Van Halen Guitar Techniques Lesson by Stuart Bull

From Guitar Player, April 1980

How did you develop your speed?
Well,
I'll tell you, They used to lock me in a little room and go, "Play
fast!" [laughs]. I was actually trained to be a classical pianist. I
had this Russian teacher who couldn't speak a word of English, and he
would just sit there with a ruler and ready to slap my face if I made a
mistake. This started in Holland, and both my brother and I took
lessons. Then when we got to the U.S. my dad found another good
teacher. Basically, that's where I got my ears developed, learned my
theory, and got my fingers moving. Then when the Dave Clark Five and
those bands came out, I wanted to go [plays the riff from "You Really
Got Me"]. I didn't want to go clink, clink, clink. I still play piano,
and I also play violin.

What is your overall opinion of Floyd's vibrato device?
I
like it and I don't. For one, on my guitar it sounds real
brittle-bright, and I have to do some heavy equalization to get my
tone. That's why I don't like to use it in the studio. We just go in
there and play live, and I depend on making my guitar sound good out of
the amp instead of fixing it in the mix. Number two, if you pop a
string, you can't even one-note your way through because the whole
guitar goes out of tune. Sometimes I'll hit a chord and tune really
quickly. With this device you can't -- you have to unclamp it. On top
of that, sometimes when I jump off the drum riser the neck shifts just
a hair, and then I can't tune it. But it has advantages: When you're
using the bar, it will not go out of tune.

How do you hold your pick?
Between my thumb and middle finger. Sometimes when I play fast I'll put the tip of my index finger on the corner of the pick.

Do you ever use the side of your pick to get high-pitched harmonics?
Sometimes,
I do it in "I'm The One" [Van Halen]. I also get harmonics by hitting a
note with my left-hand finger while I tap my right index finger on the
fingerboard exactly one octave up. When it's an exact octave, you bring
out the harmonic plus the lower note.

Do you tap right on top of the fret wire or behind it?
On
the fret, I guess. Like "Spanish Fly" I start out by tapping harmonics
and then do hammer-ons and pull-offs with my left hand while I tap
above with my right-hand index fingertip. Now this is my latest: I
hammer-on and pull-off with my left hand and reach behind my left hand
with my right and use my right index finger. In other words, my
right-hand finger changes the lowest note. See, the way I play is in my
fingers. I could play a Strat or a Les Paul, and it's going to sound
like me. People say, "Oh, how do you get that sound?" They could play
my guitar and it wouldn't sound the same. I have a style of playing
where no matter what amp or guitar I use, it sounds like me.

How far can you reach on the finger board?
On
the high E string I can reach from the 5th fret to the 12th. From the
12th fret I can hit any note on the fingerboard above. That's how I get
weird noises.

What are the most difficult aspects of building your own guitar?
Making
the neck fit the body. Another problem is that the strings on a
Stratocaster are spaced differently that a Gibson's; if you use a
humbucking pickup, the strings don't line up with the pickup holes. So
I've tried slanting the pickup so the high E string will be picked up
by a front pole and the low E will be picked up by a rear pole. For the
sound I like, it is also important to get the space between the bridge
and pickup right. I do it almost like Les Paul. If I put it too far
towards the neck I get the Grand Funk and Johnny Winter tone, and if I
put it too close to the bridge I get a real trebley Strat sound. So I
move it up towards the neck a little bit from the Strat sound to get a
beefier tone.

Download:

http://rapidshare.com/files/185802482/Ed_VHLicks_00_-_Titel_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186183433/Ed_VHLicks_01_-_Tapping_Arpeggios_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/185934804/Ed_VHLicks_02_-_Tapping_Runs_and_Licks_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186561728/Ed_VHLicks_03_-_Tapping_With_Bends_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186114900/Ed_VHLicks_04_-_Tapping_Scales_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186266348/Ed_VHLicks_05_-_Open_And_Pinch_Harmonics_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186633490/Ed_VHLicks_06_-_Tapping_Harmonics_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186846654/Ed_VHLicks_07_-_Harmonics_Within_Riffs_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/187007042/Ed_VHLicks_08_-_Cross_Picking_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/187554710/Ed_VHLicks_09_-_Blues_Runs_And_Licks_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186898197/Ed_VHLicks_10_-_Tremolo_Picking_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186928984/Ed_VHLicks_11_-_Tremolo_Arm_Licks_www.dl4all.com.avi
http://rapidshare.com/files/186748623/Ed_VHLicks_12_-_Pattern_Scales_www.dl4all.com.avi