Making a living doing the thing you love is great—in fact, it’s something that so many players aspire to. But it changes the relationship between player and instrument when the instrument is a source of work. How do they stay excited about their work? And how do they get excited when they’re in a lull? What keeps their creativity flowing? These are big questions, but our hosts are both having their own renaissances with their guitars. And—surprise!—it’s because they’ve both come into some new key pieces of gear.
Get 10% off from StewMac when you visit stewmac.com/dippedintone
On this episode, Rhett and Zach discuss the relationship that they each have with the guitar at this point in their careers. Making a living doing the thing you love is great—in fact, it’s something that so many players aspire to. But it changes the relationship between player and instrument when the instrument is a source of work. How do they stay excited about their work? And how do they get excited when they’re in a lull? What keeps their creativity flowing? These are big questions, but our hosts are both having their own renaissances with their guitars. And—surprise!—it’s because they’ve both come into some new key pieces of gear.
Zach reports that he has been rippin’ totally sweet Metallica licks on his sick new ESP LTD Kirk Hammett Signature Series KH-602. He’s a longtime fan of the band—and has conveniently fallen back in love with Kill ’Em All and Ride the Lightning—and says he’s wanted a Hammett signature guitar for his entire guitar-playing life. When he saw this one at Nashville’s Guitars To Be Played, he fell in love with everything, from the skull and crossbones fret markers to the Floyd Rose. And you know what? The Floyd Rose isn’t hard to set up. This guitar, Zach says, is kickstarting his “love of the guitar again.”
Meanwhile, Rhett has been enjoying his new Soldano SLO-100head and matching 4x12 cabinet, even if he does keep the cab a few flights below his control room. He’s stoked about the story of Soldano, who he admires for being one of the early boutique amp builders, and has been playing this new 100-watter all week.When it’s time to dip a rig, it’s hard to find any faults. No spoilers, but it’s a nice one (and an easy gig load).And in the shill zone, Zach talks about the importance of running a brown box for owners of older amps and talks briefly about the difference between the Brown Box and a Variac.
Watch the video for "Victorious" now featuring vocalist Dorothy. New album The Call of the Void out July 7.
Los Angeles-born guitar ace Nita Strauss recently announced her brand new album The Call of the The Void, out July 7 via Sumerian Records.
"'Victorious' is the anthem I always wanted, a song about inspiring change, marching forward relentlessly, being willing to save yourself instead of waiting for someone to do it for you, and never backing down from a fight," Strauss shares. "Dorothy was the perfect powerhouse voice and personality to stand and deliver, and knock this one out of the park."
NITA STRAUSS - Victorious ft. Dorothy (Official Music Video)
Dorothy shares Strauss' enthusiasm for the track, stating, "I'm honored to be a part of 'Victorious' with my friend Nita Strauss. She is the embodiment of a bold, beautiful, strong woman. The song and video scream #GIRLPOWER and we know you'll love it!"
The video features two cameos. 13-year-old rising guitar star Charlotte Milstein plays the role of a young Nita, while U.S. Olympian, former WBO and IBF champion Mikalea Mayer, a childhood friend of Strauss and former bandmate, also appears. Learn more about their relationship here!
The Call of the Void
THE CALL OF THE VOID TRACK LISTING:
PHYSICAL:
"Summer Storm"
"The Wolf You Feed" (Feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
"Digital Bullets" (Feat. Chris Motionless)
"Through the Noise" (Feat. Lzzy Hale)
"Consume The Fire"
"Dead Inside" (Feat. David Draiman)
"Victorious" (Feat. Dorothy)
"Scorched"
"Momentum"
"The Golden Trail" (Feat. Anders Fridén)
"Winner Takes All" (Feat. Alice Cooper)
"Monster" (Feat. Lilith Czar)
"Kintsugi"
"Surfacing" (Feat. Marty Friedman)
DIGITAL:
"Summer Storm"
"The Wolf You Feed" (Feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
"Digital Bullets" (Feat. Chris Motionless)
"Through the Noise" (Feat. Lzzy Hale)
"Consume The Fire"
"Dead Inside" (Feat. David Draiman)
"Victorious" (Feat. Dorothy)
"Scorched"
"Momentum"
"The Golden Trail" (Feat. Anders Fridén)
"Winner Takes All" (Feat. Alice Cooper)
"Monster" (Feat. Lilith Czar)
"Kintsugi"
"Surfacing" (Feat. Marty Friedman)
"The Wolf You Feed" (Instrumental)
"Digital Bullets" (Instrumental)
"Through the Noise" (Instrumental)
"Dead Inside" (Instrumental)
"Victorious" (Instrumental)
"The Golden Trail" (Instrumental)
"Winner Takes All" (Instrumental)
"Monster" (Instrumental)
Nita Strauss Tour Dates
NITA STRAUSS + ALICE COOPER ON TOUR:
5/13 — Knoxville, TN — The Tennessee Theatre
5/14 — Spartanburg, SC — Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium
5/15 — North Charleston, SC — North Charleston Performing Arts Center
5/17 — Shreveport, LA — Shreveport Municipal Auditorium
5/18 — Biloxi, MS — Beau Rivage Theatre
5/20 — Daytona Beach, FL — Welcome to Rockville*
SUMMER HEADLINE TOUR: WITH LIONS AT THE GATES:
6/13 — Nashville, TN — Exit / In
6/14 — Atlanta, GA — The Loft
6/15 — Greensboro, NC — The Hangar 1819
6/17 — New York, NY — The Meadows
6/18 — Toronto, ON — Horseshoe Tavern
6/19 — Mechanicsburg, PA — Lovedraft's
6/21 — Harrison, OH — The Blue Note
6/22 — Flint, MI — The Machine Shop
6/23 — Angola, IN — The Eclectic Room
6/24 — Bloomington, IL — The Castle Theatre
6/25 — Madison, WI — Majestic Theatre
6/26 — Omaha, NE — The Waiting Room
6/28 — Denver — The Bluebird Theater
6/29 — Salt Lake City — Urban Lounge
6/30 — Boise, ID — Neurolux
7/1 — Portland, OR — Hawthorne Theatre
7/2 — Vancouver, BC — The Rickshaw Theatre
7/3 — Seattle, WA — El Corazón
7/5 — Sacramento, CA — Goldfield Trading Post
7/6 — Los Angeles, CA — Whisky a Go Go
7/8 — Las Vegas, NV — The Space
7/9 — Phoenix, AZ — Crescent Ballroom
7/11 — San Antonio, TX — The Rock Box
7/12 — Dallas, TX — Trees
7/13 — Houston, TX — Scout Bar
7/14 — New Orleans, LA — The Parish @ House Of Blues
WITH DEF LEPPARD + MOTLEY CRUE:
8/5 — Syracuse, NY — JMA Wireless Dome
8/8 — Columbus, OH — The Ohio State University Ohio Stadium
8/11 — Fargo, ND — Fargodome
8/13 — Omaha, NE — Charles Schwab Field Omaha
8/16 — Tulsa, OK — Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium
8/18 — El Paso, TX — Sun Bowl Stadium
CO-HEADLINE "FREAKS ON PARADE" TOUR WITH ROB ZOMBIE:
8/24 — Dallas, TX — Dos Equis Pavilion
8/26 — Tampa, FL — Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
8/27 — West Palm Beach, FL — iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
8/29 — Raleigh, NC — Coastal Credit Union Music Park @ Walnut Creek
8/30 — Virginia Beach, VA — Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheatre
9/1 — Tinley Park, IL — Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
9/2 — Des Moines, IA — Wells Fargo Arena
9/5 — Clarkston, MI — Pinke Knob Amphitheatre
9/6 — Toronto, ON — Budweiser Stage
9/8 — Scranton, PA — The Pavilion @ Montage Mountain
9/9 — Wantagh, NY — Northwell Health Theatre @ Jones Beach
9/10 — Hartford, CT — XFINITY Theatre
9/12 — Nashville, TN — Bridgestone Arena
9/15 — Bonner Springs, KS — Azura Amphitheatre
9/16 — Englewood, CO — Fiddler’s Green
9/19 — Ridgefield, WA — RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheatre
9/20 — Auburn, WA — White River Amphitheatre
9/22 — Concord, CA — Pavilion
9/23 — Anaheim, CA — Honda Center
9/24 — Phoenix, AZ — Ak-Chin Pavilion
More info: nitastrauss.com.
Pre-order The Call of the Voidhere.
Eddie Van Halen pushed his singular talent past its limits on this overshadowed masterpiece.
Intermediate
Beginner
- Explore Eddie’s lesser-used approaches to two-hand tapping.
- Learn simple ways to create dramatic guitar parts.
- Make navigating complex time signatures a breeze.
New Adventures in Tapping
Eddie’s use of two-hand tapping is, of course, legendary. But on Fair Warning, he took it to some new places. He steered clear of the more-familiar tapping licks he used in “Eruption.” One new technique he employed on “Mean Street” is percussive tapping. Combining tapped notes and harmonics with percussive fretting-hand slaps, it’s akin to playing drums on guitar. In Ex. 1, tap the opening harmonic with the side of your picking-hand thumb, tapping right on top of the fret to make sure it clearly sounds. This is followed by some muted notes, which are sounded by lightly slapping the open strings with your fretting-hand fingers at about the third fret. Rest them on the strings as you slap to prevent them from ringing. The riff is punctuated by double-stops, in which both notes are tapped with the picking-hand index finger. Eddie often included his “Mean Street” intro during his live solo. (Note that while Eddie often tuned down a half-step, all examples here are in standard tuning.)
Eddie also had the ability to use tapping in a more melodic way, by slowing things down and substituting slides for the usual hammer-ons and pull-offs. In this way, tapping is more of a phrasing choice, meaning the melodies could be played in a more standard way using a pick, but tapping imbues them with some of Eddie’s singular style. For Ex. 2, fret the slides with your middle or ring finger, with the tapped notes played as usual. Eddie can be heard employing this version of tapping at the 3:02 mark of “Push Comes to Shove,” as part of one of his most moving guitar solos.
Creating Dramatic Riffs, Simply
For his rhythm parts, Eddie often used simple rock guitar techniques, but played them in slyly nuanced ways to created irresistibly catchy parts. Throughout Fair Warning, he bases riffs around open-string pull-offs, creating a “bouncing” effect which propels the riff along. But when playing Ex. 3, you won’t quite conjure all the magic unless you pay close attention to the accent marks in the music notation. Accents indicate when to play a note slightly louder, which on guitar translates to picking a bit harder. As much as Eddie’s playing features cool techniques, it’s also his grasp on how powerful these musical subtleties can be.
Eddie created another subtle effect by using partial chords extensively in his songwriting, an example of which being he would often drop the low root note from a standard root-fifth-octave power chord. Notice when playing Ex. 4 how this reduces the chords’ thickness, as they take up less sonic space. In a band setting, this allows them to sound with more clarity where the bass player has already got the low end covered. Now let’s explore how this gave Eddie room to add more magic.
A hallmark of the production of Fair Warning is Eddie’s frequent use of overdubbing, or layering of guitar parts, something he hadn’t yet explored extensively. But sometimes he simply creates the illusion of two guitars playing when it’s just one. Ex. 5 demonstrates how omitting the low root note can also facilitate playing two parts simultaneously with clarity. The key here is the execution of the palm-mute: Rest your picking-hand palm on the guitar’s bridge just enough to cover only the 6th and 5th strings. This way, the chords on the higher strings can ring freely. You can hear Eddie take a similar approach towards the end of “Mean Street.”
Playing Melodies with Style
Sometimes, however, adding an element can increase clarity. Throughout Fair Warning, Eddie plays more than a few memorable guitar melodies. To make them speak more clearly, and to give them a bit more character, he’ll often plays them simultaneously in two octaves. Doing this on guitar requires playing notes on two non-adjacent strings, which you can easily visualize by thinking of the standard three-string power chord shape with the middle string omitted. This is accomplished by lightly resting the inside of your fretting-hand index finger on that middle string, so it won’t be sounded by your pick. Ex. 6 illustrates how to create octaves in two different registers of the guitar, and Eddie used it to similar effect in “Unchained.”
In “Dirty Movies,” Eddie unexpectedly used a slide to inject a different sort of character into his guitar melodies. To ensure each note is solidly in tune, place the slide directly over the fret wire. Then the main challenge will be to prevent it from sounding any unused strings. Strings lower than the ones being played can be silenced with a well-placed palm mute. Then while holding your pick, allow your free picking-hand fingers to rest lightly on the underside of the higher strings not being played (Ex. 7). Note that accomplished slide players like Derek Trucks and Bonnie Raitt choose to instead play fingerstyle, producing a fuller, rounder tone than a pick. Either way, dialing back your guitar’s often-neglected tone knob a bit will help to tame any tonal shrillness.
Are Complex Time Signatures Really So Odd?
In its pre-chorus, the classic party anthem “Unchained” suddenly becomes a quasi-prog-rock adventure, featuring complex shifting time signatures. At the outset, this sort of thing can seem like a daunting challenge, but it’s really all how you think about it. Ex. 7 features time signatures of 6/4 and 7/4. How can we navigate these measures without pulling our hair out? Well, often these complex time signatures can be broken down into a combination of simpler ones we use every day. Let’s look at measure one, which is in 6/4. If we think of this as simply 4/4 plus 2/4, it’s more manageable. In much the same way, measure two’s 7/4 can be broken down into 4/4 plus 3/4.
While the final two songs of Fair Warning are arguably also-rans, I still can’t escape the notion that if I could only listen to one Van Halen album for the rest of time, it would be this one. Eddie’s playing seems almost supernatural, and the breadth of his creativity makes Fair Warning a triumph, album sales be damned.