Your "stock" EVH licks that you use frequently?

[Big Fat Sammy]

What are your "stock" EVH licks that you use frequently....


Not exact licks played in VH songs, but things you have picked up and used in different contexts...or inspired from A CVH record.


Example: Mine are....

1) Variations on the lick from I'm The One....the little fill in between the riff near the beginning. It's the fast lick that is in the first "house position" box, but you pull off to open strings really fast....this works well in G too. And fairly easy...but sounds like you are doing much more cause of the open strings.

2) Various single string trem picking....working the way up the neck, usually resolving with a high bent string.

What are yours?

[Matt White]

Triplet tapping! Very cliched...but wtf!!! Always gets a response, one way or the other!

The sound effect where your left hand does hammer-ons while running a finger up the bas string(s), giving off a sort of chime effect, like in "Your No Good". Still very Kewl!

[Big Fat Sammy]

Originally posted by Matt White
Triplet tapping! Very cliched...but wtf!!! Always gets a response, one way or the other!

The sound effect where your left hand does hammer-ons while running a finger up the bas string(s), giving off a sort of chime effect, like in "Your No Good". Still very Kewl!

I never do tapping...but the other thing YES!

I forgot about that one...I can only get away with it when the amp is really cranked, cause I dont use compression.

You use your finger? I do it with the edge of my palm. It can also be used in conjunction with the Im the One lick!

[Redballjets88]

why no tapping its really fun

[Big Fat Sammy]

Its an 80's cliche, like Matt said...

...my style is more in the Hendrix / gunslinger blues type thing.

....and if tapping was thrown into the context that I play in, alot of people would probably dig it, but it wouldn't be tasteful.

Mostly cause it isn't natural...and would come off to the hip people (and myself) as cheesy, pretentious, and a gay attempt to draw even more attention to myself.

But thats just in the context of what I do, personally....its not for everyone.

[Redballjets88]

makes sense with what your playing

[BrownSound1]

I do a lot of "horsie squeels" with the Floyd.

I also do little harmonic licks that I know I got from Edward. I very rarely finger tap, unless I take a notion to. I'm sure there are little things that I do that I'm not necessarily thinking, "I'll do an Eddie lick here."

In all honesty though, I probably do more Jimmy Page licks than EVH licks.

[Big Fat Sammy]

Originally posted by BrownSound1
I do a lot of "horsie squeels" with the Floyd.

I also do little harmonic licks that I know I got from Edward. I very rarely finger tap, unless I take a notion to. I'm sure there are little things that I do that I'm not necessarily thinking, "I'll do an Eddie lick here."

In all honesty though, I probably do more Jimmy Page licks than EVH licks.

I like the G string, second fret, whole step harmonic squeal, without the trem...thats another EVH influenced thing...all of em are subconscious to me too.

I guess if you grew up listening to it alot...it eventually sinks in and comes out somewhere.

[KramerPacer]

I got into a habit of moving the "nut" up the neck (like Eddie) and tapping the pentatonic scale vertically......kind of a cross-over of the Judgement Day technique and tapping.

I'm not sure why I did it. Not like pentatonics are hard to play, but maybe out of laziness? Or just wanting the "tap" attack/decay instead of normal picking.

Didn't really know I was doing it until another guitar player pointed it out and told me he was stealing it.

[Coyote]

Tapping and everything related, mainly. Everything else is a bit more Billy Gibbons-esque.

[Hardrock69]

I just occasionally do some tapping. Most of my whammy bar work is influenced by Hendrix.

[Nitro Express]

Trying to play like Eddie Van Halen over the years taught me one valuable lesson. That is: How you touch the strings is everything! No way can you get remotely close to Ed's playing without learning that. Ed opened up the wonderful world of harmonics for me more than any other player.

I rarely tap anymore. Too 80's I guess. But you will hear Van Halen influenced harmonics and dive bombs in my playing.

[kentuckyklira]

Lots of tappings. Little staccato passages in my solos, like in Hot For Teacher.

Harmonics á la the intro to Mean Street.

Just to mention a few.

[ashstralia]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Trying to play like Eddie Van Halen over the years taught me one valuable lesson. That is: How you touch the strings is everything! No way can you get remotely close to Ed's playing without learning that. Ed opened up the wonderful world of harmonics for me more than any other player.

I rarely tap anymore. Too 80's I guess. But you will hear Van Halen influenced harmonics and dive bombs in my playing.

yes, nitro!

but for me, the dive bombs are long gone,
my 3 main guitars are all fixed bridge.

i reckon the biggest thing i got from eddie was more the rhythm parts.
yeah, i learnt all the fun stuff too,
but his ability to totally get a groove going is very under-rated.
the dude's rhythm was unbe-fucking-lievable.

i also think jimi was a great singer/songwriter, but let's have another thread on that later.

[UGS]

I like to throw in a few pinch harmonics while whammying down w/ a vibrato, always good fun.

When doing some more bluesy stuff, I like to use the pinky to reach out and grab some extra notes. May not be just "an Edward thing" but I'm pretty sure I only started doing that after learning VH songs.

I probably rip off more Slash licks though. Ed's too unique to rip off effectively. Slash is more "bang your head into a wall and light your pants on fire" rock and roll playing