar, amp, or devices.]

If I were to rate the Van Halen albums for your guitar playing, I would say Fair Warning is first, followed in order by Van halen. Woman And Children First and Van Halen II.

I’d probably say that Fair Warning and the first are about even, then I’d say the second before the third.

The third is last for you?

I’d say so. To represent the band as a whole, I’d say “Ain’t Talking About Love” is more Van Halen than anything, say, on the first album.

What about other people’s records, can you come up with five indispensible guitar albums?

I love One Of A Kind by Bill Bruford. Allan Holdsworth’s playing is unique. It sometimes actually sounds like a saxophone. I love old Clapton stuff like Goodbye Cream and Wheels Of Fire. Let’s add Led Zeppelin because at the time it was new to hear guitars played that way... This is a tough question.

Would you add any Hendrix?

Hendrix was always a little too outrageous for me. It wasn’t real enough. I used to get this image of Hendrix having 20 pedals in front of him. He did great stuff like “All Along The Watchtower,” but “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze” and all this fuzz/wah garbage I didn’t care for. What else besides Bruford would you add that was recorded in the last ten years?

I like Beck’s first and second instrumental albums ( Blow By Blow and Wired). I never got into his earlier stuff. The Who Live At Leeds was a great live album. I’m thinking now of my favorite albums, not indispensible guitar albums.

When can we expect a great live album from Van Halen?

Maybe next year, we’re thinking about it.

The stage is a special place for you, isn’t it?

I don’t consider it work. We don’t work, we play music. So many bands that open for us say “Aw shit, I’ve got to go to work again tonight.” They got too fucked up the night before. I’ve stayed up for four days with no sleep at all, no pills, and no drugs. I got up on stage and played great. When I’m on stage it’s like stepping into a different world.

When you're up there, do you want to "wow" the audience more than experiment?

I don’t want them to go crazy, 1 just want them to have a good time and enjoy it. I never imagined that we would get to where we are this quickly. You see—1 do what I want and most people don’t. They say we need a pop hit, we need a single. They consciously sit down and get their music to sound commercial. We don’t do that.

Do you still tune down to C* for the stage?

That changes from night to night. If we play five nights in a row, usually by the fifth night we’re down ever lower than that. It gets rough when you’re running around screaming at the top of your lungs.

How does it effect the feel of your strings?

It doesn’t make that much difference on the guitar. On the bass you get a lot of click and slap when you get beyond a step-and-a-half lower than A 440.

The red strat-like guitar is still your favorite. What were you using before that?

A long time ago I bought a ’59 Strat, and the band said “get rid of it, it sounds like shit.” At our high volume, the single coil pickup buzzed all the time. The sound also got too thin, unless I used the kind of fuzz garbage which I don’t like. I sold that guitar. A couple of years later I thought I would like a vibrato bar, so I had a 335, which was the cheapest thing with that setup. I would oil the nut so it would be real slippery and stay in tune. Then everyone said, “You look like Roy Orbison, get something that looks good.” So I tried a Strat again and thought I’d put a humbucker in it. It worked, except that Fender wood is cheap. They use alder. I found out about Charvel—they make bodies out of ash, which is a little denser. It’s not too dense, because if it’s too dense it sounds like shit. So I made my original red guitar, and decided to re-load the pickup. That’s still my favorite. There’s something about that piece of wood that has more tone.

How much did it cost to make?

I bought the bbdy from Boogie Bodies in Seattle for about $50. The neck costs anywhere from $80 to $100. I use unfinished maple because I like to feel the wood.

Then you put the pickups in.

That’s it. I only use one volume knob by accident. I just didn’t know how to wire them up with the one control. Then 1 actually found out I like the sound better, you get more highs.

But why only one pickup?

I don’t like the front position of any guitar except a Strat. In order to get the neck pickup to sound the way I like it, 1 have to adjust the tone on the map so trebly that the bridge pickup will sound like shit. In order to get the back pickup on, say, a Les Paul to sound good, the front one will sound like mud. Another reason is, the more wire inside the guitar the less output it has. I cut the wire of the pickup down so it’s as short as possible. On a Les Paul, you’ve got at least two feet of wire on there before it gets to the jack. It might be a psychological thing, but to me it makes a difference.

What pickups are you using these days?

I prefer old Gibson PAF’s because of their tone. They’re hard to find, and cost a lot, but that’s what 1 like. Most kids want that super distortion fuzzed-out noise. But I use either Gibson Patent Applied For pickups or Seymour Duncans.

Did you do much experimenting to find the proper pickup placement?

No, I have it measured by my finger. It’s about an index-finger-and-a-half forward from the bridge.

What about your bridge setup?

In the studio I still use a very old original Fender tailpiece with a brass nut. I oil the nut. so when I use the Vibrato it stays in tune. 3-in-l Oil does the job well. Also, the way you wind your strings can make a difference. I’m talking about the angle of the string, when it goes over the nut to the tuning peg. If you wind the string down too far, you’ve got a lot of tension on the nut. When you bring the bar down, the string will usually go sharp because it sticks.

So you don't want too many winds before you stick in the end of the string?

The more tension of the nut, the less it’s gonna stay in tune. Then again, if you don’t wind it enough, when you hit an open string it’ll pop out of the nut.

Do you still use the Floyd Rose tailpiece?

Live, I have three guitars with Floyd Rose tailpieces. I don’t use them in the studio because they’re hard for me to tune. Actually, you’d think it should be the other way around—that when I’m playing live I wouldn’t use them. It gets a slightly brighter sound that I prefer live, but you have to boil the strings before you put them on; you actually take them out of the package and throw them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. That stretches the strings out. The whole thing behind the Floyd Rose tailpiece is, you clamp the string down on the nut and tailpiece side. That way you can take it down or pull it up, and it won’t go out of tune unless the string stretches. When you boil them you also clean them. Whenever you clean them, you get a brighter sound than when they’re dirty. In the studio, I don’t like using boiled clean strings because the sound is a little brighter. I prefer older strings to record with because they have a muffled tone I like.

Any particular brand?

When I first started using the vibrato, Fender strings worked best. If I used Ernie Balls or GHS I couldn’t tune the guitar at all.

What's your amp setup?

I have three old baby Marshalls that I love to use and about 12 new 100-watt heads. The old ones I use with these Homite Voltage Regulators. It’s a transformer that goes from 0 to 140 volts. Every night we play, the voltage ranges from 100 to 120 volts, depending on the building. Sometimes I see and feel that the amp isn’t running at full voltage. With the Homite you can boost the voltage up to 135 before the amp will fry. But you can also turn it down to, say, 90 volts. There’s a considerable difference in the sound between 90 and 130 volts.

How does this plug it?

It’s what the amp plugs into before it plugs into the wall socket. It’s not one of these power attenuators. It changes nothing between the amp and the speakers. All it is, is voltage. But the volume and tonal quality of an amp changes at different voltages. At 90 it will sound a lot quieter and sometimes beefier, fatter, and warmer than 120 or 130 volts.

Do you use it in the studio as well?

Especially in the studio. I’ve used these Homite things since we’ve played the clubs.

How about speakers?

I use four 8” X 12” cabinets with Celestion speakers. In the studio I use an old Marshall 4” X 12” with an older top. I hate the new Marshall tops. There’s a guy who changes all my amps for me. He rips about everything out and makes them identical to the old ones. Still they don’t crank like the old Marshalls.

Doesn’t a lot of this tonal stuff get lost in an arena?

It’s more for personal enjoyment. Half the kids out there don’t know what tone means. There’s a difference between volume and tone. You can get my kind of sound without hurting your ears. Most people just crank up the high end which is like cranking your car radio all the way up. It distorts and sounds loud, even though decibel-wise it ain’t loud. You can also turn up your home stereo so it’s loud decibelwise, yet it won’t sound that loud. I crank everything all the way up but I have my guitar built compatibly to get the tone 1 like. How do you do that?

Some of the original old PAFs are more powerful than others, and I’ll match them with an amp. If I use a powerful pickup .with an amp that is set higher, it might be a bit too fuzzed out. Vice versa, if the pickups are a little weaker and I happen to use a weaker amp, I don’t get the sustain that I like. .That’s one reason I hate DiMarzio’s Super Distortion pickup, because you get the fuzz no matter what you do. It’s like using a preamp booster.

What about outboard devices?

It’s the same as I’ve always had. I have MXR Flangers and a Phase Shifter. I have two Flangers in case one breaks down. I don’t use much of anything except an echo. Right now I have a Roland Chorus Echo, one of those rack mount jobs, and an Echo-Plex. I have the Roland hooked up with the weaker amp and the Echo-Plex with a more powerful one. The Roland has a gain on it and gives kind of a solid state preamp sound that I don’t particularly like. When did you start building guitars?

I started about two years before the first album came out.

Did you have any knowledge or was it all trial and error?

I just went ahead and did it on my own. I ruined a lot of good guitars1 figuring out exactly what I wanted. When I first started refretting guitars, I didn’t know that Gibson put theri frets in straight into the neck, whereas Fender push them in sideways. I didn’t know that if you pull Fender frets straight out instead of pushing them out sideways, you’d rip the wood out. I did that with a couple of Strats. When I tried to put their frets in straight into the neck, whereas Fender push them in sideways. I a lot of junk bodies, because the pickup hole was routed either too far back or too close to the bridge.

A lot of people, myself included, think Fair Warning is a breakthrough album. It shows great clarity of thought, a leap forward in your guitar playing, and it's also the bestz recorded of all your albums. Guitar-wise it shows you at your greatest peaks and variety. For example. "When Push Comes To Shove" is a Grand Prix of a solo with equal amounts of speed and finesse, while “One Foot Out The Door" is a no-holdsbarred sonic invasion. Eddie, this could be your Led Zeppelin II.

I think I played well, but I don’t know why. I agree with you about the sound, this is the best recorded album we’ve got. I spent a lot more time on this album. I also did a lot more overdubbing than on any other record. I kind of got tired of the guitar always coming out of the left side—for once I wanted to hear a solo in the center,

so it’s not like an old Beatles recording,

where the guitar is always on the left, So aside from Fair Warning, the other albums were basically recorded live as a trio?

Oh yeah, definitely. The reason I never overdubbed before is because I can’t stand playing without the guys. 1 used to think I soloed better if we played at the same time.

I always had the guitar solo on the same track as the rhythm section. I think the only live solo on Fair Warning is on “Sinners Swing,” which is a fast boogie.

Did you rehearse more for this album than the others?

I personally did, to make the overdubs jibe with each other When you’ve got a rhythm track, you can’t just put anything on top of it and expect it to come out right.

I overdubbed a couple of guitars doing the little countermelodies in “Push Comes To Shove.” If I just doubled the parts, it wouldn’t have gotten that clarity.

What instruments did you record with?

I used the red guitar for the whole album, except for “Push” and “Hear About It Later,” where I used a Strat. I also used the red guitar for the solo in “Push.”

Are you playing slide in "Dirty Movies"?

Yeah, in the little melody in the beginning and over the chorus. It was just a pickup idea. It’s actually the first time I ever played electric slide guitar on record.

You sounded a bit like Jeff Beck on that one.

Someone else told me that. too. It wasn’t conscious.

Was your solo with the cowbell in “Hear About It Later " a splice-in?

Yeah, there was actually a rhythm track along with the bass but I didn’t like the way it sounded so we cut that out and I just soloed.

Was Teddy’s interruption in “Unchained” spontaneous or intentional?

It was sort of intentional.

What are you playing in “Sunday Afternoon In The Park”?

It was a piece-of-shit Electro harmonix Mini-Synthesizjer. It’s one of those goofy things with the built-in speaker and the painted on keys. It looks like a little kid’s toy. 1 plugged it in through the Marshalls and put a mike in front of it and there you have it. It sounds like Godzilla waking up.

I know you've got to run, so is there anything you'd like to add before we wrap it up?

Don’t stress those records I mentioned too much, I might wake up in the middle of the night and think of another one!

"Hendrix was always a lttle too outrageous for me. It wasn*t real enough. I used to get this image of Hendrix having 20 pedals in front of him."