An old recording / Beginnings

[EricV]

or... "Everybody has to start somewhere..."

Gee, this is cracking me up. Today, I was digging through a box of old tapes, and there was one entitled "Hellion".
"Hellion" was an old band of mine, actually the first band I was in that actually played gigs. We were playing "Classic metal", covers by bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
Later, we also changed our name and started to play original material until the band eventually split.
Anyway, I had been playing only a few years back then, and I made some recording of my progress at several occasions. Now, some of these recordings where on that tape. A few years ago, I edited that stuff... filtered out some of the background noise, added a reverb ( too much of it ), the joys of digital editing, y´know. So just for the heck of it, I transferred it to the computer again and made an MP3 of it....

Anyway, I figured I might share this with you guys. It´s a solo, similar to the unaccompanied guitar solo I played when we played a show.
You can tell that I had been watching Paul Gilbert´s first video and had been listening to some of his stuff with Racer X, but I didn´t exactly get close to his accuracy. ( should have used less gain, but I had this cool Marshall-amp back then... )
So here it is... recorded when I was like 16 or 17 or so. ( Wish I still had a pic... stretch jeans, a flying V, the whole nine yards... )

Everybody has to start somewhere ( about 2.2 mb )

Have mercy
Eric

[EricV]

And the guitar it was recorded on:



....go figure...
Eric

[Danster]

Originally posted by EricV
or... "Everybody has to start somewhere..."

Dang man, if that was your start, where the heck are you now? That sounded pretty awesome. How long had you been playing at that time?

[EricV]

I started when I was 10, and this was recorded 6 or 7 years later. Still kinda sloppy.
And regarding where I am at now... for a while, I stopped working on picking technique and stuff like that, and then had to work on getting my chops back together since I was focussing on legato and all that stretch-pentatonic stuff a bit too much.
Hanging out and jamming with Thorsten K. is a big inspiration to work on that picking-stuff again =)

Thanks, glad you like it
Eric

[Shred Fan]

Nice stuff Eric , not bad at all, for an unaccompanied solo. What's that last lick you played? Sounded like Mozart, it was definately classical based (I know I've heard it or something very similar to it before, just don't know what piece it is)

Eric, I have to ask you. Did you actually paint on the F-Holes on your Flying-V? Pretty cool, definately got the Gilbert thing happening there.

And lastly , whats the chance of you posting some of your Maiden/Priest covers? (I'm just interested in hearing them)

[EricV]

That last melody is my version of "Old Sailor´s Horn Pipe" ( also featured in "popeye" )
Used it as a warmup a lot back then...

The F-Holes were spray-painted on... might look cool on the pics, looks pretty bad close-up... but hey... those were the days

And... about putting up more of the covers, I´d have to ask my former bandmates ( didn´t talk to them in years ) for permission... the band didn´t sound that bad, but the singer sucked, so I dunno whether I wanna put it up =)
Thanks
Eric

[Shred Fan]

Hahah, "Old Sailor's Horn Pipe" , Mozart it is not, my mistake.

Yeah I knew I had heard it somewhere, just couldn't put my finger on it...I thought it may have been a classical piece...but now that I listen to it again (it is a bit hard to recognise with all the distortion and gain) it is that piece I've always known as "some pirate melody". Not bad, nonetheless.

If it is to hard to post the other songs you did don't worry about it Eric, it's cool.

[EricV]

Well, I´ll see what I can find...

And in a minute, I´ll post a TAB of that melody.

I was using a bit too much gain back then... I watched the Gilbert-video a lot, but didn´t pay attention to the fact that his sound is pretty dry...
Eric

[EricV]

Here is the TAB

[Shred Fan]

Great , you're posting a tab. Soon we'll all be picking away at that good old pirate song (getting some weird looks from family and friends no doubt, lol).

As far as gain goes, I love it but when your playing sea shanties it can make them a little hard to recognise. Eric, what do you recommend as far as amp EQ goes for a dry Gilbert Sound (pedals excluded).

I've been using these settings to get a rough type sound for a while now...

Gain - 10 (yeah , I'm what you call a "Hi-gain Freak")
Bass - 5
Mids - 2
Treble - 10

You could probably do better but one day I was fiddling around and it's been on those setting since, what do you recommend for a Gilbert or Malmsteen Sound?

[EricV]

Wouldn´t bother me if people would try playing it, it´s a good picking exercise ( the end is a rather typical scale sequence )

Regardings sounds, it certainly depends on what kinda amp and guitar you use. My main Vandenberg guitar is equipped with DiMarzios, and those really have some high output... if you play a pretty clean sound, they still kick the amp into some moderate overdrive to get that harsh, Gilbert-style sound.

I have seen the settings on one of Paul´s amp somewhere, and on his old Lee Jackson-Marshall, he sets the gain between 5-10 ( depending on what sound he is going for ), Presence 7.5, Bass 2.5, Mids 4-5, Treble 4...
I set my amp to similar settings, although I prefer to use more bass. For the instrumental stuff, I use higain-sounds and usually more mids.
Again, it definitely depends on the amp you use, and the guitar you use.

Malmsteen... Hmmm, you´d need single-coils, and I´d say more gain, less treble / Presence, also, check out what you can do with the mids...
Hope this helps
Eric

[Shred Fan]

Yeah I'm gonna try the good old "Pirate Song" out.

I was just asking about mainly just a basic guide (yeah I know there are a million factors that can influence it) for EQ settings on amps. Thanks for the guide though (Bass 2.5, Mids 4-5, Treble 4).

BTW, Yngwie does use single coils but the Bridge is actually a stacked humbucker (just for anyone out there who cares).'

Overall , I love the humbucker tone more, but single coils do have their use.

Anyways, back on topic. Once again, a mean solo there man, you do some nice work , looking forward to the new album (what I've heard from it so far is good).

[EricV]

By the way, here is the even cooler second part of the melody. I didn´t play it on the recording, but I did live. It involves sweeped arpeggios ( weird to see what kind of techniques are required to play a "simple" melody like that ).
Please note that this is my arrangement of it. I didn´t have a recording of the original. I had heard it a few times and tried to figure out the melody, so if some of the notes are not like in the original, don´t blame me
Eric

[EricV]

And here´s a Powertab-file of the whole thing...
Eric

[Thorsten]

Hey Eric! My computers back working again so I checked your soundfile. Man you rock! Your solo´s way, way ,way, way ,way, way ,way better than anything I played with 16. I actually really like your lead-sound also...but get rid of the reverb!

C U soon,
TK