Here's an old video that I had laying around. Guitar Method - In the Style of Van Halen. 49 mins. Instructed by Curt Mitchell. Originally released on VHS in 1995.
Still spread a lot of BS, though. 5:16 (paraphrasing) "He used a Variac to crank the voltage up to 140 or 150. He had it modified so that the tubes would melt, because the fuse wouldn't blow" We all knew about LOWERING the voltage with a Variac way before this video was made. And as for the the 2nd part of his statement - I'll just say, HUH?
actually if you think about it that's most likely the reason all of these older musicians including Gen Xer's are so good at their instrument...NO INTERNET, NO SMARTPHONE, NO SOCIAL MEDIA, NO DISTRACTIONS! ONLY FOCUS. I've learned how to play by watching youtube vids dont get me wrong but when it comes to being an extremely talented musician, they best of them had NO DISTRACTIONS they just had VHS tapes and magazines and sat there all dat until one day...
@Jennifer Maple It just takes longer. Also when you bought the guitar tab (mostly written by wolf Marshall) the tab was not always inaccurate (wrong neck positioning, etc) but it generally was a labour of love and very exiting when you nailed it.
It's so funny that you mention that: I had this VHS when it first came out, and for some reason it always stuck in my head how he is just quickly pattering away, and the only time he changes his smoothly-flowing chatter is when he notes that, "...blah blah blah blah blah it is RIP-PING LOUD, blah blah blah blah....". =) I loved his videos. Thanks Curt wherever you are now!
Curt Mitchell is the man. No one comes close to Curt when mimicking famous guitarists. Not to mention he's a better player than most of the guitarists he's mimicking. True master of the instrument.
Curt Mitchell's insights into electric guitar playing are phenomenal. He shows how the various guitar tones are achieved and the techniques. He's also done some great video instructional work on Stevie Ray Vaughn.
@@jamesfeldman4234 So what's he doing these days? You'd expect someone with that kind of ability to almost be a household name, at least in households of guitar players, yet the name doesn't ring a bell. He looks super familiar though, but it's possible I've seen another of his videos. Has he been in some movies?
Check out Jacob Deraps on YT, he's been playing EVH stuff note for note since he was like 15. Nothing against Curt, I have a bunch of his videos. Also, Al Estrada (who does the demos for Jalen P/U's) is a great EVH emulator. Check them out!
This VHS and Curt's VH Method Part II, really gave me an edge over other players around town back in the mid 90's. Sounds cheesey but it's true. To this day I can bring nuances into my lines that turn a lot of heads, and they are all things Iearned in these two tapes. I seriously owe Curt Mitchell everything for making this
_Elephant shrews are not, in fact, shrews._ _Recent evidence suggests that they are more_ _closely related to a group of African mammals_ _that includes elephants, sea cows, and aardvarks._
Same here....those first videos, bought out of the back of guitar magazine served to be a game changer for me. I only wish we knew where Curt is today!
Anybody else thinking of making an Eddie tutorial can just pack it up and go home now. Nothing will ever beat this. The in-depth study combined with the skills to absolutely nail EVH makes this one of the best videos ever posted on UA-cam. Beware, though - the info on the Variac is wrong - and dangerous. Eddie LIED for a long time about RAISING the voltage, when he actually LOWERED it. When he made the claim to Guitar Player magazine in April 1980, it included an Editors note that warned how dangerous that would be to do - basically a "Don't Try This At Home"..... TL;DR - Curt was working with the info available at the time - Eddie lied, Curt is not responsible.
I remember reading that exact article, I was in high school at the time. Since I only had a Peavey Deuce amp (built-in phase shifter), and I used a Boss Distortion (DS-3 I think? it was orange) I got a somewhat close to EVH sound, though the Black Widow speakers didn't really have that signature Marshall Celestion 30 watt speaker tone in retrospect. I wasn't brave enough to try out the Variac when I finally got a Marshall Plexi - but instinctively I had planned to go low voltage rather than high, and a good friend said that higher voltage would ruin my amp. He created a homemade mod on the back of my Plexi that got a nice tone & much closer to EVH than the Peavey. EVH later released his Signature amps through Peavey...
Tecnically he wasn't lying, he said he would set the voltage to 140, but if the amps he was using were british the regular voltage would be 220, so he was starving the tubes... a bit naughty of him not to mention that... i bet a lot of ppl fried their u.s spec. amps back then
This is a great video for sure, and he does an amazing job playing the riffs/emulating Eddie. However, I would have enjoyed a BIT more discussion about the examples. Many of them he didn't even mention anything ... just "Here's example 6 .... Here's example 7 ..." Would have been nice to hear something like .. "He's using the B blues scale here" or "He's tapping harmonics on these E, B, and A chord shapes here," etc.
I bought Curt Mitchell video tapes in the 1990s when I had my Squier strat brand new and a small Marshall. I learned my favorite rock riffs watching Curt with the little cheapo tab booklet. So great. I am still having fun and I have seven electric guitars now. Thanks Curt. You were a pioneer like Eddie too.
A lot of guys make videos where they say his is how you sound like Hendrix, or this is how you sound like Zakk Wylde, or whomever, yet they take a giant shit on themselves and sound nothing like the guys they are trying to emulate. But this dude IS EDDIE VAN HALEN! Goddamn dude, phenomenal job! You're a master!
I took my 17 year old son to see Van Halen at Oak Mountain Amphitheater. In Birmingham, Alabama a couple years ago. It was right after the Kimmel show ordeal. I felt sure thier would be scalpers having to dump thier tickets so we waited until Kenny Wayne Shepherd started. A man in his 60s Came up to me and said did I want some lower level seats? I told him I probably couldn’t afford them. He said I paid $350 for them but I will let them go for $60 apiece. I couldn’t get my money out of my wallet fast enough. We got to our seats and we were absolutely directly in the third row DIRECTLY in front of Eddie Van Halen. We had seen Motley Crue on their farewell tour a couple of months before. We were in the nosebleed seats and couldn’t see shit.That was his first show ever. for his second show he gets to sit 10 feet in front of Eddie Van Halen, his idol! He plays guitar and I had bought him a yellow, black, white striped series Guitar less than 6 months prior. I started teaching him when he was 10 and all he wanted to learn was Van Halen Songs. He can play about 20 VH songs more for note. He watched his hands all night. He changed the way he played VH songs to how EVH played them. I just got him a 5150 III head and he is using his Marshall 4x12 cabinet. There is no way for me to explain the pride i feel that with no pressure at all. He embraced music I Love, and To already know he will be able to enjoy playing Guitar the rest of his life. It’s a feeling that only a musician truly understands.
That’s awesome. I hope I can encourage my own kids in the same way some day. Not quite big enough to wrap their hands around the guitar neck yet though. Lol.
"People were laughing at him because he's got this duck-taped pedalboard on the floor, it looked like junk. Then, of course, he plugged in and it was over".
@J. Milton Jeffreys good post I don't even like van halen that much but these guys worked hard and maybe got a little lucky cause hard work and talent are just the start of having a career like Van Halen has. btw the only guitarist playing hard rock/metal I can think of that's had platinum albums in 3+ decades I guess is Tony Iommi (70s, 80s (Dio albums), only just barely in 90s with "Reunion", "13" sold well but it's almost impossible to sell an album platinum in this day of everyone just stealing music, I just checked billboard's platinum albums list and only 10 "rock" albums have gone platinum since 2010!)
just stumbled on this... Curt Mitchell, I must say you have made the most intelligent study of a guitar style that I have ever seen. I could not have dreamed of a better presentation. I'm simply blown away - thank you so very much!!!!
@@deHelli lol that is a different Curtis Mitchell, I looked him up as well and thought it was him at first but then realized totally different musician with the same name except that guy is a different age looks different and lived in someones basement in Kansas.
@Vinnie Provolone No one chooses to have a Line 6. I started with one and now I have a 1969 Supro Statesman 70w stereo (???) head unit and stereo cab in my bedroom. With two house mates that don't play. I can't say that I had my thumb any further up my ass then than I do now, but I'll always feel a tingle DEEP in my plums when someone can emulate Eddie like that. Cheers
I'll take the liberty to name this guy the Original Professor Shred. His is equal parts talented, articulate and lucid. This video is, without a doubt, a masterclass. Bravo!
There are a lot of guys who use way too much gain when trying to cop that sound. This still sounds like more gain than what really is on VH1 (at the end of,the day, it's still just a cranked Plexi pushed just a hair by the Echoplex's preamp), but it's not grossly more.
odgeUK Well he b4 YT & even b4 the intedidlongrweb really got going. He did it the long it way, without pitch keeping, tempo slowing applications. Yeah, Curt's da a man !!
Curt is such a monster player. I wish I could get private lessons from him. So much knowledge! He deserves much more adulation then he gets. Rock on bro 🤘
Watching this now I can’t help but laugh from watching Kurt do the Kurt Cobain tape. Don’t get me wrong Cobain was a great writer and used the guitar to get the point across…. But Kurt the instructor had to dumb it down…poor guy..
I used to drink with this guy at the 714 club in Reno Nevada in the late 80's and early 90's. He made a video series called "In The Style Of...." and was (is) an amazing guitar player. He could pull off ANYBODY'S style AND he had a voice of his own AND was fantastic
After watching some of these '80s and '90s instructional videos, I've come to two conclusions: 1. Top-tier guitarists in the '80s and '90s generally had far better vibrato than today's counterparts. 2. An SM57 to tape makes for a much more pleasing distorted guitar tone compared to today's digital recordings. The way it compresses and rolls off certain frequencies gives it a distinct sound.
D Rutt 1969 I had an 8 track half " R2R back in the 80's and it's one of those "I wish I'd never sold" stories. Taped a lot of cool stuff with bands I was in back then & I'm now a "Once I buy it I don't sell it" collector types. I've got so much stuff now
interesting comment about the vibrato...i don't get too excited about a lot of newer metal guys, largely because of vibrato and tone. I just assumed it was a 'new thing' that guys do that kids react to, and its just not for me. Or maybe i'm just hearing the wrong people
chris sisson i hate to rag on players but alot of guys took their vibrato cues off ritchie blackmore , and tony iommi, shrill fast vibrato.. kirk hammet is a prime example of that .. evh , george lynch , warren dmt , all have great soulful vibratos despite what u think of their material . Vibrato is something that just comes thru your fingers from your ear / heart and shouldnt sound forced . Gary moore had a fast vibrato but sounded organic ..
13:00 that that isn't a trem dive, and instead reaching down and turning a knob down on an effect pedal blew my mind. That's why he's EVH though, because how many people would think to do something like that?
The accuracy is amazing given when this was published (1994). I never realized until I saw this video that the phase shifter Atomic Punk effect used a a fast slap-back echo to create the rhythm pattern!!
Granted, Eddie was saying things to throw people off. The amp wasn't modded, he did that to give Jose business. The variac turned the voltage down to 90. "Turning the voltage up would blow the filter caps." - Mike Soldano. Early in his career, Eddie would turn his back to the audience when finger tapping so you couldn't see what he was doing.
Paul Williams Curt is a beast and it's my belief that he has perfect pitch. He's been playing since he was 5 and worked out all the difficult songs note for note from vinyl for the 1st set of "In the Style of " lessons in the 80's. So many really excellent guitar players are never heard.
ImmodderNation Apparently Clapton did the same, though earlier of course, as he got sick of the other London players checking out what he was doing, only to have them do the same lines,riffs etc the following week.
The year was 1995... How could he figure out how EVH played when videos were not that easily available. He must have listen and tried 26 hours a day....
@@donnyrankin8330 - also he referenced the most recent VH album at that time, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - released in 1991 - so it was likely '91 for this tape
Its amazing a guy could play like this ...and i never heard of this guy til now...crazy....you would think he would have been a big star himself or been in a big band at some point..... crazy stuff... this guy is remarkable.
that bit at 12:45 with the delay... such a simple trick that sounds pretty cool. I always assumed (probably like a lot of people) that was a whammy bar. Respect to this dude (or whoever showed him) for realising that this was done with a delay pedal! he does it perfect here!
I don't know how this guy is, but he is incredible. Just goes to show, show the people what they have never seen, and you will be da shit! This guy caught on quick. Eddy is AMAZING only because he did shit no one else did at that time. Same as Jimmy. Same as Stevie. Doesn't mean it's hard. It's just new. Don't get me wrong. I DIDN"T hear that stuff until EDDY , but once I did, everyone was doing it. He thought outside the box ( Doucheebag phrase) but he really did. I always love his statement or something like it, " it's like I'm falling down a bunch of steps and landing on my feet" or something to that effect. You can do any shit you want to do as long as you land on the root note. Or something. What the fuck do I do know. I'm playing in my room, like a lot of you guys. HOOO ha!!
I will disagree partly. Eddie wasn't amazing just because he did some things no one had ever seen or heard. Beyond that he was amazing because he was a good song writer, and wrote music that was significantly better than the standard rock we often hear. That's why his stuff is still great today.
"Beyond that he was amazing because he was a good song writer, and wrote music that was significantly better than the standard rock we often hear. " Amen. It was always the melody. He played some fantastic solos, but he always went back to a great melody.
ONLY????? You really dont have a good hear for technique. I know thats not the only reason cause I was playing at the very same time a few years behind him. His hand strength was proved as vastly superior when he recorded Spanish Fly on the acoustic. The snap to his fingers is different than me and from this guy in the video
He's wrong about the Variac. Ed dialed the line voltage down, not up. That shifts the bias on the output tubes and drives them into saturation at a lower volume setting.
All you guys who have a youtube page with EVH scales, how to sound like EVH, gear, solos, etc should thank Curt Mitchell. Notice the date of this video......1995, 26 years ago!! Before alot of you were born. Curt figured this stuff out ON HIS OWN 26 years ago! I had to order this VHS tape through the mail and had it delivered to my house, the old fashioned way, ha.
Curt was figuring out VH songs and solos when it was pretty close to impossible to do by ear, and it's spot on ...not almost, not close to, it's just fucking balls-on dead accurate, all of it.That's quite a feat considering how secretive and mystical Eddie was and still is. It was a damn shame that the twilight of his life was turned to shit in a hand basket by that narcissistic wannabe TV chef whore he lived with...when after all the years of abuse and humiliation she put him through ... ultimately just pushed the man too far.
Curt Mitchell Is still doing his thing. Besides some session work and other projects he is lead guitar for a Pink Floyd Tribute Band called "The Floyd" which I believe is out of Nevada.
This guy comes across as so serious. That's not to diss him, it's just that... y' know. But, he plays so incredibly! His tone and technique is so EVH. Totally nailed it. I like! Respect... \m/ (:o)
Eddie did not run his variac to increase the voltage to 145. He used it to lower the voltage to 85-90volts. On their tour opening for Black Sabbath he had some of his effect in a Bomb standing on the stage.
I had all of Curts VHS tapes,these were so amazing to watch back in the day because there was no internet. He was doing shit I've never seen before,really helped my playing. It was also funny to see how much coke he'd done before each video,lol.
Holy shit, that was one of the first things I sorta noticed (4-5 minutes in...), and I'm biting my tongue, because of the respect I had for this guy (and especially in such a public fashion on YT)... Glad someone did it FOR me !!! Lolz.... But I luv his playing-accuracy, touch, & tone !!! (The only other guy who comes CLOSE to Curt, is Jacob Deraps, in the EVH department !!💯)
actually the Variac( voltage regulator) that EVH used was to Lower the AC wall power from 110 to 90, or so. The wall AC current was lowered to an almost brown out level/ Hence the term Brown Sound. True the Power transformers would not function as normal, and could die at any given time. It was an optimal range for Eddie to get that Pre Pre Peavey Amplifier tone ua-cam.com/video/hinQPWiiwaI/v-deo.html
Eddie himself would say he RAISED rather than LOWERED the voltage to put off the imitators. As he was the hottest gunslinger at the time he was told by Roth to keep his secrets to himself and only use one or two on an album That way, people would ALWAYS be chasing the latest trick or sound, rather than Eddie blowing his wad in the first song!
Cool video. I was not familiar with Curt. I wish he had spent more time on Fair Warning. I thought Eddie's tone was the best ever on that album. Fair Warning is so dark and nasty sounding.
I had some of his tapes in the mid early/mid 90s..Dude is dry and straight to the point, then moves on. Exceptional player and teacher indeed, rock on!
This just made my night. Was looking at roller coaster videos (headed to 6 flags sat) and I spotted my friend and guitar teacher of 2 years....Curt Mitchell. Yes, he is for hire for private lessons. I had one about 4 hours ago, we were working on "Tush"... I've had more than a "few ear fulls" and private "Eddie" examples tossed at me along with many other guitar masters....Billy Gibbons ranks pretty high... Curt plays in a few local bands around the area pretty regularly. He is a kind, funny, easy going rock freak...and my good friend. After my divorce 3 years ago and at age 51 I decided to finally learn how to play guitar. I just happened on Curt as our local go to teacher....pretty cool eh? Look him up if you want lessons....he's available. But, don't go looking to discuss all things Eddie....you wont get far. Check out Bangalore Choir for Curt's one recording deal I'm aware of. Hi Curt...if you read this ...well I couldn't help myself.... :-) Rock on and be kind.....
I remember downloading this video like 10 years ago. This is probably the first guy to really master Eddie's techniques and put it out there for everyone else to learn. I can't imagine how he figured all this shit out without the Internet. Where did he hear/read all this info? Or was there Internet access in the early 90s? I don't even know the history of it tbh.
I remember seeing it posted back around that time also, but never bothered to get it because I already had it. FYI, there was internet in 94, but it wasn't the same internet we know of today. It was MUCH smaller. Before 94 (pre-internet era), there was only BBS and services like CompuServe and Prodigy to dl or learn things on dial up. Into the mid-late 90s inet there was only crappy quality ASF, real media, and mpeg1 for video. Then later on in the late, late 90s, divx 3.11 (mpeg4 avi) and mpeg2 encoding arrived and that changed the entire ballgame. I personally didn't get cable inet access until 98, and from 95-98 it was dial-up for inet access through Mindspring or something like that, and before that it was even slower dial-up for dinosaur pre-inet era BBS file transfers. Most ppl either bought (or dubbed) the video tapes and used magazines or books, or learned it from watching other people. It is ALOT easier now, that is for sure. The more I think about it, the more I feel a midlife crisis coming lol. He very well could have learned something from the inet back then, who knows. Maybe he just knew the right people to show him, or read the right magazines etc.
It was all about the magazines back then. Namely, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Guitar World. If you didn't have access to a good teacher, you took what you could from the magazine tabs. Learning guitar was a vastly different process back then. Van Halen's playing techniques were already quite well-known by that time, but people still endlessly argued about his gear - at least partially due to Van Halen giving different accounts across his interviews.
Right. When I 1st started in 92 I used mags and tabs. I also bought a few VHS tapes that came with tab books to look at while watching the tapes. That's how it was back then.
I started playing the very same year. Spent several months with an old Mel Bay book playing Mary Had a Little Lamb (and others barnburners) until I even knew about the magazines, tab books, etc. I had friends at school that would grossly misinterpret tab. Seems like everyone had a different idea of what the numbers and little markings meant. Can't emphasize enough how much different things were.
I figured out how to read tabs in just a couple hours one night with an old friend of mine when I was in high school. Tabs are usually pretty easy to interpret.
...aaaaaaaaand my brain exploded...! This is like drinking from a fire hose of AWESOME. Simply amazing. Curt is incredible and very appreciative of Eddie's genius... and gave me a whole new appreciation for Eddie's innovations. Freaking crazy that Curt was able to grasp (and play!) so many of Eddie's licks- I can't even fathom how Eddie came up with each one in the FIRST place. Thanks Todd and Curt... and ED :)
What's most impressive, is that this is a semi amateur video (production and scripting) and you can tell this guy really knows his stuff! Remember this is pre-internet!!
STUPETSTONEY......Let's be real here, this guy has Eddies sound down.....damn well close to the original...and without all the studio mixing and everything that goes on with making a real album. Listen to those riffs, sounds just like VH 1. Of course he's not Eddie nor ever will be but this is a damn good representation of Eddies sound on the first album. Lets call a spade a spade.
Lets be real ! When he said " It took me forever to figure out that he was using open strings in the lick" it was comical! Listen to both back to back. They both play it but one plays it famously! He's no Eddie bro!
This guy is fabulous, especially for the era that he was able to identify how Ed created the sounds. Any one of these techniques would be a contribution. To guitar, but the fact that Ed came up with so many illustrates why he is the most innovative person ever to play guitar. Any one who disagrees I'd like to know who has done more.
Jimmy Page is not as fast as EVH but then he used alternate picking exclusively instead of directional or economy picking - Page didn't innovate as many specific unique techniques as EVH but I consider Page to be a superior guitarist overall to EVH. They're both equally terrible live when on chemicals. When at his best, Page is absolutely breathtaking in ways different than EVH ever chooses - ua-cam.com/video/UqqKKa9AJK4/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/4m2FhRv8xF0/v-deo.html if EVH were able to pull it off he certainly never chose to that I've ever heard
Not sure if this is my memory going or not but did this same guy do a video on Randy Rhoads? For some reason I remember having one of his videos but I'm pretty sure it was about Randy not Eddie
@@usefulvidiots7869 That is good to know. There is a Curt Mitchell 'musician' who apparently went to prison for murder and I thought how terrible it was that this awesome guitarist was done.
What a sound! So, gear-wise: dod phasor 401, boss delay (dd2, dd3 or dd5), dod flanger (fx75c?), cry baby, eventide h3000... And what for boosting the Marshall amps?
I gotta say , here is a prime example of a true dedicated misician ! Hell of a job breaking it down and making Eddie's insane playing and technique more understandable in all the killer chaos that is Eddie Van Halen . The world was a better place the minute he picked up a Guitar . Appreciate the video , your time and knowledge as well , Peace
Agent Orange VHS cassettes, tab books and when I could afford it a guitar teacher. It was like someone passing me the key to some mythical knowledge learning Eddie’s stuff.
I think this guy play eddies stuff maybe better them him particularly, absolutely amazing, but know what, I can hear it immediately it's not Eddy. It's something with the timing , I suspect. I heard Eddy a lot, my Hero. Thanks a lot for sharing this!
FAIR WARNING and VAN HALEN II have the best guitar tones. Never cared for his later sound it was too thin. But I do have a 5150 pedal and its very cool.
Did he invent that pedalboard duck tape culture, don't get me wrong I have 3 pedal boards and a Floyd Rose, never really needed any other guitar, obviously I have an acoustic and ukulele?
I certainly hope this man made a nice huge chunk of cash. Hes such a great teacher. Have been watching his videos since stumbling upon the VHS vids in the 90's as a kid. He is so damn good, deserves so much more recognition. Curt if you see this. You're the man!!!
Funny, EVH lowered (not raised) the voltage with the variac to around 90 volts. He lied and said he upped it. Just like he used to turn is back when tapping so other guitarists couldn't see how he did it. He really didn't like to give up his secrets.
Good video seems you can really play the guitar,,effects or clean perfect playing,, like Eddie n the older sound n newer sound,,,I'd love to have those fingers,,,you look like butter easily up n down the neck awesome playing
Curt Mitchell playing Eddie riffs accurately way before UA-cam.
Hell yes back in my day your MVP VHS came with a small tab book and you had to pause and rewind constantly. Kids ta day my oh my
god, i remember when 1995 was new.
Who knew you didn’t need the world wide internets to learn shit?! 🤔
@@commentfreely5443 i hear ya...good times!
Still spread a lot of BS, though.
5:16 (paraphrasing) "He used a Variac to crank the voltage up to 140 or 150. He had it modified so that the tubes would melt, because the fuse wouldn't blow"
We all knew about LOWERING the voltage with a Variac way before this video was made.
And as for the the 2nd part of his statement - I'll just say, HUH?
To think he learnt this the hard way without the aid of the internet back in the day
Charlie G.....I was thinking the same thing. Unreal!
Exactly, where is Curt now? He was great
actually if you think about it that's most likely the reason all of these older musicians including Gen Xer's are so good at their instrument...NO INTERNET, NO SMARTPHONE, NO SOCIAL MEDIA, NO DISTRACTIONS! ONLY FOCUS. I've learned how to play by watching youtube vids dont get me wrong but when it comes to being an extremely talented musician, they best of them had NO DISTRACTIONS they just had VHS tapes and magazines and sat there all dat until one day...
We used to put Eddie on tape (Teac 3340S) and slow it way down to distinguish notes
@Jennifer Maple It just takes longer. Also when you bought the guitar tab (mostly written by wolf Marshall) the tab was not always inaccurate (wrong neck positioning, etc) but it generally was a labour of love and very exiting when you nailed it.
My favorite quote from this video is “ripping loud” -P
FStoppers... R u the photography channel?? If so. I love it.
Same here lol. It's stuck with me since I first heard Curt say it.
..'cause he's a maniac' is a close second
Fitting how he let one rip at 6:57
It's so funny that you mention that: I had this VHS when it first came out, and for some reason it always stuck in my head how he is just quickly pattering away, and the only time he changes his smoothly-flowing chatter is when he notes that, "...blah blah blah blah blah it is RIP-PING LOUD, blah blah blah blah....". =) I loved his videos. Thanks Curt wherever you are now!
Curt Mitchell is the man. No one comes close to Curt when mimicking famous guitarists. Not to mention he's a better player than most of the guitarists he's mimicking. True master of the instrument.
I have his video on Boston. He absolutely nails Tom Sholz's tone and riffs. Curt's pretty much a rock guitar scientist.
Curt Mitchell's insights into electric guitar playing are phenomenal. He shows how the various guitar tones are achieved and the techniques. He's also done some great video instructional work on Stevie Ray Vaughn.
@@jamesfeldman4234 So what's he doing these days? You'd expect someone with that kind of ability to almost be a household name, at least in households of guitar players, yet the name doesn't ring a bell. He looks super familiar though, but it's possible I've seen another of his videos. Has he been in some movies?
Wolf Marshall was pretty good. He used to transcribe songs for Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine in the 80's
Check out Jacob Deraps on YT, he's been playing EVH stuff note for note since he was like 15. Nothing against Curt, I have a bunch of his videos. Also, Al Estrada (who does the demos for Jalen P/U's) is a great EVH emulator. Check them out!
This VHS and Curt's VH Method Part II, really gave me an edge over other players around town back in the mid 90's. Sounds cheesey but it's true. To this day I can bring nuances into my lines that turn a lot of heads, and they are all things Iearned in these two tapes. I seriously owe Curt Mitchell everything for making this
_Elephant shrews are not, in fact, shrews._
_Recent evidence suggests that they are more_
_closely related to a group of African mammals_
_that includes elephants, sea cows, and aardvarks._
Me too homie. He provided a great start down a long road.
Same here....those first videos, bought out of the back of guitar magazine served to be a game changer for me. I only wish we knew where Curt is today!
We’re also proud of you
Curt surfaces periodically! ua-cam.com/video/qGWmIedCrAo/v-deo.htmlsi=r6RF4P_59vt_CFAe @@StacyJamesGuitar
Anybody else thinking of making an Eddie tutorial can just pack it up and go home now. Nothing will ever beat this. The in-depth study combined with the skills to absolutely nail EVH makes this one of the best videos ever posted on UA-cam.
Beware, though - the info on the Variac is wrong - and dangerous. Eddie LIED for a long time about RAISING the voltage, when he actually LOWERED it. When he made the claim to Guitar Player magazine in April 1980, it included an Editors note that warned how dangerous that would be to do - basically a "Don't Try This At Home"..... TL;DR - Curt was working with the info available at the time - Eddie lied, Curt is not responsible.
And keep it from eating through tubes with the higher plate voltages
I remember reading that exact article, I was in high school at the time. Since I only had a Peavey Deuce amp (built-in phase shifter), and I used a Boss Distortion (DS-3 I think? it was orange) I got a somewhat close to EVH sound, though the Black Widow speakers didn't really have that signature Marshall Celestion 30 watt speaker tone in retrospect.
I wasn't brave enough to try out the Variac when I finally got a Marshall Plexi - but instinctively I had planned to go low voltage rather than high, and a good friend said that higher voltage would ruin my amp.
He created a homemade mod on the back of my Plexi that got a nice tone & much closer to EVH than the Peavey.
EVH later released his Signature amps through Peavey...
Tecnically he wasn't lying, he said he would set the voltage to 140, but if the amps he was using were british the regular voltage would be 220, so he was starving the tubes... a bit naughty of him not to mention that... i bet a lot of ppl fried their u.s spec. amps back then
This is a great video for sure, and he does an amazing job playing the riffs/emulating Eddie. However, I would have enjoyed a BIT more discussion about the examples. Many of them he didn't even mention anything ... just "Here's example 6 .... Here's example 7 ..." Would have been nice to hear something like .. "He's using the B blues scale here" or "He's tapping harmonics on these E, B, and A chord shapes here," etc.
Curt is my guitar instructor at Play Your Own Music in Carson City.
A Rock Legend.
Is he still alive in 2020?
@@tanner3285 Yes. And giving guitar lessons via Zoom.
@@fredmertz1914 No way!!! Do you got a link? Website?
@@fredmertz1914 I keep clicking on contact. Nothing comes up.
@@tanner3285 why would he not still be alive? This was recorded mid 90s and he looks about 30
When you break Ed’s playing down like this, you can truly realize the genius that is EVH!!!!
Curt Mitchell and Doug Marks were the only videos us back in the 80's and 90's had to learn these were the original guitar geeks.
Cmon lets not forget Wolf Marshall!!!!
Andy Aledort and Kenn Chipkin did quite a bit of transcribing back then too.
Doug and Curt were huge in my development as a guitarist.
There were TONS of Hot Licks and Star Licks tapes, too!
I bought Curt Mitchell video tapes in the 1990s when I had my Squier strat brand new and a small Marshall. I learned my favorite rock riffs watching Curt with the little cheapo tab booklet. So great. I am still having fun and I have seven electric guitars now. Thanks Curt. You were a pioneer like Eddie too.
A lot of guys make videos where they say his is how you sound like Hendrix, or this is how you sound like Zakk Wylde, or whomever, yet they take a giant shit on themselves and sound nothing like the guys they are trying to emulate. But this dude IS EDDIE VAN HALEN! Goddamn dude, phenomenal job! You're a master!
You need to check out Jacob Deraps. He's THE current incarnation of EVH.
@@elzafir Seriously, though ... why would someone want to do that? What a waste of talent. Eddie already did it. Why not do your own thing?
@@chadjohnson-authormusician8072 Why? As a tribute to a legend. And I'm sure the guy is a fan, so he's doing it for fun.
I took my 17 year old son to see Van Halen at Oak Mountain Amphitheater. In Birmingham, Alabama a couple years ago. It was right after the Kimmel show ordeal. I felt sure thier would be scalpers having to dump thier tickets so we waited until Kenny Wayne Shepherd started. A man in his 60s Came up to me and said did I want some lower level seats? I told him I probably couldn’t afford them. He said I paid $350 for them but I will let them go for $60 apiece. I couldn’t get my money out of my wallet fast enough. We got to our seats and we were absolutely directly in the third row DIRECTLY in front of Eddie Van Halen. We had seen Motley Crue on their farewell tour a couple of months before. We were in the nosebleed seats and couldn’t see shit.That was his first show ever. for his second show he gets to sit 10 feet in front of Eddie Van Halen, his idol! He plays guitar and I had bought him a yellow, black, white striped series Guitar less than 6 months prior. I started teaching him when he was 10 and all he wanted to learn was Van Halen Songs. He can play about 20 VH songs more for note. He watched his hands all night. He changed the way he played VH songs to how EVH played them. I just got him a 5150 III head and he is using his Marshall 4x12 cabinet.
There is no way for me to explain the pride i feel that with no pressure at all. He embraced music I Love, and To already know he will be able to enjoy playing Guitar the rest of his life. It’s a feeling that only a musician truly understands.
That’s awesome. I hope I can encourage my own kids in the same way some day. Not quite big enough to wrap their hands around the guitar neck yet though. Lol.
"People were laughing at him because he's got this duck-taped pedalboard on the floor, it looked like junk. Then, of course, he plugged in and it was over".
Always loved that line.
Basically Curt Mitchell made this video and it was over
@nineball26 yes, cRap is proof that the corporations can sell the retarded public anything.
nineball26 some great points! You know your stuff
@J. Milton Jeffreys good post I don't even like van halen that much but these guys worked hard and maybe got a little lucky cause hard work and talent are just the start of having a career like Van Halen has. btw the only guitarist playing hard rock/metal I can think of that's had platinum albums in 3+ decades I guess is Tony Iommi (70s, 80s (Dio albums), only just barely in 90s with "Reunion", "13" sold well but it's almost impossible to sell an album platinum in this day of everyone just stealing music, I just checked billboard's platinum albums list and only 10 "rock" albums have gone platinum since 2010!)
just stumbled on this... Curt Mitchell, I must say you have made the most intelligent study of a guitar style that I have ever seen. I could not have dreamed of a better presentation. I'm simply blown away - thank you so very much!!!!
Why isn't this man a guitar superstar, he's terrific!
@@deHelli lol that is a different Curtis Mitchell, I looked him up as well and thought it was him at first but then realized totally different musician with the same name except that guy is a different age looks different and lived in someones basement in Kansas.
@@peterhaag9344 okay gut zu wissen.
This man IS a guitar superstar!!! . . . to a lot of folks that started playing in the 90s!
This is Chuck Norris of guitar!!
1,000,000 bedside guitarists in Asia can do this stuff too. If you can't write good music and lyrics you'll go nowhere ;) Eddie mastered all 3 :)
@@MM-tt3np - i don't think that EVH wrote many lyrics, but he obviously wrote those great songs
WHat idiot would give this a thumbs down? You have so much good info here!!!!!
The same idiots who - during the 80s - would tell me that VH wasn't that great of a player.
65 dickheads with thumbs with their ass
Well said Vinnie, couldn't agree more with you
@Vinnie Provolone No one chooses to have a Line 6. I started with one and now I have a 1969 Supro Statesman 70w stereo (???) head unit and stereo cab in my bedroom. With two house mates that don't play.
I can't say that I had my thumb any further up my ass then than I do now, but I'll always feel a tingle DEEP in my plums when someone can emulate Eddie like that.
Cheers
I Hear You.. WTF ???!!
I'll take the liberty to name this guy the Original Professor Shred. His is equal parts talented, articulate and lucid. This video is, without a doubt, a masterclass. Bravo!
Good god I just realised i'm watching this in 2017. Fuck I'm old.
lol I feel ya there. Makes you wonder where in the hell did so much time go, right. The older you get, the faster it goes by
FLORIDAERO i just started learning guitar too,, wow time flies ...lololol.ill b good by retirement ...lol...
better late than never
FLORIDAERO I got a good laugh from that comment, I was thinking the same thing…
And by 1994 Metal was on its way out.
Good video, I like this guy.
me too. he is a great instructor
Curt Mitchell had a LOT of great instructional vids back in the day. Whatever happened to him? Where is he now?
Bo88y Beretta yeah man, me too
yeah, you can see he's true to the bone
I wonder if he's still alive
There are a lot of people getting props on YT for nailing VH, but I really think Curt closed the book.
A long time ago at that.
Well there's enough people out there making a total badger's arse of it, so can't be that easy :)
Yes, it is. Otherwise it wouldn't fly.
There are a lot of guys who use way too much gain when trying to cop that sound. This still sounds like more gain than what really is on VH1 (at the end of,the day, it's still just a cranked Plexi pushed just a hair by the Echoplex's preamp), but it's not grossly more.
odgeUK Well he b4 YT & even b4 the intedidlongrweb really got going. He did it the long it way, without pitch keeping, tempo slowing applications. Yeah, Curt's da a man !!
Curt is such a monster player. I wish I could get private lessons from him. So much knowledge! He deserves much more adulation then he gets. Rock on bro 🤘
You can.....see my post further down
what's his last name? Kurt...?
trey azagathooth
Curtis Mitchell
thanks!
Dominic Castri Should try him through his website & see if he does Skype lessons. A lot of teachers do these days, worth a shot.
Watching this now I can’t help but laugh from watching Kurt do the Kurt Cobain tape. Don’t get me wrong Cobain was a great writer and used the guitar to get the point across…. But Kurt the instructor had to dumb it down…poor guy..
Gonna be watching and learning from this over and over for a while. R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen 🤘
Love this dude's enthusiasm for Ed. He definitely knows his shit.
This guy, in his own way, is a very good teacher.
I used to drink with this guy at the 714 club in Reno Nevada in the late 80's and early 90's. He made a video series called "In The Style Of...." and was (is) an amazing guitar player. He could pull off ANYBODY'S style AND he had a voice of his own AND was fantastic
is this guy still alive?
Yeah. Check out his page: www.curt-mitchell.com/
his band Bangalore Choir still plays every once in a while, I understand.
It was called the 715 club ;-)
Jeff Montgomery Guitar/Bass Lessons pretty sure it was 714... same as the imprint code on a quaalude. But if you say it was 715, great.
lol
After watching some of these '80s and '90s instructional videos, I've come to two conclusions:
1. Top-tier guitarists in the '80s and '90s generally had far better vibrato than today's counterparts.
2. An SM57 to tape makes for a much more pleasing distorted guitar tone compared to today's digital recordings. The way it compresses and rolls off certain frequencies gives it a distinct sound.
I had read way back that the First album was not recorded in the studio, it was recorded in Eddies barn with a 12 track tascam machine.
D Rutt 1969 I had an 8 track half " R2R back in the 80's and it's one of those "I wish I'd never sold" stories. Taped a lot of cool stuff with bands I was in back then & I'm now a "Once I buy it I don't sell it" collector types. I've got so much stuff now
interesting comment about the vibrato...i don't get too excited about a lot of newer metal guys, largely because of vibrato and tone. I just assumed it was a 'new thing' that guys do that kids react to, and its just not for me. Or maybe i'm just hearing the wrong people
For a few examples of younger guitar players with good vibrato, check out Brandon Ellis and Ritchie Faulkner.
chris sisson i hate to rag on players but alot of guys took their vibrato cues off ritchie blackmore , and tony iommi, shrill fast vibrato.. kirk hammet is a prime example of that .. evh , george lynch , warren dmt , all have great soulful vibratos despite what u think of their material . Vibrato is something that just comes thru your fingers from your ear / heart and shouldnt sound forced . Gary moore had a fast vibrato but sounded organic ..
Had this video decades before the advent of UA-cam. Thank you Curt.
This guy is awesome!!!
charles mayer EDDY IS
Monk Abrahms yes Eddie is. 👍
13:00 that that isn't a trem dive, and instead reaching down and turning a knob down on an effect pedal blew my mind. That's why he's EVH though, because how many people would think to do something like that?
The accuracy is amazing given when this was published (1994). I never realized until I saw this video that the phase shifter Atomic Punk effect used a a fast slap-back echo to create the rhythm pattern!!
Paul Williams Keep up buddy 🤘
Granted, Eddie was saying things to throw people off. The amp wasn't modded, he did that to give Jose business. The variac turned the voltage down to 90. "Turning the voltage up would blow the filter caps." - Mike Soldano.
Early in his career, Eddie would turn his back to the audience when finger tapping so you couldn't see what he was doing.
Paul Williams Curt is a beast and it's my belief that he has perfect pitch. He's been playing since he was 5 and worked out all the difficult songs note for note from vinyl for the 1st set of "In the Style of " lessons in the 80's. So many really excellent guitar players are never heard.
+ImmodderNation Correct. Eddies variac was between 80-90 volts.
ImmodderNation Apparently Clapton did the same, though earlier of course, as he got sick of the other London players checking out what he was doing, only to have them do the same lines,riffs etc the following week.
eddie van halen,,,the great, the legend, the king,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The year was 1995... How could he figure out how EVH played when videos were not that easily available. He must have listen and tried 26 hours a day....
This video wasn’t made in 95’
~92’ Curt was still in Bangalore choir
This vid was made somewhere around 90-91. Didn’t you hear him say: “...78’ was long time ago, like 12-13 years ago...” in reference to EVH.
By the way, I bought it when it first came out.
@@donnyrankin8330 - also he referenced the most recent VH album at that time, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - released in 1991 - so it was likely '91 for this tape
I used to have a VHS with this guy doing Metallica, helped me learn a lot.
"of course he plugged in and it was over"
Great video and playing! Thanks
Johan Segeborn Never thought finding you here! Greetings
Napoleon Dynamite with long hair LOL... seriously, he's good, I'm just being an ass! :)
Holy fuck I found the perfect lesson
Its amazing a guy could play like this ...and i never heard of this guy til now...crazy....you would think he would have been a big star himself or been in a big band at some point..... crazy stuff... this guy is remarkable.
we all need to return to the 80's EVH riffs
that bit at 12:45 with the delay... such a simple trick that sounds pretty cool. I always assumed (probably like a lot of people) that was a whammy bar. Respect to this dude (or whoever showed him) for realising that this was done with a delay pedal! he does it perfect here!
I don't know how this guy is, but he is incredible. Just goes to show, show the people what they have never seen, and you will be da shit! This guy caught on quick. Eddy is AMAZING only because he did shit no one else did at that time. Same as Jimmy. Same as Stevie. Doesn't mean it's hard. It's just new. Don't get me wrong. I DIDN"T hear that stuff until EDDY , but once I did, everyone was doing it. He thought outside the box ( Doucheebag phrase) but he really did. I always love his statement or something like it, " it's like I'm falling down a bunch of steps and landing on my feet" or something to that effect. You can do any shit you want to do as long as you land on the root note. Or something. What the fuck do I do know. I'm playing in my room, like a lot of you guys. HOOO ha!!
I will disagree partly. Eddie wasn't amazing just because he did some things no one had ever seen or heard. Beyond that he was amazing because he was a good song writer, and wrote music that was significantly better than the standard rock we often hear. That's why his stuff is still great today.
jimmy
Yup. Jimmy. Jimmy Hernadez from down the way. Ain't nobody ever heard the shit Jimmy plays.
"Beyond that he was amazing because he was a good song writer, and wrote music that was significantly better than the standard rock we often hear. "
Amen. It was always the melody. He played some fantastic solos, but he always went back to a great melody.
ONLY????? You really dont have a good hear for technique. I know thats not the only reason cause I was playing at the very same time a few years behind him. His hand strength was proved as vastly superior when he recorded Spanish Fly on the acoustic. The snap to his fingers is different than me and from this guy in the video
He's wrong about the Variac. Ed dialed the line voltage down, not up. That shifts the bias on the output tubes and drives them into saturation at a lower volume setting.
Yes curt is wrong about the Varaic it lowers line voltage
To this day, I tune my A string first.
All you guys who have a youtube page with EVH scales, how to sound like EVH, gear, solos, etc should thank Curt Mitchell. Notice the date of this video......1995, 26 years ago!! Before alot of you were born. Curt figured this stuff out ON HIS OWN 26 years ago! I had to order this VHS tape through the mail and had it delivered to my house, the old fashioned way, ha.
Curt was figuring out VH songs and solos when it was pretty close to impossible to do by ear, and it's spot on ...not almost, not close to, it's just fucking balls-on dead accurate, all of it.That's quite a feat considering how secretive and mystical Eddie was and still is. It was a damn shame that the twilight of his life was turned to shit in a hand basket by that narcissistic wannabe TV chef whore he lived with...when after all the years of abuse and humiliation she put him through ... ultimately just pushed the man too far.
Curt Mitchell Is still doing his thing. Besides some session work and other projects he is lead guitar for a Pink Floyd Tribute Band called "The Floyd" which I believe is out of Nevada.
This guy comes across as so serious. That's not to diss him, it's just that... y' know. But, he plays so incredibly! His tone and technique is so EVH. Totally nailed it. I like! Respect... \m/ (:o)
Eddie did not run his variac to increase the voltage to 145. He used it to lower the voltage to 85-90volts. On their tour opening for Black Sabbath he had some of his effect in a Bomb standing on the stage.
I had all of Curts VHS tapes,these were so amazing to watch back in the day because there was no internet. He was doing shit I've never seen before,really helped my playing. It was also funny to see how much coke he'd done before each video,lol.
Glad I'm not the only one that noticed/enjoyed those sniffles. Definitely a PED as far as the shreds go.
he was on tweek back in the day, clean now.
Holy shit, that was one of the first things I sorta noticed (4-5 minutes in...), and I'm biting my tongue, because of the respect I had for this guy (and especially in such a public fashion on YT)... Glad someone did it FOR me !!! Lolz....
But I luv his playing-accuracy, touch, & tone !!!
(The only other guy who comes CLOSE to Curt, is Jacob Deraps, in the EVH department !!💯)
Dude is a great guitarist!
This brings back a lot of memories of working in a music store from '86 through '95. Got to love "It is RIPPING loud!"
What store u work at?
“Of course he plugged in and then it was over.” 😂
You can tell not only is Curt a huge fan, but, he has a ton of respect for King Edward…I love it!!!
I haven't found any guitar teachers that haven't been totally blown away by Edward.
His insistence on calling tapping right handed hammer ons never caught on
Well, it did for a while, back in the day.
yes, guitar teachers call "right handed hammer ons" "tapping" now
actually the Variac( voltage regulator) that EVH used was to Lower the AC wall power from 110 to 90, or so. The wall AC current was lowered to an almost brown out level/ Hence the term Brown Sound. True the Power transformers would not function as normal, and could die at any given time. It was an optimal range for Eddie to get that Pre Pre Peavey Amplifier tone ua-cam.com/video/hinQPWiiwaI/v-deo.html
Low voltage is actually harder on internals than high voltage.
phallystorm exactly!!
Eddie himself would say he RAISED rather than LOWERED the voltage to put off the imitators. As he was the hottest gunslinger at the time he was told by Roth to keep his secrets to himself and only use one or two on an album
That way, people would ALWAYS be chasing the latest trick or sound, rather than Eddie blowing his wad in the first song!
Variac DOWN to 89-90 VAC. Then , re-Bias output tubes to compensate! A lot of beauty old Marshalls went into the trash bins late 70's
100% correct. One of the few points that Curt was a little off on.
Cool video. I was not familiar with Curt. I wish he had spent more time on Fair Warning. I thought Eddie's tone was the best ever on that album. Fair Warning is so dark and nasty sounding.
I remember watching this video back in the mid 90's. Great memories. Good as I remember it also.
I have the dvd bro
Guns & Accessories Me too. I wasted so much time trying to play like that and never could.
I had some of his tapes in the mid early/mid 90s..Dude is dry and straight to the point, then moves on. Exceptional player and teacher indeed, rock on!
His nirvana video is real funny
This just made my night. Was looking at roller coaster videos (headed to 6 flags sat) and I spotted my friend and guitar teacher of 2 years....Curt Mitchell. Yes, he is for hire for private lessons. I had one about 4 hours ago, we were working on "Tush"... I've had more than a "few ear fulls" and private "Eddie" examples tossed at me along with many other guitar masters....Billy Gibbons ranks pretty high... Curt plays in a few local bands around the area pretty regularly. He is a kind, funny, easy going rock freak...and my good friend. After my divorce 3 years ago and at age 51 I decided to finally learn how to play guitar. I just happened on Curt as our local go to teacher....pretty cool eh? Look him up if you want lessons....he's available. But, don't go looking to discuss all things Eddie....you wont get far. Check out Bangalore Choir for Curt's one recording deal I'm aware of. Hi Curt...if you read this ...well I couldn't help myself.... :-) Rock on and be kind.....
Omg i think I was given this VHS when I was like 8 because I kept telling my parents I wanted to sound like Eddie I remember being like slow down! Lol
I remember downloading this video like 10 years ago. This is probably the first guy to really master Eddie's techniques and put it out there for everyone else to learn. I can't imagine how he figured all this shit out without the Internet. Where did he hear/read all this info? Or was there Internet access in the early 90s? I don't even know the history of it tbh.
I remember seeing it posted back around that time also, but never bothered to get it because I already had it. FYI, there was internet in 94, but it wasn't the same internet we know of today. It was MUCH smaller. Before 94 (pre-internet era), there was only BBS and services like CompuServe and Prodigy to dl or learn things on dial up. Into the mid-late 90s inet there was only crappy quality ASF, real media, and mpeg1 for video. Then later on in the late, late 90s, divx 3.11 (mpeg4 avi) and mpeg2 encoding arrived and that changed the entire ballgame. I personally didn't get cable inet access until 98, and from 95-98 it was dial-up for inet access through Mindspring or something like that, and before that it was even slower dial-up for dinosaur pre-inet era BBS file transfers. Most ppl either bought (or dubbed) the video tapes and used magazines or books, or learned it from watching other people. It is ALOT easier now, that is for sure. The more I think about it, the more I feel a midlife crisis coming lol.
He very well could have learned something from the inet back then, who knows. Maybe he just knew the right people to show him, or read the right magazines etc.
It was all about the magazines back then. Namely, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Guitar World. If you didn't have access to a good teacher, you took what you could from the magazine tabs. Learning guitar was a vastly different process back then.
Van Halen's playing techniques were already quite well-known by that time, but people still endlessly argued about his gear - at least partially due to Van Halen giving different accounts across his interviews.
Right. When I 1st started in 92 I used mags and tabs. I also bought a few VHS tapes that came with tab books to look at while watching the tapes. That's how it was back then.
I started playing the very same year. Spent several months with an old Mel Bay book playing Mary Had a Little Lamb (and others barnburners) until I even knew about the magazines, tab books, etc. I had friends at school that would grossly misinterpret tab. Seems like everyone had a different idea of what the numbers and little markings meant. Can't emphasize enough how much different things were.
I figured out how to read tabs in just a couple hours one night with an old friend of mine when I was in high school. Tabs are usually pretty easy to interpret.
Excellent, thanks for Posting this!
This is by far the best analysis of Van Halen
Used to have this on DVD. “People call that tapping. It ain’t tapping”. “It’s not a bar … it’s a delay”. He knew his stuff.
hahaha
@@arthurmurfitt7698 “You have to have your phase shifter AFTER your delay pedal!”
Curt Mitchell Learn to burn was the best in the 80s, this lesson was in the style of, also great
...aaaaaaaaand my brain exploded...! This is like drinking from a fire hose of AWESOME. Simply amazing. Curt is incredible and very appreciative of Eddie's genius... and gave me a whole new appreciation for Eddie's innovations. Freaking crazy that Curt was able to grasp (and play!) so many of Eddie's licks- I can't even fathom how Eddie came up with each one in the FIRST place. Thanks Todd and Curt... and ED :)
MR SHRED
I still have Curts lessons on VHS! Good thing I transferred them to digital years ago `cause my VCR would probably eat them today.
What's most impressive, is that this is a semi amateur video (production and scripting) and you can tell this guy really knows his stuff! Remember this is pre-internet!!
“…and then he plugged in and it was over…” love this guy )))
The dude's amazing!!!
This guys seems better than EVH to me, much better attitude. Well mt Tiasco will shred them, Lol
Honestly I believe this guy got so well the Van Halen I sound that it even sounds better than the original album
Not even fuckin close bro! Thats why he is Eddie lol
STUPETSTONEY......Let's be real here, this guy has Eddies sound down.....damn well close to the original...and without all the studio mixing and everything that goes on with making a real album. Listen to those riffs, sounds just like VH 1. Of course he's not Eddie nor ever will be but this is a damn good representation of Eddies sound on the first album. Lets call a spade a spade.
Lets be real ! When he said " It took me forever to figure out that he was using open strings in the lick" it was comical! Listen to both back to back. They both play it but one plays it famously! He's no Eddie bro!
I agree 100%
OH GOD ITS THE RIFF 34 GUY, i had a guitar lesson video tape when I was a kid and nearly choked when i saw the thumbnal to this video , yessss
Here he is recently- ua-cam.com/video/qGWmIedCrAo/v-deo.htmlsi=r6RF4P_59vt_CFAe
This guy is fabulous, especially for the era that he was able to identify how Ed created the sounds. Any one of these techniques would be a contribution. To guitar, but the fact that Ed came up with so many illustrates why he is the most innovative person ever to play guitar. Any one who disagrees I'd like to know who has done more.
Jimmy Page is not as fast as EVH but then he used alternate picking exclusively instead of directional or economy picking - Page didn't innovate as many specific unique techniques as EVH but I consider Page to be a superior guitarist overall to EVH.
They're both equally terrible live when on chemicals.
When at his best, Page is absolutely breathtaking in ways different than EVH ever chooses -
ua-cam.com/video/UqqKKa9AJK4/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/4m2FhRv8xF0/v-deo.html
if EVH were able to pull it off he certainly never chose to that I've ever heard
CURT MITCHELL ROCKS. DUDE CAN SHRED. THIS SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY!
I seriously doubt yesterday ! He's been in prison since 2015 ! And won't be (eligible) for a parole hearing until he is 97 years old ! (FACT)
How can there be 10 thumbs down, do these people even play the guitar?
This is Curt Mitchell he's a monster player!
Not sure if this is my memory going or not but did this same guy do a video on Randy Rhoads? For some reason I remember having one of his videos but I'm pretty sure it was about Randy not Eddie
He probably did. He made a few videos. Unfortunately, all that I have is the Van Halen one.
I owned that one. He did a ton of them. Curt Mitchell Pre internet guitar legend lol
Good to hear I'm not going crazy, yeah great guitarist. I watched the randy one til the tape was ruined
He performs the riff to S.A.T.O well, one of the unknown tracks back then for tabs and on Diary which is his best album imo.
Max Weidenbach I
"slower"
and i still dont get it :D
Don't rub your nose so much it gives you away what are you on? Vicodin Oxycontin? LOL you can't stop scratching
Cocaine...lol makes ya do that
Is Curt still out there teaching? He should have a UA-cam channel👍
www.guitarlessonscarsoncity.com/
@@usefulvidiots7869 That is good to know. There is a Curt Mitchell 'musician' who apparently went to prison for murder and I thought how terrible it was that this awesome guitarist was done.
@@johnlorraine204
I looked it up ! He is in prison
That IS NOT the same person you dolts.......
What a sound! So, gear-wise: dod phasor 401, boss delay (dd2, dd3 or dd5), dod flanger (fx75c?), cry baby, eventide h3000... And what for boosting the Marshall amps?
I gotta say , here is a prime example of a true dedicated misician ! Hell of a job breaking it down and making Eddie's insane playing and technique more understandable in all the killer chaos that is Eddie Van Halen . The world was a better place the minute he picked up a Guitar . Appreciate the video , your time and knowledge as well , Peace
This really shows the genius of EVH.
Def leppard don't suck the singer is as good as the best pyrimaa
Pyromania start to finish fantastic naybe right up there with vh1
And ratt out of celler
Son of a gun, I might have this VHS laying around somewhere. I definitely bought this back in the day.
Agent Orange VHS cassettes, tab books and when I could afford it a guitar teacher. It was like someone passing me the key to some mythical knowledge learning Eddie’s stuff.
I think this guy play eddies stuff maybe better them him particularly, absolutely amazing, but know what, I can hear it immediately it's not Eddy.
It's something with the timing , I suspect. I heard Eddy a lot, my Hero. Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Curt Mitchell taught SO many of us! Thank you sir.
FAIR WARNING and VAN HALEN II have the best guitar tones. Never cared for his later sound it was too thin. But I do have a 5150 pedal and its very cool.
Great teacher and very versatile player. Curt Mitchell did a fantastic job in Bangalore Choir's 1st album. Killer solos and rhythms.
Was this video really released in 1995? At 02:00 Curt mentions 77-78 and that it was "12-13 years ago".
This guys dedication is awesome. So much passion
Did he invent that pedalboard duck tape culture, don't get me wrong I have 3 pedal boards and a Floyd Rose, never really needed any other guitar, obviously I have an acoustic and ukulele?
I certainly hope this man made a nice huge chunk of cash. Hes such a great teacher. Have been watching his videos since stumbling upon the VHS vids in the 90's as a kid. He is so damn good, deserves so much more recognition. Curt if you see this. You're the man!!!
Funny, EVH lowered (not raised) the voltage with the variac to around 90 volts. He lied and said he upped it. Just like he used to turn is back when tapping so other guitarists couldn't see how he did it. He really didn't like to give up his secrets.
I've got this on VHS somewhere at my mom's house.
Good video seems you can really play the guitar,,effects or clean perfect playing,, like Eddie n the older sound n newer sound,,,I'd love to have those fingers,,,you look like butter easily up n down the neck awesome playing
In 95 we had to play & rewind over and over again on a vhs to see and learn from this
Yup
@Crooked Skate Supply Co with you, bro!
"He's happy! He's always happy. How could you NOT be? 🙄" 🤣🤣🤣
Released long before UA-cam, and yet is still more accurate and informative than what you can find with a simple internet search........