When Van Halen hit it big in the late 70's, it was at a time that my personal guitar playing/interest (for several reasons) was at a low point. I was certainly impressed by what I heard from this new whiz kid out of California, but I never bought any of VH's stuff or tried to learn any of the songs. Owning nothing but my old Yamaha flat-top at the time, that probably wouldn't have worked too well, anyway!

Having read so much adulation about EVH here and elsewhere in recent months, I've started to dig into the band's considerable body of work and gain more of an appreciation for it. It is certainly an extreme rarity when a guitarist comes along who absolutely revolutionizes playing styles within his chosen genre, but Eddie undoubtedly did exactly that for hard rock guitar. I can definitely understand why Nelskie and others here idolize him. IMO, that he was ranked 70th on the much-maligned Rolling Stone Top 100 Guitarists list just underscores what a farce that thing was. Laughable.

The point of this rambling discourse is that my first foray into the minefield that EVH's guitar work presents for an amateur like me was to learn "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love". Compared to most of his stuff, it's pretty simple. At this pace, I should work my way up to "Eruption" somewhere around 2088. I found a pretty good backing track on the web and practiced the tune for several days to get rid of the most overt flubs. Just thought I'd post it here as (1) a nobly conceived if poorly executed tribute to Eddie, whose strings I am not worthy to change, and (2) encouragement for the other amateurs here like myself, because if I can learn it, probably anybody with a little determination can!!

Played on my Epi LP through the bridge pickup, using the UK80's amp model on my Vox AD30VT, with the flanger reverb effect selected for the main riff/chording sequence (settings as shown in accompanying graphic). I also used my Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal to boost the bottom end a bit. Recording/editing done with Audacity. I recorded the basic riff/chord track for the entire tune first, pretty much in a single take, then laid down the solo sections over the top. Forgive the 5th fret harmonics, which pretty much suck. I'm not really satisfied with the tone on the solo parts, and will probably re-record those. There are also some "fills" here and there in the original recording that I'd like to add, too--not note-for-note necessarily, but something to break up the repetition of the main riff.

But anyhow, here's a link to the clip as it currently stands:

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (3.6MB)

And here's the AD30VT patch graphic: