Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

The man, the band, and everything else

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stratonenator
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Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by stratonenator » Fri Jul 07, 2017 2:53 pm

Hey guys, I know it's been kind of dead around here lately but I thought I might post something fun. Yesterday I stumbled across a guitar I have always been curious about but have never seen in person, a 70s Ovation nylon string. A good friend of mine has always said that the one time he played one back in the day it had an attack that was completely different from any other nylon string classical he'd ever played and is the secret sauce for Spanish Fly's harmonics and tapping. After noodling around on the guitar, dead strings and all, I can confirm that he was absolutely correct. Totally different dynamics from a traditional classical, tapping and tap harmonics are much louder and refined.

Long story short, I had to buy it because they seem to be quite hard to come by. Got a decent price on what turns out to be a 1977 model year (which lines up with the Nancy Wilson story/era when Ed got his), after a restring and some string stretching, it sounds great!

So if you happen to see one, play it, you'll be surprised!

Mine is the same natural finish and model as Ed's, which can be seen laying on the floor in the red jumpsuit GW photos
So you think your Mesa-Boogie is cool? You won't even be able to hear it over my Marshall Superlead

Berlin
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by Berlin » Fri Jul 07, 2017 9:13 pm

Thanks for the post*
That's interestingly good to know! I have a couple of standard acoustics that range in age and nice tone but they are steel strings. I've been really wanting to get a guitar with nylon strings- I've had a couple of beaters in the past, short scale classicals that when I would play them, I found you could really beat on em and get nice plucking with them without shredding your fingers up- in fact I think the one only had 3 strings on it and I played that to death with different tunings and just had a fun time making up songs... But the harmonics and tones were as you described with the ovation! I think since I'm in the market for a nylon string geet- I may search one out... See if I get lucky!
:toast:

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Megaro
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by Megaro » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:38 am

That is interesting. There has been talk on this forum about guitar players building a lot of hand strength and agility from playing an acoustic that translates nicely to our electrics. Report back and let us know. Congrats :vh:

stratonenator
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by stratonenator » Mon Jul 10, 2017 5:53 pm

Well after a full weekend with the new guitar I have some observations. First thing is that Spanish Fly is hilariously technical, I'd only ever dabbled with it and after digging in, it's on a whole different level. Capturing the confidence and tenacity of Eddie's playing is quite the challenge. Second, Ed is tuned a whole step down, which makes it even more complicated the give in the strings is considerably different. Third, the guitar absolutely makes a big difference to capturing the tone of the song, comparing it side by side to my other nylon string (a 1967 Manuel Contreras Flamenco) it has a whole different thing going on that I really dig.

I'll post a clip if I can manage to get the tune respectably put together one of these days!
So you think your Mesa-Boogie is cool? You won't even be able to hear it over my Marshall Superlead

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T.J.Fuller
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by T.J.Fuller » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:51 pm

I guess now is good as time as any to post this !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouyb7sAf-14

I have a Used Red Ovation I picked up for cheap at Guitar Center here in Denver about a year ago / gathering dust

seems to be a lot of musical equipment theft here , I had to wait 30 days before I could take it home ???

that was a bit of a buzz kill.

might need to throw some nylons on it and see what the buzz is all about :rocker:
"In search of World Class Tone"
Clips - http://www.soundclick.com/tjfuller" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.myspace.com/tjfullerproject" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Berlin
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by Berlin » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:07 pm

That Gilbert video-
He didn't hesitate! Dropped it on a dime... :lol:
That was great-
If you're doing Spanish fly in one take without hesitation...
That's some athleticism there boy!
:shred: :rocker:

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garbeaj
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by garbeaj » Sun Aug 20, 2017 4:17 pm

"Spanish Fly" is really Eddie's technical tour de force and there is A LOT to learn by taking the effort to study it note-for-note.

As stratonenator noted, Eddie used what was almost certainly a 1977-1978 Ovation nylon string classical to record the piece, just as Eddie himself has stated from the beginning. The nylon strings make the piece A LOT easier to play and it allows Eddie's left hand articulations and his right hand picking directions and pick attack to really flow and crackle with feel and dynamics.

As I've noted before in my tuning threads, Eddie tuned the Ovation as follows:

1st string: D + 14.7 cents
2nd string: A + 14.9 cents
3rd string: F + 16.6 cents
4th string: C + 17.0 cents
5th string: G + 17.0 cents
6th string: D + 14.7 cents

This slack tuning combined with the nylon strings makes a HUGE impact on playability and dynamics.

Our amazing Van Halen transcriber and forum member Bill (wjamflan) has helped me (again!) to understand what's really going on during the Van Halen II recording of "Spanish Fly"...a piece that I began working on at age 14 in 1986. All these years later and Bill has revealed the truth of how Eddie actually played the fast picking parts of this instrumental...the "hard" parts...the parts that have escaped EVERY transcriber until Bill nailed it.

Here is a TAB of the opening fast picking parts that I created using the fingerings and picking directions that Bill gave me.
Image

And here is how Bill and I believe Eddie held the pick for the fast picked sextuplets (which have been mistaken for hammer-ons on the B string and picked notes on only the high E string for decades-including Paul Gilbert's version that T.J. posted above):
Image
Last edited by garbeaj on Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

mr.twistyneck
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by mr.twistyneck » Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:53 pm

Hey, do you have the part right after this, and before the tapping, ala Bill?

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garbeaj
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by garbeaj » Mon Aug 21, 2017 9:32 pm

mr.twistyneck wrote:
Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:53 pm
Hey, do you have the part right after this, and before the tapping, ala Bill?
We're working on another project together and I don't want to get sidetracked, but when we're finished with that I'll post the rest!

stratonenator
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by stratonenator » Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:32 pm

Hey guys! Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be posting a good recording of the tune after a trip to the studio. Garbeaj, I'm going to dig into those tuning offsets for utmost accuracy.

-Stratonenator
So you think your Mesa-Boogie is cool? You won't even be able to hear it over my Marshall Superlead

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garbeaj
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by garbeaj » Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:57 pm

stratonenator wrote:
Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:32 pm
Hey guys! Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be posting a good recording of the tune after a trip to the studio. Garbeaj, I'm going to dig into those tuning offsets for utmost accuracy.

-Stratonenator
Be sure to study wjamflan's fingerings and picking directions...this is THE most critical thing to getting the piece right. Using the correct tuning and having a virtually identical guitar will take you the rest of the way...

stratonenator
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by stratonenator » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:28 pm

As promised, here is the Ovation in action. Note wise the tune is like 95%, I was going more for feel than complete accuracy. Let me know what you think!

https://soundcloud.com/user-240856451/s ... ly/s-4sQt0

-stratonenator
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garbeaj
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by garbeaj » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:19 pm

Sounds EXCELLENT! No doubt that you have got the sound happening. A little more practice with the metronome and you'll be up to speed with the tempo of the recording. Did you try the fingerings I posted for the opening run?

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Megaro
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by Megaro » Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:45 am

This is the kind of thread that keeps me coming back to this forum

Awesome skills by stratonenator, Bill and garbeaj are posting tabs, tuning, and technique. Then we have some P. Gilbert doing VH. Outstanding contributions from all. Here comes the VH logo :vh:

stratonenator
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Re: Spanish Fly and EVH's Ovation

Post by stratonenator » Thu Aug 31, 2017 5:27 pm

Garbeaj,

I did try and use the fingers noted above, getting the transition right from the fifth fret stuff to the triplet run is a beast. The triplet run itself is pretty insane as well and very tough to keep momentum going up the neck while running out of neck at the same time, the guitar doesn't have a cutaway after all. As with any VH tune, there is always so much room for improvement, but it was fun being able to capture the tone with very little effort.

And thanks Megaro! I learned so much from this forum, I can't help but do my part to try and keep it alive!
So you think your Mesa-Boogie is cool? You won't even be able to hear it over my Marshall Superlead

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